![Book Review: The Marriage Pact]()
review, Thriller |
I don’t like people telling me to do something that I was already gonna do anyway. I am sure this one would irk everyone. Most of the time, the reinforcement is well meant, but it seldom works in the intended direction. Do you remember the joke about keeping a secret? Warn them not to tell anyone and you will have people hearing about very soon. Newlyweds Alice and Jake face such a conundrum. Read the review of Amazon’s bestselling psychological thriller The Marriage Pact
to know more.
Author: Michelle Richmond
Characters: Alice and Jake, Vivian, Declan and Diane, Orla Scott, Finnegan, JoAnne and Neil Charles
Everything seems perfect for the newly-wedded Alice and Jake. The perfect couple receives the almost perfect gift from an acquaintance. An invite to join an exclusive and secret club called the Pact. The goal of the pact seems very simple: to keep their marriage intact, with few simple rules and a little help from their like minded ‘friends.’
Jake and Alice accept that they both want their marriage to last and accept to be a part of the Pact. When they are presented with a manual with bylaws for their ‘happy marriage,’ the couple take it in a stride. Some of the rules ask them to pick the spouse’s call whatever may be the circumstances, gift each other every month, get away on holiday once in every three months, etc. This practical prescription works very well for both of them very well for a while, and then life happens.
Alice’s firm requires her to put in long hours, and she faces the consequences of neglecting her marriage and the bylaws of the Pact. The ‘punishments’ make them reconsider their allegiance to the Pact, only to realize that ‘no one ever leaves the Pact.’ They work hard to follow the rules, which does help their marriage but the pressure to follow the rules gets overwhelming. How far would you go to keep up your commitment? Give up your marriage? Or the Pact? Grab The Marriage Pact from here, right away.
First off, the premise is entirely new and made so much sense – what could go wrong when you have friends to fall back on to keep your marriage on track? Well, we Indians do know how that works. The family replaces friends in case of our arranged marriages. So yeah, I kept drawing parallels until I read the part about the bylaws. Oh, families are much better – at least they don’t punish. But the comparison stopped right there; the story moved in a fresh direction that I hadn’t expected at all (Yes, I don’t read the blurb before I picked the book). For once I was not predicting all the twists, that came out of nowhere.
The fast paced writing is well appreciated, making The Marriage Pact last in the top 20 of the Amazon bestseller charts for more than ten weeks now. The book with 400 pages could have been cut shorter, but the racy narration mostly made up for it. The statistics from Jake’s work (he is a therapist *eye roll*) could have been avoided, all it did for me was to wonder why he was not doing a better job with his marriage.
At about 3/4ths of the book, I couldn’t wait for the book to end because I felt the story went off the rails and there were too many things making it a mumble jumble. It somehow turned from a psychological thriller to a sci-fi action to self-help(?) in about 100 pages.
There are a few questions left unanswered, and the ending left me wanting for more and better. But of course, either of the ending that was possible would have left me asking more. There were times that I wanted to push the manual against their faces to make them read it. Yes, they had signed off the documents without reading the terms and conditions, and one of them was a lawyer, for God’s sake. If you overlook these flaws and take the plot as such without questioning its credibility, you might enjoy this psychological thriller better.
![Book Review: The Marriage Pact]()
Bookish talks, discussion |
Most of us read to escape into new worlds of our own. Imagine curling up in the bed with a cup of coffee and a book on a rainy day. (Scratch that, I don’t need a cup of joe if it would mean I have to stop reading while I sip the drink.) What could be better than that? Maybe sitting in a library amongst thousands of books with your nose buried in a book. Go ahead tell me what else could a book lover enjoy more?
I read comfortably in public, especially during our commute. Many of us do. Some readers put on their headset to drown the white noise, to drown the chaos around them, to focus better on their book. Few of us do not even need a headset, we zone off and turn deaf while we pick an interesting read until your mother (or someone else) pulls you back to Earth. Books and reading are our solaces, a Zen zone where nothing could go wrong or even if it did things would turn better before you reach the last page. Mostly. One way or the other.
As far as I remember I always had a book for a company when the going got any slower. Of course, there have been phases in my life when I enjoyed sharing the passion of reading with others by discussing whatever I read with them, but they have always been short-lived. I even started this blog to primarily talk about the books I read, since I couldn’t find anyone to listening to my rants. But things have changed. A lot. You ask why? Reading became social.
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Don’t get me wrong. I love being online as much as do, even more than the average Jane does. But still reading is a lonely activity for me. I like to choose my books to obsess hate or write about on my own. My reading interests do not confine to any one single genre. I read about the Holocaust with as much interest as I have about boys worshiping girls. I love Stephen King and Gillian Flynn as deep as my love for Agatha Christie and Mark Twain. I even read Warran Buffet for the heck of it. You get my drift? This means I get to ‘ ‘ship’ or ‘fangirling’ over too many characters.
Of course, social reading is fun and there is always something on your plate to read. You get to meet so many like minded people who will love join your tribe to defend the character you so much. Someone who keeps you updated with the latest gossip from the book world. A book turning into a TV series? You will know it before others. Oh, and the free books that you get to review!
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Yet, reading these days could be exhausting.
Once I finish reading a book, and after having the proper emotional break down the book deserves, that includes but not limited to crying, grinning, shaking your head ‘cuz you can’t even‘, scared that you would be having nightmares and even understandable relief that it ended, I update that I have finished reading the book and what I thought about it in few words on Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook and only because Google is the Lord, Google+. And then talk about it in every one of the Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter groups that I am part of. Defend whatever my thoughts were and defend or accuse the characters’ behavior, as need be, in that book and the series. If someone doesn’t agree, of course, attack another character that the person loves and if you can, make them cry. Well, after all this is done, start the process over by writing a review and posting in all the channels mentioned above.
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Well if you think that is too much, you have not heard the half of it. We just covered the process I go through for a book I read. There are books that I want to read because I do, I have to read because everyone is reading it, I want to own because they look cute and go with my shelf and even books whose cover do not match with the covers of the books I own in the series. Then I follow the authors, their new releases and the requests I have to place and that I have received from the authors for review. Well, it is too tedious even to explain anymore, I give up trying to.
One of my coolest friends was telling me he stopped updating his Goodreads profile after seeing people desperately bumping their ‘read counts’ just to show off. How did a self-satisfying hobby turn into a community driven project so soon? Do we not desire to disconnect from the world anymore? Or have ‘the books’ become the next ‘cool sport’ to bond over? Is reading still a selfish, solitary process or a shared social experience for you? Let me know in the comment section.
![Book Review: The Marriage Pact]()
review, Romance |
I am all for love-hate relationships. There is nothing like seeing the hot headed guy falling head over heels for the sassy mouthed gal (or the vice-versa). So it is not completely off my character to hope Tara and Richard click together at some point. On the other hand, Aidan doesn’t seem very off putting either, with his tattoo and motor bikes. Well, love is complicated and if you are not sure what I am talking about, read on my next review of The Corner Office
.
Book Name: The Corner Office
Author: Katerina Baker
Genre: Fiction – Contemporary, Romance
Characters: Tara Johnson, Richard Boyd, Aidan Smith
Tara Johnson is a hard working woman who fights hard to win her place in the male dominated executive room. She has no personal life other than visiting her ailing mother because her work consumes her entire day. She takes joy and pride in making her work place better for the other women there, the support she didn’t have when she started.
Her work life is still not an easy place, even though she is one of the top executives of a Fortune 500 company, thanks to her nemesis Richard Boyd. They started together fresh out of college and the past fifteen years have done little to ease the competition between them. Their boss John believes their rivalry brings the best out of them, thus helping the company and begins their final race towards their ultimate prize – the Managing Director position.Everything changes when Tara finds herself attracted to her subordinate Aidan, who is every woman’s fantasy. How does this love change Tara’s life? Does she realize that
work place romances are not as easy as it seems before it is too late? You should grab
The Corner Office to know what find the answers.I requested the book looking for an easy read with the plot about interoffice romance with a dark twist. But it proved to be more than I bargained for and it is not your typical love triangle. The plot has a steady pace, and the intimate scenes are refreshingly well written. I finished it in about three hours which is my new best.I liked the premise and the ending which is what we were rooting for. I loved everything about the book except its lead characters. I know what I said sounds confusing. Let me explain.
I tried so hard to like Tara. She is hard working. She is at the top. She has her priorities. She treats other women with respect and encourages them. And yet I failed to like her at all.
Was it because she talks so much about work life balance, while she didn’t have any? Was it because she talks about sexual harassment and then suffers abuses and threats from an ex silently? Or is it about her work place romance? Well, on the whole, I gave up. I don’t like Tara, the lead.
Though two of the lead characters have been trying to beat each other for more than a decade, there is a very little back-story to support that, except that Tara had turned Richard down when he asked her out. And he is supposed to be a playboy, and you are supposed to dislike him. Because he is a serial womanizer; he does not respect others privacy.
But the problem I had with disliking him was that all these reasons were what Tara tells us. There is not one instance, (okay there is one scene – the very first one) that he behaves like a creep. And given the history of Tara’s men (man), I lost the trust on her calling him creep. SoI ended up liking Richard, not in a mushy way but in a ‘thank God he is not what Tara presumed to be’ way.
Despite all these, I kinda liked the undertone of the story that spoke about feminism and women empowerment, without making it preachy. If you want to read an interoffice romance with just a perfect dose of violence, flirty and steamy scenes, The Corner Office should be your pick.
![Book Review: The Marriage Pact]()
review, Thriller |
Series: Book of The Eleanor Raven Series
Author: Karen Long
Characters: DI Eleanor Raven, Laurence Whitefoot, Lieutenant Eddie Myles, Dr. Seb Blackmore
Disclaimer: Thanks to the Author for the free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
The story begins with DI Eleanor Raven undergoing a psychiatric evaluation to she certify that she was fit enough to get back into her groove. She and her partner Laurence Whitefoot are called in to attend a domestic hostage situation that involves an army veteran, where they find a human hand. What they find in the autopsy reports is more than they bargained for, and to make matters worse for them the military is stopping them from digging deeper.
Soon the city has another weird case where dead carcasses of dogs are strung in a boiler room. And add a few more dead bodies, and the Toronto DI Raven has too many things on her plate. Are they all interconnected or is it just her mind that plays tricks on her? Her visits to her psychiatrists are becoming more and more upsetting, and she begins to be wary of him as well. As the body count keeps increasing, her ability is questioned, and it is a race against time.
The only way for to solve the murders is to do what she has been fighting against. Re-visit the demons from the past. Will she be able to conquer her inner conflicts and find the killer on time? Spoiler: she does. Read on The Cold Room
to find out more.
The Cold Room is the third part of the The Eleanor Raven Series
. I have not read the previous works, yet the book worked its charm on me even as a standalone. The writing is tight and makes sure that you would not want to skim down any line. Though there were quite a few cliches, they did not hamper my interest in the story.
I didn’t find any character likable at all, especially DI Raven. I found her too annoying and reckless for my taste. The other characters, which were too many, were not developed to their potential. But that is understandable given the pace that book was set in. And of course, they might have been already dealt with in the previous parts.
I liked that the author doesn’t dumb it down for the readers by explaining every clue and boring them to death. She understands that the readers of this genre would be able to catch up with her thread of thoughts without too many explanations. That being said, wait to be surprised at the end.
You might have read quite a number of thrillers and DI stories. While the premise of this book may not surprise you, the crisp writing and the killer storyline would. If you are looking to read a fast paced thriller that would keep you reading through the midnight, The Cold Room could be very well your choice.
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Drama, review |
Like most readers my to be read list seems never ending, and I have lost hope that I would ever clear it off. On the other hand, my to be reviewed list is not too long but as I do not follow any hard rules in picking the book from that list to review, the books I loved too much or the books that I might find difficult to write about tend to settle farther and farther down the list.
So here I am, picking one of those books that I read a long time ago (read as almost two months) and yet was hesitant to review. Mostly for the fear that I would not be doing any justice to it or that I might be a tad partial in my critique. Someone suggested me, Zadie Smith, when I was talking about feminism and related topics. On the quest to finding her much-acclaimed debut ‘ White Teeth’ or ‘On Beauty,’ I stumbled upon Swing Time her newest release.
Book Name: Swing Time
Author: Zadie Smith
Genre: Fiction – Literary, drama
Characters: Tracey, Aimee, Lamin, Fern and unnamed narrator
Setting: The USA
Accolades:
- 2017 Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize
- Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction
- 2017 Finalist, Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction
The story follows two little ‘mixed race’ girls who grow up in the not so rich part of London Tracey, the dancer, and our unnamed narrator. Tracey stands out in everything they do together – she is confident, rebelling and imaginative and a better dancer of the two, while the narrator is a good student and hopes to get out of the neighborhood. Her mother’s upbringing makes sure she realizes that only hard work pays, while Tracey’s home-life is almost ungoverned.
She joins as an assistant to the super star singer Aimee and travels worldwide as her works demands. She loves the job as she shuttles between the UK and a downtrodden country in the West Africa where Aimee was building a girls school. She feels alienated in the Africa as much as she does in London.
Our narrator is quite taken with strong characters right from her childhood while she is happy being invisible in the backdrop. She doesn’t have any talent like Tracey or an ambition like her mother or the drive like Aimee. This makes her a less compelling character to love or remember.
How do the friends gravitate towards each other when things go south? How long could she live in the shadows of others or if she did, would she happy? Read Swing Time to know more.
The story oscillates among various time frames and places and does a brilliant job in weaving a quite fascinating tale. Though there are a few parts of the story that might have been little dragging and I admit to skimming a bit here and there, the author’s literary skill makes it all worth the while.
I found Swing Time to be a solid piece of social commentary, rather than a piece of fiction that talks about two friends, which is what it is primarily. Zadie deals a variety of themes like different races and the privileges that come with them, parenthood and the importance of family, poverty and classes, that add up succinctly into the coming of age tale.
I particularly liked the thread of dichotomies between the haves and have nots, coloured and uncoloured, the Americans and the British, the talented and privileged and the ones that aren’t, that ran throughout the novel. This is the first time I am reading Zadie Smith. I am not entirely in love with the book, but I am ready to read more of hers, like White Teeth and On Beauty that everyone has been raving so far.
Swing Time is not your typical summer reads. It has little hard to get into and harder to stick to especially in the middle. If you love reading prose that promises you insights about the society and the world as a whole accompanied by beautiful and strong writing – Swing Time should be your pick.
