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The Marriage Pact

  • Michelle Richmond
  • Sep 23, 2017
  • 3 min read

Release Date-25th July 2017

Genre-Mystery & Thrillers

Publisher-Penguin UK - Michael Joseph

Kindle Edition-415 Pages

🌟🌟🌟🌟Stars

All Opinions Are My Own

May Contain Spoilers.

Newlyweds Alice and Jake are a picture-perfect couple. Alice, once a singer in a well-known rock band, is now a successful lawyer. Jake is a partner in an up-and-coming psychology practice. Their life together holds endless possibilities. After receiving an enticing wedding gift from one of Alice’s prominent clients, they decide to join an exclusive and mysterious group known only as The Pact. The goal of The Pact seems simple: to keep marriages happy and intact, and most of its rules make sense: Always answer the phone when your spouse calls. Exchange thoughtful gifts monthly. Plan a trip together once per quarter. . . . Never mention The Pact to anyone. Alice and Jake are initially seduced by the glamorous parties, the sense of community, their widening social circle of like-minded couples--and then one of them breaks the rules. The young lovers are about to discover that for adherents to The Pact, membership, like marriage, is for life, and The Pact will go to any lengths to enforce that rule. For Jake and Alice, the marriage of their dreams is about to become their worst nightmare.

Now, this was a strange one, interesting but a bit wacky in its concept. The marriage pact by Michelle Richmond was surprisingly good, The author has found a unique idea and evolved it from there. With some surprising twists and turns that I didn't see coming this was a refreshing contribution to the psychological genre and I only had minor issues and niggles that pulled this down slightly for me. So the marriage Pact involves newlywed's Jake and Alice who receive an enticing gift from one of Alice's Clients at the law firm she works at. "The Pact" designed to keep couples happy and fulfilled in their marriages, the rules seem to make sense and The Pact seems harmless in its intentions. Initially impressed Alice and Jake start to realise there is more at stake than they realise as their dreams start to evolve into nightmares. And no one leaves "THE PACT" ever. So let me break this down for you first three-quarters of The Marriage Pact I loved, the story flowed, it was well written and my only minor criticism would be sometimes Jake could waffle on a tad too much with his inner monologue and I found this a touch irritating and longwinded. Then came the last quarter, not sure what happened here but I really was not feeling it, the whole visit Orla at her home seemed unnecessary and a bit boring to me. I would have really preferred another direction to be taken and a bit more of a pro-active stance applied here rather than talking. Then came the ending, this is where my main issue lies, it was just so anti-climatic and blah and after all Jake's moralistic stances he just walks away, leaving the corruption behind for someone else to deal with. I'm not saying he's wrong to do this, I just find it mildly surprising after listening to Jakes Inner moral compass throughout The Marriage Pact that he just abandons all his principles and jumps ship. I would also have liked to see inside Alice's head as well, she was such a diverse character with so much to offer and I felt we didn't get to know her properly in her entirety. So this was such a page-turner and even with the issues I've described, I have to give this a Four star as It was such compelling reading. This was such an interestingly unique story that I would definitely recommend Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the Author Michelle Richmond for providing me with an Arc of The Marriage Pact, this is my own honest unbiased opinion.

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