Promises to Keep by Charles de Lint

From the back cover:

“The year is 1972. Jilly Coppercorn is happy, mostly. Her past was anything but. Abuse, addiction, and living on the street brought her to the brink of self-destruction. Now she’s struggling to stay clean and make ends meet. Jilly’s present life in Newford revolves around studying art at Butler University while surrounded by her supportive new family-of-choice: her caseworker, the Grasso Street Angel; best friend, Geordie the fiddler; and fellow artist, Sophie Etoile.

“Rising from the ashes to take on new responsibilities is hard, and nothing comes easily. As Jilly strives to create a life she can be proud of, she recives a tempting opportunity roaring in from the past on an oversized motorcycle. Donna Birch, the only close friend from Jilly’s old juvie days, has blossomed into a confident, tattooed bass-player who offers Jilly a one-in-a-lifetime chance to leave Newford—and start afresh in a beautiful, mysterious city where dreams are almost too easily realized.

“The problem is, Jilly still has unfinished business in Newford.”


This YA urban fantasy caught me by surprise. The entire story was compelling with subtle hints of lurking fantasy. Mr. De Lint placed great emphasis on attention to detail of locations and characters while weaving Jilly’s current experiences with her past.

Jilly meets her old friend, Donna Birch, quite by accident and is invited to hear her play at the biker club “Cool Hand Juke”. Despite, Jilly’s best friend, Geordie, not believing the place exists, Jilly goes. After attending the gig, JIlly accompanies Donna to her place where she learns she has entered into another reality where unfulfilled dreams can be realized. It seems too good to be true and easy as well. Finances materialize in a bank account, an apartment is set up in no time and Jilly goes for walks, meeting other residents with flavourful backgrounds. Soon Jilly discovers the mysterious city is filled with dead people: all who had unexpected deaths before their time. Jilly questions why Donna brought her to such a place without telling her more of the details.

Things get interesting when Jilly learns the doorway in closes and she needs to find another one going out.

The story contained elements of fairy tales where one inadvertently makes a bargain and tries to get out of it. Another aspect covered was of the sociological effects of people needing to be transformed through hope for a better future. That by providing any small kindness you do for others goes a long way to improving their lives. Best of all, the novel has a satisfactory ending.


Promises to Keep is companion to the bestselling novels The Onion Girl and Widdershins.


Charles de Lint is the bestselling author of over seventy adult, YA, and children’s books, including Moonheart, The Blue Girl, Medicine Road, and Forests of the Heart. He is the recipient of the World Fantasy, YALSA, Crawford, and Aurora awards. De Lint is a poet, songwriter, performer, and folklorist, and he has a regular book review column for Fantasy & Science Fiction. He lives in Ottawa, Canada, with his creative co-conspirator, MaryAnn Harris.

The review copy was provided by Chalene Brusso of Tachyon, with thanks.

Book format: paperback, 192 pages
Publisher: Tachyon Publications
Author website: Charles de Lint

Available at:

Amazon.ca

Amazon.com

Chapters.Indigo.ca

What Would Emma Do? by Eileen Cook (Book Review)

The story is set in a small town: Wheaton, Indiana, where Emma Proctor attends a private Christian high school. In school, Emma and her classmates are expected to question everything with “What would Jesus do?” Emma thinks that sitting around to discuss WWJD is a waste of time.

Emma is hoping for a sports scholarship to attend a university away from Wheaton. She has only applied to one, Northwestern, hoping beyond hope that she will be accepted on her track scores. She doesn’t like the small town atmosphere where everyone gossips and knows each others’ personal business. If they don’t know what’s going on, stories are fabricated.

Emma has always been comfortable with Colin Stewart, her guy friend, the next door neighbour who grew up with her. She’s never worried about saying the wrong thing, as he always seems to know what to say at the right moment or understand her moods. From an early age it had been suggested that when they grew up they would get married. But Emma’s plans had always been to leave Wheaton, and she had no reservations about Colin dating her best friend, Joann.

But before Emma can leave Wheaton, there is the Christmas kiss with Colin to clear up. The kiss Joann’s mother was witness to. Emma questions Joann’s ‘forgiveness’, knowing Joann would be uncomfortable about Colin hanging out with her. But the real question is why Colin kissed her. It is this question that haunts Emma enough to impulsively ask Colin to take her to a party at “The Barn” located in the countryside.

It is at the Barn where Colin and Emma witness a situation that carries consequences, and those engaged in it were unaware they were present.

When Colin takes Emma home this excerpt from the book sums up the kiss at Christmas where Colin tells Emma it wasn’t a mistake and that he thinks he really likes her:

“I don’t know. I’m not trying to piss you off, but I feel that I have to say something. I’ve liked you for as long as I can remember. I liked you since before I fully understood what it meant, but you were always so clear about wanting to be friends, just friends, that I never said a thing. Heck, I half convinced myself that I didn’t care. That I was fine with that. Besides, even if you liked me, I knew the relationship wouldn’t go anywhere. You’ve talked about leaving since you understood there was a road out of town. But I think I never stopped liking you. I felt like you should know. Then I kissed you, and you kissed me back.” Colin looked over at me. “You did kiss me back.”

When classmates begin passing out at school Emma knows why and who is behind it, and wants to report it. Colin reminds her that being at a party where there was alcohol would get her kicked off the track team, and there goes her scholarship. Also, Joann would find out they had been together.

Emma fears the worst when the town begins a witch hunt to find out who is ‘poisoning’ the high school students. A mob mentality develops when they begin to target students who are considered “loners”. Soon it becomes a “crime” to be different and Emma sees the hypocrisy in the town residents. How long will Emma let this go on? How many innocent people have to get hurt before she steps up and does the right thing?

This book covers the full range of emotions, because those teenage years have many situations packed into them – body changes, boys/girls, dating, social norms, grades, and growing up. When parents or older adults tell teenagers those years are the best of their lives, I think they have really forgotten how anxiety ridden they were. Not everyone has a smooth growth period during the teenage years. For some it was a horror they would prefer to forget.

Emma’s comments and thoughts are hilarious while she tests the waters around her. It’s a normal, healthy attitude toward the challenges of life. She’s smart, insecure, and a non-conformist; but is focused on her goal to leave Wheaton. Emma finds it scary in her search to find integrity in her life with others, while learning it is more important than many other things.

Each chapter starts with a journal entry where Emma talks to God over difficult choices and her faith. These journal entries were very amusing, thought provoking and entertaining. Emma learns a fundamental lesson about asking God for help and receives an answer in a dream.

Eileen Cook has created characters that are believable, and she has teenage angst down pat. What Would Emma Do? is a book that had me laughing out loud. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good read…regardless of one's age.


Format: Paperback, 307 pages
Publisher: Simon Pulse, Simon & Schuster
To visit Eileen Cook’s website: www.eileencook.com

Anyone commenting on this review will be entered in a draw on March 7, 2009 to receive a copy of “What Would Emma Do?” Raph Neckmann of Raph's Ramblings won the book