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Mindy

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Mindy is Currently Reading

Mindy is currently reading

100 Promises: Because Every First Love Deserves a Second Chance

by Melia Grasska (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: romance, smart, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

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Mindy said: " **A dusty, dreamy second-chance romance that absolutely wrecked me (in the best way)**

I devoured *100 Promises* in a single sitting and immediately started it again. What a range Melia Grasska has — if you’ve seen *Mercy Falls*, you know she can buil **A dusty, dreamy second-chance romance that absolutely wrecked me (in the best way)**

I devoured *100 Promises* in a single sitting and immediately started it again. What a range Melia Grasska has — if you’ve seen *Mercy Falls*, you know she can build dread and tension like few other writers working today, so it’s genuinely thrilling to see her bring that same precision and emotional intelligence to a romance. Different genre, same gift for making you feel everything.

Sydney is such a refreshing heroine. A runaway bride could so easily come off as flighty or selfish, but Grasska makes her panic feel earned. You understand exactly why she climbed into that truck, and exactly why it had to be *that* truck. And Clayton — oh, Clayton. He’s not the brooding, perfect cowboy archetype. He’s tired, a little bitter, kind of dusty, and quietly devastated to see her again. The line about him not being happy to see her but also not that mad about it basically sums up his whole vibe, and that tension is the kind of thing I live for.

The Arizona setting is practically a third main character. The red dirt, the heat shimmer, the small-town claustrophobia — you can feel it on the page. Grasska uses that landscape beautifully as a metaphor for everything Sydney and Clayton have left behind and everything they buried there.

What I loved most is that this isn’t a story about whether they still love each other. It’s about whether love is *enough* when you’re the two people who hurt each other first. The memory-trading structure does so much work — every glimpse of the past recontextualizes the present, and by the back half of the book I was completely undone.

Five stars, would run away from my wedding again.

**Pros:**

- Genuinely earned slow burn
- Clayton. Just Clayton.
- Vivid sense of place
- Dialogue that reads like real people talking

**Cons:**

- I finished it and now I have to live in a world where there isn’t a sequel (yet?? please??)

If you like smart, character-driven second-chance romances, this one is absolutely worth your time. Grasska is the real deal. ...more "

May 23, 2026 08:00PM · see review