(ARTICLE ROW 5): A CHRISTMAS PROMISE.

A CHRISTMAS PROMISE by ANNIE GROVES.

For the girls living at No.13 Article Row, the war years have never been tougher …

Tilly is heartbroken when Drew, the love of her life, returns to America and doesn’t come back. Tilly can’t believe that he would break their solemn promise to love each other for ever. Olive. Tilly’s mother, knows the real reason that he has never been in touch but fears the truth will hurt her daughter even more.

For Tilly’s friends, Agnes and Sally, the war has also dealt them a cruel hand and, along with the rest of the country, they have had their share of pain. But they say that it is always darkest just before the dawn, so could it be that this war, and the girl’s fortunes, are finally beginning to turn?

- Back Cover Blurb

Apologies, the book was passed on, the First Sentence and my Memorable Moment not taken note of. FGT

SOURCE ... On my TBR pile for so long I cannot remember.

READ FOR A CHALLENGE? ... Late in signing up this year and unable to even begin to estimate what level I'll be able to attain I'm never the less participating in this year's Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge details of which can be found here.

MY THOUGHTS ... Despite this being book five in the Article Row series it is only now that I am joining Tilly and friends.

I had thought that I found A Christmas Promise rather disjointed down to the fact that I hadn't read any of the previous books but then I was informed by a friend that this particular instalment wasn't in fact written by the author, Annie Groves (AKA Penny Hallowell), herself but posthumously by Sheila Riley and that even followers of the series thought it jumbled.

Alas not a book I particularly enjoyed. I'm afraid for me the plot, the characters, the setting all felt cliched and tired; all of them done so many times before ... and generally a lot better.

More than anything though it was the poor writing/editing that bothered me.

Whilst I cannot speak for any other editions of the book this particular copy, a 2013 HarperCollins edition, was, well, quite honestly, embarrassing. 

There were issues with the timeline and continuity in general, that the author spent so much time going back over events that had already been covered became increasingly tiresome.

Then there were the numerous silly where/were, there/their type of errors. Too many to mention, the use of 'sort after' instead of 'sought after' is however the first to come to mind.

Most worryingly of all though was the abundance of schoolboy type errors of a factual historical nature. To give but one example, latter events had the characters having a conversation about German troops being forced out of France in June ... HMM! Really? A month after the war in Europe had in fact ended? Some better research was definitely needed.