This book grabbed my attention from the beginning. The reader knows from the beginning that there is a secret so horrific that Sally, Beth and Carol make a promise from their boarding school days to never tell. We also know there is a death involved. Honoring their promise has impacted each of their lives. I was kept guessing until the end. Good mystery with underlying stories of love of family and friends.

Unfortunately, I was unable to finish this book. Not because it wasn’t written well, but because of my own post partum anxiety that kept me from continuing. I’d still recommend it to people, but sadly, I myself wasn’t able to enjoy it. This was a complete mistake on my part and I should have done more research before requesting the book.

What a psychological thriller, so many twists and turns and a surprise ending. I picked this up and read it into the early morning as I had to know the ending. Definitely a novel to recommend. Can’t wait to read more from Teresa Driscoll.

Beth, Sally and Carol become fast friends at a Catholic boarding school in England, there because their parents believe they are doing the best for their daughters, providing them with the best education.
During one of their last years at the school, something terrible happens to one of them, something which will have repercussions on all of them for years to come. Something which they vow to never tell anyone. That promise will continue to haunt them for years, affecting them each in different ways as adults.
The school is being sold and torn down. Beth panics when she reads about it and frantically contacts Sally but is unable to track down Carol. She is afraid the secret will come out and their lives destroyed.
Telling any more of the story would ruin the wonderful psychological study of keeping dark secrets and protecting friends. The impact of the initial event and the fear of it being revealed is different for each of them, but they are all panicking, just in different ways. Someone is threatening them all, but they have no idea who.
I throughly enjoyed the read.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read and review "The Promise."

This book took a bit for me to get into. I loved “I am watching you” also by this author and truly enjoyed reading it, but getting through this book took work. I think the overall premise of the book was good but it lacked engagement, at least for me. I was looking for more, but midway through the book, I realized the book had not gotten anywhere. It took me forever to get through this book and I just didn’t want to keep reading it. I typically do not quit on a book, but unfortunately, this was a DNF for me, maybe another day I can pick it back up, but this one just wasn’t for me!

I’m choosing to give it a 3 star because I felt like some people may enjoy it, so I don’t want to totally dash this book and perhaps the ending is better.!

To be honest, I did not love. The best part of the book was the ending, which I guess can be a positive, but the rest of the book seemed to drag. I understand a lot of the background was necessary for the ending to make sense, but it definitely could have been condensed or started the build up a little earlier. It took me awhile to get through this one. Again, the ending redeemed it a little, but overall I was a little underwhelmed.

Promises made when you are young can come back to haunt you in the future. Each of these friends promised to keep a secret regarding a tragedy, but the consequences of this promise cause issues later on in life. This book is a well written psychological drama, but it starts out slowly and builds upon the drama.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it, it is a fast read and has some really fun aspects but also I found some of it not to my taste. Its not my usual genre but I was pleasantly surprised.

Three young girls in a boarding school and a secret. A promise is made. This secret will haunt them throughout their lives. And then they receive news that the boarding school will be torn down. Will their secret be revealed? Will one of them break the promise? Teresa Driscoll does a wonderful job of sharing the lives of these three girls. I was not expecting the twist at the end. Thoroughly enjoyed this book!

Just a Few Words:   The twists, the turns, the sheer magnitude of the revelations makes me want to turn around and read it again, but unfortunately, I only want to read the last half -- well, actually not that much.  Oh the dilemma.     Okay, let's begin...

The Promise by Teresa Driscoll is a psychological thriller

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Thomas & Mercer, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

My Synopsis:
Due to fewer nuns entering the order, and less students enrolling in the school, The Order of St. Colman is moving to a smaller site. The existing buildings will be demolished, and the site sold and re-developed.

Beth and Sally meet to discuss the ramifications of the destruction of their old boarding school. They agree. They have to find Carol. Their secret may be revealed, and they have to figure out what to do – together. The three girls had become inseparable during their school days, but Carol had drifted away. Now, a promise made at the age of 14, must be broken as adults, but all must agree.

In the last 30 years, the girls became women. Beth is happily married to Adam and they have two boys. She is terrified that she will lose Adam if the secret comes out. Sally is divorced after a miscarriage showed her the truth about her husband. She is finally getting her life back on track. She doesn’t want the secret to derail her now. Last they heard, Carol was living in France with her husband Ned, and doing a lot of travelling.

Without providing him with too much detail, the women hire Private Investigator Matthew Hill to find Carol.

Little do they know that there is someone out there watching them, and Beth starts getting warnings to drop things. It starts innocent enough, but the warnings escalate.

My Opinions:
This book is about loyalty, and love, and friendship. Friends that we make as children, and keep as we age. Those friends, even when separated by distance, have powerful bonds. And it is about a secret between three such friends. A secret that should never have been kept, and which has haunted them all.  I love this premise.

Unfortunately, the book started slow, and I truly thought there were just too many words…. There were definitely parts that could have been cut out, that didn’t really add to the plot – Matthew’s backstory, the crows, and that epilogue was just too long… Needless to say I must have skimmed parts, because I know Carol’s Mom came to stay at Beth’s, but I don’t remember her ever leaving… These things concern me.

However, again, the premise was great, and with a little patience, the story revealed itself, and it was good. It was told from different perspectives, from different time-lines, but it was very straightforward, no confusion. Some of the reveals were very predictable, but there were a couple of extra twists that surprised me.

The book really picked up speed by about 60%, and from there to the overly long ending, I really enjoyed it. Part of me thinks too late, and the other part says but it was good! So I’m struggling to give it a rating. In my book,” Good” is a 3 star rating, but I can’t do that because the bad part was so long, it deserves only 2. On the other hand, the good part was that good that I want to forget about all the bad and give it 4 stars…but I can’t do that either. See my dilemma? I’m going with 3.5. Don’t ask.

NetGalley | The Promise
By Teresa Driscoll


NetGalley Book 6

Spoilers...
5 ⭐️’s !!!

OMG this book! Amazing from cover to cover!

So many moving parts and so much going on but extremely well written and easy to follow! There was zero downtime during this read and for that I loved it!

The bond between three friends that ran so extremely deep is something you couldn’t help but envy! Knowing that no matter where you are in life, you have friends who are with you and support you every step in your journey!

The intense and thrilling drama with the various characters did not lack a thing!

Thank you NetGalley for and advanced reader copy! I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend!

This is a good - not exactly original but still, good - story told in a very tricky way that I'm not sure will work for many readers.

My first feeling was that the narrators in this book are having their own secret world, as opposed to the usual feeling when you as a reader are let into the narrator's head exclusively and your biggest excitement comes from waiting with great anticipation to see what other narrators and/or characters will do when they finally discover what you already know.

It is mainly due to the fact that THE PROMISE spins around a promise that many (if not all, you never know) narrators know but you as a reader don't. Everything is moving forward against this big finale but you constantly feel excluded...because they know and hint at it, but you are left in the dark until much later...

Truly reminded me about friggin being in high school.

On the plus side, the writing is very good. There are some chapters when it gets almost mythical and poetic if you don't count the fact that you're still excluded from their little promise club. And the descriptions of an English boarding school felt highly realistic (in that it made me cringe and NEVER send my kids there, but still) and time and place appropriate - thank you, Teresa Driscoll, for the education. I can only hope this wasn't written based on your personal experiences.

Other than that the story reminded me of Ruth Ware's The Lying Game, but with different secrets and lies. And also a bit of Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep - only the British version a somewhat high-end boarding school where you feel like you don't exactly belong or fit in.

Thank you Thomas & Mercer for the chance to read this in exchange for my honest opinion.

Not for me. I just couldn’t get into this book. The characters were not really likeable. Their lives were not interesting and I just didn’t care about them. The tease of something awful that happened years ago was not enough to make me like the characters. The story was just boring and I couldn’t make myself care about what would happen next. Sorry, I didn’t like this at all. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Three friends harbouring a promise, from as early as their teens, right through to adulthood.
This is a story of Beth, Sally and Carol, who were in the same convent boarding school and became fast friends from day 1.

At 40, Beth is happily married to Adam with two sons. Sally is living happily by herself, after a marriage gone wrong and Carol is not in contact with them.
When Sally and Beth learnt that their school is shutting down due to lack of funds, and the grounds will be excavated – they panic. After all, their secret is buried somewhere in the school. They actively seek out Carol, who is the main person behind the secret they are harbouring. However, she is not traceable. In desperation, they hire Matthew, a private investigator, to hunt out Carol – but he seems to be harbouring some secrets of his own.
Told alternatively by the various characters, between the now and the then, The Promise kept me intrigues enough till the end.

The characters are relatable and the mystery surrounding them unfolds eventually. The language is easy to follow, and add to it a dash of emotions, especially when told from Beth’s point of view, enhances the solidarity between the women.

The relationships between the girls and their mothers, both in their youth and as adults, was well crafted out.
This book gives an insight into the psyche about how one deals with difficult choices and situations and how they affect our lives and the lives of those we love. The story is more more focused on family drama and friendship, though there is an element of mystery to it.

Definitely worth a read!

I loved this wonderful domestic thriller. It takes you on a wild ride, full of chills and thrills
I felt truly connected to the characters and was really connected to the story. I recommend it highly. The author was able to create an atmosphere of suspense and pressure.

A very dark and disturbing read that kept me awake till the very end.... this story focuses on 3 friends and a secret that they hold from their school days, a secret that is to be revealed when news that their old school is to be closed and what they thought they had buried in the past is about to revealed

A highly recommended read for all Teresa Driscoll fans

A promise made 30 years ago between 3 girls shapes and influences their lives up until now, this secret is about to come out and turn their world upside down.

It took me quite some time to get into this book, the first half doesn’t give away a lot except for the fact there is a secret, but no hints towards what secret. But when you pass into the 2nd half it feels like a roller coaster, a steamroller which hits you with twist after twist. The amount of twists started to feel a bit unreal to me but ‘life is stranger than fiction‘ right?

It is worth it to keep on reading, The Promise will reward you in the end and leave you with a good feeling.

The Promise kept me guessing from the beginning to the very end. I kept trying to predict what might happen next, but was so rarely correct. Several times I thought I had it pretty much figured out, only to have yet another secret revealed. This book made me think about how much a teenage accident/incident can change a person and alter the course of his/her life.

Beth, Sally, and Carol were best friends in a Catholic boarding school. While not actually knowing what the promise is we know that Beth and Sally are worried that because their school is getting torn down their promise will become know. Beth is happily married to Adam and has two sons. She is terrified that she could lose her husband, along with her sons, if Adam discovers her secret. Sally turned to drinking, many years ago, in an effort to forget what the girls did so long ago. , Beth, or Sally and Beth is desperate to contact Carol, so they can either make plans to do "something" about their secret or be freed from their promise.. The two women hire a private investigator to help decide if their promise will be kept,

Beth searches for Carol, she receives threatening messages, implying that Beth should stop her search.. What they did as teenagers seems to follow them everywhere and is still there when the story ends.

There are multiple layers to the story. Nothing is simple. Nothing predictable. Just when you think all has been revealed, there is more.

Beth, Sally and Carol, three schoolgirls at a private school made a promise to keep their deepest secret. Unexpected news threatens to expose the secret they have kept for so long and it seems someone is determined for that not to happen. Having lost touch with Carol, the other women hire a private investigator to track her down and are not prepared for what they find.