Tuesday 18 December 2018

Review: All the Promises We Break by Brenda Benny

How do you move forward from a night that changes everything if you can’t even remember it?

With high school finally over, and her long-awaited South American adventure just around the corner, Savannah expects to wind up in the arms of her first real love Chase at the end of tonight’s party.

Instead, she wakes up on the bathroom floor.
She knows she wasn’t alone.
Except she can’t remember any of it.


Chase is nowhere to be found. And the only one picking up the pieces is her outrageous and unpredictable best friend, Pete. Amidst the devastating emotional wreckage of sexual assault, Savannah struggles to fit together the jigsaw puzzle of before and after, while shielding the truth from everyone around her.

Will the worst night of her life keep Savannah from her dreams of first love and finding the road less travelled?

All the Promises We Break is the first of a two book series that follows Savannah through a tragic 1990’s night that tears her apart from her first young love, only to set in motion a chain of events that will lead them back to one another, years later in the sequel, to reveal if the healing process can truly offer a second chance at first love.


Kindle Edition, 271 pages
Published October 13th 2018 by Liddle Book Press 
Genre: Young Adult/Contemporary
Kristine's Thoughts:
** I received an advanced readers copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!**

Right off the top I will tell you that this book will rub some people the wrong way. I caution those who like things to wrap up nice and neat and tidy to take a pass. On the other hand, I encourage people who like a story that is (unfortunately) pretty realistic when it comes to such a serious topic and how people deal with it to pick it up.

All the Promises We Break basically told two separate stories about Savannah that collided at one time. The first was the story of first love and the second was of a sexual assault. Weaving back and forth the reader gets light and sweet mixed with dark and messy. Personally I thought the author pulled this off quite well. I was glued to the pages and finished the book quickly. Young readers will really like the first love side of the story and will route for a happy ending.

What readers will not like is the way Savannah dealt with her assault and how the book ended. However, from reading the synopsis it is very clear that there is a second book that will hopefully resolve all of the issues and questions the reader is left with. This is what allowed me to enjoy the book. If I didn't know that there was to be a second book I probably would have been very unsatisfied but knowing that Savannah's story wasn't finished helped me to truly enjoy all that I was reading.

Did I wish Savannah would have dealt with things differently? Absolutely. Did I want her to speak up? Most definitely. However, statistically she did what a lot of people in her situation did and I feel like it made the story less fanciful and more real.

I cannot wait to get my hands on the second book and to find out what becomes of Savannah. Like all believers in true love, I hope she gets hers.




About the Author
After a couple university degrees and some world travel, Brenda Benny settled down to a life of helping others communicate their stories. One day she decided to start writing her own.

When she’s not shining in the glow of a computer screen, she can be found warming up in the sun after a freezing cold lake swim, chilling with friends at an outdoor music festival, skate skiing on a sunny day, or hiking to the summit because it’s there. She believes that dark chocolate and tortilla chips are two overlooked food groups.

Brenda is lucky enough to live amongst the awesome lakes and forests of Muskoka Ontario Canada with her husband, two sons, and their guinea pig named Chocolate.


Connect with Brenda
 

No comments:

Post a Comment