Released just today by Cedar Fort, “Don’t You Marry the Mormon Boys” was written by author Janet Kay Jensen, who also wrote “The Book Lover’s Cookbook.”
Andy McBride is a student at the University of Utah Medical School. While there, he meets Louisa Martin, a young woman who sweeps him off his feet. However, there’s a problem, and it’s a pretty big one. Andy was raised in a traditional LDS home, and Louisa was . . . not. To put it more precisely, she was raised in a little town called Gabriel’s Landing, a fictional polygamous community. To add more fuel to the fire, Andy’s father is the Assistant Attorney General and has been working diligently to prosecute cases of polygamy.
As much as Andy and Louisa love each other, their beliefs are just too different. She can’t understand why he would want to be a Mormon, and he can’t handle the idea of polygamy. They argue about it, and after graduation, decide to go their separate ways.
Andy does his residency and moves to Kentucky, along with his dog, comically named Eliza R. Snow. Meanwhile, Louisa returns to her community and brings with her the medical knowledge she needs to treat her friends and family, many of whom don’t trust those from the “outside.” When her father announces that he will not be arranging a marriage for Louisa with one of the men in the community, he is disciplined by the Council of Brothers, and Louisa comes under scrutiny as well for her medical practices, her prescription of birth control going against the Council’s directives for procreation.
Andy and Louisa meet up again after four years, but did the time spent apart soften their hearts? Did either of them reach a different conclusion about their religious beliefs? With evocative language, Janet Kay Jensen brings to a life a story that echoes, but not imitates, today’s headlines and answers many questions asked by the public today concerning polygamous communities and their former ties to the LDS church.
This book was named a finalist by USA Book News in the Religious Fiction category.
(This book was published in 2007 by Cedar Fort.)
Related Blogs:
Gospel Questions: Are Mormons Polygamists?
In the News: Is Warren Jeffs Holding Other Men’s Wives Hostage?