REVIEW: “Promises to Keep” by Ann Tatlock
First off, I have to admit that I am not yet finished reading this book. I only got about 1/3 of the way into it before I had to set it aside.
It is a very good book… Ann Tatlock is an amazing writer, and I’m always impressed by how you don’t even feel like you’re reading a story — you feel like you’re there, living it. Her writing is fluid and real.
And, the story of Roz and her family is great… Tillie is hilarious! I got to not even minding that she’d basically taken her house back! LOL.
But, honestly, I just wasn’t in the mood for a story like this right now… I tried SO HARD to keep on going, forcing myself to sit with this book every night. But, when it’s that difficult to pick a book back up, why bother? Then reading becomes a chore instead of a pleasure. 
I truly believe that there are just “right times” for certain books. And, this wasn’t the right time for me to be reading this one. So, I’ve set it aside for the time being, and I will return to it at a later date. I’m really sorry that I can’t give more of a review.
But, I can tell you that, if you pick up this — or any other — book by Ann Tatlock, you won’t be disappointed. She’s a great writer!
Description [from Amazon]: Eleven-year-old Roz (Rosalind) Anthony and her family have just moved to Mills River, Illinois, to escape an abusive situation. Only days after settling into their new home, they are surprised to find the previous owner, Tillie Monroe, on their front porch reading the newspaper. Though her sons have sold the house and sent her to a facility for the aged, she is determined to die in the place she lived her life, and somehow manages to find her way “home” day after day. Feeling sympathy for the elderly woman, Roz’s mother allows Tillie to move back in. Mara Nightingale becomes Roz’s first friend in Mills River. In spite of their many differences, the girls discover they have something in common that binds them together–both are hiding secrets. So they make a promise–”cross my heart and hope to die”–never to tell anyone else. When danger stalks the Anthonys, Tillie exhibits unimaginable courage and selfless love in her determination to protect the family she has adopted as her own.
About the Author
Ann Tatlock is the author of the Christy Award-winning novel All the Way Home. She has also won the Midwest Independent Publishers Association “Book of the Year” in fiction for both All the Way Home and I’ll Watch the Moon. Ann lives with her husband, Bob, and their daughter, Laura Jane, in Asheville, North Carolina.
[Thank you to Graf-Martin Communications for sending me a copy of this book for review!]
This sounds like a story that I would really be intersted in. I know what you mean about thier being a ‘right time’ to get into a good book. Sometimes I will be in the middle of a great book that i just can’t get into and that keeps getting passed over for something else. Maybe another time right?