Full disclosure: I don't follow or care about celebrities. That said, I should have known that a celebrity murder mystery is just not for me. It may be for some, but for me it was quite the yawner for the first 75,% of the book until something interesting started happening. Until then, the long winded descriptions of high brow accomodations in conjunction with insignificant influential people being selfish and wasteful was a drag. It never really hooked me and with such a massive cast of characters I struggled to keep any of them straight and honestly didn't even care to. It was just okay for me.

I was intrigued by the premise but this one was too slow and lost me. I decided to DNF at 20%. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

An exclusive club for A-Listers.
A few dead bodies.
Told from multiple viewpoints.
Are the rich different from you and me?
Wow!

This book is a murder/mystery told from multiple viewpoints. It has many twists and turns and you will not know what is going to happen next. The narrators are different from each other but work for the same company, Home.
The company is not what it seems and most of the guests do not know it. You will definitely want to keep reading to see what happens next and if the killer is ever caught. This book is very interesting and I would recommend reading it.
Thank you to #netgalley, @ElleryLloyd and @HarperCollins for a copy of this book.

Loved the storyline of the rich and famous seeking exclusive VIP status to an opening party of Home’s getaway on Butchers Island. Home is an exclusive multi property private getaway for only the most fabulous celebs in the business.
Cell phones and cameras aren’t allowed at Home and it’s a place where the celebs can be themselves without any chance of anyone ever seeing or hearing about it.
This book shows the ultimate twisted portrait of how wealth and power can lead to a very dark and evil side in people. Highly recommend this scandalous sensational read.
Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for the gifted copy in return for my honest opinion.

A lot of this book I really liked. The twists were good and the concepts were cool, but at the end I wanted a little more. There were so many characters to keep track of I was often confused. My biggest thing was the lack of dialogue and heavy descriptions that made it hard to read at times. Dialogue helps me to focus and keep paying attention, but there wasn’t a ton in this book and there were really dense descriptions of time, place, and person that I thought could’ve been cut down. Overall it was good and kept me entertained especially in the second half.

Ned and Adam have worldwide resorts/clubs that only the best of the best celebrities can stay at, and that's only if you're lucky and you get chosen.

Ned goes way out, and over budget, on making these extravagant clubs, but it's the customers prices that cover them. Only specific are chosen for the opening of this club with a price and they will discover why.

Main characters Nikki is Ned's personal assistant. Annie is the membership coordinator. Adam is Ned's brother who does what ever he's told. Along with Jess, head of housekeeping. You also have many other characters, and I admit, with a handful of POV's, it was a bit difficult to keep up with who's who until a bit of the way in. I did have to go back a couple times to check.

As you're reading you will discover "Easter Eggs" throughout the book and just about everybody is freaking out when they discover theirs!

The very beginning started out great, but it then drags a bit, but it still kept me going and as bigger surprises were popping up I couldn't put it down! If it hadn't dragged a little and hadn't had me confused a few times this would have been an easy 4 or 5 stars.
Thank you Netgalley and HarperCollins for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Expect the unexpected in this page-turner! Set in an exhilarating setting for lovers of travel and luxury, The Club explores celebrity life in a personal and chilling way while satisfying the desire for an unputdownable thriller. Reminiscent of Lucy Foley with a twist, this is one that’ll be on my mind for quite a while!

I didn’t enjoy this one as much as their previous book but I still found it entertaining. Worth the read.

I thought this was a slow start thriller that paid off by sticking with it to the end. The premise of a murder mystery in a celebrity club was fun to read about and ended up being a wild ride!

Review: I really enjoyed Ellery Lloyd’s debut novel, so I was pretty excited for this one, but unfortunately it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. Let me put it this way, my favorite parts were the between-chapter “excerpts” from news media about Home and its clientele, and I sort of thought the whole book would be more in that vein. But there was a looooot of focus on the very specific secrets of just the few main characters and who they wanted to kill and how they were going to do it, and then the bad people all get punished and the good people come out unscathed (sorry for the minor spoiler, but I feel like if this is the kind of ending you’re into, my mentioning it will make you want to read it, and if you don’t like this kind of ending, then you’ve been warned in advance).

This book had my head spinning with different points of view and the news article talking about what happened. Once I figured out who was who and who did and who was killed. 😳 Lots of secrets. I was intrigued and I had to finish it.

Pretend Robin Leach and Agatha Christie got drunk together and decided to write a book to amuse themselves. Pretend someone found the manuscript and published it. Well, I think that is what happened here! Stupidly rich people who do things they shouldn't be doing and are getting away with it. Then the weekend on the island when the new super high profile protective club opens up and past crimes come back to be paid for. I loved the depth of the characters and sweet little twists in the story. Honestly, a few of them could have been a bit contrived, but the writing presented them in such a way that they worked. And isn't that the sign of good (or devious) writing? I will warn you, however, that if you gave up adult beverages for Lent you might want to wait and read this after your period of abstinence is over. Frequently I felt the pull to join the characters for a nice cocktail.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

The Club by Ellery Lloyd (out now!)

Overall, this thriller was a pleasant surprise. I honestly wasn’t sure if I’d read it, because I had a very bad experience reading People Like Her last year. However, I found The Club to be fairly different and more enjoyable!

I enjoyed the multiple POV and locked room vibes. There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle that you’ll have to put together as you read this one. Almost every single character in this book is seriously unlikeable, and by design, you’ll probably find yourself rooting against most of them. Which is interesting.

I found the ending satisfying and am happy with how it turned out.

If you’re looking for a quick, popcorn thriller, then definitely give The Club a try!

Thank you @netgalley and @harperbooks for the #gifted copy.

This one had a good plot, but it was such a slow start. I would have liked to see this get moving at a fast pace. Once we really got into what was happening, it was a good story though!

𝘚𝘶𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘺!

This is one of those stories where you hate all the characters but love them at the same time, it was dark, full of secrets, messy, complicated but impossible to put down.

Thank you Harper Books and NetGalley for this gifted copy.

𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘔𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘺, 𝘚𝘶𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦, 𝘍𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘊𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦.

https://www.instagram.com/booksandcoffeemx/

Brief Synopsis: Home, a network of exclusive clubs resorts around the world for the wealthiest celebrities and businessmen. The Club holds lots of secrets and lies. The largest Home resort has its grand opening weekend on an exclusive island and just the most exclusive members are invited. The secrets and lies come to a head leading to chaos and death.

My thoughts:
-This is very slow burn but the last half of the book gets crazy!
-There are a lot of characters to keep straight but once I got to know them all I really enjoyed that the story was told in multiple characters points of view
-SO much drama! secrets, lies, celebrity gossip and death

Overall I enjoyed this book! It started off slow for me but once secrets started to be revealed I just kept wanting to know more!

I really loved the author’s previous novel, People Like Her so I was really excited to receive a copy of their latest novel, The Club.

I will say The Club was written in a slightly confusing format. There were multiple points of view and the story would also jump back and read to a Vanity Fair article. It kind of reminded me of Daisy Jones and the Six. This wasn’t my favorite format, but overall this was a good read. I did love the plot and the setting at an exclusive celebrity member’s only club on a remote island. Reading about the history of the club and the members secrets was fun. I look forward to reading the author’s next book!

Thank you to Net Galley for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Club is about the Home Group, where members are the elite of the elite and can go to one of the Home Group’s many locations in order to relax and have fun without the watchful eye of the media following their every move. Ned Groom, the owner of the Home Group, is launching a new location- Island Home-and is holding a three-day long launch party to celebrate. However, tensions are brewing behind the scenes, secrets are no longer secret, and Ned Groom has something special in store for the supposed “lucky” few invited to the island before the weekend has begun.

The story focuses on Adam, Ned’s younger and often overlooked brother, Jess, the recently-hired Head of Housekeeping, Annie, the overworked Head of Hospitality, and Nikki, Ned’s personal assistant, and all of them have something to hide.

What I liked:

The structure of this book was glorious. I loved how each chapter ended with a snippet of a news article written about the events that had taken place at Island Home and having each chapter be a different time (Friday Morning, Friday Afternoon, Friday Evening, etc.) was a great touch. It was a brilliant way to build suspense and add to the mystery of what could’ve happened (and also allowed for dramatic irony in latter parts of the book, which I’m always a proponent of).

I fell in love with all of the characters through their POVs, and I liked how each chapter had one section dedicated to each of them. They were all very well-written and were the perfect ways to watch the puzzle pieces of the story fall into place. It’s strange how Ellery Lloyd can make you root for each of the characters, even when they are in direct opposition to each other at times.

I’ll also say that the mystery elements were very well-executed. The foreshadowing was on point, and the suspense had me on the edge of my seat. Additionally, when everything aligns and you can see the big picture at the end, it’s immensely satisfying (in my opinion, that’s what truly makes a good mystery).

What I didn’t like:

It was a bit slow at the beginning, despite small lines of foreshadowing to keep you invested. This coupled with the length of the chapters made for a difficult read at first. However, the pace picks up quite a bit once you get into it, and there were no issues from there on out.

Finishing thoughts:

This was an amazing mystery and an amazing book, and I can’t wait to make people I know read it so I can enjoy seeing them figure everything out for themselves. I’m very glad I chose this to be my first mystery/thriller of the year!

The club is an A-List members only book about the next up and coming selective home, built and exclusive to only those who are on the list. The Island Home is finished being built and it’s grand opening is one to die for. Ned Groom is the founder of The Homes, lavishly built homes for the rich and famous. A getaway from the getaway. This time around he’s built the biggest resort on and island and only a few are invited to party and this has tension rising amongst some of the famous not invited. And with tensions rising, some people wish they weren’t invited at all… because this is one Home you can’t escape. Once the bodies start to rise, the secret start to slip.

From the get go you’re thrown into a tense plot beginning with a death. Than we start to meet the characters, each telling their own story, which drags a bit in the build up, but than the games begin and who you think is out to get them isn’t. This is one where I can truly say I didn’t “see that coming.” It’s a rollercoaster and some characters I couldn’t stand but felt for them all the same. I love a good cat-and-mouse thriller and the mystery behind each character is worth the binge.

Everyone covets an entry into a club just called as 'Home'. The top tier membership is more elusive. But is the entry worth it? Dive in to 'The Club' to find out!
The Club builds up the momentum slowly for the story to come together at the end. Its definitely not a fast paced thriller and has more of a literary with a rock and roll sort of vibe. This is a character rich novel and every character has a role to play with a story.
I really enjoyed this novel once it hit the 30% mark and had a hard time putting it down.