The Promise of Tomorrow

By: Mary Ellen Taylor

Narrated by: Cortney Wright

Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

From the author of The Brighter the Light comes the moving story about one woman’s reason for leaving home and the love that brings her back.

When Olympia leaves her small Virginia town, she doesn’t expect to look back, much less ever come home. But after a year on the road, her sister’s engagement pulls Olympia into everything she left behind: her family, her husband, and the grief she’s been trying to forget.

She’s determined to stay a few days, maybe a week—just enough time to visit gravestones and sign off on the divorce her husband, Spencer, asked for. But he’s reeling from their shared loss, as well as complications with his aging parents, leaving his heart just as fragile as Olympia’s. The more time they spend in each other’s orbit, the less sure they are they’ll be able to walk away for good.

As family secrets come to light and family bonds stretch to the breaking point, Olympia must decide where she’s going next and where she belongs. She’s used to coping with life’s complications alone, but maybe the best way to heal is together.

©2024 Mary Burton (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Southern accent

The Promises of Tomorrow is about Olympia a woman who is on a healing road trip journey to channel her grief into an adventure created by her mother. For years Olympia put aside her own dreams to fulfill her sisters and her moms. Once she got her sister and mother settled Olympia found Spencer a man who put aside his life as a pro golfer to help run the family quarry business in Virginia.
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Olympia found herself back in Virginia to attend an event with her sister Eve. The time back in Virginia became one of facing her fears and learning to accept today for who knows what tomorrow will bring.
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Olympia journaled her travels through social media. The posts were a reflection of her personal experience not the landscape. Personally I think if your travelling the world you would want to document places you visited with pictures and suggestions. But that’s not the case in her posts. Im my opinion these posts didn’t add any necessary information to the growth of the character.
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It must admit it was odd reading a story dated in the future without it being a futuristic story. I’m glad I had the ebook words to follow. Had I relied solely on the audiobook I would not know when Olympia was referring to the past. Even with the words in front of me I found my mind drifting and hard to process the timeline.
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Mary Ellen Taylor writes about Olympia a woman who has experienced love and loss at a young age. This is a contemporary romance set in Virginia. This is my first time experiencing a Mary Ellen Taylor book. While I like contemporary romances. I wasn’t as invested in these characters lives. Even the backstory about rocks wasn’t enough of a draw for me.
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Cortney Wright is the solo female narrator who was the voice of Olympia. I wasn’t quite sure is there was a southern accent or something else. The voice didn’t match with what I expected from Olympia. I did appreciate having both the audiobook and ebook as I’m an eyes and ears person. Having both certainly enhances my experience.d

THE PROMISE OF TOMORROW

A good story with great narration making it easy to follow the characters. It kept my attention.

Promise of Tomorrow

Absolutely loved the narration! You will fall in love with the characters, especially Spencer. Mix of a little mystery and missed love make for a great listen!

Kind of a slice of life book

I agree with another reviewer that there wasn't anything really urgent going on in the book. The stakes weren't high enough to call this a drama. I think it's more like a slice of life book where we get to look into Olympia's life and see how she's dealing with her grief. I realized early on that it could have had a satisfying ending whichever path she chose. It was a little bland compared to what I normally read, but I hung in there for the ending I hoped for. Good read for relaxing or listening to while doing something else.

Finding yourself and finding balance.

A story of family, love, and finding a balance with life. Losing a baby is difficult on both parents. Can they overcome that heartbreak and mend their marriage.
Mary Ellen Taylor delivers as usual

Good Story, Bad Narration

I almost gave up on this book because the narrator was awful! Her females all sounded drab, her males all sounded like the same person. She sounded like a tone deaf grandma trying on a southern accent. She was just BLAND. But I liked the story.

The development of the characters

I liked the authors probing and illuminating the characters from a very young age into adult hood. The introspection the characters went through to understand themselves and their choices. The story is excellent

Decent story

I like the plot, story line and characters. I didn't appreciate the narrator, who at times was attempting southern accents (I think) and at times not, and if so did a poor job. I did appreciate her cadence and inflection.

Olympia is evolving through this tale.

She pushes her head up through the quagmire of her past, present and watches as the future shapes itself in response to her acceptance…So refreshing and pleasing.

Kind of boring

Nothing much happened but the writing was smooth- needed more tension and more story - it was too simple.