Jodi Picoult's The Pact: A Love Story, pulls readers in from its first paragraph. Right as the book opens, a gun is fired and Emily Gold is killed. The only person who witnesses the murder is her boyfriend, Chris Harte. Although Chris reveals that Emily, the love of his life, had entered into a suicide pact with her boyfriend, evidence points to murder, and Chris is arrested.

Through a series of flash forwards intermingled with narration from the present, what follows is a detailed look at what once appeared, from the outside, to be a picture perfect romance. Born only a few months apart to families who are best friends, Chris and Emily are raised together. When looking back on his childhood, Chris cannot recall a single memory that does not involve Emily Gold. His entire life is about her. But as time passes and their relationship becomes more serious and intimate, Emily is haunted by the thought that Chris might seem more like a brother to her than a lover. Suddenly, she finds their physical intimacy to seem incestuous and wrong. Through a series of events, Emily decides that the only way to find peace is through suicide. The story traces not only Chris and Emily's love story, but also the fallout of her death including Chris's arrest and trial.

What exactly happens the night that Emily dies and Chris's role in her being shot are not clarified until the end of the story, forcing readers to keep reading so that they can learn the truth. Though the story begins and ends powerfully, the middle occasionally drags, and the details of Chris and Emily's relationship can seem overpowering. Despite this, Picoult's writing makes it easy for readers to get deeply involved in the story, unable to stop reading until they have reached the end where they finally find out the truth about what happened to Emily . . . and what will happen to Chris.