The Wedding Pact (O'Malleys, #2)

by Katee Robert

[kimbacaffeinate]

The Wedding Pact focuses on Carrigan O’Malley. In Carrigan’s world, daughters are pawns for alliances and power plays. Her father demands complete compliance and gives her thirty days to choose a husband from his list of approved candidates. I kid you not. All of the men are cads, but to disobey her father is unthinkable.

While she is checking out perspectives husbands, her path crosses again with James Halloran, now head of the Halloran family after the events in the Wedding Contract. While this could work as a standalone, those events have me strongly recommending you read/listen to book one first.

James and Carrigan have unbelievably hot chemistry, and Carrigan decides to explore those passions. They play this hot sexy game filled with banter, denial, and disinterest but you can feel the sexual tension. What begins as an emotional escape from reality slowly becomes develops into more. James may be enemy number one in the O’Malley household but he seems to be the only man who likes Carrigan for herself.

Robert delivers a hot and spicy “Romeo and Juliet" romance surrounded by danger, power struggles, alliances and betrayals. I found the world James and Carrigan were born into fascinating. Arranged marriages, women who silently stand behind their husbands, illegal activity laced with legitimate business. Bodyguards follow you everywhere and disobedience will not be tolerated. These men in power are ruthless and death, kidnapping and more are all part of daily life for these warring families. I cannot imagine coming from privilege but finding yourself trapped in a gilded cage. *shivers*

Despite her struggles with family obligations, I enjoyed the progressive growth we saw from Carrigan. Siblings and even her mother surprised me and added to the overall tone of the story. I felt the author did an excellent job of making Carrigan and her siblings reactions to their father and this life believable, while still giving us hope for a better future.

Robert has delivered plenty of suspense and action from Carrigan’s dates with prospective husbands to betrayals within the Halloran clan. Despite the fact or maybe because James heads a criminal family, I loved how Robert’s was able to show me his redeeming qualities. She exposed his softer side and the way he treated Carrigan was sweet. In both novels she has shown this younger generation looking to change or escape the life.

I felt the Marriage Pact had a stronger storyline and romance than the Wedding Contract. Fans of criminal family sagas, forbidden romance, delicious heat and suspense will enjoy the O'Malley trilogy. I am excited for the next story An Indecent Proposal that will give us Cillian O'Malley story. It releases in July 2016 and I will be grabbing the audiobook.

Audiobook provided by publisher. This review was originally posted on Caffeinated Book Reviewer