WOW! I just couldn’t stop with this one. It was quick and addictive so of course I listened all the time. I really like this world and I feel like I’d you love dark academia vibes you will too. The characters are so intriguing and they really suck you into everything that is going on. I enjoyed the romance, I enjoyed the plot and I felt like this was just a good audio. The narrators did a great job of really performing these characters. You could feel the emotion which made the experience that much better!

Just not for me. I can see other people enjoying this book but I don’t know if I just didn’t like the audiobook or if it was the story itself.

I never listened to it because my NetGalley app wasn't working properly. So I had to uninstall it and then all but two of my audio books were gone.

Ehh I don’t know if this one is for me. I’ve never read this author before. I might try another one, we’ll see.

This book was not my jam and I can tell you it was a me problem and not a book/author problem. This was my 1st book by Ketley Allison but I will certainly give them another read!

#CruelPromise
#NetGalley

DNF at 60%. At this point, I was just annoyed by the characters. There are plenty of triggers to be aware of within the story. Those did not bother me. I struggled with being able to like the characters at all. One is reliving trauma on a daily basis while the other is just a murderous jerk. At what point do they show their humanity? Hasn’t happened yet!

I do give props to the narrators. Both did very well portraying the turmoil happening.

Thank you NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, and author Ketley Allison for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Not what I expected from the title but well put together and certainly had me gripped! Definitely worth investing some time into this one. The horror and sharp twists make you question any number of topics

Many thanks to Net Galley and Dreamscape Media for an audio copy of Cruel Promise.

Ardyn and Tempest are both, in their own way, messed up. Ardyn has a history of abduction at 10 years of age. Tempest is a killer.

The narrators did a great job telling those story.

Sadly, this wasn’t great. The premise sounds good and I was excited going into it, but I don’t think the author pulled it off. At times the writing was disjointed and seemed to be skipping time randomly. The character arcs for Ardyn and Tempest would haphazardly change before returning to their previous course. The ending felt incredibly rushed and anticlimactic.

The only thing I would want to know more about is the mystery of the historical witches, but to be honest I don’t care enough about Clover (the next FMC) to continue the series.

I absolutely loved this audiobook. The narration is fantastic, and the story itself? let's just say if you are a fan of dark romance, you will become a fan of Ketley Allison. Be sure to check out the CW and tropes contained in this book before reading. I was happily surprised to see the creativity not only with the intimate scenes, but also with the origin stories and plot as well. too often the characters in romance and/or dark romance can seem rehashed or like copies of a milliion others. This was very refreshing to me. I will definitely be recommending Ketley and this book, Cruel Promise in the future.

Thank you very much to Netgalley for this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

If you like dark romance the. This might be for you. I have read dark romance and do enjoy it here and there. This one is beyond my realm of comfort. This dude is sadistic for no reason. This is beyond dub-con. There is warning but this is just not for me. The poor girl is traumatized over and over and then acts like she likes it.

Audio: 3/5- I had to speed this one up for it to sound like a normal cadence

I love dark romances and this one was certainly not a disappointment. I enjoyed the audiobook and narrator and the story had good pacing and kept things interesting with surprising twists!

Oh boy! Where to begin. Well let us start with this book was released on audio this year in June (see dates above) but the original story was published on Kindle/Digital last year. This book is currently available in Kindle Unlimited as well if this peaks your dark romance interest. The publisher categorized this book as a "Mystery/Thriller", "New Adult", and "Romance". This definitely falls in the dark romance scope. Tropes for you trope lovers are "Best Friends Brother", "Enemies to Lovers"....kind of, "Bad Boy", "Mafia Romance".... also kind of.

The book does start off with trigger warnings which are important for readers to look at prior to reading something like this. We have questionable consent, kidnapping, murder, torture, child kidnapping, psychological ... manhandling I guess....no manipulation is the right word for that. With all that being said, I don't know how I feel about the story. It is interesting and I didn't dislike it. I actually thought it was pretty ok. You know that the characters are morally grey and some are so far on the bad side that they will not be coming back. No one is really good. Except maybe Clover, but I don't think she wants to be. Everyone has trauma, I mean EVERYONE in this story is trauma scarred. The female MC has a lot and she has become mentally fractured because of her multiple traumas intermingling and blending together, she has a hard time determining fact from fiction. Our male MC is a hit man and college student 4 years older than the female MC, she is 18. So these are very young adults who aged rather quickly. There is also lots of sex and not cuddly sex, very violent, sometimes sadistic sex meant to cause pain with only the intent of pain and malice.

So we have these two people circling each other, who hate each other, but don't hate each other. One is trying to make sure secrets stay secret and the other is trying to piece together her life and memories. Throw in Clover who just wants to study the ghosts stories of their University and you have an interestingly violent, hedonistic, witchy story. Again, not sure where exactly I'd put this in my likes. The writing is good, I've talked about the characters, and the plot is ok. I'm putting this at a solid 3.5. Would I read more from this author......yes. Yes, I would. In fact I'm pretty sure this is a spin-off series.

Let us talk about the narrators, as I always attest, love having different narrators for different POVs. Great job on the casting. Both narrators were able to bring this story to life and make you feel the darkness of all of our characters. When they are scared you feel it, angry and there is growling. They did well. It's a solid dark romance.

The blurb didn't lie. Cruel Promise by Ketley Allison is a dark, dark mafia romance with no redemption for the villain. Tempest Callahan isn't just morally grey. He's blackhearted--toward everyone except Ardyn, the one girl he shouldn't want and can't seem to forget.

At an event she shouldn't have attended, Ardyn witnessed mob hit she should never have seen. That night, an accident claimed the life of one of her best friends, and she suffered a mental breakdown. A couple years later, she enrolls in college, determined to start fresh--but Tempest is there, infuriating her and tempting her.

Cruel Promise is violent, bloody, twisted, and scorching hot. Veronica Landen and Liam Dicosimo deliver a great narration. Having the two narrators was the right call. I'm glad the book came with content warnings, In addition to all the violent content, there is one scene that could be considered dubious consent. It personally didn't bother me, but I went in knowing it was a dark romance.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance listening copy.

Oh Ardyn and Tempest. 2 people who have known each other for years and are constantly thrown in each other's paths. Ardyn is best friends with Tempest's sister. One night Ardyn sees a murder happen and while leaving the party her and her two friends get into a car accident. Her friend died, but her and her best friend lived. Fast forward 2 years later and Ardyn discovers that Tempest is holding a secret, he is an assassin. Cruel Promise is filled with tons of spice and mystery. It is a quick read but read the trigger warnings before.

This was such an intense read! I love dark romances and this did not disappoint. It was addictive and kept up a fast pace. The characters fell a bit stagnant at times and didn’t mature as I thought, but overall it was an entertaining read.

This was okay, this one is a dark romance that takes place in a dark gothic collage with ties to witches, mafia and a very morally grey man. Arden our main character has been through a lot sense she was a little girl, a kidnapping at 10 and than a horrible accident where she loses her best-friend. Years later she has claimed her power back and ready to go to collage with her best friend clover. The problem is her brother Tempest. He doesn’t like Arden and he isn’t shy about telling her, but it isn’t really that he doesn’t like her but he doesn’t know how to handle the feelings she brings out in him and he wants to protect her from the world he is in. As this goes on we get some dark scenes and settings and I have to same the first time that Arden and tempest are together just felt a little unrealistic to me. I did enjoy the dark vibes tho and the Characters but I also felt like it ended really quick with not really a tie up of what happens with the characters like I like in a romance novel. But overall I did enjoy this and the narrators where good for this one! It had two voices for the characters and they did a great job!

Cruel Promise was a captivating read. I was pulled in by the themes and writing and the unpredictable turns. Fans of dark romance will thoroughly enjoy this and I would 100% recommend!

I did wish for some more closure as some ends weren’t tied up, and it did seem to end abruptly. While the description mentions reading as a stand alone, I’m hoping for more to come. I felt like I would have loved more development of the characters and the ‘why’ behind their behavior, although we did learn quite a bit toward the end of the book with the MMC.

Overall enjoyed and quickly devoured! If you are looking for a quick clean read, this is not it. If your tastes are more dark and twisted, you’ve come to the right place!

Firstly before reading this definitely heed the warnings/triggers the author puts at the start. I don't know how I felt about this, I both liked and disliked the FMC and MMC but AI think this is how you are supposed to feel as i=this is a dark romance with messed up characters. This does have a slow start but I felt as things progressed I really got into this plot and although it's not the best romance I've read I do think this is worth reading and I would check out the rest of the series (if there is any).

"It's always the forbidden fruit that tastes the sweetest."

Tempest Callahan!! Cruel Promise is a forbidden best friend's brother romance set in dark academia, equally atmospheric and mysterious. Deliciously dark and twisted, Tempest was everything I wanted in an anti-hero and more. Dominant and manipulative, he was cold and heartless, caught in a dangerous world and unapologetic for the way he lived his life. When Ardyn showed up at Titan Falls University, she flipped his world upside down, leading to questionable decisions that could have destroyed everything.

Ardyn Kaine, the fractured heiress locked away in a gilded cage, guarded and protected, struggled with social isolation and nightmares, merely trying to survive after the loss and trauma from her past. Innocent yet fierce and determined, she enrolled at Titan Falls to find freedom and regain her independence in an effort to prove she was no longer delicate and fragile. She always had a crush on her best friend's older brother, Tempest, but she wanted to remember the lost boy he once was, not the morally corrupt man he had become.

Tempest and Ardyn were two broken souls, shattered by the past. Overprotective and possessive, Tempest claimed Ardyn as his own and stopped at nothing to keep her safe. He simply craved her. She was his obsession and his downfall. I loved how they pushed each other to the limits, teasing and testing, but he never broke her. She was addicted to him and falling for the villain but she still wanted to show Tempest the good that was left inside him.

"I'm not going to stand on the outside and watch him go down in flames. I want to be beside him when he burns."

I loved how Ardyn brought a calming presence to Tempest. Yet everything between them was intense and heated, dirty and filthy, pain mixing with pleasure and creating the sense of control Ardyn had lost. Good mixed with evil until they became indistinguishable. But even though the fire between them was undeniable, I never really felt they had any emotional connection beyond that.

Elements of witchcraft and the occult were woven into the plot, adding a dark, gothic, mysterious edge. At times, the rituals overwhelmed the romance and slowed down the flow of the story but they also intensified the happenings within the college grounds. Hot professors were more than what they seemed, depraved and indifferent through murder and sacrifice and a secret society with rules of its own explored the depths of inhumanity. Check the extensive trigger warnings before reading.

The narrators, Veronica Landon and Liam Dicosimo, perfectly captured the essence of Ardyn and Tempest, holding my rapt attention throughout. Ardyn's strength and Tempest's darkness came through their words and I can't imagine anyone who could've carried this out better in their narration. I simply devoured every word they spoke.

** Special thanks to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this ALC. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. Quotes subject to change at time of publication. Available June 27, 2023. **