15-year-old Jamie has just endured the loss of her beloved grandmother and has volunteered to spend the summer with her grandfather to help him cope. When she discovers a photo album full of pictures of her grandpa wearing a strange uniform, she just has to know what is was all about, and on the way she finds out how enduring love can be and how a summer will change her forever.

“A Love Like Lilly”, Kay Lynn Mangum’s sophomore novel, is a great read. It tells the story of 15-year-old Jamie Addison and her summer spend with her grandfather, who has just lost his wife of nearly 50 years. While cleaning out her grandmother’s possessions, Jamie discovers the photo album her grandpa kept of his years in the CCC (the Civilian Conservation Corps – a Depression-era work program dreamed up by Franklin D. Roosevelt). Wanting to know more, Jamie gets our her tape recorder and she and her grandpa record the stories of his life, especially focusing on his courtship to his beloved Lilly.

The time with her grandpa eases the pain of losing her grandmother, but the summer will bring on more heartache than Jamie thought possible. From Grandpa’s first love to Jamie’s first love, you won’t want to put this novel down.

As an avid LDS fiction reader, it takes a lot to get me impressed. More and more I’m less amused with the standard romanticized version of they-fell-in-love-and-got-married-in-the-temple. What makes “A Love Like Lilly” so great is that the stories Jamie’s grandpa shares are actual stories from Mangum’s own grandfather’s time in the CCC. They tell of lasting friends, hard work, and the love of sweet Mormon girls. What I especially like is how Mangum has interwoven the CCC stories with the real-time drama of 15-year-old Jamie’s life. You can feel her awkwardness as she struggles to understand true love, not only with her grandpa, but with her own budding relationship.

“A Love Like Lilly” is great for LDS fiction readers ages 12 and up. You can find the book at Amazon.com and at DeseretBook.com.