You made a promise to your sister. It could destroy your daughter. The Daughter 15-year-old Rosie lies in hospital fighting for her life. She’s trying to tell her mother what happened to her, and how she got there, but she can’t speak the words out loud. The Mother Rosie’s mother Toni has a secret. She had a traumatic childhood, and she and her sister Bridget made each other a promise thirty years ago: that they could never speak the truth about what they went through as children, and that they would protect each other without asking for help from others, no matter what… Rosie was Toni’s second chance to get things right: a happy, talented girl with her whole life ahead of her. Having lost her husband in a tragic accident, Toni has dedicated her life to keeping Rosie safe from harm. But Rosie has plans that her mother doesn’t know about. She has dreams and ambitions – of love, of a career, of a life beyond the sheltered existence that her mother has created for her. But the secrets Rosie has been keeping have now put her life in danger. The Pact In order to save Rosie, Toni may have to break her lifelong promise to her sister… and open doors to her past she hoped would remain closed forever.
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Well, I’ve just finished The Pact and I’m still processing that last paragraph…! That was an unexpected little twist that had me going back through the chapters to see what hints I’d missed!
For me, The Pact was very much a book of two halves. After some intriguing opening chapters, and although it was still extremely well written, I did find the first half very slow moving and a bit repetitious – there were hints of what was to come and lots of essential groundwork laid but I struggled to connect to Toni and Rosie at first.
However, the second half – wow! Everything that had been gradually set up before came together and the story suddenly ramped up to breakneck speed. Although some of the plot developments were inescapable and I had worked out a bit of what was to come, that did not spoil my enjoyment of the resulting rollercoaster and seeing the conclusion so dramatically played out was great fun!
There were a couple of twists I did not see coming and I really warmed up to Toni and Rosie as the story went on. However, one of the absolute highlights was Bridget: an ass-kicking rock-band-member, computer whizz and tower of strength – everyone should have an Auntie Bridge and I loved her!
Overall, this is a cleverly written, well put together story, with a slow-burning first half and a tense, firecracker second half. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC of The Pact.
If you enjoyed my review, please consider liking and/or sharing and, of course, buying the book: Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US
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