Promise by Kristie Cook

Genre: Souls

Paperback: 368 Pages

Published: July 30, 2010

Series: Soul Savers

            1. Promise

            2. Purpose

            3. Devotion

            4. Power

            5. Wrath

Rating: ★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

            First installment of award-winning author Kristie Cook's bestselling Soul Savers Series
Alexis Ames has a life full of promise...but not all promises can be kept.

When Alexis Ames is attacked by creatures that can't be real, she decides it's time she learns who she really is, with or without the help of her mother, who guards their family's secrets closely. After meeting the inhumanly attractive, multi-talented Tristan Knight, however, Alexis retreats behind her façade of normalcy...until she discovers he's not exactly normal either. Then their secrets begin to unravel.

Their union brings hope and promise to her family's secret society, the Angels' army, and to the future of mankind. But it also incites a dangerous pursuit by the enemy - Satan's minions and Tristan's creators. After all, Alexis and Tristan are a match made in Heaven and in Hell.

My Review:

            This story pretty much jumps right into action. It starts off with the main character being chased by some people with weird magic trying to capture her. The main girl, Alexis Ames, is in a heap of  trouble and as soon as her mother gets a wind of this, they are moving to another town to start over. Alexis knows that she has an extremely fast ability to heal. So any time she accidently gets hurt and heals in front of people, Alexis and her mother pack everything up and leave. But the problem is Alexis's mom refuses to tell her who she is and where she comes from. So in a new town, Alexis starts college where she 'accidently' bumps into the most gorgeous man alive, Tristan Knight. He happens to be Alexis's soul mate. Though she doesn't know it yet. As Alexis and Tristan start to spend more time together, Alexis learns some dangerous secrets about Tristan. He's not who he says he is and to top it off Alexis's mother and Tristan are old friends.

                         When I read the synopsis of this book I was excited because I thought I would be reading something new and interesting. Instead I found this book to be annoying. First off, I didn't like the pace. The beginning was just dragging and I wanted the book to just get to the action part. It felt like it took forever. Secondly, I did not like the idea that Tristan and Alexis's relationship was predetermined by the Amadis, the secret society that Alexis belongs to. I found it to be weird and creepy that all the elders of the Amadis knew Alexis and Tristan's relationship would bring great power to their society and they wanted them to have a kid (who would bring greater power to the Amadis) as soon as possible. For example, Tristan revealed that he was there when Alexis was born and he was the one who named her. Ummm....that's just plain creepy. He just named his future wife...

            The characters lacked in development. Sure they had potential but I thought they could have been given a chance to grow. Alexis seemed like a strong female lead, but at times I just wanted to slap her. She was a baby. She fussed a lot and about everything. The author made her seem like she was so fragile and all the other characters were running after her. Her mother was a big problem for me. I mean just tell your daughter what she is and why she is having trouble controlling her powers. Instead Alexis's mother kept saying, "I'm not aloud to tell you what you are until you get your powers" and bla bla bla... I found that to be repetitive and annoying. Tristan on the other hand, was equally annoying. I wanted to slap him too (that's probably the first time I have said that about lead male character). He was being so creepy. Sure he is her soul mate and I get that he is in love with her, supposedly the gods made their union and what not. But seriously make up your mind. One minute he wanted to be with Alexis and the next he was staying away. I mean he has had 18 years to turn into a good guy and leave his evil self behind. But noooooo he just kept going on and on about being bad and evil.