WHERE WE PROMISE
Author: Ashley Munoz
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: April 26, 2024
In a tangled mess of betrayal and chaos, I was moved almost overnight onto rival territory under the protection of the one man I never wanted to be a burden to.
Jameson King.
In order to keep me safe, he handed me a ring and told me I’d become his wife. It’s a marriage made of convenience, but there’s a thread of truth neither of us want to examine. The past we’re ignoring, the almost we could have had if our lives were different.
If I hadn’t chosen wrong.
I keep trying to convince myself it doesn’t matter, not when we hold hands, or sleep in the same bed. Because Jameson has always held me at arms length, and my ex is coming for me…we’re just biding our time before this all comes to a messy end.
This is where we promise to hold, to honor and cherish…but what are vows made from lies?
Jameson will stay long enough to ensure I’m safe, and then he’ll let me go, just like he always did before.
He’d given me the world today, only to remind me it was manufactured and on loan. One day he’d belong to someone else, and I would simply be a fulfilled promise, checked off a list.
Truth be told I had conflicting emotions starting this book; equally anticipating a new installment in what’s come to me a favorite series of mine and also dreading it because I wasn’t sure this trope would hit for me. I am not a fan of a baby with another character trope. I love the single parent trope, but something about the baby with another character who’s still very much in the picture just never worked for me. That is, until this book.
You’re a tragedy in your own way, just hanging around in my chest like a poison, slowly infecting my heart.”
One word of advice is that you definitely want to read this series in order. Because while each character has their own standalone romance per book, there is very much an overarching story arc throughout each book that you would appreciate much more reading in order. We get a good peak into Jameson and Penny’s story in Where We Belong as secondary characters and they absolutely stole my heart with their own story.
Penelope and I had a complicated past. One full of unspoken truths, missed chances, and stolen moments. I’d hurt her. She had hurt me. It was fate’s twisted sense of humor that we were now thrown together in some odd, domesticated role. The irony was cruel.
Penelope has been in love with Jameson for as long as she’s known him. He went from the alluring teenage boy to strong and brooding man, but in all of those forms, he’s never given her the time of day. He struggles with his own emotions and so he pulls hot and cold, until Penelope finally has enough and gives up on any hope of anything with him.
There, on a cold October night, Jameson King stole my first kiss in the middle of the street. I wish he hadn’t.
But when her boyfriend and Jameson’s former club VP throws her out when he learns she’s pregnant, she’s left with nothing but tatters of her former life. And Jameson is determined to help her and protect her from his old club. Best way to do that? A marriage in paper only so she has his protection. The problem? He’s been secretly in love with Penelope as long as she has, but he’s been fighting his feelings just as long. Until he is not able to and gives into the fiery chemistry between them.
Admittedly, at first I struggled to understand why Jamie was so adamant to push Penny away when they were young. But the more I read and the more layers that were peeled back, the more I understood the heart of this man. And oh my god, he was everything. The way he loves fiercely and protects fearlessly. This book packed an absolute punch in emotion and good dash of grit that just hit the spot so right.
I devoured this book in a sitting and couldn’t believe that a trope I once hated, I loved oh so much in this story. And the set up for the next book? OH.MY.GOD. The desperate level of need I have for that story is unreal!