Synopsis: A novel about love, loss, and sex — but not necessarily in that order.

Before her mother died, Shelby promised three things: to listen to her father, to love as much as possible, and to live without restraint. Those Promises become harder to keep when Shelby’s father joins the planning committee for the Princess Ball, an annual dance that ends with a ceremonial vow to live pure lives — in other words, no “bad behavior,” no breaking the rules, and definitely no sex.

Torn between Promises One and Three, Shelby makes a decision — to exploit a loophole and lose her virginity before taking the vow. But somewhere between failed hookup attempts and helping her dad plan the ball, Shelby starts to understand what her mother really meant, what her father really needs, and who really has the right to her purity.

Review: I’m not at all relgious or “pure” so I wasn’t going to read this book at first. However that being said, Jackson Pearce’s Fairytale Retelling books were both amazing. Purity is definitely not a part of this series, but it didn’t sound bad so I bought the audiobook version read by Jackson herself.

It’s actually pretty good! Shelby’s mother dies when she is young, and asks Shelby to promise her 3 things: listen to her father, love as much as possible and live life without restraint.

So when her father asks Shelby to participate in the upcoming Princess Ball, where she has to make a vow to live a pure life, Shelby is stuck. She doesn’t want to wait till marriage to have sex, but she has always stuck by the promises she made her mother. Not able to change her fathers mind, she decides to bend the rules and have sex BEFORE the Princess Ball, thus making the vow rendered void anyways.

Whilst I don’t necessarily agree with the protagonists actions of rushing out and having sex with the first guy you meet, I also remember the pressures of being a teenager. I really appreciated that Jackson didn’t romantisise the story and wrote the book in quite a realistic way.

The story was really sweet, especially when Shelby spoke about how her mothers death impacted her faith, and seeing the changes in her relationship with her father also.

Whilst I predicted what was going to happen within the first few chapters of the book, I still appreciated the story for what it was, and really loved hearing Jackson tell the story herself in the audiobook format. I highly recommend this format if you’re going to purcase the book! It was great listening to Jackson tell the story.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Trailer (not-official):