I enjoyed the characters and their development throughout this book. The author did a particularly good job showing the complexity that often underlies seemingly bad behaviour in children, and I liked the balance she struck between supporting, listening, and training while also not excusing bad behaviour. I also enjoyed Elle and Matt's romance.

This is a very Catholic book, and I was a little disappointed with the spiritual journey in this book as it seemed to be much more about outward things like going to church, having the babies baptized, and reciting the Lord's prayer than real inward change, although there were some subtle signs of inward change happening if I looked really hard. I was particularly appalled when the priest wanted the character who was quite open about not believing in God or having faith to be part of a leadership committee of the church. Those things aside, I found this story enjoyable and I'm glad I read it.

Matt is the father of three overly active and mischievous boys. Todd is eight-years-old, Randy is seven-years-old, and Amos is four-years-old. Matt’s wife, Carrie died giving life to Amos. Something so spectacular devastated this young family.
Leaving Matt ill-equipped to manage a newborn, two toddlers, a household, a co-owner of a business, a agree mother-in-law who blames you for your wife’s death and a town full of people who are taking notes and reporting to said mother-in-law (as the neighboring standing judge and lawyer) of all the things you are doing wrong or the boys are.
Which by the way with three curious boys who have a father trying to make a living and they outnumber the sitters, nannies, or and daycares around. Yet, no one volunteers a hand only complains.
Until, Elle. The lady that sat behind him and the boys at the mandatory church ordered by their grandmother. You see Matt is not a church or faith kind of a guy. Especially after losing his wife. But this poor Elle Person took pity and gave his boys a book to help them sit through church.

Then he figures out that they are next door neighbors of a year already. His life is so jammed packed all the time just to get them dressed, fed, to school, dinner, baths, bed, and start over he never notices much. Hard to believe because Elle is worth knowing in her unique willowy way about her. She has this understated beauty about her.
Although, each up until the time they kiss is filled with an undertone of TNT waiting to go off. Because Elle could deliver fast rapid words with her mouth that could hit the right targets. Never at any person or character, it wasn’t meant for. But if you were being neglectful to your duties or your children were not behaving, she would not hold back. But give solutions or get in the trenches with you.
I really enjoyed this book. Was there scripture quoted in this book, yes. Did it hit you over the head or take you, hostage, no. Did it hold my attention, absolutely? The humor alone makes it worth it. The family drama with the mother-in-law is worth it. The emotions and the give and take of Elle and Matt are so worth it.
I give this: 5++++ stars. Provided by netgalley.com.

Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com.

FTC DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary electronic copy of this book from NetGalley. A positive review was not required. These are my honest thoughts and opinions.

The cover of this book drew me in. The content left me annoyed, bored, and disappointed.

There were many issues I had with this book, but here are the lowlights:

Lying to kids to get them to behave, and tossing the lying off as the character’s “eccentric humor.” This, to me, was quite appalling.

Bribing kids to get them to behave.

Bad language (at least one expletive and three profanities).

Extreme gossip in the early chapters.

A dad showed no respect for fellow human beings by excusing his lack of discipline toward his wild-child sons as “boys will be boys.” Um, that isn’t supposed to cover destroying other people’s property, disrupting church, and throwing cherry bombs at a baby-sitter. This excuse came early and was very off-putting for me. I have worked very hard for over fifteen years to tutor students of all ages. Within the first two weeks of that time, I learned that excuses enable poor behavior, while kind but firm discipline and redirection instill good behavior and work habits in children. This aspect of the story was hard for me to overcome as I moved forward to new chapters.

Another major issue I had was about Randy, one of the children. It was stated that he was “two grade levels up in math and four levels up in reading,” yet he was also a class clown and big-time troublemaker. Those two things do not go together. From my fifteen-plus years of experience as a tutor of kids from multiple schools, towns, and counties, I’ve learned that class clowns and troublemakers are typically kids who struggle to learn at a quick enough pace to keep up with the rest of the class and have therefore been lost in the system; they "clown around" and cause trouble because they don't understand the work they're supposed to be doing. If the kid was as smart as the dad and school claimed, why didn’t he focus on his work rather than throwing fits every two seconds? If the motivation was the mother’s death, I wish that would have been emphasized more clearly. Tragedies at home can definitely make kids do strange things at school, such as becoming a class clown when they’re really smart and typical hard workers, but were this the case, his grades and levels would have suffered rather than still being so high.

Yet another problem was the nasty mother-in-law (MIL). She was a judge, which I didn’t have a problem with. What’s not okay is her using her leverage to threaten to take kids away OVER EVERY TINY THING. It’s a wonder her “former son-in-law,” as she calls him, didn’t move clear across the country or even OUT of the country to get away from the terrible woman who had little motivation for her awfulness. Okay, so your kid died. I’m terribly sorry about that, truly, but that does not give you the right to TERRORIZE your son-in-law and threaten him every couple of scenes over the simplest things to take his babies away. Sure, he needs to discipline his kids better, but that’s his problem to sort out. How about offering to help out rather than lambasting him? The culmination of this woman’s journey was too abrupt and, frankly, completely unbelievable.

I ended up skimming a few chapters in the final quarter of the book, because I was so fed up with the above issues and was bored with the melodrama of the MIL, but I got a clear picture of what happened in those chapters and even paused to reread a few cute sections, mostly having to do with Amos.

A couple of good points:

While I don’t usually like reading books that feature Catholicism, this one handled that aspect lightly, so as to keep it as a natural part of the story rather than a preachy sort of thing that always makes me uncomfortable.

I loved Elle’s work as an artist. It was unique and special and lent an artsy vibe to the book.

Amos was precious. I had no problems with him and enjoyed his bits of the story.

I wish I had more positive things to add here. I had such high hopes for this book based off the cover, so I’m disappointed right now. Hopefully my next read will be more to my taste.

My original endorsement for the novel (on the back of the book): “More Than a Promise is a tender story about families, loss, struggles, forgiveness, faith and love. With relatable characters and a beautiful small-town story, this novel touches a place deep in the soul. It is a family and Christian-centered story that is humorous and teaches life-changing lessons, leaving us pondering our lives and wanting to become better people.”