Saturday, October 24, 2015

Promise to Keep by Elizabeth Younts (Review)



This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Promise to Keep
Howard Books (October 13, 2015)
by
Elizabeth Younts


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A Word from the Author:

I’m Elizabeth, a blessed child of The King. I’m a middle-born daughter, military officer’s wife, homeschooling mama, writer, closet DIYer, and, dare I say it, Downton Abbey addict. May I also mention that I love both my history and my coffee rich.

I am formerly Amish and my heritage is very dear to me and thankful to be so accepted among my still Amish family. I can still speak PA Dutch, too! You can learn more about my Amish family in my first book Seasons: A Real Story of an Amish Girl.

My three book series with Howard Books (a division of Simon & Schuster) is a dream come true. The series is titled The Promise of Sunrise. In this series you will live through World War 2 from an Amish perspective and experience their unique struggles as conscientious objectors during wartime. What happened if one of their members enlisted? What was it like to serve at the Civilian Public Service Camps for years with almost no compensation? How did Amish women and families cope when a son or father was drafted? I look forward to taking you back into the richness of these years of Amish history through fiction.

ABOUT THE BOOK

World War II Marine Joe Garrison returns home from war longing to be a father to his deaf daughter, Daisy, only to find that she is attached to Esther Detweiler, the Amish woman who has raised her since his wife’s death in this touching historical romance.

Orphaned as a child, Esther Detweiler is used to caring for herself and her ailing grandmother. They made the best out of a hard life and poverty without asking for help. They even take in her shunned cousin’s deaf daughter, Daisy, when her mother dies and her father goes off to war. When Esther’s grandmother dies, Daisy is all she has.

When war veteran Joe Garrison returns, all he can think about is recovering from the horrors of war and building a relationship with his seven-year-old daughter. Daisy, however, is unwilling to leave Esther, whom she loves. Joe and Daisy get to know each other again, but Joe struggles with nightmares and fatherhood is proving to be more difficult than he imagined. Esther loves Daisy and despite her Amish ways, Joe finds himself drawn to her as a woman and not just a caregiver.

As their love blossoms, Joe decides to send Daisy away to a school for the deaf which propels their lives into turmoil and a battle for love and family.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Promise to Keep, go HERE.

MY REVIEW:

Promise to Keep is the third book in the Promise of Sunrise series. I did not really enjoy reading this book. The mood was depressing and dark for most of the book. The plot moved slow and felt like it was dragging at parts. What interested me to pick it up was the story details. It did not seem like a cookie cutter Amish book. It did deliver on that aspect. It was not a traditional Christian Amish book. I felt like it pushed more boundaries especially on the romance side between Joe and Esther. Sparks flew between them. Those romance details unsettled me a little but it felt more realistic. It was a little edgy. I have not looked at the other two books to know if I was missing anything but it did not seem like it. The author did a good job on developing the main characters Joe and Esther. The ending was unexpected but fit the book.



Review copy provided by CFBA in exchange for an honest review.

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