Oh I cannot rate this book enough. I looked forward to coming home to get back into the story. Absolutely amazing. A thoroughly enjoyable, a frighteningly realistic tale of the consequences of one mistake and the fall out of friendships. The book is set in a prestigious University in England making it one of the best campus thrillers I've ever read. Highly recommended xx

I haven't read a book by Sharon Bolton for quite a while, i now know what i have been missing.The Pact is an excellent thriller that had me gripped from the first page, it centres around 6 friends growing up in Oxford and are just about to sit their final exams before going to university.but they have been doing something reckless for a while now and one night it goes wrong with a devastating act that will affect them all for the rest of their lives.The Pact really is a great read and with the tension mounting with every page i was reading well into the night,and just when you think all is made clear another spanner is thrown into the works,this is without doubt one of the best books i will read this year and one i certainly recommend reading.A stunning 5 star read !!

Blimey, that kept me up all night! A group of privileged 6th formers in Oxford are just at the end of their exams, the world is at their feet. But a stupid reckless decision wrecks everything in an instant, and it changes all their lives forever.

I loved it, the sense of privilege and entitlement from the start, swiftly changed as we jump forward 20 years and see that the decisions they made all those years ago are still haunting them.

Tightly scripted, just the right amount of characters to keep things interested, Id definitely recommend it

Another brilliant novel by Sharon Bolton, I don’t want to give anything away other than what the blurb about the book has already said, which is on the eve of getting their A level results six friends take part in a irresponsible action which causes a fatal accident, one of the group takes the blame so the others can live their lives all she wants in return is a favour from each of them when she is released but friends are soon forgotten. And when you start reading the pact you will think oh I know where this is going but Sharon Bolton has managed to cleverly keep you on your toes right to the last page. Definitely worth a read.

The Pact is one of those books that keeps you gripped right until the very end.

The story is about 6 friends and a tragic dare gone wrong that binds them all for life. Megan is the one that takes the hit for the team and pays the biggest price. On her release from prison after 20 years she starts to seek out the friends and the one favour each of them owes her.

The twist and turns in this story is enough to keep you reading until just the next chapter and then the next and then the next. Great read!

Wow this read was Sharon Bolton at her very best with a delicious and devious plot line that left me gasping !!
So six friends just finishing their exams when a stupid and dangerous dare goes devastatingly wrong leaving a mother and two children dead. Megan one of the friends says she will take the blame but the other five that are left will then owe her big time when she gets released from prison. But of course this is Sharon Bolton writing here and nothing quite goes to plan and what follows Is a breathtaking thrill of a ride that was such a well crafted plot that no matter how hard I tried I could not figure out what the hell was going to happen next.
I loved this book it was dark, twisted and brilliantly written with characters that were all so different some likeable and some not it was a read that kept my head spinning and one that I didn’t want put down.
My thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group, Trapeze for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Six students at a prestigious private sought-after school had become inseparable friends because of their outstanding academic abilities. Five of the elite came from the cream of society, while the sixth had won her scholarship. They were inseparable and felt untouchable from the world. They were wrong.

I can still hear in my mind the first time of this dare. The feverish excitement and buzz. The best high they had ever had until it became something else one night. One of them could make it all go away, or so they thought.

I had read Sharon Bolton books before and loved each one, but this, this is blistering. Oh wow! OK, there was no guessing for me at what would happen in the beginning, but OMG, Sharon Bolton takes you along back from being an adult to being amongst these teenagers that have everything going for them.

The book begins its story in the past and moves pretty rapidly into the present day. The story isn’t rushed, and supplies every emotion it possibly can, taking a shocking path to where they thought they would have had control over.

I thought that the story so far had been gripping in the most horrendous way possible, but the rest of this journey is edgy heart-pounding brilliance. These now grown-up adults had made every year count, but time nor distance could stand in the way of what was coming to them.

I had been lapping up every sentence of this story, and it was empowering. I couldn’t do anything else once I began reading this. Just when I felt I had control, it was gone. A brilliant round-up and perfect page-turner! Wow! It will leave you breathless.

I received an e-copy of this book from Net Galley and the publisher, which I have reviewed honestly.

The Pact's great hook reeled me in and kept me reading.

When a dare goes horribly wrong and six school friends find themselves in trouble, Megan steps forward and takes the blame. Twenty years later she's out of prison and looking to make good on the pact they all agreed to.

This was a fast-paced twisty read with great characters. The depth Bolton gives to Megan and the others had me questioning my own feelings for their actions both then and now. Kept me guessing until the end, and it was just what I needed to immerse myself in.

Thanks to Netgalley and Orion for the chance to read and review.

Absolutely loved this, I couldn't put it down!
I have loved all of Sharon's books and this one is no different. The plot kept me guessing and I was genuinely surprised at the ending and I became attached to some of the characters!
Highly recommend.

A real page turner of a novel. The night before their 'A' level results, a group of friends engage in a highly dangerous activity which leads to tragedy. One of the group takes the blame. The action moves on 20 years, and the friend is back - what terrible price does she expect her old friends to pay? A taut and twisty thriller, I found it hard to put down. Highly recommended.

A group of schoolfriends, having just finished their A levels, are spending time together contemplating the hbright futures they have ahead of them. One of them is the headgirl, but not as privileged as the rest, as she has had a scholarship and comes from a single parent family.
One evening, they decide to repeat a dare they have done before, but this time it goes awfully wrong and a mother and her two children are killed.
Megan, the headgirl, decides to take responsibility for the crash, absolving the others. She asks for each of them to grant her a favour when she is released from prison. They agree to the favour and to support her through the ordeal of her prison sentence. They don't.

Twenty years on, Felix, Xav, Daniel, Amber and Talitha have successful careers and great lives. Then Megan turns up, faded and with nothing, to collect her favours. The friends are forced to face up to their pasts and watch as their lives are turned upside down.

Did Megan do it? The narrative twists and turns and keeps you guessing until the last. It didn't have me racing to finish it to find out, but it keeps you on your toes.
I really enjoyed the Lacy Flint series by Sharon Bolton, and I've read a few other stand alones, which in my opinion aren't as good.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in return for an honest review

This is a compulsive read. A group of friends let Megan take the blame for a fatal accident, saying they will each do her a favour when she comes out of prison. Many years later, she gets out, and they have changed and grown up from the bunch of teenagers they were when the accident occurred. They are rich, apart from Megan, so they set up a trust fund for her, but will they do the favours that only she can request? The reader needs to find out for themselves, and it will not be difficult with this page turner. Many other complications arise, but I cannot reveal them without spoiling the plot. A great read and highly recommended, it had me up for half of the night untiI I had finished it.

A new book from Sharon Bolton is always something to look forward to and she very rarely disappoints. Her latest one, The Pact, is a real pageturner; although I wouldn’t rank it amongst my favourite Bolton novels, it does have a typically gripping plot with lots of twists and turns and I read most of it in one day.

The novel begins with six teenagers – Felix, Daniel, Talitha, Amber, Xavier and Megan – awaiting their exam results. As six of the top students at the prestigious All Souls School, they are all expected to get the perfect As they need to go to Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Despite having such bright futures ahead of them, the six of them have spent the summer drinking, taking drugs and playing a dangerous, reckless game of dares that, if it went wrong, could leave those bright futures in ruins. And that is exactly what happens the night before they are due to receive their results: there’s an accident and innocent people are killed. Eighteen-year-old Megan volunteers to take the blame, leaving her friends free to get on with their lives – but in return, each of them will owe her a favour when she gets out of prison.

Twenty years later, we catch up with Dan, Felix, Tal, Xav and Amber, now all adults with successful careers, some married and some with children. Although the events of that fateful night have left their scars, the five friends have moved on and Megan has been almost forgotten. Megan, however, has not forgotten about them – and now that she has been released, she is coming back to remind them of their pact…

As I’ve said, The Pact kept me gripped from beginning to end, which is an impressive feat as I didn’t like or care about a single character! Five of the group are spoiled and privileged and admit themselves that they are not nice people, and even the sixth, Megan, a scholarship student from a much poorer background, is not much easier to like than the others. I felt that I should at least feel some sympathy for Megan because of her twenty years in prison – and I usually did find myself siding with her against the other characters – but I struggled to believe that anyone would really have made such a sacrifice in the first place! In fact, the whole plot seemed unlikely and implausible, although that didn’t stop me from enjoying it and hoping each of the characters would get what they deserved in the end.

As the end approaches, there are some of those typical Sharon Bolton twists and turns I mentioned earlier, but I found them too easy to predict which was disappointing when I think of how genuinely shocked I was by the surprises and revelations in most of her earlier books. In this case, I think I would also have preferred fewer twists, as the original direction in which the story was heading was excellent and I felt that it fizzled out slightly towards the end. Despite these reservations, though, this was an exciting, fast-paced read and kept me entertained for a day or two. I don’t read a lot of contemporary crime fiction so it’s always good to pick up one of Sharon Bolton’s books and immerse myself in something different for a while!

A group of private school students, waiting for their A Level results on a hot summer night, participate in a dare that goes horribly wrong. When scholarship student Megan agrees to take the blame, her decision will have repercussions for all of them for years to come.

There was a lot to like about The Pact: the privileged characters and Oxford setting were reminiscent of The Secret History, which is never a bad thing. But for me, the pacing was way off, dwelling far too long on police interviews with the teenagers immediately after the crash, dragging in the initial sections when Megan arrives back in Oxford from prison, and then whizzing through the final section without truly building tension, and reaching a denouement with a twist that's never fully explained. When I think about what Bolton is capable of as a thriller writer - I'd especially recommend Dead Woman Walking or her Lacey Flint series for heart-stopping tension - The Pact falls far short.

When six spoiled teenagers go for a joyride which results in the death of a mother and child one of them ​volunteers to take the blame and is sent to prison. Twenty years later she is released and one by one the remaining friends are picked off in a series of vengeful attacks. But who is responsible for them?

Once again Sharon Bolton pulls of a great psychological thriller. Many thanks to NetGalley and Orion/Trapeze for the opportunity to read and review The Pact.

Steamroller of a ride!

Even from a short blurb, hastily read before smashing my finger on that request button.... I knew this was going to be a story to suck me in. Absolutely loved it!

It keeps you guessing from the very start, right on down to the finishing line.

Twisty, tense, disturbing and riveting. The dynamics between the group of friends throughout this amazing story is one that keeps that inescapable feeling of dread in your stomach churning onwards.

"Hell hath no woman...." , but oh there is so so much more to play for, sometimes!

I really enjoy Sharon Bolton’s books and I was delighted to receive an advanced copy of her new book The Pact.
A group of six spoiled, wealthy teenagers high on drink and drugs take a car and play a game of chicken on the motorway that results in a fatal car accident. One of the group takes the blame and is sent to prison.
Twenty years later that person is back and is about to shatter their peaceful, privileged lives.
I really enjoyed this thriller, it was really well thought out.
The characters were great and I didn’t guess the ending.
Thank you to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a gripping read. I enjoyed the fact that the reader was in on what happened twenty years ago when a group of teenagers got in a car and caused a fatal accident. We weren't left wondering who was behind the wheel, we were taken along for the fateful ride.

It was what happened next that was the shocker, one of the friends volunteers to take the blame, why ruin six lives when one can take the hit?

They all agree and Megan takes the blame, knowing full well that she will go to prison.

Granted, she wasn't expecting twenty years and the story takes on further twists as she is released from prison, her friends, who she covered for didn't even visit her in prison so where does that leave the group now? Was Megan's sacrifice worth it?

This is a real page turner. I ended up feeling so sorry for Megan, they were all young and stupid with possibly the most ridiculous idea to cover up a crime, but nothing is every really forgotten, is it?

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book this is my honest opinion.

I have loved all of Sharon Bolton's previous novels and The Pact was no exception. It has a great premise and hooked me in from the beginning. I loved the Oxford setting and Bolton brilliantly portrays the lives of privilege and entitlement of most of the characters. Despite the fact that I found all of the characters unlikeable I was completely immersed in the novel over a period of 24 hours. My only criticism is that the last section of the book became increasingly unbelievable and I felt that it let down what was otherwise a gripping read.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC

I love Sharon Boltons books and this one didn't let me down at all! Intriguing from the beginning and full of twists and turns! I wondered where the story would go but this did not disappoint. Sharon up to her usual high standard and I already know some customers at the shop this will be perfect for!