Promise Broken

by K'wan

Overview

Beware of the company you keep.

K’wan’s urban fiction coming-of-age novel, Promise Broken, is set in the gritty streets of Newark, New Jersey. The story follows seventeen-year-old Promise Mohammed as she attempts to uphold friendships and new relationships—even if they lead to her demise.

After Promise’s mother dies in a tragic car accident, it leaves a void in Promise’s life that she is yearning to fill. This titular novel finds Promise spiraling into a life of crime and drug affiliation by the company she chooses to keep.

Also coping with abandonment and a lifelong broken commitment from her biological father, Promise ultimately has two goals: to graduate from high school and to be loved. But can she find the love that she seeks from her aunt Dell, two best friends, Mouse and Keys, or drug-dealer Asher—the man who captivates her—despite the fact that each relationship will lead to life-altering events? Only time will tell.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798200911561
Publisher:	Blackstone Publishing
Publication date:	03/15/2022
Series:	The Promises Series , #1
Pages:	294
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

K’wan is a multiple literary award winner and bestselling author. Born and raised in New York City, he’s best known for his cinematic writing style, colorful characters, and witty dialogue. He has authored more than thirty titles, collectively selling over one million copies, including his debut novel, Gangsta, and the widely popular Animal series. He has been featured in Vibe, Library Journal, Entertainment Weekly, and Time and is a two-time recipient of the Street Lit Book Award Medal (SLBAM) in adult fiction. K’wan currently resides in New Jersey where he is working on his next novel.

Editorial Reviews

2021-12-12
Two teenage girls struggle to survive their senior year in the Brick City of Newark, where gangsters battle for power, turf, and revenge as matter-of-factly as if every round were just another day at the office.

Promise Mohammed, still technically a virgin, loves reading English literature; her best friend, Mouse, nee Juliette Smith, agrees to carry drugs for Abdul, the second biggest shot in town, after a low-level pitch that he seals by demanding a blow job. When the two girls are busted for shoplifting, Promise’s Aunt Dell talks them out of police custody, but only so that she can work off her enduring resentment of Promise’s late mother by forcing her niece to work even harder at cleaning her house. Everyone is working an angle, from B-Stone, the dealer at the top of the food chain, to Dell’s tenant Keys Jackson, who refuses to act on his feelings toward Promise until his potential as a pianist can make him somebody. The pot boils over when Zul, a rival gang leader, is released from prison after serving three years on a gun charge. He orders Asher, one of B-Stone’s dealers, to execute his boss, and Asher, who has his own eye on Promise, is afraid to say no because he doesn’t want Zul to learn that Asher’s the person who planted the gun in question on him. K’wan keeps the violence tamped down much longer than you’d expect; when it finally breaks out, it slashes everyone in its path, some of them fatally.

“Every girl deserves dreams,” muses the story’s Cinderella. Not in this seething anti–coming-of-age tale.

Kirkus Reviews