Book Review-Promises to Keep

Promises to Keep, written by Ann Tatlock, is a story about a preteen girl, Roz, and her life after moving to a new town. Once in the town of fictional Mills River, IL, her family discovers they have a new house guest, Tillie, a rather eccentric, but wise 70 year old woman, who also, in my opinion, happens to be the best thing the family encounters.
I enjoyed the book, however, I felt like it was a slow read up until half way through. The book has 47 chapters, but is 345 pages long, so you can see that the chapters are short. This I viewed as a disadvantage because I would read only one chapter at a time, and be OK with that. I didn't feel like there was enough of a pull to make me read the next chapter in the same sitting. However, it could be an advantage for someone who doesn't have a lot of time on their hands and wants a book that they can read a chapter in five minutes. If you have the patience to make it through the first half, the second half is well worth it. I flew through the final chapters on the book. Although it was rather predictable, there was still the desire to see what would happen, and yes, some surprises!
The characters in the novel are complex, yet likable (well, at least most of them!) Ms. Tatlock did a wonderful job of developing the characters, and the different stories they all told in one novel.
Although the story is a drama, there is some humor and light-hearted moments as well, which is appreciated and frankly, needed, because the topics in the book are rather deep and complex.
All in all, my review of the book is average. There are elements I liked (the characters), but others I could do without (disliked the short chapters!) I may read more of Ms. Tatlock's work in the future if her books come across my path, but I won't go out of my way to.


**I was provided a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**

Fess Up Friday

Considering it has been over a month since I last posted, some of these are rather old but too good not to share!

On a particularly blustery day, Foster Child #1 and I went to get haircuts. I went to pay for parking at one of Mayor Daley's most ridiculous ideas-the Parking Meter Boxes. I pushed my bank card in, pulled it out, and saw it, just-like-that, fly out of my hands! I ran down Howard Street chasing after my bank card for a block! And fortunately I was able to grab it before it blew into traffic on Clark Street!

The night before Mother's Day my mom and I prepped Baked Oatmeal for us to have for breakfast the next morning. I woke up on Sunday to a wonderful smell wafting from the kitchen, but soon enough forgot about it. As we were bustling around that morning (we had house guests, had to bathe the kids, and just general Sunday morning prep to get to church) I turned on the oven to preheat the Baked Oatmeal, and then went about my merry way getting ready. Well, it's a good thing my mom is our family's chef extraordinaire because she turned off the oven shortly thereafter as I was apparently cooking the Baked Oatmeal more. Yeah, the yummy smell that woke me up was the Baked Oatmeal already done being baked! (I failed to check the fridge first to see if my mom did bake it, but I also didn't see it out on the counter, which would be the ideal place for something already baked!) And I guess I sucked pretty bad at communicating-which is pretty sad, because my mom and I are usually pretty good at it!

Recently Foster Child #2 came downstairs with Foster Child #1's toothbrush. I questioned him, asking him why he had Foster Child #1's toothbrush for brushing his teeth, and he replied, "She's sharing with me!" I laughed and said, "Not toothbrushes!" But, yes, I still let him use it!

This week we ate at McDonald's twice! And if you know my family at all, you know that is out of the ordinary. We're more like once a month McDonald patrons. Oh, and if I'll be really honest, the two times we ate at McDonald's were 2 days in a row!

Sometimes the best quotes are from husbands

Me: How many gifts from us do you want Foster Child #1 to open?
Foster Dad: All of them (mind you he said this without skipping a beat)
Me (sarcastically): Har, har, har, har.
OK, and then I did laugh more genuinely.
Me: OK, let me rephrase that. I know we want her to open all of our gifts, but we have choices in how many I wrap.
Foster Dad: The more the merrier.

And, I concur! She'll be opening 4 from us. :)