I really enjoyed listening to Cortney Wright narrate The Promise of Tomorrow. I feel like it is a slower read but it was still easy for me to stay engaged in the story. Once I started, I had to continue to find out what happened to Olympia and Spencer. I will definitely be looking for more books by Mary Ellen Taylor in the future!

Some hard themes they dealt with are losing a baby and a parent with Alzheimers.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review. All opinions are my own.

Publication date: 1 June 2024

Thank you NetGalley for the eaudiobook version of, The Promise of Tomorrow by Mary Ellen Taylor. This review contains SPOILERS!!!!!!

Olympia left her Virginia town, she never thought she’d returned. When her sister gets engaged, Olympia prepares herself for a return home and everything waiting for her that she left behind. Back home in her small Virginia town is the family she left behind, a husband and oddly enough grief all of which she never thought she’d have to face again.

Her plan is to stay a few days and no more than a week, but her and Spencer (her husband) have a shared past and loss that’s held them together for many years. Her goals were to stay a short time and visit gravestones and finalize her divorce, but they’re both still reeling from their loss. Spencer is also going through a rough time, dealing with his parents and missing Olympia.

I really enjoyed following Olympia and Spencer throughout this title by Mary Ellen Taylor. So many emotional highs and lows, plus romance and suspense. She did such a great job weaving their stories together.

Spoilers!!!!
Olympia has to decide if she’s going to keep running or stand her ground with Spencer. While she made that decision a year earlier, Spencer is still hoping for forever! They’ve had a rough past together and instead of running for each other, they ran away.

This was a great read about Olympia and Spencer. Olympia reaches for her goals, and those goals gave her stability and traveling that worked for her and Spencer both. On a happy note, she was no longer running when she traveled which was different from the first time.

I liked this book. It was a good story about a girl figuring out her life. The plot was interesting, and I enjoyed how everything fit together at the end. It was a refreshing tale about finding yourself.

The only thing I could think this entire books was- “THIS WOMAN NEEDS THERAPY.” No really, I was so incredibly frustrated by the MC not getting the care she needed. The premise was really good and as someone who also suffered through a miscarriage there was a lot that resonated with me. However, having her run from her problems so many times instead of dealing with all the trauma is frustrating. She didn’t need love, she didn’t need adventure, she needed a dang therapist.

This is also one of the first ones where I’ll say I didn’t like the narration. Why? It didn’t match the cover. The voice and the person on the cover didn’t feel like they were the same person to me.

🌀Synopsis
Olympia loves life on the road. I’m fact, if it wasn’t for her baby sister she wouldn’t even be going back to their hometown. As it is, her sister is engaged and she needs to be there. It takes zero time for her to run into her ex, Spencer, which floods her with memories.
After a short relationship that ended with the miscarriage of their baby, Olympia ran far and fast. She started social media and worked odd jobs to get by. Now Spencer is asking for a divorce before she skips town again.
Amidst the paperwork, the two both know there are feelings there still. Only her dreams don’t match his. When an incredible offer comes up, she takes it and leaves again. Spencer realizes he didn’t chase her the first time and this time, he sees his mistake.

Olympia has been an adult since the age of 12. She took over everything when her mother got sick. The bills, caregiving and raising her younger sister. She did everything for everyone and once both of them and even became her sisters guardian when their mother lost her health battle. She has never put herself first. That is until she meets someone and for the first time is enjoying herself. She is happier than she has ever been. That is until the unthinkable happens and she hears her husband saying the the absolute worst thing she could begin to imagine to his mother after the loss of their unborn child. She is tired of being everyones afterthought, up to and including the sister she raised and saw through college treating her so poorly and taking advantage of her so she embarks on a year of traveling and discovering herself. When called home for her sisters engagement she goes, but is then once again betrayed by that very self involved selfish sister. Even when everyone tries and tries to get her to do their bidding she recognizes that the backbone she has grown is in her best interests and does what is best for her. I enjoyed Olympias evolution as well as reading about others finally accepting, learning and respecting exactly who she is. I always enjoy this author and was looking forward to this book. I was not disappointed and now anxiously await whatever is to come next.


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After a year traveling in her van accomplishing her late mother bucket list, Olympia must return to her hometown and face the pain from losing her unborn daughter and sign her divorce papers. But a secret from the past and the uncertainty in her future must be the reason to stay and face the problems with help for once and not doing everything alone. The audiobook with Cortney Wright is moving and full emotions.

This book is a story of loss mostly with a sprinkle of romance. I thought the story, being mostly of loss, did not have a good ratio of pleasant and unpleasant feeling.

Many thanks to Net Galley and Brilliance Publishing for an audio ARC of this book for an honest review.

Tropes:
Second chance/marriage in trouble
Overcoming grief/loss
Family secrets
Finding oneself again

This book was low on romance and more so focused on the journey of moving on from grief/loss and the family secrets aspect. I still enjoyed the storyline.

The Promise of Tomorrow was about loss and second chances. Olympia is dealing with heartache as she comes home to celebrate her sister's upcoming wedding. I listened to the audiobook version. The narrator was not my favorite. Her pacing and cadence was off, making the book seem disjointed. She did ok with the different voices, but I won't be adding her to my favorite narrator list.

~~What I liked~~
-The overall story was pretty decent, and it ended well. Stylistically, it was easy to listen too. The pacing was good. I wasn't overly entertained, but I wasn't falling asleep either. And, the ending was good, which always makes me happy.
-There were no 'bad' characters, either poorly written or antagonistic. It was a bright spot in an otherwise kinda depressing book. Generally, I enjoyed the characters, they mostly added to the overall story.

~~What I didn't like~~
-The blurbs at the beginning of each chapter, telling about Olympia's travels weren't my favorite. Especially at the beginning, it was really confusing. Keep in mind I was listening to the audiobook version, seeing it might have made more sense. But the spiritualism in them didn't mesh with my overall impression of Olympia.
-The issues between Olympia and her husband Spencer mostly stemmed from not communicating, which seemed silly to me. I am never a fan of plot points where the big issues are because the characters can't open their mouths and talk.


Overall, this was a decent book, nothing exciting and a bit too depressing for me to really enjoy. I'm not sure I would recommend it, but I don't regret reading it. I do have another book by the same author, so I'm not opposed to reading more by her.