A young girl, on the cusp of sexual maturity, in what is now known as Benin, West Africa, is seduced by a beautiful stranger, a man the likes of which she has never seen before. Their encounter changes her forever. She becomes an asiman, a vampire: one of the undead.
The Promise Keeper comes to her, willing her to do his bidding—to keep an unspoken promise. He probes her mind and plants suggestions so she will follow his plan, until she fights back. She runs, her travels taking her to Europe and the Caribbean over centuries to escape him. She finally settles in New York City, convinced that she has eluded him… until she falls in love.
The Promise Keeper is a story of love, despair, murder, and deceit.
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What People are Saying About The Promise Keeper:
“Dark, sensual, powerful, real – The Promise Keeper keeps you balanced on the edge of falling for the darkness while still hoping for the light to win. Never has a promise been so important to keep. Never has the Devil been so hard to resist. “
-K.R. Davies, Author of The Blood Omen Series
“Vampire fans will get their fill here, as will horror readers thirsty for a fresh, unexpected take on one of the genres oldest mythologies.”
– Library Journal
They call it the Death House. For the women awaiting execution at Raskin Correctional, it’s the last place they’ll ever know. This is where Lucky meets Angie, and the two forge a friendship through the walls of their cells. But Angie is no regular inmate. She is an asiman, a vampire-like creature from African folklore, and she’s lived many lives before coming to the Death House. Before she’s executed, Angie begs Lucky to become an asiman herself, return to the world, and protect Angie’s son from the creature that turned her — the Promise Keeper. This is a lush horror story that crosses continents and spans decades, with all the sex and bloodletting of the best vampire tales. But Wood goes deeper, using vampire lore to paint a moving portrait of two women forced to make impossible choices in an unforgiving world where the evil lies in both monster and man. Vampire fans will get their fill here, as will horror readers thirsty for a fresh, unexpected take on one of the genre’s oldest mythologies.
“Wood… writes vivid, lush scenes that jump off the page.”
– Eva Roslin, Librarian
L Marie Wood’s novel The Promise Keeper was first released in April 2018, and it is being re-released by Cedar Grove Publishing in May 2021 with a brand new absolutely killer cover by the immensely talented Lynne Hansen. This re-release news is fantastic as The Promise Keeper is a wonderful novel by an incredibly talented #ownvoices creator. For those who cannot get enough of erotic horror and want more diverse characters, The Promise Keeper is required reading. Readers will find the story of vampires, sex, history, travels, love, and broken hearts scintillating.
Wood, also an award-winning screenwriter, writes vivid, lush scenes that jump off the page. The opening scene is heady and mesmerizing, setting the scene for a vampire transformation that would make even E.L. James and fans of Fifty Shades of Grey blush. We soon learn that there is West African mythology in the mix, of family bonds from years ago that resonate until this day. Fans of Jewelle Gomez’s The Gilda Stories to L.A. Banks’s Vampire Huntress series must read The Promise Keeper. It is addictive and compelling, and it will keep you turning the pages to race to the ending. Fans of the television series The Vampire Diaries will also love this book, particularly if they wished more of the erotic elements had been played up. Do yourself a favour and take a bite out of The Promise Keeper before it devours you.
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L. Marie Wood 