About the Book

Book: What I Promise You

Author: Liz Tolsma

Genre: Christian Fiction / Romance / Historical Fiction

Release Date: February 1, 2024

A Family’s History Is Lost to the Ravages of WWII in Southwest France

1942

Noémie Treves, a young, pregnant Jewish woman, had her entire world shattered when she is arrested and taken to the Camp de Rivesaltes transit camp in Southwest France. No sooner does she arrive, though, than she assists in helping two young girls scheduled for transport escape to a nearby maternity hospital. The matron there befriends her and changes her name to help hide her. But nothing goes according to plan, and Hannah finds herself doing the unimaginable to save one precious life.

2022
Caitlyn Laurant is haunted by recent events in her life and hopes becoming a nurse on the mission field will help her forget. While in training, she and her friends travel to France where her grandfather was born. What should have been an easy search for his birthplace turns into anything but and reveals secrets that no one alive has ever heard.

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About the Author

Liz Tolsma is the author of several WWII novels, romantic suspense novels, prairie romance novellas, and an Amish romance. She is a popular speaker and an editor and resides next to a Wisconsin farm field with her husband and their youngest daughter. Her son is a US Marine, and her oldest daughter is a college student. Liz enjoys reading, walking, working in her large perennial garden, kayaking, and camping.

More from Liz

The Story behind the Cover of What I Promise You

In the late summer, I got the preliminary cover for What I Promise You. While Barbour Publishing always does a great job with their covers, and the one they sent was very nice, I wasn’t crazy about it because it didn’t tell the story at all. The mansion that plays such a big part in the novel was nowhere to be seen. Barbour is fantastic when it comes to working with me to get great covers, so I asked if we could include the real mansion that the story is based on. Turns out that they were having trouble getting copyright permission to use any image they could find of the maternity home.

That was disappointing. But I got brave and let them know that I took a picture of it when I was in France last year, and they could use it, but I’m not a very good photographer and I only used my iPhone. I attached the photo to the email and didn’t hear anything for a while.

Then in October, I wanted to include a preorder link to the book on social media or something and went to Amazon to grab it. And there was the cover. I went back and forth between the cover and my picture, and sure enough, it was the picture of the maternity home I had sent them! So I not only wrote What I Promise You, but some of my photography is on the front. I never thought that would happen. Am I in the wrong profession?? Just kidding!

MY REVIEW

Dual time periods always intrigue me and this one has a bonus. It includes three time periods which adds to the excitement. We travel to a time in history where war was everywhere. People who were Jewish were taken to camps where families were split apart. Every time I read about this period in time I get emotional. How can someone have such hatred for others?

I was a bit confused about who was narrating the story set in 1955 and hoped it would be revealed sometime in the book. I kept thinking that whoever it was was going to be vital to the entire story as we get glimpses of someone wandering around an abandoned building. The author does a good job of keeping readers glued to the story as she brings the time periods together in an unforgettable story of family, faith and healing.

Caitlyn was the one who most captured my attention. Going away to become a missionary is admirable and at times you can sense her insecurity. Caitlyn has another agenda as she flies across the country. She promised her grandfather that she would visit the place he said he was born at. As her adventures begins to seek the truth, the author crafts a way to combine our three time periods together.

There is much grief suffered from a time when camps where there to keep people that had been judged unfairly because of their heritage. The story shows how a few people stepped up to save innocent children and women while placing their own freedom in jeopardy. Caitlyn comes to realize that she hadn’t really grieved the loss of her friend. She has been living her friend’s dream instead of her own.

The ending is so emotional I cried. A simple promise made to a friend finds Caitlyn on a journey to discover God’s purpose for her life. Her spiritual growth throughout the story is shown by her hunger to connect the past to the present. The author provides a realistic look at a time when families were torn apart and hope was all they had to cling to. I loved the story and how the author gave us a look at what sacrifice looks like by people who are willing to protect others.

“Sometimes what He has planned for us is radically different than what we have in mind for our own lives.”

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.