The Widows' Pact

Rating: 2 out of 5

Lena Martin's life couldn't be more tragic. So far in her twenty-seven years she has buried her best friend, her husband, and, subsequently, what little enthusiasm she had for life. Eveyln, a passionate elderly widow is the opposite. Opinionated and slightly obnoxious, she hasn't met a problem she couldn't fix. When an unlikely friendship blossoms between them, it seems to be exactly what each of them need-except one is harbouring a dark secret, and the other a troubled past that sends the duo spiraling into a world where right and wrong isn't black and white, but a shade of grey with red pooled beside it.

I really felt like this book was mislabeled genre wise it was labeled as a mystery/thriller type book, but honestly over 90% of it didn't even have content that would read that way. Instead the majority of the book is about Lena and Evelyn both working through the grief of losing their husbands; both in two separate ways. Lena is dealing with a lot of grief surrounding losing a childhood friend and her husband, and to be honest her methods aren't all that healthy. In sweeps Evelyn, who has a healthier coping mechanism, but who is hiding a pretty big secret. The two slowly become friends and help each other to open up to new experiences in life, and the potential for love, when old flames reappear.

To be honest everything in the book was pretty predictable. It became obvious early on what the secret was that Evelyn was hiding, and then it was just annoying that the book didn't just flat out say it for another like 30 chapters. I struggled with this book because it had some very big triggers (abuse and attempted sexual assault) which were not addressed and just kind of dropped into the story. The last like 10% of the book is the "mystery/thriller" plot point and it's not done well at all. I think the book would have been better off without that element and just being a story about two women developing a friendship and working through their grief.