The Promises She Keeps, by Erin Healy

It's her destiny to die young. The man who loves her can't live with that.

Promise, a talented young vocalist with a terminal illness, is counting on fame to keep her memory alive after she dies. Porta is an aging witch and art collector in search of the goddess who will grant her immortality.

When Promise inexplicably survives a series of freak accidents, Porta believes that Promise is the one she seeks. But Chase, an autistic artist who falls in love with Promise and opposes Porta, comes between the women with his mysterious visions and drawings, and plunges everyone into a flesh-and-blood confrontation over the true meaning of eternal life.

Rather a dark story, Healy's The Promises She Keeps is oddly filled with hope and whimsy. The story reveals the lives of three lead characters, with very different backgrounds and stories. At first, I couldn't determine what the three had in common or why they were even in the same novel.

Chase is the example of the basic and simple side of all people--focused and wanting what only makes sense to want. His simpleness is the whimsy in the story (Why shouldn't things be the way he sees them?) Promise is looking for the one thing that her life as it is will never be able to give her. The one thing that her well-meaning and well-off parents can never give her. Promise's story is the hope. And Porta is the painful reality, the one who turns the beautiful into the ugly.

It's not an easy read, and you do have to pay attention to what's going on. It's haunting and painful, yet beautiful. It is, quite simply, lovely.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook galley from Thomas Nelson Publishers through the BookSneeze reader/reviewer program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”