Book Review: Promise Me

“I would say that I was without faith, but no one is truly faithless; they just have faith in the wrong things: fear and defeat.” 


Maybe this streak of book reviews is indicative that nothing is happening in my life, and that may be very well true.  But so be it.



On Halloween, I read three Richard Paul Evans books.  Yes, Richard Paul Evans.  The king of fuzzy  Christmas novels and schmulzy romance. And yes, three.  Most of his books take place in Salt Lake City, and it's kind of fun to know all of the locations of his story and be able to say, "I know that place."  Promise Me even took place in Holladay.  And I love Christmas.  Even fuzzy-wuzzy Christmas stuff.  So, I enjoyed my Halloween.

Beth Cardall has a humble, but wonderful life with her husband, Marc, and their daughter, Charlotte.  Or at least she thinks she does.  But when her husband reveals infidelity and his imminent death, and their daughter falls sick with a mysterious illness, her life begins to fall apart.  Fresh off of both mourning her husband and healing from his treachery, she runs into a seemingly perfect specimen of masculinity in a 7-11 named Matthew (who, interestingly enough, sounds exactly like Matthew McConaughey in my mind--maybe it's the name).  He's basically practically perfect in every way. Drop-dead gorgeous, drop-dead perfect. It seems like he will fix everything for Beth and her daughter.  But his identity and why he's there may be more than she would have thought, and she still hasn't learned to trust again. 

I liked it.  Sometimes you just need a romance, you know.  And I was taken aback by his true identity.  I thought I had figured it out (and I thought the same thing most people do...you're probably wrong, too), because I thought I was Christmas Hallmark-movie savvy.  However, in the end, I was caught somewhere between, "ahh...adorable," "that's kind of odd," and "he's who? Yuck!  Ugh! Ahh! revulsion."  You're going to have some suspension of disbelief, and it never explains exactly how he happened to be there, but it somehow doesn't really need to.

In some ways, I don't know why I enjoyed this book and yet hated The Notebook.  Maybe it was the fact that it at least had some deep introspection and had a little more substance than just a plain romance.  But I think it would kind of be the same type of movie if they made a movie.  We'll give it three stars.  Why not. 

Comments

Amy R said…
Well now, I might just have to read this one. You've piqued my interest. And it also looks like a quick read.
November 3, 2014 at 6:08 AM
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