A psychological thriller that wasn’t very thrilling. I was disappointed. A good psychological thriller keeps me on the edge of my seat and keeps me guessing throughout. This book did neither of those things. The reason for the promise was easy enough to figure out and the few little surprises at the end were just meh. Too little, too late.

This novel was terrific! I loved every page!
For some reason, “The Promise” was a slow read. Normally, I’d complete a novel within a week of starting, but this novel took about 9 days to read. Not because it was boring, by no means! It was a slow moving novel. Ms. Driscoll put a lot of time & description getting into the 3 main characters’ heads. The novel centered on the past & present lives of 3 women: Beth, Sally & Carol. The author deeply described these characters, and described the horror of an event that involved the 3 women when they were in boarding school at the age of 14. This event was so cataclysmic that it informed the future lives of all the women. The reader can only guess at the nature of this incident, and I honestly didn’t see it coming. When the secret was revealed, I found that my guess was completely wrong. Was I surprised!
The ending pulled everything together. The women, their past lives, and their current lives—-all were tied together beautifully with all the events & scenes in this novel. A beautiful package that I give 5 stars.
Thank you, NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read and review this marvelous novel.

I’ve read a few of Teresa Driscoll’s books and I do like them. This one was a bit of a slow burner and I lost interest quite a few times on the way and although I didn’t completely guess the twist, a part of me did see it coming. A bit predictable with a rushed ending.

I enjoyed this book but felt it went on longer than needed to, I liked the characters and the storyline, I think it's a good 3/5

The Promise follows Beth, Sally, and Carol as they meet at a Catholic boarding school and become best friends. Something bad takes place when the girls are fourteen and they each make a promise to never reveal what happened and the parts they played in this traumatic event. This memory and holding in the secret of what happened tortures the girls throughout their lives. When they are 38, their old boarding school grounds are going to be torn apart, with the chance of their secret being revealed.

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. Carol has dropped off the map, no longer keeping in contact with her mom, 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 book was really slow to catch my interest as we hop from the perspective of Beth, Carol, and Matthew, a not very efficient private investigator that Beth hires. Matthew's part in the book isn't really necessary although I think I enjoyed his commentary more than that of Beth and Carol. These girls/women need therapy more than they need anything else but since they won't reveal what happened all those years ago, there is no chance of healing from the memories.

In the present, as Beth searches for Carol, she receives threatening messages , implying that Beth should stop her search. The mysteries for the reader are what happened all those years ago, who is making the threats, and why is Carol being so evasive? Matthew has his own more recent trauma, that led him to quit the police department to become a PI. I was frustrated with all the talk of the bad thing that happened years ago without us getting to know what happened. I felt the same about Matthew's past trauma, with his thinking about what happened without us getting to know what did happened. By the time the girls' past event is revealed to us, I think it had lost it's shock value since it was hinted at for so very long.

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for this ARC.

The Promise is a well written English psychological suspense novel about what happens when long-buried secrets and mistakes haunt the present. So why only 3 stars? I’m getting a little tired of being dragged through a slow first half by a heavily sign-posted secret, ensuring I’ll keep reading, but this trend leaves me feeling resentful and manipulated. I also didn’t like any of the characters and while the reveal largely explains and excuses their actions, by then it was a bit late. I would think it was just me having read too much in this genre lately, but it has had the same rating from most of my friends.

Three girls from modest backgrounds are sent to a strict catholic boarding school for their secondary education and become firm friends. We know from the start that they do something terrible, and promise each other never to tell. More than twenty years later, they are notified that the school is to be demolished by a property developer, and Sally and Beth, who have remained close, are desperate to track down Carol, who has distanced herself and moved to France, to decide what they should do if evidence of their dirty deed is uncovered. They hire a private detective and manage to find Carol, but someone is sending sinister messages warning them off - who else knows the secret they promised to take to the grave?

I don’t want to spoil this as the plot did skilfully keep me in the dark about what was really going on; the “Big Shameful Secret” turns out to be the obvious one - and is revealed exactly two thirds of the way through, at which point things speed up and further revelations and drama livened things up. I did feel sorry for the girls and their past actions made sense, even while their behaviour in the present left a lot to be desired. I couldn’t really understand how such feeble selfish silly women managed to attract and keep such kind, handsome steadfast men but this was eventually more or less explained.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.
The Promise is available now.

Thank you to net galley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book it


It was their darkest secret. Three schoolgirls made a promise – to take the horrible truth of what they did to the grave.

Thirty years later, Beth and Sally have tried to put the trauma behind them. Though Carol has distanced herself from her former friends, the three are adamant that the truth must never come to light, even if the memory still haunts them.

The Promise is a story of a long held secret, the keeping of which has affected the lives of the three main characters since they were young adolescents. Then circumstances occur which threaten to compromise this secret, resulting in a tense, disturbing tale of family betrayal, emotional distress and domestic violence.

The book was well paced and rounded up all the many and various threads at the end.

I have not previously read anything by Teresa Driscoll but on the basis of this novel I will be looking for more. The narrative is set in the present day when the three main protagonists are approaching 40 and also in the past when they became friends at boarding school. Close female teenage friends often know everything about each other and these three, Beth, Sally and Carol, are no exception. With adulthood, relationships and families can get in the way and friends can drift apart. For Beth, Sally and Carol, who have a shared secret in their past, they are going to have to overcome this drifting apart if their lives are not to be shattered. The thriller aspect of this tale comes from the fact that someone is trying to stop them from reuniting and breaking their teenage promise to never speak about what happened when they were fourteen years old. Threats escalate to physical violence and everyone is suspect. The main characters and their partners and parents are well drawn and there are many twists and turns in the plot which kept me guessing.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from the publisher via Net Galley in return for an honest review.

This was an amazing book. The characters were realistic and well developed. The bond that the girls had seemed to be something you could imagine happening at a boarding school and the issues they experienced was also realistic. It made me think I could actually feel their excitement and their pain. I have to admit I was truly engrossed in this book. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a totally amazing book.
🤓📚👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

I finished this book last night and was sorry to see it end. I cried through the last chapter. It was such a great read! I was totally surprised at the ending, and it was a wonderfully satisfying ending. I want to read more from this talented author!

I really enjoyed this book - the story of three friends harbouring a terrible secret. Sally and Beth find out that their old convent boarding school is to be demolished and are terrified that their secret will be uncovered. They set about trying to find their old school friend Carol to warn her and work out what to do. Will the promise they made all those years ago be broken? This book took my breath away at the end with a new twist on every page. Even when I thought I’d guessed what was going to happen, it wasn’t quite what I thought!

I definitely enjoyed The Promise and would recommend it. The characters were interesting and the story flowed well. That said, there are so many psychological thrillers out now that an author really needs to step up their game to remain competitive in this genre.

I'm not sure The Promise was quite there. The twist was what I'd begun to suspect, but the roundabout way of getting there and the length of time it took flattened it a bit for me.

The ending seemed rushed in comparison to the rest of the book and while it was a good ending, it wasn't unwound enough for me. I've read other books by this author that I definitely would rate higher than this.

Please don't let this dissuade you from checking it out. It is a good read, but in today's crowded psychological thriller and thriller genres, is that enough? It's up to you to decide.

Thank you to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me an ARC at my request. My thoughts in this review are solely my own.

Great book with a great storyline. Not what I was expecting at all so was a nice surprise. Easy to read and good characters in there too.

Four and a half stars, raised to a five. This is the story of Beth, Sally and Carol. The three of them attended boarding school together and roomed with each other during their entire stay. While there, an event occurred that they hid and never discussed again. This promise completely effected and affected their adult lives. Carol has detached herself from the other two and lives in France with her partner, Ned. Sally is divorced and childless and is developing a property. Beth is married to Adam and has two children. The stories (and there is more than one) are told from each character’s viewpoint in separate chapters and will totally engross the reader. The ending is brutal and climactic. It is well written and well done. Thanks to Net Galley and Thomas and Mercer for an e-Galley for an honest review.

Teresa Driscoll’s THE PROMISE kept me reading, kept me guessing, and made me feel the heavy weight of secrets and of promises that perhaps ought not have been made. “There are seconds between one whole path in your life and a different one.” You may not like the new person you become . . . can you find your way back? “Guilt is a dangerous bedfellow.” Whom to trust on the journey to truth?

Beth, Sally, and Carol--three best friends at boarding school. You know the drill: secrets, Ouija boards, late night escapades, laughter, and tears. But years later the biggest secret and promise they made to each other threatens to destroy their lives and relationships. Each woman struggles in her own life to suppress and mask what repercussions might arise should the secret become known. And yet they all know it is the right thing to do when they begin getting threats and family members are targeted. Their old school is being torn down as funds are lacking and each woman worries about what might be discovered when the buildings are razed. Alternating between past and present, the novel unfolds slowly as tensions mount. Who could be behind the threats and what can be done? Well-plotted and fast-paced, this novel kept my attention throughout!

Beth, Sally, and Carol make a promise when they are young teenagers to never reveal a secret they share. Now something has come up that could reveal that secret and destroy their lives.

This story is told from multiple points of view and goes back and forth between the past and present, with most of the story told in the first person by Beth. Beth and Sally have remained close, but have lost touch with Carol. Everything changes when they decide to hire a private investigator to find Carol. Beth and Sally are desperate that the secret not come out but don't know how to stop it. Things definitely get worse for Beth before they get better. I was intrigued by the secret and why Carol pulled away from her friends. It was suspenseful to find out what had really happened.

The secret was actually a let down. It was both less and more horrible than I had thought, but how the adult Beth and Sally deal with it seems over-the-top. After the secret is revealed, more appalling revelations are made in the final chapters. Hints are given for some of them, but only one of which I had guessed. The book shows the danger of secrets and the power of love. In spite of some of the terrible events, the book ends on a hopeful note. In spite of some pacing issues and the anti-climatic reveal of the secret, I became interested in the story from the beginning and really enjoyed the book.

I received this book from NetGalley, through the courtesy of Thomas and Mercer. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.

I tale of teenage friendship and trust that lasts a lifetime and what you would do to keep those friends safe. Sad, compelling and disturbing at times a thoroughly entertaining read.

Way too many story lines trying to be squeezed in here. Jumping between different story lines was a bit disjointed. Predictable twists and unlikable characters.