Starting a new job is nerve wrecking to say the least especially your first job. So turning up and in your first week, the office dream boat is chatting you up and someone takes an instant dislike to you because of that…it’s a mixed start…. could it possibly get worse for Freya?
The Pact plays out both from Freya’s first day and from Nicole’s death with the odd chapter about how Freya met her four besties. As the story jumps around, I got a true sense of the persecution that was afoot. Nicole is a nasty piece of work, a total biatch to the new starter! But in the new world post Nicole, things are far from easy. This is a story of bullying to the extreme and maybe from the grave!
The climax is brilliant, I thought I knew exactly what was going on, suspect sorted and everything but then boom Heydenrych throws a curve ball which I did not see coming. Bejeezus!! Just WOW!!
The Pact is an extremely tense read. Each page I turned, I could feel the thread of tension getting tighter and tight. This is a fabulous psychological thriller pact with attention seeking (and grabbing) tension. If you like your psych-thrillers, you need to get your grubby mitts on The Pact!

The Pact tells the story of Freya Matthews, a computer coder who gets her dream job at a trendy new start-up tech company called Atypical in San Francisco. Things seem to be going well as Freya solves various tricky computer problems, impressing her enigmatic boss, Julian Cox, the founder and CEO of Atypical, and catching the eye of colleague, Jay Singh.

One of the other coders, Nicole Whittington, takes an almost instant dislike to Freya, mainly because she feels that Freya has stolen her man, and things start to turn nasty as Nicole makes nasty remarks and mocks her clothes, hair, etc.

After months of bullying, Freya begins to dread going into work and, if it wasn’t for Jay’s support and their relationship, she would probably have quit. To teach Nicole a lesson, the pair decide to play a prank on her. Unfortunately, the same night, Nicole is bludgeoned to death in her apartment with a small bronze statue.

Isla Davis, a news reporter on the local newspaper, the San Francisco Times, investigates the murder, with some unofficial help from the lead inspector on the case, Detective Simon Cohen, and she tries to unravel the events that led up to the awful crime.

The book hops about in time, which made interesting reading as I tried to put all the clues together and work out exactly what was going on. It was interesting to see the different viewpoints and try and work out who was telling the truth. We also learnt more about Freya’s difficult past and how she’d had to really work to achieve her dream career, and about Isla’s past life and the moment that spurred her on to become a reporter.

With dark undercurrents of workplace bullying and sexual harassment, The Pact was a relevant, current read on issues facing women in life and at work. The chapters involving Nicole’s bullying of Freya were cleverly written and I found myself getting more and more annoyed at Nicole and hating her for being so nasty to Freya for no apparent reason. It all seemed rather petty as she’d only just met Freya and hadn’t got to know her properly.

It’s frightening how much information is available about a person online and this is another key theme of the book: Julian does research to discover what things Freya is fond of, presenting her with appropriate gifts when she starts the company.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Pact; it was well written and uncomfortable reading at times and rather dark and edgy. I often shared in Freya’s fears and discomfort when she was experiencing stressful moments – the bullying and harassment from Nicole and the stalking via text messages that she endured later on in the book. Many of the characters in the book were rather unlikable and they all seemed to have an underlying nastiness to them to some degree! The book had some clever twists and misdirections, and I liked the ending, although I had guessed what would happen.

I’ll keep an eye out for Amy’s next book and will have to read her debut, Shame on You, which I already have on my Kindle!

This book starts with such a positive outlook, a book that shows someone achieving her dream role and looking to the future. It feels a bit too good to be true, and this soon turns out to be right as the atmosphere quickly changes, with a sinister undertone of bullying and manipulation taking front and centre.

Freya herself seemed innocent, although my instinct was that all was not as it seems in this book. Everything seemed to be against her, apart from her relationship with Jay. She was clearly struggling and the reader is supposed to feel some sympathy for her at these points. I did feel like there was something not quite right throughout though…

The idea of the prank that Freya played on Nicole runs throughout and it’s a constant reminder that something happened and it makes the reader desperate to know what. I really liked the pace of this, it was fast and held my attention but kept enough details to keep the momentum of the story going. I was desperate to know what exactly happened, and the ending definitely didn’t disappoint.

I don’t want to give too much away, but I loved the ending. It kept the tone and style of the story going right up until the last page and I was left very satisfied. This was such a great thriller and I’d definitely recommend!

The Pact is highly addictive because you are never quite sure where it’s going and the ending is ultimately satisfying, I love how this author plots and the writing is brilliant.

Let's be honest!  We've all met those colleagues/people who make visit our dark-sides in daydreams - the ones where we come up the most interesting ways of exacting petty revenge.  (Please tell me it isn't just me).  Well Amy Heydenrych brings this concept to life in The Pact.

Freya and Jay decide to make this a reality when Jay's ex and Freya's colleague Nicole wears them down by her persistent bullying.  After constructing a prank things take a turn for the worst when Nicole is found dead the next morning.  So begins the thrilling and paranoid ride into Freya's world.

The narration is through the eyes of Freya and journalist Isla and although the story beings after Nicole's death the timeline of the book is not linear.  This way of writing takes more concentration than some novels but I like it.  I love the feeling of getting to a really interesting part only for time to jump and then I have to wait a while to return.  For me, The Pact did this and I just couldn't stop turning the pages so I could find out what happened next in each narrative or timeline.  It's like a giant jigsaw that takes a bit more effort that expected but leaves you with such a good feeling when you make it to the end.

The plot is cleverly and intricately pulled together through a labyrinth of twists and turns and I found it totally gripping.

"It was just a joke, a little slice of revenge..."

The story at the heart of this book is one that is all too familiar to most women. We all have stories about the male colleague who makes unwelcome suggestive remarks, gets a bit too handsy, holds onto a hug for that little bit too long or makes us feel uncomfortable in a way we can’t put our finger on. I bet there’s someone in your mind that describes right now. I know there is in mine. And what do we do? We usually brush it aside so we don’t cause a problem and tell ourselves it’s harmless fun. And if we do report it then we face the accusations that we led them on, did something to cause it and watch as things are twisted to paint them as the victim and us as the harasser. The #MeToo movement is beginning to change the tides and has inevitably sparked a wave of books and other media that address these issues. The Pact is the best I’ve read yet.

I didn’t expect this to be such a timely book but I am glad this author chose to write this particular story. As well as sexual harassment the book takes a look at other social issues such as bullying in the work place, the inequality between the sexes in certain professions, women being pitted against each other and how the media looks at female victims of crime. All the topics were handled in an honest and sensitive manner that felt realistic and sadly relatable.

The author filled this book an eclectic mix of strong, intelligent but flawed female characters. The narrators, Isla and Freya, are both ambitious and passionate about their chosen field. Both have things in their past that have left them a little fragile and fractured but also gave them strength that I don’t think they recognised in themselves at first. I liked both characters and thought their bad decisions only made them more human and relatable. Nicole was the mean girl. While she’s alive we only see her through Freya’s eyes and, as she is being bullied by her, that’s quite a biased lens. I could see how some people were manipulating things and wondered if there were things we didn’t know about that were contributing to her behaviour. Another thing that happened because we only see her from Freya’s point of view is that it was hard at times to be sympathetic or mournful of her death. The choice to make her both murder victim and villainess, and the author’s ability to evoke in me such constrasting feelings towards her, were a testament to her talent. The characters who manipulated, lied and harassed people were expertly written (I’m not naming them to avoid spoilers). They were classic examples of abusers and narcissist - masquerading behind a veil of charm, charisma, kindness and kinship. Their victims were like lambs to the slaughter at the hands of their expert scheme.

The story is written in multiple timelines and moves somewhat sporadically between them. It felt choppy and confusing at times as a result and I sometimes had to double check what timeline we were in to make sense of things. But as more of the story was told this got better and things flowed more smoothly. There were times I liked the use of multiple timelines as they were used to weave clues through the story and tease the reader before jumping to another point in the story, leaving us in suspense.

The Pact manages to hit all the requirements for a riveting, explosive and involving thriller while also being an acutely observed commentary on some of the most harrowing, difficult and important issues we face. While I did guess some things early on I was left with my jaw on the floor when the author delivered the coup de grace.

Thank you to NetGalley and Zaffre for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A cleverly twisted tale here from Amy Heydenrych, intriguing and oft unlikable characters with a bullying in the workplace central premise that is anger inducing quite often.

The Pact is highly addictive because you are never quite sure where it’s going and the ending is ultimately satisfying, I love how this author plots and the writing is brilliant.

Definitely recommended.

The Pact by Amy Heydenrych is a riveting psychological thriller full of twists.

This book has such a fabulous synopsis that worked its tempting though brief magic on me straightaway!

Freya Matthews lands her dream job at Atypical, a tech company in Silicon Valley, as a data scientist. She quickly excels at her job, and starts dating new colleague, Jay Singh, but then another co-worker, Nicole Whittington , who also happens to be Jay's ex, starts finding fault with everything - her work, her appearance and all things in between. Freya tells Jay about the bullying and together they concoct a revenge prank. The next morning, Nicole is found dead in her apartment. Battered to death with a bronze statue, even the lead investigator who lets reporter and journalist, Isla Davis, into the crime scene, seems perturbed.

The Pact is told from the perspectives of Freya and Isla, with chapters set in the past and present, the story building through different events and revealing the ways in which Freya’s health suffered due to the constant stress at work and the investigation into Nicole’s death.

Amy Heydenrych's writing style was delightful, leaving me few clues as to what was coming next. The reader was not privy to many key pieces of information, helping to maintain the high levels of intrigue. Even after most of the story had been told, the author adroitly continued to imply ambiguities, so I was still struggling to figure out the precise truth and the reasons behind it. With no disappointments, this was a cleverly plotted page-turner with many twists leading up to an exciting, head-scratching conclusion. Workplace bullying, sexual harassment, toxic female friendships, and gender inequality all had a place in this fabulous and compulsive thriller.

I totally recommend The Pact and I'm already looking forward to Amy Heydenrych's next offering!

This review was written voluntarily and was not influenced by the fact that I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from Zaffre via NetGalley.

Newly graduated Freya arrives at her dream job at one of San Francisco's hottest start-up company's, Atypical. A talented coder, Freya has had to work hard to get through college, having no parents to help her out financially. Luckily, she has a loyal and loving friendship group.
She is quickly welcomed into her new role. CEO Julian seems to know everything about her and has added finishing touches to her work space to make her feel welcome. And she makes an instant connection with fellow coder, Jay who she starts to fall for from day one. The only problem is another female member of staff, Nicole who does her absolute best to make Freya's life a living hell, keeping up a constant stream of bullying. She takes credit for Freya's work, damages her property and is generally unkind, encouraging other female staff to exclude her.
One evening, at an office party, Freya and Jay decide to play a prank on Nicole. But the next day, Nicole is found dead at her apartment, killed by a head injury inflicted by a bronze statue, and Freya can't help but wonder if their prank was the cause.
Isla is a journalist with a good relationship with the police who is first on the scene of the murder. Having being attacked herself, she has a special affinity to women who have been hurt. Working with the police, she is determined to find out who killed Nicole.
Freya and Jay agree a pact, to keep secret what they did. But before long, Freya herself feels threatened. Does someone know what she did? Could she be next?
You certainly need to have your wits about you while reading this book. Told from both Freya's and Isla's point of view, the book skips through multiple timelines moving before and after the murder at almost dizzying speed. It is a real page turner though...I had my suspicions about what happened to Nicole but of course I was completely wrong!
I felt really sorry for Freya - the workplace bullying by the other women is just horrible. After the murder, she also starts gets threatening and sexual messages, and I can't imagine what that must be like!
The ending was one of those that left me scratching my head a little. It made me want to start again from the beginning to see if I'd missed some clues. A great thriller, the perfect book to break those reading slumps we sometimes find ourselves in.

I am so incredibly excited to be on this blog tour for a South African author who I’m so immensely fond of, and I’m thrilled that this is now her second international release!!

I couldn’t put this book down – I found it absolutely riveting! It’s topical, relevant and something that so many women in the workplace will find relatable: bullying. Yes, not schoolyard bullying, but that snide, nasty bullying that’s done quite openly by females towards their fellow female workers in an office environment. The book also moves into the sphere of cyber bullying and ventures to the topic of vital female bonds both in the workplace and life itself: female friendships that see us through our darkest moments.

Freya has overcome the struggles of a difficult childhood and youth. From numerous foster homes to living in her car, sheer determination, resilience and support from her closest friends has seen her rise above the difficulties to step into her dream job and onto the ladder of success that will lead to the bright future she deserves. She walks into Atypical, one of the country’s top tech start-ups, knowing that she’s earned this job and that she is going to play a part in transforming the lives of women in third world countries.

From day one, everything at Atypical is dream-like. From her fantastic boss, Julian, to what looks like a potential relationship with colleague Jay who is right on her wavelength, and the work itself is just what Freya has been preparing for. She loves coding and knows it’s something she’s really good at. But all dreams have to have a bit of an edge and in Freya’s dream, it’s Nicole Whittington.

Nicole is Jay’s ex, and Freya unfortunately needs to work closely with her on a work project. It seems that Nicole dislikes her from the very first minute she walks into Atypical. She’s the only one who doesn’t welcome her warmly onto the team, and she makes those ugly little comments behind her back – just loud enough for Freya to hear – at every opportunity she gets. Freya’s confidence is undermined. She knows she’s good at what she does, but what if she’s just not good enough. Complaints to her boss achieve nothing and the bullying continues … and escalates to such an extent that Freya starts to think she’s losing control of her life.

And then one night, while they’re celebrating the achievement of a successful deadline, she finally tells Jay that she just can’t take the constant attacks any more. He tells her he knows just how to make it stop, and together they play what he says is a harmless prank on Nicole. The next morning she is dead … brutally murdered.

Freya is horrified, wracked with guilt. How on earth could their seemingly innocuous prank have resulted in such a shocking ending? That was never the intention!

Told from the points of view of Freya, and Isla the investigating journalist on the case, in differing timelines from both before and after the murder, Heydenrych takes her readers on a journey into the minds of two deeply damaged souls: both damaged in very different ways that they cannot escape from; damage that characterises their behaviour and their reactions in ways that others may not comprehend.

The author’s depiction of the different methods of attack are so detailed that one can actually feel the levels of discomfort reaching out from within the pages of the book, to wrap their tentacles around you, drawing you in and making you either complicit or prey, depending on your viewpoint.

The pace is fast, the chapters mostly brief and I could not put this down! It’s the perfect holiday read, despite its uncomfortable topic. But at its most basic level, who can resist a story about bitchy co-workers, an office relationship, and a prank gone wrong … which is ultimately what this is …

It’s a 5-star read. I loved it! This is the holiday read I’m recommending to everyone!

My thanks to Bonnier Zaffre Books for a digital edition via NetGalley of Amy Heydenrych’s ‘The Pact’ in exchange for an honest review. As the novel was published the day that I began reading, I opted to buy its audiobook edition to combine listening with reading the ebook provided.

Freya has recently begun working for an exciting tech company and started dating her colleague, Jay. Yet Nicole, her fellow employee, seems determined to make her life a misery. Eventually Freya snaps and tells Jay about the bullying. Together they concoct a revenge prank. The next morning, Nicole is found dead in her apartment .

The pact of the title is made between Freya and Jay to not mention to the police their prank. However, things continue to get complicated and Freya begins to receive disturbing explicit texts and the like.

The narrative moves backwards and forwards in time with Nicole’s murder as the central point of reference and hops between Freya’s point of view and that of Isla, a journalist covering Nicole’s murder.

For the most part I didn’t have any problem with the bouncing about, though I did feel that the story was a bit slow in the middle. Still, overall an engaging psychological thriller with some interesting twists.

Reading Amy Heydenrych’s comments following the story it appears that her main inspiration for the novel was the issue of office bullying. Having been bullied at work myself I really appreciated her highlighting this issue as well as stressing the positive aspects of friendship between women in the workplace.

I hadn’t realised until reading the final notes that Amy is South African as the novel is set in California. I smiled reading her thanks to some U.S.A. readers for ensuring no ‘rogue South African phrases or words’ made it into the novel.

Given how much I enjoyed this, I likely will read more of her work.

This book was not what I expected. I was really excited by the idea of a Pact, but it was not much of a pact. There's no real pact, I got so excited, but a pact takes at least two consenting adults. The title comes from different pacts, but it was let down. I got so excited for the title, it just wasn't what I was hoping for. Now, that I've lowed your expectations now for a fair review. It's not the book's fault that I had hoped for something else.

There is a lot of characters introduced, some that have very little effect of the plot, so the emphasis seems obvious misdirect. We have two POV characters, Isla a crime Journalist and Freya a newly graduated Computer Programmer who has just got her dream job but things go wrong quickly when her boss decides to bully her over some guy. The POV jumps time a lot, everything is framed in terms of the murder which works pretty well.

Fun fact: Apparently, this book is set in the past. You see Freya is a Millennial at 22 but her thirty-something boss is not. Now there's some debate but that debate makes Freya Gen Z. Born between 1981 – 1996 is the given, some go straight to 1999, but someone whose Thirty is definitely Millennial. I don't how old Heydenrych but it makes me think she not Millennial because Millennials are very aware they are in their thirties now. We're so old. It was an odd line anyway. I get why it's there but doesn't fully work.

This book has a lot going on. The bullying in the work place, by someone who is senior to Freya if not her direct boss. Your boss bullying you in your dream job does seem like a nightmare. Bullying books usually lack stakes which obviously this one has stakes. It also deals with living with the trauma of sexual assault and the threat of sexual assault that women face in their daily lives.
Heyenrych talks about wanting to show the power and intensity of women friendships, but there's so much about being unminded by men that doesn't really feel like the focus. I feel like having both Isla and Freya have 50% doesn't work, I feel it has to one or the other. There's a lot of Heydenrych wants to say. Freya's friendships do not feel the focus. I wish they were, that was the sort of book I hoped this book to be.

The solution of this works fine, but one of the major leads up to giving the characters a solution feels very tacked on and unnecessary. I do have thoughts, but it feels too much of a spoiler to discuss it in a review. Maybe I add spoiler section on Goodreads.

Overall, I give this 3/5 stars for Lace Cuffles. I was slow getting into this book, I read several graphic novels and audiobooks during the time it took me to read it, then read the majority of it one day after reading 10 pages or so a day then with big breaks, so I know that can affect how a book reads. I would read Heydenrych again, which I think is the biggest sign of whether a book was worth reading.
Isla also has Attention Deficit Disorder, it is mention only once and see nothing in the text to support it but I don't have ADD so I might have missed things.

After a very confusing start where the chapters kept flying backwards and forwards to different timelines I finally got the hang of it and started to get my head round the characters and timeline.

Three main women , Freya the new employee at a hot tech company, Nicole the frosty bullying colleague and also murder victim. Then finally my favourite character Isla the damaged reporter. It’s very significant with the Me Too Movement that this book shows insight to how women are treated in the workplace although in this case also how women can make the worst enemies.

This book also highlights domestic rape and how it is viewed differently to stranger rape and even how the victim self analyses about whether they had provoked it.

If it wasn’t for the male detective, who is the only decent male character amongst the sleaze hidden by charm, this would definitely have had an anti men vibe. However the way he cares for Isla shows that there are nice men who can be trusted.

This book is a very harsh reminder that it’s still unsafe to be a woman. “You can lock your doors but you’re still at risk”. It really makes you think about how different your life is just because you are female.

It was slightly repetitive in places and the pace was fairly slow but it had some nice twists and turns and is a thought provoking read which would make a good choice for book clubs.

Freya starts a new job in a fast paced tech company as a data scientist, a coder. She quickly excels at her job, finds romance with a colleague, Jay, but then Nicole, another colleague starts picking fault with her work, her appearance and everything in between.

She reports the bullying to her boss, But nothing seems to be done. After a drunken evening Jay suggests a prank on Nicole, but when Nicole’s body is found in her flat, they wonder if things went too far. Now Freya is receiving upsetting text messages, someone is watching her……is it Nicole’s killler?

Told in chapters set in the past and present, and from Freya’s and the journalist’s, Isla’s perspectives, showing how events built and how Freya’s health suffered due to the constant stress at work and the investigation into Nicole’s death. A tale of bullying and sexual harassment in the workplace. Tense, twisty and with some real surprises in this gripping psychological thriller.

Thank you to The publishers and NetGalley for 5he opportunity to read this ebook for free. This is my honest, unbiased review.

THE PACT; A DARK, TWISTING THRILLER
With office bullying and sexual harassment at its core, The Pact by Amy Heydenrych is a hard hitting, intriguing novel. It is an intense read full of dark twists.

All the way through reading this novel I felt that its title, The Pact was not quite right. However it wasn’t until I reached the very end that I realised why it is actually called this; and believe me, I’ve changed my mind. The Pact is a very clever title for this book.

The story opens with Nicole’s neighbours hearing a ‘high-pitched shriek‘, ‘laughter turned hysterical‘, ‘inappropriate for a weeknight‘ but ‘Nothing to cause alarm.’ The neighbours don’t realise that Nicole is being brutally murdered.

Nicole has a back story – in life she was an office bully. Consumed with jealousy towards her colleague Freya who started dating her ex boyfriend Jay, Nicole was intent on making Freya’s life a misery. Pushed to the limit, Freya confides in Jay about the bullying and together they concoct a revenge prank. It is that same night that Nicole is murdered.

Did the prank that Freya and Jay play have anything to do with Nicole’s murder? But then Freya becomes the victim of a similar prank and starts to wonder if she is in danger too.

I did enjoy The Pact and there is no doubt about it, this novel brings to the fore uncomfortable societal issues. Not just the blatant sexual harassment that runs right through the core of this novel, but also how women are often objectified in everyday society and are attacked using derogatory sexualised terms:

Words like slut and bitch will be thrown around carelessly, without thought to the woman she was.

However for me I felt The Pact lost momentum at times and the plot was maybe not as tight as it could have been. I also felt that the characters were a bit two dimensional – apart from Isla. Feisty, vulnerable and brave, for me Isla is the true heroine of the story.

The Pact is a thought-provoking, sinister novel that does confront dark, societal issues. I also think it would be great adapted for the screen.

The blurb and cover draw my attention immediately and I had to read this book as soon as possible. Add that it's a new to me author and I didn't know what to expect and I was all set for a good reading time.
It's a fast paced read in most of the parts and it definitely keeps you engaged as the chapters are short and the POV are mostly if two of the main characters . I enjoyed how every day by day of these women life is presented and how they try to live on with a secret and a pact made out of friendship and care for each other.
I was a bit lost in the middle and the true was revealed just in the last three pages but I'll definitely recommend this story.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange of my honest opinion.

Oh wow!! What a great start!!

I love when books are told by the journalist' perspective (Fiona Barton books, for instance). I thinks journalists have a different and nicer, albeit very nosy way of solving cases.

I liked the good relationship between Isla, the journalist, and Simon, the police officer. These two characters are usually archenemies but their relationship in this book was one of the cutest things I've read in a while!

I liked the writing style. I think it's quite easy to understand and follow. I loved the length of the chapters and how the book was structured, in general.

I loved Freya's flashbacks. I really enjoy knowing a little bit of the characters background and how they got where they are now.

I really really liked Isla. She was such a nice girl, working really hard to solve the murder. I felt bad for her and for what happened to her in the past but, fortunately, that helped her to be more determined to help the police here.

I liked Freya too. Quite a lot. She was also a very hard worker young girl with so many dreams and passions that I was very upset when things started to go the wrong way.

And then is when Nicole comes. I "liked" her role in the story. She played a perfect annoying, jealous and selfish girl. However, I couldn't stand her as a person. How can someone be so mean? Why would you do something like that to another person? her behaviour really upset me but, like I said before, her play was superb.

The men in the book also played a very important part. I liked how the author managed to make them look annoying, stupids, selfish and pricks but without wanting me to DNF the book.

I liked how the book wrapped up all the open fronts. I liked the conclusions we got and the answer to every question.

I loved the final twist! I had a theory in my mind from quite a long time and I was so sure that I was right that when the truth came out I felt such a bad detective!!

I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it! I will definitely read more books by her in the future!

I was intrigued by the blurb on this one as well as the front cover of course, that always attracts me, I haven’t read any previous books by the author so was looking forward to reading this. For the most part I enjoyed the story, although for me personally a little slow, but the short chapters made that work, I wasn’t keen on the timeline as it was jumping back and forth like a yo-yo and when on a kindle it’s not as easy flicking back and forth to check, as you tend to lose where you were, obviously with a book you have your finger where you are. The story flowed, but the characters at times seemed a little wooden and I have found for me characters make the story, I want to like them, to feel their pain or joy.

The story opens with the brutal murder of Nicole Whittington, who works for one of the hottest start up tech companies Atypical. Nicole is found battered to death with a bronze statue and is propped up in her shower. Who could have hated this woman so much to commit such a viscious crime? Jump back 3 months

Freya hasn’t had an easy life, but she put her head down and studied hard, and that paid off. She lands a perfect job working as a coder for Atypical, she is gating a co worker Jay, life should be great. Unfortunately, another co-worker Nicole is making life hell for Freya, continuously bullying her and humiliating her, Freya has had enough. When the opportunity arises Jay and Freya decide to pull a prank on Nicole to get revenge. The following day is when Nicole is found dead in her apartment. Everyone is questioned. Can a prank end up as murder?

Freya then starts receiving messages anonymously, gradually getting more and more violent and threatening. She starts to wonder if she could be the next victim.

The premise of this story is good, highlighting how bullying can go on 24/7 because of social media, also bullying in the workplace can be really tough for person on the receiving end, causes so many health problems, especially mental health. I’m not sure there would be that much sexual harassment within one company. I do realise it does go on but I don’t think a company would hold many staff with this much going on.

My only big problem was the ending, there were just a couple of things that didn’t work for me, but that’s just my opinion, I’m sure for others it is fine, that’s the joy of reading everyone is different in what works and what doesnt. Overall the plot and story was good.

Thank you to #Netgally and #Zaffre for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest, fair and unbiased review

'The Pact' just oozed promise! If you like your books to have a strong 'whodunnit?' feel to them, then this will be right up your street. Personally, I felt that the secretive premise and the uncertainty of the characters, really grabbed my attention. We all know that bullying isn't acceptable, but then again is revenge acceptable either?

I loved how the author crafted her characters, ensuring that her readers believed in Freya's emotions and the troubles she faced with Nicole. Given the nature of the storyline, I was very impressed by the character direction as their personalities could have gotten quite lost in amongst everything else, and they didn't. Which is good!

Whilst I enjoyed the overall building blocks of 'The Pact', I did feel as though the storyline wasn't consistent. I do realise that suspense novels like this, do need the slow pace to build the tension and what not, however the storyline seemed to peak and then nosedive back to a pace that made me feel as though I was reading a different book. Amy Heydenrych is an extremely talented writer, and I loved her delivery during the moments where the book blindsided me and left me on the edge of my seat. I just really wish that it was like that the entire way through.

All in all, 'The Pact' is an intriguing read which delivers suspense, intensity and character personalisation with great force.

The Pact is a highly engaging novel by Amy Heydenrych, and I was quickly pulled into the lives of her characters. It did make me think about how I would have reacted if I was in their shoes when the plot started to unfold. What Amy Heydenrych also, so cleverly does, is she makes you re-examine everything you thought you knew about her characters. Nothing is as it seems in this book.

This was a really intense read. I felt this right from the beginning when the body of a young woman, Nicole is discovered at her flat, and when Amy Heydenrych takes us back in time to reveal the person who she was. As Amy started to reveal more about her, I started to evaluate every other character in the book as I tried to work out who killed Nicole. From very early on, she doesn’t come across as the most likeable of characters, so it seems that there are plenty of people out there who may have a motive to kill her. As Amy begins to reveal more details, you really do get the sense that something sinister is going on behind the scenes.

Every single character in this book kept me engaged. The story is told primarily through the viewpoints of Freya, a woman who briefly worked with Nicole and Isla, a journalist reporting on the case. What I thought I was down really well here were the two timelines. Amy switches between several weeks prior to Nicole’s death and the present, but this didn’t in any way feel confusing to me, and I was able to keep up with everything that was going on.

There were characters who I didn’t trust right from the start, but I don’t want to reveal too much about this as I don’t want to spoil the story. When you start to read this book, you will soon know who I mean. Amy Heydenrych does take us on a twisty ride, and there were a couple of big reveals that completely surprised me. I became so invested in the characters that I thought I had the plot worked out until Amy threw a spanner into the works. This made the ending so exciting as everything that had been held from us, the reader, began to unravel.

This novel also deals with many moral issues, such as the ‘me too’ movement. There is also an intense storyline that ensues when Freya starts receiving disturbing messages, and she begins to think this may have a possible link to Nicole’s death. Is the same person who killed Nicole also targeting her?

Although I found parts of the novel a little slow, I was kept fully engaged. It was maybe a little longer than I felt it needed to be, but I thought everything was wrapped up well, and it made for a very satisfactory ending. Overall, an excellent read!