A Review: A Child's Promise

I loved this book! I don't know where I heard about this book,(or maybe it was author since eons ago I mooched several of her books via Bookmooch) but like Family Matters, A Child's Promise has been sitting in my store room for some time waiting to be read. Since I decided not to go to parades tonite, I pulled it out. Though it is 308 pages long, it is a quick easy read but more than your basic romance novel. Lisa Jo is a daycare teacher who has her kids make valentines for the troops. John is one of the troops who gets the valentines--and he gets the one from the teacher. They start writing, and write for years while he is overseas. She lives in Texas; he is from Wyoming. When he comes home, he writes to her and proposes marriage. She is set to turn him down--something has happened and she is sure he isn't going to want her--but her stepfather, from whose home she has just moved to escape sexual assault, breaks into her apartment and assaults her once again. She accepts John's proposal and he sends her money for a bus ticket. After he spends days telling the whole town that he is not crazy to marry her, she shows up, with her 18 month old daughter. He doesn't want to back out in front of the whole town so they cut a deal--she'll marry him, stay for a month and then leave.

On their honeymoon, they purchase the dairy cattle to stock the farm. A few days later, John breaks his leg. He needs her to stay and do the chores. She does. She's a very wounded person as you might imagine, after being a victim of sexual assault. He is a preacher's kid who has been wounded in his own way while serving in Somolia. Can they move beyond hurt to happiness?

While Family Matters was definitely Christian Fiction; this book is not. John's father is a preacher, but we don't hear him preach. He counsels the couple before the wedding, but the only mention of religion in the counseling session is that they are both Christian. The Church family is part of the story, but if you had never heard the word "church" and just used context clues, you'd figure it was some sort of social club, not a religious instituion. While the sex scenes aren't terribly graphic, let's just say that if they were in a movie, you'd see some skin and have no doubt about what they were doing, as opposed to having the bedroom door close while they were fully clothed.

I'm going to look for more of Bradford's books.