I received this book for free from the author, the publishers, and NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review. I was interested in reviewing it because of the word VOW. My background is in deaf education, and when I was teaching at a state deaf school, some of the children began circulating the concept of a vow. It held so much more strength than a promise or intention or goal. I was fascinated with how the children explained it to each other. They had no sign for it; they could only fingerspell V-O-W. Even now, more than 30 years later, I can see the intensity on the children's faces as they fingerspelled VOW and sought to explain its significance to each other.

In my own life, I have taken a few vows, and they are indeed much more powerful than a simple promise because they do pull in a huge spiritual component. This book approaches the power of vows from a Zen/Buddhist point of view. While much of the book was very interesting and even motivating, it left me with many questions and feeling kind of empty, that there is more to our hearts and souls than what was explained here. In my opinion, there are problems in my world and in the world in general that are bigger and more insurmountable than what I can muster within myself to overcome. This book didn't show me from where I could get that strength, and thus, left me vaguely dissatisfied.