Promise Me

What is it with these Christmas books? No matter how much alike they are, no matter how predictable, you can’t get through them without crying.

This one is about a young woman, Beth, who was not having a good life. It was 1989. Beth discovered her husband was cheating. A lot. Nevertheless, she decided she still loved him and would forgive him, only to find out he was dying of pancreatic cancer. He died in October. Meanwhile, her daughter Charlotte developed a mysterious disease no one could diagnose. Between the medical bills for her husband and daughter, Beth could no longer afford payments on her house. Then on Christmas Day, during a quick trip to the neighborhood 7-Eleven, she met a handsome stranger, Matthew, who changed her life show more forever.

However, when we first meet Beth in a prologue, it’s Christmas Eve, 2008, and she is married to Kevin.

The desire to find out what happened in the intervening years keeps you reading to the end, when we come back full-circle to the beginning.

Discussion: This book is of the "holiday book" genre in which you expect certain tropes, like magic or angels, and in which you do not expect to find multisyllabic words or high-flown prose. Even accepting the parameters of the genre, however, the author seems to have forgotten some important parts of the plot set-up. Thus, in spite of the appealing aspects of his main conceit, there are crater-sized holes in the logic that the author just elides over at the end. However, this didn’t stop me from crying. Christmas books, Christmas movies, Christmas commercials – doesn’t matter: they turn me into a eye-leaking mess.

Evaluation: A readable Christmas book with a fun twist, albeit with a couple of gapingly large plot holes. show less

Promise Me by Richard Paul Evans is very different than many Mr. Evans' books. It's still an excellent book, but it is not his "usual" fare.

I've been a fan of Mr. Evans since shortly after The Christmas Box came out and an even bigger fan after I met him at a book signing for Finding Noel and was impressed by how awesome he is with his fans. :)

Mr. Evans did warn his newsletter subscribers that there was going to be a twist to this book that may throw off some readers. I was not as thrown with the plot twist as my mom and some other fans because I actually enjoy books with that sort of plot twist and I'm used to reading about them.

That being said, Promise Me is still filled with the well-rounded, fleshed-out characters that we've come to show more expect from Mr. Evans. They're still facing the life-changing events and learning to trust, love, and live again like many of his stories. There are still important reminders within the story such as how the seemingly small changes in our lives can have the biggest impact.

I would've preferred that the story to go a bit beyond where it ended. It would've given readers a chance to see how the characters handled things once everything was back to normal, it was still a beautiful Christmas story.

I've recommended it highly to many of my friends, though I do make sure to tell them that it is a bit different from his previous works. You just have to stretch your mind and open it up to new possibilities. So, are you willing to suspend your disbelief? If you are, buy it, read it, love it! :) show less

Bethany Cartwright was living what she thought was a very happy and productive life with her husband and young daughter, when one day, the illusions of her marriage and the health of her daughter slipped away simultaneously. When Beth discovers that her husband has been having an affair during his business trips and that her daughter is seriously ill, she feels overwhelmed, frightened and inconsolable. After asking her husband to leave, she begins to deal head-on with her daughter’s illness, but discovers that she needs her husband’s help in making their daughter well again. Just when she lets him into her life again, tragedy deals her another double blow. It seems her husband is dying of pancreatic cancer, and during his last days show more of life, he admits to Beth that he has had several other affairs over the course of their marriage.

During this time, her daughter, Charlotte, is beset by illness again and again, and no doctor can discover what exactly is wrong with her. Soon Beth is a shell of the happy and well adjusted woman she one was. Still reeling over the death of her husband and his final betrayal, Beth feels she can’t afford to place her trust in anyone ever again and resolves to live her life as a lonely single mother, raising a daughter beset by difficulties with her health.

During a routine stop at the gas station one day, Beth notices a handsome and enigmatic man named Matthew, who approaches her and seems very interested in her. But Beth isn’t receptive to any of those kinds of attentions and quickly dismisses the man, hoping that she will never run into him again. But she does. Time and time again, Matthew finds and approaches her and asks her out, only to be met with a flat refusal. Not only does Beth have problems trusting men, Matthew is significantly younger than she is and she can see no reason why he would be attracted to her. But Matthew’s persistence finally pays off, and Beth begins to see him in a new light. Both romantic and attractive, Matthew steals Beth’s heart away and she finally believes that she will be able to love again. But there’s something mysterious and strange about Matthew. He knows things that he shouldn’t and seems always to be there for Beth in just the nick of time. When a misunderstanding occurs between the two, Matthew finally reveals his secret to Beth. Though at first she doesn’t believe it, she comes to accept that Matthew is a very important person, not only to herself in the present, but to her family in the years to come. In this realistic yet mystical tale, the story of the love affair between Matthew and Beth comes alive with intensity and clarity when the fates realign themselves in order to save a woman and her daughter from total emotional ruin.

I had a difficult time writing the summary paragraphs of this post, because one slip would have resulted in a spoiler that would have completely ruined the book for any potential reader. When I initially picked this book up, I thought it was going to be a Christmas story, which would have been strange, as it’s now the end of February. I think I was misled by the cover, which shows a bunch of mistletoe surrounded by a red and copper border. Once again, the cover of a book has led me to have quite a different expectation than what the book was ultimately about. How frustrating!

This book was mainly about relationships and the closing of a person’s heart when things have gotten too ugly to handle. Though in the beginning Beth doesn’t know her marriage is in trouble, some pretty huge secrets come to light very early on. It was sad to see that two people could live together and seem to have an idyllic life when one of them was being unfaithful to the other. And I just have to add that I’m really over-reading about infidelity as of late. You know what would be exceptional and unusual? A man who doesn’t cheat! Yes, I know it sounds jaded, but it seems all too common that people are willing to leave the bounds of their marriage to find comfort in a stranger’s arms. Okay, I’ll step off my soapbox now.

As Beth begins to deal with her husband’s betrayal, she shuts down and becomes the kind of person who is unable to focus and function. Although she eventually lets her guard down with her husband and lets him come back, the second she finds out about his other infidelities, she seems to lose whatever love she has for the man, which I can completely understand. It’s interesting that Beth decides to help ease her husband’s passing after all he’s done to her, but I could understand her reasoning for doing this, because despite what he put her through, he was still the father of her child, and the history they shared couldn't be so easily wiped away.

When Beth’s daughter gets critically ill after her husband’s confession, I could sympathize with her all the more. After taking Charlotte to doctor after doctor, the answers still didn’t come. No matter how hard Beth tried to manage what was going on with her daughter, her misery was compounded by the fact that her husband was not the man she thought he was, and this led her to be divided heart and soul between the two devastations in her life. It’s hard to describe the sense of helplessness you feel when your child is ill and there’s nothing you can do to help them. I imagine Beth was in a terrible position being the only one who could handle her ailing daughter and husband, and even though she had a staunch girlfriend to help her, she was basically alone in dealing with her issues. As her finances begin to grow tighter and tighter, Beth begins to struggle all the more with the imperfections of her life, and begins to become a bit maudlin and morose.

When Matthew comes into Beth’s life, she is completely unable to grant him entrance into her heart. I also found it strange that the much younger man would be interested in her, especially because he knew next to nothing about her. But there was something exceptional and special about Matthew that both Beth and the reader couldn’t ignore. As Beth lets him in, she begins to trust again and her life becomes transformed. But a crucial event puts Beth’s trust for Matthew on the line, and even I thought that there was a possibility he could be a villain. When he finally tells Beth the truth about himself, there was a curious sense of disbelief, and at that point I began to realize that for this book to work for me, I would have to suspend a portion of my sense of disbelief and just go with it. The background to Matthew’s conundrum was never explained, but that’s okay because it really didn’t need to be. He was there for a purpose, and though eventually Beth had to let him go, his intervention changed the course of her and Charlotte’s lives. Matthew’s appearance in Beth’s life was not only critical to Beth’s healing, but it also ended up shaping the destiny of all whose lives he touched.

It’s hard to fully explain this book or the impact it had on me without giving too may spoilers, but I think readers who have been intrigued by this review would really be in for a treat if they picked this book up. There’s a lot that’s unexpected and riveting about this story, and if you’re the type of person who loves stories that push the envelope and/or crave a thrill that will warm your heart, then this is the book for you. At its core it’s a bittersweet read, but it’s one that I found completely moving and ultimately uplifting. A very interesting read. Recommended. show less

I love time travel books but I wish this one had started out differently. I would have loved to hear about Matthew's life with his wife before he time traveled. Then when he makes his choice to stay or go back to his life, there is some comparison between the two lives. Who Matthew really is kind of a sticking point for me though. Most men avoid their mother in laws, not fall in love with them....

The first and only book of RPE that I have not given 5 stars. While I did enjoy this book and found it hard to put down, I'm really not into the whole he dates his future mother-in-law thing. I get that he saved her and changed her future and his wife's for the better, but it's still kind of creepy. With the strong Christian theme's of RPE books I am surprised by this turn. While the overall message was good and it was written in the same addicting manner, I'm not completely in love with it.

In Promise Me we meet Beth Cardall. And although the story starts in the present time - Christmas Eve with Beth getting ready for dinner with her family and friends, you can't help but wonder why she sadly stares at two necklaces one reminding her of a promise broken and the other of a promise kept. Beth has kept a secret for the past 18 years and this year (2008) she will finally come to terms with the past and get some answers.

For Beth, 1989 was a year marked in tragedy. Her young daughter Charlotte was suffering from an undiagnosed medical condition. The doctors are stumped and no matter how many tests they can't come up with a concrete answer. Her marriage to Marc, once brimming with love and trust - has unexpectedly turned into show more something full of betrayal and heartbreak. Her job feels unstable and she just doesn't make enough money to pay her bills.... Just when everything seems to be at its worst, Beth meets Matthew. Strikingly handsome, mysterious, yet knowing so much about her, Matthew. Matthew, the man that single-handedly changes the course of her life.

I cannot fathom celebrating the holidays without reading one of Mr. Evans' Christmas tales. It has become a tradition now - since I've read one for the past four or five years. As always Mr. Evans' focus is on love, family, home and faith. I also have to commend him for writing a story through a woman's POV (and in the first person) so perfectly. His stories are heart-warming, tear inducing and probably the most-feel-good stories you'll find around the holidays. The big secret was far-fetched and unbelievable... yes... but I still really liked the way the story played out. I felt that I was invested in these characters, in their outcome and just couldn't help but find myself believing in it all.

This is a story full of hope and of miracles. What more could you ask for during the holiday season? show less

The book started off at a slow pace. Dependent trusting wife, cheating husband, sick child, a death .. and everything else that you would normally expect. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoyed the read but the story had nothing new to offer. Just when I was giving up, Matthew entered and everything changed. The story was no longer just about romance and two people’s emotions.. It was about a mysterious man who was playing a vital role in a lone woman’s life. He was helping her live better; he diagnosis her daughter’s health condition, makes enough money for her to last a lifetime, loves her, cares for her daughter and seems to know a lot about her and the future – yet he does not get romantically linked with her.

Beth was someone I show more liked from the very first page. A brave woman who goes through a very tough phase in life but still manages to keep her spirits up and give life another chance. Her attraction towards Matthew and how she struggles initially is honest. The emotion and anger that she expresses when she doubts him of stealing her money is sincere. Matthew is a charm. He could sweep me off my feet any day and what makes him even more desirable is his ability to be honest to his relationships. The struggle by both of them to keep the relationship at the right level is so beautifully expressed.

“Promise Me” gave everything it promised and so much more. I enjoyed the book, the love, the characters and the writing. Now and then you come across a book that makes you feel good when you put it down and “Promise Me” did just that. show less