Customer Reviews
Shattered Dreams 
2008-09-19
The book arrived in a timely fashion, was in good condition (as described by seller). Will use them again if the occasion arises.
Horrible Book~Woman is 2 Sandwhiches Short of a Picnic! She Needs HELP! 
2008-09-04
I could not even finish this ridiculous book and I cannot figure out why it is a best seller? Irene needs a deprogrammer or a psychiatrist. When I came to the part where she marries a man who already has a wife when she had a chance with a NORMAL man who treated her well, I knew I could not finish this silly book. Her soon to be husband who has a wife and kid tells her he would 'love to see her milking his cow' and she takes this as a marriage proposal? Ummm,,,, something is dreadfully wrong here. Definitely two sandwiches short of a picnic. Sounds so backwards. Hogwash and actually I find it disgusting that these men get away with child molesting.. No wonder they have to hide from everyone. YUK! Irene, I hope you get some help! And all those poor kids that the government (us taxpayers) supports on welfare! I would rate this negative 5 stars if possible.
Well written, 
2008-08-22
Shattered Dreams was a story so well written that I couldn't put it down.
Irene was a child who was reared in Pologamy. Her mother left the order when she was a young teen, and begged Irene not to become involved in the order. As a teen, Irene was torn between marrying a young man who professed his dying love for her or agreeing to be a second wife to her cousin's husband, entering the life of pologamy.
Irene felt God telling her to enter the world of Pologamy. Against her mother's wishes, she secretly married, believing she would have a wonderful life.
Irene shares her hearaches without loosing her sensitivity towards her sister-wives. She tells the story of how they were expected to birth a child a year, and share a husband with many wives. There were times they all were thrown into the same house with all of their children, and lived in horrible poverty. For many reasons, the family moved multiple times, and were often left alone for months on end while their husband was off on mission trips or working for the church. When he was around, they each had their assigned night with him, which of course leaving each sister wife feeling horribly lonely at times. The purpose of having so many children was to build up a beginning family that would receive their own Godhead in the here-after.
How she was able to keep her cool as long as she did is beyond me. At one point she was responsible for the 24 hour day to day care of 24 children while two of her sister wives were living in other towns working. After months of caring for the children in a tiny house, she finally told her husband she could no longer continue. She was exhausted beyond belief, but instead of receiving understanding from her husband, was reprimanded for not being stronger.
I was happy that she did not make her husband out to be a demon as other books on the subject have. Rather, she shared many tender moments with him, and it appeared he did everything humanly possible to care for his huge family. Irene's tale took place long before food stamps and public assistance for "single" mothers.
I recommend this book highly to those interested in trying to understand polgamy for it explains in detail why they choose this lifestyle, and helps readers learn the dynamics of this lifestyle while preserving the dignity of the family.
The best of the scary bunch 2008-08-21
This is the fourth book I have recently read by women who have left polygamy behind, and I found it to be the best of the bunch. Although it is frightening to realize that this lifestyle is still endured in the 21st century and in America, I try to read up on the subject so that I can try to gain some understanding. Each book I read just makes me wonder all the more how these women can stand these husbands who ignore them and their children so shamefully. Not just stand them, actually, but yearn for them.
Irene's book was, in my opinion, the most well-crafted of the books I have read by these women. In some of the others I found the wives to be a little less candid than Irene is, and they seem to try to make more excuses for themselves than Irene does. The most puzzling thing to me, especially after reading another book about the same husband by one of Irene's "sister-wives," is how they all go crazy trying to get their husband's attention and affection when he so clearly only cares about himself and "the Principle." The wives are starved for affection and the children are just plain starving. I understand that they are brought up to believe that this lifestyle is divinely ordained, yet the men involved are such total creeps that you wonder how any woman can yearn for them.
Irene gives a very vivid and clear portrait of the years she spent in polygamy, and how she finally emerged to enter into a happy marriage with one man who cherished only her. It is heartbreaking to see how she threw away so many good years, but her (13)! children seem to be a blessing to her. I am so happy that she has found peace and joy at last.
I Couldn't Put it Down. 2008-08-02
This is a wonderful book. I couldn't put it down. Irene is a great example for others. She tried to stay true to her religion and endured many trials. She lived in many horrid conditions that many of us could never handle. She was one of many wives and felt so physically neglected. She finally learns to "deal with" being one of many wives. She couldn't have made it thru many of the trials without them. The Mormon way of life and the rules that they follow are so inriguing. I couldn't put it down because I kept wanting to know what would happen next and how many more trials she would endure before she finally left. I really enjoyed her perspective and her writing style.
She ultimately becomes a born again Christian and figured out that she didn't have to DO anything to earn God's Love. He offers it Freely to those who believe.
I was raised Catholic and now I attend a non denominational "Christian Rock Church".
Totally engaging from beginning to end 2008-07-25
Irene Spencer did as she felt God
commanded in marrying her
brother-in-law Verlan LeBaron, becoming
his second wife. When the
government raided the fundamentalist, polygamous
Mormon village of Short Creek, Arizona,
Irene and her family fled to
Verlan's brothers' Mexican ranch.
They lived in squalor and desolate
conditions in the Mexican desert
with Verlan's six brothers, one sister,
and numerous wives and children.
Readers will be appalled and
astonished, but most amazingly,
greatly inspired. Irene's dramatic
story reveals how far religion can
be stretched and abused and how one woman and her
children found their way out, into truth and redemption.
Excellent, easy to read, very informative 2008-07-11
I have been fascinated with the subject of polygmay and have read everything I can get my hands on, this book it nice because it gives you insite to a group other than the FLDS (specifically books written around the subjects of Warren Jeffs or Colorado City). Irene had such a trying life and her story will keep you hooked from begining to end.
story for the soul 2008-07-08
I read this book hesitantly. Do I really want to know about all the suffering in a lifestyle so alien to me? Irene did such a wonderful job, I was angry, in tears,and ended with just complete joy and tears in her new found faith which came as such a surprise. What a story of human suffering and perserverance and complete triumph. Truly wonderful, would definitely recommend a hundred times over!
Insightful 
2008-07-07
This was the first of 3 books about the FLDS I have read recently. I constantly had to remind myself that the events took place in the 50s when "woman's place" and "role" were entirely different from today's. I got so angry with Irene Spencer at times for just not "kicking his backside" from here to eternity! I found this book extremely interesting not for the fact of Irene's questioning or rebellion, but for the mindset and the thinking of an FLDS woman. It gave me a great deal of insight into a timely topic that I knew little about except what I had seen on TV.
An Awesome Book That Deserves To Be A Film 2008-07-04
Irene's account of polygamy in general and how she survived and overcame it is an incredible life story. A talented producer and director need to get together and turn this into a blockbuster movie for the world to see and understand what happens to people when their lives are planned from the minute they are born, and their thinking controlled. I agree with another reviewer that this book should be in all book clubs.
Should any movie producers be lurking, my choice for Irene would be Jennifer Garner....and not only for the facial resemblance. I believe she has the talent to take the viewer from the lowest of Irene's trials to the heights of her exuberance, and everything in between. I also think Jude Law, if he would dare, could excellently portray the sometime witty, charming,religious,strict,overbearing,cold,and kind Verlan LeBaron. If anyone should want to make this book into a film, they must not deviate from the story and its locales. To do so would ruin it.
