Promise Me by Sara Cate: My Book Review

Check out my book review of Promise Me by Sara Cate, her MM romance in the Sinful Manor series which can be read as a standalone. One of the best of the year!

*Disclosure: This post may include affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Promise Me Summary

He let him get away once… Now he has seven days to get him back.

Fifteen years ago, Declan Barclay left for uni with plans of becoming an artist and escaping his family’s heavy rule. What he didn’t expect was to meet a soft and enigmatic actor in desperate need of guidance…and a friend. Declan quickly took Colin Shelby under his wing and the two were inseparable ever since.

That is until the night before graduation, when lines were crossed and everything changed. 

Now, after years apart, Colin is back in Declan’s life, but he’s not alone. He’s made a promise to marry someone else, and Declan only has seven days to win back the love of his life. There’s just one problem: His family is counting on him to pull this wedding off at Barclay Manor.

With just one week until vows are exchanged, Declan must decide—stay silent and lose Colin for good, or risk everything and ask the one who got away to promise him forever.

Promise Me: My Review

One of the best of the year! OMG, Sara Cate blew me away with this MM romance that had me in a chokehold from start to finish. This has everything that I love in a romance, amazing chemistry between characters, a wonderful slow burn when friends turn to lovers, and self exploration as well as kink exploration between two people with trust and love in spades. I cannot recommend this enough!

The Barclay Manor is the setting for Cate’s Sinful Manor series where Colin and Declan are reunited after an incident that destroyed their friendship seven years ago. You don’t know exactly what this incident until later in the book but the pacing of the book keeps you hooked until you find out.

I love how Sara Cate alternates between chapters in the present and chapters from the past where you see Declan and Colin’s friendship begin, grow, change and morph into a beautiful love that was expressed physically if never verbally.

Colin and Declan are also such captivating characters. Colin is a very sheltered young man when he meets Declan in college when they become roommates but he is so eager to put himself out there and explore life. He is a virgin who also discovers that he leans toward the submissive side and sees that as something he’d like to explore.

Declan is a troubled soul who lost both parents as a teenager. He’s never truly recovered or dealt with the trauma so he shelters his heart despite his growing love for Colin. He too recognizes Colin’s desire to be submissive and helps to cultivate this experience in a safe and trusting way while also helping Colin to find his own voice which has been silenced for so long. I LOVED how protective Declan was of Colin and how supportive he was. The best part of the book.

Sara did a fantastic job exploring how two friends discover a new kink together. It was honestly such a beautiful and different look at BDSM that I haven’t read before and cherished all the way through. I even liked the juxtaposition of Colin’s fiance’s approach to BDSM and how it enriched the story in its own right.

Promise Me is truly one of Sara Cate’s best books. If you are a lover of MM romance books, this is a must read.

More Books by Sara Cate:

• Keep Me by Sara Cate
• The Salacious Players Club by Sara Cate

Related Book Lists:

• Best MM Romance Books
• Best Friends to Lovers Romance Books
• Best Second Chance Romance Books
• Best BDSM Romance Books

Pin This: