The Forgotten Promise by Paula Greenlees

Publisher: Penguin UK

On Sale Date: December 29,2022

Pages: 512

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher

In The Forgotten Promise, the author takes the reader to Malaya in the 1940, just before World War Two breaks out in Asia, and the Japanese Army invades and occupies many countries. Malaya was a British colony back then, where white people lived a live of privilege and luxury, often with local people hired as their (housekeeping) staff. Malaya would later become Malaysia.

Ella McCain, a British woman inherited her father's tin mine in the Kledang mountains, where her husband Johnnie is the boss, they have two young children, Ella and Toby. Her childhood friend Noor, who is a local from Kledang, has become her cook. Ella and Johnnie live a privileged life, but things take a bad turn when there is an epidemic of diphteria, which makes her daughter Grace very ill, and Grace has to be admitted to the hospital and stay alone in quarantine with no visitors allowed. Ella is heartbroken, but as her other child might not get sick too in their house where there are a lot of people and staff walking in and out, she goes with her friend Melody who is visiting, to temporarily stay at her beach residence. But while they are staying there, the Japanese invade Singapore and World War two officially breaks out in Malaya too, as the Japanese army soon lands there too, and it is impossible to go back to Ella's house in Kledang, while her daughter is still in the hospital and the Japanese also invade Kledang. Not knowing that the Japanese invade and occupy her house soon and take her husband Johnny as a prisoner. Ella flees to Ipoh with Melody, waiting for word from Johnny and when he will arrive with Grace to join them. But this never happens, and he orders Ella to flee to Singapore so she can flee to England with Toby to be safe. Ella's life changes forever because of the war. Meanwhile, Noor promised Johnny to take care of Grace and to protect her no matter what. Things get dangerous when the Japanese are in the house. She has to wait till the war is over, when Ella is in a search for what happened to Johnny and Grace and their house. But then a secret unravels itself..

The Forgotten Promise is a thrilling and tragic historical fiction novel set before and during the war. The storyline and the characters are both fantastic. It is written in a way that is easy to follow, and the storyline has no slow or boring parts. It was heartbreaking when Ella couldn't return to her home because the way broke out and it took years to find out what happened to her husband and daughter, who doesn't recognize anymore when they meet again.Their meeting in the end is surrounded by conflict, because Noor formally became the caretaker of Grace, because a secret about her  family roots gave her the right to do this, without the knowing of Ella, sadly. This is one of the most thrilling parts of the book. 

Overall I found this a moving and very entertaining book, that I recommend reading!