This book was really a miss for me. The characters fell flat and the plot was so so. Not one I would recommend anytime soon. Too superficial for my flow.

The weekend getaway at the gorgeous manor hotel should have been perfect. But Becca is freshly smarting from her husband Blake’s betrayal and knows this is just an expensive attempt at an apology. She may not be ready to forgive him, but the drinks are strong, the estate is stunning, and the weekend has an elaborate 1920s murder mystery theme. She decides to get into the spirit of things and enjoy their stay. What could go wrong?

All Dressed Up by Jilly Gagnon is great for Agatha Christie fans, viewers of the movie Knives Out or those who love playing clue. I love muder mystery parties, I've been to a few myself. A murder mystery weekend getaway, where do I sign up?!?

The concept of this story is strong and fresh I just wish there had been less Becca and Blake drama and more on the sleuthing. The overwhelming amount of marital issues made those sense hard to read. I understand the betrayal she felt would cause her to react the way she did and frankly if I experienced that in my marriage I would probably react the same way. But, reading about it repeatedly was a bit hard and depressing.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, for gifting me with an advanced readers copy.

Sadly, although it began with promise, All Dressed Up ultimately tripped over its own flaws. Not particularly well written, lost focus.

A murder mystery weekend to mend a broken marriage… but oh no! The mystery is real?! Chaos ensues!

This book was really fun. There are a lot of characters, aliases, and subplots, so get out your big corkboard and lots of red yarn to keep this one straight. It reads like a game of Clue come to life — plus or minus a few romantic entanglements.

Now, there's a reason I don't get invited to many murder mystery weekends. Love reading whodunits, but I'd be a terrible detective. For this reason, the relatively open-ended wrap-up didn't quite satisfy. A smarter person may be able to solve it, though!

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is a great locked room mystery set at a costume house party where every guest has an unsavory secret to hide and the main characters are a couple whose relationship is literally on the rocks post affair. I loved it!

Jilly Gagnon's book All Dressed Up was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. The cover is vibrant red and mysterious. My interest was piqued by the blurb of a 1920's estate featuring a murder mystery weekend getaway. When it comes to a gorgeous atmospheric setting with a game of Clue as the plot, I'm all about it. What an innovative concept, but did it live up to the hype?

Synopsis:
Becca and Blake are having marital issues. A recent revelation has left Becca doubting their relationship and she is struggling to forgive. Blake offers Becca a fun-filled and rejuvenating weekend away. This seems like the ideal solution. What could possibly go wrong?

All Dressed Up by Jilly Gagnon has many cute and intriguing scenes. The concept is strong and full of promise. Sadly, it fell a bit short for me due to the overwhelming amount of marital issues. Even though I understand why betrayal causes this type of reaction, reading about it repeatedly was a bit difficult.

Target audience:
Fans of a double murder mystery will be challenged by All Dressed Up. The book will excite Agatha Christie followers.

Final thoughts:
My opinions are my own. Each of us has a different taste in reading material. It's worth reading if it's of interest to you. It may be your favorite book of the year.

All Dressed Up by Jilly Gagnon is available on September 6th.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, for allowing me to review this book. Your kindness is appreciated.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bantam, and Jilly Gagnon for the advanced copy of All Dressed Up in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed the concept of a real mystery entwined with a pretend murder mystery, and I enjoyed the scenes where the hotel guests were together and trying to solve everything. Unfortunately, the story felt like it was overwhelmed by Becca and Blake's marital woes, and I did not so much enjoy those parts.

I read this in just over a day, so it's definitely entertaining, and I enjoyed how it ended as well. I will not hesitate to read another book by this author in the future.

All Dressed Up will be on US bookshelves September 6!

I was anticipating reading this story because I'm a huge Agatha Christie fan. The beginning starts off strong and then the story meanders with so many subplots that you just lose interest.

Becca and Blake are spending the weekend at a 1920’s themed murder mystery hotel. Becca is struggling with Blake’s affair and he is taking her on this trip to try and make it up to her. Becca loves mysteries and the “murder” takes place after everyone arrives. However, Becca gets chatty with one of the actresses one evening while she was out of character, but the actress goes missing. Becca feels the other actors are trying to cover her disappearance up because she tends to be flaky. Becca continues to find clues for the mystery weekend, but she also starts putting clues together on her own about the actresses disappearance.

This locked room mystery troupe reminded me of playing Clue growing up. However, I felt the downside to this storyline was that there was a little too much of Becca’s personal drama. There were several very believable red herrings and I did not guess at who the murderer was.

Starts out with a fun premise but loses steam as the novel progresses. The author needed to stick with the murder mystery plot and less time on the main character’s inner dialogue and personal issues.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60149574

I devoured this book in one sitting, I just couldn’t put it down. It is a charming throwback to classic mysteries, with a modern sensibility. Obviously, readers of this genre would find a murder-mystery weekend at a secluded hotel incredibly alluring. Becca is such a person, obsessed with whodunits. She would definitely be the one unmasking the killer, since she knows all the twists and where to look for clues, especially when one of the actors disappears and, there might be a real crime afoot. But she’s also getting over an unforgivable betrayal by her husband Blake, who is there with her in this adventure to try to get back into her good graces. And this is what surprised me about enjoying this book so much: I hated Becca. She’s whiny, insecure, worries way too much about what others think of her, and keeps bickering with her husband. Why is she even still with him if all they do is fight? I was also troubled at my liking Blake so much, since he’s a horrible, unfaithful piece of trash and I should want him to get murdered in the second page. And yet, this is a sign of a great plot, I needed to know what was going on and how Becca, Blake and the rest of the guests, would do. I wanted to know more about the fake murder, as much as about the possibly imaginary real one. As a fervent reader of Agatha Christie, I enjoyed every second of this read.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Bantam!

I loved this murder mystery inside a murder mystery! A story about a marriage as well as a clever house mystery party with an actual death this a whip smart of the moment terrific read!

This is a hard one to review. I didn’t hate it, didn’t love it. I can’t really put my finger on what I did or didn’t like about it.

It’s kind of got a mystery within a mystery going on. I felt like the two stories were hard to follow together bc the real mystery kept interfering with the game. Making the game harder to follow and kind of irrelevant. I’m not sure how the two story lines could have been intertwined better but I wish the game had been more interesting. I think it was supposed to kind of fall flat and be a little cheesy though. The main mystery was easier to put together, though there were a few red herrings.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC.

This book will definitely appeal to a certain reader, but that reader was not me. Unfortunately, while I absolutely LOVE an Agatha Christie style mystery, this book fell apart for me from the beginning. It seemed to call upon every modern day trope female mystery/thriller writers tend to love to the point of exploitation, which was infuriating and lazy. The main character is attempting to solve a "crime" during a murder mystery weekend, while balancing infidelity, anxiety, drunkenness, red herrings (so many red herrings), and a spooky old mansion. I mean, really?? It became laughable and kept making me think of that new Netflix show that pokes fun of all these tropes (The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window). And to top it off the main character is so unlikeable. By the last 1/3 of the book I was just skimming through the constant minutiae pouring out of her head and onto the page. This book took me a very long time to finish, the ending was pretty obvious, and I'm glad it's over.

I will say, though, that the idea of a murder mystery weekend sounds fun!

All the makings of my favorite kind of thriller. Glad to get this as an advanced copy. Would recommend for a quick fast paced read.

Becca and her husband, Blake go for what is supposed to be a fun, murder mystery weekend getaway with a glamorous 1920's setting. Soon after arriving instead of trying to solve a murder that is part of a game, they are racing to solve a real life murder. The cover and description pulled me in to request this copy and I was pleasantly surprised how quickly it pulled me in once I started reading. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the murder mystery theater taking place at an old house deep in the Catskills. This was a fun book to read. I liked the murder mystery within the murder mystery, with two sets of characters. I enjoyed the premise of having a real-life mystery taking place alongside the game, but it did get a little confusing trying to keep track of the real and fake as well as all of the characters' real names and alter names. I enjoyed the characters, the plot twists, and the humor. I thought that the mystery was sound. There were many believable red herrings with both the real and fake murders and I found myself regularly changing my mind about who was guilty. The book described the murder mystery well and absolutely made me want to go find one of these to do myself. Overall, “All Dressed Up” is a murder mystery that will appeal to fans of Clue or Knives Out. I can’t wait to read what Jilly writes next. Thank you NetGalley Jilly Gagnon and Random House Publishing Group for the e-arc in exchange for my thoughts.

All Dressed Up felt like playing an intense game of Clue, and I thoroughly enjoyed the narrative structure, the hotel setting, and that it felt like I was solving the mystery alongside the characters. The only drawback is that Becca is portrayed as a bit one-dimensional: she is primarily described through her sex life and she tends to come off as hysterical. Overall, though, a very creative thriller that I devoured!

There was a lot going on and way too much to keep track of. A little bit more work than I want to do with my reading time, but the story itself was entertaining and very Agatha Christie/Clue forward.

3.5/5
Clue meets murder mystery party in this new mystery! Becca’s husband surprises her with a weekend away to try to repair their marriage after his infidelity. she is even more surprised when she discovers that this is a murder mystery weekend getaway where all guests have characters and must solve clues to find out the culprit. However, one of the staff goes missing and Becca becomes convinced an actual murder has taken place.

Overall, I liked this book. I felt like it took a little bit to get into because Becca is not the most likable protagonist at first (she does get better). It’s part mystery/part family drama with her trying to repair her relationship. I wish there had been a bit more mystery. And while there is a solution to the real murder, the weekend murder solution is never revealed! Which is not the biggest thing but I like tidy endings lol.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I felt like this had potential, but it fell numbingly short. I just didn’t care about the parallel murder mystery playing out alongside the real “drama,” which was so vague and uninteresting that it just didn’t propel the plot. Just a boring “thriller” that wasn’t, in fact, a thriller.