Title: Promise 
Author: Kristie Cook
Genre: Fantasy/Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Ang’dora Productions, LLC (self pub)
Publication Date: July 20, 2010
eBook: 475kb, Print 336 pages
Where’d I Get It: .99 sale @ Amazon.com
Synopsis (From Goodreads): Alexis Ames decides to learn who she really is, with or without the help of her mother, who guards their secrets closely. After meeting Tristan Knight and discovering that he’s not normal either, the secrets begin to unravel. Their union brings promise to the future of mankind. But it also incites a dangerous pursuit by the enemy. Because they are a match made in Heaven and in Hell.
My Thoughts: I wanted so very much to love this book. I read the synopsis on Goodreads.com and it seemed interesting. When the Kindle price on Amazon went to 99 cents, I snagged it.
My delight at the price, though, was where the happy ended.
This review may lean slightly toward the side of spoiler-ish, so stop reading now if you want. Then again, if you’ve even half a clue what went on in Twilight, you’ll have no surprises in Promise.
The protagonist is a young girl who believes she’s ugly as sin but who keeps getting told by everyone else that she’s gorgeous. The self-loathing yet beautiful young girl moves to a new town and once there she meets a new guy who she is, of course, immediately attracted to. This guy is mysterious, slightly creepy, and (again, of course) drop dead gorgeous. Oh, and everyone else thinks he’s bad news.
Guy’s name is Tristan, which I admit is quite a bit nicer (in my opinion) than Edward. Tristan is constantly wanting to kill Alexis even though he loves her. He saves her from a potentially/probably fatal car accident, at which point she figures out he’s not really all that “normal”. No, people, I’m not just superimposing the Twilight plot over this book in some sort of confused daze…this really happens.
Now I could have forgiven this. Really, I could have, because Kristie Cook’s writing is at least a bit better than Mrs. Meyer’s. But she lost me with the craptastic “intimate” stuff.
Alexis practically throws herself at Tristan. In fact, she literally does. She begs him repeatedly to have sex with her, but of course he refuses. At one point she feels like she’s losing him so her MOTHER drives her to his house, tells her to do what she has to do, and Alexis proceeds to strip naked and prostrate herself in front of him. Seriously, in an attempt to keep the guy she offers to give him her virginity if he’ll only please, please, please, ohmigosh, not leave her. Argh!
I’m going to just stop here, because I literally can’t find anything nice to say about the book except Ms. Cook’s writing style trumps Mrs. Meyer’s by far. Oh, and the concept was nice – the angel/demon lore was actually interesting and I’m truly sad that absolutely nothing awesome came from such promise. I suppose I don’t have to say that I’ll be skipping the sequel/s in this series.
Rating: 2 of 5 (<– changing my rating system from 1-10 to 1-5)
Bella Factor: Yes. Really, I think Alexis was Bella in another life.