REVIEW: A Modest Proposal: The Butterfly Box 1

Die-hard romantics will love "A Modest Proposal," by Michele Ashman Bell. Die-hard romantics looking for an appropriate romance novel with LDS standards will love this book even more. Lauryn Alexander loves fashion. As a child, she would cut out fabric and make dresses for her Barbie dolls.Lauryn also has a testimony of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One thing she won't compromise as a top designer at one of New York City's largest fashion companies is modesty.Lauryn also has an alcoholic mother, an absent father and friends who don't always make the best choices, but Bell portrays her characters in a non-judgmental way.As with many romance novels, Bell's story-telling can be somewhat predictable, but readers will love the relationship between Lauryn and Jace. The actual story between the two is nothing like the synopsis on the back of the book, which predicts that Jace's character will quickly become a reader favorite. When Cooper makes his way onto the scene, however, he provides some competition for that title.Bell succeeds at expressing the real human emotions and reactions between Lauryn and her family, especially her mother, but somewhat misses the mark with the dialogue between Lauryn and her friends. However, there are lessons to be learned from those relationships. As Lauryn makes her mark on the New York fashion scene, she is constantly put down by people telling her there is no room for modesty in high fashion. With the help of a few friends in high places and the talent to boot, Lauryn hopes to show that "modest is hottest." "A Modest Proposal" is the first in a series of five books following the lives of Lauryn and her four friends. Their lives are sometimes difficult, but made so much easier with the help of a few good people. Bell, a mother of four who lives in Salt Lake City, is also the author of many children's books. But she is becoming known for her LDS romance works, a genre slowly making its way into mainstream LDS fiction.