Friday, January 23, 2015

Gabriel's Daughters by Janet Jensen


Book Description
An impressive work of literary fiction that accurately explores the struggles of being raised in a polygamous community. Jensen’s novel explores the unique strengths and weaknesses of the bonds in a polygamous family.
Gabriel's Daughters wrestles with issues of polygamy, homosexuality, and modernity through the lives of the large, loving, and polygamous Martin family. The story is told primarily through the eyes of Zina Martin, a young girl who, upon discovering she is impregnated by her "sterile" teacher—and will soon be married off to a man three times her age— escapes the enclosed polygamous town of Gabriel's Landing, Utah.


Zina then embarks on a journey full of self-discovery, yet she can never completely escape the longing she has for her family and even the controversial and outdated lifestyle she once lived. Through both tears and triumph, Jensen has crafted a moving story that not only acts as insightful social commentary but also prompts readers to reevaluate their lives.

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Snippet 
Chapter 1
One meets his destiny often in the road he takes to avoid it.
French Proverb 
Gabriels Landing, Utah 
            She closed her eyes and let her senses absorb it allthe chirping of fat robins, the dizzying scent of lilacs, the feel of cool, prickly blades of grass under her fingers, and the dull thudding sound of a soccer ball being kicked from player to player, accompanied by words of encouragement, all under the kind warmth of the sun. Zina inhaled deeply, emptying her mind of algebra, English literature, P.E. and tomorrows history test, filling it instead with thoughts, sounds, and smells of spring.
She sensed a shadow between herself and the sun and opened her eyes. A man stood above her. Shading her eyes with her hand, she squinted at him. He was golden, she thought, automatically assigning him a color, for the sun behind him cast its rays on his light hair, fair skin, blue eyes, and tall, athletic build.
            Oh! She sat up, pulling her long skirts modestly over her ankles. A deep blush crept up her cheeks. I didnt know anyone was here.

  Excerpted from GABRIEL’S DAUGHTERS by JANET KAY JENSEN. Copyright © 2015 by JANET KAY JENSEN. Excerpted by permission of JOLLY FISH PRESS, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Official Launch Party: Gabriel's Daughter by Janet Jensen
https://www.facebook.com/events/389386487889741/?ref=2&ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming

About the Author



Janet Jensen leads a quiet life in a college town nestled in the foothills of the northern edge of the Wasatch Mountains. She and her husband Miles, an attorney, met as members of Utah State University’s Intercollegiate Debate Team and are parents of three grown sons: a soccer enthusiast/physician in Salt Lake City, Utah; an exercise physiologist/football coach/graduate student in Jyvaskyla, Finland; and a skydiver/embedded systems engineer in Berkeley, California. The Jensens have happily become grandparents of four.
Janet is 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, Ballantine, 2003), and an award-winning novel, Don’t You Marry the Mormon Boys (Bonneville Books, 2007), which won a gold medal for Cultural Fiction in the Readers Favorite  International Book Awards Contest.
Her work also appears in Parables for Today (Cedar Fort, 2012) and Gruff Variations (Writing for Charity, 2012). Baking Day, a personal essay, placed second in the 2011 national essay/memoir contest sponsored by The Writer Magazine and Gotham Writers Workshops.
Janet holds degrees in Speech-Language Pathology from Utah State University and Northwestern University and worked in educational settings for more than twenty years.
A retired soccer mom, Cub Scout leader and PTA president, she is a now a full-time writer and a literacy tutor who feels genuine panic when she is stranded without something to read. Janet welcomes correspondence with readers. 
She can be reached at janetkayjensen@gmail.com 
She maintains a website at her website at www.janetjensen.com
and an author page at GoodReads. 
She tweets as JanetKJensen and blogs at www.janetkayjensen.blogspot.com.



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