Review: The dude makes pizza.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 8, 2014
Readers who love Kristen Ashley will know exactly what I mean when I say that we LOVE LOVE LOVE old school KA. The Promise is old school. It's all the reasons we fell in love with this Rock Chick and her writing in the first place. It's everything we've come to expect in our favorite Kristen Ashley books, and a whole lot of awesome she's never given us before. It's officially in the books as one of my favorite Kristen Ashley books EVER. To say I feel honored to be writing this review for an advanced reader copy of The Promise is a ginormous understatement. I might be a bit bias. Kristen Ashley is the holy grail, the mecca, the queen... she's the author that I could read day after day for the rest of my life and never get bored. But whether you're a huge fangirl of her's or not... this book does not disappoint.Ok, with that said... sally forth and read on...The Promise kicks off where At Peace left off. Do you have to read At Peace first to understand what's transpiring in this book? No. Kristen Ashley consistently delivers a complete standalone without a cliffhanger in every single book. In The Promise, you're given the complete back story to know exactly who these characters are, what's gone down, and where they're headed. Should you read At Peace. Um... duh. You should read every single one of her books and you should do it yesterday. (Just saying...)Benny Bianchi and Francesca Concetti have history. Benny and his parents have held a serious grudge against Frankie for years... since Benny's brother, who happened to be Frankie's man, was killed. In true KA alpha male style, Benny is over his grudge and he wants Frankie. Also in true KA female mc style, Frankie is not entertaining that fact. Tumultuous romance ensues. Sounds like typical KA formula, right? Yes. No. Maybe. This story and these characters are all the great things we've come to expect from KA, but so much more. Benny is not a PI, or a commando, or a cop, or a biker. The dude makes pizza. And he somehow still makes that completely hot, completely badass, completely alpha. Frankie is no pushover either. She's stunningly gorgeous and funny, as all the Burg ladies are, but she's career oriented and despite whatever THIS is happening with Benny, she isn't going to let that deter her from moving to the Burg for her new job.As with every book in The Burg series, there's an element of crime, of mystery, of secrets and lies... a shooting, a kidnapping, a psycho serial killer, what have you. I thought that element had been divulged in At Peace, Frankie taking a bullet while trying to rescue a fellow sister from a madman. That entire plot is what kicks off the story in The Promise, and I assumed that Frankie had been through enough, that the criminal component of Frankie and Benny's story was done. Nope. There's more. And Kristen Ashley does such a phenomenal job in this story of crafting that story line in such a way that it is anything but predictable, anything but redundant.This book made me laugh... laugh out loud belly laugh a LOT. It also made me cry. I'm not typically a crier when I read. I can't recall having cried before in any other books by this author. This book squeezed my heart more than once. It was funny. It was sad. It was beautiful. It's absolutely a story of love, love growing in a place that that it probably shouldn't... a brother falling for his dead brother's lady. It's so much more than that. There's a strong message in this book about savoring what's important... memories, both good and bad; family, blood or not. It's about healing and forgiveness, love and a promise of good things to come.