Life can really deal us a bad hand. It is up to us to either allow it to break us down, or empower us to overcome the negative obstacles placed before us. Tamara Angela Grant did just that in her first novel, Promises Made, Promises Kept.
A family that is filled with “I will” and “I will not” fights hard to overcome every challenge placed before them. Mia “Mimi” Lawson, daughter to Clifton “Cliff” Lawson and Patrice “Tricie” Reed, struggles to get over the love she feels she is missing by making some wrong choices. When her father walked away from her mother, Mia felt as if he turned and walked away from her, also. Dealing with the feeling of abandonment by one parent and the other, living life in a fog, Mia turns to the wrong type of people looking for the love she is missing.
Due to some life changing situations, Mia starts to receive promises from all her loved ones. Some things just seemed so unrealistic and she just felt like giving up on those people. A conversation with her cousin, Mookie, gave her a lot to think about, which was a turning point in her life. In order to move forward, you have to get over the past. That is not always easy. Counting your blessings for what you have is better than thinking you just do not have enough.
Promises Made, Promises Kept was a breath of fresh air. It is a quick and easy read about a family’s struggle, to get back together and keep it together, even in times of trouble. Other than a few grammatical errors, I cannot say enough about this book. I recommend this book especially to a family that feels they have the most dysfunctional household ever. This is bound to show that all families have issues, it is just that some know how to hide it better than others.
