Promise to Keep

The most difficult thing when writing a great series, is to bring that series to a conclusion and that is just what Elizabeth Byler Younts does in the third and final novel, Promise to Keep, in her Promise of Sunrise Series. Where do I begin in my review of this novel? First of all I would have to say that it does include quite a few different genres, from Historical, Romance, Amish, World War II, and all of them being Christian based without a lot of the heavy religious overtones coming across. It's a simple story of being lost and the redemption that comes from being found.

As the reader embarks on the journey, there are two very different stories that come to an intersection at the first 100 pages and the first being of Esther Detweiler, who has had a challenge most of us would find hard to endure. Not only with the recent death of her mother, she is left all alone to deal with raising Daisy, a young girl who was abandoned, first by the death of her mother, Irene, Esther's cousin, and then when Daisy's father, Joe Garrison leaves her behind to enter World War II. Not because he had to, but because he couldn't handle caring for Daisy who he didn't understand was simply deaf, but others thought belonged in a mental institution. Esther soon learns that her father whom she believed died, is now coming back home and wishes to restore all the time he has lost with Esther. He believes it is something he can just pick right back up again. But Esther isn't so willing.

On top of that she discovers from Joe's sister, Angelica, that he is returning home from the war and is planning on taking back the daughter he had abandoned. It's not an easy thing for Esther to deal with all at once. Daisy barely remembers the man who left her so long ago, and right now, Esther is the only family she has ever known. Her own Aunt Angelica was offered the care of Daisy, but she felt that Daisy was too much to deal with and relented her care to Esther. But as Joe returns home he too has his own share of issues, dealing with the shell shock he has from the war, along with the alcohol that seems to keep it under control are the least of his worries, when he realizes that Daisy doesn't want anything to do with him and wants to stay with Esther over living with her own father. It will take a miracle to restore the lives of those characters we see spilled out in the covers of Promise to Keep!

I received Promise to Keep from Elizabeth Byler Younts compliments of Christian Fiction Blog Alliance and Howard Books, a division of Simon and Schuster Publishers for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review, aside from a free copy of this book, and the opinions expressed here are my own personal honest ones. Being a huge lover of WWII fiction, I absolutely loved the idea of a English soldier returning home from the war to deal with his feelings for a young Amish woman. It's truly the best of two ideal genre's in my mind. The impacts of what is now known as PTSD, wasn't something that many knew how to deal with and you can imagine how that might be played out among the non violent Amish. Not only that, the impacts of dealing with a deaf child and learning how to communicate, was something that would have been considered out of the ordinary since most of the education in dealing with how to communicate with them would have been fairly new as well. You could see where others would automatically assume they might be mentally challenged instead of something more simple. This one really worked well and thus the reason for the 4 out of 5 star rating in my opinion. It's truly a story of restoration on many different fronts.

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