Review of The Promises She Keeps!

This book was not what I was expecting. In The Promises She Keeps, author Erin Healy tells the story of Promise Dayton, an aspiring singer who has cystic fibrosis, which is a deadly lung disease. She usually only models for a college art class for the students, but when a student Zach asks to take pictures of her so that he may later draw pictures, Promise reluctantly agrees. During the session, her orange scarf blows away and Promise dives after it down a cliff to her death.

But she doesn't die.

Several times do occurrences happen where Promise should die but she doesn't. Her strange situation attracts the attention of a woman named Porta, the owner of an art shop, and a young autistic man named Chase. The two are as different as night and day. Porta believes in the dark arts, and she becomes convinced Promise is a goddess of immortality. She is determined to do anything to get Promise. Chase is a sweet yet odd artist who draws people as trees. When he draws Promise's tree, he is determined to save her and love her- at any cost.

This is not a romance or an inspirational story of a girl overcoming her disease, although those elements are present. As I said before, I was not expecting this spiritual, fantasy, yet real life set story. I felt as if I were on the brink of an absolute chaos with every turn of the page. The author is a master of suspense from the very first chapter. This book was terrifying, emotionally moving, and totally riveting. The character of Chase is extremely endearing, and I felt as if he was a real person who I felt sympathetic to.

I wasn't a big fan of the ending, but I will admit that it ended the story beautifully. Also, I found this book to be somewhat confusing in parts.

All in all, I rate this book four out of five stars.

Specifics (from amazon.com): 
~Paperback: 352 pages
~Publisher: Thomas Nelson; 1 edition (February 8, 2011)

Note: Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a free copy of this book for reviewing purposes.

Blessings,