The Vow

By: Debbie Howells

Narrated by: Sarah Durham, Julia Bird, Julie Maisey, Joseph Balderrama

Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's Summary

The number one ebook best seller! 

Everything was perfect. And then her fiancé disappeared....

Two weeks before her wedding, a stranger stops Amy in the street and warns her she’s in danger. Then that night, Matt, her fiancé, doesn’t come home. Desperate, Amy calls the police - but when Matt fails to emerge, she’s forced to call off her wedding day.

Then another man is reported missing, by a woman called Fiona - a man meeting Matt’s description, who was about to leave his fiancée for her. He was supposed to be moving in with her - but instead, he’s vanished.

Amy refuses to believe Fiona’s lover can be her Matt - but photos prove otherwise, and it soon becomes clear that Matt has been leading a double life. As the police dig deeper, two conflicting, yet equally plausible stories emerge from two women who allegedly have never met.

The wedding day never happened. But the funeral might.  

©2020 Debbie Howells (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic Reviews

"Dazzling." (Daily Mail) 

"A terrific new talent." (Peter James) 

"I raced through this book, compelled to keep turning the pages to unravel the secrets. Kept me guessing right until the last moment. Trust NO ONE! A sinister, twisty tale you won’t want to put down." (Sam Carrington)

THE VOW Was Not A "WOW".......

THE VOW had a very, very strong beginning that really WOWed me.

Unfortunately, as the book progressed, the plot became convoluted and my enthusiasm for the book waned. Although the ending was much stronger than the middle portion of the book, the book's ending was borderline predictable.

When the author reverted back to the two main characters' teenage years, the book started to lose steam for me. Also, although the author did a great job with the character development of Amy (the woman with the missing fiance) and her daughter, the character development of Fiona (the other woman) was lacking.

TO SUM UP: this book could have, should have been a 5-star book but it wasn't. My 4-star rating for this book was really a 3.5-star rating that was rounded up because of the book's strong beginning.

I always love it when a book has multiple narrators. The male narrator and two of the female narrators for Amy and Fiona were excellent. The other female narrator sounded like she was an 8-year old and this was irritating.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and will definitely be reading this author's future books.

Great Psychological Thriller

This is a very fast paced psychological thriller and once you start it's almost impossible to stop listening! I didn't know what or who to believe and it tied me up in knots as it has so many twists and turns, with a great ending.

The narration by Sarah Durham, Julia Bird, Julie Maisey and Joseph Balderrama was great, and the cover of this book is gorgeous!

Stick with it it picks up pace later on and grips ultimately

At first I wasn’t sure about this one I nearly gave up a quarter of the way through but stuck with it. It was worth persevering as the plot thickened and it ended up being a pleasurable ride. No regrets on reading it. Narration was good all narrators were good

Could deal with the narration

My main problem with this book was the narration. Most of the female characters sounded ridiculously childlike and a bit pathetic. I found this really annoying.
The story just didn’t keep me interested, in fact I didn’t bother listening to the last 15 minutes.
This one was definitely not for me.

This is an excellent example of narration ruining a book.

The story itself is ok, I think that it could be a 4 or even 5 star book, but it’s so difficult to tell.

The problem here is the narration. If the story had one narrator it would probably work better. Instead, the two female narrators sound so similar that I couldn’t tell who was who, or when. It was completely confusing and made what could have been a good story very difficult to follow and listen to.

Just to frustrate the narration further Steyning is constantly pronounced as ‘staining’ IT’S PRONOUNCED STEN-NING.

pacey story with a twist or two

I really enjoyed the story - the characters were engaging and the plot kept me guessing. i hadn't guessed the ending, but probably could have if I'd thought about it. I found Jess's role in the overall plot and her relationship with the police to be somewhat unrealistic. Some of the female narrators voices were irritatingly high pitched and I struggled to differentiate between a couple of them, which meant I didn't totally understand which character was talking at certain points.
Overall, an enjoyable story.

Good story let down by narrator

The narrators really let down the story.
The voices were annoying and akin to nails on a blackboard.

If you have a choice - read this book don't listen to it