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Chapel Falls #1

Broken Promises

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A second chance.
Surprise twins.
And an ex that won’t let go.


King

I had given up on every dream I’d ever had; I walked away from the only woman I could love eight years ago. Nothing has been right since. I’ve spent far too much time drowning the pain at the bottom of a bottle before I bought the same bar I’d come used to being thrown out of.

I thought my life was all it could ever be.

Sparrow

I thought I had life figured out, but at sixteen my life changed in ways I could have never imagined. Broken-hearted and unexpectedly a single mother to twins, I did the best I could to survive. Keeping in line with all my life choices, I gave the wrong man a chance to be part of my family.

One that won’t give up until he has control.

Finding King again should have been a relief but it’s an uphill battle due to the trauma we’ve endured. When our newfound family starts to find our footing together, the boogeyman comes back for me.

But I won’t give up without a fight.

328 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 9, 2025

463 people are currently reading
136 people want to read

About the author

N. Thompson

7 books32 followers
N. Thompson is a contemporary romance author living in the Midwest. She writes about small towns that have captured her heart since childhood.
If she isn't writing, she can be found with a book in her hand and her Italian Mastiff at her side. In her spare time, she likes to drag her husband to antique stores.

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5 stars
332 (51%)
4 stars
188 (29%)
3 stars
91 (14%)
2 stars
19 (2%)
1 star
10 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
Profile Image for Linz_loves_books (Semi-Hiatus).
222 reviews336 followers
August 16, 2025
5 Mind-blowing Stars⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I ate everything about this book up! I could not put it down; I started it last night and finished it last night. The author did an amazing job at keeping me glued to the page and needing more. If you are a fan of romantic suspense, then I absolutely recommend that you read this one.

This story starts off with a little recap of our FMC, Sparrow's childhood. At the age of sixteen she lives in a trailer with her drug-addict mom and her crappy boyfriend. With no one taking care of her and always having to fend for herself she ends up making her own family with other kids in the area. King, our MMC, is the robin hood of the area. At seventeen he is always looking after his little brothers and all the other kids in the neighborhood. Sparrow falls in love, but he leaves her heartbroken when he decides to move across the country without an explanation or saying goodbye.

Eight years later, we follow Sparrow as she is barely surviving with a set of twins running from a demon of her past. When she comes home to a surprise and a cryptic and scary message, she knows that the past has finally caught up to her. Sparrow packs up her and her children to move to Chapel Falls, where her best friend Skye lives to start over. When she finally makes it into town she goes over to her friend's house for a BBQ only to look into the eyes of the man that broke her heart eyes years prior. King sees her and instantly falls to his knees...his bird has returned to him and with two kids with all too familiar eyes. But his bird is not the same and she trusts no one and is Sparrow ever truly safe or does her past keep following her?

What to Expect
🖤Romantic Suspense
🖤Second chance Romance
🖤Small town Romance
🖤Strong FMC
🖤Protective MMC
🖤Touch them and die
🖤Found Family

From the very first page I was completely hooked. This book deals a lot with trauma, healing, and love with just the perfect amount of spice and suspense. Small towns with found families get me every single time. The community that this book builds is everything and it makes you fall in love with every character. Another thing about this book that I loved is how strong and bad ass our FMC is. On top of that we watch such beautiful character growth and development with her character.
I absolutely recommend that you read this book, and the second one comes out the end of this month.

Favorite Quotes
"She doesn't get it, but she will. She doesn't think she's the same, and she isn't, but there isn't a single version of her that I wouldn't want."

"We all have these pieces, some jagged, and we are trying to fit them together. The process of putting them together could be frustrating, but the finished product takes your breath away."





Pre-Read Review: Romantic Suspense by one of my faves….YES Please!
Profile Image for Haylee.
208 reviews23 followers
October 13, 2025
3.5 stars

Book 1 of ?. Standalone in a series

💜MF Contemporary
💜First person/Multi POV
💜Second chance
💜No OWD or cheating
💜Finds out she’s preggo after he leaves
💜Kidnapping and light torture

FMC- Sparrow
MC- King

This was ok. Spicy scenes were meh. Neither celibate after he blocks and ghosts her 8 years ago. Dumbest reason as well. She’s only with one guy and shocker, he turns out to be a psycho. King def had one night stands, he mentions it once in the book where he slept around after leaving her. This is the biggest reason I have a hard time with second chance romance books. He’s always having a great time while she suffers.

He has no idea he is a dad, she had zero way of contacting him since he blocked her and had his two brothers (who she considered to be her brothers) block her as well. She went through hell raising her twins.

Next book is his brother Ace and I won’t be reading that as he’s a giant manwhore and I wasn’t really a fan of him in this book. I’m sure the next book after him is River, I wouldn’t mind reading him but will probably forget about this series honestly lol
Profile Image for Danny Lea.
761 reviews12 followers
June 21, 2025
I wanted to like this more, but unfortunately the lack of details brought the rating down. We never got into the reasons the H left in the beginning. Zero details. 319 pages of not explaining much. So I'll just leave this review here.
134 reviews
August 10, 2025
Dnf. What the hero did was not redeemable considering all the heroine has suffered. It just wasn’t fair and there was no consequences for him and he didn’t deserve a HEA!
73 reviews
June 27, 2025
Mediocre

Sparrow was a weak FMC that they portrayed as strong and resilient. She never told her kids that their father never knew about them so they thought they were abandoned. There is a man hunting her and she’s run off the road and she takes it as a road rage incident. She wants to go to a fair with crowds where it’ll be hard to see if her stalker is there, then once they’ve agreed to go she GOES OFF WITH HER BESTFRIEND ALONE. Oh but a pregnant female who has never been portrayed as a fighter will protect her in her mind?! Then the men are over the top.
Profile Image for Joanne Farley.
1,262 reviews31 followers
October 10, 2025
This book had me from page one. I could not put it down once I started to read it. I am excited for new series.
Profile Image for Jenna Sorenson.
20 reviews
October 24, 2025
This started off strong. But the ending didn’t wow me. No spoilers, just not as shocking as I would have wanted.
356 reviews15 followers
Read
October 7, 2025
Had to DNF this at chapter 7. The writing was so poor, the story had so much potential, but everything seems to be brushed over.

She is so upset that he left her 8 years ago, but lets him in to her house and lets him take their daughter into town by the second day.

Like what?!?

Profile Image for Shelley.
735 reviews25 followers
June 28, 2025
2.5-3 ok stars
It wasn’t horrible it’s just - look a pet peeve for mine being a parent is when authors write children older than there age and her IMO we have twins that are 8 yo acting 14… sh!ts me
The conflict resolution lacked the angst it needed to make this a good read it just missed its mark.
Profile Image for Alyssa J.
291 reviews15 followers
April 26, 2025
King 😍😍. I cried happy tears. I cried sad tears. My heart was with sparrow this entire ride. I absolutely loved the story and cannot wait to see what the next book holds! NThompson is an amazing writer & I 1000% recommend her books.
Profile Image for Cristi.
501 reviews
November 3, 2025
I didn’t get past the first few chapters; I wasn't intrigued enough to continue reading this book.
Profile Image for I’m a Paula too… Thompson.
1,329 reviews6 followers
November 2, 2025
I read book 2 first!

Well, I should have read this one first, no question. Here in this story is why the brothers were not getting along. The FMC has a stalker. This is in the blurb, I believe, so it shouldn’t be a spoiler. I liked this one a lot, and I really liked the FMC. She’s a great character. The MMC, King, is pretty grumpy.

The brothers are fun until the bad event happens. That’s when the brothers become kind of estranged. I still like their characters a lot. I’m very interested in the youngest, River. He has had something happen, it seems. He can’t tolerate being touched if I remember correctly.

KU read and it’s definitely good.
Profile Image for Helen.
198 reviews
June 26, 2025
King and sparrow
He left her 10 years ago, thought he wasn’t good enough. She was pregnant, moved away and got an abusive partner.
She was running from the new partner and found king again but didn’t trust him.
Profile Image for Allie Eklund.
25 reviews1 follower
May 3, 2025

✨ ARC Review ✨
Broken Promises by N. Thompson
Release date: May 9, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5

Broken Promises is the first book in the Chapel Falls series by N. Thompson and the story immediately pulled me right in - I did not want to put it down.

The story follows the FMC, Sparrow, who has a heartbreaking traumatic past. She will go to the end of the earth for her twins and will do anything to keep them protected. Throughout everything she has remained brave, strong and fierce. Having to run from her past leads her back to her first love and MMC, King. King brings the HEAT and will burn the world down to protect what's his! The both of them together are just 🥹.

I really enjoyed the dual pov and character development throughout the book. As a domestic violence survivor, I personally found this book to be about resilience, healing and knowing your worth. It was definitely a journey and I'm a sucker for books like this. I'm looking forward to going back to Chapel Falls for more.

Thank you N. Thompson for giving me the opportunity to read and review. 🫶🏻


⚠️ TW - domestic violence ⚠️

🤍second chance romance
🤍romantic suspense
🤍surprise twins
🤍protective mmc
🤍touch them and die
🤍found family
🤍HEA

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🏷️
#authornthompson #chapelfallsseries #brokenpromises #secondchanceromance #romanticsuspense #bookstagram #booktok #momswhoread
268 reviews5 followers
August 6, 2025
Ok but had gaps

This was an ok read. Some parts the author seemed to want to get somewhere in the story and rushed to get there, leaving out some pieces. Ahe did well not having too much thought life. Could have used a little more dialogue. This author has the makings of being able to move a story along without bogging it down with too much thought life. I wasn't a fan when the first time they were intimate the author didn't slow down and acknowledge the scars. That should have been a big moment. Wasn't a fan that it was acknowledged somewhere, even between the two main characters, that he didn't leave them behind. He didn't know about the kids and she let him take the fall. Kind of a big deal between the couple that should have been touched on. Also wasn't a fan of her brushing off the car incident. She knows he's after her, duh. This is what I mean about skipping vital moments or character personalities to push a story in a direction. I felt like a director at times and my actors were stepping out of character. It was a good read, with hope for the next in the series.

386 reviews1 follower
August 12, 2025
Love a strong fmc!

This was a beautiful second chance at love story. Swallow and King were teen sweethearts that lived in the same trailer park with deadbeat mothers, and King's brothers, Ace and River. When their dad gets out of prison the boys move to a different state to be with him, but not before King smashes his girls heart by breaking up with her. Two months later when Swallow finds out she is pregnant she realizes that the boys have ghosted her, changing their phone numbers and going no contact.
This girl fights for herself and her kids every day, raising an incredible set of twins and finding a bestie along the way.

Because this is a love story she of course meets King again and the tale unfolds.
I'll let you read it to find out the rest.

The one thing that bothered me was King never said why he changed his phone number, never explained not checking in when he leaves. If Swallow was so important to him, even at that young age, why didn't one of the boys keep in contact?
Profile Image for Patsy.
381 reviews20 followers
April 30, 2025
I received an advanced reader copy of this book and these are my honest thoughts.

If you're looking for a book that will emotionally drain and wreck you in all of the best ways this is the one. I feel like anyone who reads Sparrow's story and knows what she went through in the beginning of the book would feel for her. If you don't, then you don't have a soul LOL But you continue to feel for her because it's still a journey of pain, healing and self discovery.

I love the dual point of view in this book because it allows you to really connect to each character's perspective. I love books that have multiple perspectives in it. I felt like King was just as complex as Sparrow was.

So grab yourself a comfortable blanket and some munchies and just vedge out on this book because once you start reading it you will not want to put it down. For me personally, this hit all the marks and is a five out of 5 stars for me.
Profile Image for Theresse (Tess) Gregory.
399 reviews11 followers
May 7, 2025
--ARC Review--

Stars: 3.5/5 (Rounded up)
Spice: 2/5

Sparrow was an incredibly admirable FMC whose resilience and selflessness stood out, especially in how she always put her children first, even at her own expense. King was the epitome of a book boyfriend: protective, loyal, and unwilling to walk away when his family needed him most. Their relationship felt authentic, with plenty of emotional bumps that made their love story all the more relatable. While the suspense plot didn’t fully deliver in the middle of the book, it eventually built to a satisfying level of tension. I appreciated that the suspense never overshadowed King and Sparrow’s emotional journey, though I did wish for more consistent buildup. Overall, their story was heartwarming and powerful, with strong characters and a deeply emotional core.

Tropes Include:
-Second Chance
-First Love
-Touch Them & ☠️
-Found Family
Profile Image for Courtney Long.
66 reviews
September 19, 2025
promises made whole

I cannot even begin to describe how utterly brilliant this book is.
I was hooked from page 1, I couldn’t get enough. Sparrow has been to hell and back more than once and has had to fight to stay alive and keep her kids safe.
I absolutely love how strong she is and how she didn’t immediately take King back.
King messed up and finding out everything she went through, would be something I would feel guilty about until the day I die but they don’t let that ruin them. They fight for each other, for their kids, for everything! I’m so glad she found her family again, her home!
King really steps up from the second he see’s her, he is an amazing father and the best protector. I adore all these characters and cannot wait to read Ace’s story!

I’m so glad I stumbled upon this book!
Profile Image for jasminjustreads.
115 reviews1 follower
April 30, 2025
Author N. Thompson has written three books prior to this one and I have loved them all so much! This one is by far my favorite!!

King and Sparrow have the most beautiful chemistry of any couple I think I’ve ever read. Neither of them have had good and easy lives but their ability to find the beauty in each other’s brokenness definitely pulled all of my heart strings!

The suspense plot was so well executed and didn’t pull away from king and sparrow at all. The ending was written perfectly and Sparrow writes her own destiny!

I cannot say enough amazing things about this story and how obsessed I am with it!

I’ll just say if you like romantic suspense, be prepared to grab this one on May 9th!!!
6 reviews1 follower
May 11, 2025
This author is amazing at alternating first person pov. However, the writing in this book was so smooth and the insight you got from each character was amazing, the depth of their backstory revealed in perfect timing. The passion and dedication from King was next level and Sparrow has unmatched resilience. With a touch of spice and suspense this book has it all. I flew through this book and could not get enough. It’s a great read that you won’t be able to put down.
1 review
June 22, 2025
Broken Promises

This book was amazing, it was heartbreaking, sweet, and funny. The characters were truly amazing. The story was so down to earth and relatable to real-life tragedies and family dynamics. I would recommend this book for all to read. I hope stories for the other 2 brothers are in the making and I would love to read more of King and Sparrows' ongoing storyline to continue ❤️
Profile Image for Hannah.
124 reviews
May 8, 2025
If I could give this book more than 5 stars I absolutely would! I cried, I laughed, I screamed, but mostly I was here for it all! King is my man - his personality and the will to protect Sparrow at all costs is off the charts for me and Sparrow's history broke my heart. If you want to be held captive from page one do yourself a favor and grab a copy! I cannot wait to see what's coming next with Chapel Falls!
Profile Image for Tanya Wright.
203 reviews
July 6, 2025
Great read

Really Enjoyed this read, new author to me.
Great plot, character growth, Spice, Angst. Dual Pov. Please Check TW as it does contain D/abuse, Kidnapping (not with from main MMC) time Jump is literally the First Chapter, which I enjoyed. Cannot wait to see the rest of the Brothers maybe the Dad to get their Hea.
Satisfying HEA
Profile Image for Stephanie L. Reed.
105 reviews
July 14, 2025
Love worth fighting for..

This story line was extremely heavy but it was necessary and worth the read. Sparrow’s character was an amazing woman and her survival instincts were everything. King I could see leaping right off the page and boy was it amazing. This family had everything you needed but mostly love.
392 reviews4 followers
September 19, 2025
Great Story

Well written story. It was addictive reading with a great narrative. Loved that it focused on the actual story as way too many books now fill chapters with unnecessary descriptions of the surroundings etc, which to be fair gets on my nerves. I don’t give spoilers as it’s unfair to the author. Definitely recommend you buy fast paced and well written.
Profile Image for Angie Richards.
266 reviews5 followers
June 20, 2025
broken

I tell you the name of the book fits it perfectly. It was a great story. This couple had been through so much. There is heartbreak anguish, and love and a happy ending. Both of them thought they were broken and ways they were but being back together, helped them heal.
Profile Image for Sherie Cooper.
12 reviews
June 23, 2025
Great

This book was really good to read that I had trouble putting it down. I am so glad that King and Sparrow got back together and everything. I hope there will be more books in this series.
9 reviews
June 24, 2025
good

This book was good the whole way through, I think it dragged on a little bit at parts, but one of the best happily ever after I found it goes the whole gambit from hardship to turmoil to terror to happiness
Profile Image for Nikki ღ Navareus.
1,093 reviews55 followers
July 13, 2025
This is a very sweet, low angst type of story. I loved Sparrow, the down on her luck, pretty much destitute heroine, struggling to raise her kids all by herself. And King, who lost the love of his life, but then found her again. The couple was super sweet, and super cute together. There's an evil villain in the background that has to be dealt with as well, but the rest of the secondary characters were lovely. I enjoyed this sweet little story completely.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews

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