Its rare I read a debut and it cements an author as an auto buy but, @amandajayatissa did just that with My Sweet Girl so I looking forward to this.

As per usual-knocked it out of the park! There are so many twists in this book it will leave your head spinning. I honestly did not see the ending coming and found it wicked, smart and very good. It was juicy, dark, dramatic and had some sarcasm thrown in with regard to humor that I just loved. It made me giggle a lot. The characters are all larger than life and extreme which added to the atmosphere.

As per her previous novel, I loved the Sri Lanka setting and all of the cultural references. Lots of the custom around marriage was included and some foreign words/phrases are sprinkled within the novel however, all of it is explained to the reader in such a way it flowed very nicely. Personally, I love when we get pieces of language in novels.

This was fun and I really enjoyed it! I cant wait for what Amanda has in store for us next! Thank you @netgalley for my advance copy!

You're Invited is an intense psychological thriller that will grab your attention from the beginning. A story about a woman who is determined to stop the wedding of her ex-best friend to her ex-boyfriend. You're Invited is a great blend of secrets, lies, manipulation, and gaslighting. This was full of surprises, and in the end, I liked how twisty and surprising it was.

While Amaya Bloom is stalking Kaavi Fonseka's Instagram, she discovers that her former best friend has gotten engaged to her former boyfriend Spencer. The two women grew up together in Sri Lanka and remained best friends through college in the U.S. The Fonseka family, at the top of Sri Lankan society, has planned an over-the-top wedding, which is exactly what Kaavi wants as she has carefully cultivated her public persona to be the epitome of wealth, beauty and perfection. But Amaya, who is shocked that she has been invited to the multi-day festivities, is determined to stop the wedding. Amaya heads to Sri Lanka and is ready to face the Fonseka family, who she had thought she'd never see again. 

Starting with the day of the wedding, You're Invited is told in flashbacks to three months before the big event to the days leading up to it. The story plays out from the perspectives of Amaya and Kaavi. Before Kaavi and Spencer tie the knot, we learn that the bride is missing, and everyone fears she has been harmed or worse. Amanda Jayatissa has skillfully created an interesting cast of characters who all seem to have something to hide. Some of their actions may make you uncomfortable. And with the exception of sweet, 5-year-old Nadia Fonseka, no one is especially likeable. As she did with her debut My Sweet Girl, Jayatissa has written another intelligent, dark, suspenseful, and twisty story. It will keep you guessing and will keep you very entertained.

Rated 4.25 stars.

Let me tell you, you absolutely MUST add this to your TBR! I loved the format too, it is told mainly from Amaya’s POV, but there is also a bit of procedural POV mixed in after each chapter, giving us either a new suspect or a red herring, who’s to say? The other POV is from Kaavi prior to the wedding, but we don’t get this until later in the story, and oh she comes in hot with her own secrets as well. I am getting ahead of myself here but good grief this is SO well done, the twists are fantastic, and I simply could not get enough!

Amaya and Kaavi used to be bff’s, Spencer dated Amaya, they all went their separate ways in the most abrupt manner, and now Amaya learns that Kaavi and Spencer are getting married and to say she is hurt is an understatement. THEN, she gets an invite to the festivities and off we go. Note this is a slow burn in the beginning but in the best way possible as secrets are slowly beginning to ooze out like gunk from this family, and the town of Columbo is devouring it all but they don’t even know the half of it, yet. Then Kaavi goes missing and is presumed dead, and Amaya is our suspect numero uno. But as we know with these types of stories, nothing is easy or ever as it seems, and even though generally I thought I had it figured out there were still many things I got wrong.

I won’t say any more, but hopefully this is enough to hold your interest and you rush to buy this one ASAP! I also hope you trust me when I say that you do NOT want to miss this one! I absolutely LOVED it, and after also loving My Sweet Girl, Jayatissa is now firmly on my auto buy list, she is just amazing. (P.S., As a bonus, the cultural references and descriptions in here re Sri Lanka are equally as wonderful as the plot itself!)

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Books for the digital copy to review.

maya leaves Houston to attend a wedding in Sri Lanka. Custom dictates a week long celebration for the new to be married couple. Perfect. This gives Amaya one week to make sure that the wedding does not take place. She is prepared to move mountains to stop Kaavi Fonseka from marrying Matthew Spencer (thereafter referred to as Kaavi and Spencer).

Amaya will stop at nothing, planning sabotage after sabotage. However, one major event has truly stopped the wedding, but what was leading up to it?

This thrilling read was in first person from Amaya’s point of view. While the mystery is slowly unraveling as to Amaya's motives, one thing is for certain. Amaya is a dark person, a dark person with very dark thoughts. In fact, she often thinks to herself the things she wants to do to people, and it is these very thoughts that are woven into the pages of this fast-paced novel.

The twists in this book are shocking, and even though I guessed one plot direction correctly, there was so much more that I didn’t catch, and that only made this book that much better. This is one of those books where nothing is as it seems, and that is precisely what makes this such a compelling read.

Many thanks to and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

* TW - self-harm.

Please enjoy my YouTube video review - https://youtu.be/vWQ_MaV0Uc4

Amaya hasn't spoken to her former best friend, Kaavi, for years so when she gets an email inviting her to her wedding, Amaya decides to go. Hoping for a fresh start, Amaya is shocked to discover that Kaavi is actually marrying Amaya's ex boyfriend, Spencer. Amaya decides she needs to stop the wedding. But then Kaavi goes missing and is presumed dead...

Wow, what did I just read? What a story! I really thought I knew where the book was going and then towards the end, it went a totally different way. The Sri Lankan setting was so intriguing and I loved learning more about the wedding culture there. Highly recommend this one - I loved it!

I found the description of the book appealing because I know nothing about Sri Lanka. I was hooked by the plot and wanted a front row seat.
For most of the reading I kept asking what was Amaya’s deal. What had occurred 5 years earlier. I liked the police interview style.
Arguably, none of the characters are especially likable, but the plot kept me reading faster.
The lies and deceptions are tighter than a fly wrapped in a spider’s web.
Deceive and it shall deliver!

Once again, I enjoyed the perspective that Amanada Jayatissa brings to her novels. We get a wonderful glimpse at Sri Lanken culture and traditions, especially the preparations and intricacies of a Sri Lanken wedding in a privileged family.

But this is not just any wedding. It's a wedding that must be stopped. The only problem is, the one who can stop it has been "uninvited".

Amaya innocently believes she has been invited to her former best friend's wedding to her ex-boyfriend. Is she just jealous, or is something darker going on here? She's determined to stop the wedding of Kaavi and Spencer, and now that she's in Sri Lanka, she has to carefully navigate the world of aunties, gossip, and mortal tutting.

I loved Amaya's little asides, imagining in her head what disaster she would like to see befall someone who has slighted her (imagined or otherwise). I also liked how she compulsively and superstitiously checked time to see if it was a good sign before proceeding (because I think, subconsciously, I do that ;-)

Although it took a while to get to all of the secrets that EVERYONE was hiding I did not guess the ending and I loved the twists and turns the story took to get there.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for an advance reader's copy of another great book from Amanda Jayatissa!

A bit if a slow start, but the complex relationships, questioning of the narrator, and the multi-faceted relationships all kept me on my toes. There are many twists and reveals, and while I'm not really a predictive reader, i never would have guessed many of these twits.

There’s a lot to like with this thriller that also makes it unique. The Sir Lanka setting is glamorous, beachy and full of pomp and circumstance. The elements of Sir Lankan culture added such an interesting context to the story. Reputations are easily destroyed by a single rumor and Sir Lankan women are under pressure to marry before they are “too old” which plays a major role in this book. I loved how the older generation were all about showing their wealth and spreading rumors. It had me questioning everyone and their motives.

I also enjoyed how the list of suspects was endless. The story is told from Amaya’s perspective, with elements of her backstory coming to light throughout the book. Eventually, the bride has a say, but the chapters are intermingled with investigative interview transcripts with wedding guests. It seems like everyone has a chip on their shoulder and I was constantly changing my mind on who I felt was to blame. This led to an ending twist that really did take me by surprise.

The one complaint I have is that there is a lot going on in this book. I mean, a lot. A ton of red herrings that throw you off from the main plotline, some in a good way and others that I felt were unnecessary. I do not want to give specifics so that I do not give any spoilers, but, in my opinion, some elements of Amaya’s backstory could have been left out.

Amaya Bloom has problems. Once a brash young woman ready to take on the world, nowadays she’s content to run a small spice shop in California and quietly stalk her former best friend on social media. Kaavi Fonseka seems to have everything Amaya once thought was within her reach, too: a glamorous life of wealth and influence, documenting her award-winning charitable efforts as well as her skincare routine and fashion tips for her legions of adoring fans worldwide. But most of all, Kaavi has a loving, tight-knit family that Amaya desperately misses, though it’s been five years since Amaya last had contact with any of them:

QUOTE
Things change as you grow. As you understand the world for what it is. That we overcompensate in our memories because we didn’t know any better at the time.

That was how I was expecting things to be with Kaavi and the Fonsekas.

I had hoped that it was all in my head. That I’d put them on some sort of pedestal because I’d missed them so much. That I had been looking at my past through glasses that were so rose-tinted that everything was just fluorescent pink at this point. But with Kaavi, it was the opposite. In our time apart, I’d withered away to less, and she’d blossomed to be more.
END QUOTE

When Kaavi announces that she’s getting married, Amaya is taken aback, then completely flips out after realizing that the groom-to-be is Amaya’s own ex-boyfriend Matthew Spencer. Spencer, as he’s known, and Amaya had a bad break-up five years ago, an event that preceded the rupture in her own friendship with Kaavi. Seeing the two of them together now, loving and beautiful on all of Kaavi’s social media accounts, triggers something in Amaya. When she gets the invitation to Kaavi’s wedding in Colombo, Sri Lanka, she knows she has to do everything in her power to stop the wedding, even if the results could turn deadly.

There is so much I cannot say about this book because I do not want to spoil a single second of the reading experience for you. While several of the earlier plot twists seem telegraphed, Amanda Jayatissa is merely lulling jaded crime readers like myself into a false sense of complacency before delivering a series of knockout blows that had me gasping loudly, unable to put down the book till after I’d turned that last, memorable page.

And more than just being a devastatingly twisty thriller, the trenchant insight into being a modern woman – and even more specifically a modern woman navigating the tensions between the liberties taken for granted by Western culture and the more rigid expectations of a post-colonial Asian society – lent a greater depth and force to the badly behaved goings on of the characters here as they schemed and plotted their ways to their goals. Amaya, for example, hates her privilege but isn’t above using it when needs must:

QUOTE
The panic on the security guard’s face made me feel like a real villain. I knew what I was doing. <i>He</i> knew what I was doing. I was playing my Colombo 07 Privilege Card. The card I hated everyone else in this town for playing. Where I would use my perfect westernized English and the wealth I had the luck of being born into to make someone else feel so small, so insignificant, so afraid of their status in life that they felt that they had no choice but to let me do what I wanted. Rich kids, the children of the politically connected, did it every day. Standing in lines, stopping for traffic cops, following procedure in public administration buildings wasn’t for them. For us.
END QUOTE

As a Malaysian emigre who has firsthand experience with this kind of thing, reading this book made me feel like the living embodiment of the “I’m in this and I don’t (know if I) like it” meme. I was already deeply affected by Ms Jayatissa’s debut novel <a href=”https://www.criminalelement.com/book-review-my-sweet-girl-by-amanda-jayatissa/”>My Sweet Girl</a>. That was a head rush of a thriller, a book that trapped its main character between the racism of her California home and the ghosts of her Sri Lankan upbringing. In her sophomore effort, the author brings her scarily sharp insight to bear on Sri Lankan society itself, skewering the pretentious and downright cruel without ever patronizing the culture or characters (though even as a self-possessed eldest child, I did think Tehani got the short end of the stick. The poor woman is trying her best, okay?!)

Self-aware, suspenseful and scandalously witty, You’re Invited is one of my favorite reads this year so far. It’s the homicidal version of Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians, and deserves to be just as much of a blockbuster.

This was one of those reads that took me awhile to get into, but once I was settled in, I was super into it! For me the slowish start paid off in the end, so patience may be required but it does get interesting.

The author did a great job with the format, it’s told both in the present and a few months before the wedding and there are interview transcripts interspersed from various wedding guests that reveal so much juicy gossip. I really liked the look inside Sri Lankan culture and traditions and the lavish wedding was so fun. There’s a lot of dark humor here which I enjoy in a thriller and I found it to be smart and sharp in such a wicked way. I think this is one of those thrillers where the readers enjoyment really hinges on the twist. I didn’t have it fully figured out ahead of time so I ended up really liking the direction it took, but if you guess it early I don’t think you’ll be impressed. I say this because I guessed the twist in the authors debut and I was bummed so just wanted to put it out there. But overall I do recommend it and think if you like whodunnits with lots of secrets this was a fun one.

You’re Invited by Amanda Jayatissa



READ THIS BOOK IF YOU LIKE: Psychological thrillers, unreliable narrators

This one is a must-read if you enjoy suspense novels that keep you turning the pages and guessing with every chapter! Its fantastic! Buckle up and enjoy the ride of this well-plotted, excellent story that takes place in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

SYNOPSIS:

When Amaya is invited to Kaavi’s over-the-top wedding in Sri Lanka, she is surprised and a little hurt to hear from her former best friend after so many years of radio silence. But when Amaya learns that the groom is her very own ex-boyfriend, she is consumed by a single thought: She must stop the wedding from happening, no matter the cost. But as the week of wedding celebrations begin and rumors about Amaya’s past begin to swirl, she can’t help but feel like she also has a target on her back. When Kaavi goes missing and is presumed dead, all evidence points to Amaya. However, nothing is as it seems as Jayatissa expertly unravels that each wedding guest has their own dark secret and agenda, and Amaya may not be the only one with a plan to keep the bride from getting her happily ever after…

Out on August 9

Reading YOU'RE INVITED is a little like driving the backroads too fast in a strange town at night in a stolen car without a GPS and with only one headlight, in the best possible way. Amanda Jayatissa kept me guessing as she wove twist after twist into a captivating tale where no one and nothing is what it seems.

Crazy Rich Asians meets Gone Girl? Yes, Yes, a THOUSAND TIMES. This hooks you from the moment you start. I couldn't put it down.

Okay, okay, okay, I was SO excited to read YOU'RE INVITED by Amanda Jayatissa. I loved her first book, My Sweet Girl. YOU'RE INVITED did not disappoint.

Set in Sri Lanka, Amanda weaves a tale mostly told by our unreliable narrator, Amaya. She is determined to not let the wedding between her ex-best friend, Kaavi, and her ex-boyfriend, Spencer happen.

The story is told from a couple of points-of-view mixed in with interviews after Kaavi disappears on the day of her wedding.

The plot revolves around marriages and weddings. Particularly those in Sri Lanka. We see Kaavi dealing with the pressure from her family and community to get married before she's deemed "too old." We get glimpses of how arranged marriages work, how extravagant (and costly) weddings are in Sri Lanka.

The STRESS of making all these working parts come together is excruciating for Kaavi. And here Amaya, who has her own secrets and life issues, comes like a wrecking ball ready to destroy the entire event.

I loved how the story would give little hints and breadcrumbs of secrets or twists and in the end everything comes together.

YOU'RE INVITED was a popcorn thriller that made for a great weekend of reading for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing me an e-copy of YOU'RE INVITED to review.

I rate YOU'RE INVITED five out of five stars.

I felt a strange connection with the main character, most likely because we are both Virgos (haha). I love the author’s writing style it kept me intrigued the whole time. Towards 60% through the book I feel like the whole story made a strange, but awesome turn.

I loved the added information on Sri Lankan culture, I found it very interesting. The end of chapter transcripts were a great touch, they gave a lot of insight into the characters. I am very excited to read more books by this author.

An unlikeable, unreliable main character, with unlikeable, unreliable other characters, everyone hiding Deep Dark Secrets... I've read this before. Including the narrative interruptions for the investigation into Where's/What Happened To Kaavi? The setting, very rich section of Colombo (Sri Lanka) and the glimpses of culture we get, redeems much of the rote nature of the mystery. Sadly, sometimes that's really heavy handed, but other times it's interestingly woven into the narrative. There were other heavy handed moments, like Amaya's constant looking for signs in the time or other numerical things, like the number of knickknacks on a mantle. I rounded this up from 2.5 to 3 because of the setting.

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.

Once this book got going (and it took a while) it was full of surprises and in the end I liked how twisty and surprising it was.

Amaya and Kaavi's friendship fell apart five years before after being friends since childhood. That's why Amaya is surprised to receive a heartfelt e-mail with an invitation to Kaavi's wedding in their home country of Sri Lanka. Yet when she discovers that Kaavi is marrying Amaya's ex Spencer, she knows she has to go and stop Kaavi from marrying Spencer.

Nothing in this book is what it seems on the surface. There are hidden motives, dark secrets, and unclear motivations. I must admit that I thought it was going a certain way and I was completely wrong! Like I said, it did take a while, it takes until the book is at about 50% for things to really start being revealed.

This book does suffer from the unfortunate issue of OTTM--One Twist Too Many. I thought that everything was wrapped up really nicely and then surprise, one more twist was thrown in. It didn't wreck the book, but it was totally unnecessary except that it did answer a couple of the unanswered questions/clues from earlier in the narrative. I'll give the book a pass, but authors need to rein themselves in when throwing in twists.

I loved the Sri Lanka setting and culture. It was fascinating and really gave a unique flavor to the story and kept me engaged. Even though there are foreign words and phrases sprinkled throughout, they are all translated so I wasn't lost.

All in all, this is a very surprising suspense tale, if you stick with it past the initial long setup, the payoff is fantastic.

You’re Invited takes place in Sri Lanka and dives into themes of manipulation, power, privilege, and family drama. You’re Invited was one of my most anticipated summer reads! I really enjoyed this one! I loved that the story is fast-paced and told through multiple perspectives. All the characters are unlikable and they don’t seem to be what they seem which makes the twists in here even more fun. This is one of those books that are great to go in knowing little about the plot. However, the author does address heavy subjects in here: self harm, abuse, gaslighting, violence to name a few. Highly recommend picking this one up if you love domestic thrillers/mystery! Also definitely recommend listening to the audiobook as there are three narrators who do a stellar job bringing the story to life!