When Jenny Platt asked if I’d like to be part of the blog tour for The Marriage Pact by Michelle Richmond I didn’t know quite what I was letting myself in for. This is a tour with a difference as you’ll see below!

Sunday Times best selling The Marriage Pact is published by Penguin and is available for purchase through the links here.

The Marriage Pact

First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes your first big mistake.

How far are you willing to go for the perfect relationship?

Newlyweds Jake and Alice are offered a mysterious wedding gift – membership of a club which promises its couples will never divorce.

Signing The Pact seems the start to a perfect marriage.

Until one of them breaks the rules.

The marriage of their dreams is about to become their worst nightmare.

Because The Pact is for life.

And its members will do anything to make sure no one leaves . . .

10 Rules for a Perfect Relationship

When I agreed to participate in this challenge I thought it would be a doddle as I love my husband completely as we approach our 35th wedding anniversary this year. Hmm. It wasn’t quite as easy as I thought, but I do have some brilliant excuses!

1. Always answer when your partner calls.

Now here’s the thing. When I read this question I thought it meant literally, not on a phone! It just goes to show how old we are and how long we’ve been together. We don’t really need to phone one another and I do answer him literally – when I hear him! But I suffer from tinnitus and am slightly deaf so I don’t always hear (that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it). Steve, my  husband, however, is one of those people who rarely has his phone on. I tried to ring him recently when he was food shopping to ask him to bring something I’d forgotten to put on the list and he didn’t answer. When I asked him about it he said ‘Oh. I thought I heard some ambient music!’ His phone is so ancient that it doesn’t even have a ring choice – just some daft chimes.

2. Exchange at least two thoughtful gifts every month.

Er, yes, well… He tends to bring me thoughtful gifts at least twice a month such as flowers or fudge or chocolate and I give him a large smile in return – that counts right?

3. Cook your partner dinner twice a week.

Now, I’m not sure if I can claim this or not. You see I did ALL the cooking for the first 20 years of our marriage apart from a Friday night when Steve heated up fresh pasta, pasta sauce and garlic bread from Tescos! However, when I went off to work all over the country, and especially when I was doing 6 week stints in New York, he had to learn to cook or starve, discovered the delights of cooking and has become a really skilled chef with a passion for cooking. Consequently he does almost all the cooking. But – and here’s my get out clause – I do the 5:2 diet and on the 2 days I assemble the salad we have for dinner twice a week so although I’m not actually cooking, I am getting his meal!

4. Unfollow your ex on social media.

I’ve never followed my exes on social media. I’ve been married so long we only had slates and social media didn’t exist!

5. Never spend more than 2 nights apart.

That’s easy. Now I no longer work we seldom spend more than two hours apart – unless I’m going to a bookish event.

6. Tell your partner all your passwords.

Easy one – we have them written down as we’ve got to the age when we can’t remember them all!

7. Only wear clothes your partner deems appropriate or attractive.

Not on your nelly! I wear what I like! (Though he’s great at clothes shopping and will scour stores to find items he thinks I might like whilst I’m trying things on! Poor chap was waiting for me outside some changing rooms once, standing stock still and another bloke shoved his hand up my husband’s top. He thought Steve was a manikin and liked the look of the top and was feeling the material. I’m not sure who was the most surprised, but I could hear the kerfuffle and laughing from inside the changing rooms.)

8. Enable the ‘find my phone’ feature so your partner always knows where you are.

I think I have, but I don’t quite understand how my phone works. Doesn’t make much difference really as I’m usually about three feet away from my husband!

9. Have no secrets from each other.

This rather depends on the circumstance. We obviously keep surprises as secrets (and he’d better have a few at the minute as it’s not that long until my birthday) but given that we are practically welded at the hip 24 hours a day, seven days a week, there’s not much we don’t know about one another. He does do secrets rather wll though. The first year we were married we agreed we were so poor we wouldn’t ‘do’ Valentine’s day. I didn’t. He bought a card, flowers, chocolates and champagne and is still living off that story nearly 35 years later!

10. Don’t even think about trying to escape.

Ah! Well, you see we BOTH think about trying to escape ALL the time. Just not from each other, but with each other. This year we’ve already escaped to Uganda and we’re off to India soon and Indonesia later.

So, how would you get on with The Marriage Pact?

About Michelle Richmond

Michelle Richmond is the bestselling author of The Year of Fog, No One You Know, Hum: Stories, Golden Stage, Dream of the Blue Room, and the award-winning The Girl in the Fall- Away Dress. She lives with her husband and son in San Francisco.

You can follow Michelle on Twitter @michellerichmon and visit her website. You’ll find Michelle on Facebook too.

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