Following the friendship of two men, this novel focuses heavily on Y2K and a housewarming party that doesn't end as planned.
While it seemed like a potentially interesting thriller, I don't think I was the right audience for this book. There is so much talk about rating women and dating them just as conquests, which made it hard for me to keep an interest in the plotline. I found none of the characters, including the women, likeable. Also none of the friendships were real and just revolved around constant jealousy. All of the action takes place at one party at the end of the book, and the ending left me unsatisfied and slightly confused. Maybe the author wrote the story this way on purpose, as a warning to show what jealousy and greed can cause. Either way, I tried to give it a fair read but it didn't work for me.
Males age 50 and older would probably enjoy this book. It is a quick read and the story moves pretty well. I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

This was borderline unreadable. Insufferable characters and a long, long, long build-up. The sheer misogyny for the entirety of the book. I read difficult books with unlikeable characters who are bad people very, very often, and this was just too much for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read this book. Ummmm....not one of my favorites. Best friends Steve and John, become enemies, one falls in love with the others wife, no one much likes John's wife's best friend, and it all comes to a dead end at the end of the book.

Many Are Invited is about friendship, jealousy and being competitive in the late 1990's. When a tragic event at a housewarming party will change everything for those involved. Not really a fan of how the book ended.

I received a complimentary ARC of Many Are Invited by Dennis Cuesta in exchange for my honest review.
This book centers around four main characters Steve, John, Mary and Lauren in the mid nineties. Steve and John work in IT for a phone company and aren't really friends, just coworkers. Then John tells the company about a pending disaster in the year 2000, now known as Y2K. How with the world becoming more and more dependent on computers the possible crash could cripple the world. Steve doesn't buy it, but the company gives John a promotion and asks him to lead the 2000 conversion team. During their time working together on the team, Steve and John realize that they actually have a lot in common and soon become great friends. Steve is even with John the night that he meets his future wife, Mary.
John is highly ambitious, a go getter who wants to build a great life for himself. He eventually leaves his job for a start up dot company and Steve's
jealousies and insecurities are in full swing. Eventually, Steve is laid off from his job and is muddling through life. When John cashes out his IPO stocks and buys a million dollar house he and Mary decide to throw a housewarming party, a party with a tragedy that will change the lives of many forever.
I didn't particularly click with this book, there was far too many sexist comments regarding women, there was even a system to rank their looks and approachability! I also found the main characters to be childish and unlikable. The writing was well done and the storyline in and of itself was interesting, I just couldn't seem to get into it.

2.5 stars rounded up
A disappointing story. The blurb kind of sets the scene as this reflection on the dot.com/Y2K era, which mostly held up. The vague hint about something sinister at a party also essentially true. But, the way the story got to the party..... not particularly interesting. Luckily it's a quick read since there's not a lot of substance there.

It's a story that follows best friends Steve & John in their 20-30s as John lucks into the dot.com $$ and Steve is jealous of that and just about everything else about John. I didn't like even one character, which isn't always a necessity in the story, but these people were so darned shallow and one-dimensional. Plus, the way Steve and John talk about women is ...... wrong on so many levels. Ranking and rating on looks just for starters. I got tired of that really quickly. The little twist at the end was surprising but did it make reading the rest of the book worth it? Not really.
Thanks so much to #NetGalley and #CelestialEyesPress for this copy of #ManyAreInvtied. The opinions are my own.

I received an ARC of Many Are Invited from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Many Are Invited is a story that develops slowly over the first half of the book and then culminates in one dramatic evening. The narrator Steve describes his initial impression of John, who he meets at his phone company job when John makes an impassioned company-wide presentation about the risks of Y2K coding bugs and argues that a Y2K team is necessary and he's just the man to lead it. Steve is not impressed, but over time becomes one of John's closest friends. In fact, Steve is with John the evening that he meets his future wife Mary and her coworker Lauren. By the end of the book, each of these main characters has amassed numerous secrets and questionable choices that all collide at John and Mary's housewarming party.

I found reading this book enjoyable, though I never really found any of the characters particularly likable or realistic. It's a quick read with action building toward the end. However, I was left feeling like the abrupt ending left more questions than answers and a lingering sense of insignificance.

I don't think I was the right audience for this book. I almost didn't finish it, but pushed through so I could at least give an informed review. I found all the characters unlikeable and had little interest in how their stories turned out. Not my cup of tea.

This book just wasn’t what I was expecting. I couldn’t get into it at all but finished it because if I start a book then I have to finish. I just wish it was more interesting.

I work in IT and the IT/Y2k story line at the start of this book had me running down memory lane! I couldn't read the beginning of this book fast enough, as it felt like I was reliving my work past and I loved it! After that I felt like I was reading a book version of The Office Space movie, with a character that was completely unhappy with his job and always wanting more but not really doing anything about it. There was a lot of drama between friends that don't even like each other that I had a very hard time relating to. I had to skim a lot of the date and party scenes of the book in order to make it through and find out what happened.

Thank you NetGalley and Celestial Eyes Press for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This wasn't my favorite. I was working in the tech field at this time and thought I'd connect to the story. I did not. It felt rather pointless.

I have to say this one with its team of horrible characters, sexism (ick), jealousy, and terminally bad writing is in line for my worst book of the year 2022!

Thank you NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. The 90’s setting was a draw for me to this book, but this book really wasn’t for me. I couldn’t connect with the characters and all of the Y2K stuff was boring.

First and foremost - Thank you to NetGalley and Celestial Eyes Press for the opportunity to read this book.

This book had so much potential, but for me personally it fell flat. I feel like it was kind of all over the place in the beginning. Then it was very slow to me. Next thing I know, everything is happening and it's finally getting exciting and then 5 minutes later it's over. It was not terrible, but it was not for me.

This book had an extreme build up to the climax. The parallels to "The Great Gatsby" are definitely there, but the biggest difference being the narrator. Steve Galanos was most definitely no Nick Carraway. Steve's narration was not honest, tolerant, or reserving judgment of John , Mary, or Lauren. So much so that he felt the need to step in and become probably the biggest antagonist of their story.

Many Are Invited was an OK read, but nothing I would ever recommend. The plot simply felt lost for me—the opening chapter felt like it was unnecessary and the entire story could have been told in linear fashion.
After finishing, the plot was clearly more about a love triangle (square?) than anything else. This could have been rated a little higher for me if the characters were more well-likable, but unfortunately they all seemed to be self serving.

Thank you NetGalley and Celestial Eyes Press for accepting my request to read and review Many are Invited.

Author: Dennis Cuesta
Published: 10/06/22
Genre: General Fiction (Adult) -- Literary Fiction

This reads more like a long magazine story than a book. In the late 1990s computers are beginning to be household staples. Vehicles are coming equipped with onboard computers. Then the realization sets in that with the dependency so high on computers, the date of January 1, 2000 could shutdown the world. Scientists and geeks work tirelessly fearful of what may happen. The general population ignored and mocked the fears. It wasn't until the problem became known as Y2K bug that people began to pay attention.

This story starts with the potential problems and forming committees to understand Y2K. From there the working relationships enter into personal spaces, and friends become lovers, friends become enemies, and the soap opera-like tales begin. The story ends with its own Y2K twist.

This was just okay for me. There was too much soap opera and not enough meat. If you are looking for a quick read, this may be for you.

There is profanity.

This was not the book for me. It was a pretty quick and easy read, which I appreciate. However, the characters were not likeable. At all. None of them. I didn't really care what happened to any of them.

Why, why did there need to be random diatribes about politics and abortion rights and Roe v. Wade and religion? I hate it when I'm reading a novel, and the author needs to inject random politics into it. I'm reading to escape from the awful world we live in. Stop reminding me about current political issues that have no bearing on your story.

I also did not like the way the book talked about women. Calling the "hot" ones Swedes. Counting them odd by number. Ranking bodies. Talking about how they would've ranked X years and multiple kids ago. Gross. Even though this is set in the 90s, it seemed like author was a little too into this. It's not like it really had any significant relevance to the story. It could've been toned down a lot.

I was initially interested in this novel because I was an adult during this time. And found it similar sounding to when Gates & Jobs created a tech dynasty only to be driven apart. A modern-day Great Gatsby. Including a tragedy at a dinner party with greed and "keeping up with the joneses" at the helm.
At first, I thought it was a boring workplace drama and that maybe I had too high of hopes. But then the pace picks up and the tech race of the 1990's heats to a rivalry.
And I would like to add this is a great novel for anyone, such as Gen-Xers. And is a different fiction from most mainstream fiction currently out there.

Ugh! What a disappointment! This story was great and when I had to take breaks, I couldn’t wait to get back into it. Imagine me getting to the end and throwing the book across the room as I screamed like Cardi B…”WHAT WAS THE REASON?!”

Such a lackluster ending. Ugh.