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4 “Baby Blue” stars!

The Pact, written by Karina Halle, is a wonderful friends-to-lovers story between Stephanie and Linden. It’s a beautiful romance that has just the right amount of sweet, sexy and angst.

Stephanie and Linden have been best friends since they met nine years earlier and friends is all they have ever been, even if Linden has had his eye on her from day one. When Steph walked into a bar for a job, both Linden and James noticed her. James made a move first thus pushing Linden into the friend zone. Even after Steph broke up with James, Linden remained best friends with Steph, never taking it a step further. However, when Linden and Steph are 25 years old, he is fed up with never finding “the one” and tired of dealing with the annoying dates that he doesn’t see in his future. So Linden proposes that if they are both single when they turn 30 years old, they will marry each other.

I wanted Steph. My best friend. She was my baby blue and I was her cowboy.
So a pact, a foolish, naïve pact, was born.

Over the next five years, we see the two go through being single, having hookups and even serious relationships, but never with each other. We see both Steph and Linden’s POVs so we know that both harbor feelings towards the other but they don’t want to ruin the relationship they have.

Sometimes, when he looks at me, I swear something in him has changed. The glances are more intense, his eyes seem molten and charged. Sexual.
And I like it. I love it. I want it. I want there to be this change, for this to be a thing because then maybe, maybe I would act on it. Maybe I would take that chance and turn him into something more than a friend.
But there lies the problem. How do you ensure someone feels the same way about you without telling them how you feel?

And when thirty approaches, both Steph and Linden are in serious relationships taking the pact off the table. Then a bunch of friends, including Steph and Linden and their significant others, go on a camping trip and everything gets complicated. After a few rounds of True or Dare and a crazy kissing dare later, everything has changed.

“That was more than just a dare,” he murmurs and as he speaks, his voice is so rough and low that I can’t help the shivers down my spine nor the heat between my legs. “That was real. That was something. Tell me you felt something, that you felt what I felt.”
“What did you feel?” I whisper.
He runs a thumb across my lips. “I felt you. The you I’ve always wanted.”

Once Steph and Linden decide to be together, they jump in head first. Although they feel it best to keep their new relationship hidden from everyone, they spend every waking hour they can together. Things are never perfect though and they have to deal with their feelings and figure out whether or not they can make their relationship last. Its scary going from friends to lovers but they are both 100% invested in the beginning of their relationship.

“Isn’t that the best person to want? The person that knows you inside and out. The person who has seen you at your ugliest and most beautiful and still wants to be with you. The person who believes in you and has your back, no matter what.” Then his smile fades and his brow furrows. “You’ve always been more than a friend to me, Steph. Always. You have no idea how I’ve felt, how I still feel about you.”

Of course, there is a bit of angst thrown into the story which left me rolling my eyes. Some of Linden’s decisions did not make me happy, however, I was left with a smile on my face by the end. I liked Linden and Steph and loved getting into both of their heads. The Pact was definitely a fun, sweet, sexy read.

4 stars!

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Review: The Pact by Karina Halle

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