The Proviso

Okay, I just want to say, “Wow.” This was a very satisfying read. The Proviso is by Moriah Jovan, and it’s one of the best books I’ve read this year, and in many ways one of the most meaningful books I’ve read, ever.

This book is very intelligent and multi-layered. And it is LONG. I don’t normally go for super long books, because it’s a rare author who can handle writing a long sprawling tale without going off on tangents that are self-indulgent and don’t contribute to the story. Jovan doesn’t do this.

It’s long, but it’s all necessary. It took me a long time to get through it. A few different reasons for this: 1. Sometimes when I really like a book I read it even more slowly than I normally read a book because a first time with a book can never be repeated. I can always read and enjoy it again, but it’s only a discovery the first time. 2. I read fairly slowly anyway so a book that’s over 700 pages is going to be challenging to get through anyway. and 3. Winter blahs are here, so it was hard to get motivated at times to sit down to read.

The basic premise is as follows: Knox Hilliard will inherit his family’s Fortune 100 company on December 27th, 2008 (his 40th birthday), if he fulfills the terms of the proviso. He must be married and have a child by that date.

At the start of the book the company is in the hands of his uncle Fen who will stop at nothing to keep Knox from inheriting the company. He’s already killed one woman, and made a couple of murder attempts on another.

This is a book that’s hard to classify. It’s about Mormons, but I wouldn’t describe it as LDS fiction, partially because of the fearless use the F-bomb, as well as the descriptive sex scenes. Unlike many books with religious characters, these characters are all very human and very easy to relate to, at least for me.

I found pieces of each female character I liked, or wanted to be like, or felt that I already was like. And the guys are, well, you all know how I feel about the dominant growly guys. hehehe These are definitely alpha males.

The best way I can describe this book is as a family saga. There are 3 different romances going on in this book, and everything intertwines and connects. These are characters that you grow to know very intimately and even though there was over 700 pages written about them, I could certainly stand to read 700 more.

Of the women, I identified most with Justice. But wanted to be Giselle. Which is funny, because Justice wanted to be Giselle too. haha. Though I think she grew into that. She doesn’t become Giselle, but she does become more fully herself.

Of the men, I like them all, but I’m most partial to Knox because there are some very eerie similarities between him and Tom. (I’ve told Tom he has to read this next just to see it for himself.)

I can’t really do this book justice in a review. There are so many complicated themes and layers going on here that to say this book is an exploration of power and all that it entails, is kind of lame. But that is what the book is about. Who has power. What kind. How they use it. Or don’t. When they use it for the right reasons. When they use it for the wrong reasons. Different kinds of power.

Since this is one of my favorite themes in fiction, I was in literary heaven. I especially loved to see it played out in the relationships with strong female characters and the men strong enough to love them and rise to the challenge.

This is a fabulous debut novel, and I can’t wait to read more books about the Dunham clan.

And one other thing:

I for some reason thought the red circled part of the cover was a neck. Yeah don’t ask me what kind of mutant human being I thought I was looking at, or what the hand on the far left would have been touching. My brother knew immediately that it was boobs at the top.

Then he mocked me. Mercilessly. He said: “You write erotica and you don’t know what a boob looks like? And you HAVE your own boobs?” hahahahahahaha

Der de der.