Three girls make a promise to never tell anyone about what they did. Years later they have drifted apart, but they must never tell anyone about what they did when they were girls. Someone is trying to make sure that the secret stays buried, at all costs.

A story about the deep friendships that are created as children, but that can go astray as we age and develop new relationships as we get older. A tale of love and loss, trust and betrayal. Heartbreaking at times and heart stopping at other points along the way!

This book was okay. It took a while to grab my interest and stay focused. I like dual timeline books and the fact that each of the chapters were narrated by the characters was a plus. I felt like the ending was a little too rushed.

Thank you to the author and Thomas & Mercer for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

The Promise by Teresa Driscoll is a slow paced psychological thriller. The chapters alternate between the past and present with different POV’s.

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. This was a pretty intense ride. While the ending fell a little flat for me, it was still a decent read that kept me on the edge of my seat.

I wanted to know the story behind the story of three girls aged 14, making a promise to take the truth to the grave. Certainly, some of the tale was a psychological thriller, but for me, the story was more of a sad tale about what happens when you keep secrets and attempt to cover up the truth.

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

The premise of this story was very good and drew me in at once. Three friends, Beth, Sally and Carol, make a promise to keep a secret til death. What did they do? What did they see? These are the questions that quickly came to my mind. The execution of the story, however, was slow. 'The Promise' was tragic but not what I expected it to be. I thought the secret was more grave than it was revealed to be. The reveal did not come until very late in the book and was anticlimatic. Carol's current story line was more intriguing and I do not think that three grown women would react as they did here. This was my first book by this author and would want to read more of her offerings.
--- I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley for an honest review. ---

I really enjoyed this book and would read more from this author. May have been first but won't he the last.

The Promise by Teresa Driscoll

9781503905078

309 Pages
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Release Date: February 7, 2019

Fiction (Adult), Mystery & Thriller, Friendships, Domestic Violence, Kidnapping

Beth, Sally, and Carol meet at a boarding school and immediately become life-long friends. But as it sometimes happens, friends drift apart. Beth and Sally try to find Carol when they find out their old school is being demolished and may uncover buried secrets. Beth hires Matthew Hill to find Carol’s mother in order to find Carol.

The book is written in third person point of view by Beth, Carol, and Matthew. The characters are well developed, and the story is well paced. I enjoyed this author’s writing style. It is deceptive and leaves you wondering what will happen next.

What a fascinating book. I was impressed by the storyline and the characters were all well written and complex. Where there are complex storylines combined with intriguing characters the reader experience is magnified tremendously. To have a book that is well written as well as entertaining is a delight. Reading is about escaping your world and entering another one. The word building was phenomenal in this book. Here I forgot about my own life and was immersed in the world created by the author. I would recommend this

This reminded me of other novels where a group of girls make a tragic mistake and need to keep their secret hidden... unfortunately, this didn’t have the same impact and was lacking the character development to make it a good read.

This book was very well-written and left me feeling many emotions at the end. With much suspense and time travelling with the character perspective shifts, we learn about three young ladies who were in boarding school together. A notice that the school will be demolished and an urgent need to contact Carol, their estranged friend, Beth and Sally seek out to find her and get closure after some traumatic events they shared as teenagers.

Matthew Hill is a private detective with his own history and begins to date Sally while they search for Carol. The story begins with Beth and introduces us to her family and boring little life. But as the story unfolds, we travel back to 30 years earlier and see what life was like for young Beth, Sally and Carol. Many painful memories surface as they consider returning to the school before it is torn down, and their deadly sin begs to be found out. The guilt and the pain of that time affects each of them differently. One retreats from all of them, one seems to be in denial and one seems to be depressed and want to make things right so they can all move on.

I felt the story flowed rather well, I had questions throughout the read that were eventually answered in the last part of the book, and the big reveal of what the promise really is, is revealed within the first half of the book, so it's not an entirely long time to find out what happened. How they respond becomes the focus of the book and also how they navigate some harassment issues when it appears someone knows what they've done and wants to bring it to light.

At the very end of the book, I became emotional, for the reveal of why Carol had pulled away and the truth of so many things that tend to end friendships, it was sad to read and also made complete sense to me. I felt all of it was believable and the characters well established. I appreciate Teresa's writing and would read something else by her anytime.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Okay so where even to begin...this book was so slow. For a while there I really thought that I was going to just out it down and try to start it again at a later date. However, I found the audiobook and it made it a bit better for me. The twists in the end of this were INSANE and really brought the whole book together for me. I am glad I gave this book a chance instead of just giving up on it. I do recommend reading this but do know going into it that it is slow. Thank you Netgalley for giving me a copy of this book for review.

Enjoyable, psychological thriller. The characters were well written and relatable though the story was a little slow burning. I enjoyed the writing style though and would read this author again.

I really loved this book in a new to me author. The characters and location really and to the story. I can't wait to read the next one. This book keeps you guessing until the end.

An ok read. Hard going at times most characters had skeletons in the cupboard which got a bit much for me as did the over describing of irrelevant stuff.

I like this authoress and the premise of this book had sounded very interesting - three friends since the school times and the resurfacing secrets. I love the school setting in my mysteries and I believe in the power of promises, even those devastating us (because the “wrong” kind of promise can destroy - but how can we know beforehand?). Yet, this novel does not execute this promising (sic!) plot - it is very prolonged and the big secrets’s reveal comes fairly late in the plot. Then the pace quickens, but the latter chapters’ development lacks depth and originality, even.
Also, I somehow do not believe in the friendship between the heroines here, I do not feel the connection.

I would recommend to read Ruth Ware’s The Lying Game for the similar topic.

A slow burn psychological thriller where a group of friends form a pact to keep a secret in school but as years pass, it becomes harder and harder to keep the pact. I enjoyed it a lot. There were plenty of unexpected twists and turns that kept me guessing. A little confusing in the beginning with a lot of back and forth but I got used to it eventually. I also lived how it explores friendships and the unexpected turns they take with circumstances. Would definitely recommend

Another great thriller from Teresa Driscoll. I love the way this book explores the friendship between three women, and then twists everything on its head. i couldn't predict where this was going which is my favourite kind of book.

A slow burn, but well worth continuing with. Well written and with a lot of twists and turns. There's a lot to take in with the various different characters, but very enjoyable.