MAKING PROMISES - Michelle Monkou
BET/Arabesque
October 2004
SYNOPSIS: When a journalist from Washington, D.C., is sent to Texas to cover a career-making expos, she finds herself falling in love with the very man she's been sent to dig up dirt on in this exciting Kwanzaa romance.
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE: (3) Jennifer Brathwaite
REVIEW: There are two sides to every story. As true today as when the aphorism was first coined, this concept is the theme of MAKING PROMISES. The book’s main characters, Amber Delaney and Bo Pemberton, are repeatedly faced with having to examine their ways of thinking not only about one another but about the circumstances that have brought them into each other’s lives in the first place.
The novel has several significant story lines. The main one of these concerns the heroine Amber. Frustrated by the current state of her life and career and out of loyalty to a former friend, Zoë, Amber decides use her job to bring down the man she feels is responsible for the devastating downfall of her friend. Her convictions are made stronger by the fact that in her mind this faceless individual has seemingly got away free and clear. Out of a need to appease her conscience over letting her friendship with Zoë wane she endeavours to make sure that he pays his due.
Another thread in the book is that as a result of a brief experience with modern dating Amber acquires a crazed stalker who throws her life into a tailspin. The third significant story line concerns the hero of the book, Bo and his own demons. As a result of the public scandal involving the company where he worked he returns home to the ranch and the life in which he grew up and from which he ran away. Once back there he is faced with the same questions, challenges and feelings that caused him to flee in the beginning.
The story unfolds at an appropriate pace but seems rushed as it nears the end. This is a serious problem given that there are so many story lines. The characters are varied and intriguing and have a purpose to push the story along - from Bo’s mother to Amber’s friend Sylvia, to the deranged stalker himself.
The locations used in MAKING PROMISES, as well as the dialogue, are both assets of the text. Bo’s ranch house and surrounding property – a magnificent, wooden structure encompassed by rolling planes – are described in such a way that there are easily imagined. The dialogue is both humorous and well used not only to tell the story but also to show character personality – Amber’s boss being a good example.
Altogether the book is quite enjoyable but it collapses as it approaches the conclusion. The novel ends with two of the main plot lines not really being addressed at all and the third only mildly so. Further, because the end is so congested it becomes unrealistic and anticlimactic. This weakness affects negatively the reader’s enjoyment of the book as a whole.
jennifer@romanceincolor.com (4th September 2004)