The Promise Trilogy 1
(2026)(The first book in the Promise Trilogy series)
A novel by Sherilyn Decter
In the summer of 1919, the Santoro brownstone on Pleasant Avenue smells like garlic and obligation. Lucie Santoro — eighteen, restless, the first daughter in her family to earn a diploma — is expected to trade her graduation cap for a wedding veil.
The arrangement between the Santoros and the Coluccis has been understood for years. Carlo is kind. Carlo is safe. And Lucie has plans no one knows about.
She's secretly enrolled at the Teachers College, hiding textbooks in her market basket and dodging the neighborhood's ever-watching eyes. Every lie she tells her mother buys another day of freedom. Every class she attends pulls her further from the life that's been chosen for her — and closer to one she'll have to fight for.
But secrets in East Harlem don't stay buried long. In a neighborhood where reputation is currency and gossip travels faster than the streetcar, there is no such thing as a small rebellion. And when her two worlds begin to collide, Lucie discovers that the cost of becoming yourself may be everything you were raised to be.
Some promises are made for you. Some you have to break.
The Promise Trilogy is historical women's fiction set in New York's Italian-American immigrant community — a story of mothers and daughters, inherited dreams, and the first irreversible act of choosing your own life.
Genre: General Fiction
The arrangement between the Santoros and the Coluccis has been understood for years. Carlo is kind. Carlo is safe. And Lucie has plans no one knows about.
She's secretly enrolled at the Teachers College, hiding textbooks in her market basket and dodging the neighborhood's ever-watching eyes. Every lie she tells her mother buys another day of freedom. Every class she attends pulls her further from the life that's been chosen for her — and closer to one she'll have to fight for.
But secrets in East Harlem don't stay buried long. In a neighborhood where reputation is currency and gossip travels faster than the streetcar, there is no such thing as a small rebellion. And when her two worlds begin to collide, Lucie discovers that the cost of becoming yourself may be everything you were raised to be.
Some promises are made for you. Some you have to break.
The Promise Trilogy is historical women's fiction set in New York's Italian-American immigrant community — a story of mothers and daughters, inherited dreams, and the first irreversible act of choosing your own life.
Genre: General Fiction