The Promise, by Kristen Ashley

Dang it Kristen Ashely. Making me lose sleep and weep and laugh and clap at the good parts! 

That’s what I did – or what The Promise made me do while reading. This is one that myself and others have been waiting a while for, and lawdy! Kristen Ashely did not disappoint. 

The Promise is the story of Benny (Benito Alessandro Bianchi) and Frankie (Francesca Concetti) and picks up right where At Peace leaves off. While it’s not entirely necessary to read At Peace before The Promise, I HIGHLY recommend it. 

Once the girlfriend of Vinnie Bianchi, Frankie has been shunned and blamed for Vinnie’s death for seven years. She’s taken that on, but shouldn’t have. She lives with that blame, and punishes herself for not being able to save Vinnie from himself. She’s been treated horribly by the entire Bianchi family, but Benny gave her the worst of it. He took his anger for his brother and his brother’s actions and transferred it to Frankie.

Frankie is done carrying that burden. She’s moving away from her crazy family, the Bianchi’s, and starting new with a new job in a new city.  Her plans are put on hold after getting shot by Daniel Hart while trying to save Benny’s cousin’s woman, Violet. While there, the Bianchi family decides that penance has been paid and tries to heal the split between their family and her. Benny, most of all, is done fighting his anger, and his emotional ties to her and decides to take action.

They all descend to the hospital to make amends. After two weeks of faking sleep to fend of the Bianchi family, Frankie is finally being released. Benny is on to her games, and isn’t having it. He’s planning to make up for his past treatment toward her in a big way and move forward with her in his life. The thought of losing her is more than enough for him to pull his head out of his ass and admit his feelings for her. 

“Seven years I’ve been fucking up. Right now, that shit ends.”

She’s not so sure:

“But he’s my dead boyfriend’s brother”

“You were mine, even when you were his.”

She knows what it’s like to have the Bianchi’s in her life, and what it means to lose them. She’s not taking that chance. Despite that, he’s pushing.

“You know what this is. That’s why you’re freakin’ and hidin’. I know what this is. That’s why I’m not letting this shit go.”

He’s digging his way in, and she’s fighting her feelings for him. He’s not giving up. He’s not giving up her beauty, her bravery, her loyalty to those around her, and her fight. He promises her a good life. 

“He was wrong. I never had nothing but good coming my way. If I got good, I lost it. That was my life. I’d learned to lie with it.”

Frankie gets some sage advice of Mrs. Zambino, the spitfire widow that lived across the street from Benny. 

“You’re a good girl, Frankie Concetti…Good girls earn good things. Let yourself have good things.”

She doesn’t. Despite things going well, she freaks. She bolts. She takes the job at the pharmaceutical company in Indianapolis that she had lined up before she was shot. She leaves, telling him she wants him to have the woman he deserves, and that woman is not her. 

While she pissed me off at this point, I can see why. She came from a family that didn’t stick. Her mom was a wreck, running through husbands faster than the drive-through line at Starbucks. Her dad wasn’t around. Her sisters – they’re a mess. She thinks that she’s the same way and doesn’t want that for Benny. 

She’s setting in Indy, trying to maintain contact with Benny and he’s not having it. Won’t return her calls, which of course, she makes knowing he’s working and can’t pick up, so she just leaves messages. Finally, on a trip back to Chicago, she contacts him and wants to see him to work things out and keep him as a friend. He shows up late, and well, let’s just say they Worked. Things. Out! Holy smoke Benny is hot! 

What ensues is the development of their long-distance relationship, with the patience of a man who helps his woman get over her insecurities, doubts, and fears. The tenderness of their conversations. The shared history of love and family, love and family lost, and love and family found again. It’s about realizing and appreciating what is in front of you rather than freaking out about the future. 

“Minute by minute, baby”
“Minute by minute”

It’s about the integration of the family and friends – which include Frankie’s family, Benny’s parents and siblings, his cousin Joe/Cal, Violet, Kate, Kiera, “sisters of the heart,” and other players you’ll recognize from other books. 

Since this is part of the Burg series, there’s also a bit of drama. When one of the researchers from her company is shot, she learns it was a hit learns from her assistant Tandy, that there’s something funky going on at her company. Frankie being Frankie, gets herself involved, which gets Benny, Sal, and others involved as well. While as much as I want to hide spoilers, I can’t. I can’t. This is the best line ever: 

“I have  question…Can you kick Chuck Norris’s ass?”

I’ll leave you with that. 

While many were raving over The Will being “Classic KA”, sorry, this one is more like her traditional writing. It’s full of family, family drama, life, love, forgiveness, and that angst and drama that only Kristen Ashely can deliver. This one didn't have the gut wrenching anguish that others have (At Peace), it holds the common thread of the Burg novels with a bit of suspense (but not too much here), and a young couple torn apart to find themselves together again years later. If you're expecting to have a major book hangover with this one - grab a few margaritas and down them before reading, as they'll give you more of a hangover than the emotion in this book. It's there, it's just not at the level of past books. Benny isn't as bad-ass alpha as others, but you do have Joe/Cal back in this book so there's that. Not to say that this was a disappointment - It's still worth reading. Just not what the others were.

The Burg Series will conclude with Cheryl and Merry. I'm sticking with this series to see what happens, but don't have the expectations that I had with the first two books in this series. 

True Blood S7/E3: Fire in the Hole. AKA RIP Alcide

Who is the strange yoga guru dude? There is no one else. Nobody to your left, and nobody to your right. But right in front of you, is some strange shit going on! Namaste muther effers. Freaky freaky Christian bible bitch is back!! Sara Newlan. Later we find that she is riding the Guru, and when they’re done, he tells her to go make him a sandwich. Not really, but go get a bottle of wine. While she’s in the wine cellar, the head of the Yakanomo Corp (those dudes that created True Blood) are looking for Sara. Guru says he doesn’t know where she is, and bye bye Guru. Sara is seen crouching in the cellar as Gurublood seeps under the door. 

Pam talks to Eric and asks how long he’s been sick. He’s recognized signs since last month in St. Petersburg. She tells him of Tara’s true death. He asks:

“Did you play the bucket game? I like the bucket game.”

She yells at him: “You are Eric Fucking Northman! You don’t give up. You fight.”

We get treated to a flashback of a younger (well, in Vampire time younger) Eric  in France doin’ the daughter of the local vineyard owner. Ah Sylvie. He's interrupted by Nan from The Authority. When it comes down to it, he’s told by Nan/The Authority he “Cannot publicly be biting, sucking, and fucking open in public.” The Authority has to get him in line with this Yakanomo Corp creation of True Blood as it’s big business, big money y’all. 

Later, Eric is in the vineyard fucking Sylvie again, when Pam interrupts him. Pam is being held by the head honcho at the YakaCorp who tells Eric he’s got a choice to make. One of them has to die – Sylvie or Pam. You pick. He says he wants them to kill him, and he’s told the Authority wants him alive. He says “Pam. Pam lives” and Sylvie goes down with a sword to her middle. Eric is then captured as well. At least he has his rocking turquoise pants from the 80s on. Oh wait, he has pants on. Bummer. 

Back to the present: He says he didn’t contract the virus on purpose, but went with a deal with the devil attitude. Pam pleads to stay for him to fight. There’s one thing that gets him moving – Pam tells him Sara Newlan is still alive thanks to Jason Stackhouse.

"Well lets go find her, shall we?"

Adilyn and Wade are in the jail cell, about to smooch again. Or for the first time since Wade was clean slated by a vamp. Jessica and Andy come in to find them and tell them “they” are after anyone and anything that is different from them. 

Sam is chatting to the Rev about what happened in St. Alice. People disappearing in the middle of pizza. He’s giving up wondering what life is all about. He’s done. Rev tells him he has to have faith. Tells him the family had Jesus in every single bedroom – what good did it do them?  

Willa comes to get them and Mama Mae is running in after her, screaming that she needs to understand and know where Tara is at. Rev once again talks her down from her HVamp high, then takes her home. Willa asks if he knew if Mae did hurt herself on purpose, and he suspects she did. Willa feeds from him while he talks about his wife and how she strayed. He says he lost faith in everything. He would pretend he wasn’t home when people came to look for him. He put on his collar and drove – ending up in Bon Temps. At the bottom of the church steps, he found a woman clutching a bottle of Captain Morgan and he recalls his first encounter with Lettie Mae. Says she saved him as much as she saved her. Tells Willa she’s an addict, and Willa is just a bottle of Cap to MamaMae. She has to go.   

Sam goes out with his vamp aide and comes face to face with the Vince gang. Vince howls at him, saying he’s “Taking his town back”. You tricked the people thinking they were voting for a human being, and they were voting for the devil. Vince tells everyone he’s the major and wants everyone to go home. They get trigger happy and kill his vamp, and Sam turns into a hawk and flew away. 

Jason wants a baby with his woman Violet. Invoking Andy’s line “A man ain’t nothing without a family.” She tells him “What one incident and you’re turning into a girl?” She tells him he was a man when he was in the cell with her, a man with dignity and an iron clad cock. Not a modern man with feelings.” 

Interrupted by Andy and Jessica, Violet and Jessica standoff, but call a truce until they find Sookie.  Adilyn tells him that the Vince mob is likely after Sookie. They go off looking for her and come across Sam’s abandoned truck. They stop and the Vince mob comes out.

Maxine is pissed at Jessica, telling her “You made Hoyt leave me. You tore out his heart like he didn’t even matter.”  

 She takes a shot at Jessica and hits her in the shoulder, and Violet goes vamp after Maxine and rips out her heart. Jessica is shot and not healing. Violet takes down one of the mob and brings him back to Sam. 

Lafayette is getting down with his bad self when James comes over looking for more weed. He want’s off some Jessica shit. 

“We lived together, Sleep next together, occasionally fuck, but she doesn’t know I’m there.”

Lafayete asks him what the last drug he remembers taking, and he tells him and that the experience was like being in the ocean. Layfayette passes out and James freaks – thinking that he OD-ed on him, he shakes him hard to wake him up. “What is your malfunction?” Faye snaps. I love him! He then asks “Is you groovin’ on me?”

James gives an uncomfortable smirk, Faye apologizes and says he must have misread him. James says no you didn’t misread anything, but I’m with Jessica. Faye goes through some this, that, and whatever to get them altered and once he’s lit, he can feed James so he can get high as well. They’re both trippin, listening to some old school funk. They’re floating. 

At Fangtasia, the HVamps are hurting for food. Below, the women are doing a spirit chant. Arlene is asked to go hunting for more food. They come upon a couple in the woods and take them back. 

Bill says he has to live with the memories of what he did to Sookie forever. But he does have a clean slate. She will have to take his blood or he won’t’ be able to help her. He bit his wrist, and Sookie starts sucking. He gets all excited and she mumbles “I have a boyfriend” LOL!

Alcide finds Sookie is gone. Goes running off to find her without his shirt off. Yum. Get a good look, as it won’t last long. He goes to Bill house and kicks in the door, running in looking for Sookie. He comes out in wolf form, still on the hunt. He meets up with Sam in the woods and they both take human form and chat, then morph into pups and run off again. 

Sookie is in the forest, and Bill is in a tree looking at her.  Their plan is to bait Vampires. She tells him when he first took her to Fangtasia, that’s what he called her – Vampire Bait. That’s what she’s doing – fulfilling her purpose. 

They start talking about Alcide and Bill asks “Do you love him?”

“That would be none of your business William Thompson”

Sounds like Alcide wants kids, and Sookie doesn’t. She’s never admitted it until now but she’s afraid that she doesn’t love him as much as he loves her. Alcide is descent and handsome (yah) and grounded. He’s good (mmmhmmm). But she can hear it in his voice and his thoughts – he means it more than she does and she can’t take it for much longer.

Bill says "Love isn’t always equal. Maybe you’ll grow to love him more”. 

Sookie is sick of waiting and cuts herself, yelling out “Hello?! I taste like sunshine and flowers and I’m right fucking here!” The vamps come out after Sookie, they grab her and Bill, at the same time that Alcide and Sam in pup form jump on the Vamps. Jason/Andy/Jessica/Violet are also there and they immediately shoot the other HVamps splashing blood all over Sook. Violet takes her to the river to wash her off. Once they take out the HVamps, and Alcide returns to his human form and goes off on Bill asking him what the hell was he thinking. Then….Shots fired. 

Alcide is SHOT!! WHAT THE FUCK!!!

He’s down. He’s gone. Violet and Jessica offer to turn him. Sookie says no, I’ve been down that road before. She already turned Tara against her will to save her, and she wasn’t going to do it to Alcide. 

 

So, he’s dead. 

He’s lying there is all his naked glory. Gone. Excuse me while I take a moment. 

 

In an interview with HBO (http://tinyurl.com/nklxdod), Joe Manganiello says he knew he was a gonner once he was hooked up with Sookie. The good guys always die first. In his interview, he’s asked:

Q: Is there anything that you won’t miss?

JM: "Shooting in Malibu in December is really difficult. People don’t understand how cold it gets up there. There were two nights in a row where the temperature was below 20 degrees. And we’re barefoot. And naked. And you have to lay on the ground sometimes. It’s not easy to pretend to be sexy when your bones are rattling."

Gotta tell ya Joe – no pretending needed. Your cold bones are hot!
 

http://www.truetotheend.com/recent/2014/7/7/true-tribute-alcide-herveaux

22 best lines from 22 Jump Street!

As usual, I waited a few weeks after the film came out to go see it. I knew it would be good. 

What I realize is that I get jokes that people don’t. Maybe I’m a pop-culture junkie and I get these obscure references. Maybe I’ve seen too much television and read too much crap. Maybe I’m just old. Either way, I found myself laughing way too hard at the one-liners and hidden messages in the film while others just missed out. I’m cracking up. Everyone else…crickets. Strange. Whatever. This is one that will be part of my permanent collection and can’t wait until it’s released for home viewing. 

If you haven’t seen this movie, you are missing out. Please be sure you’ve seen the first film, 21 Jump Street, as you don’t want to miss some of the jokes from 21 to 22. Then, watch and laugh. If you’ve already seen the film, go again and laugh your ass off at these best lines and scenes from the film.  

1. Look at the captain’s new office. It’s like a giant cube of ice.”
2. “He like the Mexican Wolverine!”
3. “Oh, Hey look! It’s the Korean Jesus!”
   “It’s the Vietnamese Jesus now you racist motherfucker!”
   Best part: it’s Dustin Nguyen!
4. “He has one class in Human Sexuality and now he’s Harvey Milk.”
5. “Fuck you Arnold Schwarzenegger!”
   “See you Terminator.”
6. “Don’t Mr. and Mrs. Smith me!”
7. “Where are you from originally?”
   “Oh me? I’m straight outta Compton!”
8. "Tokyo Drift!”
9. “Maybe we could join the secret service and protect the president”
   “Nah, that’s no good.”
   “What? I thought it was good.” (White House Down reference)
10. “Dude.” “Dude.” “ Bro.”  “Bro.” “Dude.” “Bro.”
11. “Meat Cute.” HAHA. Meet cute…get it? If you don’t, I won’t explain it.
12. “I thought we had Cate Blanchett with the budget.”
13. “Something cool!”
14. “Dude. You high fived him for fucking your daughter!”
15. Stoned Dude in the corner during Schmidt and Mercedes fight scene. 
16. “Ass-and-Titties” Channing Tatum dance.
17. Benjamin Hill Center for Film Studies on the building during crazy car chase!
18. Annie Hall lobster reference.
19. Jonah Hill’s walk of shame!
20. Metropolitan City State College. Mascot: The MC State Statesmen. 
21. Cameo from Johnny Depp’s replacement in the original show: Richard Grieco as security guard Booker. He didn’t age well.
22. My personal favorite: “I have tenure. I can say whatever I want and they can’t fire me!”
    I think I was the only one laughing at that one…

 

And just because this is pure awesomeness:

Dark Paradise, by Angie Sandro

When I received this copy from NetGalley to review, I didn’t know what to expect. I read without knowing the content, or the synopsis from the publisher / author. What a pleasant surprise! 

Dark Paradise follows the story of Malaise LaCroix, who is the daughter of an alcoholic/prostitute and comes from a long line of women who practice hoodoo. While Mala has fought her family’s “legacy” by going to college and studying criminal justice, she can’t escape the rumors, judgment, and assumptions about her status as a “witch.” When Mala stumbles upon a dead body floating in the swampy waters behind her home, she learns the identity is that of a local girl Lainey Price. Her friend and local officer, George, is the first to respond and recognizes Lainey as a girl he once had a crush on in school. 

Lainey, the daughter of a local reverend and younger sister of Landry, who has been harboring a crush on Mala for what seems like some time, begins to haunt Mala. Landry, who behaves like he actually hates Mala, accuses her of being involved with his sister’s death and of being a witch. Landry has also been feeling like his sister is haunting him, and soon realizes that Mala can actually see his sister as well. 

What evolves is the inquiry into Lainey’s death, the relationship (or not) between Landry and Mala, the details of Mala’s mother a Jasmine’s drinking problem, and the fall out of all of the above. 

It’s been a while since I’ve read a good suspense, and this one was a page-turner! I was engrossed and lost sleep reading to find out what was going to happen next. While the book can be read as a stand-alone, it is part of a trilogy. Great for me but must get to the next book in the series pronto! Alas, must wait until August for the next in the series: Dark Sacrifice, then September for Dark Redemption.

I learned that this is  a first novel by Angie Sandro. What a way to hit it out of the ballpark on the first swing! Can’t wait to read more from her. 

Get your own copy now on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and add her on GoodReads! 

You an also follow her at: Twitter @AngieSandro

*Complimentary copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*