Promise to Keep: A Dark Mafia Arranged Marriage Romance (Doubeck Crime Family Book 2) 

Blurb:

I knew running from Adrian wouldn’t be easy. That there was a risk I would be caught, but I never anticipated he would go to such great lengths to find me. Now that he knows what I’ve done I wonder if there will ever be love between us again, or if we were always meant to be enemies?

My Review:

Promise To Keep is part two of the Vow To Protect duet and the conclusion to Adrian and Valentina Doubeck’s story. It continues straight from the end of the first book so that must be read first. A steamy, intense, dark mafia tale full of tension and suspense.

Valentina is so excited to find out she is pregnant so goes looking for Adrian but when she sees a photo of his mother in his office, it leaves her with a big dilemma. Memories of events in her childhood have been haunting her and now she feels keeping her secrets will be like betrayal to him. As much as they love each other, she knows he’d kill her for what she has done and then never forgive himself so decides the only way to save Adrian and their baby is to leave him. She knows Adrian will do everything to find her but can’t risk staying with him. Life has never been kind to her and she knew he was too good to be true. For once in her life she was happy, he’d fulfilled his side of the deal and kept her safe like he’d promised. She gets some unexpected help, manages to escape and goes into hiding.

Adrian is pleased he has taken care of Sal and can’t wait for the council problems to be cleared up so he can deal with Val’s father. He is terrified of losing her and feels he’ll have nothing left to live for if he doesn’t keep her safe. He shocked when he finds she has gone and is positive someone has taken her as can’t believe she would have left him. A traumatic event leads to her needing his help and returning to him. He is determined to get the answers to his questions one way or another. She belongs to him and is never leaving again. 

When she admits everything will they be able to live with the consequences. He tries to control every situation they now face and hates showing any vulnerability. I felt they end up trying to protect each other rather than working together. It was lovely seeing Val finally find more than her fight for survival and starts to stand up to him. The secondary characters bring so much to the story and his ‘five’, Kai, Ivan, Michail, Alexei and Andrea are very loyal. I liked how Kai supports and helps Val. His idea for helping Adrian cope with his anger did make me laugh. Andrea is recovering from her trauma and the scenes of her and Val chatting are very emotional. 

I couldn’t work out why she kept lying to him because he can read her so well and always sees everything. We know he has abandonment issues but I found he did go on about her leaving him. Although we saw his kinky side, we still didn’t get to really see the monster that Adrian was supposed to be.

Lots of twists, shocks and betrayals lead up to the gripping finale when Adrian has to face the council meeting. If he confesses then he will be sentenced to death so it is very gripping and you never know what is going to happen next. There is an astonishing and surprising final revelation but I did feel the ending was quite abrupt. We don’t get anything about their future or a proper HEA because the epilogue is about Kai and not about Adrian and Val. I realise the authors have done it this way so it can lead into the next book Bound To Darkness which is all about Kai. I presume our couple will also feature in it after the big secret was revealed and look forward to getting the answers to all the questions I still have.