The Promise by J.L. Beck

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Giving my virginity to a stranger was my first mistake.

Lying about my age, my second.

Never expecting to see Lex again, my third.

He promised me one night and I took it, never expecting anything in return. 

Then a few months later, I see something I shouldn’t have and fate brings us back together again. I didn’t mean to see it and I wasn’t snooping. I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but that doesn’t matter to them. I’m a liability. 

Now Lex is everywhere I am. Following me, watching me, and making sure I don’t tell anyone what I saw that night. He’s dominating, possessive, and downright controlling sometimes. He warns me of how dangerous this could be for both of us. He tells me that he doesn’t want to hurt me, but he has no idea what seeing him again is doing to me. Not when I have secrets of my own, secrets Lex isn’t ready to hear. 

When all the lies are told and secrets come out, will the promises that we made in the dark be kept in the light?

The Promise

A good guy!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙🤎💜❤️
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙
World building: 🌏🌍🌍🌏🌎
Character development: 😠☺️😋🥰
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Dual Narration

The heroine: Jude – she escapes her home and her abusive father for one night and ends up at Northwoods University. She goes to a party and meets an older guy, loses her virginity and goes back home. Her father won’t let her attend university. He thinks women are supposed to marry, have babies and take care of their men. Though Jude wants to do something bad enough that her family will shun her, because she knows if she runs away, they will come after her and find her.

The Hero: Lex – while drinking in a bar one night, trying to figure out what to do with his life, he meets Jude. He is a former marine and sees some drunken sod manhandling her. He sees her as needing rescue and his dad raised him right, so he helps her out and takes her to his house for the night.

The Story: Lex is a gentleman and just wants to help out Jude when he meets her, but he wants her as well, so when she makes the first move, he doesn’t turn her down. They have a steamy one night stand and when he wakes up the morning she is gone. She goes back to her family in order to free herself from the cult like existence she has lived at home.

Six weeks later, Lex has decided that he has some feelings for Jude and doesn’t see her as a one night stand. He finds himself working at the local Gym with his friends Luke and Roman. After work one night, they go find a guy on the campus who has been bothering Luke’s wife, as they are beating the guy, they turn and see Jude standing there watching. Lex goes after Jude, who is scared out of her mind and suffering from PTSD. She no longer sees the gentle lover she saw that night, but a violent man.

The story is good, Lex is really a great guy and just wants Jude. He wants to take care of her and protect her and he goes back into his past and shows how he has been that kind of guy since he was a kid protecting his brothers. It was such a contrast to how Jude grew up and it was exactly what she needed. Her self esteem was so damaged, she didn’t think anyone like him would ever be or stay interested in her.

This book was told in dual points of view by a dual narration. It and was narrated by Teddy Hamilton and Ava Lucas. Teddy Hamilton is one of my favorite male narrators, he has a deep smokey voice which is always sexy and he is great at showing emotions in his narration. Ava Lucas has a soft, feminine voice which I liked, but I am not too fond of her scratchy male voice.

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