Today's Promise

The Eternal Cycle #3

by Danielle Ackley-McPhail

Love...Life...Liberty... Never before had Kara O'Keefe had cause to doubt in any of these, and yet she was now called to defend all three or lose them for all time. Though the Battle of the Knock was counted a victory, the war--as they say--was not won. Carman's Children have resurface after millennia and have reunited against their common foe once more. These adversaries from the ancient history of the Tuatha de Danaan have one goal: dominate all. Kara and the Sidhe Fianna must find a way to end this threat forever or find themselves and all humanity shackled to the will of evil demigods. As this journey of self discovery comes to an end, will Kara find herself and retain her freedom, or will all be lost for eternity?

245 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 2012

About the author

Award-winning author, editor, and publisher Danielle Ackley-McPhail has worked both sides of the publishing industry for longer than she cares to admit. In 2014 she joined forces with husband Mike McPhail and friend Greg Schauer to form her own publishing house, eSpec Books (www.especbooks.com).

Her published works include eight novels, Yesterday's Dreams, Tomorrow's Memories, Today’s Promise, The Halfling’s Court, The Redcaps’ Queen, Daire’s Devils, The Play of Light, and Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn, written with Day Al-Mohamed. She is also the author of the solo collections Eternal Wanderings, A Legacy of Stars, Consigned to the Sea, Flash in the Can, Transcendence, Between Darkness and Light, The Fox’s Fire, The Kindly One, and the non-fiction writers’ guides The Literary Handyman, More Tips from the Handyman, and LH: Build-A-Book Workshop. She is the senior editor of the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology series, Gaslight & Grimm, Side of Good/Side of Evil, After Punk, and Footprints in the Stars. Her short stories are included in numerous other anthologies and collections.

In addition to her literary acclaim, she crafts and sells original costume horns under the moniker The Hornie Lady Custom Costume Horns, and homemade flavor-infused candied ginger under the brand of Ginger KICK! at literary conventions, on commission, and wholesale.

Danielle lives in New Jersey with her husband and fellow writer, Mike McPhail and four extremely spoiled cats.

Reviews

[Helen Fleischer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to beta read this and will probably break my no repeats habit to re-read it when it comes out in the final edition. I'm confident it will reward me for the effort as there were so many aspects that are worth savoring. All in all, I find it a highly satisfying conclusion to the series.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than book two, even if it suffers from some of the same deficits. It repeats a lot of the ending of book two - the first 10-20% is more or less the last 10% of book two with some added insight into what the characters were thinking. Why not put that in the previous book instead? And if you want to do a recap of what has happened so far, it must be possible to get it done in a less padded way.

You would also think that the third book (that concludes what has been the major storyline) would get to the main story a little earlier than about 40% in.

There are a couple of characters in this book that are approaching likeable - Jacko and Aí. I was actually rooting for them to survive - as opposed to most of the other characters where it really didn't matter to me if they survived or not. Pretty bad when you feel like that about the main character in a book where they are supposed to be liked... It felt like most of the characters in these books were stupid and selfish and rarely learned from their mistakes.

Oh, and the evil guys are really EVIL in all their evilness. Just in case you missed that they were EVIL it does get repeated a lot throughout the series. They are EVIL. Like, really.

I believe that the (so far) three books of this series could have been edited down to one long-ish or two shorter books since I really don't feel like there really is enough story for three books.

But that's just my opinion - I understand that there are people who really like this series as is. So maybe I am missing something.

[Star · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Today’s Promise” is the conclusion to the Eternal Cycle Series. Even though some battles were won, the war is not over for Kara O’Keefe and the Sidhe. As this epic tale comes to an end, will Kara be able to win against the malicious children of Carman and complete her journey of self-discovery? Ms. Ackley-McPhail has brought us a seamless blending of the present, past, and future throughout her Eternal Cycle Series, incorporating Irish myth, the beautiful and mysterious Gaelic language, and prophecies which span millennia. “Today’s Promise” is the stunning conclusion to an epic series which can be read time and time again without losing its potency.

The Eternal Cycle Series: Yesterday's Dreams (1), Tomorrow's Memories (2), Today's Promise (3)

[Alice Dinizo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Book Three in the author's wonderful series, Eternal Cycle, that is a smooth blending of Irish folklore, Celtic language and a set of believable characters, some of whom are supernatural and a few are total bad guys.Well-written, well-edited, and a treat for readers everywhere.