Unveiling grace The story of how we found our way out of the Mormon Church

Wilder's memoir belongs to a new breed of ex-Mormon expose. It's not salacious. It's not full of wild revelations. It's not even particularly angry, though the former BYU professor and stake relief society president does express regret for the decades she spent as a Mormon. Now an evangelical Christian, she explains that her family's decision to leave "the Mormon Lord" and embrace a "bigger God" was spurred by the unexpected defection of her most spiritually attuned son. While the tone of the book may represent a fresh direction in Mormon-evangelical relations, as memoirs go this account feels workmanlike, even plodding. It's overly detailed, about 80 pages too long, and riddled with a surprising lack of narrative tension. The same elements are present in the author's life at the Mormon beginning and the evangelical end-happy and close family, various miraculous experiences, stable lives, etc.-with the only differences being a move from Utah to Florida and an involvement in music and ministry to persuade the "dear Mormon people" of the truth of the biblical Jesus. (Aug. 20) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Raised in Christian households but not taking religion all that seriously, in their mid-20s, Wilder (special education, Florida Gulf Coast Univ.) and her husband met Mormon missionaries. They converted and became enthusiastic Mormons. Indeed, they were recognized by church authorities and given positions of responsibility. Settled in Utah, Wilder found that several aspects of Mormonism became troubling to her, especially the racism connected to some of its members, historically and more recently. The cognitive dissonance was brought to a head when one of her sons converted to evangelical Christianity while on his Mormon mission. In time, the whole family became evangelical Christians. (That evangelicals are themselves no strangers to racism is not something Wilder considers in this memoir.) She is now happily active in her new religion. Her stance is clear in the very title of her book: Mormonism is something one has to find one's way out of-like most evangelical Christians, she now sees Mormonism as a cult. To find Jesus's grace, she needed to convert. VERDICT Needless to say, it will come as a surprise to Mormon readers that they are not Christian. This is for evangelical readers, who may enjoy a classic conversion story.-David Azzolina, Univ. of Pennsylvania Libs., Philadelphia (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.