Review: The Promise is Kept
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 15, 2014
4.5 stars--why OH WHY Amazon will you not find a way to be fractional in our star ratings?? It's NOT that hard to do, is it? Anywho, I had a hot/cold relationship with this book. It took me a while to get into it; Frankie and Benny (I just dislike the name Benny) were not my favorite couple and I did not care for either of them as much as I have most of the other leading couples in the 'Burg. Don't know why, just did not viscerally connect--especially with Frankie. UNTIL much later in the book when she began to see just how challenged she was by the 'family' she was a part of and how she felt compelled to 'fix' everyone. I know that Ms Ashley gets some grief sometimes from folks about how her characters can't possibly be that real or perfect. See, that's exactly why I love her stuff. It's such a great escape where the guys are so alpha, caring, wanting babies, protective, opening car doors, sending flowers, macho, sensual/erotic and all that stuff 'wimmen' dream of. Benny (ugh) is just amazing in his capacity to see the path to Frankie, not give up on her and adore her forever and Frankie FINALLY gets it. The ancillary characters are always well developed and this book is no exception...Mrs. Zambino, Sal and Gina, Theresa and Vinnie Sr, all the 'Burg characters, Tandy, Asheeka. These people are just as real as they can be and we've probably all known variations of all of them.As in all of her books/stories, the path to the HEA is never easy and our heroes are flawed. Redemption comes but not without a struggle, some deep pain and eventual healing.The pharmaceutical story did not intrigue me as much as some of the other books but it was a vehicle to bring Frankie to her senses. It was SO NICE to have our friends from the Nightingale PI group to hook up with and then there's always Cal/Joe and Vi. Therein lies one of the best gifts that Ms Ashely gives us...a family, so to speak, of people we have come to know, like and love. Their lives, their endurance, their perseverance and their love...all wrapped up nicely in epilogues (and The Promise's prologue was just lovely)that bring a tightening of the throat and a prickling of the eyes.Was The Promise my favorite KA book...nope. Was The Promise a worthy and strong read...yep.