Review: One of the best books I have read in 2014
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 23, 2014
“I always knew I would share my husband.”We meet Brinley, a young woman born into the Fundamentalist Mormon life and has married a much older man, Lehi. She is his seventh wife and although resigned to her lifestyle for she believes it is the only way she will get to heaven she is unhappy. She does not love her husband and is not close with her sister wives. Brinley lives a very lonely existence and from the moment I met her my heart was breaking for the fact that she had given up on all that she secretly desires.“My existence is a lonely one. Lehi relieves that loneliness for the twenty-four hours when I pretend I’m the only one he lays with. And I do pretend. Every waking hour.”There is one thing Brinley lives for, visits into town when errands need to be ran. It is during one of these visits that Brinley has an encounter with a former Mormon, Porter. Porter is not to be confused with a good guy. He has his demons and is clearly on drugs, but still there is something there in him that Brinley sees and admires. She desperately desires the freedom that comes from being out the outside but is way too scared to take the leap of faith necessary to being that type of life. But more than that there is something about Porter Hammond that pulls at her. Even though she is married and knows it is wrong she cannot help but start up a friendship with him.“I’d never lost myself, but something told me I could easily lose myself in Porter.”As I mentioned before Brinley was not close with her sister wives but there is one she would consider a friend, Aston, and soon a new wife joins the family, Rebecca. From the beginning Brinley and Rebecca become close and it is Rebecca who tells Brinley about the fact that real  soul consuming love is possible and not just a fairy tale. These two women play vital roles in Brinley’s story and I desperately hope they receive their own books. They both drive her and Porter together and apart and without their influences this story would not have been as dynamic as it was.“I had my secrets. A voice inside told me I didn’t belong here, that there was another life waiting for me. And with each passing year, that voice became louder.”Wife Number Seven is so much more than just a love story. It tells the tale of a young woman struggling in her situation desperate for some inkling that she can survive. Anyone who has ever felt stuck in a bad place before with immediately bond with Brinley. I won’t say that I always loved her. There were most definitely times I wanted to grab her shoulders and shake some sense into her, to tell her it is ok, she is strong enough. But no matter what I felt like I understood her. I felt like at times in my life I was her. Our stories are very different but the feeling of desiring more than what life has handed you is universal. I loved that both her and Porter were flawed, They felt like real people, this is not some idealized fairy tale where suddenly they run off together and immediately get their Happily Ever After. This is a story where they have to grow and make mistakes and work together at finding the right balance but one that shows me that Love is real and if you are willing to put the work into it happiness is always a possibility.“That place . . . it’s my hell. But I’d go into hell for you, Brin, no questions asked. I’d do it again and again to make you mine.” “But I am ,” I insisted, tracing his chin with my fingertips. “I’m already yours.”