Book Review: Leaning into the Curves by Nancy Anderson and Carroll H. Morris

Today, I'm reviewing Leaning into the Curves by Nancy Anderson and Carroll H. Morris. From the back cover blurb:

Molly is happy with her life the way it is, but everything changes when her husband, Hank, retires. When Hank brings home a Gold Wing motorcycle and joins the Temple Riders Association, a “Mormon motorcycle gang” that combines road trips with temple work, things go from bad to worse. Faced with the prospect of being left behind as Hank hits the road with his new group of friends, Molly starts making some changes of her own.A funny, often poignant, look at the challenges of reinventing life after sixty.

    * From the co-authors of the popular series The Company of Good Women
    * The Temple Riders were featured in an October 2009 Footsteps of Faith documentary



My Review:

I first heard about The Temple Riders when I was about 16 years old. It may not have been the same group, but I do remember my home teacher telling my family about members of our church going on motorcycle trips with the goal of visiting all the LDS temples in the United States. I thought it was an interesting concept which prompted some of my own car trips to go to visit temples during some of my free time in college.

Leaning into the Curves is a unique book in the LDS market. 1st - we really don't have very many books out there with characters who are more mature. Even though I love the romance genre, most of the characters in that category are under the age of thirty. It's rather nice to have a book whose main characters are empty nesters, encountering a very different stage of their life and marriage than I usually read.  2nd - how often do we see LDS books where the characters are motorcycle lovin' Harley addicts? OK, well maybe not all of them are - Molly sure has a lot of reservations about her hubby's new interest. But it's quite a fun twist on book plots.

From a reader's perspective, it took me a little while before I really got into the book. But then it turned into a fun and interesting read. I definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for something different than typical LDS romances.

Leaning into the Curves is available at Deseret Book and other LDS book stores.

Would you like to comment?

Gail said...

Sounds like a fun book to read. I will have to go find it at Desseret.

Danyelle Ferguson said...

Hi Gail -

It was a fun book. Definitely different from anything else I've read lately. =)

Valerie Ipson said...

The cover alone makes me want to pick it up. Great review!

kbrebes said...

I'm excited about it just because it's a Carroll Morris book!

Carroll said...

Thanks for the recommendation!

Re: your comment about the general lack of older main characters in current LDS fiction. It's true, and older readers wish there were more books about their age group.

Nancy, Lael, and I have received several e-mails asking us to write a fourth book for our series,The Company of Good Women, showing the characters as grandmothers.

Debbie Davis said...

I just want to say thank you for showing me how to be a good book reviewer. I have been reading a few of the reviews you have written and always come away with a sense of being uplifted, yet told your honest feelings on a book. You do that very well. I am starting to do reviews too and wanted to say thanks for being someone who I feel I can emulate in how I go about things. I also wanted to say thanks again, during storymakers this year you gave great encouragement to me and a freind when we were working through our first bootcamp experience. You said things that I still haven't forgotten on how to go through the comments that are left. You have made such a difference for me as a new writer, and now a book reviewer and blogger. Thanks soo very much!! =0)

Danyelle Ferguson said...

Carroll - You're welcome! Thank you for including me on the blog tour!

Debbie - Thank you for starting my day off on such a wonderful note. You're a sweetheart!

C.J. said...

Now that I'm over fifty and still getting older, I love books that feature the over thirty group,