Dinah Kirkham, the main focus of this novel, at the beginning of this book is a young girl.  Her family lives in Manchester, England, and they are barely making it when their father/husband walks out on them, leaving them to fend for themselves.  They face very difficult times during which they meet the famous Brigham Young, Heber Kimball, and John Bennett, and, later, the “prophet” Joseph Smith. The family becomes extremely involved with the Mormons and the Church of the Latter Day Saints; they convert, are baptized into the religion, and move to the U.S. to help establish the Latter Day Saints community there.  They become active in celestial, plural, and spiritual marriages (all different things), even though they’re skeptical and struggle with it their whole lives. It was an interesting account of the Mormon religion, but I was not “falling for” many of their doctrines. Especially disturbing was the practice of the plural/celestial/spiritual marriages that they were involved with; they kept telling everyone involved to keep it secret, clandestine, and concealed because “people wouldn’t understand” and these types of marriage are only for a select few who are “called by God” to participate.  They kept saying it was okay to conceal it, yet when Joseph Smith is about to be killed by skeptic lawmen, he says, “They knew what they were doing (killing him) was wrong in the eyes of God. Hypocrites confess by their own efforts to conceal.” This is exactly what all of them were doing, so how can he think that the others are hypocrites, yet can’t seem themselves as hypocrites?!? Also, if everyone, especially the women in these marriages, struggled so much with this concept, why was it acceptable?! Also, if it’s acceptable men, why not for women? The book really made me angry, so maybe that makes it a good book because it brought out strong emotions in me. Perhaps I should rate it higher than three stars? (Loooonnnnngggg book...26 hours for the audio book!)

An interesting fictional take on early church history for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was not crazy about the depictions of Joseph Smith, Emma Smith and others. The story development regarding the young Kirkham family was overwrought and frankly disappointing with how easily they welcomed Jon back and were so thankless to Robert for all he did to care for the family. Overall it was an OK read.

Whaaaaat did I just listen to?!

I picked this up thinking it was Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days. FYI, there's also a Podcast produced by the MORMONCHANNEL.

However, I was surprised to discover that this "Saints" is a freaking romance novel! To be fair, it's an LDS historical fiction novel based which dramatically tell the story of Dinah Kirkham Handy Smith Young, a native of Manchester, England, who immigrates to the United States and becomes one of the plural wives of Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. And I ended up being fascinated by all 600 pages of it! It wasn't unlike reading Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling in terms of both its length and depth.

This book could be viewed as depressing. The first part (in England) could be perceived as a horrific and perverse turnoff to some sensitive readers. And frankly, so can the rest of the book. Which is one of the reasons why I feel like so many people disliked it. They were hoping to find an "uplifting" Mormon romance novel in Card's telling of the rise and fall of latter-day polygamy. Personally, I loved the realness—the rawness—of the hardships expressed through the Kirkmans' stories. There is beauty in their faith and commitment to the Lord. There were details that Card was able to convey through fiction that could not be told in any one historical account. The emotions felt by various characters and private thoughts shared with only the reader reminded me of the intelligent inner conflict and dialogue of Ender Wiggin, of Ender's Game fame.

This idea of beauty through hardship is expressed by a Mormon folkloric short story reputed to have been written by Dinah Kirkham herself called "The Best Day":

In summary, the story is about a woman who is happy but is afraid that the happiness in her life will come to an end. She prays for eternal happiness and the next day an old peddler shows up selling plain things. When she asks him if he has anything for happiness he tries to explain that happiness is just a matter of taking joy in overcoming the difficulties in life. However, she doesn't let him finish and sends him on his way. The next day a medicine man from the east shows up selling potions and bright cheerful things. The woman asks him if he has anything to do with happiness. The medicine man sells her an elixir of happiness. He says that one drink of it and your best day will be with you forever. She buys the elixir and takes it. After that she spends every moment of the rest of her life reliving one happy day from her past. As a result, she misses out on the rest of her life, reducing the lives of all around her to servitude and sorrow.

Dinah didn't drink the potion (stay in England).

I HATED this book like I've never hated a book before. Warped, perveted version of early LDS church history--insulting to the early church leaders and completely innacurate in its portrayal.

I didn't like the rough language used by most of the characters. For me, it didn't fit the time period or the circumstances. I had a hard time finishing this book. It felt like it went too long. I expected a family saga, which held true to some degree, but it was mostly centered on one specific faith denomination.

Very good read. Deals with a difficult subject for us today. Polygamy looks very different through 2021 eyes. It was hard and foreign enough even in 1842. I see a lot of reviews on here that take the author to task for his description of the marital intimacies involving Joseph and Brigham. And maybe it's a little further than some are comfortable with. But I think it was tasteful overall and painted a picture of the difficulty in applying the principle of plural marriage into the lives of the early Saints.

I feel like this book was a little more realistic painting (accurate or not) of what things might have been like. I tend to look at church history as a series of huge and grandiose events involving people who were larger than life in their perfection and sainthood. But that's not fair to the people involved who were still mortals doing the best they could with what the Lord gave them. I think Joseph and Brigham were very exceptional people but they would be the first to tell you that they were human and made their mistakes along the way.

The accuracy or lack of it here doesn't bother me because any historical fiction attempts to paint a picture, filling in a lot of details that we don't have preserved to us today. If we throw out anything that isn't perfectly sourced then we don't ever get a chance to see what it all might have been like. It's good to remember that this is an interpretation only of what might have been.

A gem for me: the discussion between Dinah and her mother about how sometimes the Lord, in asking for us to give our all, asks that we even sacrifice our conscience. That was a tough one for me to swallow. But very believable the more I think about it. Dinah had to do some swallowing of her conscience before getting into polygamy. And she laid it on the altar to demonstrate her faith in Joseph as a prophet. I think we assume that our conscience always equals the light of Christ or the Spirit witnessing truth to us. And much of the time that's true. But sometimes we need to be willing to peel back our "conscience" a little and see how much of it might be due to our culture/experience rather than pure direction from above. Very tough. Sometimes the Lord wants us to make that choice without a ton of direction and we're down to the brass tacks level of raw faith.

An amazing story! I had a hard time with the portrayal of Joseph Smith. It gave an interesting perspective on polygamy.

While this was by no means a perfect story, it was intriguing to read a narrative layered like this, with a fake Church historian compiling ancestral heritage.

did not find this uplifting so i didn't finish reading it. was about 3/4 through it. I like Card's sci-fic books but didn't like the coarse language and sex in this one. I know church members are normal beings but reading details about Joseph Smith (or anyone else for that matter) having sex with a plural wife was not what i want to read about. I think i would rather read the historic records than a fictionalized account that blurs facts with fiction.

i just flew through the first half, then it was a bit dissappointing for me. but its very well done. it is the kind of book that makes me want to research the beginnings of the mormon church and polygamy. i don't know if i would recommend this becuase it might shake your mormon faith.

There are a lot of interesting stories here. Dinah was a fascinating woman, and her perspective is valuable.

I only made it to the end of chapter 8, but I won't be finishing. OSC writes some weird crap into the beginning of this book. I kept thinking I could push past it and get to better writing, but I put this down when OSC started writing about an 8 year boy passing out because a grown man is cutting his penis and rubbing lye on the wounds. I was totally done. OSC has never been an author I liked, but I have lost respect for him now also.