Everything We Promised (The Hamilton Series Book 6), by Kate Smith

Publication: July 21, 2017; updated version September 2018

promised About the book:

Do you believe in second chances?

After three years overseas, Aiden Hamilton returns to Chicago. During his absence, he thought often of his teenage love, Tiffany, and longs to rekindle their relationship. Except he faces two major hurdles—his acceptance into medical school in another state, and the continued efforts of their families to keep them apart.

Tiffany Baxter has spent the last three years of her life doing her best to remain invisible to her unsupportive parents. The events of her teenage years have created deep emotional scars, and despite the sporadic and secret contact from Aiden, she assumes he is lost to her forever.

Each has struggled to accept the circumstances that separated them. Both want to move on, yet overcoming the obstacles seems to be impossible. Whenever they manage to find their way back to each other, inevitably they are torn apart.

My Review

For those of you that regularly follow my blog, thank you 🙂 And if you are one of those people, then you will probably remember a few months back when I had the extraordinary pleasure to read and review Kate Smith’s novels in her Hamilton Series. I gushed and carried on about all of these incredible books and basically, I had an addiction for a while! Anyway, I am finally reviewing the final in the series, Everything We Promised (book 6). This novel is almost a prequel to the rest of the series, as it takes us back to when Aiden and Tiffany were young teenagers and first meet, and then when they meet again after being separated due to Savannah’s birth. Aiden has been overseas and finally reunites with Tiffany after returning to his grandparents’ home right before leaving for medical school. As their families are still trying to keep them apart, these young lovebirds struggle to be together while everything else seems to be working against them.

Having read all of the other installments in this series, I was a bit leery of this one. It has nothing to do with the author or the series, but I am all about Aiden and Emily and have never been a fan of Tiffany. Yes, towards, the end of the series, she began to redeem herself in my eyes, but still, she wasn’t my favorite. However, Kate Smith has completely changed my perception of Tiffany.

This young woman endured a very challenging upbringing, fell in love, endured tragedy, fell in love even more, finally got the guy, but screwed it up. My thoughts have always been that she got what she deserved, and I am still not a fan of infidelity in any way, shape, or form. However, Kate managed to characterize and humanize Tiffany in a way that I didn’t know was possible. There is certainly more to this underdog of a character than what her actions suggest. Which, of course, I always knew this but still chose not to like her.

Anyway, I won’t go into the plot much more because readers of the series already know the outcome of Tiffany and Aiden’s relationship. However, I will mention that not only does Kate Smith show a different side of Tiffany, she also shows a different side of Aiden that at times, was disturbing, but also made me love his character and who he eventually became, all the more.

Like the others in the series, Everything We Promised is emotional, endearing at times, heartbreaking at times, but most of all – honest. I can’t recall ever being so in love with a series, the characters, the author’s writing, and just the overall feeling I get after reading one of these books. I can’t begin to find the words that would truly encompass my respect of Kate Smith. What an incredible author and an incredible series. I cannot wait to read what she sends me in the future.

*Many thanks to the incredible Kate Smith for sharing her novel with me in exchange for my honest review.