Review: The Pact by Karina Halle

The Pact by Karina Halle


Blurb:

*The Pact is a FULL-LENGTH
*STANDALONE (not part of a series, no cliffhanger, fully wrapped-up novel)
*"FRIENDS-TO-LOVERS" CONTEMPORARY ADULT ROMANCE

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.

Beautiful, funny and an ambitious businesswoman (with one hell of an ass), Stephanie Robson is one of Linden McGregor’s best friends and has fit into that box for as long as he’s known her.

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 were in a serious relationship by the time they hit thirty.

It sounded like fun and games at the time 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.

Note: due to the dirty talk and sexy times, The Pact is not meant for anyone under the age of 18. All characters in THE PACT are in their thirties, therefore this is NOT a new adult book...even though love can mess you up at any age.


My thoughts (Roxana):

So here is 1:00 AM and I'm awake for the third night in a row. You may ask yourself...why? Well...last night, I was awake because I HAD (yes....I simply had to know the end) to read a book. And now...because I HAVE to review it, so you'll know more about it....
But first thing first....

You know how every reader, author, blogger starts to make a top ten best books of this year? Yep...I was totally prepared to.make one too...until two days ago, Then, my whole world has been destroyed, my emotions have been toyed and. feelings have been changed in every FREAKIN' way in just 48 hours (yes, that's all it took).

After two days, I'm a new woman with a new (and hawt... because Linden deserves to be described with a wrong word) book boyfriend.
This is a friends-turns-lovers kind of romance, so I didn't really expect that (sure, I've read Ms. Halle other works and I know that I would love it), because I'm more an enemies-turns-lovers kind of a girl, so... to have my whole world (and everything I knew about myself) ripped apart in just two days, it's mind-blowing! But Ms.Halle has won me over through Linden McGregor.
Who is Linden?

He's a sweet, kind, thoughtfull (sometimes thoughtless), rich (but not a snob by any means), hawt guy.
He has personal issues (that he has overcome them ...mostly) because of his parents who are awfull people...more exactly a father domineering who wanted to make from his children just some little minions like him, but when his favorite son turned to be too wild for his tastes, then he tries to manipulate Linden into submission...

Seriously, guys...that creature made me want to find the nearest knife and tell him that he doesn't have the minimal right to abuse and discard like his own children! Because you have to love them inconditionally and forever, despite...no, scratch that.... FOR who they are! Mistakes and past be damned...but, then again, his mother who really pulled the rug under me when I first 'met' her. That...creature *shakes head* was pathetic, and to see her that way with a son who needed her...did something to me, because while I didn't have my mother around me enough time to know me at adulthood, at least life did give me her love for all the time we've been with each other...

I miss her sometimes, but I know that whatever mistakes I would have done...whoever I would've become, she would have been proud of me. So, that been said...I can't understand parents who don't give a damn about their children.
Despite those reckless and indifferent people, Linden has survived and made a career for himself...while Steph had to do it alone and trying to survive the role her parents wanted fill up. Both or our main characters had to fulfill their dreams, while giving up to their hope that one day their parents will be there for them...


Safe to say that when your growing process from a scared and abandoned child to a grown-up with responsabilities and debts, mortgage to be paid, without really enjoying your teenage years.

You became a scarred human being that will fight to death and protect with everything you have, even if your own heart is crushed, and for Steph and Linden their friendship is all they really have! That's way they run from their feelings, because it will put everything they know to danger...

But one night...when they had too much to drink Linden makes a proposal that will change their situation and will alter their friendship: to get married when both are thirties and single....sure there should be an 'if'...right? Well...as they aproach that damned number, they discover that there shouldn't have been an if...

I'm not going to say too much for not spoiling your fun, but all you have to know is that both Steph and Linden will have a long journey until they will make that pact come true.
The story is being told from both Steph and Linden's point of view, so you won't miss anything, being the first to know, before any other character, the reason of every stupid or smart decision they make...also to every dirty thought that hot Scotsman has!

My rating: 5/5

Final Decision: If you want a story that will make you swon, cry and fall for a beautiful story, then there shouldn't be an if! Just read it, because you won't regret it!

About the author

Karina Halle is a former travel writer and rock music journalist and the USA TODAY bestselling author of Love, in English, The Artists Trilogy, Experiment in Terror and other wild and romantic reads. She lives in a 1920's farmhouse on a bucolic island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails, and devours a lot of books.