Jules and Will are set to get married on a remote island off the Irish coast. Both are well known people, Jules being the owner of a magazine and Will the star of a survival reality tv show. All of their friends and loved ones gather for the wedding when someone is discovered to have been murdered amidst a strong storm the night of the wedding.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book. The storyline was okay and had an interesting premise, but a lot of it fell short for me. It took a long time to build up and I found myself thinking if there was every going to be a point. There were a lot of time jumps between the day before the wedding, morning/day of the wedding, and the actual night of the wedding itself, all leading up to the murder and how it was discovered.

I didn't relate to any of the characters or particularly enjoy them. I wouldn't say they were unlikable, but I definitely didn't feel a strong connection to them either. I think part of the reason I didn't relate to the characters as much is because there were SO many viewpoints. Every time you turned the page it felt like a different person was telling the story and then it would take a long time to get back to the same person. Although, even with the multiple POV's I never found that I had a hard time telling the character's apart, that part was easy.

What slightly saved it for me in the end was the final twist. I didn't see it coming, but I also didn't find it extremely shocking either.

One thing I did like was the use of language to create the overall atmosphere and the nostalgia of the characters. Overall, it was well-written, just not exactly a favorite thriller of mine.

Quick moving crime thriller which takes you to a remote island wedding. It's not who did it, it's more like who didn't do it. Pack mentality takes over the guests during the pre-wedding get-together and reception, itself. The story weaves together what is currently happening in one chapter and how it was influenced by past actions in another from multi-perspectives. Snuggle down for a weekend ride because you're going to want to know just what happens when the past is confronted with the now...
AND THEN THE LIGHTS GO out

I thought this sophomore effort by Lucy Foley even better than her first book The Hunting Party. The location was the right amount of romantic and dangerous and the plotting was much tighter.

As I read this book, I thought repeatedly "oh, what tangled webs we weave...." I loved this book. I appreciated the well-thought out characters, and was shocked to see how well everyone's situation melded into each other's. I had true sympathy for some characters, rage or dislike towards others, and I couldn't wait to see how this played out. I appreciated the fact that the characters seemed to be self aware, or in on the fact that some of the goings-on or revelations were almost too far fetched to be true..... yet said situations never seemed trite or ridiculous. This book was just SO well done. I cannot wait to read what this author writes in the future.

Lucy Foley never disappoints. She has a true talent for writing cleverly crafted mysteries that keep the reader guessing pretty much until the end. The Guest List is a unique mix of Agatha Christie's best-known stories: Murder on the Orient Express and Then There Were None, where the guilty are plenty and the secrets kept are everywhere.

A beautiful bride, a famous groom, and a destination wedding, what should be the makings of a romantic weekend turn sinister when a scream interrupts the reception. This mystery is an intricate weaving of details that will keep readers guessing until the very end. Told through multiple points of view, readers get snippets of narrative from the groom’s boarding school buddies, the bride’s sister, and several others that build up to a surprising climax. The setting of the island is charming yet ominous with descriptions of the grand guest rooms while also mentioning the graveyard near the church. Foley’s reserved storytelling and superb character development make for a grim and gripping read.

4 stars!

As anyone following me knows, I love a good thriller, but I have trouble finding them. I didn't read the author's first book, The Hunting Party and now I definitely plan on going back. I thought reading The Guest List now would be perfect since BOTM chose it as an April pick and I've been reading so many heavy books I needed a break. I couldn't have been more pleased!

You've read the synopsis, a very hot and in the headlines couple, (Jules and Will) are getting married on a remote island. Yet appearances aren't what they seem and there are some very dark secrets that follow many people in the wedding party. It's creepy, sexy and sinister in all the right ways. Who is the guest that travels to the island, but won't make it back? Who commits the crime? I live for these stories and this one didn't disappoint.

It vaguely reminds me of Agatha Christie's, And Then There Were None, where you learn a little bit more about people as each chapter goes by. Pretty soon, you're suspecting everyone. THAT is something that is hard to pull off. How do you make it believeable? Well, I'm glad to say that Ms. Foley succeeded. I thought this book was superb and I enjoyed the surprises. Just when I was starting to get a little antsy, the book really picked up in pace and I couldn't have been happier with how it ended. I think one of the best parts about the book is that anyone could have committed the crime. Each time I caught myself thinking that I knew who it was, I'd read another chapter and be convinced it was another character. Lastly, I really enjoyed the writing. It was atmospheric and full of depth for how short the chapters were. In fact, the closer to the end we got, the shorter the chapters became and I thought this was a clever plot device. I definitely plan to add Lucy Foley to my list of must read authors. I can't wait for her next book!

Thank you to Brittani Hilles at William Morrow for providing me an egalley to read and provide an honest review.

Review Date: 04/07/2020
Publication Date: 05/05/2020

A wedding celebration on a remote location takes a dark turn in this page-turning thriller by Lucy Foley (author of The Hunting Party). Jules plans what she hopes will be a perfect day, but the various pasts of her guests collide fatally in this atmospheric book. The story is told from the perspective of various attendees and participants, and the setting – a blustery and forbidding island off the coast of Ireland – is one of the main characters.

I had fallen in a terrible reading slump in light of recent events, but The Guest List has completely solved that! The Guest List is told over 48 hours, during a wedding weekend meant to be a show-stopping event to garner press for the up-and-coming celebrity/influencer couple and the Folly, an old manor house on Cormorant Island. run by the wedding planner. We follow multiple POVs of guests attending the fated wedding, the wedding planner, and the bride. While multiple POVs can often feel stilted or frustrating, making you want to skip full chapters and race ahead for your favorite characters, it done incredibly well in this book. Never once did I want to skip ahead, the POVs fall naturally within the progression of the story and reveal relevant information while be compulsively readable. The individual characters' POVs are also truly distinct, I never found myself confused as to whose chapter I was reading.

One of my favorite things about the book is how truly deliciously atmospheric it is. I felt as if I was on the island, feeling the salty dampness that settles over everything and the beautiful isolation of an island shorn by wind and waves. Sometimes I struggle to keep the picture an author has crafted of a setting in my head, but in this book I felt as if I was actually there next to the characters, watching it unfold. This was also helped by how tightly written the story is - description doesn't drag on, it's used effectively and highlights what characters are feeling or experiencing throughout the story.

Without going into detail to avoid spoilers, I also enjoyed the themes explored. I've read a number of books lately that center on similar explorations but so heavy-handedly that I was worn down on them by the end of the stories. I thought The Guest List handled them with appropriate respect and credit without pulling focus from the narrative.

I'm not a thriller/mystery/suspense genre expert, but I felt that this was one of the best crafted, well-written, most bingeable books I've read in a while.

Content warnings for self-harm in the book.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this digital ARC.

I've been a fan of Agatha Christie since I was in grade school, so I couldn't resist this destination-wedding take on And Then There Were None. If that's why you're picking up this book, let me pause you right there. This story has some significant similarities to the Christie classic, but it is its own thing. Which is good, if you ask me. Just don't go in expecting a re-telling. That angle had been oversold to me, and I think it is part of why it took me a while to get into it.

The other reason is that the writing style felt like it was aimed at Gen Z readers. It is aggressively fashion-conscious, with an attention to glamorous and glam-adjacent lifestyles that I found off-putting at first. As I continued reading, however, I began to catch the sly digs and the characters started filling out their roles, and pretty soon I was hooked.

I don't want to say much about the mystery, but I enjoyed the interconnected subplots, which are revealed through liberal use of flashbacks and POV switches. I happen to like both, and I think Foley did a good job with them here, but if you're a reader who doesn't care for them, brace yourself. It's A LOT, especially at first. My only real criticism is that there weren't enough red herrings. If you spot something you think might be a clue, you are almost certainly correct. This made it a little predictable, yet for me at least, it was that comfortable, yeah-I've-got-this kind of predictability, not the eye-rolling, throw-the-book-at-the-wall kind.

I would definitely recommend this to anybody looking for a closed-circle mystery. This one also boasts a wonderfully atmospheric island setting. This was my first time reading this author, but I doubt it will be my last.

The story takes place over a long weekend on an island off the coast of Ireland as the wedding party and guests gather to celebrate a wedding. The wedding turns deadly as one of the participants end up dead. I really enjoyed the structure of this story. We don't actually find out who died until about 85% of the way through the novel. We experience the "Then" and "Now" portions of the book through a number of different characters, each of whom has secrets and traumas. The way that the story comes together was really interesting. I guessed the victim, but there were so many twists and turns I didn't figure out the murderer in advance. I highly recommend to anyone who likes a good, twisty thriller.

Everyone has a secret which all leads up to an exciting ending in this thriller. Appreciated the authors ability to weave multiple points of view into the story without making it become muddled.

I enjoyed this book immensely. I like that the author used various viewpoints and jumped forward and backward in time. it was not apparent to me right away who was killed, but once it was clear, there were several characters who could have been the killer and had sufficient motive. the characters were also varied and some were very likable, while others were intriguing. Overall, i would recommend this book to others.

A delicious read! And Then There Were None meets Big Little Lies (with just a dash of Say Yes to the Dress?) I adored it.

This book definitely kept my attention and constantly had me guessing. For that, it was a great escape. However, I felt like the end was a bit "been there, done that". It reminded me of a hybrid between Big Littles Lies and Murder on the Orient Express, so it just felt a bit "overdone"... the murder that happens to the character no one liked, that we are all better having lost. I don't know, it just seems overdone. But, I really enjoyed the journey, despite the disappointment at the ending.

I just finished reading THE GUEST LIST by Lucy Foley. It was fantastic! While I figured out one major twist, I did not figure out a few of the others. This is such an atmospheric novel. Set on an isolated island in Ireland you could smell the peat and feel the strong gale pulling you towards the cliffs overlooking the crashing waves below. I also sensed both the ethereal and creepy nature of the Folly. The character development is excellent, particularly for a thriller. I loved the "plus-one" Hannah. There is not much more I can say without giving anything away. I recommend this book. It will pull you out of any reading slump you may be in.

Thank you William Morrow Books for this free e-galley.

I enjoyed this a lot! I was really hooked and was dying to finish...and to see who died! The book gave me the creeps but I liked it.

The Guest List has is a modern take on the classic golden age mystery. An excellent addition to collections where mysteries are popular.

I really enjoyed this page-turner! Similar to Big Little Lies, we learn early on that an unnamed someone has met an untimely death at a wedding on a creepy private island off the coast of Ireland. Alternating POV reveal the back stories of the wedding party and guests, revealing plenty of drama, secrets and motives. Kept me guessing until the end. Thank you for the ARC!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy. The Guest List is a great mystery in the classic who-dunit style. If that isn't good enough to hook you in, it is set on an island off the coast of Ireland. What could be better or more atmospheric? I really enjoy a book with a fabulous setting to go along with an awesome mystery.