I love the first person voice of A Promise in Pieces. I could do more than just empathize with Clara, the main character--I was living her story through her words. I felt her chagrin over being restricted to ridiculous rules as the daughter of a conservative, nonresistant pastor. I smelled the aromas that filled her with discuss in the nurse's boot camp. I cried with her at the bedside of a dying soldier. I agonized with her at the birth of the first child she delivered on her own as a midwife.

The only thing I didn't like about A Promise in Pieces was that it was so short. It left me hungry for more. I couldn't help but wishing Emily had developed the characters more--I felt like I was just barely meeting them when they were already leaving the story or aging many years and changing in character. Because not only can Emily tell a good story, but she can make her characters come to life on the pages. I just wished I'd had a chance to spend more time with them.