Having read I Am Watching You, I was thrilled to receive an invitation to read The Promise, a brooding tale that tells of a buried secret, three girls kept when they were at school. But it is a vow that the come to regret, especially when a letter arrives warning of the school’s imminent closure. Now the secret they have tried to keep is threatened and Driscoll cleverly unwraps each layer while startling us with a few red herrings along the way. You get the ‘sense’ that someone is watching them and for me, this provided the hook right out of the gate!

Told from four points of view, it is a tightly woven story which revolves around Beth, Sally and the illusive Carol in 2016, sprinkled with flashbacks to the past. Beth is married with two children and has kept in touch with Sally. But Carol, at this point is the most mysterious of the trio, partly because they can’t locate her and partly when they do she’s an unwilling participant.

It’s not a light read. There are tough subjects to handle. Though not graphic, they are detailed and weave through the intricate lives of each individual. Driscoll bravely tackles many issues head on. The loss of a parent, the struggles of boarding school, difficult choices, muddled ties that must be untangled - you can’t help feeling empathy for all of them.

The reveal took me by surprise. Not the secret itself, rather the way in which everything starts to make sense. If you love twisty psychological suspense, then this is definitely the book for you. I gave the book 4.7 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for allowing me to read an ARC of The Promise in exchange for an honest review.

Should promises always be kept? Three fourteen year old girls made a promise to never tell anyone about a devastating incident that happened while they were fast friends and roommates at a boarding school. A promise none of them should have made, a promise that has come back to haunt them 24 years later. The boarding school is scheduled to be demolished, what happens if their dark secret is discovered? Should they tell someone or should they continue to keep quiet and hope for the best? It took a long time for this story to build and when it finally took off it all felt a bit rushed. Not much suspense to speak of, but still an enjoyable read.

Loved this book. Great story that hooked you from the beginning. 3 girls form a friendship at school but one day they make a promise that they can never break. Years pass and events happen that will test them to the limit. Great atmosphere as the story from the past slowly unravels. Plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing to the end. Thoroughly recommend.

The Promise is a fun, fast and entertaining read which is a great blend of interesting, well-developed characters and enough suspense to keep me interested without it solely focusing on what happened to Beth, Sally and Carol all those years ago.

The story is quite believable and not too ‘out there’. It didn’t sacrifice believability for BIG surprises or dramatic occurrences. It’s not as dark a read as I expected, but I didn’t mind – it felt more focused on family drama and friendship than shocking twists, though there are a few surprises along the way, and was a fairly slow burner – although plenty happens which kept me wanting to read on. I’m a big fan of thrillers, crime and mystery but I also don’t mind when a book isn’t overly dramatic or shocking, and I found this struck just the right balance.

I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a mystery/thriller that isn’t too crazy, especially if you fancy an easy read that you can get through in no time – I certainly finished it very quickly and really enjoyed it.

The Promise is quite a slow burner .Three friends from Boarding School have kept a dark secret for many years but now the secret is about to be exposed so the friends panic..The book is told through the main characters and though it started slow soon becomes a real page turner ,twisting and turning trying to guess what the dark secret is (I was wrong!) I really enjoyed the characters felt I actually did know them as they were so well written .I loved the book and the ending was excellent .Many thanks to the Publisher ,the Author and NetGalley for my review copy in return for an honest review .

It's my first book by Teresa Driscoll and I quite enjoy it.
Three best friends keep a horrifying secret from their teenage years and now thirty years later something and someone threatening to unveil the secret. Oh yeah I love the thrill, the mystery keeps me turning page after page, love the twist too. It's a slow pace book, which is fine for me with this book, because the mystery and the anticipation of what will happen next is pretty high. Not a big fan of the characters though, some just pretty annoying and some not important and some I didn't see why they're here and there's a confusion here and there, too many characters but no depth, Carol should be in the spotlight more than Beth in my opinion (you'll see when you read this book). I wished there's more about their pasts, so I can understand and connect with them more. It's a bit rushed in the end for me, it's like suddenly everything is solved and let's just move on. Although there's some things that I don't like, I still enjoying it nonetheless.

If you're a psychological thriller fan, you should try this book.

I just finish this great book by Teresa Driscoll. A great family drama, a great mystery, and just the right number of interesting well develop characters. It is about friendship, heart ache, and the ability to find forgiveness. It is also a great family mystery story. It has lots of twists and turns and a very unexpected ending. I thoroughly Enjoyed this book and would certainly recommend it to all my friends and family thank you for my advanced copy.

The Promise by Teresa Driscoll is the riveting heartbreaking and heartwarming story of three girls brought together at a Catholic girls boarding school.
Where they experienced life, tragedy, and grew up fiercely loyal to each other, promising to keep a dark secret.
This secret haunts throughout their life. One day finally coming to light.
Definitely five star worthy.

I loved Teresa Driscoll’s novel, “I Am Watching You,” so I jumped at the chance to read her latest psychological suspense novel, “The Promise.”

“The Promise” hooked me as I learned about 3 girls as close as sisters, thanks to attending boarding school together. Now that they are adults, a promise they made in the past has inexplicably kept them bound, and at the same time, very much at odds with one another. With a wrecking crew scheduled to demolish the school they attended, they must decide what to do to keep a long-buried secret.

The relatable characters kept me spellbound, as did the mystery surrounding the trio’s youthful vow, a vow they all seem to regret. As in life, things are often more complicated than they first appear. Driscoll does a beautiful job of using a light touch. Rather than hitting us over the head, she unwraps the story like a delicate scarf.

The prose was lovely, and added to the emotion of the storyline, particularly when told from Beth’s point of view. The author used 4 points of view and at times told the story from the past. This might be a bit complex if you prefer a single point of view. While at times, I wondered if the book could have been more effective with fewer points of view the result was very effective.

Driscoll paced “The Promise” in a way that left me holding my breath in anticipation. I particularly loved the relationships the author explored between the girls and their mothers—both in their youth and as adults. I recommend this book to women who enjoy psychological suspense and exploring how we deal with difficult choices and situations and how they affect our lives and the lives of those we love. Teresa Driscoll is fast becoming one of my favorite contemporary authors.

As always, I comment on content which readers might want to avoid. In “The Promise,” there were only a couple of instances of swearing (and they were very appropriate in the context). Sex is mentioned, but not described explicitly. There is brief violence.

“The Promise” is sure to keep you turning the pages until the very end. I give “The Promise” 5-stars!

Thank you to Net Galley and Thomas Mercer for allowing me to read an ARC copy of “The Promise,” in exchange for an honest review.

Three young girls, close friends at boarding school make a promise to each other that hasn’t been broken. All have gone on with their lives. Beth is married with two sons. Sally is divorced and Carol has moved to France. While Beth and Sally have remained very close, Carol is not around as much. The girls get a letter that their former boarding school is closing and the land has been sold. The girls are very frightened that their secret will come out. Beth and Sally are having difficulty finding Carol. They do the normal internet searches without success and decide to hire a private detective to find her. Meanwhile a few mysterious things happen that make Beth think that someone else knows their secret. Afraid for her family, Beth wants to come clean about the promise. Hopefully they will find Carol and get this resolved before they are found out.

A good ,story that is about 3 school friends
Beth and Sally are still in touch and they hire a priavte detective to find Carol the 3rd friend when it looks like a secret they left at boarding school is about to be revealed ........... will Carol agree to keep the secret especially now her family could be in danger
Well written and at times tense psychological drama

I really wanted to love this book. I liked beth as a character a lot. I was leery of carol but she grew on me at the end. I could take or leave Sally. I think the story was good but there was so much going on at once that I found it very hard to follow And had to put it down several times. I will try another book by this author because I did enjoy the plot.

You can call it a psychological thriller or women’s fiction, but whatever you call it, be sure you read it! “The Promise” is a secret and solemn oath taken by three forteen year old friends at boarding school who are still carrying the burden of that secret when they’re forty.
The story is beautifully written and tightly woven around Beth, Carol and Sally from when they were roommates, up to 2016 as they approach middle age. Three voices narrate the storyline; those of our protagonist Beth, the elusive Carol, and Matthew the private investigator Beth hires to locate Carol. The promise and the psychological damage it causes make this a dark, brooding tale, made even more so by the toll it exacts from the trio of once young and carefree school chums.
The subtle use of simile and metaphor elevates Teresa Driscoll’s writing to the sublime. There’s nothing “in your face” about these lovely passages, yet they’re all the more effective in their subtlety:
“Her voice trails away but the word lingers. Gone - the vowel extended like a hand stretching out but unable to hold on.”
“Every spring when I watch the petals lost to the wind, I think of the fragility of our dreams.”
And this little gem had me grinning. “...my mother was a spin doctor before they were invented.”
Such masterful prose should be appreciated and celebrated. Five stars.
My thanks to Net Galley for furnishing an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review.

What a dark and twisted tale. It did not end at all like I expected. One event that touched the lives of 3 teenage girls carries into their adult lives. It colors their adult lives and relationships. A bit darker than I normally read but I just had to know how it all worked out. I was not disappointed. Well worth the read.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for the eARC.
Sally, Beth and Carol became the best of friends while attending a boarding school run by nuns. The story is mostly told from Beth's point of view in the past and present. She and Sally are still traumatized from something that occurred while at school, something that drove Carol away. When news comes that their former school and grounds are sold and new student housing is being built, they panic and try to find Carol to discuss their dilemma. There's going to be a farewell party and they want all three of them to attend so they can find out if their secret will be discovered. As they can't find Carol, they hire a professional investigator.
I found the book quite enjoyable right from the beginning, although their fear of the truth coming out seemed a bit excessive as I didn't consider it to be a criminal act.
The final chapters of the book were quite intense and ultimately satisfying. The friendship between the three women was heartwarming - all in all a good book I would recommend.

This was a great read. Dark and intriguing. With captivating twists and turns! I couldn’t put it down.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the way it was written, going back and forth in time with the different characters. I found it very real. It showed the devastating effects of something that happened many years ago. The ending was perfect! Thank you for the review copy.

I read a lot of psychological thrillers, it's my favorite genre, but after reading so many it really becomes harder to impress me. That is the case with The Promise.

Initially I was intrigued at the beginning:

"They sit very still in this room full of blood and sorrow - girls whose pulses burst in their veins and boom inside their ears. Their heads. Somewhere a clock ticks. A bird calls....

Three girls. One dead."

An intro like that will pique my interest every single time and I had all sorts of ideas of where this story was going to take me. And I was wrong on all accounts. Truly, if I'm being honest, I wanted a much darker and twisted story than what I got.

Beth, Sally, and Carol were best friends in boarding school. We are made aware that something happened during this time that they have all agreed to keep secret, hence, The Promise.

In present time Beth and Sally remain best friends, however, Carol has become estranged. Last they knew she was living in France with her husband, Ned.

When Beth and Sally are notified by their former boarding school that they are closing and the building to be demolished Beth and Sally fear that the secret they kept all these years is finally going to be brought to light.

Again, I was hoping for something really dark and I didn't get that here. At 65%, the BIG secret is finally revealed and it just fell flat for me. It wasn't anything all that sinister which is why I think Ms. Driscoll threw in a couple of other twists to try and make it darker, mostly just revealing that sometimes the men we love aren't who they appear to be, but at this point I just lost all interest and didn't care anymore. For people just taking an interest in this genre then this is likely to give you a thrill but any seasoned reader of this genre can safely skip this one with feeling that your missing out on anything. 2 stars!

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

My thanks to Thomas & Mercer for an eARC via NetGalley of Teresa Driscott’s latest, ‘The Promise’ in exchange for an honest review.

Beth, Sally and Carol became friends while at a Catholic boarding school. While there something occurred that led them to make a promise to keep this a secret. Now years later Beth and Sally have remained close while Carol lives in Europe and is estranged from them.

They learn that the school is closing and being demolished for development leading to fears that their secret will be revealed. Beth hires Matthew Hill, a private investigator, to help she and Sally track down Carol so they can decide what to do.

I don’t like saying too much about plots in this kind of novel as it can spoil the pleasure of discovery. The narrative was split over quite a few viewpoints in the present and past.

While I don’t want to nitpick there were some aspects of this book that just didn’t work for me. I didn’t particularly connect with any of the characters. Also, it was quite slow going for much of the book and then went into high gear. Yes, there were secrets but for some revelations there just felt too little foreshadowing. With its focus on families and friendships this felt more of a domestic suspense, though certainly there were times when characters were under threat.

I am sure that it will appeal to many yet for me it just hit middle ground of an okay read. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

Oh this book took me back to my years in boarding school. Yes things happened, yes there were secrets and promises, thankfully none like the promise made in this one, but promises nonetheless and it got me thinking and wondering how some of those girls lives have since turned out. Coincidentally I organised a 25 year school reunion and to be horror I was so upset at hearing how some girls lives have evolved. I have often wondered if time in a boarding school bubble is protecting girls from the natural stages of teenage years and thereby delaying maturity. I'm lucky to say my time at school was very happy

So this book, yes it did make me think and reminisce but in reality this is because it is such a good read

I look forward to reading more from this author

With thanks to Netgalley for ARC in return for an honest review