Only a Promise

By: Mary Balogh

Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor

Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

The Survivors' Club: Six men and one woman, all wounded in the Napoleonic Wars, their friendship forged during their recovery at Penderris Hall in Cornwall. Now, for one of them, striking a most unusual bargain will change his life forever....

Ralph Stockwood prides himself on being a leader, but when he convinced his friends to fight in the Napoleonic Wars, he never envisioned being the sole survivor. Racked with guilt over their deaths, Ralph must move on...and find a wife so as to secure an heir to his family's title and fortune.

Since her seasons in London ended in disaster, Chloe Muirhead is resigned to spinsterhood. Driven by the need to escape her family, she takes refuge at the home of her mother's godmother, where she meets Ralph. He needs a wife. She wants a husband. So Chloe makes an outrageous suggestion: strike a bargain and get married. One condition: Ralph has to promise that he will never take her back to London. But circumstances change. And to Ralph it was only a promise.

©2015 Mary Balogh (P)2015 Recorded Books

Survivors

The Survivor's Club is one of the best series I've read and I still have a couple more to read. Mary Balogh has a fertile imagination. I'm looking forward to reading her other series.

Survivor Series is like Comfort Food

This author writes easy listening novels for people who just want a happy ending. There is much repetition and so one can lose some of the story but will always be able to learn that information again. Mary Balogh novels are leisurely stories that have romance, historical character roles, usually wealthy dukes, counts, earls etc. And very happy endings. I never get tired of the same premise.

PROMISE ME NOW AND FOREVER

Where does Only a Promise rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

GREAT

What did you like best about this story?

THE STORY PLOT

What does Rosalyn Landor bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

HAPPINESS

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

LOVE THE BEST THAT YOU CAN

Any additional comments?

WONDERFUL AND JOY MADE READING THIS BOOK EXCITING

Great series

Very enjoyable story and narration. Loved it most when the members of the Survivors Club get together. Already purchased the rest of the series.

Love Surviors Club

Would you consider the audio edition of Only a Promise to be better than the print version?

I like both it did take a bit to get used to the narrator but really really good,

What other book might you compare Only a Promise to and why?

Graveyard series they both keep you interested in different ways

Best in series so far

Up to the last half an hour or so, it was 4 stars for the storyline (narrator is excellent as usual). And than the villain/crude got his deserved set down and launched it to deserving 4.5 stars. For 5 stars story it would have to be something I’ve not seen so far. It seams as if only nobility had happily ever after in stories from this era.
I’m certain life was far less colorful and by far more dreadful for middle or lower classes but love was most likely as great and as terrifying and exhilarating as for everyone else.

I love this author

The reader is excellent. The story is full. The characters go through good development.

Great series!

I love how fresh the author is with her storylines. The characters are very likable. Great narration.

My Least Favorite is still 4 Stars.

Ralph has walls, big thick walls -- around his heart, around his pain, around his common sense. He can't forget his part in the death of his three best friends during the war, and the guilt of their deaths surrounds him like a thick cloud. Out of self preservation, he has suppressed all emotion, rather than be driven to suicide by the pain. He has made an art of feeling nothing.

But he is the heir of a duke, a very elderly duke, who is his grandfather, and he is finally persuaded that he must marry and set up his nursery. The Duchess encourages him to go to London for the season, and find a bride and do his duty, but he feels nothing for any of the young ladies on offer, and he soon returns empty handed.

It is then that his grandmother's companion makes a bold proposal: Marry me. I will give you children, and expect nothing in the way of affection in return. And with that a devils bargain is struck.

While I love all the books in this series, this book was grim for me. In fairness, I had just finished the delightful 'Must Love Breeches,' and probably should have waited a bit before diving back into something as serious as this. I kept wanting and hoping for something good to happen between Chloe and Ralph, but for most of the book, he remained aloof and controlled, and the sex was mostly functional, at best.

Of course, there is a HEA, but by the time it happened, I was tired and ready to put on my cloak, and go home to a glass of brandy, and a cheery fire. I felt chilled by the experience.

I understand his motivation, and her's as well, but the time it took for things to be resolved felt like a bit of a bad joke, and I felt duped somehow. They both deserved so much more.

I am very curious to see how I will feel after a second reading, now that I know what to expect. Perhaps I'll change my mind and find it all played out perfectly, the way it was supposed to. But unfortunately, Audible won't allow me to change my review, and that's a shame. It's also a reason why I often don't review books the first time I read them, because once posted, a review on Audible is forever, even if I change my mind.

I still say it is Highly Recommended, (It is Mary Balogh after all, and a continuation of the Survivor's Club).

Just remember to prepare yourself accordingly, because it is grim.

Outstanding

Mary Balogh as author and Rosalyn Landor as narrator create a touching, sorrowful, joyful and utterly unforgettable historical romance. As with the previous books in this series, the focus is on relationships between seven people surviving war (Napolean's) and each survivor's road to recovery - a part of which includes finding love. Incomparably entertaining book and series of books.