Many are Invited
Dennis Cuescat
Celestial Eyes Press
October 6, 2022

The Goertz Housewarming invitation read
“For many are invited, but few are chosen.” Matthew 22:15
Saturday, December 12, 99 at 6:00 pm
There was a tragedy that night, but the reader won’t know what it is until the end of the book. Who was to blame?

Steve and John work together at the phone company. John is the Director of the Year 2000 Compliance Team and John works under him as the Service Delivery Manager
for all corporate systems related to the Year 2000 Conversion team. The team is dealing with the Y2K (Year 2000) problem where everything was going to fail because the year was supposed to change from 1999 to 2000, but it would actually reset to 1980. This would throw havoc into all systems. I really thought this idea would be the main concern of the book, but it isn’t. It’s friendship and jealousy.

Steve is jealous of John’s life and style. He has a beautiful wife, a new home, and a couple of millions from stock options at his new job. They hang out together with Mary and Lauren. Lauren is jealous of Mary, who is married to John. They spend a lot of time bar hopping and drinking too much.

Honestly, I didn’t like this book. I was confused as to where it was leading and when it finally gets there, it ends abruptly. I didn’t like any of the characters and I didn’t understand the mixture of technology and religion. And don’t get me started on the misogyny.

The good things about the book is it has short chapters and it is a quick read. I feel this book is written for a male audience: It wasn’t for me. But, I would try another book by the author; this one is just too messy for my taste.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #Celestial Eyes Press for the arc. The opinions are my own.

*Thank you NetGalley and Celestial Eyes Press*

The book flowed beautifully and was an easy read. The chapters were brief and to the point and I enjoyed how the Y2K crisis was integral to the plot.

Similar to other books, there were some engaging characters and some uncharismatic types. In general, the character development was excellent, and I liked being inside Steve's head. In my opinion, Steve's comparison of the early to mid-twenties generation to adults in their mid-thirties was absolutely accurate. The life stages of these two age groups are so dissimilar. Dennis Cuesta, in my opinion, did an excellent job of capturing how John and Steve discussed women when they were alone. It's not to imply that all men are like that, but I've observed men talking about women in that way in conversation.

My only caveat is that the conclusion did not have enough meat, so to speak.

Steve Galanos and John Goertz met as colleagues during the dot-com bubble in the 1990s. With the threat of the Y2K bug looming large, John’s innovative proposal to develop a solution lands him a promotion. Steve’s initial dislike and resentment toward John grows into an uneasy friendship of sorts that continues after John leaves the company. Over the next few years, John meets Mary (and her friend/colleague/roommate Lauren who was initially the person Steve and John had shown interest in), begins a relationship and finally marries her. Though the foursome finds themselves socializing often, there is an underlying tension that complicates their lives. Under the veneer of friendship we see jealousy, lies, manipulation and constant one-upmanship.
Everything comes to a head during John and Mary’s housewarming party in 1999 when a shocking tragedy irrevocably changes their lives.

The entire narrative of Dennis Cuesta’s Many Are Invited is presented through Steve’s PoV as he recalls the events leading up to that fateful night of the housewarming party. Steve is insecure, consumed by his feelings of inadequacy, and jealous of John’s success, his life and his wife. He comes across as whiny and annoying which is why it is difficult to muster any sympathy for him. Mary and Lauren might be roommates but they don’t hesitate to out each other's secrets to anyone willing to listen. Needless to say, I immensely disliked most of the characters in this story. The build-up to the night of the party took a long time (over the 55% mark) after which the ending is rushed and feels abrupt.

I found the locker room talk, objectification of women and blatant sexism depicted in this book to be in extremely poor taste. Even if it was required to set the story (I understand sensibilities in the 1990s and the present day would differ) and portray the men in this story in a negative light , I feel the author went overboard.The pretentious conversations on politics and religion between the invitees of the party (inconsequential fillers that served no purpose but to fill the pages) were uncomfortable to read, to say the least. The only positive thing I can say about this book is that it was a quick read with short chapters. Clearly, I am not the right audience for this book.

Many thanks to Celestial Eyes Press and NetGalley for providing the digital review copy in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. The book is due to be published on October 6, 2022.

Fast Moving Twisted Tale
What a fun book to experience! The main character is recalling the events that occurred during his friendship with his best friend. Their friendship has somewhat of a weird dynamic, as many friendships do. I can't talk too much about the book without giving away some significant plot points. All during the story, the reader keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop. It eventually does, but not in the manner you would guess. It is a fast-moving tale that is placed during Y2K and the dot com explosion in California. I received this Advanced Reader Copy fromNet Galley and this is my honest review.

This is the review posted to my Goodreads account: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4940061516. Also, there were no reviews on Amazon, and I tried to add this review there but it said it wasn't eligible.

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First of all, I would like to thank Celestial Eyes Press, Dennis Cuesta, and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC free for an honest review. And as such, this review is much longer than some of my other book reviews.

There aren't many books that I will sit down and binge read. This was one of the few. The story isn't too long, nor too short and can easily be read in an evening. I had read the intro and first chapters earlier, before delving into the main story, starting at Chapter Two. I also made sure that I didn't know much about the story ahead of time, so that I could provide an unbiased review (though I do have some opinions which I have included).

With that said, I want to say that I really enjoyed the time period (the late 1990s right before Y2K hit), the writing style (simple, not overly flowery/wordy) but with enough details along with the hook and flashback telling, plus it being reminiscent of an author I came to enjoy as an adult--F. Scott Fitzgerald. Plus, the title had piqued my interest.

Basically, we are told the story of a Midwesterner, Steve Galanos, who has come to Silicon Valley (Northern California) and is working at a phone company, during the time when dot.coms and the Internet were the next "big thing" just before the year 2000 (or Y2K).

Trying not to be too biased, I will admit that I had a little bit in common with our protagonist, Steve, also having grown up in the Midwest and gone out to the Bay Area (where I worked with a database company) around the same time.

I too, wondered about the what-ifs behind Y2K until the last year or two of the 1990s. Many even thought it could be the end of the world. I wasn't quite that concerned, but I did understand the implications. Basically, for those who might not be as familiar with what was meant by Y2K--it had to do with the two-digit year changing the way computers understood the change over to a new century. Perhaps that's why I really enjoyed reading and looking back at that time. I can't recall reading many books using that for the backdrop of a story.

The hook for me was how the story started out as Steve's looking back at something tragic that had happened to him, so I wanted to know what happened and what was meant by "The invitation remained hidden in nineteenth-century Russia for over twenty years." This story is told as a flashback (sometimes an overdone literary device, but this was, in my opinion, done well!) We learn that some tragedy has Steve trying to deal with the aftermath and the resulting story is what he wrote in a journal to try and deal with his guilt from a dinner party that went horribly wrong and the events that lead up to that eventful night.

Steve meets a man named John Goertz who came to Steve's company (1994) to convince them of the need to prepare for what will happen at the end of the decade and new century. Convinced that Goertz is right, the company creates a year 2000 (Y2K) compliance program where the skeptical and envious Steve works with John. The two eventually become friends when they find out they have some things in common. However, John leaves the company a few years later for a startup and the their lives split off in different directions. John, through coincidence or fate, meets his future wife through a dare that Steve makes and John follows through, even though the intention had been a co-worker instead (both of whom were roommates/friends for some time). From there, the friendship diminishes further; John has made his fortune through an IPO while Steve continues working for the same company. Despite different decisions, these four friends' lives (Steve, John, Mary, and Lauren, the former co-worker) come to a head the night of the housewarming party for John and his wife Mary.

I mentioned about F. Scott Fitzgerald earlier and I would like to say that some may like this story because it is a bit of a re-telling of the Great Gatsby (perhaps with a touch of the unexpected, in my opinion, with some Hitchcock--if you like those twists and turns with surprise endings). I know many who never liked The Great Gatsby, myself included in high school. I had a hard time understanding the meaning involving the Egg--that's all I remember from then. But having re-read the story several times sense, I have come to really like the story.

The Great Gatsby and Many Are Invited both take a simple theme about jealousy and friendship. Many Are Invited creates a simple but engaging story using a back drop to end of a decade leading into a new century with some concern of how a computer glitch over two digits could possibly have a devastating effect on the world, not only the business world. The Great Gatsby took place in 1922 (four years after the Great War, aka World War I) in a time which there were many uncertainties about America and the world at the time. Many Are Invited does use direct references to The Great Gatsby, such as the character F. Jake, who we learn has a connection to F. Scott Fitzgerald and why he is called F. Jake. And a conversation between Steve and Joanna talks about the Owl Eyes, as well as provides a take on the relationship between Nick and Daisy from The Great Gatsby.

I read this for the story and wasn't trying to look for hidden meanings, making it a very enjoyable read. Not many books do get 5 stars with me, but I feel this book, for me, was a solid 4 stars. I may re-read Many Are Invited again, to see if there were other literary elements/devices hidden between the pages.

This seemed like a modern re-telling of “The Great Gatsby.” Good writing and characterization but the novel seemed to end abruptly.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61416442

Steve Galanos and John Goertz work together in a company that is preparing for and trying to head off the impending disaster of Y2K, when the year changes to 2000 (The term Y2K is not even a term yet when these IT people start on how to solve this problem. At first Steve is hesitant and a little mistrustful of John's plan but they find common ground and become friends.
One night they are out and notice a beautiful woman, Lauren, working in woman's clothing store and Steve dares John to go into the store to meet this woman. John goes in but instead he meets someone else, Mary, and decides to converse with her. As time goes on, the four of them become friends and we find out more about these characters and their secrets. John eventually marries Mary and buys a house. Secrets, jealousy, deceit, all come to a head at John and Mary's housewarming party and the party takes a drastic turn and tragedy ensues.

Thank you NetGalley, Celestial Eyes Press and Dennis Cuesta for letting me read “Many Are Invited” in exchange for an honest review.

John and Steve meet first at a phone company, I think in 1994. Steve is not happy with his position but is not doing anything to make a change. Then John arranges a meeting with the executives. Steve does not like it, that a newbie’s gunning for a better position. John sheds light on the Y2K problem. Steve ends up in the new team and the two develop a friendship. But it’s shadowed mainly by competing with each other. Or better, it’s a one sided competition, led by Steve.

Not openly though. Steve seems to be the jealous type as things come easily to John. A better position, then a new job that come with stocks that later turn into a batch of money, a relationship. Everything that Steve wants but does nothing for. John and Steven make a bet, that John chats up a salesgirl - Lauren - but he ends up with Mary’s number. Eventually Steve and Mary marry and buy a house. At the housewarming party things become explosive between the “friends”.

The description of the book makes it sound that it’s mainly about the Y2K problem. I remember that time. I was 16. It feels like we just entered the year 2000 and now suddenly it’s 2022.

It’s a tough one to rate. I had a lot of problems with all the technology and executive talk. Not interested in that. I would not have picked the book up if not for a buddy read. It was not bad, but I also did not end up loving it. It dragged on quite a bit.

I did not care for the characters. They were not unlikable but they did not grow on me. You’re waiting all the time for something to happen, finding out what the book is supposed to tell you and then suddenly it does.

I also felt like they were berating women a lot. When Steve and John meet an attractive woman, they just call her Swede with an ongoing number. Swede because they are supposed to be blind and beautiful. I felt like I was stuck in a while another decade.

I was annoyed at the second half of the book a whole lot of discussion about politics and religion. I do personally not discus either. Bore. And then we have a death… it’s like how this is happening, was this supposed to happen? It felt unconnected. To me, it focused on the wrong things, wrong things for me. Luckily it was a quick read.

The book starts off with December 1999.
First you meet the narrator, Steve.
Steve and John meet at work.
They’re constantly competing against each other, jobs, girls, etc.
John is then assigned to a Y2K project and brings Steve on.

The timeline then jumps around a bit, coming back around to December 1999.

After John leaves the company, him and Steve stay in touch.

The two begin to become close friends, especially after John’s starts dating Mary, leaving Lauren and Steve to be 3rd and 4th wheels.

The book is labeled as a psychological fiction.

The book was great, but it did seem to drag on a bit.

If you like a book that gets your adrenaline pumping, this is the book for you! I was constantly on edge wondering what would happen next.

To start off, thank you to Netgalley for this ARC! So initially I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about this one, but it piqued my interest enough to go for it. I wasn’t sure if I had the brain power for reading up on the Y2K bug haha! But honestly I think this story manages to get the information across in a smooth way while not overloading you with said information at the same time. The research is there and it is absolutely important to the plot. Dennis Cuesta’s writing style has a smoothness to it that makes this type of story almost comfortable to consume. I wasn’t too sure if I would be able to connect to any characters in this story, but once again I found myself proven wrong. Our main character Steve finds himself in constant one sided competition with his friend and coworker John due to his feelings of inadequacy. To put it simply, Steve is insecure. We can all relate to wanting things that others have and not understanding why we don’t have them. I think Cuesta does a wonderful job with building the tension at the climax of this story without giving away what exactly the ending result will be which is admirable. All in all, I definitely enjoyed this story!

The book had an interesting premise but too many other plot lines and uninteresting characters. This was a quick one day read and it was a mystery about something bad happening at a housewarming party and connected to the Y2K scare of 1999 .The main character and narrator was Steve, a man in his early thirties who works for "the phone company" and the novel is his story about his life between 1994 when he meets the other character John who was hired to manage Y2K for the phone company. Steve is supposed to be on John's team and they get along mostly because they talk like they are in the 1950's and only discuss women based on how attractive they are. The men rate all blond haired women by giving them names like Swede 1, Swede 2, etc and there is a lot of fat shaming and general sexism.

It takes a long time to get to the housewarming party and in the meantime we get monologues from the main character about politics, abortion, religion, democracy, the price of houses and other subjects which didn't relate to the ending of the book. There are also too many scenes of Steve, John, Mary (Steve's wife and Lauren her friend) going to bars and extensive discussions on whether it was a bar restaurant or just a bar as well as descriptions of every patron and what the patrons are discussing. Steve comes to feel like he should be married to Mary who is a virgin and resents John for his marriage and for getting away from the phone company and ending up at a start up where he makes a lot of money. At times Steve also seems interested in Lauren, who is always whining and is upset that Mary wants to work after marriage (again with the 1950's stuff).

We finally arrive at the housewarming, with nothing really related to the Y2K stuff and the party is drawn out with more discussions on abortion and religion before a prank results in a death. I really didn't like this book and it seemed rambling and unfocused. None of the characters were likable and the whole setting just seemed out of place to the `1990's. For a short book there was too much time spent on details about people's cocktails and the various body parts of every woman who walked by and not enough character development. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free ARC in exchange for a review.

Many Are Invited is a book set in the early aughts of the dot com era and when everyone thought the world would be thrown into chaos for Y2K. But it's a housewarming party that ends in tragedy, and the years of friendship, competition, and jealousy, that lead to the unlikely ending.

I found this book to be a quick read. I like short chapters because I feel like the story is moving along and not dragged down in side stories that serve no purpose. All of the main characters are flawed so it felt difficult to relate to any of them. It was like each person wanted something from the other but in an underhanded way, doing something mean or nasty to get what they wanted. Sometimes, you don't have to like any of the characters but just understand that they need each other in some strange way.

Thank you to NetGalley and Celestial Eyes Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Based on the blurb, I thought that the main character, Steve, would be telling the tale of some dramatic, thriller-esce, suspenseful catastrophe that occured at a housewarming party; however, I was unfortunately disappointed with how everything played out.

The story is told from Steve who is recounting a traumatic experience in this life that was preceded by a weird relationship based on mistrust and animosity with his supposed best friend, John. John, being in the right place at the right time and taking just an ounce of initiative, turns the Y2K momentum into millions. Steve, remains in a mediocre job that he hates while watching John achieve every success.

However, while we know that the climax and the entire point of the book happens at the housewarming party, we don't actually get to the party until 55% of the way through the book. Then it becomes a whole lot of conversations with the different guests. Everything from religion to politics to Y2K. And this climatic, traumatic event? We don’t see it until 91% of the way through. Then it is just a complete dive to the end.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I thought the book was interesting in a I-really-don’t-like-these- characters-but-I-really-need-to-know-if-they-are-really-this-petty-and-crazy kinda way. Because, I honestly didn’t like the characters.

While there were aspects of the book that bothered me and characters I didn’t like, I found myself enged and turning the pages. I just struggled with the immaturity of these adults and the lack of a jaw-dropping, suspenseful “event” that everything was supposedly building to. I was holding my breath for something dramatic only to feel like the air was being let out of a balloon.

This was fast paced and easily held my interest. I found myself turning the pages quickly to find out what happened.

*Publish date - 10/6/22. Thank you to NetGalley and Celestial Eyes Press for the advanced e-copy of this book*

Dennis Cuesta takes us on a trip back to the 1990s - when the world was starting to worry about the Y2K issues and what all that would impact. The story is set in the Silicone Valley in California and revolves around two co-workers - John and Steve. There is career jealousy as well as romantic jealousy between the two men and two women they met on a dare. Although it was a quick read, there were too many "secrets" of the characters making it hard to follow and interrupted the flow.

I appreciate the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review. I was so excited to read this, knowing it was set in the late 90’s heading into the Y2K period. I remember the energy of that unknown well. Unfortunately, the book didn’t deliver for me. It was slow to get into and it just sort of wandered aimlessly for me. I couldn’t get into it…I couldn’t find the plot. Then, it just ended. It didn’t take long to read, but it left me feeling pretty dissatisfied.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this e-ARC.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get into this book. I know nothing about technology, and there seemed to be a lot of talk of it, at least in the beginning, where I unfortunately stopped reading.

I think I was hoping for more of a thrilling type of plot, and the beginning of the book was just not my thing.

The plot is about Y2K so I knew it would be somewhat about technology, but as I said, I just had hoped it would be a little more exciting.

I'm sure many people will enjoy this book, however, it is just not for me.

I received an advanced copy of this ebook from the publisher for an honest review. This book is well written and the characters are described well. I found myself putting this book down to other books but it is a pretty good book. It is set before the 2000s. This book is set in California mentioning Ohio. This book will be in stores on October 4th for $22.00 (USD).

Many are Invited is set in Silicon Valley right before the year 2000: Steve and John meet as coworkers at the phone company and become friends. Fast forward a few years and John is having a housewarming party, except things do not go as planned and before the night is out, something happens that changes everything.

First thoughts are that is this is a really quick and easy read: I binged it in just a few hours because it’s got a nice quick pace. I didn’t expect it to be such a quick read based off of what I knew: late 90’s setting/everyone speculating about the “Y2K problem” - would the internet still work, would the gas stations shut down, etc. I remember this being a thing and all the worries around it, so knowing this was one of settings of the book, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Also because, when I think about that combined with the Silicon Valley techbro stereotype, I expected it to be somewhat slow. It’s not. It sets up a solid workplace and story setting so you’re enough caught up, while not slogging down.

I also really loved all the literary references and the ways they played into the book - at one point I was reading and had the whole “light-bulb” go off, but it wasn’t starkly obvious like you were smacked in the head with it. It was a nice teaser that started early on and was brought up again and again from coincidental moments.

I really liked the characters and all of their faults and quirks - it seems as if every single character put on a different face for different people - they were never the same. I loved trying to figure out where it was going and how it all tied together.

Overall, the book is a sort of quick-pace mystery that feels low-intensity but kind of hits you with a Hitchcock vibe out of nowhere. Recommend for anyone who likes low stakes and being surprised.

ARC was provided by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ok this book left me with so many questions. And I at have wanted to throw my phone against the wall at the end.
I will admit that I had alittle trouble getting into the book, bit so very happy that I stuck with it.
I love when a book ends and things are all wrapped up with a bow, well this is not that.
I highly recommend.