An absorbing novel set around the 1960's in a Canadian polygamist sect. This was a quick paced book that kept me engrossed through Daisy's entire plight of leaving the group and finding herself. I just wish the ending was a neatly tied together as it was.

Thank Simon and Schuster for allowing me to review this advance reader's copy.

📖✨ The Celestial Wife

I really enjoyed this story, I particularly liked how the story moves forward and switches things up. I was a little concerned it could get a little repetitive in the descriptions and experience of living in a fundamentalist polygamous community and that would make me a little depressed. However the extreme experiences were humanized and you could understand the structures and circumstances that keep people in oppressive communities.

It’s not often I read books that take place where I live and I found it delightful to experience a characters first impression of a 1960s Vancouver.

Celestial Wife was more than I expected and painted a vivid portrait of growing up and fleeing the community you are born into. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is also my very first ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) and I’m so thankful I got to read this. Liked it so much I bought a physics copy as well.

Leslie Howard has taken inspiration from the Mormon sect of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) in Bountiful, BC; and Rachel Jeff’s Breaking Free, a memoir of her abuse at the hand of her father, an FLDS self-proclaimed prophet, and written a fictional novel set in the 1960s that follows teen Daisy, who gradually wakes up to the fact that all is not right in her town of Redemption, escaping her situation and learning to live in the outside world, where we follow her gradual transition to young adulthood as she explores the hippie movement of the 1960s.

Howard’s research into the everyday lives of girls, women, and boys and men who were banished was well done. It showed the abuses without being sensationalistic. Daisy’s decision wasn’t black and white; she would have stayed had she been selected to marry the young man she had a crush on. I can’t fault her for that at all–it is easiest to stay in a situation when that is the only life you know, and when all of your friends and family are there, and you wonder if you’ll be bound for hell if you leave. I also thought Howard did an amazing job of evoking the 1960s. The clothes, the music, the fledgling wine industry in the Okanagan valley. And we are able to travel to Woodstock with Daisy and her friends. I actually felt like I was there. I have to wonder if Howard attended!

I would have liked to see a stronger exploration of Daisy’s struggle with spirituality. I wondered why she didn’t grapple with the theology more, given that she must have believed in the faith deeply at some point. The discussion was almost absent, which seemed a lost opportunity.

The book ended on a realistic note that was guarded with respect to the FLDS being held accountable to Canadian laws, but also pointed towards hope and options for those who wanted to leave the sect. Though for all readers, the novel will appeal to those in their late teens and twenties who may not have been exposed to the news stories about the abuses in this fundamentalist sect. I hope it gets a wide audience.

I’ll be honest and say that I find high-control groups fascinating, so I was already interested in the subject matter before I started reading. It’s abundantly clear that the author did a ton of research for this novel, and I really appreciated her lengthy author’s note at the end where she goes into detail about her process. Everything about the time period of the late 60s and the polygamist community was detailed in a way that made the setting feel very authentic. The music, Wolfman Jack (a well-known real-life radio DJ), and the hippy vibes of peace and love all brought the 60s to life. The same can be said for the details of Redemption, such as the large houses with lots of sister wives looking after so many children, the patriarchal nature of the community, and the difficult relationships the women had with each other.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m absolutely fascinated by the dark side of fundamentalist Mormonism and polygamist communities. It’s just one of those train wrecks that I can’t turn away from. Leslie Howard’s The Celestial Wife is a fictional story inspired by crew events, the details, one young woman’s escape from her polygamist community and her fight for the rights of the women she left behind.

Is the early 1960s in a Mormon community on the southern border of British Columbia, 115-year-old Daisy is preparing for her ritual, arranged marriage. She was already been questioning her faith in her role in the community, and the results of this arranged marriage and placement makes her no longer able to keep sweet and stay the course- she breaks free and her own course inspired by the subcultures and hippie movement of the 60s and helped by some friends she meets along the way.

The story was one of those books I could just not put down. Told from the perspective of Daisy as she moves away from everything, she knows, and toward a future with choices she never knew she could make. As a reader, I felt Daisy’s highs and lows along with her as she journey forward. The story was incredibly inspiring and emotional into something that will stay with me for a good while.

If you’re at all, interested or intrigued by the dark side of fundamentalism, or Polygamist groups, this is a must read!

“Keep sweet no matter what, for this is the way to be lifted up. Keep sweet with every breath, for it is a matter of life or death.” ⁣
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Firstly, thank you @simonschusterca and @netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for my honest opinion. ⁣
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Even though some of the things are quite disturbing, I was very intrigued. I was definitely on a roller coaster of emotions as I learned more about Daisy and the polygamist society she was from. I was so angry at all the brain washing and especially knowing that this was inspired by very real events, it must’ve been very traumatizing 🤨⁣
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Overall, I did enjoy this read. I just wish that it had more depth. The ending felt too good to be true and it just felt like it diminished all that Daisy and her friends went through…⁣
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This is a 4/5 stars for me and if you enjoy historical fiction that reads like a memoir, I think you’ll have a good time with this one.

The premise of this book is so interesting- religious cults, specifically polygamous Mormon cults a certainly something that many people know a little bit about. I appreciated that the author had clearly researched cults, and had based some of the settings of the book on real life places in Canada and the US that are home to polygamous cults. At times, the pop culture references seemed forced, this book could have easily been set in the current day and still told the same story of a girl trying to get free from the men who controlled her while also trying to find herself and a place for herself in the current world. There just seemed to be a lot of potential that the book unfortunately didn't live up to.

Although a work of fiction, 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐖𝐢𝐟𝐞 is based off of true events surrounding the fundamentalist Mormon community, which is present in the US and Canada. I’ll start by saying that the setting definitively enticed me with its location being in BC, Canada in the 60’s. Although the town of Redemption is fictional in the novel, it is based off of Bountiful, BC, which is a polygamous commune.

The MC, Daisy Shoemaker, is a 15 year old whose life has been chosen for her by the members of the Mormon church. She is to be married to the man chosen for her and produce children from that union, while living with the other wives and their children. As she is wed to a man, several decades older than her, she realizes she must escape before it is too late. Luckily for her, she is quickly found and taken in by fruit pickers and her life moves from secluded to abundant possibilities and experiences while still having a need to put an end to the terror of the FDLS in Redemption.

The novel, although interesting with its many pop-culture references and obvious researched elements, left me yearning for more out of the story. I can’t help but feel like certain elements were approached lightly or skimmed over quickly to move the story forward. I will say that I do however appreciate how 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐖𝐢𝐟𝐞 created a need for me to educate myself further more on the subjects approached in this novel. This one was definitely a quick, interesting and eye opening read with a strong FMC and her coming of age story!

𝖯𝗎𝖻 𝖽𝖺𝗍𝖾: 𝖠𝗉𝗋𝗂𝗅 𝟫, 𝟤𝟢𝟤𝟦

✵𝖬𝖺𝗇𝗒 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗇𝗄𝗌 𝗍𝗈 𝖲𝗂𝗆𝗈𝗇 & 𝖲𝖼𝗁𝗎𝗌𝗍𝖾𝗋, 𝖫𝖾𝗌𝗅𝗂𝖾 𝖧𝗈𝗐𝖺𝗋𝖽 ＆ 𝖭𝖾𝗍𝖦𝖺𝗅𝗅𝖾𝗒 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝗀𝗂𝖿𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗆𝖾 𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗌 𝖠𝖽𝗏𝖺𝗇𝖼𝖾𝖽 𝖱𝖾𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗋’𝗌 𝖢𝗈𝗉𝗒 𝗂𝗇 𝖾𝗑𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗇𝗀𝖾 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝗆𝗒 𝗁𝗈𝗇𝖾𝗌𝗍 𝗋𝖾𝗏𝗂𝖾𝗐.✵

All stories need to be told. Thank you simonschusterca for this arc!

Nothing like I have read before but sure enough an unforgettable piece in my opinion that overall, was an act of courage.
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Choosing to ask questions at any stage of your life is possible but taking actions in light of those questions takes another level of courage.
The moment Daisy started questioning the realities of her community I was invested, scared and not ready for the pages to reveal just how and if she would survived.
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In this story there was a lot to unpack but I choose to take it for what it was and allow all the feelings to be felt as I followed young Daisy, a Mormon girl in the 1960s West Coast of Canada traversing the rebirth from a life she was born into to carving a new path for herself and those that dare to ask harder questions of what they believe.
As you read this book you will experience many feelings about how Daisy's community was organized and more importanly how hard it was to go against such beliefs. The fact that this story was based on true events allowed me to appreciate the messiness of the point of view in which it was told and extend empathy to the experiences shared. It was definitely a story that needed to be told.

Happy Reading!

The Celestial Wife by Leslie Howard

The Celestial Wife is a gripping and insightful story about the life of Daisy Shoemaker who grew up in a fundamentalist Mormon community in the 1960’s. Although a work of fiction, the author did base the story on true events and stories. For example, the story parallels the fundamentalist LDS sect in Bountiful, BC. This community was under the rule of leader Winston Blackmore, who had 145 children and 25 wives. Blackmore’s religious beliefs “call for celestial marriages”. Which is the focus of The Celestial Wife by Leslie Howard

The Celestial Wife takes place in the fictional town of Redemption BC. The year is 1964 and 15 year old Daisy and her mother are outcasts in their polygamist Mormon community. As a result Daisy was “reassigned” to another family that strictly enforced the beliefs of the community. That females must “keep sweet”, not ask questions and do as they are told. That Gods plan for women in their community include “plural marriage, hard work and motherhood”!

Daisy is horrified to learn that at the tender age of 15 she must marry the Bishop, a man who is 40 years her senior with several wives already. It is at this time that Daisy decides she must fight for her freedom and finally flee her controlling and abusive community.

What ensues is a harrowing escape and an awakening for Daisy as she realizes what life is like outside her archaic and isolated community of Redemption. Daisy meets new friends who take her under their wings, protect her and help her get on her feet in the real world.

Now settled, Daisy’s hope is to help her mother and best friend escape the dark and dangerous fundamentalist community and live a normal life of freedom and personal choice. A life where they can decide their own fate. But to do this Daisy will have to face the demons of her past and return to Redemption one last time.

This book was enthralling and appalling all at the same time. Enthralling because the very notion of polygamy is so foreign that I wanted to learn more. But appalling because of the audacious act of young girls being abused and forced to marry old men. Even though the subject matter was disturbing and intense, the author handled it with sensitivity and tact.

The Celestial Wife is an intense, gripping, heart wrenching yet empowering story. I would highly recommend this book to any Historical Fiction fans and those interested in learning what it’s like to grow up in a religious cult.

Thank you Simon & Schuster for my arc of The Celestial Wife.

I am fascinated with cults and the sixties time period, so when I received an arc of this beauty I couldn't wait to dive in! The premise of this book is very intriguing. It's the 1960's. The Beatles are on the radio. Free love is all around. And at sixteen years old, Daisy is about to be married off to an unknown man based on the prophecies of the all-knowing Bishop. When Daisy is selected to marry the much older Bishop himself to become one of his many fruit-bearing wives, she escapes and starts her life over, until an old friend reaches out for help and she must confront the past she left behind.

This book absolutely pulled me in from the first chapter. I was halfway through before I even realized it. Howard's description of the cult in which Daisy grew up was fascinating and it borrowed themes from the Keep Sweet Netflix documentary and real-life stories of those who escaped their polygamist communities. She did a fantastic and well researched job of setting the scene. I also loved how the names- Brighten, Blossom and Charity- embodied what these women were expected to be.

The title itself is taken from the Bishop's teachings that the Celestial Wife- a man's third wife- is the ones who ensures he will get into the highest kingdom of heaven and therefore this is what all girls in Daisy's community should strive for. When Daisy and others around her start to realize that this is not the way things are supposed to be, it is interesting to see their minds shift and shows why lack of education and lack of knowledge of the outside world are used to suppress the innate feelings of human beings when they are being oppressed and how religion can be weaponized.

My only gripes were that some parts that felt unrealistic and and the ending was wrapped up too neatly in a bow, which was a disservice to the subject matter. Daisy's viewpoint is very naive and simplistic, therefore, we don't get the depth of what is really going on. In some ways, this felt more like a coming of age novel. There was time spent on her experience at Woodstock and on a friend's growing vineyard, and I would have liked to know more about how folks in her community were faring given the Bishop's response to Daisy's departure,

That being said, the writing was smooth and easy to read and the first half of the book was near perfect. This was also a great read for a book club- lots of great points for discussion. I highly recommend this read, Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Inspired by true events in the community of Bountiful, British Columbia, The Celestial Wife depicts the fictional community of Redemption, a Mormon Fundamentalists polygamous cult.

Daisy Shoemaker is a 15-year girl who is waiting to be assigned to her future husband, she hopes it will be Tobias, the boy she has been secretly meeting in the woods. On the day of her placement, she is heartbroken when she is matched with a much older man, who already has several wives. So she and her friend decide to run.

We follow along with Daisy on her journey of self-discovery and growth as she aims to live outside the cult.

This was a very interesting topic, and although Leslie Howard did an amazing job of researching and sharing information I still wanted more! Which I guess is a good thing as now I want to learn more about the history of sharing women over the Canada USA border.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. It’s on shelves April 9, 2024.

“The Celestial Wife” is a fictionalized account of the Mormon Fundamentalist community of Bountiful, British Columbia in the 1960s as told from the perspective of 15-year-old Daisy Shoemaker. I enjoy reading stories about cults and religious groups for the ways in which lines are often blurred between loyalty and blind-faith, individual critical thinking and humble acceptance of the benefits of a group.

This was a challenging book to read at times, if for no other reason than the reader knows the story is based on the actual fundamentalist Christian sect in BC, whose leaders were convicted of practicing polygamy and taking minor children across the boarder to the USA to be married as recently as 2018.

I have read and liked some other books on this topic more, but it is definitely worth reading if you want to support Canadian stories and is a good entry point if you are interested in reading about this chilling topic. 3.5/5

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher, but the review and opinions are my own.

Although I left as an adult, I was raised in the mainstream Mormon/LDS faith and knew about the “fundies” that lived in Bountiful BC. I have always had a bit of a fascination with the FLDS cults that broke off from the main church and still practice polygamy. When Warren Jeffs was finally arrested and convicted I gave a little cheer, having read many books written by survivors.

This book is so incredible well written and you can tell that Leslie Howard did a lot of research into both the Canadian and US polygamist cults. I know that women were passed back and forth from the states to Canada but I don’t think I ever put together just how horribly they were treated as commodities between the communities.

Did I nearly drop my kindle while reading about the town I attended high school in? Yes, because nobody knows/cares about a small Mormon town in the Rockies.

If you would like more stories like this I suggest checking out “Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey” on Netflix or reading “Breaking Free: How I Escaped Polygamy, the FLDS Cult, and My Father” by Rachel Jeffs. I also suggest reading “Educated” by Tara Westover for another perspective of the abuses that happen in the faith.

I would like to thank Simon and Schuster CA for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Celestial Wife by Leslie Howard will be available to purchase April 9 2024 where books are sold.

I do love a coming of age story. There is something so satisfying in witnessing someone jump the chasm between adolescence and adulthood. Although, to be true, I still feel like I remake that leap on the daily. 🤣⁣⁣
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The Celestial Wife begins with a 15-year-old Daisy Shoemaker as she prepares for what she has grown up knowing would be her ultimate path: marriage. This story launches us into the centre of an extremist FLDS community as we see Daisy come to terms with the horror of her future being paired to a man 40-years her senior. The resulting story is Daisy’s reclaiming of her narrative and using her will and determination to save the women she was forced to leave behind.⁣
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This story had some challenging but important content in that it very directly addressed the false righteousness that many extremist religious organizations use to build their following. It was scary to see how real the situations were in which a person would believe that a single charismatic person could deliver them to an eternity of peace and glory. It was also terrifying to see the lengths that a single person would go to to convince themselves that they were making a just choice. With the rise in religious extremism around the world, I think this book did a good job in describing how these groups prey on the vulnerable.⁣
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Where I felt this book lacked was the blending of Daisy’s knowledge and experiences into her more modern life outside of Redemption (the community). The chapters written during Woodstock, especially, didn’t feel genuine to the rest of the story, which I found quite jarring.⁣
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Overall, I think this book will likely be very popular! It’s chilling, realistic and delivers on a completely satisfying ending that I think most readers will really enjoy. While it wasn’t as hard-hitting throughout as I had hoped, I still did enjoy the book and it was a very fast read. Check it out for yourself April 9, 2024!⁣
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Thank you to @simonschusterca for my digital galley. All opinions are my own.

Delighted to include this title in the April edition of Novel Encounters, my column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer, Canada’s national lifestyle and culture magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)

I really enjoyed this book by Leslie Howard. I've always been fascinated with the world polygamists live in. This story is about Daisy Shoemaker and her best friend, Brighten. Having been born into the world of polygamy, their paths were laid out for them long before they reached womanhood and neither of them had any control over it. Daisy's desire to marry the young man she loves and the desire to make her own choices leads her to make some very difficult decisions in a very short span of time, decisions that stay with her for the rest of her life. The events on one fateful day form the paths each girl takes, both have very different circumstances that they then must live with.

I loved the character of Daisy. She is strong, independent and courageous. But likewise, the character of Brighten is just as strong and courageous as she makes the best of the situation she is forced into by a split decision that catapulted her onto a path she otherwise would not have chosen for herself. This book is filled with colorful, vibrant and unique characters.

This book gives an inside glimpse into a secret cult world where young girls are traded as brides to powerful men who do the bidding of the bishop. What makes this book unique from others is the fact that it takes place in the tumultuous 60's and it adds a unique quality to the story line as the events of Woodstock, the Vietnam war and other cultural changes unfold.

The Celestial Wife begins in 1964 on a FLDS polygamist colony in British Columbia. Fifteen year-old Daisy Shoemaker has already had a tumultuous upbringing with her father ex-communicated from the sect, and her mother forced to live on the outskirts of the community due to her disobedience. When Daisy finds out that she must marry a man forty years older than her, she summons her courage and runs for her life in a dramatic escape. Now in the outside world, she encounters hippies promoting “free love” and her eyes are open to a whole new life ahead with the promise of freedom, education, and autonomy.

This was an interesting book that kept me turning the pages. There were lots of pieces (like the history of wine making in the Okanagan) that I enjoyed. However, there were parts that seemed unbelievable, convenient, and far-fetched. I learned in the author’s note that she was fascinated by non-fiction accounts from women who have lived in fundamentalist polygamous communities, including Rachel Jeffs (daughter of Warren Jeffs). The community in this book, Redemption, is inspired by/modeled after several communities including Bountiful, British Columbia. The author realized that there although there are non-fiction books, we haven’t seen fictionalized stories, and stories are a tool used to bring history to life. I agree with that, but in this case, I was left wanting to dive down a rabbit hole of more non-fiction reads on this subject. And I was reminded of The Sound of Gravel, which remains one of my favourite memoirs, with a story so wild that it could have been fiction.
3.5 stars rounded up

While I had a hard time at times with the subject matter of The Celestial Wife, it was an incredibly powerful story that needed to be told. I’m not sure that I’ve loved the “glorification” (for lack of a better word) of polygamy over the last few years, and so I really appreciated how this book had the opposite effect. This was disturbing and heartbreaking, and I’m glad I picked it up.

The story of Daisy Shoemaker, who ranges in age from fifteen, at the start of the story, to her coming-of-age at twenty-one. Daisy is a fictional character, based on historically accurate research on the appalling lives of girls and women in fundamentalist Mormon polygamist (FLDS) sects as existed in the timeframe of the mid to late sixties.

Daisy lives in rural BC, in a fictional FLDS community called Redemption, modeled after the real life Bountiful, BC and its sister cities in Utah and Arizona.

With her first person POV voice, Daisy touches us with her intimate tale of longing, isolation, and hardship as, two years after being forcibly removed from her biological mother Ruth’s home (due to trumped-up religious infractions attributed to Ruth), Daisy still struggles to fit in with the new family assigned to her. A family that consists of one father, six mothers, and thirty five “sibling” children.

As Daisy’s placement day approaches, we learn of her soon to be forced-marriage, at fifteen, to the love of her life, the handsome Tobias, or to potentially one of a number of much older (creepy) and unsavory prospects, each of whom are much-married already.

An interesting and very disturbing tale, Daisy is a sympathetic character facing a horrendous future with no power of choice or independence. Her challenges, and the approach she ultimately takes to dealing with them, makes for engaging reading. Set against the backdrop of the swinging sixties, the author summons up polarities that are fascinating: imaginary borders, erected by religion or philosophy, pitting community-wide free love, drugs, youth and freedom against oppression, misogyny and horrific abuse (sexual or otherwise).

It’s a story that’s hard to put down.

But be warned: this is also a read so disturbing that it may have you (as it has this reader), scouring the references provided for further reads on this unsettling subject matter.

A great big thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.