I have not read any of this author's previous work but now that I have finished this book, I will be looking for more. The book was fast paced and had many twists, I found it hard to put down.

An excellent read. A gripping tale. Really well written it will have you turning page after page late into the night

I loved this book, and couldn’t put it down from half way through.

15 year old Rosie is lying in hospital in a coma, but her mind is trying to work out what, or who, put her there. A product of every parent’s nightmare - children being befriended on the Internet by someone who is not who they purport to be.

She lives with her Mum Toni, and her Aunt Bridget, who share a terrible secret and a Pact that might have terrible consequences.

The book is told alternately by Rosie from her coma, Toni the mother and Bridget the Aunt. Taking you through many twists and turns until you finally finish with much to think about.

Highly recommended. 😀

Two sisters share a secret; they've made 'A Pact' together along time ago.
Toni, is a single parent to teenager Rosie. Bridget is the older sister and auntie who keeps them both in check. They all live together in a small flat.
Toni is an over protective mum and doesn't allow Rosie to be a normal teenager: forbidding her to use social media or going to parties.
Bridget is more easy going, plays in a band; Rosie talks to her aunt about life.
Rosie an up and coming actress, is approaced by Emily whilst in a local production to be het theatical agent. Eventually Toni begins to trust Emily and allows her access into her daughter's world.
Rosie has a secret. She has access to various types of social media sites and on here she is contacted by a boy. She hates lying to her mum but she craves freedom.
This book had me gripped from the very beginning until the very last page. A great modern day psychological thriller and another great piece of writing by S E Lynes.

Grabs you from the first paragraph and doesn't let go till the last. In her latest snapshot of contemporary life SE Lynes continues to explore the dark and dusty secrets that we all, in one way or another, have sealed up in boxes, stored at the back of our closet,s choosing not to revisit or address. The Pact cleverly tells the story of trust and loyalty between two sisters Toni and Bridge who share a chilling secret, and the effects that has on their lives and that of Toni's teenage daughter Rosie. The author has succeeded in placing the reader alongside ... no ...almost IN the mind of the main characters ... vaguely uncomfortably close .... fly on the wall doesn't quite cover it. A 'big bad wolf' story clad in the modern garb of Facebook Instagram Snapchat etc it will no doubt be a terrifying revelation to many. Twists aplenty ...fabulous read!

Definitely a thrilling ride for those who love thrillers! I would highly recommend this book to those who want that hold your breathe and turn pages to find out the truth and then ponder and ponder if you got what you were suppose to! I highly recommend!

I loved this book, the story and characters are quite complexed but the book is something you can get your teeth into. Two sisters have had very bad experiences growing up but they make a pact never to tell but can they keep to their word.

Hi Noelle/Kim. Cleaning up my shelf. Thanks. Louise x

This book deals with every parents nightmare as a daughter gets ro ‘know’ someone on the internet and agrees to meet him.....only it isent who she thinks and she has been catfished, the story is based on how, why and what happens before and this meet and the shocks when it becomes apparent who is involved

The book took a while to settle, by that I mean it took me a while to understand what was happening and with who as it goes back and forth between the past and the present with various characters and only later in the book did I think back and think ‘ahhhhhhhhh ok I see’

A lot of the book deals with Facebook and other social media sites and any user of these will find those parts fascinating and some of the detail gone into is obviously down to some great research

I found the title of the book although relates to part of the book not the best title for the main premise of the book and something to relate to social media would have IMO been better and more in line with the book

The story is well written and dark, scary, intense and will make you think......it’s also what and does happen in real life

In this book there are delicate subject matters covered that made at times uncomfortable reading but were handled sensitivity

‘The Pact’ is a good book it is also an interesting unnerving read with twists and turns and some impact making characters

Do not, I repeat do not, read this book unless you want to disappear in to the pages and not emerge until the end. I found myself turning faster and faster as I had to find out what was going on. Rosie feels like she is underwater. Her mother Toni has a pact with her sister Bridget about something that happened to them 30 years beforehand. Rosie is remembering parts of her life to date as she floats around the seabed in her opalescent world. She was a budding actress in her local drama group and then following a play an agent approached her. She was a typical teenager, “like” being every other word and a world of snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. When a friend of a friend “likes” her her world begins to change. Oh what a clever idea and so very well done. I really didn’t see the who’s or where’s (as it should be). I think this should be on the school curriculum in secondary schools. They know all about it but this would really bring it home. “It”? I am not going to give anything away as I don’t want to spoil it for you. If you are a parent read it.Again we have all seen the headlines but this brings things home so very cleverly. A stunning read and one that will stay with me for a very long time (and I’m not a parent!). Read and learn. One brilliant book.
(rest oflinks on publication day)

I'm sad to say I really struggled to get into this book. There's an intriguing premise, and it did pique my interest for a while, but I kept struggling with the voices and found it hard to stay interested.

Wow! This book was more than I ever thought it was going to be! thrilling read, this book has twists and turns galore and I devoured it in one sitting! I haven’t had the pleasure of reading this Author’s work but that will change right now. You HAVE to read this book if you enjoy a good mystery thriller!

The Pact is one of those books that made me lose sleep at night, because I couldn't put it down! Sisters Toni and Bridget have a dark secret, and Bridge is committed to keeping Toni and her daughter, Rosie, safe at all costs. After Toni's husband was tragically killed, Bridge even puts her own life aside to move in with Toni and pick up the pieces.

Both Bridge and Toni are overprotective of Rosie, who feels stifled and, like any typical teenager, wants to act out a little. We know almost immediately that something terrible has happened to Rosie, who is lying in a hospital bed, and through the narratives of all three women, we travel both back and forth in time to find out what happened, and why.

I really liked this book. There is a great deal of twists, and the characters are very strongly realized. I especially loved Bridge, who will literally do anything to keep her family safe.

Thank you to Bookouture and Netgalley for an ARC.

4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My second book by the author and I enjoyed this one more than Mother.

I liked that it was a bit different in writing style as the book begins by describing the thoughts and memories of Rosie from a first person perspective.

Add to that the teaser of the original pact and where that fits in.

Then we have a shift in the book as we follow Rosie’s online relationship with a boy.

I really enjoyed this book and it only dropped a star due to the implausibility of the key storyline and why the perpetrator went through a year of planning when they could have so easily done the deed much sooner....vague sorry but don’t want to give spoilers!!

The Pact is one of the best psychological thrillers I have recently read. The main characters form a tight family unit often referred to as a triangle throughout the story as they deal with such issues as sexual abuse and the dangers of social media. It is well written and fast paced. I had one problem with this story-I couldn’t stop reading it -much to the annoyance of family members. So set time aside and enjoy this intriguing story! It is well worth it!

A good well written psychological thriller, I read this book over two night while I was on holiday and so many times it made me want to call my daughter who was back home just to see if she was ok. The book is very hard to review without given to much away so all I will say is pick it up and make sure you have a whole day to read it because you won't want to put it down.
Very well written on a subject thats very close to every parents nightmare. The characters are strong and true to life. I cannot wait for the next book by this author.

Growing up Toni had it rough things weren't going right for her and her sister, so they made a pact that they would never let each other be in those situations again. The two sisters Toni and Bridget had secrets that they were to never mention again, secrets from their past about their abusive childhood. Years go by and the girls grow up and now Toni has a daughter Rosie. Her only goal is to make sure that Rosie grows up and doesn't have to go through the same things that she went through. However something happens and Rosie gets hurt and is fighting for her life in a hospital bed. I really enjoyed the way that this book was written. From the
mother's point of view trying to help her daughter and figure out what happened, but also from the daughter's point of view trying to tell her mother what happened but also fighting for her life. At first I wasn't sure because sometimes when characters change to fast it makes it a little confusing however the author made the story so compelling that the character changes were easier to accept. I think that my favourite character had to be the daughter she lived her life like any teenager secretive, but things went terribly wrong for her. So she is telling her mother exactly what happened from her coma. How she met the boy online how she did things
even though she knew her mother wouldn't approve. I liked how it showed her slight rebellion and how much she cared about her mother. You could really feel the bond between these two through the whole story. This was a great read really kept me on the edge of my seat through the whole thing. I enjoyed the different points of view because I feel that it gave the reader more insight on what happened as well as how it made the characters feel. Great read there isn't a single thing that I would change about this one.

At the heart of the story is every parents worst nightmare, losing a child. In this time when social media is such a prevalent part of everyone’s lives, as a parent we know the danger is out there, but we never think it is going to happen to our child. This is such a story, it will give you the chills and make you think.

The story is told 3 POV’s. Rosie, Toni, her mother and Bridget her aunt. Rosie is just your typical teenage girl. She wants to fit in, be like the other girls, talk to boys, go to parties. All of this is hard to do when you have a mother who is so over-protective that she does random spot checks on our phone and internet. When Rosie starts chatting with a boy she’s is heaven. He says all the things she wants to hear, he’s sweet and cute too. He is even interested in her roles in drama and her dreams of becoming an actress. What more could a girl ask for? The more I read, I began to wonder if he was just faking it all, pranking her? Was it all too good to be true? Rosie is so blissfully happy she doesn’t even stop to think about anything but how he makes her feel. But all the secretiveness and the lies and deceit leads her down what could be a deadly path.

Toni is a single mom, it is clear how much she loves her daughter, yes she is a little over protective. As a mother, I think most of us are probably a little over protective at times, it’s in our nature. We want what is best for our kids. And given Toni’s upbringing and the horrible abuse she endured, I wouldn’t honestly expect her to be any less protective of her daughter. Bridget, Toni’s sister, didn’t have it any better growing up but has always been there for Toni and Rosie. And I think there isn’t anything she wouldn’t do for either of them. Something happened in their past and together they have this “pact”, they don’t talk about it, and Rosie doesn’t know what it is about or how it came to be either. But it has held their family together all this time. But will the events that unfolded be enough for one of the sisters to break the pact?

Through the alternating POV’s each of the characters pasts are given a little at a time. With Rosie however, it is a lot of back and forth, it is jumbled. She doesn’t know where she is or how she got there. While reading her’s, my heart hurt so badly for her. But between all three POV’s, all the pieces slowly come together, the how and who, and the suspense just kept building and in a few places I caught myself holding my breath. This has no shortage of twists, and biggest one being right at the end. Man, was it good…

The Pact was more than just a psychological thriller, sure it had it’s fair share of suspense but it also had family at the heart of it. This is one author that I will be keeping an eye for more books from.

This book was flawless! I loved it and when I finished I immediately purchased the authors previous novel Mother. The premise is you have Toni, her daughter Rosie and Toni’s sister Bridget. Toni was abused as a child so is very overprotective of Rosie. The story is told in reverse so you start with Rosie in hospital unconscious with her mother by her bedside. The story is told from the three main characters perspective. Gradually you think you begin to understand what has happened but trust me nothing is as it seems.
I am an avid reader and it’s not often I don’t have an idea of where a story is going but with this not a clue and I loved it.
The only issue is what book to read next as I want to save Mother and any other might lead to disappointment as it won’t be as good as this!
Thanks for the ARC Net Galley, SE Lynes and Bookouture in exchange for an honest for an honest review#ThePact #NetGalley

I struggled with this book at times although the premise of the story was interesting it dragged on at the same level with no peaks really