Forever Promised

Forever PromisedTitle: Forever Promised (Promises #4)
Author: Amy Lane and Paul Morey (Narrator)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: April 27th 2015
Genre(s): M/M Contemporary Romance
Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
Reviewed by: Belen
Heat Level: 3 flames out of 5
Rating: 3.83 stars out of 5

Blurb:

Crick has been home from Iraq for five years, Jeff and Collin are finally married, and Shane and Mikhail are quietly making lives better for the dispossessed teenagers who come their way. Everything is right in Deacon’s world, but nothing ever stays the same.

When Deacon’s best friends, Jon and Amy, answer the call of an opportunity in Washington, DC, Deacon figures that’s life. You love people, and they leave you, and you survive. Even Benny, Crick’s little sister, is close to grown and ready to start her own future. But Benny loves Deacon, and she owes him—she may move beyond The Pulpit and Levee Oaks one day, but not without leaving something of herself behind. And so she offers Deacon and Crick an amazing gift… and a terrifying decision.

Benny’s offer forces Deacon and Crick to dredge up every past mistake and offer of redemption. And not just the two of them—everybody is forced to examine the chances they’ve been given and the promises they’ve made. In a real family, a child is a promise, and to the men and women of Promise Rock, keeping that promise will change their lives forever.


Belens Audio Book Review

So this is going to contain some spoilers, folks, because there is no way on earth I can review this without them. But I’m going to put them all behind spoiler tags – so if you don’t want to know…don’t click on the tag. Okay? Okay! So here we go!

This is the final installment of the Promises series and once again it’s narrated by Paul Morey. I loved Paul Morey’s narration. It’s what kept me going for this one.

Spoiler

So full disclosure…I’m not a kid person. I never wanted babies. So I’m not the most objective when it comes to stories that revolve around babies like this one does. The “baby fever” in this took up a lot of time. A lot. Dare I say too much time?

Don't judge me

Forever Promised is narrated by a lot of the characters: Benny, Deacon, Mikhail, Collin, Crick, Jeff, Shane, and Jon. Seriously, it was too much for me. It was way too many POVs and it lost a little shine because of it. You know what? That’s not true. I would have been fine with it if it weren’t for Benny. I mainly didn’t particularly care for Benny’s POV. I could have happily had her continue to be the strong thread interwoven in the group, being a sort of mother/sister to them all, but happily never residing in her mind. I just wanted more of my boys.

Spoiler
Things I didn’t love about the story:

I felt badly for Crick and Drew. I didn’t understand the reasoning that Benny was going have a baby with Deacon so she could “give her love away” and finally get over being “in love” with Deacon. It seems to me that would tie them even closer together by creating a bond that would never be broken…

wait what

I felt like storylines were dropped…what’s happening with Kimmy? Are Jeff and Collin going to adopt? What happened with Martin? Now that Benny is staying is she going to try to take a more active role in James Deacon’s life?

Finally, I hated Missy. Like straight up blinding HATE. Look, I know this is a fictional characters, but my emotion for her is REAL. As a result, what she did and how she behaves was too quickly glossed over for me. To thread the character throughout and then have her do what she does…frankly – I wanted her to pay. I wanted her to go through something other than some silence from Mikhail to pay for what she’d done. That whole storyline still makes my blood boil, even more than twelve hours after finishing the book! I mean I get it’s all about redemption and blah-blah-blah, but ARGH!

I hate her

In the end though, it is about the boys. That’s who I’ve come to love, and that’s who I got to spend time with. Seeing them come through all their trials and tribulations to be triumphant on the other side. This story reads like a love letter to the fans who love these characters, I dare say almost as much as Amy Lane does.

Fans of the series will be prepared for all the angst and twists, because we expect them at this point. If you don’t – you haven’t been paying close enough attention.

I love them all and wish them all well. When I find myself in the future missing Deacon, Crick, Shane, Mikhail, Jeff and Collin, I will listen or read these books again to visit with them.

im-glad-i-can-talk-to-you

“It’s why they all gathered here, weddings, funerals, the introduction of their son – it was the promise and the heartbreak of the place Deacon’s family called home. It was the legacy of a community, a simple swimming hole, a place made sacred by love. Promise Rock.”

Recommended.

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Review Copy

Audio copy of provided by in exchange of an honest review.

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