Confessions of a Latter-day Virgin: A Memoir

Laura Carroll, LiveTrue books

My favorite cyberspace sleuth who often gives me tips on articles to check out recently sent me some good words about Nicole Hardy’s recent book, Confessions of a Latter-day Virgin.

I asked if she’d write her take on the book for posting here, and she graciously accepted. The book has been summed up as, “A funny and intimate memoir about finding love and happiness on your own terms.”  

Here is my go-to sleuth’s take:

As a childfree by choice Christian, I was excited to read Nicole Hardy’s memoir Confessions of a Latter-day Virgin. I hoped to gain an insight into her experience with the church community and resolve some questions I had of my own.

Independent and adventurous Nicole is a 30-something, happy-without-children Mormon. She is also still a virgin. But unlike other church spinsters, who are afraid of using microwave ovens and wearing bathing suits, she dreams of love, living in exotic locations and becoming a successful writer.

Raised in the doctrine of a Latter-day Saint (LDS), she challenges the belief that sexual sin is above all sins and that ‘there is no role in life more essential and more eternal than that of motherhood’. Not that she has any resistance to it – she just never felt it. Longing to speak out amongst her contemporaries, who see independence as betrayal, Nicole tries to find a balance between her faith and finding a partner, Mormon or not. She recounts the often disastrous struggle they have in accepting her hopes and desires.

Unwilling to believe that marrying young and raising a family is what God wants for everyone, she believes her identity and sense of purpose spring from a different source, much to the horror of the Bishops wife.

It was a fun read, witty and candid, but mostly I admire Nicole’s bravery in not bending to the LDS expectations that were placed on her from a young age. It attests you can have faith within yourself without compromising your faith in God.

Thank you, oh great go-to sleuth!

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