February 1, 2022
A star of Bravo's The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City and cofounder of innovative cosmetic medical practice Beauty Lab + Laser, Gay relates how her picture-perfect life as a committed Mormon was upended when her husband filed for divorce. Then she explains putting her life together after her breakup with both husband and Mormonism while contemplating how to raise strong women and negotiating the difficult balance between duty to self and duty to God. With a 100,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
October 24, 2022
In this spicy debut, Gay, a fan favorite on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, recounts her life and how it was changed by being cast in the reality show. Born in Carmel, Calif., to devout Mormon parents, Gay moved with her family to Utah before her freshman year at Brigham Young University. For most of her adulthood, Gay writes, she didn’t question her faith, but after her decades-long marriage ended in divorce, she felt isolated from her community and realized how Mormonism encouraged its followers to “suffer silently.” When Gay was asked to join the Real Housewives franchise, though, it was a “rebirth”: “For the first time in my life, someone wanted me for all that I brought to the table.” By the show’s second season, Gay had left the church and formed bonds with new friends and supporters. Gay’s narrative is by turns cheeky (“In the name of the Father, the Son, and Andy Cohen”) and reflective (“There is real sorrow for the lost years and a general heaviness that weighs on my heart when I think of the past”), and even when discussing her struggles, she writes with self-deprecating humor. Real Housewives disciples will relish these unfiltered revelations. Agent: Steve Troha, Folio Literary.
January 1, 2023
A reality TV personality recounts an upbringing in a religion that she finally rejected. "Everything in my life confirmed my identity, my faith, and my future. Until it didn't." It's a simple declaration but hard won. Gay grew up in a Mormon family so deeply rooted in the faith that they were enrolled as "born in the covenant," meaning that her parents were married in the temple. ("Born in the covenant: Mormon flex," she writes with typically arch humor.) Her family wasn't necessarily doctrinaire, but they were undoubtedly observant, while Gay was a born questioner and explorer. A prevailing metaphor comes early on when, forbidden to leave her yard as a very young girl, she opens the gate and is locked out, portending things to come. After typical adolescent experimentation, she was haunted by the thought that her parents would believe her to be "a bad seed." The author structures her life story according to all the ways she failed, sometimes in her eyes but mostly in the eyes of others: bad daughter, bad missionary, bad wife, bad Mormon. As she reveals without sensationalism, it was her husband who failed, and it was the church that demanded that women accept subservient status and sexual violence. "We are taught to say no to a lot of things outside of our faith," she writes, "but inside the faith, we are told only to bow our heads and say yes." Eventually, a fellow Mormon woman advised her, with regard to that bad marriage, to "run, and don't look back." So she did, becoming the "bad ass" of the last part of her book, when she joined the cast of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City and renounced the church "in the name of the Father, the Son, and Andy Cohen." A thoughtful, smart, and funny handbook for apostates.
COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
January 1, 2023
When Gay, one of the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, was a little girl, she tells readers in her memoir, she decided to explore the world beyond her parents' house, but when the gate crashed closed behind her, she panicked and ran home. Thereafter, she reports, she tried to tamp down her more brazen instincts and be a good Mormon woman (""keep sweet, pray, and obey"") but she was forever bucking the church's authority. Finally, after graduating from Brigham Young University and completing a mission trip to France, she met a good Mormon husband. But even after three children, a good Mormon marriage was not for her, and they divorced. The last chapters are devoted to her involvement in RHOSLC, and she spills plenty of tea on the casting process and her real feelings about her castmates. Frank, funny, and irreverent, Bad Mormon captures the spirit of the woman millions have come to love/hate on TV. Even those unfamiliar with the show will be fascinated by her detailed descriptions of temple rituals, her entrepreneurial spirit, and her misadventures on the road to attempting to be good.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is a TV sensation, and Gay is the breakout star, so expect a lot of interest in her story of her religious journey.
COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
March 10, 2023
Gay ranks as one of the most popular stars of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. Her charismatic personality shines on the TV show. That same charm is also abundantly evident in her memoir. In 30 short chapters, readers get to know Gay in ways that her TV audience didn't and likely never could. The author portrays herself as a hardworking missionary who occasionally goes against expectations. The book shows her pain of once being stuck in a marriage that was more of an obligation than a pleasure. The work notably documents the emotions and trauma she endured when she left a religion, the Church of Latter-day Saints, that had formed much of her identity. She now sparkles as a savvy, smart businesswoman. Perhaps most importantly, her constant love as a mother of three daughters is foregrounded. VERDICT Recommended for fans of the show, of course. This memoir will also appeal to readers who enjoy reading about women successfully navigating adulthood and motherhood.--David Azzolina
Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.