Review: A great start to a new series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 25, 2013
Promised is about a girl and a boy and a whole lot of obstacles in between them. It's a classic plotline, but Turner has managed to make it unique.At the very beginning, we're introduced to Linc "The Great Lincoln Tatman". His popularity at school means he can have any girl he wants. But he doesn't want any girl. Once he sets his sights on Wyn, he knows he's found the girl he never wants to let go. Slightly cocky and arrogant, you can't help but like Linc from the beginning as his fixation on Wyn grows into something more than just lust.Wyn is unlike any other young woman I've seen gracing the pages of YA. She's one of the Romani--a gypsy. Due to the strict family traditions, she is a girl who is never alone with a boy who she isn't related to, and can only date a gypsy boy as long as she has a chaperone--not that that would ever happen. Wyn's involvement with the gypsy way of life stops there. She does not want to become someone's wife at 18. She does not want to be stuck at home raising children. Wyn's dreams are so much bigger than that, but she doesn't realize they are possible until a fateful meeting with Linc.Turner takes us on a journey through Wyn and Linc's sweet beginnings where they send flirty little text messages to each other. From the very start, these two are irrevocably connected to each other. As the story progresses, the biggest obstacle to their blossoming love is revealed: Wyn is on the verge of getting engaged to a boy she's known since she was a kid, but who she's never thought of as anything more than a friend. Against her will, the date is set for the marriage and Wyn is left with the heartbreaking task of telling Linc.As the Big Day grows nearer and the wedding plans are ramped up, Wyn's resistance to the idea eventually drives a wedge between her and her mother, and Wyn knows that if she walks away from her life with her family to be with Linc, she'll never be allowed back again. She'd lose contact with her brothers, her mother, her father and the most important person in her life--her best friend. She'd never get to meet her unborn niece and that's what hurts her the most.Even though she knows it's wrong, she finds herself unable to stay away from Linc. She knows it's wrong to lead him on. He knows she's promised to another. But they both want to spend what little time they have together.I loved Linc and Wyn, and together they made an even more adorable couple. The exhilarating flutters of first love are so beautifully described in this book, and their first kiss had me thinking about my own. Turner has done a great job of building Linc and Wyn's world, of building their love. I really enjoyed reading Promised. It was a love story that had me hooked from the beginning.I'd highly recommend Michelle Turner's Promised if you like love stories where seemingly impossible obstacles are overcome, that have you rooting for the couple, sharing their smiles and their tears, yelling at the pages when they don't and cheering them on when they finally make the right decision.Favourite scene: Wyn and Linc dancing to Adele's Make You Feel My Love.Favourite line: "You do realize I look like a stripper's closet threw up on me, right?" ~ Wyn