The Marriage Pact by Michelle Richmond Book Review

The Marriage Pact by Michelle Richmond Book Review

The lowdown from Goodreads

Publication Date July 25, 2017

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.

The Marriage Pact by Michelle Richmond Book Review

You & your spouse are about to embark on your newly married life. Rainbows & glitter are everywhere because you’re crazy in love with each other. You’re stoked when you receive an invite to a “members only” club. This is no Sam’s Club either. The invite is from a celebrity (fancy!) & both you & your spouse are adventurous & up for a challenge. If you join, you’ll have a vast & powerful network at your disposal. All it takes is a commitment & you’ve got to be able to keep it a secret. Are you in?

The Rule Book

Alice & Jake take the plunge & commit to The Pact. Jake is a marriage/relationship therapist & Alice is an old rock star of sorts turned attorney. They are an interesting couple, but they are genuinely in love & looking forward to the future.

Jake & Alice procrastinate reading the Rule Book & this proves to be a mistake. Immediately, Pact Leaders descend on the couple with added attention & pressure. There’s some scary stuff in this book. There is no way I would go forward with The Pact’s crazy requirements, but Jake & Alice decide to forge ahead. Can they make The Marriage Pact work? If not, can they ever get out it? Will their marriage survive? Better yet, will they survive?

Thrilling, Unique & Unforgettable

Reading the description, I thought The Marriage Pact might be a hokey, dystopian type novel, but it was an enjoyable & suspenseful read. Michelle Richmond creates a world of wealth, corruption, good intentions & secrecy. The Pact has a Big Brother type presence over the couple & the book gave me some serious stalker vibes reminiscent of one of faves I See You by Clare Mackintosh.

THE VERDICT

I was Really Into This book. The Marriage Pact was satisfying, memorable & would make a really good TV show.

Special thanks to Michelle Richmond, Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine Bantam & NetGalley for providing our copy in exchange for an honest & fair review.

Let’s connect over books!  Check out The Marriage Pact by Michelle Richmond Book Review on Goodreads! 

Really Into This a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

About the Author: Michelle Richmond

Michelle Richmond is the New York Times bestselling author of five novels and two award-winning story collections. Her novels include the 2014 literary thriller GOLDEN STATE, which imagines modern-day California on the brink of secession from the United States, and the international bestseller THE YEAR OF FOG. Her debut story collection The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress(2001) won the AWP Award for Short Fiction, and her latest story collection, HUM, received the Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize. Her novels are set in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives, and in the South, where she grew up.
Michelle’s new novel, THE MARRIAGE PACT, will be published by Bantam in July of 2017, with foreign editions forthcoming in 27 languages and film rights optioned to Twentieth Century Fox.

She holds an MFA from the University of Miami, where she was a James Michener Fellow. She has received the Hillsdale Award for Fiction from the Fellowship of Southern Writers and the Mississippi Review Fiction Prize.

Michelle was born and raised in Alabama and has made her home for eighteen years in Northern California, where she lives with her husband and son.

The Marriage Pact by Michelle Richmond Book Review