"DEAR JANE," by Rachel Ward, Bonneville Books, $16.99, 256 pages (f)
The heroine of "Dear Jane" is not a Jane. Her name is Quinn, who was dumped by her boyfriend 15 months into her mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
When she arrives home three months later, she has no boyfriend, no job, no social life and tragedy has hit her family. A position at a local realtor's office looks promising until the former Elder Nicholas Ryan shows up. If Elder Ryan hated her so much he requested a transfer just to get away from her, surely they couldn't possibly work together.
"Dear Jane" appears to be yet another fluffy LDS romance novel, and it is. However, author Rachel Ward pulls no punches as she guides her characters through raw emotions and real-life issues.
The real grief adds depth to the fluff and a tender charm to Quinn and Nicholas' romance. Ward's prose is stilted at times and her sentences often venture into run-on territory, but she has a knack for balancing the lovey-dovey drama with real problems. "Dear Jane" reminds readers that loved ones have the power to inflict the deepest wounds, and righteous living does not guarantee an easy life.
Ward is a member of the LDS Church and a BYU-Idaho alumna. Almost all the characters in her first novel are LDS.
"Dear Jane" contains no profanity or sexual content, but there is some generally described violence. The novel also discusses, but does not depict on-page, mature themes such as drug addiction, suicide, loss of a parent, divorce and premarital sex.
Rachel Chipman has a bachelor's degree in family life and human development. Her current goals are to read more, write more and learn to type while holding her infant daughter. Her email address is racheldchipman@gmail.com.