Katherine Payne is young Queen Mary of Scotland's guardian so when handsome Hugh Cullane arrives with a message of a proposal, she orders his beheading. She can't abide the English, much less a handsome man who steals kisses from her in the forest. She can't afford to lose sight of her duty, to protect the future of Scotland, Queen Mary. But somehow, Hugh's pleas of innocence worm their way into her heart. As the Scottish and English armies surround her, she flees with Mary and Hugh. Men vow to murder the young queen except for Hugh. He vows to protect her with his life. As Katherine and Hugh embark on a journey neither will forget, they find comfort in each other's arms and discover love is worth risking it all.

By Promise Made is a historical romance I couldn't put down. I have read a lot of books dealing with Queen Mary of Scots but this story puts a new spin on the young queen. From the first page, I was transported to medieval Scotland. The descriptive narration is so well done, I sniffed the air and heard the sounds of everything going on in By Promise Made. The plot moves at a great pace with plenty of twists and turns. Told in multiple POV's, the reader gets a secret glimpse into what motivates characters which I adored. The characters themselves are so expressive, I instantly connected with them. My favorite character has to be Katherine. Her heart wars with her sense of duty which brought such a depth to her. Start to finish, By Promise Made, is a brilliant historical romance and one I highly recommend!

My Rating: 5 stars

Well I had a hard time buying into this story...but I finally did! Katherine is so incredibly dedicated and strong. Hugh...now sometimes I felt bad for him and others I wanted to hit him upside his head! The story of Mary Queen of Scots is well known - and for me very, very sad. So when I realized that I was going to be reading more about her, I wasn't excited. But after a while, I really cared about all the characters and the horror that their lives were facing! Well written, characters were well developed.

An unusually arresting tale!

As a fan of Scottish romance, I must say that I was not disappointed by Susan Leigh Furlong's By Promise Made.
The characters were thoroughly entertaining with the sweet addition of the strife popular at the time the story is set in. I absolutely laughed during most of the book and I must commend dexterity of the author.

A brilliant masterpiece.

The premise of this book is so good and intriguing. The overall storytelling, however, is so bland for my taste. The narration feels off due to the sudden change of point of view in the middle of a scene (from first point of view to third then to first again). The timeline of the story feels disjointed to me as well. The transition from past to present is so bad and distracting, I just felt annoyed every time there's a flashback. I wished the author just followed a linear timeline instead of having flashbacks from just a week before the present day or just have a better way of writing the transitions and the actual flashback scenes.