All Good Things Come to end--Then you can own the Whole Series!

H.B. Moore--or to her close and personal friends (like myself) Heather Moor--has just come out with the last of her Out of Jerusalem series; Land of Inheritance.

She actually asked me to write up a blurb about it, so I got an advanced copy. I was crazy busy the week it arrived and put it on my kitchen counter. For three days every time I looked at it my stomach would sink. No way was I going to have time to read this. And since I hadn't read book 2 and 3 of the series, I wasn't sure I'd get into it--not to mention it was not on my summer reading 07' list and I had five titles that I hadn't gotten to.

Finally I decided I would read two chapters, then I could write something up. I hate doing it that way, because I feel that if I'm going to give an endorsement I should read the whole book--I mean, what if I base my blurb on the first chapters and then it sucks, or the author shows in some nasty scene I wouldn't have endorsed? However, I justified that by reminding myself that the book was based on the Book of Mormon, and I'd heard of her progress as she wrote it (back to that close personal friend thing), and she's not big on nasty scenes. So, I sat down after my kids went to bed and I started reading.

There was a time when I was afraid of reading at night. Not because of nightmares, but because if a story was good I couldn't put it down, which is real pain in the tail when the kids are up the next morning whether your a zombie or not. I haven' t had this problem so much in the last few years because I am so dang critical of what I read that I'm usually more than happy to put it down--for the night or forever depending on the book. Land of Inheritance, however, did not get put down. I read it straight through--not finishing until about 3:00 a.m. Truly, I was shocked. Now, anyone who has read my Summer Reading posts knows that I read Twilight and Peace like a River really fast too--but I put them down at night. No so with this one.

Talk about making stories come alive. Wow. This book was incredible. the writing was phenomenal, the characterization was so real, and the overall story was gripping and heart wrenching and faith affirming. I am so dang proud of Heather, the research on these books alone makes me cry Uncle, and she not only researched like a mad woman, but she wrote a story that I could not tear myself away from--EVEN THOUGH I KNEW WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN. This is a true gift, and the book was excellent. She put flesh on the bones of the time when the Nephites became the Nephites and the Lamanites became the Lamanites. You see how it happened, you feel the regret and grief when Lehi died and no longer held his sons together in a common purpose. This book was powerful and profound and beautifully done.

If you haven't read this series, please do. You'll thank yourself for making the time for them, you'll be reminded that the stories we read in the BOM were real, they really happened to real people.

Did I mention that I really really liked it?