by Ann Tatlock
When a family wakes one morning to find a strange old woman reading the newspaper on the front porch of their new home, they have no idea how their lives are about to change. Although Tillie Monroe is the catalyst of the changes to come, she isn't the main character.
Promises to Keep is told from the first-person perspective of 11 year-old Roz Andrews, whose family has been broken by alcohol and abuse. Her mother has taken her, her teenaged brother, and her baby sister to live close to her grandparents. What Roz wants more than anything is to have her daddy back.
Roz' voice has a youthful, yearning quality that made me want to keep listening to her. Add to that an odd and intriguing opening, and I quickly became enamored with this book. Within two or three chapters, I felt a connection with Roz. Her simple but deep narrative made me want to befriend her. Her experiences and emotions brought memories of my own pre-adolescent confusion and pain, hopes and dreams, and best-friends-forever pinkie-promises.
This was my first book by Ann Tatlock, and I'm sorry I didn't discover her earlier. My thanks to Bethany House for providing a review copy of Promises to Keep in exchange for my honest review.
Catrina Bradley
"God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes." Psalm 18:24 (Msg)
