The Wedding Pact by Katee Robert
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Review posted just prior to blog tour.The Wedding Pact is the second book in a seriously intense family crime family saga which I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for review. One good thing I can say is despite the fact that I had not had a chance to read the first book I could jump right in and catch up without feeling lost. Of course the references to the previous book make the reader want to run and grab the first book and get a first row seat into what happened to Calligan’s brother, Devlin, who by all accounts was an amazing person. But, his character and the love his family had for him comes through really clearly even in The Wedding Pact which is for the most part Calligan and James’ story though the reader gets pretty large glimpses into other family members’ lives like Cillian and Ricky.
Carrigan has been stalling as best as she could to keep her father from arranging a marriage for her with one of his allies. Dimitri looks to be a contender, but, Carrigan can see right away several issues with choosing him, though he seems to be the one that will give her the most freedom. The biggest issue she has with him is the look in his eyes which tells her that she will have to contend with a very violent man, possibly literally. But, as she “interviews” and “negotiates” to try and choose the least of all of the evils in the list her father has given her to choose from, she also gets closer to James Halloran, her family’s biggest enemy. Their other enemy, the Sheridans, have become an ally through an arranged marriage, which unfortunately is not an option for the Southie crime family, the Halloran’s.
The Wedding Pact tells the story of how Carrigan goes through the motions of trying to find some semblance of freedom despite being the daughter of a crime boss. She has tried everything to considering becoming a nun to flat out saying no, to no avail. Her father considers his children pawns to be moved around on a chessboard and he seems to really have no love for any of them, or at least he displays no love for them. The jury seems to be out on her mother and one or two brothers. The Sheridans seem like a tight clan that loves and supports each other and really there are no words for how the Hallorans treat each other or even feel about each other. If there isn’t a bunch of people designed to implode then the Hallorans are a perfect example of why sometimes family can be just as big of an enemy as a true foe. These three families have legitimate and illegal businesses and James is doing his best to move his family businesses into areas where he can do business and still live with himself. We see that the children in each of these families want to be free to live life outside of their crime families, but, they all understand that doing so puts them in jeopardy in more ways than they can even conceive of when considering just walking away. Gangster stories, mob books and crime family stories are typically not my normal areas of interest for reading, but, the individual lives the reader is introduced to in this series makes it hard not to at least take a peek because there is a ton of action, family politics in addition to the romance, even when sometimes cringing with how family members treat each other. This is definitely a series to dig into.


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