Thalia @ Pictures in the Words

I’ve been fawning over this book since I first heard about it a year ago. I’m not sure why, but something inside me was just dying to read it, and I am so glad that I finally had that chance! It didn’t quite live up to its title, but it came pretty close.

The Promise of Amazing just seems to be one of those books that you can’t really help but fall for. It’s one of those books where the rational part of my mind knew some of it was a little overboard, but I didn’t actually care—the way Grayson and Wren’s story is set up, you just want them to work—and they did, and incredibly well, actually. It was kept from utter perfection, for me, by the swearing and the slightly overdramatic plot points, but still—I sincerely enjoyed this book, and words can’t describe how happy I am that it at least lived up to my unfounded and fangirlish expectations for it. The romance worked, the characters worked, the story worked—and I enjoyed almost every minute!

What I Liked: Spoilers!

• I’m a romantic at heart, and there’s something ridiculously enjoyable about reading chick-lit from a guy’s point of view. Part of me knew and acknowledged that Grayson did sound like a woman had written his voice, but I was too busy not caring to really notice until I had time after I had finished to really reflect on the technical aspects of this novel. However, despite how quickly he seemed to fall for Wren (I have a love-hate relationship with instalove), I was hooked. I was emotionally invested in the outcome of their relationship, and really—if a book like this can achieve something like that in such a small amount of time, it’s really achieved what it set out to do, hasn’t it? I wanted, desperately, it seemed, for Grayson and Wren to work out—I cheered for them the whole way through, and it was one of those books where you just kept reading and reading and reading because the prospect of their next scene together just makes you happy. For this alone could I call this book a success, and for this alone do I wholeheartedly recommend it to fans of chick-lit and contemporary romance books.

• Grayson and Wren escaped the terrible YA chick-lit cliché—the inevitable break up, will-they-get-back-together-will-they-not nonsense that seems to blanket the entire genre. I can’t stand when characters just make things a million times harder than they have to be, and almost consciously confuse things to the point of ridiculousness. Grayson and Wren broke up after everything came forward about Grayson’s past mistakes (and felonies)—but it only last about a day, before Wren realized that it’s possible to forgive someone for their past when they’re truly sorry for what they’ve done, and you don’t have to break up with them if they just aren’t that way anymore. The climax was not an epic realization that they couldn’t live without each other after spending a month brooding over the break up—it was something else entirely, which seemed a bit new to this genre. And for some reason, this small fact made me feel ridiculously glad—I was happy that the book found something else to focus on, because our main couple didn’t need the drama to get them through. Sometimes the drama works, but sometimes you want something a little more realistic than that—and despite that most YA novels would have you think, relationships are not about breaking up and getting back together, over and over again—they’re mostly just being together and getting a feel for the other person. The Promise of Amazing seemed to actually show that, and it’s something I really appreciated.

What I Didn’t Like:

• For me, there was simply too much swearing. It’s probably because of the group of friends I have, but hearing the f-word so much just doesn’t sound natural to me—it seems really forced and like it’s attempting to be dramatic and emotional—when it’s just…not. I don’t know. I disliked Grayson’s overuse of strong language, and it didn’t feel natural. Honestly, this is the thing that really ruined the book—I think I would have loved it if I didn’t cringe every time he let another one slip unnecessarily.

• Grayson and his friends’ whole seduce-and-steal shebang didn’t really make a whole lot of sense. It seemed a little farfetched and the way his friends acted about it just didn’t make them seem like real teenagers. Does stuff like that actually happen in real life? I guess I don’t know for sure, but it didn’t seem to work with the rest of the novel very well, considering how realistic I’d found the rest of it.

Overall: I’d tread carefully when recommending this, mainly because of the language. I’m pretty good at ignoring it, because I’m on the internet and it’s easy to just mentally block or mentally “find and replace” certain words; but it was bothering me quite a bit in this book, so if you’re like me and you don’t like coarse language, then this might not be the book for you. However, if you don’t mind and you’re searching for a good chick-lit novel to pick up, this one is excels at its genre! I really look forward to reading more of Constantine’s work and seeing if any of it is as good as this one was! 

(http://thaliasbooks.tumblr.com/post/89598875127/the-promise-of-amazing-review)