Ashera and Naiva are the daughters of dethroned King Jared the II. He's never quite gotten over being dethroned by his father after his father escaped from the captivity that Jared put him in, in order to have the kingdom for himself. Ashera and Naiva's mother died when they were young and both girls miss her companionship. Naiva also misses her father's influence in her life, Ashera as the oldest daughter is favored by Jared, and Naiva is forced to serve Ashera as only a sister can. One evening a visitor is expected from a different land. Akish is rumored to be a very handsome man and the whole household is in an uproar waiting for him to show up at the party. When he does show up, Naiva feels an instant connection to the handsome man and it appears that he feels it to. But Ashera has other ideas. She needs Akish for her plan of getting the kingdom back from her grandfather so her father can be kind again. She comes up with a plan to dance for Akish and make him want her to be his wife and then to ask him to bring her father the head of her grandfather. Then Ashera will be presented to him as his wife. This plan breaks Naiva's heart, not only will she lose a chance to be with the one man to ever make her feel like a beautiful woman, but her grandfather, that she's never really known, will also die and his blood will be on Ashera, Akish and Jared. But how can Naiva stop it from happening?
I love HB Moore's books about the Book of Mormon. I love how she makes me see these stories that I've read over and over in a different light. I've never thought about if there was more than one daughter and how the other would have felt. I read this book in one day, I didn't want to put it down, even though I knew how the overall story would end, I still wanted to know how things would end for Naiva. Labels: H B Moore, LDS fiction
