Sloan belongs to a big mafia family. She leaves to get out from under their control. She hides out in Oregon and gets a job waitressing. She has a gorgeous next door neighbor but he's antisocial. She goes over to flirt and he turns her flat down.

Jude has been living next to Sloan way before she arrived. He is a hired hit man and plans to take out the woman that owns Sloan's beach house. See he old woman's brother has his father, brothers, and their wives killed. His mother was pregnant with him and on her deathbed, she made him promise to get revenge.

What Jude doesn't expect, is to fall for Sloan. Will he choose her over revenge?  Will Sloan's family drag her back to the fold?

Excellent story. Loved the characters and the story made you feel like you were right there. Sex that will have you taking a cold shower.

I really liked Jude the man knew how to care for his woman, “this might not be forever, sunshine, but you’re mine for the duration. And I take care of what’s mine.” There was so much sexual tension between Sloan and Jude and that was after they sleep together, the man just ignites something in Sloan, “that’s the dumbest effing thing I’ve ever heard.” He grinned when she jerked on his hair. “I like you when you’ve missed me.” Even injured Jude has a big appetite, "...he shifted fully onto his back. “But if you’re so concerned, you can ride my ***k so I don’t move too much.” I loved this book, Jude was quite the alpha, he was demanding, at times unforgiving, but man did he have a soft spot for Sloan.

I recently fell into an unusually long book slump where I could not make myself read anything. I was starting to feel not like myself after months passed without sitting down to truly read a book. I managed to limp through one book I enjoyed but it took weeks. Finally, just when I was starting to think something was wrong with me, Forbidden Promises came along to remind me I could devour a book in great big gulps like I used to do. The mix of sexy, brooding, and suspense came together in the perfect cocktail to draw me in and keep me up late reading. I was even sneaking away at work to try and get in a few pages here and there. Thank you, Katee Robert, you fixed my reading slump! 
If you’re like me, even if you have read the entire O’Malley’s Series, all these children of crime families might start blending together, especially as more are introduced. So, I will do my best to catch you up. In Forbidden Promises, Sloan O’Malley has just fled her family in Boston to try and make a new life for herself on the West Coast. Her older brother Teague has helped her escape, unbeknownst to oldest brother (I think, it gets confusing) Aiden who is basically acting as the family patriarch at this point. Just when she thinks to make a cozy new life as a waitress in a seaside town, she runs into her sexy new neighbor Jude Smith. What she doesn’t know is that Jude’s interest in her goes far beyond the passing interest in a cute girl next door, and has much more to do with the fact that she is staying in the home of her sister-in-law Callista Sheridan’s aunt, who is part of yet another crime family. 
I’ll be honest with you, after four books and a long list of names and family associations, I cannot keep these characters straight. That said, it doesn’t detract at all from how much I loved this book. Sloan is the mousy, reserved member of her family and it was nice to see a heroine who lacked in confidence. Jude is standoffish and confusing to her at first, and she has to really battle with her own self-esteem where he is concerned, and in all aspects of starting her new life. I personally found this to be a refreshing change from the usual heroine who is drinking wine with friends, and confident at work, etc. Sloan has had a very atypical life, and her situation is dangerous so being cautious makes sense for her. 
Now Jude, oh my. First of all, Robert dedicates the book to fitness model Brock O’Hurn as her inspiration for Jude. If you don’t know who he is, go and google him. I can wait. Done? He is gorgeous! So I was picturing Brock the whole time in place of Jude, which didn’t hurt my enjoyment of him at all. Secondly, Jude is kind of a jerk in the beginning so I was ready to watch him fall hard. I liked that Sloan and Jude’s tumble happened with a fair amount of angst on his part, because I felt like he needed that to humble him. He is such a dunderhead about his feelings toward her for so much of the book that I wanted him to suffer a bit, you know? But in a good way. It was his point-of-view that I found so addictive, for some reason. I wanted to keep reading to see what his transformation would be. 
Now, there are a few places where Forbidden Promises lost points with me and kept it from being perfect. All of these felt minor, in the long run though. So I said Sloan is mousy. With a character like that, you want to see some growth in confidence. However, I felt her change was too abrupt. As soon as she started sleeping with Jude her confidence shot through the roof and thee old Sloan disappeared. It seemed kind of like a case of “magic penis” syndrome, where she was fixed by Jude’s tremendous sex skills. I would have liked more transition there. Additionally, I don’t want to spoil what it is, but there is a trope introduced partway through that I didn’t love. Seasoned romance readers can probably guess it, and I did like that it was handled in a very modern way I hadn’t seen in a romance before, but in this case the whole scenario felt odd to me. Lastly, the dialogue can tip into the melodramatic at times, but I try to forgive that given the whole mob family setting. 
There was a surprising place where Forbidden Promises won me back after those slip ups, which was in the setup for a future book. I was not expecting longtime villain Dmitri Romanov to suddenly be getting hot and bothered thanks to littlest O’Malley sister Keira. Yes! Give me more of that. If the evil dude can’t handle crazy little sister, I want to read that book today. 
I finished Forbidden Promises in record time, especially considering my own dry spell for reading. I thought Sloan and Jude might both be crazy but I loved them and I wanted to just mash their angsty faces together. I’m sure I will enjoy the next book about Aiden but I have a serious craving for Keira and Dmitri’s book. I highly recommend this entire series to anyone who likes contemporary romance but is over the small town romances, yet doesn’t want to jump fully into romantic suspense.