The Marriage Pact Experiment (blog tour) – book by Michelle Richmond

 

The Marriage Pact is a thriller by Michelle Richmond. In an honor of it’s paperback release, lovely people from Penguin Random House decided to do an experimental blog tour in which bloggers won’t post a book review, but will stick to the rules that were given (for at least 2 weeks) and later will let everyone know how that experiment impacted their lives.

I want to thank Jenny Plat for invitation to be part of this experimental blog tour.

This is my story…

When I got the invitation and read the rules, I have to admit although I was pretty excited, some rules I didn’t like at first (like giving my boyfriend all of my passwords).
However, I wanted to do it and see if there will be some kind of big change in my boyfriend’s and my lives since we pretty much already stick for the most of the rules (spoiler alert: there wasn’t).

So… without further ado, these are the rules:

1. Always answer when your partner calls
2. Exchange at least two thoughtful gifts every month
3. Cook your partner dinner twice a week
4. Unfollow your ex on social media
5. Never spend more than two nights apart
6. Tell your partner all your passwords
7. Only wear clothes your partner deems attractive or
appropriate
8. Enable the ‘find my phone’ feature so your partner
always knows where you are
9. Have no secrets from each other
10. Don’t even think about trying
to escape

 

As I already stressed out, the rules we stick to (my boyfriend and me) are already pretty much similar to these ones. I personaly don’t see them as rules, I just think it’s the way our relationship functions.
However, some rules were new and some we had to adapt since they were imposibble to stick to because of higher force (read: work).

There was never a question whether I’d always answer his calls, because that what I always did, so that rule wasn’t hard to follow.

When it came to rule no 2, that was a funny story. I decided to buy him a pullover (it’s his favorite type of clothes and looks pretty good on him) pre Valentine’s Day and he loved it! But, he thought I bought it to him since there were final sales at the stores, so he didn’t even think about the rules.

The rule no 3  we kinda skipped or adjusted. The thing is, I always cook lunch, almost never dinner. It’s practically the same, only we eat earlier in the day. It’s because I work the way I work, and with his job, it’s just easier to cook lunch.
I love cooking so that one wasn’t hard to follow. I actually cook at least 4 times per week (I don’t only when I don’t have time or when there are leftovers from the day before), so to be honest, this rule passed unnoticed.

Deleting exes wasn’t a problem because I don’t have a contact with any of mine, and my boyfriend is not on any social media, so he didn’t have anyone to delete either!

The rule no 5 we just had to skip. It’s because of his job. Sometimes he has night shifts and we just couldn’t stick to that rule 100%. However, since we live together, we spent every other night together, so I am counting this rule as checked!

Tell you partner all your passwords – well, here is where I cheated. To be honest, I thought this rule was kinda stupid, so I just left open all of my passwords on my computer. If he wanted, he could have visited everything and read everything, but he didn’t, because he’s not nosy and he knows I have no secrets.

The rule no 7 was the hardest to follow. I would wear an attractive clothes for a day, then I would forget, or would feel stupid waring certain clothes. So this one was adjuted as well.
If it was up to my boyfriend, I would wear lacy body all the time, but that’s not how you can function 24/7.
But I tried, I really tried!

The rule no 8 we also skipped because trust it or not, I don’t even have that option on my phone (or maybe I just couldn’t/didn’t know how to find it).

I can safely say that I have no secrets from him, so rule no 9 wasn’t hard to follow. 
It was even sad that there wasn’t that “I have to tell you something” moment that I usually read about in my books.
If nothing, this rule showed my how boring my life actually is.

And as for rule no 10 – I didn’t even cross my mind to escape. I love being in a relationship with him and I would only move forward with him, not without him! 

 

About the book:

Newlyweds Alice and Jake are a picture-perfect couple. Alice, once a singer in a well-known rock band, is now a successful lawyer. Jake is a partner in an up-and-coming psychology practice. Their life together holds endless possibilities. After receiving an enticing wedding gift from one of Alice’s prominent clients, they decide to join an exclusive and mysterious group known only as The Pact.

The goal of The Pact seems simple: to keep marriages happy and intact, and most of its rules make sense: Always answer the phone when your spouse calls. Exchange thoughtful gifts monthly. Plan a trip together once per quarter. . . .

Never mention The Pact to anyone.

Alice and Jake are initially seduced by the glamorous parties, the sense of community, their widening social circle of like-minded couples–and then one of them breaks the rules. The young lovers are about to discover that for adherents to The Pact, membership, like marriage, is for life, and The Pact will go to any lengths to enforce that rule. For Jake and Alice, the marriage of their dreams is about to become their worst nightmare.

Follow the tour:

Book Review: The Glittering Art of Falling Apart by Ilana Fox

Title: The Glittering Art of Falling Apart
Author: Ilana Fox
Publisher: Orion Publishing Group
Date: February 4th, 2016
Pages: 400
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased

 

Synopsis (from Goodreads): 1980s Soho is electric. For Eliza, the heady pull of its nightclubs and free-spirited people leads her into the life she has craved – all glamour, late nights and excitement. But it comes at a heavy cost.

Cassie is fascinated by her family’s history and the abandoned Beaufont Hall. Why won’t her mother talk about it? Offered the chance to restore Beaufont to its former glory, Cassie jumps at the opportunity to learn more about her past.

Separated by a generation, but linked by a forgotten diary, these two women have more in common than they know . . .

Review:

Do you know what I usually do when I’m about to review a perfect book? I postpone it, and pospone it, and pospone it…
Because, sometimes it is hard to find the words to describe how much, and why, I liked the book so much.
There’s sometimes that self-doubt that I just wouldn’t do it justice.

This is what happened in this case. I started writing my review 6 days ago, and here I am now, still not sure if I’m going to finish it this time around.

I guess you can already guess that I loved this book. I did, I loved it so much! It is the best book I have read this year so far, and it was my first 5 stars read of 2018.

I heard about this book two years ago when it appeared in many women’s fiction bloggers lists of favorite books.
The story sounded promising and let’s face it: The cover is really appealing (and I always judge books by their covers, I can’t help it!).

The story follows two women in two different times: Cassie in nowadays and Eliza in 1980s.

Cassie was always fascinated with Beaufont Hall, a house that belonged to her family for years and years.
Unfortunately, because of  poor financial situation, Cassie’s family can’t afford to have Beaufond Hall anymore, and they are about to sell it.
For the last time, Cassie goes to Beaufond House to sort things out, say her last goodbye to the home she always wanted to live in and spends some time going through all the belongings in a hope she’ll find something valuable and figure out how to save the house.

There, in Beaufond Hall, she finds diaries of a forgotten family member called Eliza. Forgotten is maybe a wrong word in this case, because Eliza and her mother were subjects no one ever talked about, a tabu-theme of the family.

Eliza is a young girl who’s story is placed in 1980s in Soho. She was bored with her every day life so she moved there to work and have fun. We follow her around and see her dreams being shattered, her friends falling apart and herself trying her best but still chasing the tail of the creature called better life.

Both stories are told in third person, and intertwined into a whole.
I assumed how the story might have ended, and to be honest, I can’t tell you if the reason for that was it’s predictability, of the writer in me recognized the way she would have wrapped this novel.
It doesn’t really matter, because one thing I can tell you: I wouldn’t want it any other way.
In my opinion, the completion of the story was perfect.

If I had to choose, I’d say I liked Eliza’s story better. It was more interesting, more emotional and more lush.
At some points, I could have imagine scenes from her parts so well, it was like watching a movie in my mind.

Overall, I would highly recommend this novel.
Even if it belongs to women’s fiction genre, I think men would also enjoy reading it.
After all, it doesn’t talk about women’s problems, but about life in general, and all it’s obstacles, highs and lows.

 

IMPORTANT: 

If you haven’t, you can still ented a giveaway I’m hosting on Twitter, in which you can win this book and some croatian chocolate: ENTER HERE