THE VOw by Stefanie London is a fast paced mystery that will keep you entertained. I really appreciated the different POV characters, and that we got to see them as flawed individuals. Although I didn’t totally love the ending, I still appreciated the twists and turns and would recommend this book to someone looking for a quick read who enjoys stories of friendships between women along with suspense.

4⭐️

An interesting setting, well-fleshed out characters, with good pacing and plenty twists. Would read from this author again.

This book revolves around grief whether it be Ellie with a Mum who refused to be forgotten in such a manner that she was willing to sabotage her own daughter's happiness with Mitch, Sofia due to the loss of her sister, and Rose with her great loss of swimming and subsequent estrangement with her twin sister of which she felt she was always second best in everything she did. While not family related, Michelle felt grief at school as she was constantly berated and given the nickname of Smelly Shelly. They all came together due to the loss of their gym teacher who enjoyed taking advantage of students due to his self perceived authority. They all came together for Ellie's wedding but in doing so, there was someone watching in such a way that was meant to destroy Ellie's acting career and Sofia's successful wedding business. Who it was definitely threw me off but it all made sense once she spurted venomous thoughts. The epilogue was certainly surprising but I was happy that all found each other again in such a way that was reflective of true sisterhood.

This book took me down a rabitt hole. Twists that I never saw coming. Fantastic characters that all interacted perfect together. The ended was more than I would have imagined. Fantastic book all around!

Thanks to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for an early release of this book.

This was my first book by Stefanie London and I really enjoyed the book. It had me gripped from the first page and I had no idea what was going to happen,
Back when they were in school a group of friends make a vow and promise to never mention what happened. 12 years on they have all moved on and have taken different directions in life.
Ellie is getting married but the wedding party does not go as planned and someone is looking to ruin them all.
The story was told through different characters points of view which really added to the suspense as the story played out. There were plenty of twists and turns and the ending was excellent.
Thanks to NetGalley, Stefanie London and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Read in 2 hours and 6 minutes.

I’m really glad that I read this book- it’s like plunging into the sea- exhilarating, intense, and a bit chilly.

The blurb didn’t lure me in but the fast paced, tense plot did- three women who covered up a traumatic event in their childhood, find that someone is sabotaging their life all these years later.

Film star Ellie is having a wedding on a remote island and wedding planner extraordinaire Sofia is at the helm to make her best friends’ event the party of the year.

Rose is always third wheeling her two friends and dealing with her own insecurity- who can she trust?

Read to escape the hot summer!

Thanks to NetGalley for this review!

It’s the wedding of the year, for all the wrong reasons… I vow to make you pay for what you did. Twelve years ago, school friends Sofia, Ellie and Rose made a vow. They promised never to talk about that fateful night. Never to tell anyone what they did. Since then, they’ve all followed very different paths but as they come together to celebrate Ellie’s destination wedding it promises to be a weekend to remember… It is meant to be the event of the season, but as things start to go wrong, they suspect someone is trying to punish them! Great read! This book had chilling suspense, murder, mystery, dark past secrets, and some crazy twists and turns! The story was very interesting! I definitely recommend reading this book! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

“𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘃𝗼𝘄𝘀, 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝗶𝗮? 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂: 𝗜 𝘃𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗽𝗮𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗶𝗱.“

𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝗣𝘂𝗯 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲: 6/19/25

*Thank you @NetGalley and @AvonBooksUK for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

𝗦𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆: Sofia, Ellie, and Rose have a secret. They teamed up with a girl named Michelle in high school to sneak into school and change a grade on an assignment. Things went horribly wrong and they all vowed to keep it a secret. Years later, Ellie is getting married at an elaborate costal venue and her besties Sofia and Rose join her for the festivities. Suddenly, strange things start to happen, indicating someone knows about their secret... but who?

𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗜𝗳 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲:
🌊Multiple POV
🥂Nonlinear Timeline
🌊Coastal Australian Setting
🥂Whodunnit

𝗠𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀:
I loved the pacing of this book, I was drawn in from the start. Every chapter kept me wanting to know more... I found myself saying "just one more chapter" constantly. There wasn't too many characters or POV like some books can have. There were red herrings throughout the book, even though I suspected the culprit in the end... I still wasn't sure until it happened.
Fans of Lucinda Berry and Lucy Foley will enjoy this book.

TW: Death of a parent, sex with underage minor

#TheVow

I thought this book was amazing and I started highlighting and taking notes so I could write a review that reflected my feelings. Immediately you have a glamorous wedding and at least one giant terrible secret looming over three lifelong friends. They are back together for Ellie’s wedding, planned by Sofia, while Rose adjusts to being the only one of their trio with a baby. As someone who got engaged in college and had a baby years before most of my friends I related to Rose so much. Things just keep going more and more off the rails- there’s some animal death mentioned- and while I had some guesses on the twists, I was NEVER right. I had to google some of the Australian slang, and in a 2013 flashback Rose says “super cringe” which was NOT slang at the time in the US at least, but those are very minor things that don’t reduce an amazing thriller. I’m hooked on this author now, and I want a Swarovski crystal pen.

3.5 rounded to 4

A few of the characters were relatable. The story was good but also somewhat predictable and the ending was a bit rushed. At times I found it hard to keep focused. The multi pov was well done.

Publication date June 19th

I very much enjoyed this destination thriller, describing a wedding like no other! If you like stories of difficult brides, backstabbing bridesmaids and murder, look no further!

Ellie, Sofia, Rose, and Michelle are old schoolfriends, Their lives have taken them all in different directions but when they all meet up again at a wedding, life for them changes..all because of a secret.

This is a smart read. it is modern and filled with drama and there is a touch of glamour.

I loved this book. for me it is the perfect holiday read and I loved the dual timelines. The betrayals, and friendships are highlighted well and as the story unfolded I was hooked.. for me this was a one sit read.

The Vow is a fast paced suspense drama packed with action, twists, and surprises. It centers around three childhood friends and the fallout from an unfortunate event that occurred in their past.

Sofia, Ellie and Rose are preparing for Ellie's upcoming destination wedding. Friends since childhood, they are excited to be together for this happy occasion. Sofia, a wedding planner, is managing all the details for the happy couple. Once they have arrived at their destination, Sofia receives a strange message pertaining to something that happened in the past, that all three made a vow to forget. As the day draws closer, more shocking things keep happening. They made a vow to never speak about what happened, so who else could possibly know what happened? Is the suspect closer to them than they think?

This was a fast paced, suspenseful read that leaves you guessing til the end. It's told through the perspectives of the three main characters and in a dual time-line. This was a crazy fun read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I highly recommend!

Thanks to Netgalley and Avon Books for the advanced copy

4 star thriller for me!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Three childhood friends keeps a dark secret and someone is out to bring their secret to life. Great characters and story. Really enjoyed it.

I’m very grateful for being sent this arc. Unfortunately I just couldn’t get into this story. I just couldn’t click with a single character & had to DNF at 54%. Having said that I do think some people may really enjoy the plot of this story.

This was a thrilling exciting read, Sofia, a successful wedding planner, Rose, a disgraced swimmer, married now with a young baby and Ellie, an actress who has just landed an amazing role.
The 3 women have been friends from schooldays and are as close as sisters. Ellie is getting married at an exclusive resort and the three women arrive earlier than the guests for pre wedding time together.
A mystery person seems hellbent on ruining their lives though as Sofia starts getting bad reviews, pictures emerge from Ellies past and Rose suspects her husband of having an affair. Could this be linked to something in the past and who would know when they made a vow to never speak of it again.
This was a real page turner, I loved the girls friendship, the sister code they had, Proof that all actions have consequences. An enjoyable read

This was a fun addictive thriller that I couldn't put down. While I did guess who the villain was (it was kinda obvious and I'm usually pretty bad at guessing) it was still an enjoyable one and there were some twists I didn't predict.

The Vow by Stefanie London is a book for of secrets and the ways bonds are tested through the darkest secrets of all.

The Vow was a really enjoyable read that I didn’t want to stop reading once I got fully immersed in it because there were so many secrets that I desperately wanted the answers to and they are tantalizingly doled out sporadically throughout the novel in snippets of the past being told as the story unfolds in the present so many years later. This combined with the multiple point of views telling the story makes for a well laid out and well told story that induces so much anxiety and paranoia as you read.

I appreciated having Sofia, Rose, and Ellie all telling the story both in the present and the past as it gives each of their unique perspectives on events and lets the reader understand what happened and why they’ve become the people they are in the present. On top of this it helps establish each of their personalities and the relationships they have with one another, which really helps them to be real feeling characters that you actually feel for and learn to understand.

The plot was deeply intriguing too, between the threats to the characters and the awful ways their lives starts to fall apart, leading up to the answers as to why everything is happening. The story helps to unfold clues that lead up nicely to the reveal of who is behind everything, and I thought the little clues dropped as the story progressed made it very clear who was responsible and easy to put together to lead to a natural conclusion.

The ending felt a little abrupt in the sense that all is revealed and then BAM it’s resolved, followed by an immediate time jump, but otherwise it was a good read and did keep my attention very well. It was a fast paced read and I really enjoyed it, so definitely recommend.

Stefanie London's The Vow has twists and turns galore. It was a fast-paced and interesting read with a relatively unique plot. Friends Rose, Sofia, and Ellie reunite for Ellie's destination wedding in the Australian coast by a lighthouse. The lighthouse element of darkness and light rotating made the plot even more scary/suspenseful. Rose is a former swimmer and boy mom, Ellie is described as a young Margot Robbie, and Sofia is a wedding planner. London skillfully wove the three point of views of the friends with a changing time frame between when they were young and the wedding. This story would definitely make a great movie.

This was a quick and fast-paced read that I read over the course of a few hours. It centers on 3 friends named Sofia, Ellie, and Rose who are approaching their 30s while still holding onto a secret from high school that could ruin their lives if it gets out. When Ellie plans her wedding at a remote location in the countryside, bad things start happening to all 3 women and it's clear that someone knows what they did and is trying to make them pay for it. The story is told in alternating voices between the 3 women, with most in current time but some back when the "bad thing" happened.

The changing in voices and timeframes made the book read at a fast clip. The characters were distinct and it was easy to tell whose chapters were whose. I did think all 3 of them read as a little immature for their ages/experiences, in both timelines, but I still enjoyed their stories. I thought that parts of the book were suitably creepy and there was frequent action. There were also plenty of red herrings from which to choose as I was trying to figure out the culprit. When the villain was exposed, I was surprised (which is hard to do!) but it all made complete sense and I didn't know why I hadn't figured it out earlier. I enjoyed the ending and thought it tied things up for the most part, but there was one piece of the story that left a few unanswered questions.

Overall, I thought this was a fast and fun read and I'd recommend to those who enjoy psychological thrillers. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.