The Promise
Lesley Pearse – Penguin
With a worldwide following in the millions, bestselling English writer Lesley Pearse needs little introduction. She’s featured in the Weekly a number of times through her Women of Courage Awards, which recognise extraordinary feats by ordinary women from around the world, including New Zealand.
However, with The Promise, Lesley is back to doing what she does best – writing books – and fans of historic melodramas will be thrilled with her latest offering. It’s the sequel to last year’s Belle, which followed its eponymous teenage heroine’s battle to return to her London home after being sold into prostitution in Paris and then New Orleans.
Fast-forward to The Promise’s 1914 setting and Belle has the life she’s always dreamed of. She’s married to a devoted and loving husband, Jimmy, and has fulfilled her childhood dream of owning a successful hat shop. However, her sense of security and contentedness is about to be disturbed and her life soon runs into turbulence.
With the declaration of war in Europe, Jimmy enlists in the army, keen to undertake his patriotic duty, and is promptly sent to the battlefields of France. Belle, the worried wife left behind, finds herself caught up in a few battles of her own on the home front. Unable and unwilling to stand by helpless while her husband is risking his life, our heroine volunteers to help wounded soldiers in France, working as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross.
While there, her path crosses with Etienne, the dashing Frenchman readers will remember from Belle. Although The Promise breaks little new ground, it’s a worthy sequel to its top-selling predecessor. And, with a twist that Kiwi readers will love, a third offering in this series may be needed.
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