Review: Not the story I was expecting to read...so frustrating!
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 07 20, 2014
2.5*When we met Frankie and Benny (and the Bianchis) in At Peace, they were at a very interesting turning point. After 7 years as the scapegoat for Vinnie Jrs' death, Frankie is ready to move on...just as the Bianchis have been shocked into realizing they want to reclaim her. Have they realized they were wrong, or are they now just willing to 'forgive' her? Can she ever trust them again? A promising set up for an emotional read as they deal with the past and move forward......Except that's not the story we get. The past is never really dealt with at all. Benny feels some guilt over his treatment of Frankie, but mostly he just takes over her life and then is proud of her 'maturity' in not making his family feel bad. And so we don't even get a glimpse of reconciliation with Theresa (Benny's mother, who has despised Frankie for 7 years). Vinnie Sr just gets offered coffee, and Manny (Benny's brother) isn't even allowed to apologise by Frankie, who really does have martyr issues that need therapy. Emotional impact just withers and dies.Back in At Peace, there's a moment when Frankie recalls she used to wonder sometimes if she loved/wanted Vinnie Jr's family more than she actually wanted him. For me, this is a HUGE issue in The Promise - Frankie needs so desperately to be part of a family. Yes, she wants Benny. But she wants the Bianchis just as much - and goes into meltdown at the thought she might lose them again.Finally with the negativity, I found it disturbing that Frankie begins as someone who is independent and taking control of her own life and ends as someone who, after being ordered to sit and not move by her man, is apparently LITERALLY unable to move until he pulls her from the chair.I like Frankie (though the drama queen KA heroine is getting very old). I like Benny. I don't hate the book. But this is the most frustrating KA book I've read in that it could have packed huge emotional weight and it just didn't. Disappointing.