This is a very different read that I thought it was going to be. The storyline is different and great but it gets 3.5 stars from me as at times I thought this was very far fetched and also I think the last third of the book felt like it had lost its plot but the ending was good.
Alice and Jake are getting married, Alice is an up and coming lawyer and weirdly invites one of her clients she's helped along with others win a big case. This starts the path to "the pact" a weird secret society that has been brought together to strengthen a marriage as well as making it happier. There are strict rules that the couples must follow and any deviation from the rules leads to brutal correctiveness which at times was quite a hard read especially with Jake I found.
Jake is a therapist and I liked that his thoughts were thought provoking as he deals with helping other couples finding themselves in difficult places within their own marriages but never mentioning the pact to anyone at anytime. Jake and Alice are repeatedly told to find peace within the pact but do they?? I felt by the end that I did know Jake more than Alice but that didn't deter my enjoyment I just wanted to dig deeper with Alice.
I would like to thank netgalley and penguin uk - Michael Joseph for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book mainly for its quirkiness! It is an enthralling read trying to work out what will happen next to this couple who have got themselves so entrenched in a cult. The concept of a perfect marriage is wonderful but it cannot be forced. Some of the ideas for a perfect marriage are superb and would help but The Pact cannot ever be broken which causes so many complications and fears. A great psychological thriller with an unusual ending. An author to read more of.

At first,I wasn't really feeling this.Nothing to do with the book.I just wasn't sure I was in the mood for this genre.However,I quickly got gripped by this.Ok,the premise is completely ridiculous.I don't want to give too much away,so briefly it's a married couple that enter 'The Pact'.A cult of sorts that ends up being more sinister than they had thought.I mean,who would actually do this!?But craziness aside,the couple are interesting and it's a page-turner for sure.Minor points I didn't quite like were the liberal facts and statistics about marriage.Just took me out of the story a bit.Would have preferred it to be a bit shorter towards the end,but a very enjoyable read.3.5 stars rounded down

Interesting and thought provoking read! i would highly recommend this book.
I enjoyed the writing style and the characters involved, so much so that i was actually discussing the concept of marriage pact with my friends whilst i was out.
Great read and look forward to reading more from Michelle Richmond

Alice and Jake are newlyweds and one of their wedding presents was an invitation to join "The Pact". The Pact is a group of people who want to ensure their marriages are successful. Couples have to read a manual and follow all the rules. But the Pact isn't all that it seems and Alice and Jake soon find out what happens if they don't follow all the rules. An interesting read but a bit disappointed with the ending.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publishers and Michelle Richmond for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Brilliant read. Intrigued from the beginning and kept my interest through whole book. Would recommend

Dont all newlyweds believe their love will last forever? When a marriage is fresh and new why would a happy couple feel the need to sign a pact to ensure they stayed happily married? Then again when everything looks perfect it must be easy to sign up to something that reinforces those preconceptions.

To start with I found this book interesting and intriguing. It was thought provoking and a reminder to not take for granted that significant other in life. However, I found the story fizzled out and became completely unbelievable. The punishments for breaking the rules and the description of torture were both unbelievable and unpleasant.

I did struggle through to the end of the story but by that point had stopped caring about the outcome.

Something completely different, unlike any genre I've read before. A psychological thriller, a page turner with an element of dystopia. You do want to shout at the couple on many occasions, particularly when they sign "The Pact" but well drawn out main characters, as are the bit part players. Very glad the ending didn't descend into "silliness" and you were left wondering.

The Marriage Pact was not at all what I anticipated, it was so much more. Although I did not want to put it down, I didn't want to rush Richmond's work, instead I savoured every chapter, every sentence and every word.

The newly married couple, Alice and Jake, fall into a web of control and punishment for the hope that marriage will sustain globalisation. However as Alice and Jake get deeper into The Pact they discover that it is more terrifying than they initially thought. A tale of how love conquers all, even when stranded in a desert, it was spellbinding and utterly fantastic.

Richmond's writing keeps you coming back for more and I cannot wait to read more of her work..

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin UK for a copy of the novel in exchange for my honest review.

The premise of this book was very intriguing to me - the entire concept of this group, The Pact, who seemed to have such a promising viewpoint on the world, turning very dystopian very quickly. I did find that it began to drag in the middle, but the ending did redeem itself with the return of the quick-page-turn to see how it would resolve.

This causes bipolar views for the reader - on one side, I was thinking yes, good idea, true marriage values, with nothing too extreme, what's the problem with this. To another, of what on earth is happening, who on earth would do this. The end came from no where out of the blue. Great original concept.

A well written book about marriage, having said that I found the story got harder to believe, would an educated modern couple, with a good marriage ahead of them, really join this group. Read it and form your own opinions.

Newlyweds Jake and Alice have their whole married life in front of them... Until they decide to join a secret and exclusive organisation called The Pact, that is.

The aim of The Pact seems straightforward enough: to keep marriages healthy and happy until death do you apart. But at what cost? As Jake and Alice learn about the methods employed by the organisation, they grow increasingly worried...

This is a clever, thought-provoking book that will leave you pondering about the meaning of a happy marriage. And how far you would personally go to save your own marriage...

A chilling and unnerving, suspense-filled novel

Psychologist Jake and lawyer Alice are newlyweds, happy and excited to spend the rest of their lives together. On their wedding day, they receive a strange gift from one of Alice's clients - an invitation to sign a 'marriage pact' and join a select group of couples all committed to maintaining successful marriages by following a set of guidelines and rules. At first, the Pact seems like a great idea - working with your spouse to keep your marriage loving and intact by putting each other first; exchanging thoughtful gifts and taking trips together. However, eventually, one of the pair accidentally breaks a rule and the Pact does not take kindly to rule-breakers. Jake and Alice soon discover that they've made a commitment bigger than either of them realise and that the Pact will go to any lengths to enforce their laws.

This is a sinister and gripping story that keeps you turning pages from the very beginning, eager to know what happens next. The slow transformation of the Pact from a glamourous and exclusive club with exciting parties and social connections to a controlling and seemingly omnipresent cult with extreme punishments for anyone breaking its strict rules was written in a way that built up the suspense masterfully, and has the reader desperately rooting for the two main characters to escape from the influence of the Pact against what seem to be more and more impossible odds. Jake and Alice are realistic and sympathetic and the narrative (written from Jake's POV) is easy to follow. There are plenty of twists and the sinister feel of the Pact and its associates grows exponentially as Jake and Alice become more sucked in. The novel also asks many questions about marriage and its value, and what exactly it is worth in the world we live in today.

Despite being a great and original idea, I did find a few aspects of this book were a bit too implausible for me. There were times when it was painfully obvious that the Pact was sinister and I couldn't understand why Jake and Alice weren't more worried and were going along with some of their rules. I also didn't really buy into the idea of the Pact, and found it a little unlikely that two well educated people would fall for it so easily. Whilst the plot flowed well, there were a few sections that were a little slow-moving and I found that the ending left me a little dissatisfied.

However, overall this was an interesting and unique novel and worth a read for fans of psychological unnerving stories.

Daenerys

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this novel. It’s a bit of a slow-burner, but at the same time, it’s never not enjoyable to read. The novel is told through Jake’s perspective – he talks about how much he loves Alice and how they got married and how they came across The Pact, something of a cult that brings law into marriage. If you don’t pick up that phone call from your spouse, if you’re emotionally unfaithful, The Pact will punish you for it.

The goal of The Pact is to make marriages last. And it does just this – Jake is pleased when Alice comes home earlier from work, and it aids their marriage. Except when Jake and Alice learn that the key to The Pact’s success if that couples who don’t fit in mysteriously disappear. Through prison sentences and torture, Alice and Jake have to find a way of leaving The Pact while holding onto their lives.

This sounds like an exceptionally suspenseful novel. On Goodreads, it’s marketed as a thriller. But for me, it didn’t really have that fast-paced element, except towards the end. It was suspenseful when Alice and Jake were forcefully taken away, and when they went on the run – but it was also anticlimactic in the sense that the build-up didn’t quite match the end result.

I feel this is more a fault of marketing, perhaps. Because for me, I enjoyed this novel as more of a “books that make you think” novel. I’ve never thought harder about the concept of marriage and why it’s so unsuccessful these days. Also, with Jake’s insight as a relationships counsellor, I enjoyed reading the facts about marriage and generally life itself.

To summarise, this was a really enjoyable book to read. I finished it in a day because it was that good. I just wouldn’t say it’s particularly a thriller, perhaps something of a dystopian mystery novel, but definitely a philosophical book that provides a deep insight to marriage.

I really enjoyed this book; I found the premise new and exciting and read it in one sitting. It raised an interesting question; what would you be prepared to do to make sure your marriage works? The novel requires a fair degree of suspension of disbelief to get the most out of the story. A lot of it felt far-fetched but for me, I liked it. Although I could see why some wouldn't.

The only downside for me was the way that Alice's character was portrayed; it felt a little like wish-fulfillment on the part of the author to me.

Thanks to Net Galley & penguin UK for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
What a strange read, though I kept reading.
Alice is a lawyer and her husband Jake is a therapist. They are newly married & a guest at their wedding leaves them a beautiful gift box - The Pact. Should they use the beautiful pen & sign The Marriage Pact. Well of course they do, what lengths though will they both go to to live the perfect marriage that The Pact expects. What have the got themselves involved in, it's almost like a cult, There are many rules & regulations & severe consequences if a rule is broken as both Jake & Alice find out.
They want out of the Pact but it seems to be impossible, are they strong enough to survive the punishments and being separated and do they want to create their own marriage path rather than follow the strict rules of The Pact. Which will they choose when given the choice.
This is definitely not a chick flick.

The most perfect day of your life - your wedding day until you open that one strange gift. A simple box that can change your future but is it for the better or for worse? The Pact carefully select their members and on signing that contract - you become part of a club that will ensure you have the perfect marriage forever..... literally. The members will go to incredible lengths to ensure you follow the Manual with extreme consequences if you fail. The word Friend will fill your heart with fear and dread. This was a bit slow and slightly confusing to start with but after the first couple of chapters - you will be gripped to find out if Jake and Alice manage that perfect married life.

Quite a strange book and very different to any I have read. Well worth a read

This book was gripping from the opening page. How far would you go to secure a lifelong marriage. On the surface the values seem commendable but in real life how is this behaviour guaranteed. Is Alice and jakes marriage strong enough to weather the storm. Brilliant book had me totally hooked