PROMISE THE MOON – Elizabeth Joy Arnold
A Perfect 10
Bantam
ISBN-13: 978-0-385-34066-3
June 2008
Women's Fiction

Camp Pendleton and French Creek, California – Present Day

Josh is now dead and his wife, Natalie, doesn't know what she will do. He left her behind with two young children, a daughter Anna, age ten, and a son, Toby, age five. Josh, a Marine, came back from his second tour in Iraq a changed man. Natalie keeps close the electronic Blackberry where he wrote down his daily schedules because of his lack of memory from post traumatic stress. She is afraid to see the last message he put in it on the day of his death. See, Josh did not die a hero fighting a war, but, instead, he couldn't live with himself and shot himself in the head in the garage. And now Natalie is left all alone to pick up the pieces, which she is not sure she can do.

Natalie and her children must leave the military base and move back home with her parents. Her mother is suffering from Alzheimer's, and her father is possibly carrying on a romance with an old friend of his. Since Natalie has nowhere else to go, she has to stay with her parents. Her father welcomes them and does his best under the current situation with his wife, daughter, and grandchildren.

Josh use to put special notes in a secret hiding place in the bathroom that only he, Toby, and Anna would know about. Josh explained that the notes and small gifts he would leave there while he was away showed his love for them. Even though Toby knows his dad is in heaven, he believes Josh still writes to him. Actually, Anna is the one writing the letters to her younger brother. Toby was the one to find his father in the garage and refuses to talk. Perhaps these letters will help him speak again. And Anna has secrets that she will not even tell her mother, from the letters she writes to Toby to the last note Josh left for Natalie to find, but instead, Anna found it and hides it in one of her stuffed animals as her last connection to her father.

Natalie tries her best to go on with her life and help her children. An old lover of Natalie's, Seth, comes to her aid. Anna can't stand Seth and lashes out, thinking Natalie wants him as their new father. Natalie is barely holding it together. Josh also kept secrets from her, including a picture she finds in his possessions of a young Arab girl. Who was she and why did Josh keep her picture? Natalie has more questions than answers, and unless she can confront the truth about Josh's illness and the concerns of her children, she may never forgive Josh for what he has done and find the strength in herself to go on without him.

PROMISE THE MOON is one of the most powerful books I have read in a very long time. Elizabeth Joy Arnold's tale of suicide, depression, and heartache brought me to tears. This is one book you will not want to miss out on and, afterward, you may find yourself a changed person. Natalie will stay with you long after you finish reading. Her strength and willpower to carry on under the most horrible of circumstances is amazing. The death of a husband is hard enough, but because of the way Josh ended his life, Natalie is full of remorse and grief. She feels that she has failed herself, Josh, and her two children, who may never get over their own grief.

Anna and Toby have very realistic emotions and actions as they try to deal with their father's death in their own ways. Anna is troubled, but so full of love for her brother and mother that she tries to do the right things, no matter how strange they may be. Her suffering will cut you like a knife. Toby is so young that the idea of death is very foreign to him. His sister Anna is the one most likely to help him heal.

Elizabeth Joy Arnold can write great family relationships including Anna's parents; her father especially is such a great influence and was a rock for Anna and Toby. Even Seth, Natalie's old boyfriend, becomes an important part of the story, and he is written in a very sympathetic way. He helps Natalie come to grips with her feelings about Josh, and Josh's army buddy, Nick, is also there to give Natalie the answers she so rightly deserves.

When a book brings out the tears like PROMISE THE MOON does, there are really no other words to explain how incredible a read this is. Elizabeth Joy Arnold deserves great praise -- and RRT's Perfect 10 award.

Kate Garrabrant