The Infidelity Pact (ISBN 0767926900)

Could have been much better:
I had a so-so reaction to this book. I didn't hate it but didn't love it either. The main thing I found missing in the book is a sense of who these women are as people and why they are friends. They are completely different types -- and without more substance they wind up being closer to stereotypes than believable characters. In order to become invested in the story, I needed to care about the women. But two of them are unpleasant and one is just vague. Only Eliza is sympathetic. These women are supposed to be such good friends they would enter into this pact and share their secrets, but I never felt a strong bond among them. I wish Ms. Karasyov's editor had sent her draft back with instructions to flesh out the characters and their friendship. Provide a reason for the women to act and feel the way they do. Because without that, the reader doesn't have a reason to care what happens to them. I didn't. There is one benefit from reading the book, however. Desperate housewives will know to turn off the baby monitor before sharing secrets they wouldn't want the world to find out!

Failed to grab me:
I picked up this book not expecting much more than a lightweight and frothy diversion. Unfortunately it failed to deliver even that. I didn't like any of the characters and I didn't believe in any of them. They were all stereotypes. The central idea - four bored housewives making a pact to each have an affair - is intriguing, but this book completely fails to deliver a story that makes you care what happens. Instead of bringing the characters to life, the writing is peppered with brand names and references to famous people as a descriptive crutch. I also felt that the structure was flawed, in that we find out too much up front about how it's going to end, so that plot points that could have been more of a surprise are instead just events that we are waiting to have happen. At the end of the day it's all too predictable: having an affair is not a recipe for happiness. If you're after a lightweight read, I recommend instead "Barefoot" by Elin Hildrebrand or "The Gypsy Tearoom" by Nicky Pellegrino.

"Desperate Housewives" on steroids:
Victoria, Eliza, Helen and Leelee are well-to-do L.A. housewives who feel that something is missing in their respective lives. Victoria convinces them that they need to have an affair in order to spice things up. What makes this book interesting is that each woman has her own backstory and secrets, and deals with her goal and embraces the challenge in different ways. Victoria has a lot of anger, having married a man she seduced away from another woman, not realizing that she never did love Justin to begin with. The feelings were mutual. Except for her two sons, she sees that nothing good has come from this marriage, and right now she would do anything to get back at her husband, who spends his days wooing actors, enticing them so he can represent them. When he enters a crowded room, all he cares about is finding who he needs to kiss up to at that moment. Eliza is having the hardest time following through with the pact, because she is happy with her marriage and does not see any reason to rock the boat. She admits that things could be better, but they're not that bad. However, she may need a little more spice in her sex life with Declan. While Eliza appears to be the most conservative of the four women, she has a past that she is still embarrassed to confront. She once had an affair in high school with her teacher, Mr. Matthews, and he is the one man she still thinks about. Helen isn't sure if her husband even loves her. Wesley is 20 years her senior, a typical stodgy Brit with parents who aren't too crazy about her. But she and Wesley share an awful secret that could get them into trouble with the law. She embraces the pact with abandon, going from one person to another, and has a good time. Leelee already had someone in mind to have an affair with, a man she should have married years ago but lost out to another woman. She never got over it and thinks she's still in love with Jack, despite her husband Brad's devotion to her. She can't get Jack out of her mind and is now determined to bring him back in her life. There is a lot of anger and other strong emotions felt by each character, as they live out their fantasies. Readers looking for women's fiction that makes them feel warm and fuzzy won't find it here. They may even be overwhelmed by these feelings of animosity, especially from Victoria, who appears to be angry at the world. It's "Desperate Housewives" and "Dynasty" all rolled into one. In fact, THE INFIDELITY PACT reads like "Desperate Housewives" on steroids and will keep you hooked until the end. The characters are very well drawn; while at first it took me a while to get to know each woman, I started to notice the differences and see each of them as unique. The character who ties them together is a fifth person, a columnist for a tabloid newspaper. I imagined Anson Larrabee to look like a version of Truman Capote. He is effeminate, nosy, and has a mean streak that would scare anyone regularly found in the society papers. He has something on these women --- the secret infidelity pact they thought no one knew about. While I did not approve of what they were all trying to do, I did sympathize with them. Carrie Karasyov does a good job creating characters who feel real in an exaggerated sense. I was entertained and at the same time felt connected to them; what's more, I even cared about the outcome to each of their stories. --- Reviewed by Marie Hashima Lofton (Ratmammy@lofton.org)

I COULD put it down!:
I always keep a commitment to myself when I buy a book to read. I don't want to make judgement until I have read the whole book. I did just that. I don't understand the high reviews for this book. I found this book very predictable and not realistic. Don't get me wrong..I don't expect reality when I read a fictional book, but I do expect to believe in the storyline (fact or fiction). The premise is that 4 women make a pact of infidelity. The reader is to believe that within a week, all 4 women are into their new affairs. When the husbands find out (not too difficult to foreshadow that), most of them forgive their wives without so much as a blink. I kept expecting more but I was receiving less and less the more I read. The writer uses humor every now and then which is refreshing. I could have put down the book and walked away from page 1.

Contains Spoilers:
**Contains Spoilers!** While I was reading "The Infidelity Pact", I was into it and I read it in 2 days but once I finished with it and got to thinking about it more, I started finding flaws with the novel. The novel starts promising with Victoria bringing up the option of the Infidelty Pact to her friends Eliza, Helen, and Leelee. The women start to explore the option of cheating on their husbands and who to do it with. But someone is on to their plan and tries to expose them. Out of all the characters, I disliked Victoria the most. I couldn't understand why the other women were friends with her. There was never a time in the book that shown Victoria as caring, at least not what I could see. She's rude to her friends and looks down on them if they eat more than what she thinks they should. Another character that I disliked was Leelee. She kind of seem to have some sort of mental issue since she was sending threatening letters made out of cut letters from magazines to the wive of the man she still has feelings for. That's just not right. I found the ending to be too unbelievable. I can't believe that all these people would go to the person who is blackmailing the women and never run into each other. Especially since it seemed like they should be showing up one right after the other. Overall, the book was okay but it was not as good as I was hoping it to be. It is, however, a good book for Summer beach reading.