Reviewed by Ro
TITLE: Promised Secret
SERIES: Promises, Promises #3
AUTHOR: Rye Cox
PUBLISHER: Eternal Spring Publishing LLC
LENGTH: 280 Pages
RELEASE DATE: October 10, 2025
BLURB:
He stole my first kiss when he was ten, then my heart at fifteen.
My crush was destined to lead to nowhere when our parents announced they’ve been dating and plan on marrying.
Now they expect me to act like a family with the man I’ve been crushing on—my new stepbrother—and I can’t imagine a worst hell. But for them, I’ll do it. Even if every one of his smiles makes me fall in love a little more while also killing me inside.
It doesn’t help that Clay is too nice for his own good. I mean, who kisses their stepbrother even if it is to comfort them? Much less offer up his body when I’m pretending to be depressed from a breakup I really couldn’t have cared less about.
I know I’m taking advantage of his kindness, but how can I stop when it means I can possess him, even if it is for a short while? Maybe once I get him out of my system, I can finally put this stupid crush to rest. We can return to playing the happy family, and I won’t have to disappoint my father or break our family apart.
If only it’s that easy to stop loving someone…
Promised Secret is book 3 of the Promises, Promises series set in a small town with meddling neighbors and a tight community of friends and family. It can be read standalone but is better read in a series. This book features stepbrothers, pining, situationship-to-lovers, and adorable and super smart pet rats.
REVIEW:
Danny’s mom died in childbirth, and his dad, Victor, his Lao-ba, has raised him since then. Lao-ba is a doctor who owns a family clinic that focuses on both Western and Traditional Chinese Medicine and he raises Danny to study hard so he can take over the clinic. Even this young, Danny knows how much his Loa-ba cares for him. “We only had each other. He loved me and worried about me, and that was the reason I never fought him about my studies”. Throughout the book, the love and care of these two shines through. It is at the clinic that Danny and Clay meet when they are children, ages 9 and 10. Clay and his mother, Sandra, come in, and Loa-ba asks Danny to play with Clay while he examines mom. Danny, easy-going, happy, and playful, sees Clay “His entire body was stuff, and his shoulders hunched to make him look even smaller than he already was.” Danny immediately takes on a protector role. As they are playing, there is a trip, an almost-fall, and an accidental kiss. This is enough to show Danny, this is my person. (And I loved this, because I hear “kids don’t know” themselves, and that’s a blatant lie).
The two become best friends and they have a plan. Clay will be a police officer, Danny a doctor at the clinic. “You’ll do the ass-kicking, and I’ll sit back, wait for you and patch you up. If you really think about it, doesn’t that mean I’m the hero to the hero?” Yes, Danny, it does. Especially because of Clay’s (and his mom’s) past history of abuse. Danny and Clay become ever closer, and without them knowing, so do their parents. It is just bad timing that right when Danny, at 15, is going to tell Clay how he feels, Victor and Sandra announce they are getting married. My heart hurt for Danny, because now he can’t say anything. Clay, who has dreamed of calling Victor his Loa-ba, sees the devastation on Danny’s face and is crushed.
Fast forward to present day, Danny is pushing down his feelings, even as he and Clay share a house. Clay is, in fact, a police officer, and Danny is a doctor. Danny is a serial dater of both men and women, Clay just hangs out with Danny. It drove me crazy how oblivious to both Danny’s feelings and his own that Clay was! He is protective, possessive, jealous, and all up in Danny’s business and still doesn’t realize what is going on. “I was well aware Dan didn’t like being alone and wanted a partner in his life, but I didn’t understand why that partner couldn’t be me. We weren’t in love with each other, but surely, we did love each other.” Oh, Clay, seriously? “Was it so wrong to want to live your life with your stepbrother?” OH CLAY!!!
Danny is trying to distance himself, but Clay doesn’t allow it. He gets so jealous that it’s comical. Frederick, Danny’s nurse, is such a fantastic character, and Clay glares and snarls and acts the fool about him. I adored Frederick, and I hope the next book is about him. He is the one who brings Danny Captain and Hook, the pet rats. Not going to lie, rats are not my thing, but these guys seem sweet. As long as they stay away from me.
From the pet fundraiser, to the scene at the club, to the daily life, Clay shows how invested he is in Danny without realizing what Danny is to him.
Danny and Clay have a great friend group who are supportive. We get to see Ryan and Jones from book 2, and Ryker and Sam from book 1. Sandra and Victor are wonderful parents and you understand why Danny is so fearful of upsetting the family by confessing his feelings. The only thing that kept this from being a 5-star for me was that, at about halfway, there is just too much sex. I know, I know, sex in a romance novel is expected, but I would rather have had more interaction, fewer long sex scenes.
On to the (hopefully) next book starring Frederick!
RATING: 
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