Like romance, I don't read a lot of YA, but I will go there when I need to wind down from heavier reeds.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the ARC.

This was definitely YA and maybe a little too young for my taste, but it was a quick read, which I always appreciate.

This is a murder mystery, where the principal of Urban Promise, a local high school, is murdered in his office and the question is whodunit. As the mystery unravels, we travel through different POV's, ranging from the three high school suspects, to other students, teachers, higher ups, family, friends, etc. to try and figure out who is responsible for the murder.

The ending was not particularly shocking, but in the end, this was a fine read.

This YA Murder Mystery was fantastic! I found myself trying to come up with different theories throughout the whole book. I personally really enjoyed the way the book is written and how it jumps around between news, segments, interviews and different POVs. It was done very well and I never felt lost. The whole experience was super enjoyable and eye opening to different racial biases. I had so many suspects on my list and I am disappointed to admit that the ending surprised me. This book definitely deserves 5 stars in my book and will always recommend it. I love inspiring people to read and believe this would be an amazing book for people starting their reading journey! The book is short and may seem too rushed for some readers. When I started this book I was feeling myself falling into a book slump so this book really helped! If you were thinking of reading this make sure you do it ASAP!

Urban Promise Prep vows to turn boys into men. Principal Moore dubbed his strict program rules the Moore Method, saving urban boys from the fates of their neighborhoods. But when Principal Moore is murdered, three Promise students become prime suspects. Maintaining their innocence, they band together to uncover the real killer.

What I loved:
✨Mystery: dark academia - one of my favorite thriller tropes! With a long suspect list, I continually changed my mind about who committed the crime - a real edge-of-your-seat, fast-paced thriller!
✨Social Commentary: expertly woven into the mystery - privilege, racism, implicit and explicit biases, educational systems, and inner-city neighborhoods, just to name a few - realistic situations that Black and Brown kids face daily. But Brooks also flips the coin and offers hope, love, determination, community, and unwavering faith! One word - Brilliant!
✨Narration: WOW! One of my favorite audiobooks so far this year! Total immersive listening, with background noise of the school and neighborhood. The cast is terrific, making the prose come alive! Don’t be surprised if you see this as a top ten contender for best audiobook. ❤️

With one book, Nick Brooks became one of my auto-buy authors. I recommend this book to fans of Angie Thomas or Jason Reynolds. Or if you enjoyed AGGGTM or One of Us is Lying, pick this book up NOW!

Promise Boys by Nick Brooks starts off with the discovery of a murdered prep school principal, and the introduction of the 3 suspects, all students of the prestigious school. Urban Promise Prep is a high-achieving, strict all-boys school in DC. It’s graduates go on to the crème of the crop universities and respectful, successful lives. But all that is IF you can make it through to graduation. Principal Moore is a strict overseer of the school, and goes out of his way to ensure that his rules are followed exactly. The day of the murder, he crosses paths with J.B., Trey, and Ramon, effectively ending all of their futures at the school. They all have motive and means, but are they guilty? They need to work together to clear their own names and along the way discover that there is more to Urban Promise than meets the eye. Promise Boys is meant to be a twisty, dark mystery in the lines of One of Us Is Lying with the urban edge of The Hate U Give. And it gets part of the way there. The world Brooks creates is believable and recognizable, the characters are fleshed out in the beginning and you know right away that none of the 3 suspects shot Principal Moore. But that’s where the characters end. There is no growth or change in what we know about them, or the side characters either. Brooks doesn’t expand on the characters to deepen our empathy with them. They all seem to only exist in the context of the murder, which I understand is the plot, but then their is a lack of depth in the novel. The ending is wrapped up neatly, but left me with nothing but questions. I won’t give anything away, but it just felt like a word limit was approaching and the story needed to be wrapped up. It feels unfinished and rushed. I enjoyed the way the novel read like a police report with witness statements, and the multiple narrator was done well here. And I have zero issues with the writing, Brooks is definitely talented. But it just fell flat for me in the end. Random rating 3/5. If you are itching for a YA mystery and have nothing else around, pick it up. Thanks as always to @netgalley for the eARC in return for my honest feedback.

With how much it feels like Ace of Spades, It's WILD to me that Promise Boys isn't receiving more attention!

What the premise offers is definitely what you get. A mystery of a school shooting that leaves three boys of color at the center as the primary suspects. I'd say it's difficult for me to become invested in a book before at LEAST the 100 page mark, but I was pretty hooked on Promise Boys from the opening.

Our three lead suspects, J.B., Ramón, and Trey, are all so INTERESTING and well written. I think each follows an aspect of POC culture. Ramón being a Latinx student who wants to be a chef more than a student, but is confronted with everyday gang life. Trey is a misunderstood class clown basketball player, who has a volatile home life. And then there's J.B., who is a studious student from a single parent home.

If it had the same momentum and structure throughout that the first 40% had, this would have been an easy 5 stars!

This did take a slight dip for me once we exited the interview portion. We get the perspectives of a lot of new characters and it begins to feel like the lead trio takes less precedence. It wasn't bad, just less engaging as the first half.

Overall, this was a great read that became a fun popcorn thriller. The audiobook is full cast and I couldn't recommend it higher!

4.5/5 stars! This book was an important social commentary on race in this country and how we, as a society, make assumptions based on the color of someone's skin or the amount of money in their wallet. Although it's a fictional book, I feel like there is so much we can learn from it. After their high school principal is murdered, three young people of color are immediately considered for the crime. This story follows their narratives the day before and the day of the murder and then launches into their own investigation to clear their names and find the true culprit. I saw the ending coming before we got there, but it didn't detract from the storyline at all. With an amazing cast of characters, this book keeps you engaged from the very first page. This book was handled expertly and I really enjoyed it. Will definitely be looking for more books by this author in the future.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

LISTEN!

Nick did his thang with this story! Page turner!!! The book was glued to my hands, I was glued to the couch, & my eyes were glued to the pages

This high school whodunnit is written in a way that I think is genius. There’s a formula to the story that makes it flow so easily and I found myself engaged the whole time

J.B., Ramón, and Trey are all suspects in the murder of their charter school principal. Each one of them got into it very publicly with principal Moore the day he was murdered, so that makes them easy targets for police and their fellow peers to suspect

The story is divided into 5 parts. Part 1 is dedicated to JB, part 2 Trey, & part 3 Ramón. Within these 3 parts, the pattern is the same. We get accounts from friends, family, classmates, & charter school employees about the character and what they think about their possible association to the murder. Then we get the transcript of their police interrogation followed by the character’s POV the day before the murder and lastly the day of the murder

Part 4 is after the murder. The 3 boys didn’t know each other before the murder, but this is when they each decide they have to clear their own name and eventually all 3 come together and decide to look into finding the truth as a group.
Their trust in each other is limited because they all have motive and none have alibis

Part 5 is when the majority of the boys investigation happens and the things done in the dark come to light

WHO DID IT AND WHY????

The story brings up so many great talking points around the discrepancy in education and the extremes measures black and brown students are led to take in order to have a chance at success and show ourselves worthy and non intimidating to wyt America. There’s a whole conversation to be had around that, but I won’t go there for now

Marketed as The Hate U Give meets One of Us Is Lying. I’d also say if you read and enjoyed Felix Ever After and Ace of Spades, you’ll probably like this book too

3.5 stars

This is a very quick read, told in large part, through the medium of interviews and short monologues from people who knew (or thought they knew) our 3 protagonists. The story is compelling, engaging, and smart, and you won’t want to put it down. The book paints a really great picture of the ways that Black and Brown folks (in this case, largely focusing on young Black and Brown men) are systemically and systematically set up to fail. The ways their agency and individuality is taken from them, and the ideas and presumptions we have about that. This was dark, smart, and well written, and I look forward to reading more from the author.

As a seasoned thriller reader I had a feeling how the story was going to play out. Was the book jaw dropping? No. Did it have a shocking twist? Nope. Did it hold my attention? It sure did! Full disclosure I ended up going the audiobook route and it was one of the BEST audiobook productions I have listened to in years.

I’ll never get enough of murder mystery books set in high schools, and this book surely didn’t disappoint. The format of multi-POVS, transcripts, texts, and articles made it very easy to get through but hard to put down. I really loved that we got to dive into each character before the POVs started bouncing back and forth as it helped me really connect with and understand J.B., Trey, and Ramón as individuals. The more information we learned, the more I needed to know how the characters were going to put together all the pieces of what happened.

As much as Urban Promise Prep was created to keep kids from going down the wrong path, the structure of the school sounded like a prison in itself. Principal Moore and the other staff traded joy and comfort for obedience and discipline. I loved how the book focused on how Black and Brown boys are already at a disadvantage in society, and how an investigation like this plays off of harmful assumptions and can ruin lives and futures. The mystery of the book unraveled nicely, and somehow I didn’t guess the culprit until it was revealed. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and feel like it’ll be a great book for young readers who’ll be able to see themselves or their experiences in these boys and the friends that loved them enough to fight for them.

WOW!!!! This book was one that I couldn't put down I was hooked from the start to the finish. Promise Boys is pitched as Karen McManus, meets Angie Thomas, meets Jason Reynolds and it lives up to its pitch.

How do you prove you are innocent when everyone thinks you're not? That is the question and problem students JB, Trey, and Ramon have to solve when they are all suspected of killing their school principal.

This is a surprising book. I wasn't sure I would like it, but I did, very much. So I was very happy when my request to read it on NetGalley was approved.
Three boys of color attend a charter school, the Urban Promise Preparatory, for boys only who have been given up on by the regular schools. It used to be a fun place, but recently there have been new rules. Those rules include no talking to the other boys, walking only on a blue line painted on the hallway floors, sitting down and standing up in class as a group. These new rules are supposed to make the boys more cohesive, but they only serve to alienate the boys. The principal, Mt. Moore, has become more erratic recently, also. He is rushed, rude, autocratic and smells of alcohol.
We are concerned with three seniors, JB, Ramon and Trey. On the day of the basketball team's big game, all three get detention. This is serious because Trey is the best player on the team. If Mr. Moore weren't so off his usual self, he wouldn't have sent, at least, Trey to detention and kept him out of the game. Of course, the boys don't stay in detention. Mr. Moore is shot and killed that afternoon, and the three boys are "persons of suspicion". One or more of them must have killed the principal. They each claim they did not do the shooting, but they are not believed.
The story is about the efforts of the boys, separately and together, to prove they are innocent and find out who did the deed. It shows how difficult that is when the system is set against boys of color. We must believe they succeed, or else why read the book. It's how they succeed that makes the story so interesting.
I really enjoyed the book. I highly recommend it.
I won a copy of the ebook from Fierce Reads.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Net Galley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Promise Boys was very easy to get into. I was hooked from the beginning. I ended up listening 83 % of the way through, but had to read to finish because my audio book said I was finished and ended. I thought the cast of characters was excellent narrating the book. It covered hard topics like systemic racism and profiling. I liked the different points of view and the social media and news reports added in. The book was fast paced and I was rooting for the boys from the beginning. This is a great book for fans of Jason Reynolds, Angie Thomas, Holly Jackson, and Karen McManus. I will purchase this for our library.

From my blog post, 2nd paragraph about this book: Since the audiobook had a full cast, it really highlighted the layers that this story had. While the book is centered around 3 Black & Brown boys, J.B., Ramón & Trey, we got to hear/read the thoughts & accounts of others which helped to build this really rich world. We were not only able to see the perspectives of these 3 kids who really don’t have a fair shake at life to begin with but come to understand how they ended up where they did as well as see the support systems they each had. I can’t speak for anyone else but I knew from chapter one that I was rooting for them, in both proving their innocence and finding success (I’m always rooting for the Black & Brown Folx doe).
*There is more to this post so maybe go check it out*

I listened to the audio but did get to see the finished copy at the same time and the formatting does give it another layer so while I WOULD recommend the audiobook, I don't think you could go wrong with the other formats available. I hope this book is adapted for the screen!

Title: Promise Boys
Author: Nick Brooks
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication Date: January 31, 2023
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery/Thriller

Synopsis:

The Hate U Give meets One of Us Is Lying in Nick Brooks's Promise Boys, a trailblazing, blockbuster YA mystery about three teen boys of color who must investigate their principal’s murder to clear their own names—for fans of Jason Reynolds, Angie Thomas, and Karen McManus.

The Urban Promise Prep School vows to turn boys into men. As students, J.B., Ramón, and Trey are forced to follow the prestigious "program's" strict rules. Extreme discipline, they’ve been told, is what it takes to be college bound, to avoid the fates of many men in their neighborhoods. This, the Principal Moore Method, supposedly saves lives.

But when Moore ends up murdered and the cops come sniffing around, the trio emerges as the case's prime suspects. With all three maintaining their innocence, they must band together to track down the real killer before they are arrested. But is the true culprit hiding among them?

FIVE STAR MYSTERY!!!! I normally do not read mysteries so this books different.This book is special to me because my mother was a teacher and she was really passionate about her craft and making sure her students learned and was cared for for. I really enjoyed this story. This was a strong mixed-media mystery that tacked the issues of the prison to pipeline system, charter schools, xenophobia, ableism, gun violence, white favoritism, school corruption, immigration, gang violence, poverty, police brutality and school discipline. Mostly, it gave three dimensional inside look at masculinity in POC, both healthy and toxic, which it what makes the story stand out. It is fast paced, but has many tender and great character building moments.I would highly recommend this book.
Thank you,
Nick Brooks (@officialnickbrooks), Fierce Reads (@fiercereads), and Colored Pages Tours (@coloredpagesblogtours) for this gifted copy and letting me be on the tour!

#PromiseBoystour
#Bookstagrammer #blackgirlsread #blackgirlsreadtoo #bookwormsofinstagram #bookstagrammersunite #wellreadblackgirl #blackauthorsofinstagram #blackauthorsmatter #blackgirlsreading #amplifyblackvoices #blackbookstagrammer #blackbookstagram #blackgirlsreading #bibliophile #diversespines #bookstagram #bookish #blackbookstagram #blackbibliophile #blackandbookish #booklover #thisgirlreads #thisblackgirlreads #blackbooks

I was so excited to receive an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley. I love a good high school murder mystery drama and this one hooked me early and hard. I was immersed in the lives of our main characters but also troubled by some stereotypes presented. It wasn't enough to detract from my enjoyment of the book, but did cause a few cringy moments for me.

When a group of suspects work with each other in unison to help clear them all, I gobble it up like candy, YA is becoming my new favorite genre and this book helped grow my love for them.

”The more I learn about Moore and his career path, the more I start to get a fuller picture of who he was. Beyond the BS rules that he enforced harder and harder at Promise, he seemed like the kind of guy who liked to be admired… He look at dudes like J.B. And Trey and Ramon and saw something…wrong with them. Something that needed to be crushed into a box, breaking all the bones to make them fit.”

Promise BoysPromise Boys is a fast paced YA thriller that weaves together an important narrative of racism and privilege, and what it means to not only be accused of something you didn’t do, but have all the odds stacked against you because of this disparity. Once I saw that the author is practically a “neighbor” of mine (his D.C. to my Northern VA), I knew I had to read this one sooner rather than later, as I love a setting I can really visualize from visiting.

It’s a short read with zero fluff, and the unique format of storytelling between many different POVs and multimedia inserts is fascinating. I did have part of the whodunnit figured out early on, but the rest really got me which is a feat many mysteries don’t do for me anymore. If you listen to audiobooks, I highly recommend tickling your eardrums with this full cast feature production. Seriously, the bar is now set incredibly high and I will forever be comparing future listening sessions to this one. If you want a fast read that includes deep, timely content that EVERYONE needs to hear, please do yourself a favor and pick up this book in whatever format floats your boat.

”We are the young men of Promise Prep.
We are destined for greatness.
We deserve joy.
We are extraordinary.
We ask from the world what we give to the world; respect, wisdom, and grace.
We are each other’s hope.
We are responsible for our futures.
We promise.”

A thriller that keeps you guessing until the very end. At the end of a school day at Urban Promise Prep the halls are mostly empty when a shot echoes off the walls and lockers. Principal Moore, a strict disciplinarian and founder of the school falls dead. Three students immediately get tagged as suspects as they all had a recent altercation with Moore. The suspected students team up to try and find out what really happened in order to clear themselves. Along the way they uncover secrets that will lead them to the killer. Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

This book immediately grabs and holds your attention. I like how the story told from different perspectives, and that keeps you moving through the story to find out who really killed the principal of the highly acclaimed Urban Promise Prep charter school in South Washington D.C. When the principal is murdered, the suspension falls immediately on three student of color (Black and Latino). The police and community put forth the standard stereotypes often attached to young men of color. At first the reader is drawn in and accepts those stereotypes, and Brooks does an excellent job of challenging those stereotypes, demonstrating there is a plausible explanation for perceived actions once you listen to each young man's story.
This is a compelling story, that shows what is perceived from the outside as good and designed to lift young men up, with the wrong emphasis can actually tear young men down and perpetuate the stereotypes. I highly recommend this for young adult collections. It hooks you from the start and you race to the end to see if the young men actually be able to clear their names and reveal the real murderer.

Promise Boys is an excellent YA thriller set in an inner city high school. At the beginning of the novel, the principal is murdered. Immediately a handful of BIPOC boys are under suspicion for the murder. Told from each of their perspectives and voiced by a full cast, this audiobook brings us each of their individual stories as well as the story of how they come together to catch the killer and prove their innocence.

I recommend jumping into this book as blind as you can. Nick Brooks does an amazing job of portraying realistic, messy teenagers and adults as well as all the issues common in schools today. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.