Making Promises

If you're a fan of Amy Lane then you already know how well she writes love, pain, angst and redemption stories. This book is classic Amy Lane and it gave me all the feels! Shane is tall, deceptively imposing and has a heart of gold. Mikie is brash, outspoken and has this larger than life personality all wrapped up in a bite size package. The unlikely pair meet when Shane goes to visit his sister at a Ren Faire and the attraction is obvious, mutual, but Mikie fights it every step of the way. He's like one of the many cats Shane has adopted, but Mikie is most definitely feral. It takes a whole hell of a lot of cajoling, courting and everything shy of Shane using his handcuffs to cuff Mikie to the bed to get Mikie to stop long enough to realize that Shane is not like all those other guys. The big, generous cop that puts everyone he knows and loves before himself is Mikie's knight in a blue uniform with an almost constant set of broken ribs.

This was a long story but it kept my attention throughout. If I could have listened from start to finish without stopping, I definitely would have. Paul Morey is the most amazing narrator that ever lived. His voice is like honey slowly trickling down a rough, prickly tree branch, both scratching an itch and causing goosebumps. Every character had their own, distinct tone in the story and every iota of emotion that was written in the words pulled from Lane's brain was poured into the narration.

I'm sure you could start with this story as a stand alone, but listening to (or reading) the first book will give you the backstory of many of the secondary characters and, in my opinion, make this book that much better.

As you know already, with the approval of Dreamspinner Press, we’re reviewing previously published books. We continue with Amy Lane‘s, Keeping Promise Rock contemporary romance series.

I love this series!

This second book of the Promise Rock Series can be read as a standalone. We met Mikhail in book one, as Shane’s boyfriend, for a brief moment. That was kind of a spoiler, but I enjoyed this sequel anyway.

Shane is the new officer of Levee Oaks living with a hurtful past from L.A. He was betrayed by his boyfriend/colleague and also by his squad. Shane has a kind of hero complex. He likes to help and save the day.
His sweet nature is often misunderstood for a simpleton brute. He is a big man. Often he’s called ugly and fat. That leads to him being an introvert and a people pleaser.
When he’s visiting his tween sister, who is performing as a dancer in Renaissance Fair, his breath is taken away by the slender, gracious Mikhail. He stares at him silently from afar hoping to be noticed even though he knows that he has no chance with someone like Mikhail.

Mikhail is Russian with a brutal past. After his knee is injured, his dream of becoming a professional dancer is killed as well. He buries himself in auto destructive behavior, and when that is too much, his mother takes him to the US.
When fate brings Shane in his way, he takes it by his hand (literally). He spends a marvelous day with this amazing man, and he leaves him waiting for more. And then Shane does something awful…he makes promises to Mickey.

Guys, grab this series already if you didn’t do it before and read it.

The sweetness and shyness of these men is just adorable. The strength that lives within, the brotherhood and the dedication to each other is tear-jerking. I’m in love with this series…!

So refreshing to see how Shane loves Mickey and did all he could to know him and get to know his reactions at all times. Mickey and his mom had a beautiful relationship.

This second installment in Amy Lane's Promises series in no way disappointed. Although, I should mention that once again I waited until I re-read this book before writing my review. I get pretty choked up with a lot of Ms. Lane's books and her writing so I felt it was only fair to wait a while before attempting a somewhat coherent review.
Shane Perkins was a beat cop in LA who got a pretty bad deal (grrrrrrr). Along with that came a mighty big payout that enabled him to move to Levee Oaks, buy a house, get some dogs, and work for their police department. That's where he meets Deacon, Crick, Amy, Benny, Jon, and Andrew, and Shane becomes another member of the family. Poor Shane has not got a good view of himself. He's a guy who has spent most of his life living in his own head within his own dreams and doesn't always have the best social skills. The fact that he's also not always the quickest at verbal come-backs and instead his mouth usually spills out rather unusual statements, has left Shane lonely and without close friendships for most of his life. He's been seen as weird and pathetic. But now he has The Pulpit and the family they've all made. Shane is sort of an old-fashioned guy who believes in love and family and romance.
Enter Mikhail Bayul, Russian dancer. Now Mikhail doesn't believe in love and he certainly doesn't believe that someone as deep down nice and good as Shane could exist. He's afraid to hope as that's never done him any good his whole life. So he hides behind arrogance and defensiveness in an effort to never be hurt or made to feel vulnerable again. He is like a lost little boy in some ways and he will break your heart and make you cry. For you see, Mickey has an ugly background that makes him feel dirty and ashamed and not worthy.
These two together are beautiful in a way that's almost hard to explain. Both have insecurities and vulnerabilities but an amazing ability to speak the same language and be understood.
\"Shane had a sudden understanding. Talking to this man was like following a kitten with a ball of yarn. That thing was going to take him a lot of different, tangled places before he unraveled it and put it in order. 'Stop chasing worsted,' he muttered.....
'Handsome as a cat,' Shane said without meaning to, and then he wanted to smack his head against the four-by-four post holding the entire tent up.
'One that chases worsted balls of words,' Mikhail finished for him.....\"
This isn't an easy love story. The great ones never are. There are moments of such unimaginable pain that it will almost make your heart stop and then equal moments of heart lifting joy. The parts that hit me the absolute hardest are scenes with Mikhail and his mom; the Pulpit family babysitting Mikhail and making him one of theirs; Mikhail and Benny's friendship and bonding over driving lessons.
\"I didn't know GTO's came with oh-shit-bars. Crick's Toyota has a different feature - we call it the hail-Jesus-handle. Do you think they do the same thing?\"
The underlying meaning in 'Making Promises' is simple. Love and family are the most important things in the world. If you don't have those and/or give them, life is lonely and miserable. End of story. I loved this book and will re-read it many, many more times!

The blurb for this book sounded great. However the book was terrible. It started off fiarly ok but within ten pages got very confusing and distracting. The author is NOT good with moving a story seemlessly and I know this because i brought another book to give her another chance, Big mistake, her book Talker, was also terrible and the font she used was the worst. Tried but can't.