The story of 3 girls at boarding school ,, their friendship and a promise. An interesting story of the long few of 3 girls and how their lives progress after a terrible thing happens and they decide not to talk about it.
I really enjoyed the story and the characters. I thought I knew what had happened and was surprised at the ending, well written and exciting.

It's such a pleasure to have a book that you look forward to reading more of, instead of counting the pages (or percentages), wondering how much longer before you will be done. My first (and final) assessment was the excellent writing of Teresa Driscoll. I love her style. Though I didn't care for any of the characters but Adam (and one or two of the nuns), they were realistic and necessary for the events to transpire. The story is mainly about secrets, some you won't be able to guess, while a few twists here and there along the way also help to keep one's attention! https://www.goodreads.com/group

I want to read more by this author!

Great book! Kept me guessing until the very last twist. Teresa Driscoll is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors!

This is an intense psychological thriller full of mystery and suspense. I was very entertained and enjoyed it immensely Will check out more books by this author, for sure I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving this review

3 best friends who grew up together in boarding school share one huge dark secret. They are adults now and have to deal with this secret once again. This book was just ok. It wasn’t bad or really good. Easy read.

Ok mystery about three best friends who went to boarding school together and are now dealing with repercussions of a long-held secret from their school days. The characters felt a bit wooden to me - readers weren't given enough information to really 'know' them. I was a little curious about the secret event from boarding school days and the reason for why one of the friends is estranged in the present day timeline...but I wouldn't classify it as a mystery that I just couldn't put down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free ARC of this book. My opinion is my own and was not influenced by receiving the ARC.

This was a 3 maybe 3.5. I wanted to like The Promise a lot more than I did.

I appreciated that the story was told from many different perspectives and time periods in the characters' lives. I thought this moved the story forward in a way that just wouldn't have been possible with a single perspective, and I thought this was the best thing about the book.

However, without giving anything away, I didn't think the big build up was all.that big. I saw most of the end coming, and didn't find it as shocking as I think the reader was meant to. The stakes honestly didn't seem that high for the characters, and I didn't understand why the big secret was meant to be life-ruining so many decades down the line.

The Promise was just ok for me, some parts of the book moved fast, and other parts were a little slow. There were a few twist and turns that kept my interest. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy.

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

Thirty years later, Beth and Sally have tried to put the trauma behind them. Though Carol has distanced herself from her former friends, the three are adamant that the truth must never come to light, even if the memory still haunts them.

But when some shocking news threatens to unearth their dark secret, Beth enlists the help of private investigator Matthew Hill to help her and Sally reconnect with estranged Carol ­– before the terrible act they committed as teenagers is revealed.

Beth wishes she could take back the vow they made.

But somebody is watching and will stop at nothing to ensure the secret stays buried. Now, with her beloved family in peril, can Beth still keep the promise?
from goodreads.com

Three best friends are simultaneously tied together and ripped apart following a tragic event that befalls them during their time at boarding school. They make a promise that, many years later, they will each struggle with keeping. Can they overcome the tragedies in their past? Or will their buried secrets come back to destroy them?

This book deals with so much; the three girls at the center of the story each experience so much sadness, conflict and trauma. This book hits on some pretty heavy topics (so maybe some trigger warnings would be helpful), like depression, miscarriage, still birth, rape of an underage girl, infertility, abuse (psychological and physical), and so much more. This book was intense.

Despite the intensity and the tragedy, I still really enjoyed this book. The friendship between the three girls was really beautiful, and added so much hope. To see how these women protected each other, and truly cared for each other, was lovely.

This wasn’t a perfect book, for me, but I really did like it, and will definitely look for more from this author.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with a free advance review copy (ARC) in exchange for a fair and honest review.*

This book was advertised as a psychological thriller, however it read more like a script for a Daytime soap opera. Unfortunately I am not a fan of the soaps and I found it to be middling reading fare. The premise held promise: three women who attended boarding school together made a vow to never admit to some deep dark secret they experienced while at school. The story follows the three women as adults as they navigate their tormented adult lives, as well as a tag-along token male in the guise of a Private Detective.

From the beginning I had difficulty distinguishing two of the main characters, Beth and Sally, from each other. They had the same way of thinking and speaking, so I was constantly confused as to which woman was the mother, which was single, which was depressed and neurotic (both, actually!). Carol was more easily distinguished only because her point of view was written in italics, so there was an obvious difference. Matthew as the token male played such a weak role, we could have done without his individual PoV altogether. To be honest, I think the story would have been more readable if the female characters were fleshed out a little better, and had more distinct personalities. They felt like variations of the same person to me.

Then there is the story line; As a script for a daytime drama it was perfect! Family troubles, a little romance, allusions to past trauma and secrets are all standard fare and I could picture the action as I read the story. As a psychological thriller I found myself less thrilled and more impatient to get to the end. From the first chapter we know there was likely a death at the school that the girls were complicit in, we just don't know the details until about 2/3 of the way through the novel. Once we reach that tipping point of the story, we get a whole host of more outlandish details and bombshells true to the soap opera style.

I always feel badly giving a 3 star review to authors as I feel they have worked hard to put out an entertaining book that has simply failed to entertain me. From the other reviews I see that people love the story and the writing, so it must be enjoyable to someone.

As I sat and read this book while on a break at work, I found that I had accidentally uttered the words “Holy moly,” out loud. And if that isn’t the perfect way to describe this book, I just don’t know what is. So many twists and turns that came out of this story! I wanted to slap myself for not seeing certain things coming but there were just SO MANY little paths to keep up with! I was distracted by a different path in the story so that when a twist came, I was completely blind sighted! AND I LOVED IT.

Alright alright… where to begin…

Beth, Sally and Carol. The three amigos. The three best friends that anyone could have. They meet at a Catholic boarding school and are soon inseparable. But dark and sinister things happen within the school walls and even outside of them while school is out for breaks. One particular school break brings with it an event that becomes the turning point for the three girls and their friendship. An event that they agree to take to their grave. An event that is back to haunt them now that their alma mater is scheduled to be sold and torn down. And it seems someone else knows about what happened…

I was captured from the very beginning with this story and the fierce bond the three girls had with one another. I was equally captured by the conflict between them. I had soooo many questions. Questions that were slowly answered throughout the story and in JUST the right time. Three girls hold the same secret on their shoulders and the same secret effects their lives in different degrees and in different ways. By now they’re all well into their 30s and their carrying what happened differently. One is haunted every day, one desperately wants to forget and has mastered the art of pretending it never happened, and one has too much going on in her life now to think about what happened then, though she never truly forgets. What’s more is the way this book shows how even though we can have the fiercest of bonds with someone, guilt can bring us to doubt, to point fingers, to desperately want logical explanations to the extent to which we would throw someone under the bus to get them, no matter how much we love that person. Guilt is a heavy burden to carry. No matter if the guilt is misplaced or not, it is heavy and can drive a person mad. The basis of this book is guilt. I want to reread it knowing that everything fueling the decisions and actions of these girls was simply guilt. GUILT GUILT GUILT. I’m not going to say “guilt” again, I promise.
This book just delivered on this natural human occurrence SO WELL. It was beautiful.

Now I may be biased as I was able to relate to some of the happenings and a couple of the characters, but this was a DAMN good book. I was never bored with this book. I never felt the writing was drawn out too long or that the narration was too narrow. (Other than, of course, wanting to know what the hell their secret was! Among other things…) The pacing was perfect. The character building was perfect. The amount of mystery left for us to ponder over was PERFECT. Did I expect a darker twist than the ones I got? Yes. But I found myself emotionally invested in this story, which is something that can be a challenge for me. I don’t typically cry over books or movies, but when I do, it usually involves a pet or animal. Well, this one didn’t. This one got me right in the feels by using just these three girls. I found myself misty eyed more than once during my journey through this story. This was a wonderful read and has found itself on the top of my list of books I want to read a second time.

Special thanks to the publisher for providing the ARC via Netgalley.

Three schoolgirls make a pact to keep a dark secret that affected them all but when they hear their old school is being demolished the panic sets in that their past will be exposed. Beth and Sally have remained friends throughout but Carol has been very elusive and they need to find her and fast. All of this appears very early on in the book but the secret is withheld until near the end, although I was able to guess what had happened. We learn very little else until more than half way through which makes the story drag somewhat. Added to the characters is Matthew, an ex police officer turned private detective with a secret of his own, employed to track down Carol. The story comes to a dramatic end following so may twists and turns that my head began to spin. A good plot that maybe could have been more evenly paced, but a sure fire winner for thriller lovers.

I was super drawn into the story from the discripition. I sounded so good! Dark and sinister almost.

Unfortunately for me it fell a little flat. I wanted to so much more. I was ssooo bored most of the time. i found myself even skipping parts just to move the story a long. I wasnt at all surprised by the secret as i had guessed it pretty early on. I was surprised by the twist at the end.

Most of the characters annoyed me Beth in particular. She was just way too much for me. I was hoping that Carol was even more diabolical than what was being portrayed. Sally was the only one i didnt dislike.

I guess i liked it well enough it just needed more for me. This would be great for someone who enjoys a slower pace.

Carol, Beth and Sally committed a crime.... but promised each other that they would keep it a secret to avoid trouble. Three decades later, their secret resurfaces and it looks like they may just get in trouble for keeping it.
Will they be found out? What will happen to them? To their families? I enjoyed this read and the ending through me for a loop!

The synopsis really hooked me 'three girls, one dead' and I was so excited to start reading this book. However,I don't think that it ever really lived up to its promise (no pun intended) and the blurb was somewhat misleading. I guessed what the secret was and think that it could have come to light with few repercussions. The 'twist' with Carol and her husband was fairly weak and could have been explored on more depth and linked with the titular promise to perhaps create a little more tension.
Rather than a mystery, I think that this book could have worked better as an exploration of friendship, particularly the intense friendship the three girls formed at boarding school, and what happens to the bond when tragedy strikes and how this has shaped their lives. I found the hints at this in the book far more intriguing and would have liked to have learned more about the women.

My thanks go to the publishers and Net Galley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

I have to start by saying that this book had a good premise. It sounded very interesting and like it would pull the reader right in to the drama and mystery of it all. Three school friends that have a secret that they have been keeping and hiding for years and now suddenly the past is coming back to haunt them. Sounds great and I was very excited to read this book.

All that being said, it didn't pull me in and make me care about the characters. I tried numerous times to read this book and while I got a few chapters in, I couldn't finish it. I just did care about the characters enough to know what happened to them. It was a bit too slow for me and the jumping pulled me out of the story a bit.

I give it 2 stars because it has a good premise and maybe it just wasn't my type of book.

A gratifying novel about three women who make a promise in their youth and carry it through into adulthood. The story goes back and forth from their early years in a boarding school and how they came to be there; each for different reasons. But the forge an unbreakable bond, or so it seems. In adulthood however, one of the three has gone off on her own but the reader can't quite tell why? What was the "promise?" Should the other two tell it?? IT begins to take over the story because IT has a life of its own. The reader is imaging all sorts of horrible things and what a thing IT is! Yes, quite a surprise and yet realistic and sad. And then, the REAL surprise to add to it!! This book has more surprises to keep the reader engaged than you can imagine. HIGHLY recommend. Look at current news and you can see it all here. I will be following this writer. Intelligent, realistic, believable and a page turner. Just what I want in a book.

This psychological thriller is centered around a promise, made by three boarding school friends, to never reveal a terrible event and dark secret that constantly haunts them as the years move forward and shape their view of the world. While I overall enjoyed the book, I did feel it dragged for a while once their secret is revealed and never felt that intense curiosity and need to get to the truth that is so often the joy of reading a thriller novel. I am happy to say that it was worth hanging in there and reading through to the end, as all was not as it seemed and there were some surprising twists and revelations still waiting for us readers. The epilogue was a nice wrap up, though a bit drawn out. For me it just never dug it's claws in deep enough to really make me feel hooked. I give it ⭐⭐⭐/5.

This book is a bit of a mixed bag. Although it rattled along at a fair old pace I did struggle to get into it. With the strap line, “three girls. One dead”, I thought it would have echoes of a book I read last year that had similar dark themes and buried secrets (and am struggling to recall!).

undoubtedly Teresa Driscoll can craft words into a story, but there were pockets where I almost gave up. The opening chapters didn’t draw me in and the search for Carol seemed to hit brick walls constantly whilst other elements seemed to go from mistrust to full disclosure within the space of 60 seconds.

Whilst the big reveal wasn’t really much of a surprise (it was going to be one of two things), I thought it was well-handled and felt the agony of the girls. The last quarter or so of the book really came together, revealing layers of complexity that gave context to the girls’ stories and provided insights into the anguish that they had felt over the years.