An intriguing concept which leads to an interesting and sometimes uncomfortable read. I didn’t dislike this book, but can’t say I overly enjoyed it either.

Unfortunately I could not read this book as it was so poorly formatted.
I liked the premise, but upon trying to read it, there were paragraph breaks and sentence breaks in places where there shouldn't be and it made it impossible to read fluidly.

Quite different from what I read usually but has its interesting twists all the same. Quite easy to read and understand

The blurb for this book intrigued me but I'm now 38% in & I've has to give up. The Pact is creepy with weird punishments & I couldn't connect to the story or the characters. After trying to read it for the past 4 days I've had to accept this book is not for me & put it on the did not finish pile

Alice and Jake receive a wedding gift inviting them to join secret group that promises to keep their marriage a happy one. The Pact is quite far fetched at times, however I actually really enjoyed it. I was gripped from the start and intrigued right through. It was a nice change to have the story told from the husbands point of view and also for the husband and wife to be on the same side. Im still not too sure how I feel about the ending. A creepy, strange but an enjoyable read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy of this ebook in exchange for my honest review.

This book was great (if not a little scary). The concept was fascinating and this gave for a fab read. I liked both Jake and Alice from the beginning and it was as though I was going through it all with them. Don’t know if the intention was for readings to look at their own lives and marriages but it did me. There was some aspects of The Manual that were interesting and good ideas that people should apply in life. The consequences and punishments were very scary though. Overall I did enjoy this and would recommend to friends and family.

3.5 stars... Strangely enjoyable if completely unbelievable as a concept!

The Marriage Pact is told from the perspective of newlywed Jake. His wife Alice is an ex-musician turned Junior Associate for a big legal company while Jake is a therapist specialising in teenagers and now, married couples.

When Alice accidentally invites a VIP client named Finnegan to her upcoming wedding, nobody thinks he will actually turn up. But in the days before the wedding, Jake receives a gift from the Finnegans. Unsure of what it is or what it means, he puts it away until after the wedding and honeymoon. After their wedding, the newlyweds finally get chance to find out about their wedding gift: The Pact; an invitation to take the pact and join a society with traditional values who aim to encourage couples to take their vows and spouse seriously and do everything possible to keep their marriage happy and healthy.

Unashamedly happy in their newlywed bliss, Alice and Jake are adamant that their marriage will work and that they will be together forever. So they decide to accept the invitation to The Pact, thinking they don’t need it, but it’d be an interesting, fun experience.

The couple soon find that The Pact is not exactly what they were expecting. They’re given a manual with strict rules and expected to memorise it. The couple laugh it off and give it a cursory read through. After a short time, they find that their reluctance to read The Manual has resulted in a number of small misdemeanours for which they find themselves under punishment. Alice and Jake slowly begin to learn that this is only the start of what The Pact is capable of and just how serious they are about The Manual and it’s rules.

And so begins a truly unbelievable story of a secret society (think, the first rule of Fight Club is...) with their own strict guidelines and beliefs and exclusive members (think, Scientology...) and with no chance of ever leaving the group (think, bog-standard cult!). This is the main thing I struggled with; that a supposedly intelligent couple like Alice and Jake would enter into something which, let’s face it, sounds like a cult from the very start!

My next issue with the book was the extremes of the society. I’m more than aware that these cult societies and groups exist in the real world but one of this magnitude with the way they operate and the type of punishment they’re involved in, I find it hard to believe that this type of thing could ever exist and not be under government observation/investigation!

The punishments in this book go from small and daft to the absolute unimaginable which gives it another element of unbelievability. It was very, very far-fetched but I still couldn’t stop reading it!

I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it either. There are some good examples in there of what it is to be married and how you should treat your spouse but I just felt that The Pact would have the opposite effect to what it aims to do. The Pact would cause unnecessary stresses and strains on a couple and I just can’t see that it could ever work.

I was slightly disappointed by the ending. It was a bit of a get-out for me. Instead of it being the actual way the society works, it turns out it’s not actually the way the creator intended. The choice they’re given at the end, for me, felt very like Charlie & the Chocolate Factory... “I’m ill and need someone to take the reigns... I’ve chosen you!”... I think I would’ve preferred them to make the opposite choice although I do think there’s an argument for both choices based on Alice and Jake’s experiences of The Pact.

The Marriage Pact is interesting but extreme however, I still found it to be enjoyable. I don’t think it’s believable which takes an element of enjoyment out of it but there’s something there that keeps you reading!

Thanks to Michelle Richmond, NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Well written and gripping at first, but when continuing further into the story it all became a bit unreal and unbelievable to me. The idea of the book is OK but Richmond took it over the top at one point IMHO.

Still 3 stars for writing style and idea. I can see others really enjoy this book, guess it wasn’t mine…

I have given it 3 stars.



I'm not going to lie this book took far longer than I care to admit, to finish.

The Marriage Pact was reasonably ok, it was full of mystery and suspense as newlyweds ,Alice and Jake find themselves joining "The Marriage Pact" but the idea that these two highly educated people could be controlled by the pact was a bit far fetched.



For me the plot floundered a little bit, it seemed like it was aimless and I just couldn't get behind it. It wasn't until things started to actually happen and my brain started to work things out did I actually start to enjoy it by which point it was nearly over. Such a shame because this book had such promise but this is just my opinion if you like Psychological thrillers, give it a chance!

Hmm, that was interesting. There's no secret to a happy and long marriage, but aparently it's a pact. This is a psychological suspense thriller with a awesome plot that ending it up being a great book too. Well, don't be so septhical while you are reading, leave your imagination go crazy and enjoy a entertaining story. The writiing is good in engaging you into the story and in keep your interest through out the story.

This was a fantastic read. I loved the fast pace and suspense. It was very clever and had me on the edge throughout.
Some of the "pact" rules - 1. When your spouse calls answer 2. Exchange thoughtful gifts monthly 3. Plan a trip together once a quarter 4. NEVER mention the PACT to anyone.
This is worth a beach read for sure!

Although a tense plot with much promise, I found the characters difficult to like because of their naivety and gullibility. But an interesting plot and enjoyabke, worth a read just to see what happens.

This one was a little slow for me, I found my thoughts wandering elsewhere and therefore it took me a little while to read.
That said, it was creepy and dark which is definitely my type of book!
Not my favourite but worth a read.

The Marriage Pact by Michelle Richmond was a book filled with surprises. Initially I felt that the book was based around, a fairly mundane, pedestrian idea of a couple unwittingly joining a cult however I was pleasantly surprised by my interested in the novel. I felt connected to the narrator´s voice and was sympathetic to his plight though at times had to suspend my disbelief at his predicament. The twists in the novel were unexpected and I enjoyed reading about the lives of others whose lifestyles I will not emulate in the future. I really enjoyed reading the Marriage Pact and would enjoy reading further books by Michelle Richmond.

I absolutely love the concept of this book. I love it when weird, life-altering, mostly catastrophic things happen to normal, run-of-the-mill people. Just me then? Oh… Anyway, the thought of a newlywed couple suddenly being trapped in a pact with a group of controlling strangers, having to live by the rules of the group (no matter how humiliating or demeaning) and managing to break the rules without even trying was something I had to read about. I’ll admit, the plot is a little far-fetched but d’you know what? I was just after an entertaining read, something a little different to my much-loved detective fiction and that’s exactly what I got with The Marriage Pact. A highly entertaining read.

When I was able to find time to sit down and read The Marriage Pact I found it an incredibly easy read, flying through the pages in great chunks and not realising that hours had passed. I was desperate to see what awful predicament Jake and Alice were going to find themselves in and what terrifying punishment they were to be subjected to. At times I found myself feeling really quite uncomfortable; as though I was intruding on a young couple’s most personal moments. I was also irked that many of the odd punishments were meted out to Alice, the wife, where little seemed to happen in the beginning to Jake, the husband, (he doesn’t get away scot-free but I do believe Alice suffers a lot more than her husband). I’m a huge fan of a strong female lead in my novels and Alice had so much potential with her punky, free-spirited background but she never really got going in my eyes. Was she diluted because of her marriage to Jake or was the pact to blame? I guess we’ll never know

I’m afraid I really struggled with the ending of The Marriage Pact. Things were going great guns and I was engrossed in the terrible punishments The Pact were dishing out to our beleaguered couple, but then the ending happened and I had a bit of a ‘huh?’ moment. For a thriller, the ending is quite sedate and I will be totally honest here and say I was a little disappointed. I had an inkling that the story was building up to ‘that ending’ but had hoped the author would pull something utterly mesmerising and unexpected out of the bag. It’s a well-written book with a nice ending. My black heart, unfortunately, wasn’t quite satisfied with a nice ending.

Would I recommend this book? I enjoyed 90% of The Marriage Pact and it’s only because I’m a fan of the darker side of fiction that I think I was a little disappointed with the ending. I would recommend this book but to readers who maybe err towards the gentler side of thriller fiction. It’s well written with a really interesting concept (although a little far-fetched at times) but most of all, I found this book entertaining and that’s exactly what I was after. I liked it!

Three out of five stars.

I chose to read and review an eARC of The Marriage Pact. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

Sorry just couldn't get into this book. Nothing wrong with the writing just didn't flow for me. Would try another book by this author

So this is the story of Jake and Alice, who invite Liam Finnegan and his wife, on a whim, to their wedding, and get a wedding present that they hadn’t bargained for, membership to an exclusive club built to allow members to reach a higher state of marriage, to avoid the pitfalls that all other marriages are destined to fall into. They, of course, accept, not realising that it’s not just a fun little club that tells you to remember to buy your spouse a gift regularly and to keep those marital relations going in the bedroom, but actually something more akin to a cult, where infringements can be deadly.

I’ll admit I started this book three times. The first time was my own fault, I was trying to read too many books at the same time and was starting to skim as opposed to taking in what was going on. The second it just didn’t take me and so, some months later, I tried again (I cannot stand dnfing!) and suddenly I was drawn in. This time I found myself invested in Alice and Jake’s story as they found out exactly what happens when you don’t follow the rules.

This book can be tough at times (in particular I balked when a straight jacket was pulled out), and I found Jake hard to take at times as you realised he was obsessed with his wife and wasn’t always against the way the Pact worked as he felt it was her showing her love (and duty?) to him to comply. He is a therapist and I adored the psychological aspect and ponderings in the book. I found it very enjoyable bar for Jake sometimes and to be hand also I worried about what was going to happen and what lines might be crossed (there were some, it might be tough for some). Forgive me as this is an odd review but basically for people who like their psychology to head into science fiction/ culty territory, I think this may be for you. Thanks to Netgalley for this book in return for an honest (if somewhat wandering and odd;)) review.

Rating: 3.5/5

I did enjoy this book and really it was a 3.5* read, but I do like my stories to be believable ie this could REALLY happen, and I found this story to just go beyond the realms of that. Still enjoyable though.

Strange, wonderful, intriguing! I loved this book! It was hard to see at the start where the story was going. But it got highly addictive!

If there was ever a tale of two halves, this is it!

To be brutally honest, the first half of this book had me less than riveted. I couldn't get my head around the concept of this story, and it just seemed much too far fetched and unbelievable to me. No-one in their right mind would ever join something like The Pact. The more I learnt about The Pact, with it's rules and regulations, and punishments, the more I found the whole story just totally ridiculous. And to think that two professional people, one a lawyer and the other a psychologist, would get themselves involved with something like The Pact just seemed much too unlikely. The Pact is nothing more than an extreme cult. But then I realized something: all over the world, every day, people join cults that sound absolutely absurd and bizarre to many of us, but yet, they often have a loyal following, and people willingly sign up to the rules and regulations of that specific cult.

Once I got my mind around that, the story improved. And then I hit the half way point in the book, and wow, did the pace rocket forward. Suddenly I found myself totally engrossed in Jake and Alice and their encounters with the representatives of The Pact. When Jake is taken off to an old prison, now used by The Pact for meting out punishments, I couldn't turn the pages of this book fast enough. I was so taken with the story, with what was happening to Jake, with the things that he was experiencing, that I couldn't put the book down. I read the second half of this book in two days flat.

The truth of the matter is this: in order to enjoy this book, you need to be able to suspend disbelief. If you are the type of person that battles to do that, then I don't recommend you read this story, because quite frankly, you won't enjoy it. I'm not normally the type of person that can read stories such as this one, but I managed here because I pushed my disbelief aside and focused on enjoying the story for its entertainment value. And I did actually enjoy it. I wouldn't absolutely rave about it, and yes, the concept of this story is pretty absurd, and I wasn't a massive fan of the ending, but I was entertained by this read.

Because of my see-sawing emotions throughout this book, I found this one very difficult to rate. At first, I was convinced that the story was heading for 2 stars. At one point I even considered giving up on it. But I generally don't like to give up on books, and I'm so glad that I didn't with this one because by the second half, I had changed my mind, and wanted to award 4 stars. As I turned the final page and put this book down on the couch next to me, I still wasn't exactly sure how I felt about it. All I can tell you is that it's definitely good enough to read. If, like me, the concept of The Pact just sounds much too over the top to you, consider pushing on. It's fairly entertaining, if of course you can handle the absurd nature of the plot.

So, all things considered, I'm going to go with 3 stars for this one...it was entertaining in a bizarre sort of way, and I did really enjoy the second half, but I didn't love the first half, I didn't love the plot and I didn't love the ending...so it gets 3 stars from me.