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Writer's pictureAmanda Melton

Threats and Promises by Barbara Delinsky

The mob tries to scare a woman who is the boss's wife after she faked her death and ran. Unfortunately, they "found" her but it was the wrong girl. A re-newed, said woman, finds love in someone she never dreamed of through every scary twist and turn.


I wanted to try something different this time - so I bought a Nook. I didn't realize how slowly I read 20 pages. Does it take anyone else 30 minutes to read 20 pages? That's what the Nook tells me. It's embarrassing but I'm enjoying the aspect of reading from this device.


I'm 24 years young, a heavy book lover/nerd/dragon, and just now like these devices. I've spent most of the time they existed by turning them away - the amount of time wasted not getting one of these things and just reading!


But - I will forever hold my physical copies close to me and keep collecting.


Now, that is out of the way - let's get into my first book on the Nook, Threats and Promises by Barbara Delinsky.


Money and power on different scales,


The story begins with a prologue that has two people arguing and deciphering what to do about someone who disappeared on them - someone who was (assuming) a mob boss's girlfriend or wife who 'stole' from him. This lady was supposed to die in a fiery car accident but 'faked' her death. This is where the back story begins to get insight into what else will be happening.


After a rough prologue, Barbara introduces us to Lauren, a renewed woman from plastic surgery from his brother's inheritance. He was estranged from his family after he and his parents didn't agree on what his future holds. But, when he died he left all his money to his younger sister. She used this to purchase a house and business on the other side of the country as well as surgery in the Bahamas.


It wasn't until later on in the book that Lauren began experiencing strange things - a car hopping a curb, a dog almost attacking, and the garage messing up one day but fixed the next. Beth, her friend with a wild imagination, thought about the circumstances of these events and created stories to go along with them, such as a ghost, the previous homeowners wanting his home back, or even a criminal ring wanting the house.


One day, a mysterious stranger appears outside the shop for multiple days in a row. With the strange events occurring and a new person, Lauren was skeptical (as I would be too) but, not for the same reasons. Here is where the story begins to turn into unrealistic.


Almost immediately, these two became lovers. Matt, the "strange" guy automatically seemed sketchy to me and with Lauren, she didn't second guess it. He arrived at the same time these odd events started and she didn't think to connect the two. It was very alarming how naive this woman could be.


Matt didn't want to call the police several times when Lauren wanted to and thought he could figure it out himself as "he knows people". The bad guys show themselves when push comes to shove and Lauren eventually gets kidnapped. All along it was a case of mistaken identity as Lauren and the women the mobmen were looking for happened to look similar and were in the same places.


After this, Matt and Lauren go on a manhunt to find the right woman, leading the bad guys along and straight to her. Like, seriously?


2/5


Overall, it wasn't much to write home about. The love story was too predictable, the characters seemed out of touch with everything, and "taking matters" into your own hands in this situation is all kinds of wrong. If you like cheap stories and something that's an easy read, this is for you.

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