Promises to Keep
Author: Jane Green
Publication Date: June 15, 2010
Publisher: Viking Adult
ISBN: 978-0670021796
352 pages
Source: I received this book from the publisher for my honest review.
Back cover Synopsis:
Callie Perry is a successful family photographer in Bedford, New York, with two kids, great friends, and a workaholic husband. Callie’s sister, Steffi, is a free spirit, living in Manhattan, and bouncing between jobs and boyfriends. Lila Grossman is Callie’s best friend and has finally met the man of her dreams. Walter and Honor are Callie and Steffi’s divorced parents, who barely speak to each other. This novel is about the hard choices we have to face, about having to be your parents child long after you’ve grown up, and about the enduring nature of love.
My Thoughts:
I have to apologize for the content of this review. I’m not even sure if this review actually qualifies as a “review”. There are no spoilers noted here, but read on for my story regarding this book!
Beautiful story of family and relationships. The major plot point of the novel was revealed to me by the librarian at my local library when we were discussing the book (I was only about 50 pages in at the time), so there was no “Oh my Gosh” moment for me. I’m a bit bummed about that, to say the least! And I am actually having an extremely hard time writing my review because I felt the book was completely spoiled for me because of this. I knew what was coming so my enjoyment of the story as it unraveled was just ruined. 
I really tried not to think about it as the story progressed, but it was impossible not to. I just kept waiting for the “major” thing to happen and when it did, I felt nothing but “There it is!” I feel terrible about that! I was engrossed in the characters lives and their stories, but I knew what was coming so, at times, I almost felt like it was pointless for me to even continue reading the book.
Otherwise, I found this book to be a fairly good read, but hard to follow at times. There were a lot of characters to keep track of and I got confused on more than one occasion as to who was who. I’m not sure we needed to have so many different people telling the story or having their particular back story. It just seemed to be too much. I don’t want to have to work at reading a novel and for the first half of this book, I felt like it was work trying to keep track of all the different characters that were presented.
With that said, this is a wonderful story that has you rooting for the main characters, but left me feeling a bit depressed and melancholy rather than uplifted. I need to go find myself a fun and enjoyable novel to get myself out of this depressing mood I’m in now because of this book!! Jane Green is a wonderful storyteller and I would definitely recommend this book, but don’t read any reviews or spoilers beforehand!!! Or talk to anyone who has read it!
