The Marriage Pact was a strange read based on newly weds Alice and Jake who sign up to The Pact after getting an invite from a guest at their wedding.Although believing it is a harmless club who like to promote everlasting marriage it soon becomes clear to them that it is in fact a cult who like to keep their members in place by any means possible.The book was a good read but i think to enjoy it you have to take the plot with a pinch of salt ! Alice is a lawyer,you would have thought they would have read the manual small print before signing up and the idea of a prison in the desert where you are taken when you misbehave is a stretch of the imagination.Also the ending for me was a strange one,it was as if the author had run out of ideas and so just left it at that.That said it was still a solid 4 star read which i would recommend.

It's fast paced and it gripped me. Sometimes a bit silly that I couldn't like it.

Supposedly this is Stepford Wives meets the Firm, but I found it disturbing and even sadistic in parts. It starts with an interesting idea. Jake – a psychiatrist – and Alice – a lawyer- marry and one of Alice’s clients attends. The couple are invited to join an organisation who follow the Pact – a handbook of rules guaranteed to make sure that their marriage stays on track. What starts as a joke between them, turns into something far more sinister, with penalties for any infractions. Told from Jake’s point of view we see a one sided picture of their relationship. The demands of Alice’s job mean that she gets into trouble most often (are we meant to think she should give it up to save her marriage?!) despite Jake meeting with an old girlfriend to find out more about the sinister side of the Pact. The punishments start off insignificant – counselling, monitor cuffs – and soon become more violent – with a painful necklace which Alice is forced to wear and then ultimately all out torture. Nasty! The ending – where Orla the dying creator of the Pact offers the couple the chance of taking over her role and bringing the organisation back to its original brief without the violence – is just silly.

An interesting storyline but far too much irrelevant waffle inbetweeen. Could have been far shorter. I kept reading as I was keen to see where the story was heading. Overall disappointed.

Wow! I have just finished reading this, so have missed about four hours sleep, but I couldn’t put it down, no seriously, I COULDN’T PUT IT DOWN.

Jack and Alice have been living together for some time. He is a therapist and the practice he is part of is just settling into being established and making a difference. This is quite important, because Jack’s psychology qualification gives him an insight, not only into marriage itself, but also an understanding and recognition of how people behave. Alice, a once celebrated musician with an edgy presentation has retrained and is now a successful lawyer in a high-end practice where she is very busy, but very successful. Jack decides that Alice is the one for him so he proposes and they marry. And they lived happily ever after. Did they?

Well, the wedding and honeymoon went well.

One of Alice’s clients, Liam Finnegan invites them to join a very exclusive group but they must sign a contract, which they do. Then they are in The Pact where everybody seems to be wealthy, glamourous and loved up. They are given a manual which they must read and memorise as it sets out the rules that they must live by in order to maintain a healthy, successful marriage. Most of it sounds great as it advocates putting your spouse first, buying presents, going on trips. But it doesn’t mention that this will mean you have to juggle your commitments to the detriment of your job/clients; or that if you put on weight you will pay the consequences. Consequences; these are not spelt out but there appears to be a tariff for misdemeanours. Oh, and you can’t leave The Pact.

Then it all goes terribly wrong.

Absolutely brilliant, no other words will do. I was totally absorbed, couldn’t see where it would go. Fast paced, with plenty of twists (all bad). The characters were scary, except for Jack and Alice but she was a bit worrying at times – I wasn’t sure if she was really on board with Jack. Have you read John Grisham’s ‘The Firm’? I was mindful of that all the way through the book. It is similar inasmuch as a couple being manipulated by an organisation. They seem to have everything they could ever want or need and then…
You will have to read it, it really is brilliant.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

Jake is thrilled when Alice agrees to marry him. He is a therapist and she is a lawyer but was previously a rock musician and is way cooler than Jake. Through her work, Alice meets a folk musician and on impulse invites him to their wedding. And so begin their trials. The wedding gift they are given by this musician is somewhat unusual. They are invited to join The Pact, an organisation which protects marriage. But this is no ordinary membership. It is for life and as they soon find out, The Pact is not easy to get out of. At first all seems well. There is a manual of rules: buy each other a gift once a month; always pick up your phone when your spouse calls; arrange to go away as a couple every three months; never read your spouse's emails etc. They are expected to read and learn the manual. Any infringement of the rules is punishable and this is where it becomes very sinister. Alice soon infringes the rules by 'putting work before her marriage' and Jake starts to worry when another member, Joanne (who he knew when he was a student) warns him that she is in danger from The Pact and hints at nefarious goings on. Before long, he finds out just how dangerous it is.

This is an intriguing book. The author has cleverly made Jake a therapist with lots of experience in marriage guidance so throughout the novel we are party to his knowledge about what makes marriages work. He is full of statistics: marriages are more likely to succeed if there is less spent on the wedding; more likely to work if the couple are older; over work can be a factor in marriage breakdown and so on. He also majored in psychology with a dissertation on the infamous Milgram experiments on obedience in the 1960s so this enables him to reflect sensibly on what is going on in The Pact. It is written in the first person from Jake's point of view. Jake is a sympathetic character, with flaws for sure but we are rooting for him throughout, both in his attempts to free himself and Alice from this cult and also in his insecurities about Alice. Alice is perhaps less well formed and we never quite get a grasp on what she is actually like as a person, perhaps reflecting Jake's view of her. He comes across as not quite able to believe his luck in getting Alice to agree to marry him. Nonetheless she too is likeable. What they both are though is incredibly naive. Would a lawyer really sign up to something like this? I'm not sure.

However this was a really good read, unusual and keeps the reader's attention throughout.

This is a strange tale. It is entirely unlikely and not convincing although it does leave the reader anxious to read the outcome. It is also too long with too much unnecessary description.

The Marriage Pact, Michelle Richmond

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre:  Women's fiction, Mystery and Thrillers

My first book by this author so I didn't really know what to expect. Its a curious novel, if I'd read the sample I'm not sure I'd have requested it.
It does drag at times, with so much inner thinking from Jake. There was lots of detail too about his various patients ,and stats and data connected with his job. I found that part was interesting in very small doses but in great detail it made me skip sections, unable to face more of it....

I did like both Alice and Jake, but found, especially given their professions, it incredible they jumped right in without even checking what they were getting into, without questions, without reading what they signed.
Blithely they just thought it was a bit of fun and I guess I could see that in a way, they thought nothing unpleasant could happen, and they could leave if they didn't like it. But the Pact has a long reach and that part was chilling. Its not too far fetched to see how it could happen.
Its a weird novel, I didn't like what was happening, was so cross at Alice and Jake at times, and yet it was strangely compelling and I just had to keep reading.
I had to see how it ended despite not really enjoying the story...and TBH I felt the ending was anti-climatic, a cop out. I felt cheated, wanted something more concrete. I have a real dislike of ambiguous endings, where the reader has to decide what comes next – I'm a reader not a writer, I can't make up stories, that's why I read them and I Want Them to Finish Properly, not just fizzle out leaving me dumbfounded about what happens next.

Couple of things I felt were off. I felt given the long arms, the reach and the money the Pact clearly spent I'd have liked to know more about how it was funded, not just a couple of lines about top investment guys doing well. Even the best guys need money to invest with and I didn't see where it came from.
I felt too that a membership of 12,000 wasn't enough to sustain the kind of practices and close observation of members that was actually in place. It wasn't just eyes on them but hidden cameras, audio, tech interference, they really were Stalked in a big way. That takes serious money and big manpower.

It's a chilling novel, creeping forward from a bit of fun to something they were desperate to get out of but were stuck with.
Curiously compulsive reading but yet I can't say I actually enjoyed it.

Stars: Three, an interesting book, lots of food for though, some scary possibilities but ultimately not one I actually enjoyed ;-)

ARC supplied for review purposes by Netgalley and Publishers

How far will you go to make sure your marriage is a success? That’s the question Jake, the main character in Michelle Richmond’s superbly crafted thriller, has to ask himself. At first the answer seems obvious. But as Jake descends deeper into the murky world of The Pact — a secretive group whose aim is to safeguard its members’ marriages — the true nature of the conundrum slowly unfolds until it evolves into a choice of life and death. And it all started so innocently…
Jake is a marriage guidance therapist. Alice, his new wife, a successful attorney rapidly climbing the corporate ladder. Like any newly-wed couple, there are a few minor issues that need to be smoothed out. Alice is devoted to her work. During the few hours she spends at home with Jake, she has the habit of leaving rooms in a mess, too short of time to clear up after herself. In tandem with this, Jake doubts his reasons for proposing to Alice in the first place. Was his desire to marry Alice driven by altruistic love, or was it just a convenient legalistic way to capture her for himself? Fortunately, there is a support group, The Pact, that believes in the sanctity of marriage. It may be unnervingly mysterious, but The Pact offers guidance and help to its members, providing a template that is designed to guarantee a long and happy marriage. It’s simple enough: continually surprise your spouse with little gifts of affection; take regularly breaks away together; strive to maintain a healthy work/home life balance. In fact, The Pact’s guidance manual is packed full of common-sense advice drafted to ensure a successful marriage. The only problem is that marriage rarely comes with a failsafe guarantee.
When Jake stumbles into an old college flame at a Pact members’ evening, the consequences increasingly unsettle him. The situation isn’t helped by the fact that Alice seems intent on reigniting her friendship with Eric, a fellow band member from her youthful rebellious years fronting a fringe-gig rock group. Suddenly, Jake and Alice’s marriage is under threat from the growing mistrust that builds between them — and from the very organisation that has tasked itself with perpetuating their life together, The Pact.
Disturbing in nature, the narrative challenges the reader to reassess the accepted morals that govern present-day personal behaviour. As it delves into ever-harrowing details of misdemeanour, punishment, rehabilitation, and self-responsibility, Jake and Alice find themselves confronted by an overwhelming force that appears destine to destroy them while purporting to want nothing more than to provide protection. I don’t want to spoil the plot, and so I’ll leave you to discover how Jake and Alice resolve the potentially lethal dilemma facing them.
So, how far are you willing to go to make sure your marriage is a success?
Simply, this is the best book I’ve read in 2017.

EXCEPTIONAL THRILLER: BASED ON A GIFT WITH A STING IN THE TAIL:
An engaging thriller based on a wedding gift. A gift almost like a Gym Membership, except it's a Marriage Club Membership. And once you've joined "The Pact" you can't cancel your membership no matter how much you try.
The objective of The Pact is to ensure that member couples who wed together, stay together. Like any Club, The Pact has rules. But you wouldn't expect the Rules to contain punitive clauses which involve violence and imprisonment. Well think again. As Jake and Alice find out. This is a novel with a difference: exploring the concept of marriage being a union of two persons until death they do part. Indeed Jake's hapless determination to leave The Pact at times seem bound to leave Alice a young widow.
My only complaint was that Jake was definitely not a Jack Reacher. At times I was mesmerised by his failure to be so. But on the other hand what Jake lacked, Alice more than made up for. Alice is a real character with form: an ex-leading Folk Band musician and singer who saw the light and trained to become an Attorney.
Once started I couldn't put the book down. Time and time again it seems that The Pact are able to second guess Jake's every move. How is this? Have they wired the marital home? Without spoiling the story I will say that I was a happy bunny at the end. Not because I had reached the end, but because of the surprise conclusion to the novel.
Richmond reveals a keen awareness of how to get readers squirming. Sometimes I read the book clutching a cushion for protection as The Pact's propensity for violence was unleashed. A Thriller with a difference and well worth reading.

Well that was a thrill ride!
What was there not to love? In amongst the suspense we are treated with some absolute statistical gems (whether they be true or not) and what is in essence some great guidelines for married life.

The similarity between The Pact and religion was explored in the book, but I really love the parallels.
Religion is purely a construct whereby we are provided with guidelines for life (guidelines that are great to follow irrespective of the religion (or lack thereof) that we have adopted/inherited/discovered). Likewise The Pact is a similar construct, devised to help imbed its own set of guidelines in our day to day lives.

How it goes about imbedding these guidelines is what keeps us turning the pages 

The style of writing almost felt dystopian at times (in a good way, not the 1 of 1000s of different dystopian novels released over the last few year’s way). I haven’t felt so intrigued by a stories setting and environment in quite some time.

This was a well written, enjoyable read.

Thanks NetGalley and Penguin UK for a review copy.

‘The Marriage Pact’ is part science-fiction, part thriller, part psychological novel and part treatise on the institution of marriage. As a result, it is ultimately a plot-driven unsatisfactory read. The author, Michelle Richmond, weaves too many threads without really developing any of them to such a degree so we end up caring little about the characters’ fates. The couple who enter the marriage pact and unknowingly become part of a sinister organisation, The Pact, bent on controlling couples’ relationships are Jake and Alice. He’s a therapist and she a musician turned lawyer. The narrative is told through Jake’s eyes and so, whilst we are with him as he questions his wife’s commitment, stiffens his resolve to fight the cult he’s unwittingly become part of, is trapped, tested and tortured, we are given very little account of Alice’s reasons for behaving as she does. Ironic, in a novel which purports to be arguing for equality, balance and harmony between couples.
Possibly the most irritating aspect of the narrative, though, is the sci-fi malarkey! The reader is asked to believe that a massive penal institution in the desert, complete with all sorts of hi-tech torture gadgetry, has not been noticed or investigated by the US law enforcement agencies. And how many occupants of a respectable residential street would turn a blind eye to their neighbour being trussed up in a straightjacket and whisked away in a vehicle complete with blacked out windows? There is even a suggestion towards the end of the novel that all sorts of named real life celebrity couples are in cahoots with The Pact’s leader, Orla.
Unfortunately, the novel degenerates further into the realms of silliness as Jake and Alice are tried and tested one last time and, whilst their final decision chimes with my idea of how civilised people should behave, it was far too long in coming! Richmond’s original premise could have been really interesting if played out in a more realistic, character driven, psychologically convincing way. After all, pretty much everyone enjoys the opportunity to explore how and why couples stick together or are pulled apart from the safety of the novel reader’s privileged position.

Wow! What an amazing story. Raises so many questions and put forward so many opinions.. The way the book was written kept the level of expectation very high. The characters were well defined and made the story seem real. Such a fascinating concept but not for me, I would rather make my own mistakes and live with the results. The conclusion was totally unexpected but such a relief.

I found this book to be somewhat outside my comfort zone. It was very dark and quite disturbing although it stretched the bounds of credibility in places. It was well written but the characters were slightly annoying and how two intelligent people were caught up in such a destructive cult is worrying. I found myself skimming some of the more violent passages and there was a sense of inevitability about some of their actions leading back into the darkness. It made one cringe with the thought of people possibly out there prepared to follow orders and undertake such cruelty in the name of love and marriage. Quite unsettling overall with a big brother background.

Complex, well written, disorientating, mind blowingly amazing. There are not enough words to describe how I felt reading this book.

To begin with, the premise seems a bit bonkers. So bonkers, in fact, that even the characters spot the obvious danger even as they are throwing themselves headlong into the mix. And yet...somehow, this didn't really worry me. I was very happy to suspend my disbelief and just go along with it all. I read this in one afternoon, at times trying to fit my head inside my Kindle to work out how to gulp it down faster. Jake and Alice are both very likeable and so you want it to work for them, and the whole madcap thing is delivered in this easy-breezy prose style that reminded me of Harlan Coben and Linwood Barclay. I really enjoyed the running theme of Jake's observation/research on what does and doesn't work in successful marriages, and I found myself holding my breath at chapter beginnings, wondering if it was Wednesday yet. My guess is that this will be a BIG word-of-mouth success and, before too long, a major motion picture.

With thanks to the UK publisher for a copy via Netgalley for a fair review.

I really enjoyed this. Such a harmless proposition on the face of it, joining a club which will help to preserve your happy marriage. And if you accidently break a rule or two then what's the worst that could happen??
Yes, you have to suspend your disbelief, but it's well worth doing so!

This is an unusual, distinctive book; I've never read anything quite like it. Whilst I wouldn't recommend it without reservations, it had me gripped from the start, and held my attention all the way through. I stayed up late to finish it. Jake and his new wife, Alice unwittingly join The Pact, which is meant to help their marriage, but has sinister undertones. If they don't follow any of the many rules there can be severe consequences. I found some of these scenes disturbing. I struggled at first with why they kept going along with the pact, then just suspended disbelief, as this isn't very realistic. That also made me think it could be set slightly in the future. So, only 4 stars because of the uncomfortable passages, and the unlikely premise the whole book is built on.

What an intriguing novel. It was thought provoking, powerful and unputdownable.

The Marriage Pact by Michelle Richmond is a suspense novel that is dark and disturbing. Alice and Jake are given as a wedding present an enrolment into a club where married couples help each other. This is no ordinary club and things are not what they seem. I found this book very creepy. I would like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Random House Uk -Michael Joseph for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.