The Pact by Dawn Goodwin is a twisted thriller.  Two women make a pact to kill each other exes.  One of the woman was joking and the other is threatening her. Was the pact a joke or will they go through with it? Maddie’s husband left her for a younger woman and Jade wants to avoid losing custody of her son. Can you actually forgive a cheater? How far will someone go to protect their child?

I really enjoyed The Pact. There was a lot of suspense and character development. I wouldn’t consider any of the characters good people, at least the main characters.  However, I really liked Maddie.  I cringed at so many decisions the characters made but loved reading about those decisions so much.  

The Pact contains unusual family relationships, complicated female relationships, blackmail, infertility, cheating, and neighbor interactions.I recommend The Pact to domestic thriller fans.

Thank you NetGalley and Aria for The Pact.

A slow burn of a thriller that I found myself unable to put down! When Maddie and her husband separate she finds herself living alone in a new flat with a neighbor named Jade whom she quickly befriends. During a night with Jade, Maddie jokingly agrees to kill Jade's ex, if Jade kills hers. At least Maddie thinks it's a joke. What follows is a twisty thriller that kept me engaged until the end.

While I enjoyed this book, I think the ending felt a bit rushed and clumsy. Overall this was a great thriller and I look forward to reading Dawn Goodwin's other novels.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I truly struggled to get through this book. It was such an interesting concept but poorly executed. I think I would be willing to give it another try later one but I felt like it just went too slow.

The Pact by Dawn Goodwin is an excellent read with real life situations.  Maddie is newly living alone after her husband moved on with a new woman and baby. Jade, Maddie’s new neighbor, become fast friends and the drama surrounding Jade slowly unfolds.  I really enjoyed this book.

The premise of this book was great and it could have been an amazing read if it had been executed differently. It feels like the first draft of an inexperienced writers work. Some major editing of character development and just overall believably and practicality need to be executed to improve the reading experience. In all, big potential, lacking execution.

Jade is Maddie's neighbor. She lives in the apartment above hers. Maddie is recently separated from her husband. He is now living with his girlfriend, Gemma and their baby daughter, Jemima,  in the home that used to be theirs. 
Jade isn't the usual type of person that Maddie would be friends with. But, Jade has a three year old child,  Ben whom Maddie simply adores. She knows that if she wants to spend time with Ben she will need to be friends with Jade.
Jade has ulterior motives in her thoughts. She will be as manipulative as she needs to be to get Maddie to do what she wants.
Great read, strong characters.

An excellent thriller that I was hooked on from the beginning,   I have read books by this author before and this one was as good as the others.

Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy!

Maddie moves into a new flat on her own after her husband cheats on her and starts a new family.  A slap in the face to Maddie who experienced so many miscarriages, each one tearing her down emotionally.  Maddie does her best to learn to live on her own when she meets some of her neighbors.  She becomes intrigued with Jane and her son Ben.  Maddie longed for being near children, so having Ben in her complex brought up her spirits.  

As Maddie gets to know Jade, she becomes more and more intrigued.  Jade also becomes more intrigued after a strange interaction in the park with someone warning her of Maddie.  But Jade and Maddie still get to know each other with wine nights, where secrets begin to spill.  And joking talking about eliminating the stressful people in each others lives, making a pact to help each other out.  Little did Maddie know this pact was literal and she ends up in a fatal situation.

An amazing thriller that will keep you guessing all the way to the end.

A fun update on the Strangers on a Train scenario. A recommended purchase for collections where domestic noir and thrillers are popular.

A thrilling psychological page turner with rich characters and an enticing narrative! 

Maddie’s grief jumps off the page, the raw, desperate longing for a child of her own and the heartbreak of so much loss wrenches you as you read. 

I loved the perspective shift between the characters used to illuminate new angles to the story - it felt right and added to the thrilling nature of this text. 

A thoroughly enjoyable read with an explosive ending!

Maddie and Greg had been together since the start of uni - 20 years. But now, Maddie is moving into a flat, alone. Yet, the flat is not too far away from their marital home. Greg now lives in the home with Gemma (his former PA) and Gemma & Greg's baby - Jemima.

In her apartment building, Maddie meets Jade.  Maddie is primarily interested in Jade because Jade has a 3 year old son - Ben. Maddie craved to become pregnant until she and Greg separated. Not yet divorced...

Maddie is very lonely so she goes to Jade's flat, when invited, and has a good time. Maddie gets SO drunk there that she cannot remember what occurred the previous night. Recalling very little - (even The Pact she made with Jade) - and this could become a serious mistake.

Greg still cares for Maddie and helps her out & visits her with Jemima. Maddie, thinks Greg, was so emotionally draining that he would rather put up with Gemma's materialistic ways. Also, Gemma is the mother of Jemima.

Then, the reader gets a look into Greg and Maddie's past and present...

Many Thanks to Aria/ Head of Zeus Ltd. and NetGalley for a twisty, exciting read!

I've previously enjoyed Dawn Goodwin's novels, particularly "The Pupil", so I was excited to read her newest release, "The Pact".

The book centres on Maddie, newly separated from her husband after he had an affair that resulted in a baby with his beautiful employee, Gemma. Maddie herself is desperate for a child, but realises this is now probably off the cards after a series of miscarriages. When she moves to a new flat, she befriends her upstairs neighbour, Jade, more because Jade has a young son than anything else. Jade is facing a custody battle with her ex, and one night after one too many wines, she jokingly suggests that she and Maddie kill each other's ex-partners. Or at least Maddie thinks it's a joke...

I was intrigued by the premise, but for me this book lacked the spark and finesse of the author's other novels. My main problem was that the characters weren't nuanced or developed enough. Jade - and Gemma to an extent, though she is humanised slightly towards the end of the novel - is so crudely drawn and obvious that she's almost a pantomime villain. Same for Gemma - are we really meant to believe that Greg left Maddie , his wife and best friend of two decades, for this shrill, chilly, and superficial woman just because she was beautiful? Maddie, too, requires the reader to suspend their disbelief - it's hard to believe anyone could be so gullible and overlook so much blatantly sociopathic behaviour, constantly failing to draw the obvious conclusions. 

I did enjoy the premise of the book and it was an entertaining read, but ultimately felt a bit clumsy for me. I will certainly continue to read Dawn Goodwin's novels as I have really enjoyed some of her others, but this one just wasn't for me. 

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for providing me with a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Maddie has just split up from her husband Greg and has moved into a new flat where she meets a single mother Jade. She finds herself involved in a pact where they will each kill the others ex. 

This is a good story, there is a good pace to it and although I could see where some of the story was going there was some surprises in there too. Personally I think I would have preferred for the story to have just been told from Maddies point of view, although it gives an insight into some of the other characters the way it has been written, I think it could have maintained more mystery that way. I wasn’t a fan of so many flashbacks either, some of them felt like they didn’t really add much to the current story. On the whole, I did enjoy this book, I read it in one sitting and would recommend for fans of a good thriller.

A little Strangers on a Train, without the train. Maddie and Jade are from different worlds, but their lives collide when they realize they have something in common. A shared dislike for their respective ex-partners leads to a drunken pact; I'll kill yours if you kill mine. The two women vaguely talk about this pact throughout the entire book, but there was certainly no action. Occasionally, Jade would mention the pact in casual conversation to an oblivious Maddie who thinks it was all a joke. I liked Jade. She was feisty and held many secrets. I couldn't quite work her out but I was happy I did work out a few of her lies. Maddie was a drip, no one could be that naive. 

If you like a slow burn you'll probably like this. The optimal word is slow. Nothing of importance happens throughout the story until the last 20 percent, with the pact finally coming to fruition almost at the end. The majority of the story was filled with Maddie's obsession with children and babies and her flashbacks to how she met her ex husband at high school. The Pact was a simple beach read that I thought was just okay. 

Thanks to Aria and Netgalley for providing my review copy.

A good book! Not that many twists but kept a nice steady pace!

Thank you for an ARC of The Past in exchange for my honest review.

This was a slow burn thriller drama with an interesting premise. It was well written, and was the perfect length for me to read in one sitting.

Some of it seemed a bit far fetched but I still found it to be an enjoyable read. 

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this E-book to review via Netgalley.

#ThePact #NetGalley #DawnGoodwin
Failed relationships lead to two women befriending each other and drunkenly “agreeing” to a ‘I’ll kill yours if you kill mine’ pact. What could possibly go wrong ? It wasn’t a cliff hanging, nail biting, on the edge of my seat thriller but .. I enjoyed it. It wasn’t a dark story, I found it quite an easy read and i was keen to know how things turned out which kept me turning the pages. Despite some of the story being a little far fetched - what new partner has the recently axed wife round for dinner every week ? - I found it to be an enjoyable read.

Before I write anything else, I need to address the elephant in the novel… 

Maybe you read the blurb and thought: ‘Strangers on a Train’. I did.

This book is not inspired by Strangers on a Train; this book IS Strangers on a Train with Snapchat. So much so that I honestly think the cover should read by Dawn Goodwin and Patricia Highsmith. The plot moves more slowly than Highsmith’s but there is no real deviation until past the 90% mark.

Maddie’s husband, Greg, has left her for his PA, Gemma, who is now the mother of his child, Jemima. However, Maddie is happy to move around the corner into a flat Greg has bought for her so she can be near her unconventional family (Maddie’s words). They now live in what was once her beautiful home and invite her to Sunday lunch. This extremely strange situation is sort of explained away by the fact that Maddie could never have children, which led to her marriage breaking down, and she longs to be part of little Jemima’s life. Honestly, I hate to say it, but I found myself feeling sorry for Gemma in this situation. 

Given Maddie’s almost obsessive need to be near children, she sees her new neighbour, Jade, with three-year-old Ben and immediately wants to befriend her. They get drunk together, Jade suggests they kill each other’s exes, ha ha ha, that’s such a good idea but you must be joking… And so, it continues.  

Can you still enjoy this book if you haven’t read Strangers or seen the film? Yes... maybe. However, the pace slows significantly around the middle and you are left wondering if there are in fact going to be any attempts at murder. I was lucky enough to have a free day to dedicate to reading this book otherwise I might have felt the middle section dragging a lot more had I spaced out my reading over a few days. 

As for the ending, after a long stretch of not much happening it felt a bit rushed and the ‘surprises’ didn’t really come as a surprise at all. Also, I know it’s fiction but I’m sure there would have been some legal issues in real life with the ending. 

I know I received an unedited ARC but… A couple of doubts: When did Greg and Gemma have time to redecorate if Maddie literally just moved out and had never lived anywhere else by herself? And: Maddie’s 38 and I assume this is 2020 but she watched Friends in the 1990s as a newlywed, yet they married after uni. No… It’s not working out for me.

I’m afraid I can’t rate this book any higher because there are so many thrillers out there today and not all of them are very original, but this one has literally been done before. 

Thank you #NetGalley for the ARC of #ThePact