Audiobook Review: Promise Boys by Nick Brooks

Promise Boys
Author: Nick Brooks

Narrator: Full Cast Narration
Published: January 31, 2023
Audiobook: 6 hours 30 minutes

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: February 12-14, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars

Book Description:

The prestigious Urban Promise Prep school might look pristine on the outside, but deadly secrets lurk within. When the principal ends up murdered on school premises and the cops come sniffing around, a trio of students—J.B., Ramón, and Trey—emerge as the prime suspects. They had the means, they had the motive—and they may have had the murder weapon. But with all three maintaining their innocence, they must band together to track down the real killer before they are arrested. Or is the true culprit hiding among them?

Find out who killed Principal Moore in Nick Brooks’s murder mystery, Promise BoysThe Hate U Give meets One of Us Is Lying.

Jessica’s Review:

This audiobook is not just an audiobook, it is a full on listening experience! We have a full cast of narrators, so each character really has his or her own voice.  Additionally, we have background noise, music and, ‘news reports’.  Together these elements don’t distract but enhance the story and makes it a full-on production that I wish more audiobooks consisted of! I was fully pulled in as a listener to this experience. 

We have a mystery of the high school principal murdered  at the high school and three teen boys are suspects. As the book description says, Promise Boys really is a mesh of The Hate U Give and One of Us is Lying!  We have the social commentary of THUG with the mystery of a death. Two of the teen suspects are Black and the third is Hispanic and they all have a potential motive to kill the principal and they were all on school grounds when the murder happened. We have multiple povs and they all come together. 

This is a fast-paced story that moves along at a very quick pace.  We do get a conclusion as to who the killer actually is and the motive at the end. I really enjoyed how the killer was exposed!  Was the killer one of the boys or someone else? You will have to read this one to find out, but I suggest if you listen to audiobooks at all, then listen to this one! It is superb and sets the bar extremely high for any future audiobook I listen to.

Bravo to the publisher Macmillian Audio for this experience they granted me by letting me listen to an audio copy to review! I will definitely look at future novels that Brooks writes!

Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK