How many of us know about the effects of OCD? I certainly did not. Therefore, this book was an education for me in addition to being an addicting read. I love books where I learn new things!

First of all, I found each and every character incredibly well defined and could picture them as I read the book. There are not many authors who can put that together. Second, the plot held my attention and kept me thinking about it even when I was not reading. This is another feat I don’t find often. Finally, I left the book thinking that I want to learn more about OCD and I want to read more books by this author.

The Promise Between Us is an incredible work of fiction that I will not soon forget. Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I have mixed emotions about this book- The Promise Between Us by Barbara Claypole White. On the one hand, she covers an intense and difficult topic, the mental illness of OCD. On the other hand, for those who do not suffer from OCD, it became aggravating, honestly. But isn't that the whole point? OCD would be repetitive and frustrating and incredibly hard to live with. In that way I suppose it was illustrated well.

I did find it at times fairly unrealistic, particularly in that Maisie seemed to be doing fairly well in her life, showing only very mild OCD at the time of meeting Katie, and then quickly devolved into being almost unable to function. It came off as contrived and overly dramatic. The relationships between the characters also did not ring true to me at times.

Overall it was an interesting read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this galley edition. All comments and opinions herein are my own.

This compelling book really opens your eyes to the depths of mental illness. It will draw you in from the start and not let you go. I was drawn to the 9 year old character, Maisy, right away and just wanted to embrace her through the whole story. I highly recommend this book to everyone! You won't want to put it down!

I seem to have a very unpopular opinion of, The Promise Between Us by Barbara Claypole White based on others reviews. It just wasn’t something that I loved; just average for me. I would rate this book 3.5 stars but rounded up to a 4 based on the informative descriptions of OCD, Postpartum OCD, and harm OCD (rumination/intrusive thoughts) which are sub-types of OCD. The author did a good job of depicting the suffering of not only the person with OCD but the ripple effect of all those who surround them. I have worked in mental health for over 10 years and in that time Hoarding OCD has been widely acknowledged thanks to the television show Hoarders; hopefully this book is able to help shed some light on alternate types of OCD.

I didn’t connect with any of the characters and felt anxious often while reading, The Promises Between Us. I’m not sure if my professional experiences hindered my ability to establish connections with the characters due to sometimes feeling like I was in the office and not on the couch enjoying a book in my off-hours.

I can understand why many people have raved about this book as the description and information presented would be interesting to someone who did not have much knowledge on this disorder. I would recommend this book to those who are looking to understand more on the sub-types while being entertained with a storyline. I might even recommend this to clients so they can see they are not alone in their experiences and you CAN improve.

***Thank you Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Another beautifully written, wonderful read by one of my favorite authors! Dealing with a subject as complicated as OCD is a daunting task, but Barbara Claypole White has done a remarkable job of teaching us about this distressing mental illness through her vivid storytelling and character development. You won't forget Maisie or what people with OCD face in their daily lives that you were not aware of before reading this story. Highly recommended! I would like to thank Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for giving me the honor of reading this book early.

I was first introduced to Barbara Claypole White with her book Echoes of Family and was blown away with it, it's one of those books that has stayed with me long after I turned the last page. It was the first book I've read dealing with mental illness and opened my eyes, giving me a new appreciation for those that suffer from it but also their loved ones. The Promise Between Us takes on OCD, a subject that I am relatively unfamiliar with.

Told from various points of view (I didn’t find it confusing or overwhelming) I was able to get inside the minds of Katie and Maisie, to get a full understand of what OCD entails and their emotional state. Each of their stories is well written and unique, meshing together into a compelling story with flawed characters centring around this young girl. Though in truth they need to help themselves as well.

The Promise Between Us is a story of love, reconciliation and hope. There is healing and forgiveness, pulling at the heart strings.

What I appreciate most is that the author has first hand experience here, giving this book that extra authentic feel. Definitely an author I recommend.

A page turner. I wasn’t aware of the many forms of OCD. I enjoyed this book. The lengths a mother goes to, to protect her child. A story of love, loss and family.

This was a tough book. More than likely, when you think of someone with OCD, you probably have an image of a neat freak or someone who has to have things a certain way. Usually, we see the visual aspect of it rather than understand the behavior. The Promise Between Us, really captured and gave the reader an inside look behind someone functioning with this debilitating, no discriminating disease that can have dire affects on someone's life.

I really enjoyed getting in Katie's head. This was a character that you really could dive into and understand. What I thought made the book so compelling was that we constantly see what she is thinking. It gives you a chance to experience along with her thoughts and understand how and why she behaves the way she does as a result of a situational trigger. You really get an inside view of what it is like living with someone who has this. In Katie's experience, post partum depression kicked in which ignited her symptoms. Much of her behavior stemmed from genetics but life scenarios triggered different behaviors that affected her quality of life. At the time, she didn't know what she was dealing with and found herself agreeing to leave her child. That was such a hard decision but through some circumstances and fate, their paths cross which give her a second chance at life which allowed her to not only help herself but her daughter.

I'm sure there so many people out there who have experienced this and thought they were going crazy but you're not. I applaud the author for developing a story around a subject that people have assumptions about that usually are negative. This really enlightened and showed the positive outcome that can happened given the strength of the person to persevere and find ways that work for you life to manage and function better. We see her face her past and present and find love despite all the inner battles fighting her to let her know she can have a happy life and nothing will happen bad.

Overall, I really enjoyed the journey and thought the story was one that was inspiring and really gives you a up, close and personal experience of someone who is experiencing this cognitive disease. A story of loss, reconnect and finding one's own true path really captivates and will soften your heart with compassion. I would add this one to your TBR!

This was a beautiful story of family and sacrifice. The element of mental illness in this story really shows how it impacts a person’s life and the benefits of family/friend support combined with therapy. It raises awareness that there are not enough resources out there for people with little or no medical insurance. (Makes me thankful to be Canadian.)
I really enjoyed all the characters although Maisie & Katie were my favourite. I enjoyed the way they reconnected & found a relationship that worked for them.
The ending was amazing & showed that, while mental illness never goes away, there are ways to live a pretty great life even with it.

Thanks to NetGalley & the publisher for a copy of this book to review.

Reading this book challenged many of the thoughts I have long held about motherhood. How could a mother leave her child even for a short time much less years? I was able to see through Katie's eyes and realize that sometimes you have to do the unthinkable to save the ones you truly love the most.

http://www.leahdecesare.com/book-reviews/book-review-promise-us-barbara-claypole-white/
This past October, I flew to New Mexico for a writers’ retreat (thanks Women’s Fiction Writers’ Association) and the first person I met at the airport was Barbara Claypole White. We were waiting for our shuttle to the hotel and she was as warm and cheerful as the Albuquerque sunshine. We easily chatted from curb to curb and throughout our five days together. I am so happy to be given the opportunity to review The Promise Between Us, Barbara’s fifth novel, for TLC Book Tours.

In reading The Promise Between Us, I realize that I really had a limited grasp of the ongoing suffering and pain that people with OCD experience and battle daily, hourly, minute by minute. This book, for me, was eye opening and pulled me into the thoughts and incessant voice of OCD. I have a much greater understanding and compassion for people struggling with mental illness.

In my work as a birth and postpartum doula for years, I had hours and hours of training, read hundreds of pages of information on postpartum mood disorders from baby blues to postpartum anxiety and OCD, but not until reading The Promise Between Us did I fully comprehend the stronghold it has on a person. Claypole White shines a spotlight on anxiety disorder, pulling the reader right into the thick of things. We see anxiety as a result of trauma as compared to anxiety as mental illness and how both affect not only the person struggling, but the families and friends surrounding them.

“Why were these horrid thoughts taking up a whole room in her brain? No, multiple rooms!”

“… closed her eyes as tight as she could and willed the very weird thoughts to vanish. But when she opened her eyes, those thoughts were worse. Stronger. Bigger. And she didn’t want any of them.”

As the story unfolds, I felt secrets bubbling and wonderful tension. I cared about this flawed and hurt and loving cast of characters and really liked how the ending was satisfying without being too neat and tidy, without being expected.

The Promise Between Us explores motherhood: the deepest of loves, the fears, the messes and the joys. We see a step mother figuring out how to parent a child this isn’t her own, and a mother trying to mother a child she didn’t think she could adequately care for. As readers, as mothers, we can empathize with, and root for, them both as they grow and support each other for the child’s benefit.

Art and sculpture are important in the story and in managing OCD. It made me think about a friend who founded an organization in Rhode Island, Peace Love Studios, which uses painting and art as a tool for coping with mental health disorders like OCD. The performing arts also have an important role in this book touching on acting as a career but also for survival. Do OCD and anxiety require sufferers to pretend, to play act? Is that the best way to handle things or is honesty and openness better?

Layered and thought-provoking, The Promise Between Us is a powerful story of coping with mental illness and how love prevails for one unconventional family.

(4.5) Barbara Claypole White has written a mesmerizing book about the effects of OCD and how damaging it can be to someone if not treated. After reading The Promise Between Us, I realized I had a misconception of this mental illness, always thinking it was more of someone constantly washing their hands or touching something the same way every day the same number of times or even just fixing a picture that is hanging crooked on a wall. I never realized that voices can take over in your head and make you think you'll do unthinkable things to someone. That's what happens to Katie after giving birth to her daughter Maisie. The voices have her thinking she'll hurt her daughter so she makes the difficult decision that leaving her home, her daughter and her husband, Cam, is in her daughter's best interests. A chance encounter with Maisie nine years later has her wondering if perhaps her daughter has inherited this devastating illness and she wants to do all she can to help her.

The story is very well done, it is beautiful but also filled with sadness. It is engaging from the very beginning with very likable characters. This book truly opened my eyes about what a horrible illness this is, and hopefully it will open the eyes of others who read it. And I do hope many will read The Promise Between Us.

I received an early copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

The Promise Between Us, is a deeply riveting page turner.
It focuses on the horrific and devastating effects of mental illness if left untreated.
The author, Barbara Claypole White, delves deeply into her characters personalities and lives.
This book captures you the beginning until it’s riveting conclusion. Truthfully, it stays with you beyond the last page.
This novel takes on many faces.., redemption, love, hope and suspense.
I highly recommend this book. I promise... you will love it!

5 Stars!
This is my first book from Barbara Claypole White and I was flooded that I have not read her before! She is AMAZING!
The Promise Between Us was AMAZING!  The story and characters were amazing and completely relatable! Maisie was my very favorite and Jake, loved him too! The topic of OCD was amazing!!! I mean I totally have OCD (not at the depth this book dealt with but still lol).
This book is a MUST read!! Go One Click NOW! While I go and stalk Barbara’s amazon page and one click the rest of her books! #hopingThereAreTons

This was the first book of Ms. Claypole’s that I’ve read but certainly not my last. The characters were absolutely adorable and so relatable especially Maisie. I loved Maisie right from the beginning and even more as the book went along. I had issues Jake but as I read more of the book, my heart melted for him. I love all the characters so much. Please tell me that there will be more of this amazing family The OCD was described amazingly in detail. I discussed the book with my mom describing how much I loved it. She precedes to tell me.. I’m a moderate OCD which is true in regards to books, food, dvds and tv shows

One of my favorite books in over 10 years. The Promise between us deserves all the praise it is getting and more.

Run! don't walk to get this amazing novel by a beloved Author Barbara Claypole White.
Tackling the tough topic of OCD, this gripping novel full of survival, redemption and family love is easily.one of my favorite books in 10 years. The Promise between us deserves all the praise it is getting and more.

Katie Mack is living a lie. After abandoning her baby daughter after a post partum breakdown and makes a promise with her husband that she would leave and never return.
A chance encounter changes everything and Katie meets her daughter Maisie and sees the symptoms of OCD. She now must make a decision that could change many lives.

This sweet, yet intense story had me turning pages in the dark, late into the night. It is emotional and gripping and you feel close to the characters immediately. Barbara is an amazingly talented author with compassion and a strong knowledge of her story. I related to the heroine in this story in :)

Thank you to Net galley for the review copy of The Promise Between Us by Barbara Claypole White. #ThePromiseBetweenUs #NetGalley
Published January 16th 2018 by Lake Union Publishing #lakeunionpublishing

This is Barbara Claypole White's best novel so far, and that is saying something as all her novels are excellent. The mental disorders she empathetically and realistically gives voice to in this story are Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, High Anxiety Disorder Panic Attacks, and Depression. The unusual form of OCD, that of obsessive thoughts following the birth of her child that haunt the protagonist, Katie Mack, to the extent she runs away, 'deserting' her child, is emotionally powerful, and the reader is taken along with Katie as she experiences her disorders from the inside. Again, here is a novel that should be read by therapists and psychologists who work with OCD clients, as well as by family and friends of people with OCD and other anxiety disorders. The characters are immensely likeable and Katie has a fascinating career to add to the fascination of the story. Definitely a thought-provoking and gripping novel to read, discuss and share. Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read a review copy.

The Promise between Us by Barbara Claypole White is the story of one family torn apart by mental illness and how they come back together for the well-being of another. The story opens with Katelynn McDonald as a young mother of 7 month old, Maisie, who has been having very intrusive thoughts about hurting her daughter. Fearing that she would actually hurt her, Katelynn runs and disappears from her daughter’s life. Fast forward 9 years later, Katelynn, now called Katie, has been dealing with OCD and a chance meeting puts her face to face with her daughter and she fears her daughter suffers from the same mental illness. Her ex-husband, Callum, refuses to listen to Katie’s fears until one day when he notices the same behaviors in Maisie as Katie used to do so long ago. Can they come together enough to help Maisie? Are there more secrets buried deep which need to surface before they can fully heal?
The Promise between Us is a beautiful and powerful story. It was difficult to read at times, not because the story lagged, but because Ms. Claypole White’s description of OCD. The mental anguish that the compulsions cause the individual as they try to fight the irrational thoughts. It is a powerful story of how healing can come from facing our deepest fears and how the people we love can be our best medicine. I enjoyed every character and the conflict and resolution fit very well. I enjoyed The Promise between Us as it gives an in-depth, no-holds-bar look into the lives and thoughts of those who suffer from OCD. I highly recommend it!

The Promise between Us
is available in paperback and eBook

Barbara Claypole White tells an intriguing and complex story in The Promise Between Us. In a nutshell, Katie, a young mother, falls into a very dark hole with horrible thoughts, that she later learns are Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and has convinced herself that the only thing she can do to save her baby (as in, not killing her) is to run away. Fast forward ten years. Through a remarkable confluence of events that is entirely believable, Katie meets her daughter, Maisie through a chance encounter and realizes that she and her daughter, ex-husband, and his pregnant wife, all live in the same place.

I won’t say more about what transpires, because to do so would be revealing spoilers, and I don’t do that. Suffice to say that while OCD is truly one of the characters in this book, perhaps the central character, it’s the real people who challenge that bully who shine through as real and believable. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, especially Maisie, who is a hoot, and highly recommend it.

My thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing 💜 for providing me with an ARC of this book.

When I was a little girl I sometimes allowed my imagination to take me to dark places. Movies would run through my head after a thought like, "What would happen if Mom and Dad died?" I learned to push aside these 'what ifs' as I grew older.

But....what if...someone never was able to control these thoughts. What if they took over one's life, incessant and intrusive, so that with every moment one was confronted with the possibility of doom.

Barbara Claypole White's new book The Promise Between Us peels back the reality of people who live with the crippling 'what ifs'. Her character Katie has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. A knife sends her into panic: what if she harmed someone with it? What if she killed with it? Before she was diagnosed and treated she abandoned her beloved husband and their child to save them from the acts she envisioned she might commit that would bring them harm.

Years later Katie unexpectedly finds her daughter Maisie in her life and recognizes the early symptoms of OCD. Somehow she must intervene and help her daughter before her life becomes the horror she knows so well. The complication is that Maisie believed that her mother had died.

Readers have loved this book, especially impressed by how White brings Katie's disease to life. We hear the internal dialoge of OCD and are shown how Katie self-talks to control it.

Along the journey we learn the tragic back stories of Katie as well as that of her husband and his best friend. Broken hearts and romance will be found in these pages.

The secondary story of the husband's PTSD, for me, was a bit too much for a book already brimming with broken people. The repetition of Katie's internal voices and the talk about how her daughter can control her thoughts took up a lot of space and slowed the story.



But who can blame White? In her Backstory page found here, we learn she is intimately knowledgeable about her subject matter. Her husband and their son has OCD. I commend the author for bringing understanding and insight. We are all better for it.

Readers will be propelled by the well-drawn characters and will adore Maisie. Book clubs can find lots to discuss with the help of the Reading Group Guide found here.

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.