Is Happily Ever After even possible? Jake, a marriage and family therapist, and Alice, a rock musician turned lawyer, are sure they can weather the storm and be in the 50% of couples who manage to stay together. A wedding gift from one of Alice’s clients seems to be perfectly designed for them, offering them the opportunity to surround themselves with others devoted to the sanctity of marriage and providing a set of rules to improve and enhance their relationship. Quickly, though, Jake and Alice learn that The Pact is not simply a suggestion of how to preserve marriage, it is the law. And breaking the law comes with a strange set of consequences.

Yeah. The Pact. I’m so conflicted. On one hand, the requirements seem so reasonable…putting your spouse first, showing appreciation, scheduling vacations together frequently…but the consequences! Set in San Francisco, one of my very favorite places, with Pact gatherings held in Hillsborough and Woodside, shows clearly that Pact members have money and power, and I can imagine that Alice, just starting out as a lawyer, would want those kinds of connections to help build her career. Jake is less enthusiastic, but wants nothing more than to please Alice, so he accepts the rules…until Alice’s first punishment. This is an exciting, fast-paced read, but it may take you some time to process after you’ve finished reading.

I really loved this book. I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads. It sucked me in from the beginning and kept me interested. A very original idea with great characters and writing.

I'm still torn on how to rate this book. I absolutely loved 90% of it. Couldn't put it down, couldn't look away. I was horrified by the acts of The Pact and intrigued to find out the what and the whys. But the ending just didn't sit well for me. It didn't answer enough questions. I kept looking for more pages...just a little bit more of an explanation. I turned my Kindle over and upside down, trying to shake out more...but alas, I am left with one of those endings that made me think...did I miss something? Was there something I was supposed to get that I simply didn't understand? Overall, I loved the storyline - intrigue and mystery at it's best. Very well written. Very suspenseful. So 3 stars or 4 - I can't decide. So 3.5 it is, and I think I will bump it up to 4 because I truly did love 90% of it.

I really liked this book. It's a good story with strong characters. I give it 4..5 stars and a strong recommendation.

Newlyweds Jake and Alice receive a strange wedding gift from one of Alice’s clients (she’s a singer-turned-attorney), and they’re intrigued. Inside the box are personalized pens and yet another box, which they don’t open until they’ve been met by a representative of The Pact, an organization that claims to value marriage above all else. The question they are posed seems simple: Do you want your marriage to last forever?

Enter into the agreement, you’re guaranteed marital success. A group of likeminded individuals enforce simple gestures like monthly gift giving and quarterly trips. On the surface, The Pact is noble, even desirable to the couple who have their own reasons for entering into matrimony.

What neither Jake nor Alice realizes as they lightheartedly sign their lives away is the extent to which that group will go when one or both of them succumbs to being human. Everything to The Pact is an infraction. Work too much, infraction. Late to dinner, infraction. Forget a monthly gift, infraction. Snoop on your spouse—even jealousy—are infractions. And the penalties are steep.

The Pact owns a correctional facility situated in the desert to which both Jake and Alice both become accustomed. What goes on at Fernley makes marital discord seem like a death sentence, and in fact it is rumored to be. How far does The Pact’s reach extend? How far will they go to keep a couple in the fold? And what happens to Jake and Alice when they realize the contract they’ve entered into is unbreakable?

The Marriage Pact is not like anything I’ve read before, and as an avid reader I pride myself on diversity. The story is overall suspenseful and well-written. More than once I found myself saying, “Just one more chapter.” Who hasn’t been there, right? Alice and Jake are likable, the kind of characters you forget are characters and whose lives you become as invested in as if they’re you’re friends. Friends in the worst possible situation.

I had to know what happened to them.

But, and this is a tiny but, the book takes the occasional long road, meandering with repetition about the nefariousness of The Pact, something that is well-established early on. I found myself tired of the repeat trips to Fernley and not particularly interested in the minutia, even if I acknowledge its importance to understanding how bad a place it is and why the couple is terrified to go there.

The Marriage Pact forces you to suspend some belief, to accept without question that this organization is above all, including the law. That’s a little tough to do. It’s a friggin’ cult, and as such when people are abducted from their homes in straightjackets and ball gags, one has to believe the police might get involved.

As the book went on, I weighed the pros and cons of The Pact, thinking about what I might do in Alice’s situation. What I might do if I were Jake. The premise asks some critical questions about what marriage is or isn’t, about its place in society, about the effects of divorce, which Jake sees firsthand in his practice as a therapist. There’s a lot to take in, and I enjoyed most of it. Would I recommend this book? Without hesitation. I fear it might appeal more to some than others, but if nothing else, it’s a different kind of story. I only wish the last fifteen percent or so (I read on Kindle) wasn’t so neatly wrapped. For a book that encourages thought, an open ending would’ve made me happier.

A newlywed couple receive an unusual gift from a guest at their wedding. Upon opening the gift they find a box labeled THE PACT. Inside that box was another exquisite box with a beautiful pen of silver, white gold, or possibly even platinum on each side of the box. It, too, was labeled THE PACT but it was locked.

When the couple, Jake and Alice, opened the box it contained a contract. They were questioned about their commitment to their marriage they replied in the affirmative and agreed to sign the contract before reading it well. Much to their surprise, they found they had agreed to letting the PACT leaders control their behaviors with regard to making poor decisions regarding their marriage relationship.

Very quickly the couple realized they really had given control to strangers. We have to suspend belief here as to why a clinical therapist and an attorney would agree to such conditions without thoroughly reading the contract. With the PACTs question of “How far would you go to have a successful marriage.” foremost in their thoughts, they find themselves being punished by the group for perceived errors in their choices.

Miss Richmond takes us down a psychological journey of ever increasing suspense and fear as Jake and Alice must decide how far they are willing to give control to the PACT. This story is easy to read and keeps getting more and more intriguing as we watch the young newlyweds deal with the consequences of their decisions. The suspense builds until the couple is left with only one more decision to make.

There is a lot to learn about marriage in Michelle Richmond's THE MARRIAGE PACT, facts about marriage and many good suggestions on how to make a marriage better, the "non-fiction" aspects of this book were interesting.

The story itself was far-fetched and repetitive. The book felt very long because Jake and Alice just kept repeating their mistakes. The ending left me wanting more as the characters consistently left me wanting more. The premise was great and I think I could have enjoyed this book if it weren't so unbelievable, teetering on science fiction of which I am not a fan.

I would give the author another chance because the style of her writing appealed to me, in the hands of a lesser writer I would not have been able to stick with this book to the end.

it was a little slower in getting started, I thought, but otherwise was a good read.

Loved this suspenseful shocking novel about marriages with dystopian rules. Parallels Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.

During the Renaissance, ornate marriage chests were given as wedding gift to hold all the things needed to embark on married life. In the Marriage Pact, Alice and Jake would receive a modern similar type chest made of reclaimed wood with a pad lock - holding a unknown surprise that would help to marry their lives together. But instead of holding material artifacts and possessions, something else both alluring and quizzical is contained inside. THE PACT. At first it seamed like a guarantee for a successful marriage but soon turns into a stagecraft of a dystopian new order.

The premise of the book was very intriguing to me and it delivered a novel full of strange ideals and horror. The book is written by the perspective of the husband who begins recounting the events surrounding the Marriage Pact while telling us stories of the couple’s dysfunctional upbringing. This creates a valid stage for the Pact’s desirability. Further into the novel the Pact’s non negotiable and often bizarre rules will creates path of terrifying destruction into the newly married couple’s lives with no turning back. Will Alice and Jake’s marriage survive with the authority of the Pact? But another question may be could it have survived anyway? Read this page turning psychological thriller to find out.

I am declining to review this book for several reasons, but the main one is that while I did finish it- it just wasn't the right book for me.

However, I recently had a guest poster on my blog who loved the book so much she included it in her post Ten Mysteries To Keep You On Your Toes Through Summer. The link is attached.

Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to review THE MARRIAGE PACT and leave my unbiased feedback.

So this book and me had a love/hate relationship - rating at about a 3.5. I loved the concept and thought it was a well thought out plot. It had mystery, suspense, mild violence, twists where you thought there were turns and interesting characters. However, there were so many facts scattered throughout the book, and unnecessary flashbacks that didn't tie into the story line, that it deflated the intriguing concept. I don't mind trivia, in fact I love to learn, but not when I am reading a suspense novel. It felt like an odd marriage of fact and fiction (see what I did with the play on words?), and decreased the thrilling page turning affect of the story. That said, if you have the patience to overlook the excess, it was worth the read.

Be warned - this is one you'll read late into the night. A page-turning thriller that engages the reader while exploring the numerous challenges of a successful marriage. Well developed characters, lots of twists and turns. Highly recommended.

I read an ARC copy of this novel courtesy of Netgalley. I don't usually read psychological novels, but this one interested me and grabbed me for about the first 1/3 of this novel. I was intrigued about this couple, Alice and Jake, who'd gotten married and been invited to a club that was supposed to enhance your marriage. The story got a little absurd for me and dragged on for too long. Alice is an attorney and Jake is a marriage and teen counselor and I found it hard to believe that they fell for some of the cult-like practices of "The Marriage Pact". I kept waiting for some spectacular escape for them, but for me, it never came.

I tried very hard to get into this book. It left me feeling very confused. Maybe if was told from more than just Jake's point of view but Alice's also I would have understood better. I know it involve's Marriage and our views on marriage but the book kept taking these twists and turns. I think it's better classified as fantasy. It just seemed more otherworldly to me. If you like books with a skewered reality then this is a freak book for you.
****I voluntarily reviewed and gave my honest opinion of this Advanced Readers Copy of this book from Net Galley.****

This book was awesome! It kept me hooked from day one. The suspense, intrigue, and believability was excellent. I definitely recommend reading it, I couldn't put it down!

There is a difference between suspense, and never getting the meat of something. This book is the latter. Told from view of the husband, he and his wife are given a unique gift before their wedding by the wife's client. Then are asked if they wish to join an exclusive "Pact", which has cult written all over it, but for whatever reason they sign up. The benefits are nothing fun--a few parties with strangers, not much else. Then out of the blue they are making the higher ups unhappy and are disciplined, then worse. There ares some situations with the wife, Alice were interesting, but the whole book fell flat overall. Not unique, not satisfying, The reader is going through a maze with twists and turns but towards the the end the twists were straight lines with no end, and after a while, you want to just take an open, shortcut out.

I requested this one from NetGalley because the synopsis was intriguing. I read it a few weeks ago but am just now writing my review, because it’s taken me this long to decide what I think of the book.

The story starts off well enough. Jake and Alice are about to be married and, through a chance meeting, Alice invites a client who is something of a celebrity to attend their wedding. Surprisingly he does and he sends an intriguing gift. The result is that Alice and Jake decide to join an exclusive group whose mission is to act as a support group to ensure that all marriages of members of the group remain strong — no divorce allowed! Sounds intriguing, right? Still, Alice is an attorney and when she was rushed into signing the paper to commit the couple to the ‘Marriage Pact’ you would think that would be a red flag to slow down. However, the prospect of hobnobbing with the rich and famous also had its intrigue for Alice and Jake, and they willingly committed to follow all rules.

As they become more enmeshed with the group and it’s rules, they learn this little group is not really a support group at all, but a cult, and when seemingly minor rules are broken, the consequences are severe...and sometimes a little weird. They look for a way out, but unlike social groups, this commitment is for life! Because the group is ‘secret’ so they can not discuss it with anyone outside the group or ask for help. Suspense builds as they try to make their escape. I have to say that this book kept me reading, and while some of the scenes were a little creepy, I realize what a creative mind it took to write this book! Eventually the couple meets the the founder of the group. Though she was misguided, I found myself drawn to her and can understand why others may have been. Things come to a head and the couple are given a choice, with consequences.

I enjoyed the book even though at many times I was asking myself why the people involved stayed involved. It was creative and I never knew what would happen next, or who was calling the shots. I do wish there had been a bit more at the end, letting me know the results of the decision Alice and Jake made.

Please note: this review has spoilers because it was too hard to write a review without them.

Very strange book - well written and kept my interest, but should have been classified as Science Fiction.
The story started out so realistically that it was hard to suspend my disbelief with the plot and the action that took place.
The two main characters are an interesting couple - a strong, ambitious woman and a sensitve man - he is the protagonist who a marriage therapist and also likes sweets, cookies, cakes and likes to cook. He drinks hot chocolate instead of coffee. For all his self proclaimed ability to "read people", he certainly got the Pact members wrong!

When I started reading, the first thing that cames to mind was - aren't the same things promised in most marriage vows, as the Marriage Pact they are initiated into at the beginning of the book? Of course everyone approaches marriage with the intent that it will last.
Also, what vested interest do the other members of The Pact have with each other's marriages?
I kept waiting to see if it was revealed....

“The Pact can be frightening. It even scares me to this very day. But a little fear, when used for a noble purpose, can be a positive thing, an appropriate motivator.”
<spoiler>
Ok, I still don't get what "noble cause" the organization that enforces this marriage pact is striving towards.
It seems to be more than a social club.
I'm not sure whether there are dues involved, but if you stray from their written code of conduct, you get fined and penalized. (?)
How does the group benefit when the individual couples have a good relationship? And eww, how do the group members know? And why does anyone care? And even more weirdly, why does it seem to be a matter of life or death??
It seems as if the ultimate goal is world domination by controlling people through their spouses.
Divorce is forbidden, but the Pact would conveniently arrange for the death of a spouse they deemed resistent to their rules and would arrange a marriage to another "more suitable" partner.
If a couple were a little rebellious, the Pact could make them "disappear" suddenly.
Maybe the drinks a the the monthly group parties were spiked with somethng to keep them compliant.
Two of the "punishments" for any real or imagined transgression from the Pact code of conduct were a wrist cuff and a neck gear thing that was to be worn for a certain time. The wierd thind is that there seemed to be a kind of gratification from wearing these things & it seemed to make the couples grow closer, there seemed to be a certain amount of secret pleasure of seeing the other one suffer (?!)

It was ironic that Alice and Jake's love and their marriage was particularly strong and well grounded already and they didn't really need the Pact to keep them together to begin with.

The only reason I could think for getting them into the Pact was that it might have been part of a master plan to have them take charge after the originators either died or could not continue lradership any longer.</spoiler>

The Marriage Pact was one of the most gripping and scintillating novels I have read in years. It was fascinating - to read about how a newlywed couple could get engrossed in such a crazy world. I loved it. The writing throughout was fantastic, and I highly recommend it.

The Marriage Pact was way better than I expected. Yes, I was intrigued by the description prior to reading, but the novel was just so interesting!

Brief synopsis: A young married couple, Alice and Jake, receive a mysterious box from a client of Alice's (she's a lawyer) as a wedding gift. The box has two words etched on it: The Pact. Inside the box is another box. What could this mysterious box hold in store for the couple? They soon find out after signing contracts to enter into the marriage Pact. The rules are abundant and strict. What happens when one of them breaks a simple rule? Alice and Jake are about to find out how far they would go to save their marriage.

This novel is intriguing, thrilling, and just another one on the long lists of thrillers I've been reading lately that are nearly impossible to put down. I found myself reading at every opportunity that I had. The chapters were short, so it was easy to get through chapters at a time.

I started not trusting anyone in the novel. Like Jake, I began becoming paranoid and I just was not sure where the story was going to take me next.

While the story was a little longer than average, at close to 450 pages, I still wanted more. There were a couple of things I feel like could have been given some more information; some side characters that could have been beneficial to the story if added in a little more; but nothing that broke it for me.

The ending was a little surprising to me, but I felt like it wrapped up well if quickly. I definitely enjoyed the novel and would definitely recommend it.