RATING: 4 out of 5 Enchanted Roses

ONE-WORD REVIEW: Heartfelt

TAGLINE: She thought they had forever . . .

OPENING LINE: When my mom was seventeen, she caved to a dare and paid a traveling carnival’s clairvoyant twenty dollars to reveal her fate.

REVIEW:

A huge thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for sending me an e-ARC of 𝐸𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝐼 𝒫𝓇𝑜𝓂𝒾𝓈𝑒𝒹 𝒴𝑜𝓊!

𝐸𝓈𝒸𝒶𝓅𝑒, 𝒻𝓁𝑒𝑒, 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽𝒹𝓇𝒶𝓌. 𝒯𝒽𝑒𝓈𝑒 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝒹𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓁𝑜𝑜𝓅 𝓉𝒽𝓇𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽 𝓂𝓎 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝒹 𝒶𝓈 𝐼 𝓉𝓊𝒸𝓀 𝓂𝓎 𝓁𝒾𝒻𝑒 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝑜𝓍𝑒𝓈.

Katy Upperman has a way of weaving together love, grief, and a second chance at love into something utterly soul-stirring. This book is a beautifully written, emotional journey that balances sweet romance with the weight of soul rendering past wounds. After losing her childhood best friend and true love, the story is about Lia’s very gut-wrenching growing pains as she traverses love, loss, the process of grieving, and self-discovery. It follows Lia moving to a new place for a fresh start, all the while shadowed by memories—some heartwarming, others heartbreaking.

𝐿𝑜𝓈𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝒹𝑜𝑒𝓈𝓃’𝓉 𝓇𝑒𝓂𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒾𝓂𝓅𝓇𝒾𝓃𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎’𝓋𝑒 𝓂𝒶𝒹𝑒 𝑜𝓃 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓉.

The romance? Tender, raw, and full of longing. The chemistry between the leads—Beck and Lia, then Lia and Isiah—was palpable. I adored how Lia and Beck’s relationship felt natural, built on history and healing rather than just insta-love. I hate that their love story was bittersweet, but it made for a deeply emotional story. The small-town setting added so much atmosphere, making every moment feel intimate and deeply personal.

𝐸𝓁𝑒𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓈:
✨Second-Chance at love
✨Small-Town Setting
✨Healing from grief and loss
✨Emotional depth and heartache
✨Bittersweet family dynamics

𝐹𝒾𝓃𝒶𝓁 𝓋𝑒𝓇𝒹𝒾𝒸𝓉: If you're a fan of what happens when you lose the love of your life to death with a side of new friends to open up to and hope, 𝐸𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝐼 𝒫𝓇𝑜𝓂𝒾𝓈𝑒𝒹 𝒴𝑜𝓊 is a must-read. Upperman delivers a heartfelt, poignant novel that lingers long after the final page.

Happy Reading!

Ashley

Senior Lia has grown up always knowing that she would be falling in love and marrying Beck–the fortune teller her mom went to before Lia was born foretold it along with several other things that occurred, so it’s always been believed. However Lia’s whole world is rocked when Beck suddenly dies. This story, so heartbreakingly real and raw, goes back and forth in time as readers get to know Lia and Beck as kids, teens, best friends, and then lovers, as well as walking through Lia’s grief as she tries to come back from her broken heart. Highly recommended for teens going through the death of a loved one, or anyone who loves sad (yet hopeful) stories.

I hate to sound crazy, but I love a good book that makes me cry, and this gave it to me.

A teenage girl loses her best friend and the person she was supposed to live her life with. I really enjoyed how the book went back and forth between the story of them falling in love since kids, and then the present. Dual timelines or Dual POV is my favorite style for books I read. This book was sad, it was sweet, it was hopeful.

This was such a heartbreaking yet beautiful read!
This book explores the grief of a teenage girl who loses not only her best friend since birth, but the person she was fated to spend her life with. I loved how the book went back and forth between the past and the present and how Lia and Beck fell in love with eachother as they got older. And the present explores Lia navigating a world without Beck and learning to give love another chance. Not only will this book make you cry, but will make you smile at the same time!

Lia had her life planned out and a star of that plan was Beck, but after his death she is left adrift. Lia is to spend her senior year in a new town, where people don't know her past and she can try to find a new way to survive.

The pacing of this novel was a struggle for me, I wanted more movement in the story, but instead we spent much of the time drowning in Lia's grief. While this may be something that readers will respond to, it wasn't something that worked for me.

This book hit on so many things, love, grief, family and just finding out who you are. I'm glad I was able to get to read this early

A heartbreaking yet hopeful journey through love, loss, and healing. Lia’s grief is raw and deeply felt, making her path to rediscovery both painful and beautiful. Upperman captures the weight of destiny and the struggle of moving forward with stunning emotion. A tender, bittersweet story of love, loss, and second chances. 💔✨

Everything I Promised You is a story of first love, grief, family and finding yourself.

Lia’s story unfolds from alternating chapters from “now” and “before.” Chapter titles make the time periods clear, and this convention really does help readers get a full sense of who Lia is as a person with and without Beck. And, quite honestly, she’s more interesting as she finds her own path.

Author Katy Upperman tells this story with confidence. Her raw exploration of grief is moving and will resonate with readers who have experienced loss themselves.

Everything I Promised You is a strong, fairly chaste YA love story that pulls at your heartstrings.

This book!!

The heartbreak. The feelings. The REALNESS.

I loved this book. I will hands down recommend it to everyone I know and probably not tell them a single thing about it. But wow.

The loss I felt for her and the families was so real. But the hope and goodness I wanted for her was also real. I so badly wanted to bring Beck back for her but at the same time I wanted everything for her with Isaiah. If I was feeling this much turmoil over the two boys goodness knows how she could move on. And Isaiah! My heart broke for him. This boy who has been through it and still is able to be the one for this girl who has been through it and be everything for her, ugh, ugly cry!

I loved that she chose to live her own life apart from Isaiah with the promise to be together but I wished we had gotten to see the acceptance from Bernie towards Isaiah. I feel like that would have been such a healing moment for Lia. And I also wish there had not been such anger towards her CVU. I know they wanted to protect her but I feel like she she would have eventually come to that realization on her own. I feel like their hate and adamant-ness towards the idea pushed her more. and grew the divide.

Anyway loved this book so much. Read it. Cry. And then be happy for her.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review.

An approachable novel for teens that will pull on those heartstrings. Dealing with the sudden loss of her family friend, best friend turned boyfriend leaves Lia struggling with all the expected emotions. The depth and realistic portrayal of these emotions was handled well. The story is interwoven with past memories to show the depth of Beck and Lia's relationship. This will be a well cherished book for teen readers.

This story made me feel so many emotions! It was such a great read and I really enjoyed the characters and all the emotions shown throughout the book. I couldn't connect with the characters as much as I would have liked but the story still hit me for sure. I will say, sometimes it felt a little long and others the pace was perfect. However I am happy I got to read the story.

Thank you Sourcebooks Fire for inviting me to read and review Everything I Promised You. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"Escape, flee, withdraw.
These are the words that loop through my head as I tuck my life into boxes."

Lia Graham is an army brat. She and her family constantly move around, making new friends, staring fresh at different schools, and learning new places. What is constant in her life is her bestfriend and fellow army brat, Beck Byrne. According to Lia's mother they've always been fated to be together. When an unexpected tragedy strikes, Lia and Beck are forced apart and Lia has to learn how to live without him: the life she's always known and the one she thought they would have. Lia is starting off her senior year at a new school and in a new location. This is where she meets Isaiah, a student in the foster care system. Lia will need to learn how to navigate her new complicated feelings for Isaiah and the guilt of moving on from Beck after a year of losing him.

Everything I Promised You is a story written about the stages of grief at a young age. I enjoyed the back and forth of the past and present, Lia's life with and without Beck. The way she coped, and the grief that takes a hold of you when losing someone you love, felt realistic and relatable. The growing friendship and blooming of something more with Isaiah was handled well. I really liked how Isaiah supported Lia and his outburst of slight jealousy felt real and well-written for someone who is trying to understand and wants to move forward with Lia but doesn't want to push her into something she isn't ready for.

The story does have a great pacing but sometimes it felt too fast. The writing of the story is direct and to the point but there were some moments that felt slightly glossed over or not developed fully. I believe many young adult readers will feel a close connection to Lia and the growth and progression of her character. Overall, a solid read.

4 stars

Lia was destined to end up with Beck. As the children of best friends, they shared the ups and downs of life as military brats together. But when tragedy strikes, what will happen? The processing of grief and framing of the book around growing up in the military make this teen romance book stand out from others. Upperman also does a good job of balancing the realities of teen life (drinking and sex) in a positive, realistic, but fairly innocent way. Recommended for 8th grade and above.

A beautiful story of love & loss that I will forever and always recommend
First 5 star read of 2025!
This book was absolutely beautiful in every way. It made me cry, made me laugh & kick my feet, then made me stare at a wall with hundreds of thoughts running through my mind.
Thank you@sourcebooksfire and @katyupperman for
giving me the opportunity to read this ARC.
(Reviews posted on Goodreads and Instagram)

Amelia, or Lia, as she prefers to be called, is a military brat whose spent her life moving around the country with her family. Through it all, she's had her boyfriend and the son of her mother's best friend, Beck, every step of the way. The story begins a year after Beck's sudden death, as Lia still struggles to find purpose and piece her life back together, all while navigating her senior year at a new school in a new state.

A contemplative narrative is sprinkled with Lia's poems and journal entries, raw and unfiltered. Readers will wonder what happened to Beck, how Lia found herself so deeply in love at only 17, and whether she will heal enough to move on with her life.

*Thank you to the publisher, Sourcebook Fire, for providing me with a copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

It is a remarkable story of love, loss, friendship, and moving on.

This was a beautiful yet heartbreaking story. My heart shattered for Lia several times; all I wanted to do was hug and hold her. I felt connected to Lia. I may not have lost the love of my life like Lia, but I did lose my cousin, who was my best friend, unexpectedly in 2016. Therefore, I felt the same way Lia did, but differently. I knew how she was feeling, the loss she felt, that sometimes would come at the most unexpected times. I'm also happy she could make friends who sympathized with and helped her in Tennessee. I adored her friends. It brought back memories of my best friends and the help they gave me following the passing of my cousin. I cherished Paloma, Meagan, Sophia, and Lia's friendship. I adored their brief conversations in the books. They helped Lia recover because she needed that.

I adored Isaiah straight from the start. Even though Lia refused to admit it at first, I could see the connection between the two of them from the beginning. I know she didn't want to admit it because she felt she was betraying Beck, and I understand why. While reading the novel, I hoped she'd realize Beck wanted her to be happy and move on. Isaiah and Lia had a strong bond, and I hoped she'd realize she could go on. I loved the before and after chapters and the chapter names. I loved that Virginia was in there; I've lived there for 15 years, and it's my home, so it made me feel a wide range of emotions.

Everything I Promised You will make you cry and feel like you're on Lia's trip. I sobbed, smiled, became angry, and experienced everything Lia felt. The story felt real. I felt like I had transformed into the story. Everything was detailed vividly, and it was difficult not to become engrossed in Lia's story. I couldn't put the book down! All I wanted was to keep reading. On the other hand, I didn't want to go to the end because it meant saying goodbye to everyone. This will not be the last time that I read this book. I met Katy in 2017 during a book event for her book Kissing Max Holden , and we became friends throughout the years. I've loved her works since the beginning; she draws you in and connects you to the characters. I'm delighted I could read Everything I Promised You , and I'm interested to see what she has in store for us next! Highly recommended for romance and young adult fans around.

What comes after heartbreak?
Lia and Beck. Beck and Lia. Despite army-brat life orbiting them in and out of each other's worlds, Lia knows they are destined to be together. It's more than their friendship and chemistry. When Lia's mom was a teen, a fortune teller said her daughter would fall in love with her best friend's son. Lia and Beck were always meant to be. Or so they thought.
When tragedy steals Beck away, Lia is devastated. She lived her life by her mom's old fortune. If she was fated to be with Beck and he is gone, who is she supposed to be? And is there room in her broken heart for life, let alone new love?

Review:
Super emotional this was my first Katy Upperman book I read from her and it was everything. This is the perfect YA story with an emotional twist about loss and grief and learning to move on and continue life. Such a page turner I loved it. 🥰

This is a beautifully written, emotionally charged novel that took me on a heartfelt journey. The prose is poignant and evocative, capturing the rawness of Lia's grief and the complexities of finding hope amidst heartache2. The alternating perspectives between past and present add depth to the narrative, allowing readers to fully grasp Lia's emotional growth as she navigates her new reality. While the books heavy themes of loss and healing are sometimes predictable, the strong character development and engaging writing make up for it. Lia's journey is compelling, and the introduction of Isaiah as a supportive friend adds a layer of warmth and possibility.

This read balances the weight of grief with an undercurrent of hope, which made it a touching read that resonates long after the final page.

Grab your tissues! This story was gut wrenching throughout. A story of navigating grief and how to live beyond loss. I do wish we could have seen what Lia chose to do after graduating, one more chapter to see how life was for her for that year would have been the cherry on top!

I had to DNF this one. I was really excited to read it based on the blurb, but the timeline felt like it was all over the place in the beginning and I found it hard to follow. I lost interest.