Cooper mines a wellspring of human emotions with such honesty, freshness and realism that PROMISES, PROMISES never descends into stock characterization or cliche. (She even spins a new twist on the oft-trite but de rigueur "baby" plot.) This book has plenty of substance -- Cooper poses some big, real-life questions her characters answer only after considerable soul-searching -- but the story is anything but solemn. Her heroine's opening gambit -- trying to seduce a tenant she's hardly said two words to -- is a doozy of a scene, funny and fun, and the disastrous result is something anyone who's ever put themselves on the line and failed can identify with. And sure, there's frivolity, but that doesn't make this a cotton-candy read. Gretchen and Marco are well-rounded characters trying to get through life the best they can, and darn it all if you don't fall in love with them almost immediately. I wasn't too keen on Gretchen at first -- she seemed a bit too drab and doormat-ish -- but I loved how she summoned the courage to reach for that brass ring.
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