Well, at last I know the whole story of Lehi's sons and Ishmael's daughters. I know their names, their frailties, their likes and dislikes.

Romancing the Nephites takes us into the dark world of Nephite hormonal disorder. It's hard to think of any of them as particularly romantic, as little detail is given in the Book of Mormon. Instead, the details are left to our imaginations.

Paget has taken the broad outline of the story and developed an unlikely love story, one that unites Arie'l, Ishmael's youngest daughter, with her cousin, and hero, Nephi.

As the story develops, characters found nowhere in the Book of Mormon appear. This is okay; we are, after all, talking about fiction. One may take great liberties with history when one is developing a genre piece.

But Paget's book just didn't come off as one building on an historical account. Instead, in my opinion, Paget, a good writer, weaves the sparse details of the Book of Mormon account into a love story with a life all its own. Imagine Nephi and Arie'l passing messages written in Egyptian engraved on a bone. Imagine Ishmael falling victim to an elaborate blackmail plot, an officer who wants Arie'l as his own, and is willing to press his future father-in-law into compliance.

Romancing the Nephites comes off as a nice romance novel. Young readers will see in the characters behaviors that are well emulated. But it does, after all, go astray of the real story. But, as I say, maybe that's okay. Maybe that's what historical fiction is all about.

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Jeff Needle
jeff.needle@general.com