Original heading: The Marriage Pact - progress 0%

Noooooooooooooooooooo I hate first-person-present-tense!

I'm going to wait until after the this first scene to make sure the whole book isn't like this. If so I'm DNFing this and giving it the lowest possible rating.

UPDATE:

The good news is that the FP-present-tense only lasted for the 1st chapter, and the remainder that I was able to read was normal FP-past-tense. The bad news is that, after 6 chapters and 36 minutes of audio (yes I was checking my watch), it just wasn't very interesting. I didn't know anything about the characters except their occupations and their wedding, and frankly didn't give a rip what The Pact was, or why it matters, or what happened to the couple.

DNF at 5%.

Audiobook, borrowed from my public library. Tom Taylorson's performance was okay.
( )

Umm Im not entirely sure what i have just read lol.
It took a bit of getting into but it sucks you in and its a case of curiosity killed the cat! You have to keep reading just to satisfy the curiosity this book throws up.
Its extremely well written even if the plot is a wee bit far fetched, but it will be a book you certainly remember reading for a long time after you finish the last page.
The story is based around newly wed couple Jake and Alice and is told from Jakes point of view.
You hear of people getting terrible wedding presents or weird random wedding gifts but i have to say Jake and Alice's present from one of her clients has to top them all!!
The gift is a beautiful wooden box carved with the words The Pact that is locked with no key. It is an invitation to join an exclusive group for married couples that claims to help you maintain a happy successful marriage for life.
The Pact has rules and these rules must be adhered too at all times or there will be consequences.
Rules such as
Always answer when your spouse calls.
Exchange thoughtful gifts each month.
Plan a trip once per quarter.
Have no secrets from your spouse.
Unfortunately our newly loved up couple they sign the contracted and join The Pact before reading the large copy of rules!
To start off with it is more than they could have hoped for, they are swept away with the glittering world of dinner parties and vacations but they soon realise that they have tied themselves into a cult, a cult that won't let you leave and who's punishments for breaking the rules are a lot more serious than they could ever have imagined.
Alice is the first to break one of the rules just by spending to long at her office and her punishment served is taken for two days into a desert compound that seems to be an abandoned prison.
And thats just the beginning, The Pact has its own judicial system with actual prisons, courts and torture chambers and if even the smallest rule is broken you find yourself in court to be sentenced.
Jake and Alice's lives are soon consumed by The Pact with seemingly no way out.
Can their marriage survive and what will it take to break away and escape from the hell they signed up too.
Definitely a book to put in your tbr pile :-) ( )

A strange wedding gift, an invitation to a culture to strengthen a marriage, turns into a nightmare. Do they survive? Are things as they appear? Very engrossing and entertaining story. ( )

The Marriage Pact is a quasi sci-fi mystery by Michelle Richmond. It deals with a cult that ensures that marriages will last. Couples sign a lengthy contract with hundreds of rules they must abide by or they suffer extreme consequences. Maybe a great premise but so poorly executed that you never believe the story. There is some interest about what makes a marriage work. I guess the “mystery” is solved as the novel comes to a close but you won’t really care. Skip this book unless you can’t resist the premise. ( )

Unfortunately, this book was a DNF for me. I was not interested in the characters at all, and the pace was very slow. Great idea, poorly conceived. That's pretty much all I have to say about the book; I gave it two separate tries before I finally gave up about 25% of the way through. ( )