Jordan returns from California to Utah to visit his mother in jail. As a teenager he was expelled from his family and religious community, a secretive Mormon offshoot sect. Now his father has been found shot dead in front of his computer, and one of his many wives - Jordan's mother - is accused of the crime.
Over a century earlier, Ann Eliza Young, the nineteenth wife of Brigham Young, Prophet and Leader of the Mormon Church, tells the sensational story of how her own parents were drawn into plural marriage, and how she herself battled for her freedom and escaped her powerful husband, to lead a crusade to end polygamy in the United States.
Bold, shocking and gripping, The 19th Wife expertly weaves together these two narratives: a pageturning literary mystery and an enthralling epic of love and faith.

I am bringing this book to this afternoon's BCBrum meetup in the cafe. If it's not taken by one of the other attendees you should find it in the bookshelves at the back of the cafe.

If you are in Birmingham, BCBrum are a group of local Bookcrossers who meet up monthly to chat and swap books, find out more here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/243069614126/

If this is your first experience with BookCrossing, thanks so much for picking up this book and coming to the BookCrossing website to find out what it's all about. Welcome to the addictive world of BookCrossing!

I look forward to hearing what you thought of this book, and of your plans for it.

This is a mixture of historical fiction with a modern mystery thriller with some parallels to the older story

I don’t know much (anything!) about LDS and “The Firsts” so I don’t know how much of the story is based in fact and how much is fiction. I will presume that many liberties have been taken.

It starts with Jordan, a young gay man, who had been excommunicated from “the Firsts”, hearing that his mother has been charged with the murder of his father. Jordan’s mother is commonly referred to as “The 19th wife”. Jordan travels back to Measdale, whilst trying to work out if and how his mother did this.

The majority of the book tells the story of the beginning of the LDS and the breakaway sect of “The Firsts” – members of the LDS who believed that “celestial marriage” (pologamy) was the core of their faith as it was the only guaranteed way to get eternal glory in the afterlife.

Through letters, papers, books etc, the story of Bigham Young’s 19th Wife (Ann Eliza, and the struggles she has as being a multiple wife, which ultimately leads to her loss of faith, her divorce, her loss of income and her ultimate disappearance from history. Meanwhile the story of Jordan and his mother does take a bit of a background story and hinges on a technicality.

I was removed from the overall story due to regularly thinking “how much is true?”, though I thought generally the book was good and entertaining. I’m not convinced that Jordan’s modern day story added much (quite honestly – too many step-siblings and sister aunts got confusing – but perhaps that’s the point!). Would I have gotten through the rest of the book without it though? Probably not!

Welcome to BookCrossing. Thanks for taking the time to visit the site. Please make a journal entry to let me know that you have found this book, you may do this anonymously or you may join. There is no charge to join this site, if you are like myself from time to time you may donate to help support Bookcrossing; but it is not mandatory. If you are new to BookCrossing and choose to join, please indicate that you were referred by Nordie. Membership is free and your name and e-mail address is not shared with anyone else and it will never be sold. BookCrossing is a world-wide group of people who love books and wish to share them with others.

Please enjoy this book, if it is not your genre pass it along to someone else or wild release it. In this way we promote literacy and at the same time we can watch our book continue on its journey