“Heaven Scent” is the first novel by LDS author Rebecca Cornish Talley. We meet Liza Compton, a girl in her senior year of high school at a new school. Her father recently landed a job in a prestigious law firm and uprooted the family to a new area, believing that a big house and great cars would be the answer to their dreams. Instead, he spends more and more time at work and away from his family, and Liza wishes things could go back to the way they were before. Sure, they didn’t have much money, but they had their father, and he spent time with them.
It’s the night of the championship game, and Liza’s father isn’t there. She was hoping he’d come, but his absence isn’t that big of a surprise. She makes the winning shot and is the hero of her team, and waits up to tell him about it, but he doesn’t come home until long after she’s given up and gone to bed.
This is the pattern in her family – her father gone, her mother making excuses for him. Liza and her brother Jason are getting tired of all the pretense and wish that someone would come forward and plainly tell the truth – and someone does; their mother. Years ago, she was baptized into the LDS church and didn’t stay active, but now she wants to start going to church again. Liza’s not sure how she feels about that, but it seems to be bringing her mother peace, so she decides not to make an issue out of it.
When Liza’s mother puts her foot down and asks her father to leave, Liza is stunned, but then her father takes her mother away on a romantic weekend. They come back ready to recommit to the family, and plan a weekend at their cabin, just the four of them, with no work to interfere. But then a tragic accident takes away everything Liza holds dear, and she must work hard to find the forgiveness she needs to move forward with her life.
I enjoyed the story. I would have liked to see more flow and I did think some of the conflicts were resolved too quickly, but this book shows a lot of promise for a first time author.
(This book was published in 2008 by Bonneville Books.)
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