The Promise

I have to say how much I liked book 1 ‘Belle'. I found it amazing. But now as I look back I am not so sure anymore. I read it two years ago back when I was not very experienced with books. But still Belle was much better than this one.
A friend told me before both of us read ‘the promise' that she was baffled that Belle was not traumatised at all. Well, in book one she probably didn't have the chance as the whole book was concentrating on her attempts to escape and go back to her family so I thought that her remark wasn't very valid. But as I read the promise I realised that she was absolutely correct. A woman who faced such horrible situations will at least avoid male proximity for some while, but no she rushed off and married Jimmy shortly after that thing with Pascal. Didn't she at least get nightmares from the time she was raped?! Not at all?!
Her writing style was very annoying at the beginning of the book but then it got better, and a lot of the conversations I found to be cheesy. Add to that, there was supposed to be more conversations. I thought there was more unnecessary talk of war than it was supposed to be and less conversations than it was supposed to be. And when there were conversations, they seemed too cheerful, cheesy and too sentimental for me, more than they were supposed too.
I hated Belle's choices when it came to Etienne at first and I was furious, and then I hated jimmy. But now, I like Etienne better especially at the end of the book and now I don't hate them so much. I was saddened by Garth's death but maybe it was necessary for their trip to New Zealand and their liberation? And I expected that Etienne would follow her to New Zealand
There is one thing that bugged me the most. I couldn't help but compare this book to ‘The Great Gatsby'. The promise was set in the period of time before the great Gatsby was written and even though the American accent is considered the trash of the english language, still The Great Gatsby is more posh. Get what I mean? In my opinion, every character in the promise didn't speak the way people of that time spoke. At the beginning of the book it was closer to their way of speech than in later parts and that removed a lot of the credibility in this book.
There is something that really baffled me. Etienne at the end of the book said ‘subconsciously'. Sure at the time it had been a few years that subconscious was discovered and accepted in the scientific community but it wasn't long enough for people to accept it and use it in their speech so easily, just another point I thought I had to make.
I still liked it though and it hooked me up. It was quick, comfy and entertaining.