Review: Secrets & Promises by Jane Anthony
Note: This ARC was provided by Enticing Journey Book Promotions in exchange for an honest review.
Secrets & Promises is a standalone new adult novel from first-time author Jane Anthony. This was a story about family loyalties, falling in love, and fighting for love and the main characters were nineteen-year-old Jillian Morello and twenty-one-year-old Jameson Tate. Jillian and her older brother Anthony Junior, better known as AJ, are all that's left of their family, with their mother dying of lung cancer years before and their father having passed away just a year ago. They're working hard to keep the legacy their father left behind--Morelli and Son's Restoration--but with just AJ handling everything when it comes to caring for the cars and Jillian taking care of all the administrative affairs, they're unable to really turn a huge profit with a two-person work force. Life isn't exactly easy but the siblings make do with whatever's there.
Then Jameson shows up five years after disappearing without much of a word and while he gets his classic car looked at and is taken aback at how much Jillian has grown up, he asks AJ for a job and though funds are low, the need for a second mechanic garners Jameson a new job. AJ makes it clear that he can only take his old friend back on a per day payment allocation and on the agreement that Jameson is to stay clear of doing anything more than platonic with AJ's younger sister. But try as he might, keeping things in the friend zone becomes far too difficult for Jameson, with Jillian drawing him with her openness and innocence. But with the promise he made AJ and the real reason why he left town five years ago ever present and making him feel guilty, Jameson needs to make a choice that could end up backfiring later on.
This was a pretty good NA love story with the friends to lovers trope used in an effective enough manner. Jillian and Jameson are both young and, let's face it, immature to a certain degree. Their actions are often dictated by their emotions and Jillian has a tendency of reacting by walking out instead of sitting down and discussing things. Of course, we have to keep in mind that she's only nineteen and he's only twenty-one, so we can't expect them to act like mature adults with gobs of life experience, though the experiences they've already had--Jameson with his mother's suicide and his father's disgusting behavior and Jillian with the deaths of both her parents and taking care of the business with AJ--are pretty heavy already. All in all, this was an okay read, and I do hope AJ gets his own story told in the future. Secrets & Promises gets 3.5 stars. ♥
Date Read: 05 May 2016
Learn more about Jane Anthony.
Purchase Secrets & Promises on Amazon.
Then Jameson shows up five years after disappearing without much of a word and while he gets his classic car looked at and is taken aback at how much Jillian has grown up, he asks AJ for a job and though funds are low, the need for a second mechanic garners Jameson a new job. AJ makes it clear that he can only take his old friend back on a per day payment allocation and on the agreement that Jameson is to stay clear of doing anything more than platonic with AJ's younger sister. But try as he might, keeping things in the friend zone becomes far too difficult for Jameson, with Jillian drawing him with her openness and innocence. But with the promise he made AJ and the real reason why he left town five years ago ever present and making him feel guilty, Jameson needs to make a choice that could end up backfiring later on.
This was a pretty good NA love story with the friends to lovers trope used in an effective enough manner. Jillian and Jameson are both young and, let's face it, immature to a certain degree. Their actions are often dictated by their emotions and Jillian has a tendency of reacting by walking out instead of sitting down and discussing things. Of course, we have to keep in mind that she's only nineteen and he's only twenty-one, so we can't expect them to act like mature adults with gobs of life experience, though the experiences they've already had--Jameson with his mother's suicide and his father's disgusting behavior and Jillian with the deaths of both her parents and taking care of the business with AJ--are pretty heavy already. All in all, this was an okay read, and I do hope AJ gets his own story told in the future. Secrets & Promises gets 3.5 stars. ♥
Date Read: 05 May 2016
Learn more about Jane Anthony.
Purchase Secrets & Promises on Amazon.
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