Review: The Promise by Melody Grace


Note: This ARC was provided by TRSoR Promotions in exchange for an honest review.

The Promise, a standalone new adult (NA) romance, is the first novel written by Melody Grace that I've been able to read. It's a beautiful love story about Claire Fortune, a barista going through the bucket list left behind by her best friend who passed away. She meets new friends and falls in love with a graduate student slash aspiring writer named Theo (whose last name is never mentioned in the book). I can't really go into too much detail because there is a major twist in the story, one that takes everything in a different direction, although if you look closely enough at the blurb for the book, you'll have a fair idea what the general feel will be: heartrending, bittersweet, and quite angsty but still with a generous amount of hope.

Claire is nineteen and has lived her life conservatively, sheltered by protective parents and so on. It takes the passing of her best friend to push her out of her comfort zone. Promising to check off the rest of her best friend's bucket list--written and encased in a notebook--leads Claire to do things she would never even have contemplated doing in the past. She's had her life all planned out but now, the one thing guiding her is whatever's written in the notebook. Then she crosses paths with Theo, and everything changes. Falling in love was never something she expected to really happen to someone like her, but maybe this is her greatest opportunity to keep her most important promise to herself, one she shares with Theo: to live.

Yes, the basic story line is a very familiar one, and I'm not limiting it to bestsellers these past few years. So, I pretty much had a strong feeling how the story was going to end, though, admittedly, it could have had the opposite kind of ending I pictured in my head. Although this does have a similar theme and tone to other books, I more than appreciated the author's writing, making quite a positive impression on me, given this is my initial venture into her work. With books sharing one aspect of a story or more, standing apart in a noticeable manner and in not too limited measure is a must, and Melody Grace did so here. Poignantly moving, The Promise tugs at heartstrings, reminding us to seize life's every moment. 4.5 stars. ♥

Date Read: 18 October 2016

Learn more about Melody Grace.

Purchase The Promise on Amazon | B&N | Kobo.

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