I found this book by Kimberly Heuston interesting, for many reasons. First, because I found it in Chinaberry, which isn’t unusual in itself. But this isn’t a typical Chinabery book. They’re ususally about fairies or princesses or Mother Earthy type stories. This isn’t any of those. To be sure, it’s got a strong female lead — Naomi — but it’s a lot more religious than I expected.
The basic plot — Naomi’s parents and youngest brother die in a fire and she and her remaining three siblings, after a stint with unwelcome relatives, end up in a Shaker community. After four years there, Naomi decides it’s time to leave, and heads to Vermont to start a medical “practice”. There she meets and falls in love with a nice young man (of course), but (and here’s what threw me), she decides in the end to be baptized a Mormon and head to Kirtland.
What? Where did that come from?
Yes, folks, the Mormon missionaries show up, and convert the family Naomi is living with. There’s even a passage quoted from Alma, as well as a lenghthy discussion of Joseph Smith and revelation in general. And I found it in Chinaberry, not Deseret Book.
All that said, I do have issues with the book — the missionaries are way too contemporary; they sound like the 19 year olds we send out now, not the missionaries of the 19th century. And the plot was uninvolving, though interesting at some points. And her whole conversion really came out of nowhere. And then the book just kind of ended. So, I guess it really wasn’t all that great.
But it was interesting to realize that Chinaberry was selling a Mormon book.
The Book Nut 
Sounds interesting. I’d like to read about the Shakers, too.
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Kimberly Heuston and I used to be colleagues, ancient days ago, the mid-80s. Wow. Last I heard she was working on a book about her divorce. (I knew her BEFORE her divorce.) You might want to check that out, see where her writing’s gone since that first one. I’m very interested to hear about this one, though I’m not persuaded to read it–YA fiction isn’t my thing so much–I’ll look now at your adult fiction list. Glad to meet ya.
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What an interesting site you have. I will be checking back.
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She wrote Dante’s Daughter too. Have you read it? It’s another good YA read.
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I thought this book was fascinating in that it so clearly described the simple Shaker life. I loved the details of scrubbed pine floors, tidy herb gardens, the law of the harvest, etc.
The ending did seem a bit abrupt to me as well, but I was surprised and secretly thrilled that there was mention of the Mormon culture in a positive light outside of the LDS publishing community.
Since reading this book years ago, I've met Kimberly Heuston (one year ago at a writing workshop hosted by Shannon Hale). Kimberly was the writer who lead my group of four or five aspiring authors, and she was fantastic–energetic, sharp, and very honest. Anyway, I was curious about how she published a Mormon conversion story outside of Utah and begged for details. Kimberly said she found an editor who really cares for her work, and he continues to support her in her niche.
Go, Kimberly!
Anyway, your site is interesting, and I'm excited to check in on your juicy reviews now and again.
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