The Beekeeper’s Promise is a WWII novel by Fiona Valpy. Although the story is fiction, some of the places are real and the stories of the Resistance are real as is the massacre in Tulle.

Heartbroken and hoping for a new start, Abi Howes takes a summer job in rural France at the Château Bellevue. The old château echoes with voices from the past, and soon Abi finds herself drawn to one remarkable woman’s story, a story that could change the course of her summer — and her life.

In 1938, Eliane Martin tends beehives in the garden of the beautiful Château Bellevue. In its shadow she meets Mathieu Dubosq and falls in love for the first time, daring to hope that a happy future awaits. But France’s eastern border is darkening under the clouds of war, and history has other plans for Eliane.

When she is separated from Mathieu in the chaos of German occupation, Eliane makes the dangerous decision to join the Resistance and fight for France’s liberty. But with no end to the war in sight, her loyalty to Mathieu is severely tested.

The story is told in alternating chapters by Elaine from 1938 to 1944 and then by Abi in the present 2017. Trying to recover from a car accident and an abusive marriage, Abi has many lessons to learn from Elaine’s story.

The book is a page-turner and easy read.(SD-Agencies)