One wedding, two families ... and a body?

As families gather off the coast of Ireland to celebrate a wedding, a body is found. Several key players could be guilty as the narrator switches between points of view. The wedding planner, the bride, the best man, the plus-one (wife of the bride's male best friend), and more tell the tale, but who could actually be at fault?

The Guest List reads like a fun old school mystery, the whodunit style a la Agatha Christie et al. Foley does an admirable job keeping the reader guessing throughout the novel and the narrator's point of view changing really adds to the effect.

Highly recommend to mystery fans.

This book has a great setting--a remote Irish island--and an enticing premise--a guest found dead at a posh wedding. It moves between different times and different narrators, building toward one predictable and one fairly surprising final twist. My main critique of this novel is that, while some characters (Jules and Hannah) are pretty engaging narrators, anytime the story shifted to Johnno or focused on the groomsmen in general, my focus immediately started to drift away. They were not especially interesting or relatable characters and their "boys will be boys" antics were pretty boring in general. Fortunately, if I got through those chapters, I was usually rewarded with a better narrator and that kept me reading to the end.

This was a very engaging locked-room sort of mystery with a murder at a wedding on a remote Irish island. The eerie atmosphere was well done, as was the slow build of tension you feel knowing there will be a murder (it's in the first chapter) but not knowing who it is or how it will happen. The cast of characters were admittedly pretty cariacatured rather than fully realized but I think to an extent that can be excused by the Agatha Christie vibe the book cultivated.

This feels very familiar to the first book by this author. Yes, the location was different, this time it's a wedding, a bit bigger of a party, and there were still a bunch of secrets everyone is hiding from each other. However, the characters are just as unlikable. There was 6? POVs (in all honesty, I lost count).

There was still a lot of partying in this book. Adult people acting as animals almost, with so much unspent energy. Wasn't sure what the point of that kind of energy in this story was. To show off what kind of people the groom surrounds himself with? As in, the people you hang out with are a perfect show what kind of person you are? The overall feel of this party was a bit much for me, something just irked me the wrong way.

The mystery, which we know is going to be a dead body right away was what kept this book going. The other secrets were very predictable, and I had guessed all but two (one being who did it and to whom) by the time we came to the conclusion and that last bit was revealed. It was kind of a let down that these people were so predictable. Most being very stereotypical. It felt like none of them redeemed themselves in the end.

Overall an entertaining story but it won't stay with me for a long time. 3.5 (would recommend) rounded down to 3.

Excellent read! Loved the island setting, characters and plot twists.. fans of thrillers will like this new author and I lookforward to more books by Lucy Foley

Lucy Foley takes the reader on a ride that you just don't want to end. Full of descriptive narrative, you feel like you are one of the guests on this remote island. Unexpected characters, unexpected twists, and turns. I kept flipping the pages digesting the story as fast as I could, I just had to get to the end. And then BAHM, you don't see whats coming. I had to go back a few chapters to understand what happened. What a tale, what a ride, get this book now!

Loved this Agatha-Christie like story about a wedding where all the main players have secrets, and everyone has cause for the murder. A real page turner.

It was designed to be the perfect, out of the ordinary, romantic wedding of the season. A wind-swept island, glamorous guests and a perfect couple. But each one on the island that weekend carries buried secrets. Foley gives her reader's each character's backstory bit by bit, never letting on how they will intertwine at the perfect wedding. Tension builds as the characters realize that they are not the only one with a secret or painful memory to keep and at what lengths they will go to protect those secrets and memories. A page turner as the reader thinks they've figured it all out, only to be proven so very wrong.

Last month my online booklcub read Lucy’s previous title, The Hunting Party. So when I heard about The Guest List, I had to get my hands on this highly anticipated new release. ⁣⁣
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Let me start by saying if you liked The Hunting Party you will like this one too. It had a lot of similarities: ⁣⁣
-remote location⁣⁣
-a close group of friends⁣⁣
-we know there’s a murder from the start but the victim and murderers identities are unknown⁣⁣
-Agatha Christie vibes. ⁣⁣
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While it has a lot of similarities the book stands on its own merits. Jules and Will are getting married on a remote island. Their closest friends and family are in attendance. Each with problems and motives to be the murderer in question. ⁣⁣
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This was a very slow burn story. However the first plot twist was one I did not see coming. I think I dropped my kindle and said oh shit. There were plenty of twists after that but none that landed as hard. Overall it was well written and I enjoyed the creepy island setting. I am leaning towards a 3.5 star rating for this one. ⁣⁣

Thank you William Morrow and Netgalley for the advanced e-galley.

The plot twists! The secrets! The devastation!

Author Lucy Foley raises the motto "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer" to a whole other level... Almost everyone in The Guest List has something to hide, and some are much better at it than others. And while keeping secrets made many of them successful, others have been left devastated in their wake. Foley invites readers to a perfectly posh wedding only to present them with front row seats to murder. (Okay, the little voice in my head made that sound so cheesy, but honestly this plot is filled to the brim with suspense and tension!)

Will, the stunningly handsome and charming groom, appears to be absolute perfection: he's enjoyed a life of privilege thanks to having a boys' school headmaster for a father, and now has his own survival TV show that's gaining popularity and success. Jules, the beautiful yet stoic bride, strives for perfection, both from herself and from everyone around her. She's worked too hard to let others ruin the life she's crafted. But no one is perfect -- no matter how flawless they may seem. Secrets are bound to come out, especially when shady friends and family members are sequestered on a remote island to celebrate and consume alcohol for hours on end. Voices can't be silenced forever -- the truth always finds a way of surfacing...

A wedding that started with a beach theme ends up a game of survival. And not everyone lives happily ever after.

I liked it. I read some reviews and,apparently, there are other books out there with similar plot which made the reviewers dislike this one. But I haven’t read those, so for me, “The Guest List” is a fresh concept.

I pretty much liked all the characters except Olivia; so weak, so whiny; what a wimp!
So you (Olivia) meet a guy online, you both give fake names and pretend to be someone else. You have sex a couple of times, and when he doesn’t return your calls anymore you complain that he made you feel “small, unloved, ugly, stupid, worthless.” Come on! Grow some ovaries, you were looking to hook up online and you got it.

Anyways, there was little action until the last quarter of the book. I kind of figured who was the “villain” because
she/he was the odd character. Regardless, I enjoyed the plot and I liked the writing style.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this title.

This was SO. GOOD. Kept me on the edge of my seat. If you want a page turner with some real depth and great characters, this is it!

Absolutely loved the twists and turns in this one! Some of them I could put together but others surprised me for sure! I loved that the ones I didn’t predict made sense instead of coming out of nowhere like some thrillers tend to do. Can’t wait to pick up Foley’s other work after reading this one, as this was my first of her books!

On a small, remote island off the coast of Ireland, a wedding, meticulously planned and sure to be glamorous, is about to take place. It should be a carefree, happy celebration of two people in love...but people have secrets and heartbreak, and groomsmen, long-time friends from school days revert to past behavior, the island is mysterious...and the wedding does not go off without a hitch.
Told in alternating voices, and jumping from the wedding itself to the day before (with stories of the past also told), this is an edge-of-your-seat read, as pieces fit together and the past and present fall into place for an unexpected ending.

I really enjoyed reading this slow-burn mystery set on a creepy, abandoned island in Ireland. The short chapters and shifting POV kept the action moving, and the writer did a fabulous job establishing an atmosphere of impending doom. The entire book takes place over one short wedding weekend; the action starts right away when a waitress finds a dead body. The book slowly reveals everyone's back stories, and it's not until the end that the victim and killer are revealed. There are two clever allusions to Lord of the Flies, and the entire scenario pays homage to the works of Agatha Christie. Highly recommended diversion for a quick, character-driven mystery! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the librarian preview copy.

This domestic thriller had me hooked immediately. Told in multiple voices it is about a group of family and friends attending a posh wedding on a remote island of the coast of Ireland. Everyone has secrets and things to hide but in such close quarters secrets have a way of coming out and justice is ultimately served. A satisfying and well-paced read.

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one as they celebrate a wedding that’s made for a magazine. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed. But as the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why? review: This was one of my Book of the Month picks and I absolutely devoured it. It’s a bit of a slow burn to start, but it really picks up and is a compulsive page-turner. The author did a fantastic job at crafting an atmospheric setting – I felt like I was on the coast of Ireland with them because of how detailed it was. The different POVs of the bride, groom, and guests made for a fun “whodunit” element – I was SO unsure who was the culprit until the very end. This was the perfect storm of a book. rating: 4 out of 5 ⭐️

This book is a winner. I had to finish it once I started reading. On an isolated island off the coast of Ireland a celebrity wedding is about to take place. The pre-wedding cast includes the wedding planner, bride, groom and wedding party. Soon we will get to know them better as their secrects are revealed. The format, which I liked, takes you through the weekend of the wedding with various characters sharing their thoughts as the weekend progresses. The author does a nice job with gradually revealing the characters and builds to a good climax. You someone is going to get killed - but who ? I really enjoyed this book and am recommending it to friends as a great escape read.

A murder mystery where both the victim and the murderer are revealed at the very end! I really enjoyed this switching-perspective thriller. Great characters and atmosphere that kept the pages turning.

So this one is a complicated book for me to review. Overall, I felt pretty in between about it. I wanted to have stronger feelings one way or another, but it fell right In the middle.

I thought the concept was intriguing. A high profile wedding at a isolated island in Ireland with hidden secrets. A classic “who done it” clue vibe was definitely there and I really liked that aspect. This book was good enough to finish but very slow and felt a bit dragged out. It seemed like it would be a good movie but also felt kind of a cheesy type of thriller It talked about several controversial subjects that were mentioned but I feel could have been addressed better and more in depth. The characters were also not as likable or relatable which is something that’s important to me.

The ending I think is what saved it for me. I didn’t expect it which was a good way to tie up the end. If you need an easy thriller I definitely recommend this one!