#BlogTour: The Forgotten Promise by Paula Greenlees @PGreenlees @centurybooksuk @RandomTTours #TheForgottenPromise #PaulaGreenlees #RandomThingsTours

Book Synopsis:

Malaya, 1920: Two girls make a promise in the shadows of the jungle. A promise that life will not let them easily keep.

Malaya, 1941: Ella is running her late father’s tin mine in the Kledang hills, while Noor works as her cook.

When the war that felt so far away suddenly arrives on their doorstep, Ella is torn apart from her family. Her daughter Grace is left in Noor’s care as Japanese soldiers seize the mine.

Ella is forced to make an impossible choice that takes her to England, thousands of miles from home. She is desperate to be reunited with her loved ones. But will the life she returns to be anything like the life she left behind?

My Review:

The Forgotten Promise is a beautifully written, absorbing and fascinating read which I really enjoyed.

Firstly the author has clearly done her research and I felt truly transported to wartime Malaya and England. I didn’t know much about the Japanese invasion of Malaya so I found all the little details the author includes in the story really fascinating. I often found myself googling things that I’d read about which is a sure sign that I’m enjoying a book.

The characters the author has created are brilliant and I enjoyed following them throughout the book. It was really lovely to follow the girls throughout their friendship and watch them grow closer as the story continues. It was quite emotional to see how much war affected the two of them and how it changed them. The author cleverly writes the story so that the reader feels they are right there with the girls, somehow included in their friendship and experiencing everything alongside them. This makes the story more hard hitting at times as you feel so much more involved in the story.

I found this book very absorbing and I soon found myself drawn into the girls world. There always seemed to be something happening to keep me reading and even in the quieter moments I found the book hard to put down as I was so invested in the story, wanting to find out what happens next. This is actually the second book in the series which I didn’t realise before I started reading but it can easily be read as a standalone as anything you need to know is explained. If you’re a fan of historical fiction you need to read this book!

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to the publisher for my copy of this book.

About The Author:

Paula has lived in various places, including Singapore, where she was based for three years. It was while living in Singapore that the first seeds of her debut novel, Journey to Paradise developed. The crumbling buildings and the modern high-rises popping up almost overnight seemed to be a metaphor for the social diversity and change in Singapore at that time. However, as a young mother living there, she wondered what it must have been like as a post-war colonial wife living miles away from the familiarity of home. Despite the gloss and glamour of colonial living, women were frequently stuck in unhappy marriages, often unable to follow careers or have the independence to divorce if things went wrong – which they inevitably did.

Her writing, although set against exotic backgrounds, is set on the cusp of change – the shift from colonial dominance to independence. She likes to dig into a variety of issues, and her main protagonist is, in many ways, a metaphor for the events surrounding her at that time. It isn’t always an easy journey, but in the end, success comes her way.