Promise to Keep by Elizabeth Byler Younts ~ Review

Lucie's Review:

Ester Detweiler has been raising her cousin's deaf daughter, Daisy, while Daisy's father is away at war. Ester teaches Daisy to sign, and helps to open up a whole new world to her. When Daisy's father, Joe returns he wants daisy to come and  live with him, but he sees that he can't just take Daisy away from Ester either, so he asks her to teach him to sign.

As Joe learns to sign, he begins to reconnect and build a relationship with Daisy.

Will Joe and Ester be able to draw together to give Daisy a family?

Ester has experienced a lot of loss in her life, but I liked her resilience. She deeply cares for Daisy and wants to do everything she can to help her and her father reconnect.

This was kind of a slow read for me, It was hard to read about all that Ester had to lose, and how the Amish community wasn't exactly supportive of her, but I admired her strong faith. I think it bothered me that Joe kept initiating kisses, when he knew she was Amish and he wasn't looking for anything serious in a relationship.

Overall, this wasn't my favorite of the books that I have read by this author, but it tells the story of a a woman with a strong faith that I deeply admired, through everything she had to endure.



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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.