A Vow to Keep

It seems I had read everything I could find this summer. But BOOM, i look in this forgotten bookshelve of my grandmother's and find this book. I was hooked, and I've read this book over and over. It starts when the Graham family is separated by the deaths of their parents. Each go their own separate way. Percy is sent to live with this 'Mormon' Family, and eventually converts. Before they all leave, though, Percy takes a button off the family coat for each of them, to hold on to until he reunites them. However, Percy travels to Utah with his family. He is in love with the prettiest girl, and he doesn't want to leave her. However, when he gets the chance to go back to England, he finds that things are quite different. This in my opinion could be consitered a mystery. Why is his family all distant. And why can't he find one of his sisters. It will live you hanging until the very end. There are twists and turns on every page. A gripper.

This review is definently biased, for I had time to think about it weeks after I read it.Set in 19th century England, the Graham family faces the problem of being split up after both their parents die from diphtheria. It is during this time that Percy, the eldest brother, takes an old jacket that has been passed on in the family and cuts off each of the buttons, giving each of his siblings a button with the promise he would return to reunite them. They are separated and Percy is adopted into a family of "Mormons," members of The Church of Latter-day Saints. He looks at their religion with some skepticism, but soon embraces it. He receives a vision of the Salt Lake Valley and soon finds out he is to journey there with his new family. They finally make it there and years past and with those passing years, the growing defeat Percy feels that he is not able to reunite his family. Percy again sees in vision his beloved younger sister, Rose, in trouble. Through outside circumstances, he receives the chance to return to England and fulfill his vow and to experience the joy and heartbreak associated with it. The reader will learn a valuable lesson of familial love and the boundless ties that bond them when faced with adversity transcending years.This is a simple story and entertaining. There are some things, however, that are written with Mormons in mind, without any historical explaination, such as the significance of modern-day revelation, perhaps giving a sort of supernatural element to the story that non-Latter-day Saints do not understand. The book was written for a Latter-day Saint audience, however, due to it being published through DeseretBook.Members of the Church might enjoy this story, however, non-members will probably get confused with the elements of Mormonism interspersed throughout without explaination. It is for this reason I give it four stars for, though it was written for a Mormon audience, McCloud (and other Mormon authors) could write for a more general audience and still adhere to teaching the values and history of their religious faith. Also, there are at least two metaphors that had me scoff, such as comparing a character's surprise to that of finding presents under a Christmas tree or something of that sort. But if you want a quick fix, this novel could provide, despite its warm and fuzzy appearance.