Early ReviewersElizabeth Iola Loveless

With the success of The Book of Mormon musical and Under the Banner of Heaven miniseries, Mormonism has been in the public’s mind. But who are the Mormons, really?

Are they loveable, but misguided, dupes or cold-blooded, crazed fanatics? Are they virtuous “Saints” or deceptive hypocrites? Why were the Mormons driven from place to place in the 1800s? And why does the Mormon church work diligently to hide its past? Darkly humorous, the three books describing the adventures of Betsy Loveless answer these questions.

Born in 1838, Betsy Loveless had already led an adventurous life during her first thirteen years. She survived the horrors of Mormon oppression when those peculiar people lived near her hometown of Carthage, Illinois, and watched her mother murdered by Mormons while traversing the Oregon Trail in 1848. Her adventures had only begun. Upon touching a wavy phantasm, she is transported from 1852 to 2015. Adjusting to the ways of the future is a rough lot, but she somehow makes her way. Then her world is flipped topsy-turvy once more.

In the second installment of Betsy Loveless’s adventures her adopted father loses his job. Mr. Kim searches far and wide for a new one in Oregon with no luck. Finally, he gets a fantastic offer from an aerospace company in Brigham City, Utah, and despite Betsy’s protests, the family moves. She must now survive her first year of high school inundated by Mormon classmates indoctrinated into believing they are God’s chosen people, and that “non-members” are evil sinners controlled by Satan. Her circumstances only get worse when everybody learns she and her ancestors are from Carthage, Illinois—the very place where Joseph Smith was executed for his myriad crimes.