Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  The Promise

SERIES:  Single Dad Support Group

AUTHOR:  Piper Scott

NARRATOR:  Michael Ferraiuolo

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  15 hours and 7 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  January 7. 2021

BLURB:

When an ex-boyfriend turns Jayne’s night out into a living hell, he has no choice but to make a deal with two hot, hunky, would-be bodyguards. The promise? If they can get him out unscathed, Jayne will do anything they want…

Sarcastic, snarky, and totally fabulous, when single dad and bioethicist Jayne is cornered by his abusive ex-boyfriend on a night out, he comes up with an escape plan on the fly – find the biggest, strongest, and thirstiest man in the club, and seduce him into giving Jayne safe passage home. Easy. Over the last few years, in a bid to mask the pain of loss, Jayne’s bedded more men who fit that description than he can count, and he knows he won’t have any trouble bagging one tonight.

Until one becomes two, and suddenly, nothing’s so certain anymore.

REVIEW:

Note:  this is book 5 in this series and as such contains major spoilers for the first four books and couples.  It is recommended to consume this books in series order 🙂

Dr. Jayne Biernacki has an evil ex – Sebastian.  He’s abused Jayne and has been gaslighting him for some time.  He thought he was rid of him, but when he runs into him in a club, he finds Everett Langston and Caleb Allcrest enjoying a night out as well and offers to go home with them both if they can get them safely out of the club.  But it soon becomes apparent this might be more difficult that he thinks – because he’s been drugged and Sebastian tries to stop them.  When Jayne collapses, Everett and Caleb manage to get rid of Bastian, but they take Jayne home with them.  Jayne is shocked that they have not only saved him from Basian, but they’ve washed his clothes, offer him breakfast and let him sleep in the guest room at their condo.  He’s really amazed, but he’s got ot get to his friends to pick up his young son, so he rushes out.

When Jayne picks up his son from one of his friend’s house from the Single Dad Support Group, he runs into Everett who has come to pick up his niece and nephew who are also staying with the same friend and his husband and his teenage son.  Both are surprised to see the other 🙂  Everett offers to take Jayne and Shep (Jayne’s younger brother) and his son Parker home along with Beau and Penelope.  But when they get closer to their apartment, it appears that something is wrong – and that thing is the loss of Jayne and Shep’s apartment.  Jayne is devastated as now he’s lost everything from his old life and his deceased parents 🙁

But Everett and Caleb take the small family in.  They are very much interested in making a go of it with Jayne.  As both Caleb and Everett are both Alphas, they are not totally compatible even though they’ve loved each other for years.  They’ve kept it together by bringing in a third regularly.  Jayne however is reluctant – and questions his own decision making because of the whole Bastian thing.  He wants to take things slower because none of them have ever been in a poly relationship.  And of course Shep is very skeptical about Caleb and Everett’s intentions 😉  He’s a cute baby alpha trying to take care of his older brother.

But the more time they spend together, the more apparent it is that their relationship is meant to be.  They are completely compatible as a throuple 🙂  And it’s obvious that Everett and Caleb love him and respect him – something he’s never had before.  But of course Sebastian has not gone away and strange things keep happening and Jayne feels like he still has to keep looking over his shoulder.  And he’s not wrong.

There are also some other family situations that have to be addressed.  Neither Caleb nor Everett has been honest with their families about their relationship.  Everett has to decide about his future with his family business and Caleb has to make things right with his parents after his discovery about health situations that have left him angry and betrayed.  But this new situation is an impetus to making things right between the Langstons and Allcrests and everything just might work out in the end 😉

I really really like this series.  We have met these characters in past stories, but here they really get to shine.  Caleb and Everett are the brothers of the main couple from The Proposal, and Jayne and Shep are the brothers of the main couple of The Decision.  We have seen Jayne’s issue with Sebastian in that book and so it’s not so much of surprise that he’s not willing to let go of Jayne.  When Everett and Caleb come to his rescue, they don’t know the backstory at all, but Jayne comes clean with them and shares the abuse that he’s suffered from Bastian.  Luckily Everett and Caleb are good guys and they are not going to let anything happen to Shep or Parker or Jayne.  Their relationship is SCORCHING hot but it’s based on love and trust with of course a nice shot of lust 😉  Shep also grows up a lot in this book as he watches his brother fall in love with these two men.  So adorable 🙂  As usual Michael Ferraiuolo does a fantastic job of narrating this series.  The voices are consistent between all of the books and I really liked getting to revisit the couples and friends from the whole series. Highly recommended – especially for fans of the single dads and M/M/M 😀

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Amazon

Audible