The Daughter
15-year-old Rosie lies in hospital fighting for her life. She’s trying to tell her mother what happened to her, but she can’t speak the words out loud.
The Mother
Toni is a doting and over-protective mother, terrified for her daughter’s life. Having lost her husband in a tragic accident, Toni has dedicated her life to keeping Rosie safe from harm. She needs to know what secrets Rosie has been keeping, and how she ended up in a hospital bed – but Toni has a secret of her own…
The Pact
Thirty years ago, Toni and her sister Bridget made each other a promise: never to speak of their childhood; to protect each other without asking for help from others, no matter what…
But 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.
I'd like to thank Bookouture for my copy of The Pact which I received via NetGalley.
S.E. Lynes is a new author to me although she has previously written two other psychological thrillers, Valentina and Mother, so I was going into reading The Pact with fresh eyes not being able to make comparisons to her previous books. And boy if either of them are as gripping as The Pact then I'm in for a fab read if I ever get around to reading them... so many books, so little time.
From the outset in the chilling prologue I had so many questions running around my brain, 'Who was it?', 'What had happened?' and 'Why?'. so I couldn't wait to read the following chapters to hopefully get the answers to these questions. If I'm honest I probably was a little bit too impatient and probably swiped a few pages too quickly which then meant I had to go back and read it again...
The Pact is told through the viewpoints of the three main characters in alternating chapters. 15 year old Rosie who is unconscious in hospital, her mother Antonia (Toni) and her aunt Bridget. which meant that we were able to get an overall picture of events each told from their own personal perspectives and the secrets they'd all been hiding. It's hard to go into any more detail about the plot itself without giving away any spoilers but it's fair to say that it made for some uncomfortable reading at times.
Rosie was your typical teenager who wanted the freedom to spread her wings and do the type of things her friends take for granted but with an overprotective mother watching her every move she feels smothered. I'm not of a generation that had mobile phones or social media as a teenager but I'm sure that if I had been then I too would have wanted to be able to join sites, and chat to friends online, without my mother checking my every move but at the same time you do have to be careful.
I'm not a mother myself but I could totally understand the way that Toni was feeling. She'd been through so much in her own life, and since the death of her husband Rosie was all she had left so she wanted to do everything she could to keep her safe and protect her but at what cost. And finally there's Bridget who is the one who keeps the family together, the voice of reason to Toni and the encouraging voice to Rosie. She wasn't there to protect her younger sister when needed but has more than made up for it in later life by always being there for Toni and Rosie.
The Pact explores the bonds of families and the lengths they will go to support and protect one another. I literally devoured this book in a single sitting as I did not want to stop reading or put my Kindle down for a second as I was impatiently waiting for the storyline to develop and unfold throughout the rest of the book. Highly recommended and I'll be watching with interest to see what comes next from S.E. Lynes but in the meantime have added her previous psychological thrillers to my wishlist for a later date.
All book titles in bold are Amazon UK Affiliate links which will earn me a few pence if anyone clicks through and makes a purchase - any money earned will go towards buying books or gifts for giveaways.
No comments:
Post a Comment