A review by emmazucati
Forbidden Promises by Synithia Williams

1.0

Book club book!!! ...but also not my jam. I thought the hot and heavy scenes were written well and that the descriptions were not objectifying in a way that left a bad taste in my mouth. Unfortunately, the rest of the book did. The family dynamic was just clearly super uncomfortable and not healthy. No one was having a good time. I think I don't jive with a lot of second chance/forbidden love trope novels because it involves so much lying that it's hard to put a lot of faith into the existence of the love between the two main characters, the main characters and the side characters, etc. Too much strategizing about love for me. But this book took the cake. The WORST part though was definitely the dad. He was hella abusive and awful to read about and (second worst part) all that autonomy that the main character started the novel with??? Wow did he crush it in his fingers AND SHE LET HIM. I get that this is the first book in the series, but yikes for a romance novel was that rough to have no conclusion for.

But also any book in which any parent has/had cancer is gonna leave me a little more sensitive and on edge as to how they move through these types of things. I argued with this book a lot during any and all scenes related to this. It just angered me in a way a romance novel maybe should work not to.

Also, tobacco is never gonna be a fun, romantic, sexy, etc plot device for me. So, in all fairness, the tobacco and cancer skewed my judgement, but I still think my points are valid.