I have a Little Free Library on my front lawn, and every once in a while somebody will drop off something interesting so I’ll grab it to read for myself. Recently somebody left a half-dozen historical romance books so I thought I would check them out. Promises to Keep was one of them.
I hadn’t heard of Genevieve Graham before, but apparently she is a popular Canadian author who writes fictional stories set during factual events of Canada’s history. I actually love history, so in theory this book should be right up my alley.
The events in this case is the forced deportation kidnapping and trafficking of the Acadians by the British government in the 1750s. The Acadians were a colony of settlers originally from France who had moved to the area about 100 years prior. They were mostly farmers and limited in numbers and they established friendly relations with the indigenous Mi’qmak. France lost the territory to England and England decided that a bunch of farmers who refused to swear allegiance to the English King were a possible security risk. So they were loaded on boats and evicted, and their farms burned to the ground. Many died of starvation, injury, disease, or accident at sea. Some escaped the English or hid among the Mi’qmak. Most of the survivors ended up in Louisiana and now call themselves Cajun. (I have a couple of friends who are Cajun and I had a fascinating conversation with one of them once about how the law that forbids eir from returning to Canada is still technically on the books.)
Amelie is a young Acadian woman who is among the people kidnapped. She goes through a horrible experience full of deprivation and danger, and most of her family doesn’t survive. Connor MacDonnell is a young man who went through similar experiences in Scotland when the British moved in and wiped out his entire family, but soldier is literally the only job he can get. They fall in love. Can he protect her? Against the entire British infrastructure? Magic 8-ball says outlook not good.
So I love history and did learn a lot from this book about the details of a really shitty part of Canada’s past. A+ marks there.
But even with that I found the book a bit of a slog, and it’s not a long book. I’m trying to think why and I think maybe part of it is that the characters feel very two-dimensional. They aren’t fully fleshed out individuals to me.
And the story is just so relentlessly grim. I keep thinking of a scene I saw in a movie once where some WWI soldiers have a few quiet moments in a foxhole before all hell breaks lose and they’re talking about their lives and taking the piss out of each other and it’s funny. You laugh at a couple of points. You get to know them as individuals and I really think that moment of levity makes you care about the bad stuff that happens right after. Whereas this book is just bad stuff, bad stuff, bad stuff, bad staff, happy ending!
So I will say it’s interesting if you want a historical take, but if you love stories that are in any way character-driven this probably isn’t going to be your thing.