A really interesting plot, it was great to read something a bit different, very creepy yet intriguing. I'm annoyed at myself for not guessing a twist towards the end of the book but I was so consumed by the rules and punishments that it didn't occur to me - but I guess that's a good thing!

The ending fell a bit flat for my liking but up until that moment it was a real page turner with likable characters who you were rooting for throughout.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group, Michelle Richmond for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 rounded up to 3.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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.


I didn't go into this book with any expectations.. the synopsis sounded intriguing and I enjoy a good thriller, but there was only about 20% which I found thrilling. The first 55% of the book nothing really happened. I get that the author was trying to build the suspense but for me it just didn't work.. I was just bored. But I don't like to give up on a book so I carried on. I'm glad I did carry on because eventually things did start to happen. I liked that part of the book. I also found the ending to be a disappointment.. although whilst reading it I couldn't figure out how the author was going to finish the book and I definitely didn't see that ending coming, it was still a let down.
I also found it a bit weird that this book is written from the point of view of Jake. And although there were a lot of thoughts from Jake, I don't think the character development was very good. I had no connection to either Jake or Alice and to be honest I couldn't have cared less what happened to them.
I don't know if I found this book disappointing because of the actual book or if it's just because I was in a book hangover after my last book being a perfect 5 stars.

A proper, well observed thriller, with compelling, vividly drawn characters

An intriguing page-turner which kept me guessing and reading to the very end!

The story is told from Jake's perspective. Alice and Jake enter into a marriage pact to show their commitment to their relationship. Alice is sent away to work on her commitment to their marriage. The pact suddenly becomes sinister. Is it a cult? A dictatorship? An old college friend warns Jake about the pact, saying the only way out - is death!

Eventually Jake and Alice become more secure in their relationship. I wasn't quite sure I was happy with the ending. The characters had grown. The pact was evolving, but without Jake, Alice and Orla, will it, truly?

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to review this book.

I would definitely recommend reading this book.

This is a creepy and sometimes disturbing book .I found it quite a slow read .The subject is very original though,would you want to belong to The Pact.? It reminded me of the Scientology Cult .The book seemed a bit too long but nevertheless it was a thought provoking read .

An entertaining page-turner, an engrossing but equally accessible read. Will definitely appeal to those who enjoy Dave Eggers (particularly The Circle, though I happen to think this is a better novel in terms of its pacing and structure).

What I particularly liked about this slow-burn thriller was how the author somehow managed to answer my questions not long after they'd popped into my head. All characters, even minor ones, were fully fleshed-out, and although the premise is truly wild, the themes underpinning it are so universal it's easy to buy into it.

Only four stars because I found the ending slightly rushed, and one which did not quite take the novel to the crescendo it warranted given all that had gone before. But would recommend.

There are books and then there are gems. This is a fantastic read. The journey the two main characters go on, how they everyone in there marriage and the stunning final scenes. This is a hit of a read.

I think that the idea behind this book was good, but the style and way in which it was written could have been better. I was really reading to find the great reveal and it was what I thought anyone so in that sense it was quite predictable. The Marriage Pact is about a newly married couple who sign up to The Pact, a wedding gift that they receive, without quite knowing what they are getting themselves into. There was lots of lengthy text, chapters were often descriptive without really holding my attention. That being said, the idea was intriguing and it made me want to finish the book to get to the slightly disappointing ending. I feel like there could be room for more... maybe a slightly improved sequel...

I was really intrigued from the first page. Newly married couple who are chalk and cheese, yet connect on so many levels. They receive mysterious wedding gift from a famous musician who was invited to the wedding at the last minute. They end up signing up to a marriage pact, which sound like like a good idea.....at the time! What can be better than group of happily married especially chosen group of people who can help you make sure that your marriage lasts?

This book kept me swinging from this is a good idea to this is getting disturbing to maybe it will work to surely not! Really a well written rollercoaster ride.

This book really affected me.... the way in which a "normal" couple became embroiled in a very abnormal situation was scary. I found the book difficult to put down and lost sleep in order to finish it. It caused me to think hard about aspects of my own marriage - and actually there were some elements of the pact that I felt could be a positive thing to adopt. It is not often a work of fiction would cause me to consider making a change within my own life! Definitely recommended.

This book grabbed me from the first page. It was the first book I had read by this author and I will definitely be looking out for any future releases. Perfect for girl on the train fans

The Marriage Pact, is based on the premise of no divorce. I found the plot really interesting, along the lines of The Stepford Wives, and a really interesting premise for a thriller. Like most newly weds, Jake and Alice dont envisage ever getting divorce so are happy to sign The Pact.
This is a fast paced page turner that will you will want to read in one sitting. There is a sinister undercurrent to The Pact, it has a much darker side than anticipated.
The Marriage Pact is an erudite thriller, with tension aplenty and a brilliant premise; utterly irresistible.

The Marriage Pact by Michelle Richmond is not a chic lit but a psychological suspense novel examining how far two people will go to save/stay in their marriage. Alice is a successful lawyer, Jake a partner in a psychology practice and are about to get married. Alice invites a client, Liam, to their wedding, he gives them a box without a key.

They agree to meet the holder of the key, Vivian, who makes the suggestion that they enter The Pact - "a group of like-minded individuals’ intent on achieving a similar goal". The Marriage Pact means that they have entered into cannot be broken and is a lifelong commitment". The Pact requires Alice and Jake to be invested in their marriage, give monthly gifts, plan trips once a quarter with no tag along friends/family etc. All the rules are laid out in The Manual. There are consequences/penalties (misdemeanours or felonies depending upon the seriousness of the offence) if The Pact is not adhered to! Penalties range from the seemingly innocuous - the recreant member is put under further observation, made to wear a GPS bracelet, for example, to reeducation and finally disappearance as nobody leaves The Pact alive.

Jake and Alice agree to enter The Pact but it all goes pear shaped when monthly gifts and holidays are forgotten. interest in the marriage wanes. Jake meets someone, Jo-Anne, who he knew from University. She is also part of The Pact and warns him it is much more dangerous than it first appears. Their Pact Friends find out and the penalties are severe! No one can leave The Pact alive so Jake and Alice spend weeks trying to balance their lives but still receiving painful and intrusive consequences which culminate in the disappearance of Alice. He flies to Ireland to beg the creator of the Pact to release them from this life long commitment.


The story is told through Jake's eyes and the chapters are very short. I normally don't like novels written in the first person narrative and I only got into the book and started enjoying the plot by chapter 7 and there is a great plot twist at then end that I did not see coming. The shortness of the chapters makes the story seem choppy and a series of thoughts that don't flow together. The premise of the book is great, the execution of it is unusual and I think that, for me, is where it misses the mark and fell down slightly.

To be published in numerous magazines in September: Newlyweds Alice and Jake are invited to join The Pact. The group seems to have just one goal – making marriages work. All members need to do is agree to follow the rules for a happy marriage, and accept support if they struggle. However, as Alice and Jake soon find out, there are consequences for breaking the rules, and The Pact is, like marriage, for life. A tense psychological thriller you’ll want to devour in one sitting.

What an unusual concept, brilliantly written and captivating from the first chapter. I predict this book will become a best seller and maybe even a film. It has just the right tension and menace without being unbelievable. I'm not going to be searching out Pact members as I don't think I could abide by all their rules however I may implement some of the ideas

An amazing read, amazing plot, characters that feel like you know them better than they know themselves and twists and turns at keep you hooked from the off. Set in San Francisco two successful very much in love people get married and look forward to their lives together - forever - be careful what you might wish for!

Jake & Alice are young and successful. On their wedding day their receive an invitation to join a Marriage Pact group. This seems an excellent organisation which supports its members to work hard at their marriage - planning trips, giving gifts, not working late. Jake & Alice embark on this in a rather shaky manner not always adhering to the rules. Unfortunately these are rules & not guidelines and the punishments for breaking them are harsh.

I really enjoyed the start of this book. Jake & Alice were keen to make their marriage work & started to embrace the Pact. They met like minded people and when things went wrong they received guidance to get back on track. As things progressed they realised that things were a little more sinister with a lot of surveillance and ever increasing punishments. In my opinion, this is where it all went wrong. The secret of a psychological thriller is to build suspense and allow the reader to imagine the atmosphere building. The reader puts themselves in the character's position and starts to feel tense at the idea of people watching their every move or being publicly humilated. However once the author takes it beyond this the supense is lost. The punishments dished out to Alice and Jake become rather farcical & unbelievable. I am talking torture such as electric shocks for an hour, head braces being worn for a month, head shaving and beatings. The suspense has gone. I find the suspense of what the people watching you could do is more powerful than the reality of descriptions of torture. I felt the book had lost its way and also its credibility.

Once the book had lost its way it became quite boring with more descriptions of punishments and eventually of Jake & Alice trying to escape. The ending of the book just did not work at all. I won't explain as you may wish to read this book but suffice to say that it just did not work for me.

It is a great shame that the author chose to take the Pact to extremes. The psychological tension is always more fascinating than whatever physical things the author can write. A reader's imagination can create more tension & fear than ever a writer's can. You only need to read some of the brilliant psychological authors of recent times (Minette Waters springs to mind) to realise where this author went wrong.

Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher. Could you imagine being married to someone and being obligated to stay with them forever with no way out ? Because you made a Marriage Pact to stay together? And you love each other and you were already making the commitment and it seemed fun, exciting, ominous and oh so mysterious, this is what this book is about and a bit more besides. Good read

This book had an interesting enough 'hook' a newly wed couple, with a solid background are sweet-talked into joining what they think is an exclusive type of club, called 'The Pact'. Taking it all as a bit of a joke they sign on the dotted line and quickly find out they have signed up for something which isn't what they thought and was dangerous to get out of.

Once the initial intrigue wore off I found this book pretty predictable, pedestrian and the couple pretty boring. By about half-way into the book I was pretty sure where it was heading and began to lose interest. Sure, there are a few twists and turns, but there really isn't anything I haven't read before and we seem to be overburdened with these types of thrillers also.

Michelle Richmond's novel, The Marriage Pact is dark, twisty and impossible to put down. It begins with a scene we encounter again later so we know from the start that The Pact is sinister. We know that, in hindsight, Alice and Jake would not have joined The Pact and this makes us more curious and more anxious for them as the story develops.

Alice and Jake have an odd relationship. They met in rehab and we get the sense that Jake, a therapist, wants to 'fix' his new wife. He wants her to belong only to him, whilst openly disapproving of many parts of her life and personality. We see their marriage constantly compared to those around them, both in The Pact and in the marriage therapy sessions Jake delivers at work.

The Pact is a wedding gift they receive from someone Alice has just met. It promises a lifelong, happy marriage but is that what it delivers? The Pact sounds appealing but it is much more sinister and we don't discover how sinister it is until we get towards the very end. Michelle keeps us guessing and even when we think we know what's going to happen next, there's another surprise around the corner.

Throughout the book I found myself comparing Alice, Jake and The Pact's idea of marriage with my own and wondering how my husband and I would fare under such strict rules. At times I found myself agreeing that some of the rules could make for a happy relationship, but the methods they use are old-fashioned and brutal. I would suggest proceeding with caution if torture is a triggering issue for you.

The story seems to be based around the idea of taking "something living, marriage in this case, and (tearing) it apart to the smallest cell, to see how it works", and this proves to be a fascinating exploration.

Some parts of the writing are a little jarring, for example, the text conversation between Alice and Finnegan after she opens the gift seems a little stilted, there is a lot of commentary on teenagers and social media/ smartphones which doesnt always flow with the story, and it troubles me that Jake invites one of the teenagers he works with to his home, but it is generally very well written. Jake is an interesting narrator and I often wondered what the story would be like told from Alice's point of view as Jake's  is often clouded by his doubts and insecurities

The Mariage Pact is a brilliant thriller. It is never predictable and the twists, betrayals and unexpected events keep you hooked until the very last page.