13. The Fire and the Ore by Olivia Hawker

listened on Audible

Read for the BookGirls February Challenge

2022
400 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 2/9/23
Goodreads rating: 4.09
My rating: 4
Setting: Mormon Trail, 1856

My comments: The story, based on true family history of the author, is a fascinating piece of historical fiction.  I had to set aside my religious and spiritual beliefs and really look into the personalities of the three main characters, three sister wives.  The first half of the book tells the individual harrowing travel tales of Jane and Tamar as the make their way to Utah and the huge Mormon settlement there.  It puts light on the backgrounds of multiple marriages and how it arose in the Mormon faith.

Goodreads synopsis:  Three spirited wives in nineteenth-century Utah. One husband. A compelling novel of family, sisterhood, and survival by the Washington Post bestselling author of One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow.

1856. Three women—once strangers—come together in unpredictable Utah Territory. Hopeful, desperate, and willful, they’ll allow nothing on earth or in Heaven to stand in their way.

Following the call of their newfound Mormon faith, Tamar Loader and her family weather a brutal pilgrimage from England to Utah, where Tamar is united with her destined husband, Thomas Ricks. Clinging to a promise for the future, she abides an unexpected surprise: Thomas is already wedded to one woman—Tabitha, a local healer—and betrothed to still another.

Orphaned by tragedy and stranded in the Salt Lake Valley, Jane Shupe struggles to provide for herself and her younger sister. She is no member of the Mormon migration, yet Jane agrees to marry Thomas. Out of necessity, with no love lost, she too must bear the trials of a sister-wife.

But when the US Army’s invasion brings the rebellious Mormon community to heel, Tamar, Jane, and Tabitha are forced to retreat into the hostile desert wilderness with little in common but the same man—and the resolve to keep themselves and their children alive. What they discover, as one, is redemption, a new definition of family, and a bond stronger than matrimony that is tested like never before.

4. The Witness Wore Red; The 19th Wife Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders to Justice - Rebecca Musser & M. Bridget Cook

Audio read by the author

12 cds (the last one are some black & white photos)

14 hours.

2013, Hachette Audio

 352 pgs.

Adult Memoir

Finished 1/14/2014

Goodreads Rating: 4.02 (795 ratings)

My Rating: 2.5/The story was fascinating, didn't enjoy the writing or narration

TPPL

Setting:  Colorado City, Arizona, then Oregon and Idaho

My comments:  Fascinating story, and Becky Musser was really brave to tell it (and to live it!), but I had some problems with the book. I'm not a nonfiction reader AT ALL, and as much as I want to read memoirs and autobiographies, I never like them.  A couple of problems for me. I have a really lousy memory myself, but I can't imagine that the details remembered in this book, without a journal or diary to refer to, could be remembered truly. Also, I realize that Ms. Musser is not a writer, but she did have help ....  I found the writing repetitive, pretty simplistic, and boring.  The author, herself, read the book, which in a way was really good, but after awhile her awkward pauses between words in weird places really bugged me.  I'm too picky, I guess.  My heart aches for her and all the women that are in their situation, and I'm really glad I got to hear her story.  However, I found a Dateline episode about this whole story which I found much more interesting and concise.

Goodreads Review: Rebecca Musser grew up in fear, concealing her family's polygamous lifestyle from the "dangerous" outside world. Covered head-to-toe in strict, modest clothing, she received a rigorous education at Alta Academy, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' school headed by Warren Jeffs. Always seeking to be an obedient Priesthood girl, in her teens she became the nineteenth wife of her people's prophet: 85-year-old Rulon Jeffs, Warren's father. Finally sickened by the abuse she suffered and saw around her, she pulled off a daring escape and sought to build a new life and family.

     The church, however, had a way of pulling her back in-and by 2007, Rebecca had no choice but to take the witness stand against the new prophet of the FLDS in order to protect her little sisters and other young girls from being forced to marry at shockingly young ages. The following year, Rebecca and the rest of the world watched as a team of Texas Rangers raided the Yearning for Zion Ranch, a stronghold of the FLDS. Rebecca's subsequent testimony would reveal the horrific secrets taking place behind closed doors of the temple, sending their leaders to prison for years, and Warren Jeffs for life.

     THE WITNESS WORE RED is a gripping account of one woman's struggle to escape the perverse embrace of religious fanaticism and sexual slavery, and a courageous story of hope and transformation.