REVIEW: Promises, Promises by Janice Baker GIVEAWAY

Promises, Promises

By Janice Baker

Genre: Erotic Romance, Contemporary Romance

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Blurb:

Isabella “Izzy” McKenna just came out of a two year, well, she couldn’t really call it a relationship. It was more like two years of being dominated and controlled by a handsome, domineering and powerful man. 

When she finally decides to leave him, after he finally pushes her too far, she revives her friendship with her best friend from college.

Little did Izzy know that rekindling her friendship would also throw her into an amazing loving relationship with a gorgeous fun, but at times jealous, bar owner named Z.

Will Izzy’s horrible childhood and past controlling relationship keep her from finally finding the love that she’s always searched for? Or will he ruin the love that is finally just in her grasp?

My mind was racing in an endless loop of thoughts. Do I really want this? Is this what I really want to do? Leave him? Forever? Yes..? No…? What he did was unthinkable, but did he really make me do it? I mean, I let it happen. Although, it was under his command.

His command – that’s what it comes back to. I was so used to letting him control me, my body...my mind…allowing him to do things to my body most women would never allow. The control…

Walking faster, I couldn’t stop the tears…uncontrollable. I could feel the black limo following me…or was it my imagination? Was I really free to leave? Or was he treating me as a child and seeing if I’d come back on my own.

Memories rushed through my mind of being a child and packing my Barbie suitcase with anything I could find (including stuffed animals and several Barbie dolls) so I could “run away” from home at the age of five. I walked out the front door crying, yelling that I’d never be back. Only to go down the street to realize – where was I going? And now, at the age of 24, I was asking myself the same exact question and feeling just

like I did at the age of five. Where was I going?

I had no family and I had broken contact with Brad and all my college friends, even my best friend, after I had met him. That was two years ago. Had it really been two years now I was under his control? He would never say he loved me. I understood that from the beginning. He had told me he was incapable of love. That was okay with me at the time. What he offered to a woman just out of college was incredible, I thought at the time. Starting out with expensive clothes, living in his penthouse apartment, fancy dinners, cars, travels to Europe on a whim. It was everything a young woman could want.

Except love.

The one thing he explained in the beginning that he would never be able to provide. Love. Being 22 and naive…I could make him change – love me as I wanted to be loved.

No stranger to having a hard life, the book starts out introducing us to Izzy and her less than perfect childhood. She is often left at a bar to wait for her mother, while her mother meets her male clients. Izzy’s only friends are a few good hearted men at the bar who take care of her while her mother “works.” That home life leaves Izzy growing up to crave love and to be loved, but instead she finds HIM.

Everything is great is Izzy’s world at first, she enters a relationship with Him but before long her fairy tale falls apart. No longer the man she has known He begins punishing her more and more, all while she desperately tries to earn His love. Finally Izzy breaks and runs away from Him to start a new life. Emptying her bank account and running with only the clothes on her back she seeks refuge with her old college friend. Always looking over her shoulder for Him, Izzy tries to find a normal life without rules and punishments. After so long under her control is Izzy ready to love again or will He come to reclaim her? Her future starts to look brighter after she finds a new job working for Z, who soon finds his girlfriend has been cheating on him and throws her out. There’s an instant connection between Izzy and Z, but will it be enough to undo the damage her ex has done?

 I couldn’t read fast enough to find where Izzy’s new path would lead her-would it lead her to Z’s arms and his protection or would it lead back to Him and the punishments. This is a great read that kept me longing for more and more. The friendships between the characters were so real and genuine it felt like I knew them personally within a few pages. There’s a sweetness about Izzy’s character that makes your heart break for all she’s been through and to want a happy ending for her.  I found myself wanting to hide Izzy away, like my sister or my best friend, so He could never hurt her again. Z’s character is a perfect mix of protective male without being overly domineering and I cheered for him hoping he could find a way to make Izzy whole again.

You won’t be able to put this book down once you pick it up.  There was plenty of mystery, chemistry, and humor to make the story flow without becoming too dark. 

I give this book 5 shields and would recommend it to my own friends!!!

 

Janice Baker is the author of Promises, Promises. Her novels involve steamy romance, intriguing plots and happy endings. Writing books has become a passion in her life and something she plans to continue for a very long time. When she is not writing, you can find her spending time with her family down at the beach and thinking up more drama for her books.

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