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Mountain Memories Trilogy #1
Promises: A Novel of Love, Betrayal & Revenge
A Recipe for Trouble Take one jilted Supermodel on the rebound Add an unscrupulous businessman who'll do anything to save his floundering business Agitate until both are steaming, then keep at a low simmer When looking for love sometimes you find it, ...and sometimes you don't! Smooth as a sip of Kentucky Bourbon, PROMISES eases you into Kentucky's Appalachian hill country. That wonderfully wild place of mountains and hollows, creeks and rivers, with its hardscrabble life and whiteboard churches where roots go deep, family matters, and Granny Wright's never wrong. A place where King Coal still rules and beneath its veneer of respectability lies a hidden web of treachery. Mary Jane Combs may have gotten her Momma's good looks, but her strong-willed determination came straight from Daddy. Growing up in Kentucky she dreamed of a simple life with a loving husband, a home of her own, and healthy kids. Instead she's become an international Supermodel, swapping the Appalachian coal country for New York City's Upper West Side and traveling the world in her private jet. But she'll need all the determination she can muster when her ex-husband sets out to destroy everything she's accomplished. But two questions remain to be answered: Can she do what needs to be done and still remain true to the promises she made at her mother's deathbed? And when the dust settles, will she at last find the loving relationship she always dreamed of as a girl?
330 pages, Paperback
First published October 7, 2009
32 people are currently reading
186 people want to read
About the author
E.G. Lewis
14 books21 followersEdward (E. G.) Lewis was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a young man he lived and worked in Kentucky and traveled the back roads of its Appalachian hill country for many years. Memories of this wonderfully wild place and its people became the inspiration of his novel, PROMISES.
A former newspaper editor and publisher, his articles have appeared in many national and regional magazines. He writes both Commercial fiction and Christian/Biblical Fiction. Two — PROMISES, Commercial Women’s Fiction, and WITNESS, Book One of the Seeds of Christianity Series™ — are currently available. Disciple, Book Two of the Seeds of Christianity Series™, is slated for release in Spring of 2010 followed by LOST, a Commercial Novel.
He holds a graduate degree in Economics from Ohio State University and worked in planning and corporate management before deciding to become a fulltime novelist. He's currently working on another in the Seeds of Christianity Series™ along with a love story set in occupied France during WWII. He and his wife, Gail, also a writer, live on the Southern Oregon Coast with more pets than he thinks they need.
A former newspaper editor and publisher, his articles have appeared in many national and regional magazines. He writes both Commercial fiction and Christian/Biblical Fiction. Two — PROMISES, Commercial Women’s Fiction, and WITNESS, Book One of the Seeds of Christianity Series™ — are currently available. Disciple, Book Two of the Seeds of Christianity Series™, is slated for release in Spring of 2010 followed by LOST, a Commercial Novel.
He holds a graduate degree in Economics from Ohio State University and worked in planning and corporate management before deciding to become a fulltime novelist. He's currently working on another in the Seeds of Christianity Series™ along with a love story set in occupied France during WWII. He and his wife, Gail, also a writer, live on the Southern Oregon Coast with more pets than he thinks they need.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 24, 2012
Reminding me of Barbara Taylor Bradford’s Woman of Substance, E.G. Lewis’s Promises starts in the coal-towns of the Appalachian hills and follows the life of a struggling young woman from high school to high society. Strip mines have torn the landscape. Strip mine owners have broken her family. But Mary Jane has good looks and fierce determination. She won’t let anyone use her, from the handsome school sports star to the eager wheeler-dealers of New York modeling, and she makes her own way forwards until she falls. Then she gets up again.
The detail in this novel is fascinating, from wounded landscape to “nipple covers” worn when it’s chilly on stage. Wise lessons are imparted by fascinating characters—“The easiest way to become an overnight success is to put in years of hard work,” says one, and Mary Jane, now known as Claudia, works hard not just for herself, but also for those around her. There’s a pleasing innocence and realism to the sexuality, an enjoyable strength and intelligence in Mary Jane’s planning, and a heart-warming feeling of satisfaction to the ending of the tale. Real set-backs, real betrayals, and the very real wounds of miscommunication lead to hope and a future when true love and true determination plot the path.
I enjoyed Woman of Substance, and I enjoyed this novel too.
Disclosure: I’ve read other books by this author and was pleased to find a free ecopy of this one.
The detail in this novel is fascinating, from wounded landscape to “nipple covers” worn when it’s chilly on stage. Wise lessons are imparted by fascinating characters—“The easiest way to become an overnight success is to put in years of hard work,” says one, and Mary Jane, now known as Claudia, works hard not just for herself, but also for those around her. There’s a pleasing innocence and realism to the sexuality, an enjoyable strength and intelligence in Mary Jane’s planning, and a heart-warming feeling of satisfaction to the ending of the tale. Real set-backs, real betrayals, and the very real wounds of miscommunication lead to hope and a future when true love and true determination plot the path.
I enjoyed Woman of Substance, and I enjoyed this novel too.
Disclosure: I’ve read other books by this author and was pleased to find a free ecopy of this one.
June 18, 2025
True love never fails!
I felt like I was on a roller coaster. One minute I was crying in glee the next minute I was crying in despair. This behold your interest to the very end of the roller coaster ride.
I felt like I was on a roller coaster. One minute I was crying in glee the next minute I was crying in despair. This behold your interest to the very end of the roller coaster ride.
March 4, 2010
Smooth as a sip of Kentucky Bourbon, PROMISES eases you into Kentucky's Appalachian hill country. That wonderfully wild place of mountains and hollows, creeks and rivers, with its hardscrabble life and whiteboard churches where roots go deep, family matters, and Granny Wright's never wrong. A place where King Coal still rules and beneath its veneer of respectability lies a hidden web of treachery.
Mary Jane Combs may have gotten her Momma's good looks, but her strong-willed determination came straight from Daddy. Growing up in Kentucky she dreamed of a simple life with a loving husband, a home of her own, and healthy kids.
Instead she's become an international Supermodel, swapping the Appalachian coal country for New York City's Upper West Side and traveling the world in her private jet. But she'll need all the determination she can muster when her ex-husband sets out to destroy everything she's accomplished.
But two questions remain to be answered: Can she do what needs to be done and still remain true to the promises she made at her mother's deathbed? And when the dust settles, will she at last find the loving relationship she always dreamed of as a girl?
FROM A NEWSPAPER REVIEW:
"This is one of those rare books that just keeps getting better and better. The scattered sex scenes are tasteful, yet explicit, and relevant to the story. I especially enjoyed them since they were frequently humorous as well. I loved the image of a strong woman standing on her principles and bringing down an evil man without losing herself in the process.
Have a box of tissues handy. If little Trevor's persistent search for a stepmom doesn't get to you, the feel-good ending surely will."
Mary Jane Combs may have gotten her Momma's good looks, but her strong-willed determination came straight from Daddy. Growing up in Kentucky she dreamed of a simple life with a loving husband, a home of her own, and healthy kids.
Instead she's become an international Supermodel, swapping the Appalachian coal country for New York City's Upper West Side and traveling the world in her private jet. But she'll need all the determination she can muster when her ex-husband sets out to destroy everything she's accomplished.
But two questions remain to be answered: Can she do what needs to be done and still remain true to the promises she made at her mother's deathbed? And when the dust settles, will she at last find the loving relationship she always dreamed of as a girl?
FROM A NEWSPAPER REVIEW:
"This is one of those rare books that just keeps getting better and better. The scattered sex scenes are tasteful, yet explicit, and relevant to the story. I especially enjoyed them since they were frequently humorous as well. I loved the image of a strong woman standing on her principles and bringing down an evil man without losing herself in the process.
Have a box of tissues handy. If little Trevor's persistent search for a stepmom doesn't get to you, the feel-good ending surely will."
April 17, 2010
This is one of those rare books that JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER AND BETTER!
I liked this author's other book, Witness, so much that I decided to read this one too. There's nothing Biblical about it, although there are underlying morale messages. Good prevails, that sort of thing.
I particularly enjoyed the fact that this young woman makes a success of her life; then when a stinking, cheating, dishonest man tricks her into marriage and it looks like he's going to destroy her, she triumphs in the end. And, in a most impressive way!
The heroine takes you all around the world, but despite her financial successes she's still a Kentucky girl and remains true to her funny, quirky family and friends. This was a fun read and I particularly enjoyed the sex scenes...applicable, not thrown in for shock value. Tina's exploits were my favorite. Our heroine remains mostly virtuous, but her "ex" does not.
Will she find happiness in the end? Well, I love a happy ending and I loved this exciting, frequently funny book.
I liked this author's other book, Witness, so much that I decided to read this one too. There's nothing Biblical about it, although there are underlying morale messages. Good prevails, that sort of thing.
I particularly enjoyed the fact that this young woman makes a success of her life; then when a stinking, cheating, dishonest man tricks her into marriage and it looks like he's going to destroy her, she triumphs in the end. And, in a most impressive way!
The heroine takes you all around the world, but despite her financial successes she's still a Kentucky girl and remains true to her funny, quirky family and friends. This was a fun read and I particularly enjoyed the sex scenes...applicable, not thrown in for shock value. Tina's exploits were my favorite. Our heroine remains mostly virtuous, but her "ex" does not.
Will she find happiness in the end? Well, I love a happy ending and I loved this exciting, frequently funny book.
November 12, 2013
I enjoyed this book. It is written in two parts with the first part being set in Kentucky in a mining community. The character Mary Jane Combs is a teenager in school who has to run the house and care for her father and brothers after the death of her mom. Things aren't easy for Mary Jane but she is tough. The second part is set in multiple locations and Mary Jane has taken the name of Claudia Monet. She is a wealthy woman but still has the values and morals of her younger self, Mary Jane.
The writing style of this book is different. I felt the first "book", Kentucky, flowed smoothly and was very interesting to read. Mary Jane seemed real and easy to relate to. However the second "book", New York, seemed a bit more difficult to stay interested in. There was business talk that I seemed to get a bit lost reading. The story just didn't seem to flow as easy.
I really did enjoy reading about Mary Jane and her life. I like a good story where someone fights through the tough times and comes out on top. This is one of those stories.
The writing style of this book is different. I felt the first "book", Kentucky, flowed smoothly and was very interesting to read. Mary Jane seemed real and easy to relate to. However the second "book", New York, seemed a bit more difficult to stay interested in. There was business talk that I seemed to get a bit lost reading. The story just didn't seem to flow as easy.
I really did enjoy reading about Mary Jane and her life. I like a good story where someone fights through the tough times and comes out on top. This is one of those stories.
August 8, 2011
PROMISES by E.G. Lewis was certainly not what I was expecting, and in this case that is a good thing! Rather than a fluffy romance, I got a well written novel with substance. Sure, there was romance, but this book is so much more than that. It is the epic journey of a woman who rises above the trials of life to become the person she was meant to be all along. It starts when Mary Jane is just 15, on the eve of her mother’s funeral. From there it takes us through her struggles at home and at college, first love, more tragedy, success, fame, fortune, betrayal, revenge … pretty much the whole gamut of human emotion! At first glance, this list almost sounds trite, but Lewis’s writing is so provocative, so descriptive, so in tune with the human psyche, that this book is anything but cliché. He draws us into MJ’s world with such craft and precision that before you know it you just have to keep reading. PROMISES turned out to be a very satisfying read, indeed. I highly recommend it.
September 6, 2016
This book dragged for the first 7 chapters, when I eventually gave up. The story was dull to me, in fact I really couldn't tell what the story was. The book seemed to start with the heroine in NYC(?), involved with the fashion industry(?). She seems to be reminiscing about how she got to that point.
I appreciated the dialogue, showing and not just telling.
Issues and people seemed to be all good or all bad. I don't see so far, that there are nuances of good people who do bad things.
There was too much God talk for me. Some writers can include a religious person, we can see the struggles of a godly person in the secular world. Other writers smack you across the face with God and prayer and this book was towards the smacking end of the spectrum.
Just my personal opinion.
I appreciated the dialogue, showing and not just telling.
Issues and people seemed to be all good or all bad. I don't see so far, that there are nuances of good people who do bad things.
There was too much God talk for me. Some writers can include a religious person, we can see the struggles of a godly person in the secular world. Other writers smack you across the face with God and prayer and this book was towards the smacking end of the spectrum.
Just my personal opinion.
July 8, 2016
Have followed this author through all his books ... both fiction and non-fiction. I love this one of a young Kentucky girl who rises to fame and fortune only to marry the wrong man. He uses her, is unfaithful and tries to destroy her career. But, she gets even ... I loved it! Also takes a romantic turn as all ends well for our kind-hearted heroine (although not so kind-hearted toward her ex!).
Mr. Lewis has had two wives (not at the same time, 1st is deceased); raised three daughters and has seven granddaughters. So, he knows something about women as indicated by this insightful novel.
Mr. Lewis has had two wives (not at the same time, 1st is deceased); raised three daughters and has seven granddaughters. So, he knows something about women as indicated by this insightful novel.
April 25, 2013
I thought the book jumped around to much time. I was very disappointed on how she acted while married to Cole she was a very strong person and to let what he did happen for even the short time it did annoyed me. Was happy how the story finally ended.
April 14, 2012
Another surprisingly wonderful book frome the Amazon freebie list. Full review to follow soon.
October 3, 2012
One of those books that just gets better as you read. Also shows that you can accomplish your dreams when you set your mind to it!
March 26, 2013
Almost quit reading when Cole was introduced - thought I was reading a different book. After his introduction, book became a page turner in spite of not very realistic. Few editing errors.
Read
June 9, 2013Loved this book!
Want to read
June 5, 2013Amazon Freebie 6/5/13
September 29, 2014
I really liked the book, just never took any time to read!!!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews