Review: Promise Me by Robin Bielman & Samanthe Beck


Note: An advanced reader copy (ARC) was provided by the Entangled Publishing via NetGalley.

His lips are warm and soft, the contact firm, as he presses kiss after kiss along my shoulder, but his mouth slowly turns hotter and hungrier as he progresses. It's the only part of his body on me, and it's electrifying. 
He drops kisses across my upper back to my other shoulder, then slowly tracks down my spine, his lips parting and open-mouthed devotion raining down my flesh. I quiver. My breathing speeds up. His tongue flicks out, but it's not exactly a lick, more like a promise. A promise of what's to come...

One bestselling author who also happens to be one of my favorite go-to authors plus another bestselling author whose work has had me swooning in the past equals one of my top romance reads for the year. I'm talking about Robin Bielman and Samanthe Beck and their first-ever collaborative work, Promise Me, which I highly suspect and am desperately hoping is just the first in a new trilogy. (If it isn't, I'm willing to start a signature campaign, Entangled Publishing!) This touching brand-new release brings together the talents of these two renowned authors and gives fans and readers a story of forgiving oneself, finding the person you're meant to be, and fighting for love.

When twenty-two-year-old college graduate Kendall Hewitt is invited by her aunt and uncle to house-sit and pet-sit for the summer, she takes it as the perfect opportunity to make few important decisions in her life. The second to the last thing she expected was to be sharing the house with her two older half-sisters. The last thing she thought would ever happen was to save the hot next-door neighbor from getting run over by his own car. From that moment on, Vaughn Shaughnessy becomes a fixture in Kendall's life, but with the twenty-four-year-old model on the verge of a career-making job, Kendall can't afford to become too attached, no matter how tempting he may be. She swore to not mess up, but she also once promised she'd always remember to be braver, smarter, and stronger.

This book! Gah! It had all the feels and then some, leaving me with a whole host of emotions and a major "le sigh" sort of general reaction by the end. I adored Kendall as a female main character. Here was a young woman who was saddled by guilt due to missteps made in the past and believing that part of her atonement was to play safe, which in turn meant not following her heart, or at least that was how I saw it. The summer she was at her aunt and uncle's home became a turning point, and while gorgeous and generous Vaughn was her biggest inspiration to move forward, there was also her sisters, Dixie and Amber--who I'm REALLY hoping will get their own stories told alongside Vaughn's best friends slash roommates, Matt and Dylan. More importantly, however, the choice to let go of things holding her back was one she made on her own because it was something she needed and wanted to do.

I'm not sure who did what with this novel, but Robin Bielman and Samanthe Beck did what I believe is a seamless job combining writing efforts here. I couldn't tell if one author did Kendall's point-of-view and if the other did Vaughn's or how the writing duties were split up, and that's a good thing because I like not being able to tell! I love it when I get all the goodness that I expect from a romance novel and then get bonuses along with it. There was the sweet with the steamy and the lighthearted with the heartrending in this truly wonderfully penned story that had two main characters that I couldn't help but fall in love with and a cast of supporting characters that have more than piqued my curiosity (please, please, PLEASE tell me there are more books from Bielman and Beck!!!). I got lost in this novel, and for the nearly three hours I spent reading it, I did not want to be found at all. I promise you that Promise Me is a book that every romance readers needs in their life. This 2019 favorite gets five-plus stars. ♥

Release Date: 15 April 2019

Date Read: 14 April 2019

Learn more about Robin Bielman and Samanthe Beck.

Purchase Promise Me on Entangled Publishing | Amazon | Apple Books | B&N | Kobo.

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