Children of the Promise: Volumes 1-5

by Dean Hughes

Children of the Promise dramatically portrays the impact of World War II on an ordinary family of Latter-day Saints who are striving, in a tumultuous time, to be true to the values and ideals they have been taught. If you haven’t yet met the Thomas family, you are in for a real delight! “Every era has its own refiner's fire, and World War II put general Church membership and Utah to a test,” Dean Hughes explains. In Children of the Promise, his first historical fiction series for adults, Dean shows through the eyes of the Thomas family how LDS families were tested to the limit. Volume 1: Rumors of War - The first volume, Rumors of War opens in 1938 with Elder Alex Thomas and his companion serving in Germany. It soon becomes obvious that he will never complete his mission. War is coming, and that will affect not only Elder Thomas but also his family back home in Salt Lake City.Volume 2: Since You Went Away - Picking up where the bestseller Rumors of War left off, Since You Went Away continues with Wally Thomas's struggle to survive as a prisoner of war on the Bataan Peninsula while his family begin to disperse due to the war. Bobbi and Alex Thomas are leaving for military duty at the infant stages of World War II — Bobbi as a naval nurse at Pearl Harbor and Alex in army basic training. A gripping novel filled with memorable characters, Since You Went Away will draw you into a past charged with danger, action, romance, and the importance of family and faith.Volume 3: Far From Home - In Far From Home, Alex Thomas is still battling the Nazi forces. He’s also worried about whether or not he can preserve the lives of the men in his company, especially Howie, a particularly young and inexperienced soldier. But his biggest concern is staying alive for his wife, Anna, in England. Far From Home is a moving, powerful novel about the effects of adversity, and about the love of family members for each other.Volume 4: When We Meet Again - Following the Battle of the Bulge, Alex Thomas is reassigned — not without reluctance — to an intelligence unit in Germany. The new assignment challenges Alex's deepest moral values and is more life threatening than combat. As a POW in Japan, Wally suffers torture that may only find relief in death, while Bobbi sorts out her true feelings when she runs into Professor David Stinson thousands of miles away from home.As Long As I Have You - The war is over, and the Thomas family is slowly coming back together at home in Salt Lake City. But that doesn't mean all is well in Zion. In As Long As I Have You, the final volume of the Children of the Promise series, author Dean Hughes presents a moving picture of what life was like for an ordinary LDS family at the end of World War II.

Genres: Historical Fiction

2043 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 19, 2012

About the author

Dean Hughes is the author of more than eighty books for young readers, including the popular sports series Angel Park All-Stars, the Scrappers series, the Nutty series, the widely acclaimed companion novels Family Pose and Team Picture, and Search and Destroy. Soldier Boys was selected for the 2001 New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age list. Dean Hughes and his wife, Kathleen, have three children and six grandchildren. They live in Midway, Utah.

Reviews

[Debbie Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another series. I have a love/hate relationship with series because when I start one, I have to finish. Most of the time there are multiple books at 500+ pages. Therefore, it ties up my reading list for years..... In spite of that, I really enjoyed these books. I learned alot about history following the Thomas family beginning in 1938 in Germany with Elder Alex Thomas on a mission. While Alex wasn't able to complete his mission, his brother, Wally was dealing with becoming a prisoner of war on the Bataan Peninsula. Bobbi (nurse) and Alex (basic training) are serving in the military at Pearl Harbor. Alex is then stationed in Germany fighting against the people he was serving earlier. His wife, Anna, was in England hoping that he would return safely. Alex is then assigned to an intelligence unit in Germany because he could speak the language. Brother, Wally, is being tortured in Japan while Bobbi runs into a Professor she had in college. Now the war is over and the family comes together in Salt Lake City. A good view of how the LDS family handled World War II and returning to normalcy. Loved being able to relate to the family as they dealt with world issues with their values and beliefs.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book series of all time.

[Jacob G. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this series, but I just can't. It's treatment of fatherhood bothers me to much. The father is portrayed as overbearing and stupid. This could have been fine if this had been done in a balanced and nuanced way, as the author did with other topics. For example, he shows the monstrous brutality of the Japanese POW system, but then inserts several Japanese characters so that we can understand that generally Japanese are decent people.
In the case of the Patriarch of the series though there is none of that. Always overbearing and stupid, and there is no growth to becoming a better father, rather the path he is to follow is to stop Fathering. And the author skips over what should be real issues - as one example that there are real costs and drawbacks to the mother working at the steel mill, even if it on the whole that was an admirable and good thing. Instead, it has the Father against it for no reason, just stupid and overbearing as usual, because Y chromosome I guess. And it bothers me that Dean Hughes throws in a quick backstory that the mother was a doormat and getting a job quickly reversed it. I've read a lot of early church personal histories and his characterization of women in the early church as blobs is way false to real life.

Perhaps this won't bother you if you are not a husband and father, but I feel it is dishonest and polemical in its portrayal of family, which is the core point of the book. 3/10 could not get through the second book.

[Brittani · Rating 5 out of 5]

As children we listened to this series when traveling from Washington to Utah and we listened as we would go to sleep. I shared a room with my sister and she was always so glued to the story she’d listen till the tape finished and I’d dose off. Fond memories. The books are magical in a time that was so crazy. It helped understand my families ancestors and history a little better.

[Mikelle Pressett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite book series. I’ve read it and re-read it multiple times. My husband and I have read it together, listened to it and my kids love it too! Set in WWII, following a family and their children through the war. Trials, struggles, heartwarming and heartbreaking. It’s got it all. Love Dean Hughes as an author!!!

[Abbey Chatelain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great WWII series. Loved the writing, the characters, the history. Dean Hughes said, "I hope my series has found a balance between the respect I feel for the soldiers and the distaste I feel for the war." He did a great job portraying that balance in his story of the Thomas family.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished volume five and I love this series so much. A very good blend of historical events and fictional storylines. Characters became very real to me!

[Lindsay Strickland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book series. I still think about the characters to this day.

[Alma J. Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm re-reading this series because it has entered my heart, and doesn't want to let go. This fictional family is real to me, and I have learned a great deal from their "adventures." My favorite character is Wally, and I turn the pages quickly to get the latest updates on him. He was placed in the Bataan Death March, and spent the war in Japanese POW camps. After his liberation, he stayed for some time on an American base, healing and recovering, and gaining weight. He woke up, stood for a long time in a luxuriously hot shower, then went to the mess hall and ate anything he wanted. By then he was tired again, and went back to bed. In a real bed, with a real pillow! This has resonated so closely to my own experience that I dubbed this the eat/sleep/shower cycle. Every point in my own healing journey can somehow be placed into one of these three categories. As I said, these people are real to me. But honestly, I don't know how the author did that.

These books, all of them, have been published in early-stages rough draft form. Wally walked upstairs, Alex walked over to his men, LaRue walked to the window. Hey, I can't fault that, in the working stages of the writing process. My own favorite place-holder word is "something." But I feel that, by the time a book reaches a reader's hands, that "work in progress" should have been polished up and tightened. I was given the copies I'm reading as a gift, immediately after their initial release. Maybe there was pressure to get them out on time. But I sincerely hope that later editions have been edited more thoroughly. This story is worth the effort.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5. I really enjoyed reading these books. Some were better than others but overall they were really good. There were a few cliche characters, but for the most part I thought the author did a great job of telling a historical story with fictional characters who happened to be mormon. I would love my girls to read these as teenagers. Lots of subtle good messages about some of the harsh realities of life.

[Mallory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have read and reread this series many times. One of my favorite series of LDS fictions. Gives perspectives of WW2 from Germany, the Philippines, Hawaii, and the U.S. The family dynamic is fun to keep up with as well.

[Ray L. Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second Time - Just as Wonderful

Dean has done a great job sharing his Thomas family with us. I know my mom and dad's generation better through them!