While I was shocked by some of the twists and turns, it all seems a little contrived. Lucy Foley builds an amazing tense atmosphere, and I love the multiple povs.

I really could not get into this book, although I plodded through it. I think it was because the characters were British.. I thought the way the author used multiple points of view was very clever, but I still figured the out who the murderer was well before the end of the book. What the author did best was to build suspense slowly and fully develop the characters in the story.

Wonderful and compelling. I couldn’t put it down. I’m a sucker for a book that is almost entirely contained to a single day or in this case two. The ties between various characters were well constructed and believable without being too obvious from the beginning.

I wasn’t sure if this book would work for me at the beginning. Sometimes when there are so many POV characters, each with their own chapter(s), it gets confusing and frustrating. You want to spend time with the characters you’re intrigued by and the others feel like a waste of time. BUT that was not the case here. Each of the characters was fascinating and engaging. It is a slower build because of that set up, but totally worth it. Recommend to fans of Agatha Christie (obviously) but also modern thriller/mystery readers who are as interested in characters as plot twists. (Though there’s a good one of those as well!)

I have gotten a little burned out on suspense books lately. Maybe it’s just the ones I’ve been picking up, but I’ve found the last few I read were fairly predictable or I just outright disliked them. Was I over my love of suspense novels?

Luckily, I had the chance to read The Guest List. Having never read anything by the author, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was drawn in immediately. I mean, who doesn’t like to read about a group of rich, mostly beautiful people, all hiding dark secrets while attending a wedding on a spooky, deserted island? Yes, please!

Julia, magazine owner, and Will, reality TV star, are planning the perfect wedding on a remote island. They’ve gathered with their friends and family to celebrate, but by the end of the wedding one of them is dead. Who was killed, and who did it, when each member of the wedding party has a motive to kill?

I love a locked room mystery, and this was a great one. I typically don’t enjoy books told from multiple points of view, but in this case, the voices for each character was distinct and easy to tell apart, and gave insight into each character’s motive. You don’t find out who was killed until pretty far into the book, and the murderer wasn’t revealed until the very end. The book kept me guessing the whole time and I wan’t able to guess either the murdered or the murderer. This book was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to reading more by this author.

What a great, suspenseful read! The setting of an island off of Ireland, isolated from society and with no apparent means of intervention from distant shores, provides the frightening backdrop for what happens.
The pace quickens and then quickens again and again. The characters reflect the issues of the day which makes it even more harrowing. A creative twist leaves you satisfied.

Excellent, fast paced mystery that will keep you guessing until the end. The slow reveal of characters’ pasts is a very effective method of both giving readers clues and confusing them. Highly recommend

"Will Slater is not the man you think he is. He’s a cheat and a liar. Don’t marry him."

Well done, Ms. Foley!!!

A thriller set during a celebrity wedding, this book really hit all the marks for me. The multiple points of view worked well to build a sense of dread and mystery, and when I realized the why and the who, I literally yelled "A-HA!" Guests have gathered at the wedding of Jules and Will but from the outset, all is not well. Even though the guests are all close friends or relatives of the beautiful couple, there are resentments and jealousies simmering below the surface. Even though the exotic location and glamorous couple seem perfect, nothing could be further from the truth.

Here there’s the added danger of the whole island. The wildness of this place gets under your skin.

Slowly all of the guests' motivations and secrets are revealed. Those who seem to be kind, are not. And those who seem innocent, are not. The author held my attention from the first page, as I could not wait to see who it was that wanted to cause harm to the bride and groom. Adding to the suspense is the fact that the guests are all in one place, the island. I love how the author gave everyone a rich backstory, woven together with a parallel time line, to to add to the mystery and suspense.

From the beginning I was very struck by how mismatched the points of view seemed. I could not wait to see how the author was going to tie together the bride, her half-sister, the wedding planner, the wife of an usher and the groom's best friend. The structure was so intriguing! Nothing was random and everything came together very close to the end of the story.

The moody and remote setting was an added bonus to the story. Was it haunted? Was there any danger to the wedding guests from the stormy and wild coast? This book has a fantastic and clever ending and I don't want to give any more details. This is definitely a slow-burn thriller but if you want to be incredibly entertained, then don't miss 'The Guest List'!

A glamorous wedding for a picture perfect couple on an isolated island off the coast of Ireland is the premise of this thriller. There were several points of view telling the story - the bride, best man, wedding planner, maid of honor, and wife of a groomsman. The story was excellent, twisty, suspenseful and interesting to learn the stories of the past which shaped the twist at the end! An excellent thriller!

Taken from the Agatha Christie playbook, this suspenseful book builds as you try and figure out who killed one of the wedding guests. Set on a island off the Irish coast and told from alternating points of views. Groomsmen start a drinking game from their college days, the bride ruins her dress, and a wild toast from the bride's dearest male friend. Perfect plans leads to murder! This book is not to be missed.

There was so much I absolutely loved about this book, and found the writing super compelling. Ultimately there were a few too many cons to make this a 5 star read. I know that the cast of almost completely unlikable characters will bother some, but that never takes away from my enjoyment of a book.

Pros:
-addictive writing
-good mix of characters
-creepy setting

Cons:
-heavy handed clues, while I didn't figure out what happened 100% I figured out enough to be unsatisfied by the ending
-I semi lied, the Bride character was fairly close to insufferable
-a little to convenient

I enjoyed the story from the viewpoints of each of the wedding party, guests, and wedding planner. It was interesting on how the murderer was identified and the story wrapped up nicely. A good book club selection.

A tangled web unravels, long held secrets revealed, but I never felt all that gripped by the suspense. It's always delicious to read a revenge thriller in which a character who has skated by on good looks or just dumb luck gets what's coming to them. The Guest List tries to keep the reader off balance zig-zagging through time with a big cast who all have motive. But for me, even the reveal wasn't that much of a dun-dun-duhhhhh moment.

I liked the near-gothic feel of the island, but I think because I'd recently read Mexican Gothic, it felt like The Guest List stopped short of fully realizing its potential. Overall, it was fine.

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I enjoyed this book. It was a quick read full of suspense and I wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen. However, I hated almost all the characters which was a downer for me. Grown men still reminiscing on high school?? Like @aliciaclarereads said, if I’m still talking about high school at the age of 30, please kill me. I also felt that the end was very rushed. You finally find out what happens then there is almost no detail of the specifics. I need to know if everyone is ok!! Despite all of this though, I enjoyed the little surprises throughout the book that kept me reading. These were more of a shock to me then the ending, which I guessed toward the beginning. I enjoyed this book as a fun read but it’s definitely more of a mystery than a thriller.

Typical whodunit mystery...slow start but last half of book I couldn’t read fast enough! Great wedding mystery! 4 ⭐️

This thriller takes place at a wedding on a secluded island. Told from several points of view: Aoife, (the wedding planner), Jules, (the bride), Olivia, (the bridesmaid), Hannah, (the plus one), Johnno, (the best man), and Will, (the groom). One of these characters is not who they seem to be, and there are many turns and twisty connections along the way. This wedding will be a night nobody will forget, that's for sure.


I appreciated how at the end of the story, things started coming together piece by piece. It could get a little confusing at times, switching not only between points of view, but also between the time that the story events were taking place. The story gave you the feeling throughout that something was "off" and boy was it ever. I found myself feeling sorry for some characters, and disgusted by others. Overall, it was a good book. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to have an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I had doubts on this book and was worried over-hyped. It kept calling my name from my netgalley shelf so finally I jumped in.
Five Narrators over different timelines definitely help build up the mystery.
The wedding of the YEAR is happening for Julia Keegan, owner of a lifestyle magazine and Will Slater, TV star. It is also the chance of a lifetime for wedding planner Aoife to bring more people to the island she now owns along with her husband.
Secrets start spilling and people who should not know each other seem to know each other. A dead body pops up and the fun begins in putting all the pieces together.

A couple small plot holes that made this a 4 not a 5. It was a fun, fluffy, old fashioned who dun it. The fact it takes place on an island with no real cell reception helps keep the old fashioned vibe. I read an ARC (thank you Netgalley) so the holes may have been tightened up in the final edit.

<b>The Short of It:</b>

The cast of characters have arrived for a wedding on a remote island. What should be a celebratory event turns out to be a deadly affair.

<b>The Rest of It:</b>

Will and Jules are two, beautiful people. Happily successful in everything they do, they are the “it” couple and an invite to their wedding is not something the average person would ignore. Made up of old school chums, fellow colleagues and of course, the families of the bride and groom, the guest list is quite the to-do.

But Will and Jules are rather self-possessed and annoying. Jules has one bridesmaid, her younger sister who shows up to the wedding a bit of a mess. Will’s groomsmen are all extremely immature and juvenile but clearly there is some unfinished business between some of these characters and a big secret which could ruin the entire wedding.

I do enjoy a good story where the characters find themselves isolated with nowhere to hide. That sense of forced confinement really adds to the suspense and that is absolutely the case here. I didn’t see the big reveal coming until it was right in front of me. It was a good and proper ending for this story.

The setup is very similar to Foley’s earlier book, The Hunting Party. In that book, they arrive for a New Year’s Eve party, held at a fancy hunting lodge. The players in that book, share some similarity with those in The Guest List. That story takes place on secluded grounds, as does The Guest List. I feel that The Guest List possessed a bit more oomph in the area of suspense though and its reveal packed a more powerful punch. I was definitely more interested in these characters than the ones in The Hunting Party.

If this is a formula that Foley uses to write her books, then it’s a good one because both books are pretty entertaining and have done pretty well for themselves. Out of the two books, I’d recommend The Guest List for its setting.

For more reviews, visit my blog: <a href="http://bookchatter.net">Book Chatter</a>.

I read this on my Kindle. I received it from NetGalley. I know from an online reading group, that this was a monthly book club book of choice. I loved the book. What wonderful twists throughout the book. I absolutely recommend this book for a un-putdownable read. I can't wait to read more of her books!

This commercial thriller was a bit heavy handed but I could see where it was trying to go. There was very little subtlety here; the author made sure to pound every point home to try to build the suspense, pointing out every raised eyebrow and side glance in a way that didn't leave room for much nuance. But, if you're looking for a light and jaunty beach read thriller, then this one is a decent choice.