Rowena’s review of The Promise of Amazing by Robin Constantine.
Wren Caswell is average. Ranked in the middle of her class at Sacred Heart, she’s not popular, but not a social misfit. Wren is the quiet, “good” girl who’s always done what she’s supposed to—only now in her junior year, this passive strategy is backfiring. She wants to change, but doesn’t know how.
Grayson Barrett was the king of St. Gabe’s. Star of the lacrosse team, top of his class, on a fast track to a brilliant future—until he was expelled for being a “term paper pimp.” Now Gray is in a downward spiral and needs to change, but doesn’t know how.
One fateful night their paths cross when Wren, working at her family’s Arthurian-themed catering hall, performs the Heimlich on Gray as he chokes on a cocktail weenie, saving his life literally and figuratively. What follows is the complicated, awkward, hilarious, and tender tale of two teens shedding their pasts, figuring out who they are—and falling in love.
This book sounded like a cute read and I’m always in the mood for cute so I requested this from Netgalley. As a whole, the story was cute but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would and that was due in large part to how crazy both Wren and Grayson drove me. Grayson with how dumb he was where Luke was concerned and Wren with the whole kissing Luke thing. The back and forth in Wren’s head drove me nuts because what the hell was that all about? I didn’t get it and because of that, I was annoyed with Wren.
So this book follows Wren and Grayson as they deal with where they are in their lives right now and also how they deal with their blossoming love.
Wren meets Grayson at a wedding that he’s attending at her family’s catering hall. He starts choking on some food and she gives him the Heimlich maneuver. She saves his life. Grayson is intrigued by the beauty that saved him. He wants to see her again so he does a little digging and shows up at her school. They don’t go to the same school. Wren goes to the all girls private school and Grayson goes to public school after he got kicked out of the all boys private school for being the term paper pimp.
They’re both smart kids and while I thought they fell in love a little too quickly, they’re teens and things happen quickly for teens, right? So I let that slide. What I really liked about the book is the easy way it read. It wasn’t hard to fall into the book and yeah, both Wren and Grayson made some decisions that made me want to smack them upside their heads but I liked Constantine’s writing style. The words kind of just fell together and painted a picture that was easy to fall into and the characters were charming enough that I cared. It wasn’t the most perfect story but it was still an enjoyable one and I’m not mad that I read it.
Grade: 3 out of 5
This book is available from Balzar + Bray. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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