Broken Promises by Dawn Pendelton
Synopsis
After three years in Boston attending college, Mallory Wells has come home to Casper, Maine to care for her father, who is dying from cancer. She left Casper without looking back, leaving her small-town life and everyone in it, behind. Including her sexy high school sweetheart.
Luke Bates was devastated when Mallory left him for the city life. He managed to pull himself together and move on, even if only just barely. When Mallory shows up in town, Luke vows to stay away from her at all costs. So why does he want to spend as much time with her as he can? He knows she’s going back to Boston eventually, but he just can’t resist the lure of Mallory. Even if it means he’s heartbroken again when she leaves.
This is a New Adult genre book.
*Due to adult content, this book is recommended for adults 18+*
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Chelly’s Thoughts
Mallory Wells grew up in a gossip-loving small town where everybody knew everybody’s business and she couldn’t wait to get away, so when the opportunity came up for her to go to college in Boston, she jumped at the chance. She left behind her dad (the only family she had), a great group of friends, and her boyfriend of 4 years, Luke. She thought they’d be together forever, but he didn’t want to move to the big city, so she left him behind to find herself.
Fast forward 3 years and Mallory gets a call that her father is sick with cancer, and he’s beyond saving. She wastes no time moving back home to care for her father, but the guilt of not knowing he was this sick is eating her alive. How could she not know? Why did he not tell her? If only she’d visited him at least once she would’ve been able to see how bad off he was. It doesn’t help that she runs into Luke and he’s throwing these very same questions in her face.
Lucas Bates has been working for, and caring for, Joe Wells for the last 3 years…since his spoiled brat of a daughter left both of them. Joe took Luke in and helped him heal and quickly became like a father to him. As he’s working on a repair at Joe’s house, he’s surprised to see that she has returned, but why now? Luke is still bitter that Mallory left him for college, and highly upset that she decided to return now that he was dying.
Luke and Mallory blame each other for the failure of their relationship, but neither can deny the attraction they still feel. Neither want to feel it, but it’s there, and like it or not, they will need each other to get through everything coming with Joe. Will they both finally give in to what they want? Are they each willing make sacrifices to make it work this time? When reunited with her BFFs from high school, Mallory realizes how much she missed the small town life, and Luke, but is it enough to make her give up the city life?
I really enjoyed this book, but I seem to be with the majority when I say I didn’t care for Mallory at all (at first), especially when she was questioning whether she was ready to take care of her father. For situations like that, you don’t get to be ready, you just suck it up and do it! She came across as very selfish, spoiled, and self-centered, but in the end I grew to like her. I really enjoyed all of the supporting characters and I can’t wait to learn more of their stories…not knowing Rainey’s secret is killing me! Broken Promises is a wonderful story of love, heartbreak, and learning to heal and grow with the help of great friends and I’m eager to read more from Dawn.
