Review: Breaking Promises - S. Briones Lim

Review: Breaking Promises - Book #1 B-Boy Series - S.Briones Lim -2016

Life has been pulling me in a million directions lately, and I'll be honest—reading has definitely taken a backseat to everything else that's been happening. But when I was scrolling through my Kindle at the end of June, desperately searching for something to dive into, I stumbled across this gem I'd picked up way back in 2016. Sometimes the best discoveries are the ones that have been patiently waiting for you.

"Breaking Promises" hit me like a wave of pure nostalgia. Remember those dance movies that dominated the late 90s and early 2000s? Step Up, Save the Last Dance, Stomp the Yard—the whole glorious bunch that had us all secretly practicing moves in our bedrooms? This book brought every single one of those memories flooding back, and I was absolutely here for it.

S. Briones Lim introduces us to Aurora, a character who immediately grabbed my heart. After a devastating gymnastics accident that nearly broke her neck, she's starting fresh at a new university, desperately trying to escape the shadow of being "the girl who had a miracle"—someone who should be paralyzed or dead but somehow isn't. The weight of that identity, of having your entire life defined by one terrifying moment, felt incredibly real and raw.

What I loved most was watching Aurora discover breakdancing and the underground dance scene. Her friendship with Mitch, a B-Boy who becomes her unlikely mentor, develops beautifully as he teaches her the ropes, hoping his crew might accept a female dancer. Of course, things don't go as planned—when do they ever?—but Aurora's response is absolutely perfect. Instead of backing down, she forms her own crew of misfit women: dancers, cheerleaders, gymnasts, and yoga enthusiasts, all united by their determination to prove that women can dance just as well as (or better than) their arrogant male counterparts.

The book captures that same underdog spirit and fierce competition that made those early 2000s dance movies so addictive. There's something deeply satisfying about watching Aurora transform from someone afraid of her own body to someone who owns every move, every beat, every moment on the dance floor.

For any millennial who spent their teenage years obsessed with dance battles and the dream of proving yourself through movement, "Breaking Promises" is pure comfort food. It's a reminder of why we fell in love with those stories in the first place—the passion, the struggle, the triumph of finding your tribe and your voice through dance.

This book was exactly what I needed during a chaotic time, delivering both escapism and inspiration in equal measure.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3GuREyE