{"id":14951,"date":"2017-07-21T09:06:53","date_gmt":"2017-07-21T16:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailywaffle.com\/stage1\/?p=14951"},"modified":"2017-07-21T09:12:36","modified_gmt":"2017-07-21T16:12:36","slug":"the-marriage-pact-michelle-richmond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailywaffle.com\/stage1\/the-marriage-pact-michelle-richmond\/","title":{"rendered":"The Marriage Pact by Michelle Richmond | Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"the<\/p>\n

ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

5 stars<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

In The Marriage Pact,<\/a> a therapist and his musician-turned-lawyer wife find themselves invited to join a secretive, exclusive community dedicated to ensuring a successful marriage that lasts forever. By any means necessary.<\/span><\/p>\n

Set against a backdrop of San Francisco Bay Area affluence, the Pact\u2019s tenets and rules about gift giving and trips and answering your spouse\u2019s calls all seem to make sense. As they\u2019re drawn deeper into the community, Jake and Alice discover The Pact comes first, and failure to comply is not tolerated. With rules come consequences. In the first pages, Jake wakes up on a plane with a pounding head and a bloodied shirt.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Marriage Pact<\/a> is an urgent, twisty, compelling, sometimes terrifying story about what could happen when marriage is transformed from a union between two people into an enforceable social contract among thousands. It\u2019s a cautionary tale about the things you\u2019re willing to overlook, endure or sacrifice in pursuit of marital bliss.<\/span><\/p>\n

It might be a stretch for some readers to believe that a lawyer and a therapist would allow themselves to fall into a binding contract without reading it in full, but isn\u2019t that the nature of a cult? It dangles something so desirable in front of you that common sense goes out the window. Red flags seem only pinkish and you hardly notice the brass knuckles wrapped in a silk handkerchief until they’re punching you in the face. <\/span><\/p>\n

As things start to spiral out of control, it\u2019s interesting to watch Jake\u2019s perspective evolve. For all its noble intentions, The Pact plants the seeds of doubt and even Jake finds himself manipulated. Despite everything he knows as a therapist, he\u2019s conflicted. As a man, he can\u2019t help but appreciate that The Pact\u2019s aim is to provide him with the one thing he wants most. Do the ends justify the means?<\/span><\/p>\n

The Marriage Pact <\/a>is an absolute page turner, and it\u2019s one of my top reads for 2017. Nearly every chapter ends on a punctuating note that keeps you reading way past your bedtime. Richmond’s descriptions of the tony world of The Pact are even more vivid if you’ve ever lived in the Bay Area. As a former Peninsula resident, I laughed out loud at the descriptions of Hillsborough and Woodside. The ending could have gone a couple of ways and I won’t be surprised if the film version (it’s already been optioned) goes the other route.<\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to psychological suspense, in the long line of successors to Gone Girl, the Marriage Pact is one you have to read.<\/span><\/p>\n

Author Michelle Richmond will be doing a book tour in support of the book<\/span><\/a> with stops up and down the Bay, beginning July 25. For dates and locations, visit MichelleRichmond.com<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Marriage Pact is out on Tuesday, July 25. Pre-order on Amazon.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>

<\/div>
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ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley 5 stars In The Marriage Pact, a therapist and his musician-turned-lawyer wife find themselves invited to join a secretive, exclusive community dedicated to ensuring a successful marriage that lasts forever. By any means necessary. Set against a backdrop of San Francisco Bay Area affluence, the Pact\u2019s tenets and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[149],"tags":[604,1171,1614,1613,1610,1612,96,1611,1434],"class_list":["post-14951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-bay-area","tag-book-review","tag-keplers","tag-marriage-counselor","tag-michelle-richmond","tag-psychological-suspense","tag-san-francisco","tag-the-marriage-pact","tag-thriller"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Marriage Pact by Michelle Richmond | Review - DailyWaffle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fidelity to the Spouse. Loyalty to the Pact. Till death do us part. 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