There were a lot of red herrings in this book that, once I knew the truth, felt like the author was intentionally throwing them in to mislead the reader. Many twists also felt very convenient and too coincidental. Despite that, this was still a fun read and great for a plane ride.

The story revolves round three schoolgirls who met at a Catholic boarding school and became firm friends.
Something terrible happened when they were 14 and one of the girls,Carol,eventually left the school.The other two girls,Beth and Sally, maintained their friendship throughout the next 30 years - Beth marrying and having a family ;Sally's marriage breaking up and her drinking too much.Always though there was the knowledge of a vow they'd made all those years ago.
Life takes a turn when there is news that their old school is to be demolished with the potential for their secret coming to light..
Beth hires a private investigator to try and find Carol who has become estranged not just from them but also her mother.
The story is related by the four main characters and moves from the present to the past..
It was a bit slow to start with and the revelation of the 'dreadful secret' rather drawn out so that there was plenty of time to suss that out for oneself.
However ,the characters did draw me in and there were unexpected twists and turns which kept me turning the page .
All in all an enjoyable read.

A great psychological thriller with plenty of twists and turns. Slightly disappointing in places, also some of the characters were quite unlikeable, but I guess that was intentional. Recommended.

Very captivating, couldn't stop reading. Not at all what I was expecting. I was more than pleasantly surprised by the conclusion. I would highly recommend reading. #THEPROMISE

I read a lot of psychological thrillers so I find it hard to be thoroughly impressed & The Promise just fell a little flat for me.

I was hoping for something a little more dark, so when the “big secret” was revealed, I was disappointed.

Three friends made a promise to keep a dark secret while young teenagers in boarding school. Now adults, something happens that causes their secret to be threatened.

While it was a slow burn to get to the secret, it still kept me interested. When things picked up about halfway through it was fast (shorter quicker and cliff hanger chapters) and I couldn’t put it down. The characters were all flawed and well developed. The story made sense and the end was practical.

First, some Trigger Warnings as this was definitely a dark story - something I didn't expect, as most of these showed up towards the end. Sorry to be spoilery, but you need to read these:
*Abuse, rape, child molestation, loss of an infant, death of a child*

My second Driscoll read and this was unexpected. Like I stated previously, I didn't feel like this will go dark. The first half of the book we're kind of pacing slowly through a mystery of what happened at the boarding school. We know there's this dark secret between the three friends, but there's not really any hinting at what it is.

We're told their individual stories after boarding school, while dealing with threats that seem to be connected to the secret between them. In all honesty, the beginning was boring and slow.. It wasnt a hook for me, and I kept putting the book away, and not coming back to it for long stretches. It wasn't bad writing, but just dragged on and on without revealing anything. These women trying to deal with their secrets but also trying to deal with current issues.. it was bla.

And then things turned violent. We finally started having some action, and things started revealing themselves.. and then the last 20% went deep and dark. A lot of issues were thrown at the one person and I just couldn't believe it. It felt like too much but at the same time made this more interesting.

It was a good attempt at making this an emotional thriller, but except for the last bit I wasn't fully engaged. I'd give this 3-3.5. I liked this better than her previous work though.

This book was written really well and had a lot of potential. I was engrossed the entire time, though a little confused getting the characters straight at the beginning. Driscoll is an amazing, captivation writer and I enjoyed the first 75% of the book. The ending however, felt forced. The big reveal wasn't really as dramatic and dark as I expected, and while I can't personally relate to the characters, I felt it didn't reflect on how the friends were traumatized about it after all these years. I think Driscoll realized that as well, and had to make up for it by adding *so many* dark twists and turns within the last couple of chapters. I think a couple of these plot points could have been removed without taking away from the ending.

Also, I'm not sure what issue Driscoll has with men or fathers, but only 1 of them is reflected in a good light and as a good man. The rest are evil soul-less creatures that cause 80% of the problems in the girls life.

Outside the unfulfilled ending, the book was written well. But when an ending falls flat it's really a disappointment, especially when the rest of the book is so good.

Thank you Netgalley for sending me an Arc of this book to review.

Well, I'd have been happier with a cleaner read. Meanwhile, Carol, Beth and Sally were BBF's all together in boarding school. Something happened, they make a promise and now time has passed. Carol went off to marry Ned and live in France. The time has come, as it always does, that the secret is going to be exposed. Way before the end we find out what that secret is and the rest of the book is working to wrap things up. In this, it was a bit aggravating. I had hoped for a bit more from this story, but I would read another one from this author in case it's different. 

I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Net Galley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own and this review is left by my choosing.

This story is multi-layered. It's about three teenage girls who make a promise to not tell anyone about something that happened while they were at boarding school. Towards the end, things unraveled and you find out more than just the secret that they kept. I felt like the reader kept being strung along just to find out what this secret is, but then you find out MORE secrets that have been kept since boarding school - all in the last quarter of the book! I enjoyed this story but wasn't my favorite - not sure I would consider this book a thriller - more of a mystery.

I would start off by saying that 'The Promise' was good, not great. Dare i say, not very original or thrilling? Whilst i was taken in at the start and at the premise, it just didn't stay consistent for me and i found myself getting a little bored.

Thank you to the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I don't like to read reviews that reveal too much of the plot so I'll restrict mine to feedback that I hope will help the reader decide if the book is something they might enjoy. The story started off well for me. I was intrigued by "the secret" and the three main characters were interesting. The build-up to the big reveal of the secret was compelling (if overly long) and as the book progressed I kept thinking "wow, this secret must be truly terrible". The threat of the secret being revealed upended the lives of the three women and supported the expectation of something too horrible to imagine. When the truth comes out about 2/3 of the way into the book I was underwhelmed and felt let down especially because I believe the potential impact of the "threat" was much over-rated. I received a free e-copy of The Promise by Teresa Driscoll from NetGalley for my honest review.

Secrets. Everyone has secrets.

Teenagers Beth, Carol, and Sally attend the same boarding school and are close friends. They share a dark secret that each one has promised to never tell anyone. Guilt, regret, and a fear of being found out surrounds each of them.

Carol leaves the boarding school while Beth and Sally continue there. They lose track of Carol and where she is.
Thirty years later, something is about to happen that will reveal their secret to the world: the boarding school is being torn down. This old school and all the land it sits on has been sold for redevelopment. Beth and Sally fear that more than dirt will be dug up. They need to get rid of the thing that will reveal to the world the horrible thing they have done. But no one can find Carol. She has distanced herself from everyone, so a detective is hired to find her.

This detective also has a secret.
In this psychological thriller full of suspense and intrigue, three ladies learn the dangers of keeping something that happened when they were teenagers a secret. The guilt they carry from keeping such a secret has impacted each of their lives. If only they had told, what would have happened?

Did I figure out what their secret was? Yes and no. I figured out part of it, but what I knew had happened was only the very tip of the iceberg. There was so much more to it, and that so much more was devastating to more than one person.

I was sent this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed The Promise by Teresa Driscoll. The storyline had me intrigued from the beginning and surprised me by going in a direction I really wasn't expecting. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

I overall enjoyed this mystery but I really struggled to connect to any of the characters and overall found the story a little dull.

This was an interesting story to read. It really did not end up anywhere near where I thought it was going in the beginning. Additionally there was another twist that added more dynamic to the story.

Friendship is a tricky thing. Very rarely these days do we find a person who will stick with us through life. The ups downs and everything that exists in between, few friendships can weather all the storms. Beth, Sally and Carol thought they had that forever friendship, until a promise and an even bigger secrets unknowingly tears them apart.

With the looming closure of the school that holds all their secrets, Beth and Sally are desperate to find their old friend. Even though Beth is the one leading the charge, she doesn't fully recognize her good friends reluctance to go back to everything that nearly destroyed them in the first place.

A story that leads you down one path before sharply veering in a different direction. A good weekend read.

The Promise is a taut psychological thriller. Three school friends undergo a shared tragedy in their youth and the promise they made resonates to their present day lives. The novel deals with friendship and domestic abuse and has empathetic characters.

I love Teresa Driscoll's books. That being said, this book had its slow points. It dragged a little for me and seemed like the ending was pretty obvious. I did guess part of the ending, but then it really picked up at the end and I enjoyed it much more.

I was drawn to this book because it's one of my favorite genres, a psychological thriller. And that element is there. Three girls at boarding school make a promise to each other to keep a secret about something that happened to them at school. Secrets of course have consequences, and this one pops up to haunt them years later when they learn the school will be closed and torn down. Whether they can, or even should, continue to keep their promise becomes the crux of the story. Driscoll takes us back and forth in time, spinning out the story of their school years and telling the story from multiple points of view. It was a bit drawn out for me, and because it could've been tightened up a bit it would've been closer to a 3-star read than a 4-star for me - but I listened to much of this one and the audiobook was very good, so I'm giving a bit of extra credit for the audio version.

My thanks to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

I must admit, throughout reading this I kept thinking "what's so great about this secret that it can never be told" - it caused so much drama and once revealed, I still felt the same way! Was still a nice enough read though so I would recommend...