Review: The Pact by S. E. Lynes @bookouture

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 happened to them 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.

Review

The Pact by S. E Lynes is a story about secrets, obsession and deception. Bridge and Toni are sisters harboring a deadly secret which led to a pact between the two. Rosie is Toni’s daughter. A daughter that she determined to protect at all costs.

This story is narrated by the three MCs through alternating POVs. It took a little while for me to get the flow of the book and follow the narration. The author used an interesting, unique style to tell the story. It sounds conversational, confessional such that I felt like an eavesdropper. Using this style, the narrative was rolled out gradually with tension and twists unfolding with each chapter. The author managed to shift between different timelines seamlessly hence providing back stories for all the characters. The entire time that I was reading the book, I knew that something bad had either just happened or was about to happen. However, I really couldn’t guess until the author started dropping the clues.

The Pact is wonderfully written, compelling read. It is not the kind of book filled with non-stop action and huge twists. However, it does have a clever plot that kept me guessing to the end. It also has a twist in the final pages that was unexpected and just perfect. I really liked the relationship between the sisters and the daughter/niece, Rosie. I also enjoyed how different themes such as parenthood, family, social media culture were interwoven to create such a fascinating story. What a fabulous read!