Promise Me by Harlan Coben, 325 pages

"It has been six years since entertainment agent Myron Bolitar last played superhero. In six years he hasn't thrown a punch. He hasn't held, much less fired, a gun. He hasn't called his friend Win, still the scariest man he knows, to back up or get him out of trouble.

All that is about to change...because of a promise.

The school year is almost over. Anxious families await word of college acceptances. In these last pressure-cooker months of high school, some kids will make the all-too-common and all-too-dangerous mistake of drinking and driving. But Myron is determined to help keep his friends' children safe, so he makes two neighborhood girls promise him: If they are ever in a bind but are afraid to call their parents, they must call him. Several nights later, the call comes at 2:00 a.m., and true to his word, Myron picks up one of the girls in midtown Manhattan and drives her to a quiet cul-de-sac in New Jersey where she says her friend lives.

The next day, the girl's parents discover that their daughter is missing. And that Myron was the last person to see her. Desperate to fulfill a well-intentioned promise turned nightmarishly wrong, Myron races to find her before she's gone forever. But his past will not be buried so easily - for trouble has always stalked him, and his loved ones often suffer. Now Myron must decide once and for all who he is and what he will stand up for if he is to have any hope of saving a young girl's life." -Book Jacket

I picked this book up at a used bookstore and needed something to read this week while I wait for the 5th Fablehaven so I chose this one.

The thing I like about Harlan Coben is that his characters are real people. They could live next door to you. They just happen to find themselves in complicated, usually dangerous, yet not totally unbelievable circumstances. Promise Me is a book about parents who are too competitive, want too much for their children, and go to any lengths to ensure their success. There were a lot of fun characters in this book. My favorite was Myron's friend Win, a rich, pompous man who dreams of being Bruce Wayne and pays enough money to be trained like him. He cracked me up - and he had mad martial art skills! Big Cyndi is equally lovable with her skin tight white lycra outfit. The mental picture the author painted was hilarious. I thought the friendships in this book were well-written. (There was a little language.) Little did I know that this is book 8 in the Myron Bolitar series so I'll definitely be checking on books 1-7.