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Promises, Promises: A Robin Bricker Prequel
Love, mystery, and broken promises....
Sixteen years ago Robin spent her summer at an elite boarding school, sharing oxygen with secret society members and exploring the haunted cairns. Lonely, enigmatic Tristan was her only friend, but when tragedy struck, Robin shamefully abandoned Tristan to resume her safe, suburban life.
Now Robin has a successful design business and a passionate relationship with her boyfriend, Nick. Yet when Tristan calls out of the blue, Robin must revisit a dangerous world of lies and ghosts.
Will keeping her promise and helping her friend cause Robin to lose everything she holds dear?
This novella is a prequel to the full-length, standalone 2015 Kindle Scout Winner , The Standout , from award-winning author Laurel Osterkamp. A preview chapter of The Standout is also included.
Sixteen years ago Robin spent her summer at an elite boarding school, sharing oxygen with secret society members and exploring the haunted cairns. Lonely, enigmatic Tristan was her only friend, but when tragedy struck, Robin shamefully abandoned Tristan to resume her safe, suburban life.
Now Robin has a successful design business and a passionate relationship with her boyfriend, Nick. Yet when Tristan calls out of the blue, Robin must revisit a dangerous world of lies and ghosts.
Will keeping her promise and helping her friend cause Robin to lose everything she holds dear?
This novella is a prequel to the full-length, standalone 2015 Kindle Scout Winner , The Standout , from award-winning author Laurel Osterkamp. A preview chapter of The Standout is also included.
100 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 10, 2016
87 people are currently reading
217 people want to read
About the author
Laurel Osterkamp
22 books525 followersLaurel Osterkamp is the award-winning author of roughly a dozen novels, such as Favorite Daughters and the #1 Amazon bestseller, Beautiful Little Furies. She is obsessed with writing and doesn't know how to stop. In addition to her novels, she has short fiction published in literary journals all over the web, writes a monthly column for Writer's Fun Zone, and runs her website, laurellit.com, with book reviews, lesson plans, and writing advice.
When she's not writing (which is rare) she's often teaching adult ESL or middle school enrichment classes, going running while listening to audiobooks, or educating her daughter about the OG teen soap opera, Beverly Hills 90210. She lives in Minneapolis with a family who loves to argue, and their cats, who love to hiss at each other. Ramona Quimby is her spirit animal.
Follow her on Instagram @laurel_osterkamp.
When she's not writing (which is rare) she's often teaching adult ESL or middle school enrichment classes, going running while listening to audiobooks, or educating her daughter about the OG teen soap opera, Beverly Hills 90210. She lives in Minneapolis with a family who loves to argue, and their cats, who love to hiss at each other. Ramona Quimby is her spirit animal.
Follow her on Instagram @laurel_osterkamp.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 28, 2020
I really liked the setting and the characters in the book, and I think the author did a good job in such a small book of setting up a story to be continued. I hate it when that happens, but there is a good mystery here, and there may be ghosts or serial killers involved.
July 31, 2017
"Disappointing"
As psychological thrillers go this one is strictly for the younger generation. The action is painfully slow, the characters are shallow and inspire little empathy. The device of switching the time line every few pages is confusing and does nothing for creating any measure of suspense. All in all, it felt like a story told by a teenager for teenagers; therefore, it will no doubt have a market eager to devour it.
As psychological thrillers go this one is strictly for the younger generation. The action is painfully slow, the characters are shallow and inspire little empathy. The device of switching the time line every few pages is confusing and does nothing for creating any measure of suspense. All in all, it felt like a story told by a teenager for teenagers; therefore, it will no doubt have a market eager to devour it.
October 18, 2019
Well written, but I just don't care about any of the characters very much. I tried the preview chapter to the novel (first of a series) and it didn't grab me either. I was hoping the novel would pick up some threads from the short story, but apparently not. (-therefore, the ending of short story is not particularly satisfactory.) Maybe if I was more into 80's pop, 'reality' contests, or ballet plots, I would like it more. 3 of 5 for decent writing. 1 of 5 for characters I can care about.
May 18, 2017
A Book of Questions
A completely different book to those I have read before. Complex characters, each with their own story, but linked together. A slow read but captures your imagination and then leaves you wanting to know more....
A completely different book to those I have read before. Complex characters, each with their own story, but linked together. A slow read but captures your imagination and then leaves you wanting to know more....
June 19, 2017
Good treadmill reading. Murder, mystery following up on past college escapades haunting so many over the years.
June 7, 2016
Alright, so this book left me feeling pretty confused, but interested enough in the characters to move forward and read Osterkamp's The Standout. When I finished reading Promises, Promises, I was confused enough by the abrupt ending that I went ahead and read The Standout before leaving my review for Promises, Promises. Hindsight, maybe I should have written the review for Promises before moving on. However, since this book is supposed to be a lead in to The Standout, a small portion of my review is going to focus on how the two books tie together.
Overall, I enjoyed Osterkamp's style of writing. I didn't notice any glaring editorial mistakes and the writing flowed well, although the timeline could be very jarring. You would be in one place on one day, suddenly in an event that happened the next day, before finding yourself in an event that happened many years ago. The characters were well developed and likable and the relationships in the story had some very interesting issues. Osterkamp fit quite a good bit of story into the short pages of this book, which I commend her for.
Here is the biggest issue that I had, especially after I read The Standout - there is no feasible reason I can see for this back story??? I assumed that the short story would tie in to the main story somehow, but even the main characters that carry from one story to the next don't feel like the same characters in both books. In The Standout, Robin is famous for being on a reality show called The Holdout - her fame (or infamy) is never noted at all in Promises, Promises. Robin's entire personality seems to do a 180 between the two books, leaving me very confused about what happened to the quiet, sightly introverted Robin that is portrayed in Promises, Promises. Tristan and Hunter, two of the main characters in Promises don't show up at all in The Standout.
You are left with unanswered questions at the end of Promises, Promises; what happened to the couple that disappeared in the cairns? Was Tristan truly involved or not? Did Tristan and Hunter get married, or did Hunter give in to the belief that Tristan was a murderer? These are major issues that were brought up in Promises that I have yet to find the answers to. Additionally, while this is listed as a led in to The Standout, after I finished both books I found out that there was at least one more book that came before The Standout, leaving me terribly confused about the entire timeline of this series. I don't know if you should read Promises, and then The Holdout before reading The Standout, since I haven't read The Holdout. There is also another book about Robin, called The Next Breath, and I have no idea where that one fits into the timeline, either.
So, I tried to go back and rate this book simply off of what I read, in the hopes that the author gives us a story that wraps this one up.
June 2, 2016
Here is a short story with lots of gentle twists that will keep you interested. There might even be a ghost story. And maybe a murder mystery. The reader will immediately, after the first few pages, assume this is also a romance story. And it is, sort of. Except that all the couples are not in relationships of unconditional love; all the participants have their own individual identities and are not afraid to express them. There are almost too many couples to keep up with in this fast moving story. Looking at a few of them, we find:
There is Robin and Nick. They are in love although Robin would like a more permanent relationship, like marriage. They have separate careers, live together, and this feels like a comfortable relationship.
There is Phil. Okay, he is not a couple. But he would like to be, with Robin. Does Nick know about this? Is Robin sure of Phil’s intent? Does Phil know what he is doing? And for a really fun question (you will have to read the whole story first): How is Phil similar to Brian’s dog, Farrah?
There is Brian and Bridget. Did Brian kill Bridget? Did Farrah (see above) kill Bridget? Why did Bridget have to die?
There is Tristan and Hunter. Tristan is sexy. No male (and maybe some females) ever see her eyes. The focus of attention never gets that high. So why is she marrying a guy in a wheelchair? Or will that happen?
There is Riley and Conrad. Teenage summer camp friends and planners of evil pranks, in their later years they disappear. Why?
There is Grandma. She appears only briefly and then only in a mirror. How does she connect to anything in this story?
Osterkamp will answer all these questions and explain more how everything is connected in this fast moving short story. This story will motivate many to move on to the next Osterkamp work, The Standout.
There is Robin and Nick. They are in love although Robin would like a more permanent relationship, like marriage. They have separate careers, live together, and this feels like a comfortable relationship.
There is Phil. Okay, he is not a couple. But he would like to be, with Robin. Does Nick know about this? Is Robin sure of Phil’s intent? Does Phil know what he is doing? And for a really fun question (you will have to read the whole story first): How is Phil similar to Brian’s dog, Farrah?
There is Brian and Bridget. Did Brian kill Bridget? Did Farrah (see above) kill Bridget? Why did Bridget have to die?
There is Tristan and Hunter. Tristan is sexy. No male (and maybe some females) ever see her eyes. The focus of attention never gets that high. So why is she marrying a guy in a wheelchair? Or will that happen?
There is Riley and Conrad. Teenage summer camp friends and planners of evil pranks, in their later years they disappear. Why?
There is Grandma. She appears only briefly and then only in a mirror. How does she connect to anything in this story?
Osterkamp will answer all these questions and explain more how everything is connected in this fast moving short story. This story will motivate many to move on to the next Osterkamp work, The Standout.
July 25, 2018
My Review Promises, Promises by Laurel Osterkamp
A revisit to the 1980s and I loved it!
The Good
Pretty in Pink? I fell for this story pretty early on when a carrier in fashion was built on the back of Molly Ringwald!
The Bad
The flashbacks and story to teenagers and rituals is compelling. As I read, I remembered being young once. The double murders and the way they happened etc left one smiling with eyes wide.
The Ugly
This, of course, is a taster for the main course. So it doesn't end with an END - but more of a beginning or something new. This might not please a lot of people but it pleased me as I also enjoy being made hungry for more!
All in all this is an extremely easy to read novella which saga fans and 80s fans will laugh at.
3.5 to 4 Stars
June 25, 2016
An intriguing read that will keep you wondering long after you have finished. This is a prequel to The Standout, which is wonderful, and it does not disappoint.
A so-called friend calls Robin up asking her to come to her east coast home to create a wedding dress for her upcoming nuptials. What follows is a haunting revisit to a scary summer spent at an exclusive rich kids camp when they were teenagers. What really happened that night so long ago?
Don't read on a dark, stormy night without the lights on. Are the creaks and groans really the house settling or is it the ghosts of the past coming for a visit?
A so-called friend calls Robin up asking her to come to her east coast home to create a wedding dress for her upcoming nuptials. What follows is a haunting revisit to a scary summer spent at an exclusive rich kids camp when they were teenagers. What really happened that night so long ago?
Don't read on a dark, stormy night without the lights on. Are the creaks and groans really the house settling or is it the ghosts of the past coming for a visit?
January 15, 2017
2.5 stars. The writing was a little weird in the beginning but appeared to evened out after a bit. I found some aspects of the plot to be a little choppy. Interesting enough story but I'm not really sure there was a point to it? The ending seemed a little abrupt.
September 5, 2016
this book was interesting to say the least, I finished it in less than a day so it was small but it also kept my interest easily.
November 7, 2016
Great read
An very interesting read I will be looking for the rest of this series as intrigued to find out what really happened between Brian an Bridget
An very interesting read I will be looking for the rest of this series as intrigued to find out what really happened between Brian an Bridget
dnf
November 16, 2016DNF at 14%
February 20, 2017
This is a very psychological read. It brings back some memories and haunts you through the read. The story is very mysterious and leaves your brain in an investigators type mode.
March 1, 2018
I really enjoyed this book. I liked how it had bits and pieces of mystery and love.
February 19, 2018
Overall, I enjoyed the read. However if the point of the novel was to keep the reader guessing, it was way off mark. Within the first few chapters you learn who-done-it if you watch for the clues. Though I will admit I was enthralled enough to read it to the end to get all the nitty gritty details.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews