This book was more mystery than thriller for me. The pace is slow but it's a solid whodunnit that kept you turning the pages. I enjoyed the surprising twist especially at the end.
However I did not enjoy Lucy's obsession with the Whitlam family it was over the top for me as she only spent one summer with these people. Thank you Netgalley and Aria & Aries, Head Of Zeus for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Lucy Ross, 35, a widow, is visiting Queen’s Point to clear out her deceased grandmother’s home prior to selling it. It’s been 19 years since she was last there when she spent a summer with her grandmother. She was shy and nervous about being accepted by the wealthy Whitlam family who lived in a spectacular home. They had three children: Harry, Anabelle, and Mae.

Lucy’s grandmother had been a maid to the Whitlam family and her husband had been a handyman, both for many years.

This story is told in dual timeframes from when Lucy was a young girl hoping to make friends with, and be accepted by the Whitlam siblings. She was witness to their great wealth, as well as the cruelty that their mother, Brooke, inflicted on each of them.

We see the young girl from “the other side of the tracks” wanting to be accepted. This is a plot that has been done many times over. I can’t say that I had sympathy for any of the characters which is why I didn’t really enjoy it all that much. The dog is, of course, a sweetie and it’s always a plus to include a pet in a book. I realize this is a debut novel so one can expect some bumps along the way. I’m hoping that her next book will be better.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Wow! I am a mystery and thriller reader and sometimes it’s hard to find a good one. This one was SO good! I enjoyed the pacing, and how quickly I was able to dive into this one. I can go into more of a descriptive review. But I think going in blind is the right choice for this book.

What I enjoyed:
- the pacing was quick, and will keep you interested! I had a hard time putting this one down
- You will be kept guessing the whole time.
- Multiple POVs
- Loved the mystery and spookiness of this one

Overall great and fun read! Excited to read more by this author in the future. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars! Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Publication date: January 5, 2023

This is a fast paced debut mystery/thriller novel set in Australia. Lucy Ross heads to her teenage summer home, a cabin on the beach to pack up her recently passed grandmother’s personal items and get the house ready to sell.

It’s been years since Lucy has been back and the discovery of body parts seemingly belonging to the Matriarch of the towns beloved Whitlam family has Lucy remembering the events of that last summer party. Were there obvious issues sixteen year old Lucy wouldn’t have understood back then?

As Lucy sifts through her grandmother’s paperwork and reconnects with the Whitlam family, secrets from the past and present surface.

This was a great read and super quick. I have rated this a solid 4 stars. There were a few things that didn’t quite jive for me that doesn’t quite level up to five stars. I would recommend this for any psychological Thriller readers out there! This reminds me a bit of Paula Hawkins and BA Paris.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publishers and author for an advanced copy!

#NetGalley #thesummerparty #rebeccaheath

The Summer Party by Rebecca Heath was another excellent and well written book especially as it had me guessing right till the end! and I found it hard to put it down to go to sleep! Just brilliant!

I highly recommend this book it had me gripped from the beginning till the very end.

Unfortunately this one was DNF for me. I just couldn’t get into the story and was bored reading it. This book had a potential but for a physiological thriller it was definitely way to slow.

Thank you NetGalley, Aria & Aries, Head of Zeus -- an Aries Book and the author for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

First, thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy.
My main issue with this was the pacing. It took too long to get to any type of thrilling action and I found myself growing bored of this character basically doing the same thing continuously for half the book. By the time we got some action, I didn't even care anymore because I had already guessed (correctly) the ending.
Also, I hate uber rich people.

This vibey, spooky mystery was really fun to read, if not particularly surprising. The upstairs/downstairs element was fun, although I found some of the plotting around the wealthy Whitham family to stretch credulity. Sometimes I find flashbacks and multiple perspectives to slow down the plot, but because this is more of a mystery than a thriller, it didn't bother me much until things picked up at the end. A solid 3-star mystery.

Oh, the allure of young love in the summer! Lucy falls in love with a wealthy family while staying with her aunt one summer. Years later Lucy returns to settle her aunt’s estate coincidentally after a shoe with human remains is found. She finds herself immediately sucked back into the lives of this family she is still enamored with. The two sisters and especially the brother have a powerful hold over Lucy’s emotions and she so wants to be part of their family.
She finds herself pulled into their drama along with the mystery over a body recently found buried. Given the number of characters, I never found any of them likable, other than her amazing dog, Hades. The connection with Jake added interest and some believability to the story. In my humble opinion, this story would have been so much better if Lucy was more likable. The connections between the families was a thoughtful twist. A satisfying read overall.
Many thanks to Rebecca Heath, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read an arc of this recently published book. Looking forward to reading more from Rebecca Heath.

I voluntarily read an advanced copy of The Summer Party by Rebecca Heath. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thanks to NetGalley and Aria & Aries for this ARC.

I really wanted to like this book, but so many things did not work for me. First, the back-and-forth timeline in the first half of the book was messy. It worked better in the second half but kept me from connecting with the main murder arc. Secondly, there were so many red herrings and side crimes that occurred. It was easy to lose focus on what was going on. Finally, I did not like Lucy and did not feel invested in her journey. Everyone was shallow and selfish as teenagers, and they didn't seem to mature at all as we shifted into the modern story arc. Everyone was unlikeable, and I didn't feel like I had anyone to root for. Except maybe Hades who was pretty awesome. I give this book 2/5 stars.

This is my second thriller this year and I feel like I’m really setting a high bar for the rest of years thrillers!

This new release (published on 1/5) is so much more than a beautiful cover, and don’t let the fact that ‘summer’ is in the title dissuade you just because it’s winter in the US… this book takes place in two timelines so you get summer and winter vibes! It also is set in Australia so for my US peeps you’ve got to keep it straight that their seasons are reversed from ours 🤣

I loved the way the story bounced back and forth from the weeks preceding ‘the summer party’ in 2000 and the current day 2019 characters. You also get multiple narrators and with each tidbit you wonder how they will all tie together to determine what really happened that night.

I found a few of the twists a little predictable but also didn’t see others coming. The characters were intriguing and fun while also being mysterious and shady, I’d that makes sense.

This was a quick and easy read, would be great for a winter vacation to the beach somewhere warm, or just as a way to lose yourself in a bone chilling book!

I wanted to love this one, but it just fell a bit flat for me. I didn't find any of the characters very likable. I kept reading just to figure out who had done it, but this one really just wasn't for me.

I really enjoyed this book. It was very well written and the characters were great. Would definitely recommend.

Lucy heads back to her Nan's home for the first time since she spent a summer there 19 years ago. Back then, Lucy was enamored by the wealthy, seemingly perfect neighboring family, the Whitlams. She was instant friends with Annabelle, in puppy love with Harry, and thought their mom, Brooke, was picture perfect. But now, the town is shaken to learn Brooke is dead, and has been for 19 years since the night of that end of summer party everyone attended. Who could have killed her? And who has been updating her social accounts for nearly two decades?

There are alternating timelines with all present day chapters told from Lucy's perspective and all past chapters alternating POVs to help color the background for everyone leading up to the summer party. I liked this element a lot because it helped fill in the blanks and show the motives of nearly everyone. That said, I felt the book was too slow of a burn and dragged on a bit. I also hate when stories have the underlying conflict, but will not give us the details in the end, which was the case for why Lucy was on leave from her job. But in the end that did not really have anything to do with the story so it felt more annoying of a build than anything.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Reading a book by a debut author can be risky. But I was instantly intrigued by the cover and synopsis of this one. I'm so glad I took the risk, because it paid off. Australia is a dream country for me, and that is a huge weakness for me in books. I loved that this book was set in Australia. While I feel like most of the time it felt like it could have been set anywhere, the Australian language and terms that were used helped it to feel Australian.

One of my favorite parts of this book is that it opened with the mystery instead of dragging on at the beginning. However, the overall pacing of the book felt more like a mystery than a psychological thriller. Nonetheless, it kept me engaged the whole time and guessing what would happen next.

The Summer Party is a dual timeline novel that jumps back and forth between Lucy's present day and the time leading up to the infamous summer party. Dual timeline novels can sometimes be hit or miss for me, but I thought Rebecca Heath did a great job with this one. This format really helped to build up the story and keep the reader interested.

I loved her descriptive writing so much, I could sometimes feel as though I was right there in the story. I also think this would make an incredible movie!

Mae, Harry and Anabelle Whitlam allow Lucy Antonello, then aged sixteen into their tightknit circle in 2000. Now, its 2019; Lucy is back in Queens Point, Australia to sort out her grandma's estate. A shoe containing bones caught on driftwood have been found on the beach by a man. Lucy is forced to confront the truth she witnessed on the night of a summer party, way back. Compelling, pacy and a great début.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Aria & Aries, Head of Zeus via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

As far as I can tell The Summer Party is Rebecca Heath’s debut novel. Told via dual timelines, jumping between present day and the summer of 2000 when Lucy Ross was only 16, The Summer Party is at times an intense mystery/thriller with a twisting plot that had me guessing most of the time. If as I said this is Ms. Heath’s first novel, I most definitely look forward to seeing what she comes out with next. Thanks so much to Aria & Aries and NetGalley for the chance to read and review The Summer Party.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-summer-party-rebecca-heath/1141899826?ean=9781804541005&bvnotificationId=26f7f0ac-8ec8-11ed-80ab-0a4d5b2a4243&bvmessageType=REVIEW_APPROVED&bvrecipientDomain=gmail.com#review/237582042

A murder mystery in a very atmospheric surroundings, however the plot is thin and revolves around a lot of very unlike or characters. The story didn’t really hold my attention.

Unfortunately I had to DNF this book and it was due to the characters being unlikeable. for me, character and their development and how they play out with the plot is significant but sadly I could not see it with this book.

There are times when a book just does not work for me, and this is one of those times. I'm giving this book 2 stars, but there were times I didn't want to finish it. So in reality it might be closer to 1.5 stars. I’ll try to explain why this book didn’t work for me, but also why it might work for others!

This book might work for you if you like a guilty-pleasure beach read about terrible people. The murder mystery is decent! I had an inkling how it would all play out, and I was right in some ways and wrong in others. So I can’t say this was extremely predictable. Also there’s a great dog in this book! Hades, a giant lovable black dog, was by far my favorite part of the book.

One complaint I had with this book, as I have with many other books, is the narration does a lot of telling and not showing. I think this happens a lot with debuts, but I really noticed it here. The narration will drop nice sublte hints that the reader can pick up on if they are paying attention - but then the author goes and literally asks the questions in black and white that the reader should be puzzling out and asking these questions themselves. I think in this book it did the plot a huge disservice.

Minor spoilers below - I find it hard to critique a plot without getting into some specifics that aren’t in the book description. But I won’t spoil any major plot points, like the killer or any major twists.

I just did not connect with the main character. Lucy was 35 years old and extremely naive. She’s obsessed with a family she spent one summer with almost two decades ago. And it’s not like they’ve all remained close friends! It seemed like Lucy would reach out to them and get no response! Have some self respect Lucy!! It felt like she was obsessed with Harry Whitlam, and we got more inner musings on him than we ever got about Lucy’s dead husband. Which bothered me!!

Thank you NetGalley and Head of Zeus for my copy in exchange for my honest review.