A review by shannon_cocktailsandbooks
Three Broken Promises by Monica Murphy

4.0

3.5 Stars

3.5 Cocktails

This is the story of Colin and Jen, who we met in the previous Drew + Fable books. Jen is Fable's best friend and works at the bar/restaurant called The District, which is owned by Colin. As we had learned in the previous books in the series, Colin and Jen grew up with each other as Colin was Jen's brother best friend. We finally get to find out the history between Colin and Jen, but in the end I didn't feel like I had quite the same connection with them as I did with the previous books.

Jen's family was torn apart when her brother died while serving in Afghanistan. She left home, feeling neglecting and hoping for something better. But things did not turn out the way she planned and she ended up living in her car and working at a strip club. Enter her brother's best friend, Colin. He saves her, gives her a job and a place to stay. Both of them fight their attraction for one another. Jen feeling like she's dirty and tainted and Colin like he's breaking another promise to his dead best friend. I could completely see where both of them were coming from, but it was tiresome after a while. I wanted one of them to say say what they mean and act on how they feel instead of dancing around everything.

Fable and Drew put in their appearances, trying to play the voice of reason to both Colin and Jen's stubbornness. It was nice to get a quick glimpse at the two of them and see they were still going strong, but that tiny glimpse made me realize I was missing that spark between Colin and Jen like I had with Drew and Fable. Even though the two of them could say to themselves that they needed and/or wanted the other, I didn't always feel that. At the very end, I caught a glimmer of that, but it wasn't enough to make me believe they truly should be together.

The review may not seem like it, but this was still a good read. It connected the dots on two characters that are part of the larger Drew + Fable storyline. It just wasn't at gut-wrenchingly emotional as the other two books in the series. It doesn't make it bad, just not what I was expecting.