This is a quick, suspenseful and well written book
You do have to suspend disbelief
There is a lot of character development.
A good domestic thriller

Dawn Goodwin is back with a scarily good thriller that will go down a treat with fans of Lisa Hall and Jill Childs: The Pact.

The past has long exerted its hold over Maddie, but she had always been able to seek solace in her marriage with somebody she was head over heels in love with – until the rug was well and truly pulled out from under her feet when her husband walked out on their marriage and moved in with another woman. Worse, Maddie found out that her husband was now playing happy families with a new baby and she was completely and utterly distraught. With the shadows of her past weighing heavily upon her shoulders, there is simply no escape. Yet, could a new friendship end up pulling her from the brink of despair? Or will her new friend just succeed in causing more problems and challenges for Maddie?

In a new flat, Maddie strikes up a friendship with Jade, who has a young son called Ben. As Maddie begins to get overwhelmed by dark thoughts, she finds a shoulder to cry and a sympathetic ear in Jade. But is Jade as kind and understanding as she seems? Or is there a far more sinister side to her new friend? As the bonds between the two women strengthen, they start exchanging confidences and quickly feel comfortable enough to share their innermost thoughts – including how much they loathe their exes. Over one glass of wine too many, Jade and Maddie joke that they should strike a pact whereby they each kill the other’s ex. But it’s just a drunken joke not to be taken seriously…or is it? The next day, Maddie returns back to her old life, but did Jade brush it off and forget about it all? Or did she end up doing the unthinkable?

As one drunken decision ends up throwing Maddie and Jade even further into the abyss, their destinies become inextricably linked in a sinister game of vengeance, obsession and murder…

With more twists and turns than a rollercoaster, Dawn Goodwin’s The Pact is not for the faint of heart as there were plenty of instances in this book that had me jumping out of my skin. Dawn Goodwin’s The Pact is a tale of dangerous decisions, twisted bonds and terrifying consequences that deftly mixes spine-chilling tension with heart-pounding suspense and jaw-dropping revelations. A brilliantly plotted thriller that is impossible to put down – even when you are too scared to even turn to page – Dawn Goodwin’s The Pact is another first rate page-turner I certainly won’t forget in a hurry!

Good pacy thriller with a twist I didn't predict. It didn't blow me away but it was easy enough to consume and wasn't as predictable as it could be.

Bottom line: I'd recommend this novel if you're looking for a quick, easy domestic drama, which is enjoyable, but not particularly twisty.

Emily and Chris have been best friends since they were born. Their parents are next door neighbors too and best friends as well. That is until that fateful night when everyone's lives change, one even ends.
This book is an emotional roller coaster Jodi Picoult puts her readers on with The Pact is one crazy ride.

Thank you Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book for an honest review.

This was a brilliant read and is being featured on my blog for my quick star reviews feature, which I have created on my blog so I can catch up with all the books I have read and therefore review.
See www.chellsandbooks.wordpress.com.

I have read so many psychological thrillers at this point, that many of them are predictable and a little tedious. it takes a really good author to provide a plot twist that really shocks, and unfortunately Goodwin didn't manage it here. The writing style was good (aside from some formatting issues on this advanced reader copy on Kindle), and the character build-up was good. None of the characters were very likeable, and the villain was clear from the get-go. It's a quick and easy read, but the need to suspend disbelief, and the predictability really lets it down. I would however seek out more books by Goodwin, as I did really enjoy her writing style.

I would rate this book 3.5 out of 5 stars.

I really enjoyed the premise of this story. Two friends make a pact to kill each other's exes - a tale as old as time, haha. The spin the author puts on in that only one of the friends is actually serious about the pact and the other is joking and just gets swept up into the events as they unfold I really enjoyed.

I will admit that I did find the main character incredibly frustrating to read from!

The author definitely caught me off guard with a couple of the twists and turns the plot took towards the end.

An enjoyable thriller!

Loved this! So good, so exciting, so gripping and great story. Can't wait to read more by this author - absolutely brilliant.

If the tagline of this book hadn’t caught my attention then the blurb did. I am a fan of a good thriller and this did not disappoint.
You are caught up in the drama and deceit from the moment you start reading. I enjoyed it from start to finish. I found it to be quite a quick and easy read, nothing too complicated or mind boggling but it is definitely well written with some twists, turns and misdirection throughout.
A book with suspense that will have readers hooked.

The Pact is a quick thriller with a few twists on the husband, wife, mistress set up.

Maddie is suffering depression and post traumatic stress from a long period of infertility, miscarriages, and even a still birth. The story opens up to her husband (not EX-husband) moving her into her own flat, while he plays house with his now live in mistress and their toddler aged daughter. The messy history is briefly discussed, but you do not get the full history of how the thrupple has spent the past two years. Although Greg, the husband cheated, Maddie is strangely understanding of the situation, and Greg wants Maddie to be an aunt to his baby with his girlfriend, Gemma.

If that's not enough drama, Maddie's neighbor, Jade is completely psychotic, but Maddie can't help but be drawn in by Jade's son, Ben. Eventually Maddie jokingly agrees to a pact with Jade to help each other end it with their respective exes. .

While this is a quick and easy read, it will require the reader to suspend belief on a number of factors in order to be satisfied with the character's choices and ability to overlook obvious lies. I really cannot believe grief would cloud Maddie's common sense, and overall feelings of anger and jealousy.

Thank you to Netgalley, and the publisher, Aria, for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

The blurb on this one caught my eye and I thought I’d give it a whirl. For me this one was great and I really enjoyed it.

This was a fast fun read and it had me wondering what would happen, but I didn’t find the characters likable or the story believable. It dragged a bit in the middle and wasn’t the thriller I was hoping for; more like a domestic intrigue story. 3 stars

Welcome to loony tunes characters, and you are all invited to peruse them. Probably whack them too.

Maddie moved into a new neighborhood post separation from her infidel husband who now had a baby with his secretary and was living in Maddie’s old home with his new family. The upstairs neighbor, Jade, was a new mother to baby Ben, and over time, a drunken pact was made to kill each other’s husbands. Were they serious?

Oh my! The book sure had weird characters, each trying to outdo the other. Author Dawn Goodwin hammered out distinctive nature to them. Jade had temperamental moods, Maddie was too subservient. The louse of a husband was happy that he had a cake and ate it too. The secretary felt victorious at having bagged a jerk. Each of them pulled at my emotional strings, but they had one thing in common. I wanted to bop them one, and some deserved two.

The twists the story took were best felt at the end where unexpected things happened. Naivete was at its best in Maddie. The others revolved around her. There was a lot happening down its pages, and some scenes made me cringe. This was a different domestic thriller where I was sure they should just kill each other and be done with it.

A fun entertainer.

The Pact follows recently separated Maddie as she navigates life in a new flat, and is befriended by a young women on a disturbing path for revenge. The slighted Jade targets Maddie in her plan to plan to off her ex, and suggest the same payback for Maddie's philandering husband, Gregory. But, much to Maddie's detriment, she writes off Jade's suggestion as a joke and the consequences are grave.

This is another cleverly plotted story by Dawn Goodwin, with characters that have complex psyches. Through much of the story it's clear Maddie is heartbroken by loss. She's a little too okay with her soon to be ex's actions and it's not entirely clear why. At least not until well into the story. She carries guilt that drives her acceptance of his new life, and feels ingratiated to him, but the why's are for the reader to discover and access.

At times she felt a little manic to me and there's a sense that she's not entirely present. She's clearly obsessed with children, with being a mom, and it's this that drives her connection to Jade. I can only describe Jade as a very manipulative and clearly psychotic young woman. Throughout the entire story I questioned her motivation, anticipating a twist. But the reveal exposes her crazy, and it's one I never saw coming. She's very hot and cold with Maddie, and Maddie takes it. Well, until she doesn't.

While I empathized with Maddie's situation, it's not always easy to root for her. She's a bit of a doormat and is pretty single minded, as motherhood is the only thing that will do. But in the end, she shows that she's more astute and clever then she let on. This is a well paced domestic psychological read with plenty of conflict and lots of tension. 4 Stars and recommendation.

The synopsis of this book really caught my attention and I was looking forward to reading it and it didn't disappoint.

I enjoyed reading this twisty suspense thriller. I quickly hooked and the plot didn't as I thought and there were lots of twists and turns and especially in the last 25% which made me keep reading into the early hours to finish it. The book had a good pace and it was fairly quick read. Maddie was a great character if not a little easily lead. I would definitely recommend this one for fans of twisty suspense reads.


Thank you to Aria, Dawn Goodwin, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Pact was a newish twist on an old tale. Two people with problems. Do they help each other out? The Strangers on a Train thing has been done in a lot of ways. This one had some twists, but you don't show the gun if someone isn't going to get shot. There were two incidents that stand out that just screamed "FORESHADOWING!" And the final twist was pretty darn obvious all the way through.

This was really a sick and twisted tale. What kind of ex-wife hangs out with her ex and the woman he cheated on her with? The entire story she acts as if she is horrible and he is such a prince. Yeah, no. Yet, there is very little sign of any logical thought. Of course, there are reasons for that, but the entire premise was a little bit ridiculous.

Setting that aside, the whole thing moved very quickly and was kind of funny. I'm just not sure I was meant to be laughing when I did. I hope at least some of them were. The book was OK. I read it in a single sitting when I had that rare time between responsibilities and it was a great little escape. I could see it on the screen as a campy, fun, twisted tale.

The Pact was a great rainy day read. I read it in one sitting. It was a quick fast-paced domestic thriller. Maddie has separated from her husband and has moved into a new apartment when she quickly becomes friends with Jade. One drunken night the two new friends make a pact. You kill mine I'll kill yours. A friendship buds and Maddie finds out that Jade wasn't kidding. It wasn't just a drunken phrase that you say when your upset. Jade really wants her to kill someone. You quickly learn more about Maddie's past but not must about Jade's and it allows the reader to experience the same shock Maddie does when things unfold. I loved it. A truly enjoyable read. Thank you to #Ariafiction and Netgalley for my advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

"I'll kill yours, if you kill mine"

Oh Yes! This was definitely my kind of book. A great story, written in a no nonsense way, yet at the same time full of surprises and a few red herrings, with twists and turns right until the very end!

This disturbing storyline was ideally constructed and developed, from my preferred reading point of view. The opening chapter more or less set the scene and the backstory for lead protagonist, Maddie. The storyline was slow burning, full of detail yet giving nothing away, descriptive and well narrated in the moment by Maddie predominantly, together with some small interruptions from Jade and a few short paragraphs of introspection and retrospection by Maddie, when missing pieces of the backstory jigsaw are fitted into place. The ending was quite satisfying and what I might have hoped for, although the means by which it happened was totally unexpected.

'Revenge is a dish best served cold' - just ask Maddie!

On its own, this wasn't a particularly complex story, however the many added layers, which were peeled back intermittently, really ramped up the suspense level giving it great depth and staying power. The intense and unrelenting psychological twists really played with my mind, let alone with those of the characters, to the stage where I didn't know what was going to happen next.

The two main protagonists were both female and whilst neither they, nor any of the supporting cast, were particularly likeable characters, or easy to become invested in or connect with, it was great fun trying to unravel the complex, multi-layered personalities, in which the author had wrapped them up so neatly.

The atmosphere was constantly crackling with tension and no matter where Maddie went, she always seemed to be stressed beyond belief about one thing or another, as her thinking and emotions were being pulled this way and that, by other people's unrelenting pressure. Through the well written, gripping and descriptive narrative and dialogue, I could almost feel how highly strung Maddie was and that she was constantly on edge. Even when on a couple of occasions she had a bit too much to drink, her actions seemed way over the top and a bit too exuberant to be spontaneous! The incessant intensity with which Maddie filled her life, along with her slightly annoying naivety, was managed with total authority and confidence by an author who knew just which buttons to push to get the reaction she needed, without having to labour a point.

The notion of extended and unconventional family units was explored in a realistic and authentic way, although not one which made me feel overly comfortable, as Maddie's obsession with children whilst disturbing and troubling, was also profoundly touching and emotionally draining, as it was the only thing she thought about, day in, day out. For any one person to have endured both the physical and mental anguish which Maddie had, would surely have wrecked even the strongest and most stable of relationships, but her estranged husband Greg, wet blanket that he was, really did 'want his cake and eat it'. Three people and a baby in one marriage was never going to work, surely!

Jade just had a scheming disturbing and very distorted mind and view on life. Always out to use someone until they had served their useful purpose and then on to the next unsuspecting victim, even if murder and blackmail was the only route to her achieving her goal. Having said all that, it did take me quite a while to cotton on to her selfish motives and I actually became quite invested in her sob story, until the penny dropped. The only consolation was that Maddie took even longer than I did to work it out, but boy! how the tide turned once she realised she had been used, and as a consequence, her entire future might have been changed, as she might have been complicit in ruining so many other precious lives.

The relatively small cast of supporting characters really were an eclectic, multi-faceted bunch, although when I stopped to unpick the story before writing this review, I realised that they all had their own roles to play in Maddie discovering her true worth, the values that really mattered to her, and the knowledge that she was more than able to stand on her own two feet and make her own decisions as an independent individual. The characters all seemed to operate in their own little bubbles, with little  interaction and dialogue between them, leaving Maddie and Jade to take centre stage, yet they were all pivotal to the storyline in various stages, as it developed and unfolded.

Conventional as I probably am, this disconnected and slightly quirky set-up, was one giant time bomb just waiting to go off and when it did explode, as for my thinking it was always doomed to, the fallout was far-reaching and for some, permanent! Murder, accidental death, suicide - The bodies were piling up, but who would the winners and losers be?

This started off very well and I was interested from the start but I felt it lost its draw somewhat as the story progressed. It lacked credulity in parts I felt and I found it somewhat hard to relate to Maddie. The premise was good however and I was easily able to imagine her starting out a fresh and bonding with new acquaintances. It was an easy read but I did find myself skimming at times.