Book Review: The Promise of Us by Jamie Beck

A story about romance, friendship and forgiveness, “The Promise of Us ” runs the gamut of emotions as it unfolds the story of childhood friends who seem to not be able to get along as grown-ups.

To an onlooker, it would appear that fate had given Claire McKenna the short end of the stick. At 15, a random shooting shattered her hip and ended her promising professional tennis career. Then, a few years back, her boyfriend Todd dumped her in favor of Peyton Prescott, her childhood friend.

And now, her interior design business was teetering, and it needed paying clients for it to survive. Then to add insult to injury, Peyton Prescott and her brother Logan Prescott were back in town, their presence stirring up bad memories.

The Promise of Us (Sanctuary Sound Book 2)

With a premise like that, author Jaime Beck gave herself a tall order to get to a happily ever after. Claire and Logan have to rekindle whatever they had in their childhood which never went beyond over a crush because Logan led a nomadic life as a photographer when he reached adulthood.

Then Claire has to find forgiveness in her heart to Peyton’s betrayal of their friendship and the Girl Code. On the other hand, Logan has to side with his sister for familial reasons and because Peyton really needed his support as she struggles with cancer.

From this point of view, our romantic hero and heroine were truly in the opposite ends. But, author Jaime Beck is a master of her craft. From their opposite ends, Claire and Logan slowly walked towards the middle and finally met each other on equal footing, no pun intended.

The “The Promise of Us ” touched me on a personal level on the friendship between Claire and Peyton. I was betrayed by a friend whom I trusted and whom I loved like family. The betrayal was not about romantic love, but about business. The harm to my business was the easiest to push aside. It was the lost of trust that truly devastated me.

Then, something unthinkable happened. That friend of mine was in a bad accident and she did not come out whole. I was sad for her, but I was still not in a forgiving mood because I was still trying to fix the consequences of my friend’s action to my business.

This will sound religious, but I had to pray for myself so that I can find forgiveness in my heart towards my friend. Though I know I was the aggrieved party, the accident my friend had made me feel like I was being a total jerk not being able to forgive.

With this in mind, I truly understand why Claire was having a hard time finding forgiveness for Peyton who had cancer and still undergoing treatment for it.

Once again, I have to commend author Jaime Beck in her handling of this scenario between two major characters. I don’t want to give spoilers, so I won’t say how it was done.

“The Promise of Us ” is Rated M for Mature.