Janet Kay Jensen's Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys starts out as a nice little romance between an active LDS man and a woman who was raised in a fundamentalist splinter group. They overcome this issue as the story progresses with wit and keen insight to explore how polygamy still colors the way Mormons are perceived, as well as how practicing polygamists may be perceived by active LDS members. Once the romantic tension is resolved, a kidnapping is introduced into the story, but this potentially heart-stopping twist is twisted again as the author takes a humorous approach that brings to mind aspects of O. Henry's "Ransom of Red Chief." Jensen's writing is clever, and her romantic characters and their friends and loved ones are sympathetically and engagingly portrayed. She is to be congratulated for her original approach to a timely issue.

© 2008 The Association for Mormon Letters