Full review at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books 
 Only a Promise was the first book I read by Mary Balogh, and I rectified that situation pretty damn quick. It was so so amazingly good that I went to the used bookstore and basically just dumped the entire shelf with her name on it into my cart. The guy at the counter asked me how I was doing, and I think I just made Good Book Noise(r) back at him. 
 Only a Promise is basically made of Elyse's catnip tropes, plus frosting. Marriage of convenience. Tragic, wounded hero. The heroine is a companion to an older lady, and I love companion books or books where the heroine is an outsider. There is some serious slow burn going on here-and it all comes together beautifully and culminates in a wonderfully satisfying ending. This book is 6th in the Survivor Club series, but can easily be read as a stand alone. 
 One of the things that fascinated me about this book is that Chloe and Ralph don't immediately have amazing sex when they're married. In fact it's a "lift the nightgown and insert p in v" sort of thing, and both are fine with that. Balogh doesn't use sex to bridge the emotional gap between these two people. She makes them do all the emotional heavy lifting without the help of their groins. 
 I really can't say enough good things about this book. It's the best kind of romance, the kind with real people for characters, the kind that affirms we all deserve a partner to help us through the sticky patches in our life. And it's all so subtly done that the story unfolds naturally and beautifully, and only when I stepped back at the end did I truly appreciate how complex and perfectly wrought Balogh's narrative was. 
 That's a lot of words to say that this book was awesomesauce. Pure awesomesauce. 
 - Elyse