A review by bluejayreads
Promises, Promises by L-J Baker

Did not finish book. Stopped at 25%.

I'm not much for comedy at the best of times - most of it just comes off as unfunny at best and cringeworthy at worst. And that's exactly what happened with this book. I very nearly gave up on page 11 because the protagonist insisted on making a fool of herself while both literally and metaphorically shoving away another character trying to help her avoid doing so. But sometimes the inciting incident is a little rough and then it gets better, so I pushed on. And admittedly after that one scene, I no longer felt like cringing out of my skin. But it didn't improve by much. The characters were caricatures with little depth whose main purpose seemed to be subverting tropes. The humor ranged from just not funny to awkward and forced. And the plot was far too straightforward and unexciting to hold my interest on its own. I appreciate that the book was trying to subvert all of the fantasy quest novel tropes - I am absolutely here for trope subversion. But Promises, Promises took the concept of subverting tropes and just kinda forgot to build an actually enjoyable story around it. I will admit, though,, comedies aren't my jam generally. The problem here may be me and not the book. But regardless of where the fault lies, I couldn't find the desire to continue.