May is Utah author's month, pretty neat, we have tons of great author's that live here, I'm excited to get to read books from a few more of them. Every Tuesday in May, I will be talking about a book written by a Utah author. This weeks book is Borrowed Light by Carla Kelly. Just reading her bio in the back of this book, it looks like she's written all kinds of books, this is the first one that I've seen, I'm glad that I was able to read it! Julia Darling is 27 years old, she loves to cook, and she's about to become the sister of the bride. Her younger sister, Iris, is getting married in the Salt Lake Temple, while Julia stays home to take care of the wedding food and Iris' last little bit of packing. Julia is also engaged to a young man who everyone says is just perfect for Julia, there's just one problem, she doesn't love him. She knows this, but figures it will all work out anyway. She's packing the last of Iris' glasses in newspaper when she notices an add for a cook. It begins "Desperate Rancher." It's from a Wyoming Rancher looking for a cook from the exact cooking school in Boston that Julia graduated from. She's not sure if it's a sign, but she realizes that her engagement isn't making her happy and marriage will surely not be happy either, so she mails him a letter. Julia decides not to say anything to her parents or her fiancée until she hears back from the rancher. She does hear back from him soon, but little does she know how greatly this "adventure" will change her life! I really enjoyed this book, it was a cute story with believable characters in crazy and life altering situations. One thing that the characters said hit me pretty hard, especially combined with our awesome Relief Society lesson on hope from last week (thanks Tracy!) The main character is an LDS girl, the rancher is not, but through the course of the book he reads the Bible and eventually The Book of Mormon. Anyway one of the characters is mourning a death in their family and having a really hard time getting over it, and he tells her that the scriptures don't say "And it came to stay, they say and it came to pass." I loved the hope that this sentence gave to her and also to me, I haven't been depressed or even thought that I was lacking hope lately, but I've come to understand in the last few days how hope is kind of like faith and testimony, if you're not moving forward, you're not going to stay in the same place, you're actually going to go backward. Anyway, there's my thought for the day!