YBO Sniffer Review: STEALING PROMISES by Brina Courtney

Title: Stealing Promises
Author: Brina Courtney
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Laurelis Press
ASIN: B008YKNU0U
Release Date: January 13, 2014
Source: NetGalley
Links: Goodreads ☆ Amazon

Promises are made to be kept, never stolen. But that's exactly what happened to Victoria Blane and Levi Manor. Tragedy strikes their perfect relationship leaving Victoria struggling to overcome the darkness that threatens to bury her.

Brighton Hanley knows what it's like to lose someone. He knows what it's like to be haunted by things that can never change. When he meets Victoria he recognizes the pain she's trying to bury deep in her eyes. He knows she's trying to hide, but he also knows that you can't hide forever.

Victoria is drawn to Brighton in ways she never expected. But is she ready to let go of the past and grab on to her future? Or will she run away from Brighton before she can be hurt again?

Victoria Blane and Levi Manor were just starting to move to the next step in their relationship: living together. But one night of celebrating a friends birthday at a night club changes everything. Levi dies protecting Victoria from an attempted robbery. Levi was everything to Victoria and without him her life is empty. Grief comsumes her, and it's only with the support of her family and friends that she's pulled back to life. But memories and stolen promises have a way of sneaking up on her, threatening to pull her back into the black hole of her grief, and crippling her with the pain of losing the man she promised to love forever.

STEALING PROMISES was a really heartbreaking story. Victoria's pain is so real that I felt her pain while I was reading. I was ugly-snot-crying and everything. I felt that my own heart was breaking. There were times when I had to stop reading to collect myself before I could continue reading. STEALING PROMISES is a really powerful story about grief and moving on. I was speechless by the end. I just loved everything about this book.

The Guys: Levi Manor is Victoria's long-time boyfriend and one of her oldest friends. His mother left his family when he was still a little boy and this impacted his commitment issues. He doesn't commit completely to anything unless he knows that he can keep that commitment. That's one of the reasons it took him so long to decide to finally move out of his family home and live with Victoria. With his dying breath he made one final promise to Victoria - "I'll always be close, I promise. Love you."

Brighton Hanley is the student advisor of the grief counseling group at Victoria's new college. With dark green eyes and dark brown hair, Brighton reminds Victoria of Levi. He came to live in the United States from London when his parents divorced. He lost his best friend Tiffany when she was deployed to Afghanistan. Brighton makes Victoria think and feel not so empty anymore.

The Girl: Victoria Blane had her life all planned out. And that life entailed law school and Levi. She was getting everything she wanted when Levi surprised her with the new apartment, but then it was all stolen away. After Levi's funeral, she moves to a new city and starts at a new college. She starts to discover who she is without Levi and she meets Brighton at a grief counseling meeting. He makes her start to feel again, and it's with his help that she is able to start moving on.

Victoria and Levi met when they were children and their fathers worked together on a case for the police. It was Levi's job to keep Victoria occupied, and as time went by a strong connection formed between them. It wasn't until Victoria's senior year of high school that they started dating, and with the promise to take care of her, they have been inseparable.

Levi comes from a broken home, so he has trouble really expressing feelings of love. So whenever he does, it means a lot to Victoria. And Levi finally feeling he can move to a new step in their relationship, surprises Victoria with a new apartment for them to move into together. But she never got to see it after Levi was killed, and didn't want to after that.

With a promise, it all started. And with a promise, it all ended.

Victoria goes into a very deep depression when Levi dies, and it was very difficult for her to come out of it. She just wants to be with Levi. Her struggle is just so heartbreaking.

When she is finally well enough, she moves to a new city and starts at a new school. That's where she meets Brighton Hanley. He reminds her so much of Levi, that she was completely shocked when they first met. But it's with his help that she starts to feel that she can move on with him.

I really liked how patient and thoughtful Brighton was. He knows Victoria's pain, as he lost someone very important to him as well, so he knows that she needs time. And he gives her all the time she needs, while being there as her friend. I also liked that he made his intentions clear to her that he was interested in her, and that when she was ready to move on that he would like it to be with him.

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