The Promise by Teresa Driscoll

Feb 06, 2019 Michelle rated it it was ok

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 ...more

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Feb 09, 2019 marilyn rated it liked it

Shelves: netgalley-2019, netgalley

The Promise follows Beth, Sally, and Carol as they meet at a Catholic boarding school and become best friends. Something bad takes place when the girls are fourteen and they each make a promise to never reveal what happened and the parts they played in this traumatic event. This memory and holding in the secret of what happened tortures the girls throughout their lives. When they are 38, their old boarding school grounds are going to be torn apart, with the chance of their secret being revealed. The Promise follows Beth, Sally, and Carol as they meet at a Catholic boarding school and become best friends. Something bad takes place when the girls are fourteen and they each make a promise to never reveal what happened and the parts they played in this traumatic event. This memory and holding in the secret of what happened tortures the girls throughout their lives. When they are 38, their old boarding school grounds are going to be torn apart, with the chance of their secret being revealed.

Beth is happily married to Adam and has two sons. She is terrified that she could lose her husband, along with her sons, if Adam discovers her secret. Sally turned to drinking, many years ago, in an effort to forget what the girls did so long ago. Carol has dropped off the map, no longer keeping in contact with her mom, Beth, or Sally and Beth is desperate to contact Carol, so they can either make plans to do "something" about their secret or be freed from their promise.

The book was really slow to catch my interest as we hop from the perspective of Beth, Carol, and Matthew, a not very efficient private investigator that Beth hires. Matthew's part in the book isn't really necessary although I think I enjoyed his commentary more than that of Beth and Carol. These girls/women need therapy more than they need anything else but since they won't reveal what happened all those years ago, there is no chance of healing from the memories.

In the present, as Beth searches for Carol, she receives threatening messages, implying that Beth should stop her search. The mysteries for the reader are what happened all those years ago, who is making the threats, and why is Carol being so evasive? Matthew has his own more recent trauma, that led him to quit the police department to become a PI. I was frustrated with all the talk of the bad thing that happened years ago without us getting to know what happened. I felt the same about Matthew's past trauma, with his thinking about what happened without us getting to know what did happened. By the time the girls' past event is revealed to us, I think it had lost it's shock value since it was hinted at for so very long.

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for this ARC. ...more

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Jan 19, 2019 Louise Wilson rated it liked it

Three schoolgirls make a promise - to take the horrible truth of what they did to the grave. For thirty years Sally and Beth have tried to put the trauma behind them, even though Carol, the third girl, has distanced herself from her former friends. Something had happened at the boarding school that was run by nuns. Now the former boarding school has been scheduled for demolition. The news has the girls scared and nervous.Sally and Beth hire Matthew, a Private Detective, to try and find Carol. Wi ...more

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Jan 08, 2019 Selena rated it liked it

Shelves: netgalley-giveaway

I received a free e-copy of The Promise by Teresa Driscoll from NetGalley for my honest review.

Three friends, Beth, Sally, and Carol met at a Catholic boarding school. They formed a special bond. Their bond, however is set by a deep and dark secret that has haunted them throughout their lives. A secret they all swore to take to their graves.

Many years later, the girls get news that their former school is going to be demolished. Now they are in fear that their secret, long ago, will be discovere ...more

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Nov 09, 2018 Jayme rated it really liked it · review of another edition

“The candles. The Promise. The bluebells....”

Something happened at the boarding school run by nuns.

And, now that the school is scheduled to be demolished, a secret may be revealed. It’s the secret that three fourteen year old girls vowed that they would take to their graves. It’s the secret that ended up severing the tight bond that Beth, Sally and Carol once shared when they were students at the school, thirty years ago.

Beth and Sally are still close. But they have been estranged from Carol ...more

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Oct 16, 2018 Pauline rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley

The Promise by Teresa Driscoll is a slow building tale of three friends who find out that the boarding school where they met when they were children is about to be closed and demolished. This puts them all into a panic because of a terrible incident that they have all kept hidden for many years and promised never to reveal.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Amazon Publishing for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

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Feb 07, 2019 Mackey rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction-general, my-reviews, thriller-suspense, books-read-2019, netgalley-ew

Three girls held a deep, dark secret. Three girls made a promise they vowed to keep forever. Now something and someone is threatening that promise. Will the truth come out or will these women do anything possible to keep their secret hidden forever?

I am a huge Teresa Driscoll fan and have previously rated her books very highly. The Promise is a slow burning psychological suspense novel – not a thriller – but a book filled with plenty of atmospheric drama. The book begins when the three women are ...more

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Feb 07, 2019 Amanda rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley

I love it when you haven’t read a book from an author you really like for a while, then you discover they have a new book out. You are so excited you want real life to stop for a while so that you can enjoy this without being interrupted!!

When Beth, Sally and Carole meet at a Convent boarding school they become the best of friends, although something bad happens, they keep this secret between themselves for years to come. This will affect the rest of their lives in different ways and will foreve ...more

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Nov 09, 2018 Jayme rated it really liked it

Shelves: psychological-thriller, netgalley

The candles. The Promise. The bluebells....”

Something happened at the boarding school run by nuns.

And, now that the school is scheduled to be demolished, a secret may be revealed. It’s the secret that three fourteen year old girls vowed that they would take to their graves. It’s the secret that ended up severing the tight bond that Beth, Sally and Carol once shared when they were students at the school, thirty years ago.

Beth and Sally are still close. But they have been estranged from Carol f ...more

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Dec 25, 2018 Mandy White rated it liked it

Shelves: net-galley

The Promise by Teresa Driscoll was a quick read for me. The story was a bit slow to begin with and I found the ending to be quite rushed. So much happened and quickly in the last 30% or so. It was a good story that has you wanting to know what has happened and who knows.

3 school friends - Carol, Beth and Sally did something horrible at boarding school. Something that they will never speak about again - the secret they promise to take to their graves. But the news that their former school is bein ...more

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Dec 19, 2018 Adele Shea rated it it was amazing

Teresa Driscoll has done it again with another brilliant book.
Boarding school brings together three girls and from the first day they strike up a bond that is unbreakable. Or is it?
Beth, Sally and Carol are not only close during term time, they spend holidays together too. That is until they turn 14 and their lives are turned upside down. Things are never the same again but they must never speak about what happened all those years ago.
How long can they keep The Promise?

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Feb 07, 2019 Chloe rated it liked it

Shelves: netgalley

Three friends Carol , Beth and Sally went through something horrible at boarding school and they promised each other to never talk about it again. In the present day, all three girls have gone their separate ways until they hear, that their old boarding school is being demolished and they fear that secret from their past, will come out. On top of that there is also someone watching them who wants them to leave things alone.

The Promise by Teresa Driscoll is a slow paced psychological thriller. ...more

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Feb 02, 2019 Katie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reunion, netgalley-reviewed, psychological-thriller

I keep hearing great things about author Teresa Driscoll so I was excited to read her newest psychological suspense thriller The Promise as an advanced reading copy from NetGalley. I am a sucker for books about friends with a secret from their school days. This idea has been done a lot but she has a bit of a fresh take on it with the secret these Catholics boarding school girls have kept for many years. Now, their school is about to be torn down and developed so their secret may be revealed. The ...more

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Jan 28, 2019 Amy-GallivantingPages rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: read-netgalley

**2-2.5 Stars **
Expected Publication: February 7th, 2019

Unpopular opinion alert...I'm SORRY!! I wanted to like this so much, but it was such a slow burn that by the time something actually happened, my mind was made up that I just didn't really care. Three girls from boarding school make a "promise" to never discuss something tragic and throughout 60-70% of this book it just keeps referencing it without any details. Then the last 30% of this read, things get cray cray which did redeem it. I did ...more

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Feb 09, 2019 The Cats Mother rated it liked it

Shelves: crime-or-mystery, arc-or-netgalley, read-in-2019

The Promise is a well written English psychological suspense novel about what happens when long-buried secrets and mistakes haunt the present. So why only 3 stars? I’m getting a little tired of being dragged through a slow first half by a heavily sign-posted secret, ensuring I’ll keep reading, but this trend leaves me feeling resentful and manipulated. I also didn’t like any of the characters and while the reveal largely explains and excuses their actions, by then it was a bit late. I would thin The Promise is a well written English psychological suspense novel about what happens when long-buried secrets and mistakes haunt the present. So why only 3 stars? I’m getting a little tired of being dragged through a slow first half by a heavily sign-posted secret, ensuring I’ll keep reading, but this trend leaves me feeling resentful and manipulated. I also didn’t like any of the characters and while the reveal largely explains and excuses their actions, by then it was a bit late. I would think it was just me having read too much in this genre lately, but it has had the same rating from most of my friends.

Three girls from modest backgrounds are sent to a strict catholic boarding school for their secondary education and become firm friends. We know from the start that they do something terrible, and promise each other never to tell. More than twenty years later, they are notified that the school is to be demolished by a property developer, and Sally and Beth, who have remained close, are desperate to track down Carol, who has distanced herself and moved to France, to decide what they should do if evidence of their dirty deed is uncovered. They hire a private detective and manage to find Carol, but someone is sending sinister messages warning them off - who else knows the secret they promised to take to the grave?

I don’t want to spoil this as the plot did skilfully keep me in the dark about what was really going on; the “Big Shameful Secret” turns out to be the obvious one - and is revealed exactly two thirds of the way through, at which point things speed up and further revelations and drama livened things up. I did feel sorry for the girls and their past actions made sense, even while their behaviour in the present left a lot to be desired. I couldn’t really understand how such feeble selfish silly women managed to attract and keep such kind, handsome steadfast men but this was eventually more or less explained.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.
The Promise is available now. ...more

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Feb 12, 2019 Li'l Owl rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-crime-suspense-thriller, psychological-suspense-thriller, stand-alone, wish-list-books

**Now Available — February 7, 2019**
Five thrilling ★★★★★'s

**‘I think I put my hand over her mouth . . .
’‘Don’t say that. Don’t even think that. You wouldn’t have done that.’
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. She looks up at the mirror to see her reflection, face white and terrible – just below it, the line of shells on the b ...more

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Nov 26, 2018 ʚϊɞ Shelley ʚϊɞ rated it really liked it

There are seconds between one whole path in your life and a different one. A split-second choice. Do it. Or don’t.

This was a carefully crafted, exquisite gem of a book. Of course I was expecting a twist, you read enough of this type of thriller and you KNOW one is coming, but I liked how the revelations came out and found the book to have a satisfying conclusion.

The tension is built up in a way that you needed to keep reading. The writing is excellent and I got attached to the characters imme ...more

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Oct 27, 2018 Melissa In The City 🥂 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

ALL THE STARS!
This was everything I need, want and love in a book. Deception, lies, a mysterious death, promises...
I’ve said in many of my reviews, I LOVE a book that has grown characters that suddenly face broken promises that they had as kids. Hiding lies and something very bad from childhood. It.Never.Ends.Well.
This book was beautifully written and full of thrill! I love how we were made to think one thing....then boom! Twist!
So many twists! I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough! The settin ...more

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Dec 31, 2018 michelle rated it liked it

The Promise by Teresa Driscoll is about three friends Carol, Beth and Sally. When at boarding school, something terrible happened between them and they promised each other never to talk about it again.
Present day, all three girls have gone their separate ways until they hear, that their old boarding school is being re-developed and there is a party, to honour the school and the girls who attended it. But they are all panicking as the secret from their past, will come out. Also, someone is watch ...more

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Feb 11, 2019 Jenna Bookish added it

My thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and are not influenced by the publisher.

Teresa Driscoll first came onto my radar last year when I read I Am Watching You with my book club. While I wasn't a huge fan of the ending of that novel, I did find it an overall really enjoyable reading experience, so I was quick to request a copy of The Promise when I saw it on NetGalley. The basic premise of the s My thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and are not influenced by the publisher.

Teresa Driscoll first came onto my radar last year when I read I Am Watching You with my book club. While I wasn't a huge fan of the ending of that novel, I did find it an overall really enjoyable reading experience, so I was quick to request a copy of The Promise when I saw it on NetGalley. The basic premise of the story (three women with a deep, dark secret going back to their boarding school days) was super intriguing to me and was giving off some Ruth Ware vibes.

Unfortunately, I think some of that promise was lost in the execution. Part of what fell flat for me was the sheer number of separate perspectives that Driscoll is trying to juggle within this book. The reader will spend time in the heads of Beth, Sally, and Carol, as well as Matthew, a private investigator which fans may recognize from Driscoll's prior novel (I Am Watching You). I think limiting this to one or two perspectives may have made for a better reading experience. I'm not one to dislike multiple perspectives on principal, but I don't think it worked very well here.

My other main issue with this was that the pacing felt rather slow. Almost 70% of the book is spend leading up to a big reveal which becomes a bit too easy to guess before you actually get to it. (Interestingly, this was the opposite problem I had with Driscoll's last novel, which I thought dropped far too little foreshadowing and left me feeling a little cheated. This can be a really difficult balance to strike and may even vary from one reader to the next, so your mileage my vary.)

All that being said, there were some things that I really enjoyed about this novel. The relationships between the three women throughout the years were really fun to explore, and the story was atmospheric and full of suspense. The last quarter or so of the book picks up the pace in a huge way and made up for some of what I thought was lacking early in the story. This would be a good selection for a lot of fans of Ruth Ware, Liane Moriarty, and of course, Teresa Driscoll's past work.

You can read all of my reviews on my blog, Jenna Bookish!
Facebook | Instagram | Tumblr ...more

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Feb 07, 2019 Laura rated it really liked it

Book reviews on www.snazzybooks.com

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 realism 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 dra ...more

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Feb 10, 2019 Lori rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Teresa Driscoll has written an intriguing novel about three friends and the secret they have kept for three decades…The Promise, the title so fitting to this story, is about three young girls, Beth, Sally, and Carol, who met at a boarding school and became best friends and when the most innocent of events occur, their lives are changed forever and as a result, a promise that was made.

The Promise is not your typical psychological suspense thriller. This book takes its time to build each characte ...more

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Jan 31, 2019 Clare rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2019-netgalley-challenge, 2019-new-authors, 2019-perusals-reading-challenge

With thanks to Netgalley and Thomas and Mercer for this ARC in exchange for an open and honest review.

The Promise is about three school friends Beth, Sally and Carol. At the age of 14 tragedy struck one of the girls during the Easter holidays. Scared to tell their parents the three girls make a promise not to tell.

In the present day Beth and Sally receive a letter to say their catholic boarding school is due to close. Beth and Sally have tried to forget the tragedy and are reluctant to go. Carol ...more

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Feb 07, 2019 Authentikate rated it it was ok

Shelves: collection-kindle, mystery-thriller-suspense, netgalley-arc

This book tells the story about a group of three young girls (Beth, Sal, and Carol) who—while away at boarding school—make a promise to each other to keep a secret. The secret is kept through adulthood but when their boarding school is to be demolished, they’re faced with the realization their secret could be uncovered.

Told through three perspectives that flash back to childhood then back again, the story is very slow to build. It’s neither mystery nor thriller but rather a character yarn about ...more

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Feb 07, 2019 Amanda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I love it when you haven’t read a book from an author you really like for a while, then you discover they have a new book out. You are so excited you want real life to stop for a while so that you can enjoy this without being interrupted!!

When Beth, Sally and Carole meet at a Convent boarding school they become the best of friends, although something bad happens, they keep this secret between themselves for years to come. This will affect the rest of their lives in different ways and will foreve ...more

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Jan 31, 2019 Sandra Leivesley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley

Three friends, Beth, Sally and Carol meet at boarding school but while they are there something terrible happens and they make a promise never to tell anyone what happened. But the boarding school is about to be demolished and Beth and Sally have lost touch with Carol, and feel they must find her in case their secret is discovered. So they hire Matthew, an ex-cop private detective.

The story, past and present, is told mainly from Beth's perspective, interspersed with that of Matthew and Carol, an ...more

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Feb 08, 2019 Joyce rated it it was amazing

Four and a half stars, raised to a five. This is the story of Beth, Sally and Carol. The three of them attended boarding school together and roomed with each other during their entire stay. While there, an event occurred that they hid and never discussed again. This promise completely effected and affected their adult lives. Carol has detached herself from the other two and lives in France with her partner, Ned. Sally is divorced and childless and is developing a property. Beth is married to Ada ...more

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Feb 09, 2019 Nancy rated it liked it

Shelves: arc-galley, a-z-challenge-2019

A psychological thriller that wasn’t very thrilling. I was disappointed. A good psychological thriller keeps me on the edge of my seat and keeps me guessing throughout. This book did neither of those things. The reason for the promise was easy enough to figure out and the few little surprises at the end were just meh. Too little, too late. I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Oct 09, 2018 Keirstin Smith (CloudOfThoughts) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The Promise by author Teresa Driscoll is an intense, fast paced thriller. Full of twists and turns, it is the story of three friends who vowed to take their darkest secret to the grave with them. As you can imagine, that secret is threatened to surface. Characters were developed well and the plot structure was good. A great book!
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an arc copy of The Promise in exchange for an honest review.

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Nov 11, 2018 Caroline Mitchell rated it it was amazing

Shelves: women-s-fiction

"Every spring when I watch the petals lost to the wind, I think of the fragility of our dreams."

The Promise by Teresa Driscoll centres around three friends, a promise made decades before, and their relationships, past and present. The author's writing is very distinctive and she writes in such a lovely style as she brings her characters to life. You get to know them so well, they are living, breathing people you root for from very early on.

"How cruel would it be? To dust a person with the magic ...more

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