A Promise to Keep, by Ann Durand
Reviewed by Billie A Williams
Karen Hudson, a third grade teacher seems to have the world in her pocket and deservingly so. The job
she loves, students who love her, the perfect man--her soul mate and love of her life, Michael Browning and
his daughter, Jennifer, are her world. Life couldn’t get any better. She never expected it to get worse and
then to go from worse to catastrophic.
Ann Durand keeps her promise for a compelling mystery-romance as she takes the reader on a journey
that begins with love, is fueled by love and we hope against hope, will end with love. Karen Hudson loves
Michael Browning/Michel Borbeau. What name he goes by doesn’t matter, what does matter is her all
consuming love for him and his daughter Jennifer.
When Michael comes to her with a strange request “…to believe in me, no matter what happens,” Karen’s
life begins to crumble as she searches for answers to why he has disappeared. Why his strange request?
As her trials become tougher she grows stronger always reaching deep within. Calling on resources she
was endowed with, she perseveres. She never loses faith in Michael.
The clues she plants, the red herrings you fall for, the sleuthing of the puzzle are brilliantly manipulated as
she pulls you along in the story.
You learn about the lands her characters traverse, you learn of the cultures that bump into each other in
those travels. Her use of languages is so natural and instinctive you know exactly what she’s saying even if
you’ve never spoken Spanish or Raramuri. Most of all you learn about the characters that people her
wonderful story. By the end of the book you’ll be jumping for joy with Emilie Bordeau, hugging Jennifer as
though she was your own, laughing and crying with Karen, and ready to grab one of the other character’s
weapons and dispatch the evil embodied by Clarice Borbeau.
Ms. Durand’s imagery paints a movie in your mind. One example that sticks in mine is “His dark hair was
bushy in front, and lunged over his crown like a bird’s plume.” Can’t you just picture this man? A Promise to
Keep is written with a great sense of the power of words to create vivid imagery.
The characters are real; her story grips you and holds you until you read the final line where you find
yourself hours later not wanting A Promise to Keep to end.
Page after page the wild ride, the twists and turns, introduced by Ms. Durand never end each more heart
rending than the last. When you think all is solved and saved Ms. Durand turns up the heat with another
twist.
I read this book in one sitting, and I rarely do that. I could not put A Promise to Keep down. I highly
recommend A Promise to Keep both as a mystery/suspense and a romance. If there was a 5 Cloak and
Dagger award for mystery, I’d definitely give Ms. Durand that as well as 5 Hearts for romance. Get it, read
it, you won’t be sorry you did and that’s A Promise to Keep.
Expect the unexpected from Mystery/Suspense author
Billie A Williams
Candlelight and Shadows, January 2005
www.billiewilliams.com
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| REVIEW of A PROMISE TO KEEP by BILLIE WILLIAMS TRI STUDIO BOOKS LLC |