Gabriel's Daughters
Review
Gabriel’s Daughters is full
of emotional ups and downs between three sisters born within the polygamist
community of Gabriel’s Landing. Zina, at the age of sixteen, finds herself
thrown into the real world because of choices she made that would ruin her family’s
reputation. She goes on a long journey that helps her grow and find herself
truly before she is able to forgive herself from her past transgressions.
Luckily with friendship and
loving individuals that support her through her journey she becomes a person
worth admiring. She isn’t the only sister to feel thrown into this world
though, Louisa and Amy find themselves fighting to find themselves in different
ways. Louisa becomes a doctor and fights to find confidence with her life after
a tragic effect. While Amy prepares to take her duty as a first wife only to
find her world thrown upside down by betrayal of one she loves.
This novel was
an exciting read that captured my heart from page one. The way Mrs. Jensen
captured the emotion behind each character is what made the story. Yes many
might have issues with this lifestyle that centers at the plot of the story.
But the journey and emotional turmoil draws you in and makes you root for Zina
and her sisters. You will find yourself feeling fear, sorrow, happiness and
even glee as you read about these sisters journeys.
Side note: This
is by far a novel genre I haven’t read often but I found myself drawn in and
couldn’t stop reading. Zina and her sisters story brought tears, and such
emotion I will be finding myself rereading this novel many time. This is
defiantly a read you all will want to give a try.
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Review provided by: Kathryn Jenkins
Synopsis
Zina Martin leaves the
polygamous hamlet of Gabriel’s Landing,Utah, a with thirteen dollars and
eighty-four cents in her pocket, and a few clothes stashed in a duffel bag. She
is sixteen, promised as a plural wife to a man twice her age who already has
four wives and children, some of whom are older than she. Zina is also pregnant
with her high school teacher’s child. She is picked up by Mo and Callie, an
African-American couple who drive a semi, headed for Chicago. The next day she
miscarries and Buck and Callie take her to a clinic for treatment.
In Chicago, Zina soon
gets a job as a waitress and is eventualy promoted to assistant chef. A jealous
co-worker and the boss’s wife attack her one morning and cut her long hair, the
one remnant of her previous life. She moves to Minneapolis for a new job and
meets Simon Benning, a gay man who needs a roommate.
One day she types her family
name into an internet search and finds her mother’s obituary, nearly eight
years old. Simon urges her to reconnect with her family. She learns that her
physician sister Louisa is married and living in rural Hawthorn Valley,
Kentucky. Zina goes to Kentucky and hides in their barn, afraid to face them,
but she can’t leave, either, after she sees them. Dr. Andy McBride, Louisa’s
husband, confronts Zina in his barn and treats her for pneumonia. Her
reunion with Louisa is joyful.
Zina meets Andy’s friend,
orthopedic surgeon James Christensen, and a slow, sweet courtship begins, with
eccentric healer Miss Carolina playing matchmaker. A few months later Miss
Carolina dies in her sleep, and, surprisingly, leaves her property to Zina, who
is now a wealthy woman.
Amy, the youngest of the
Martins at home in Gabriel’s Landing, marries her childhood sweetheart.
Blissfully happy for the first few months, she is astounded when her husband
takes a new wife as directed by the Council of Brothers, without her knowledge
or approval. She flees to Kentucky, to be with Louisa. It is there she meets
her sister Zina for the first time. Zina has Miss Carolina’s cabin refurbished
for Amy, who gives birth to her first child with Zina and Jim in attendance.
Amy returns home to give her plural marriage a chance.
Zina finally reconciles with
her father, Joshua, who has long blamed himself for her disappearance. She
becomes involved with organizations that assist women and children who have
left polygamy. She builds Miss Carolina’s Bakery in Salt Lake City, a business
that will support four families. Over time her feelings for James grow
stronger. On ribbon-cutting day, Zina is thrilled to open her new business, but
her happiness isn’t complete until she sees James in the crowd. When she waves
to him we see a diamond ring on her left hand. Someone asks James where his
home is. “Wherever she is,” he says, smiling at Zina. “That’s home for me.”
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About Janet Jensen
Janet Kay Jensen is the
co-author of a literature-based cookbook, The Book Lover’s Cookbook: recipes
inspired by great works of literature and the passages that feature them
(Wenger & Jensen), and an award-winning novel, Don’t You Marry the Mormon
Boys.
She holds degrees in
Speech-Language Pathology from Utah State University and Northwestern University
and worked in the education field for more than twenty years. She has
taught writing courses at the local jail and is also a volunteer literacy tutor
who feels genuine panic when caught without something to read.
Janet and her husband Miles,
an attorney, live a quiet life in a college town nestled in the foothills of
northern Utah's Rocky Mountains. They are the parents of three grown sons: a
soccer enthusiast/physician in Salt Lake City Utah; an exercise
physiologist/graduate student in Jyvaskyla,Finland; and a parachute
jumper/embedded systems engineer in Berkeley, California. They have happily
become grandparents of three remarkable grandchildren.
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