Guest Review of Lisa Norato's The Promise Keeper by Lynne Erickson Valle

The Promise Keeper

by Lisa Norato

a Sea Heroes of Duxbury novel

Danger reunites a sea captain's daughter with her childhood protector,

who is now a reclusive lighthouse keeper on an island across the bay.

Review by Guest Reviewer, Lynne Erickson Valle

Lisa Norato’s masterfully written inspirational romance novel, The Promise Keeper, is utterly captivating. This intriguing tale of the truest of love transpires in nineteenth century Duxbury, Massachusetts. The story unfolds two lives that were impacted by one remarkable man of valor-Captain Ezra Moon. In his character Norato eloquently demonstrates how one individual exemplifying Christ can make a monumental difference in our world. Her characters and scenes are so vividly depicted that the reader can’t help becoming eagerly invested in the great mystery that shadows Captain Moon’s daughter, Iris, and the promise that a young lad vowed to keep. One of the many aspects of this book that makes it stand out in the sea of Christian fiction is how Norato-true to real life-reveals the full spectrum of God’s power in the lives of believers. I enjoyed this book to such a high degree that The Promise Keeper has earned a place on my “Favorites” list in my home library.

and now for a quick peek into the novel:

     Johnny withdrew his spyglass from his waistcoat pocket and trained it across the deep waters of Duxbury Bay at Captain Moon’s rooftop. As expected, the visage of a young woman took focus in the lens. Pale ash blond hair, the color of moonlight, swirled around her, obscuring her face. It spilled to her waist, straight and unbound, then blew and danced around her head on a fresh breeze. Ethereal as an angel, a finely-made dressing gown billowed over her tall figure. Surely that garment was not warm enough to ward off the chill of this late December air.

     A moment passed, one quick glimpse, and then she disappeared. Johnny lowered the glass in disappointment.

     “Two things keep me sane on this island, Salty. Your faithful companionship and the Bible that was once my mother’s.” He tossed the rapt and eager gull another meat strip.

     It was a welcomed relief to exercise his voice, to hear the sound of it aloud and watch his breath steam in the frosty air. “Sometimes I find this tower lonelier than prison.”

     Pilgrim Light was an isolated place. There were no roads on the eighty-acre Clark’s Island. No homes, except for the Watson farm on the southernmost tip. The family raised hay and turnips and were in the process of replacing their farmhouse with a twelve-room Dutch Colonial.

     A two-day liberty was granted him every three weeks. More frequently Johnny found himself rowing to Duxbury to spend his earnings on grog in the old ordinary. He liked to sit quietly by the fire and listen to tongues wag. It mattered little what they said. It was the hearty rumble of other men’s voices that soothed him after weeks of nothing but silence.

     “What do you make of her, Salty? Iris has grown into an extremely beautiful woman, yet she remains the wide-eyed sea urchin I remember. Imagine her rowing out here alone to have a look at me and assuage her curiosity. How would she have reacted, do you think, had I told her we were once warm friends?”



The Promise Keeper is available on Amazon in trade paperback or ebook and on Barnes & Noble as an ebook.

GIVEAWAY! Lisa will be giving away a kindle or nook ebook of The Promise Keeper to one commenter. To enter, please be sure to include your name and email address with your comment.

Lynne Erickson Valle is a lyricist, storyteller, inspirational writer and the author of The Double Rose, a contemporary, Christian romance of predestined love.  Over two hundred of her articles have been featured on SUSIE magazine, King Cat Christian Music and Examiner. com.







Review of "The Promise Keeper" by Lisa Norato

by Elaine Marie Cooper

I am delighted to review Lisa Norato's latest release, "The Promise Keeper." I give it a resounding Five Stars!

Here is the Back Cover Blurb:

The new keeper has manned Pilgrim Light for a year now, and though her father recruited him for the post, Iris Moon has never seen the fellow nor will anyone discuss him. Rumors circulate he was once a pirate and had been imprisoned. Lured by the secrecy, Iris rows out to the light to meet the solitary keeper. He's a curmudgeon who remains as mysterious as ever, until confusing dreams haunt her, causing Iris to suspect they share a past connection.

Jonathan Mayne sailed with Captain Moon's family as a young cabin boy during the earliest years of Iris's life. A grown woman, Iris holds no memory for her childhood friend, who now guards the bay from a lonely lighthouse tower. When a shipwreck survivor bent on revenge washes up on the shores of the Moon family mansion, will Johnny be able to protect Iris from her dead mother's secret while keeping a promise to her father never to expose it?

Here is my review:

From the opening lines to the final scenes of The Promise Keeper, I was captured by the story, the characters and the twists and turns that kept me reading, long after I should have been asleep. Lisa Norato has a winner on her hands!

The plot weaves a complicated yet easily followed tale of intrigue involving two continents, two generations, and two love stories. Lisa’s writing flowed like a smooth running brook with descriptions of settings that made you envision them as if you were there. 

Her knowledge about the sea and ocean going vessels was so clear, even to a landlubber, but not so much as to overwhelm a reader with technical details. It all blended into the story.

The characters in this novel were so well crafted and believable with dialogue befitting the times that added just the right flavor to make you realize you were reading about the early 19^th century.

The Promise Keeper is more than just historical romance—it is filled with intrigue, suspense, and realistic characters whose faith is tested.

The author obviously did painstaking research for every detail that found its way into her narratives. What a pleasure to read such a well-developed book. Bravo, Lisa Norato! 

Author Bio:

A native New Englander, Lisa Norato lives in a historic village with homes and churches dating as far back as the eighteenth century. She writes Christian seafaring romance of suspense and adventure set during New England's Federal Era. 

In the Sea Heroes of Duxbury novels, Lisa's goal is to spin stories rich in historical detail which will transport readers back in time and encourage Christians in their faith  and in finding the courage to place their trust in God.

She has received critical praise for her romantic fiction from reviewers such as Publisher's Weekly, Booklist and RT Book Reviews. Her previous novels include a western time travel and a contemporary romantic comedy.

To purchase The Promise Keeper, click here

Hidden in the History Books: The Battle of Menotomy

April 19, 1775

2:00 AM

It seemed only a few moments before an unfamiliar sound thrust her upright once again. Her heart took on a new beat as the strange and rapid thumping sound grew louder. It stirred her blood with a chill that sent its icy prickle from her feet all the way to her neck.

Soon, the candleholder on her small table danced, reverberating to the increased pounding on the road. She clutched the unlit lamp, lest it fall to the floor, placing it on the soft mound of her bedding to keep it steady.

Betsy fought the grip of nausea in her belly and forced her stiffened legs from under the covers. Stepping gingerly and with an unsteady gait, she crouched down and made her way to the open window. Standing to the side so she could not be seen, she peered carefully around the edge of the window jamb. The scene below sent ripples of terror through her body and mind. It was unlike anything Betsy had ever imagined in the deepest recesses of her fears.

Pounding the muddy road right next to their stone wall, soldiers of the king’s army—splendid and frightening in their royal red uniforms—trudged in unison, four abreast. Their faces were stoic and determined in the moonlight, and their beaver hats made them look as tall as Goliath. The most frightening image, however, was the silvery row of gleaming bayonets. Situated in perfect array on the shoulders of the regulars marching in expert time, the flowing wave of exposed steel weapons rippled like a smooth river in the moonlight. It was both beautiful and terrifying.

                          —Excerpt from Fields of the Fatherless

Before the British troops ever arrived at Lexington and Concord, they first made their way through Menotomy Village, Massachusetts.  Now known as Arlington, it was the town that I grew up in, a place that left an old house standing for over 200 years in remembrance of the terrible battle that occurred there that first day of the American Revolution. It was a battle long overshadowed by the events at Concord Bridge and the Lexington green. Yet more soldiers—both British and American—died in Menotomy Village than any other town that day.

Growing up as a youngster, I never understood the historical significance of my hometown nor the Jason Russell House that stood as a memorial on the corner up the street from my own home. I’d walk by the old dwelling frequently and my big brother tried to scare me with tales of “blood on the floor.”

Long after I grew up and moved away, I learned the sad story of my hometown that happened to stand along the route of the British retreat to Boston; the village that suffered the consequences of an enraged, out-of-control army that took out their revenge on the citizens of Menotomy. It was a story of both terror and bravery. It was a story that begged to be told. I feel so privileged to be able to share that story in “Fields of the Fatherless.”

So on this April 19 known as Patriot’s Day in Massachusetts (celebrated this year on April 21) please remember the nearly-forgotten citizens of Menotomy Village, Massachusetts. And say a prayer of thanks for the freedoms we hold dear in these United States. Let us not forget the sacrifice of so many who laid down their lives for the freedoms we hold dear. 

The Boston Tea Party: A December to Remember

There was a boatswain’s whistle, and in silence one group boarded the Dartmouth. The Eleanor and the Beaver had to be warped in to the wharf. Johnny was close to Mr. Revere’s heels. He heard him calling for the captain, promising him, in the jargon everyone talked that night, that not one thing should be damaged on the ship except only the tea, but the captain and all his crew had best stay in the cabin until the work was over.

Captain Hall shrugged and did as he was told, leaving his cabin boy to hand over the keys to the hold. The boy was grinning with pleasure. The ‘tea party’ was not unexpected.

Excerpt from Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

And thus began the most famous Tea Party in American history when the underground resistance group known as the Sons of Liberty dumped 90,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor on the 16^th of December, 1773. The group of dissenters, dressed up like Mohawk Indians, were spurred on by Samuel Adams as a protest against the Tea Act of 1773. This law, which was enacted by the British Parliament, gave the East India Tea Company a virtual monoply over tea sales in the colonies.

In the eyes of the Massachusetts colonists, who had already endured one tax after another, this was one tax too many. The efforts of Parliament to recoup monies lost in the French and Indian War had now backfired, as the Colonials believed their rights as British citizens were being lost one by one.

Resistance to the Tea Act was active throughout the colonies but the East India Tea Company proceeded to send 500,000 pounds of tea across the Atlantic in September, 1773. Due to pressure from local patriot groups in the cities of Charleston, New York and Philadelphia, shipments of tea from England were refused by the local merchants. But in Boston, several relatives of the Crown-appointed Governor Hutchinson ruled the marketplace and they did not concede to the local patriots who tried to send the tea back to England. The patriots refused to pay the tax on the cargo. But the Governor in Massachusetts insisted that the taxes be paid and the tea stay put.

  

The Sons of Liberty decided otherwise as 342 wooden crates holding tea leaves were hatcheted open in front of thousands of silent observers lining Griffin’s Wharf at midnight.  

 No one was injured in the protest and it is said that the rebels swept up the decks of the ship afterwards. Since the ships were actually owned by Americans, and not the British, the pseudo-Indians had no quarrel with the shipowners.

In The Boston Campaign, April 1775 – March 1776, Victor Brooks writes, “…when the ‘Mohawks’ in Boston responded to this direct challenge by dumping the hated tea in the harbor, each side correctly saw the event as a watershed in the history of Britain’s rule over the colonies and as a clear prelude to military confrontation between parliament and the American provinces.”

 It was just a little over a year later (April of 1775) when full-scale war broke out between the colonies and England. It was a conflict that lasted nearly eight years.

The people of Massachusetts and all the colonies soon acquired a taste for coffee.

The Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, in celebration of this occasion, allow costumed re-enactors to participate in throwing tea into the sea every year on December 16. Watch their video here.

Huzzah!