Review of The Pact by Karina Halle

Synopsis: It all started with a pinky swear…

Linden McGregor is tall, rugged, and gunslinger handsome; a helicopter pilot with a Scottish brogue and charm to spare. He’s also one of Stephanie Robson’s best friends and has fit into that box for as long as she’s known him.

But some relationships can’t be boxed, can’t be classified, can’t be tamed.

Back in their mid-twenties and tired of the competitive hit-or-miss dating scene of San Francisco, Steph and Linden made a pact to marry each other if neither one of them are in a serious relationship by the time they hit thirty.

It sounds like fun and games but as the years to thirty tick past and lovers come and go out of their lives, the pact becomes larger than life.
Sex is inevitable. Friendships are tested. Hearts are on the line.

The pact is about to change everything.

3.75 Stars!

Review: The story of two friends that become lovers always has a strong pull for me, so I was really excited to read this book. The first part of the book was really slow, however, so I was having a difficult time getting into it, at first. Stephanie, Linden, and James are three friends that have survived most of their 20's together, despite Stephanie having dated James at first. One night, around their mid-20's, Linden and Stephanie make a pinky swear with each other that they will get married, if they are both still single by age 30. Thus begins the countdown to see what will happen in the next few years. You begin to see, too, that both have very strong feelings for one another, but they have always held back, for one reason or another. It's actually a little sad, and Linden seems to realize this, that it takes something supposedly done as a joke, to actually help these two move forward.

I think what is so difficult about this book is that both like each other but almost seem to purposefully not choose the other, which causes both of them to be in relationships that they are not happy in and with people that are such horrible second choices. Linden ends up with a girl who hates his friends, and tries to boss him around and control him with sex, and it just confused me because he was supposedly this strong, self-assured player type, and then this is who he chooses? Stephanie is not much better, and she makes some pretty strange decisions herself.

I do have to say, however, that the story really picks up in the second half, and that is why I was able to finish the book. Stephanie and Linden finally get together, and there is so much heat, and even a little bit of angst, in their story, at that point. Stephanie, bless her heart, is finally all in, but then Linden begins to let other people make decisions for his heart. Overall, the second half helps this story.

Jessica