The block party by Jamie Day is about Alton Road a cul-de-sac where everyone knows everyone’s business and some of them are better at hiding the deep dark secrets than others but when a man is murdered it will all come out there’s way too much deceit and betrayal going on for me to give a detailed account just know it’s not just the parents it’s the teams as well I couldn’t wait to read this book needless to say true to all of Jamie days books I was not disappointed if you love backstabbing gossipy neighborhoods with a little murder thrown and then the Bloc party is definitely a book you would enjoy I totally love it and highly recommend it. I want to thank net galley and Saint Martin’s press for my free Ark copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Thank you, NetGalley, St-Martin’s Press and Jamie Day
Do you know your family, friends and neighbours? What you see is not necessarily reality.
Entertaining family drama is full of mystery and murders.
Quick read which keeps you interested
Recommend
4 stars

TITLE: THE BLOCK PARTY
AUTHOR: Jamie Day
PUB DATE: 07.18.2023 Now Available

Synopsis: This summer, meet your neighbors.
The residents of the exclusive cul-de-sac on Alton Road are entangled in a web of secrets and scandal utterly unknown to the outside world, and even to each other. On the night of the annual Summer block party, there has been a murder. But, who did it and why takes readers back one year earlier, as rivalries and betrayals unfold—discovering that the real danger lies within their own block and nothing—and no one—is ever as it seems.

THOUGHTS:

Summer Party
Secrets Entangled
Scandal Revealed

OMG OMG OMG what a thrilling, twisty, mystery read - I enjoyed this one a lot! Between Alex and Lettie’s point of views, we see the chaos of the block party now, and then open up a flash back story to explain it all. What you find are very interesting characters whose lives slowly is peeled to showcase what’s really within the perfect homes on Alton Road.

Be sure to pick this up and add to your Summer Reading list.

This was marketed as a thriller, but sadly there was nothing thrilling about it for me. The characters were flat and one dimensional and there was so little action that took place that when something actually happened, I expected it to be a bombshell and it was often more of a drip. There was just no depth to this story and I found myself wanting to skim through just so I could get done.
Alex is the organizer of the annual Memorial Day Block Party on the exclusive enclave of Alton Road. The story of told from her POV, as well as the POV of her 17 year old daughter Lettie, and goes between last years party and current day and shows what a difference a year makes. Another issue I had is that it kept bouncing back and forth from third to first person which made it difficult to keep up with and awkward to want to keep reading.
This may be fun for some, but just not for me.
Thanks to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

The Block Party was a slightly uneven but still relatively satisfying domestic thriller, set in an affluent suburb with a large cast of neighbors, families and friends. Alternating between the current year’s block party and the previous year’s party, we learn that there was a murder, but we don’t know who. Narration also alternates, between a mother and her daughter - both unreliable. As we jump back to the previous year, we learn more about all these people - their relationships, their secrets, and their affairs. As much as the promise of resolving a murder was appealing, this at times felt like it was dragging along, as well as confusing, with trying to keep so many people and details straight. While the end was what it promised to be, it just felt much too easily and conveniently tied up at the end - an artificial picture of domestic bliss.

Every year the people who live on Alton Street have a block party on Memorial Day weekend. The start of summer. One year the party ends in murder. All the neighbors have secrets which one is deadly.

This book kept me hooked and wondering what was happening. I had to know what the secrets were. Very intriguing.

No block party is complete without a little drama. Or, a lot of drama, as is the case for the residents of Alton Road. The Block Party is a fun, twisty summer read about a cul-de-sac full of secrets, lies, cheating, revenge, and even murder.

The Block Party is an annual tradition on the exclusive suburban cul-de-sac of Alton Road. The book opens with a block party that has gone awry and the gossiping elsewhere neighbors who are thrilled that something went wrong on the highfalutin Alton Road. At least until they learn it was a murder.

Alton Road is a cul-de-sac anchored by the Fox family. Alex and Nick Fox are more-or-less happily married. Their daughter Lettie is rebellious and trying to find her place in the world. She is also grounded after getting suspended from school. Alex is drinking too much and Nick is burying himself in work.

Then there are the Adair’s. Emily is Alex’ sister and confidante. Married to the successful and handsome Ken Adair who has strayed in the past. They have two sons, the super-accomplished son off in college and Dylan whose entire life has been spent in a poor comparison to his star athlete brother. He’s dating Riley who was once Alex’ best friend, but has ghosted her or tormented her since Junior High. Willow’s husband Evan Thompson is a successful photographer. Their daughter Riley is keeping dangerous secrets that are finding their way to the surface. Willow is planning to divorce Evan, trying to find the right time.

The Kumar’s are new to the block. Samir seems a controlling, perhaps abusive husband while Mandy is mysterious and an enigma though she is far too interested in Ken for Alex’s taste. Their drop-out son Jay lives with them and he and Alex form a friendship that leads to epic revelations

The only unmarried person on the block is Brooke Bailey who people enjoy suspecting killed her husband. All they know is he disappeared on a cruise. She has a stalker, but she’s not overly concerned.

Last and least are the Greek chorus of neighbors whose social media interstitial gossip could have been a way to add context or move the story forward, but instead were annoying intruders on an otherwise propulsive narrative.



.The Block Party is an excellent domestic thriller. There is constantly growing tension as more and more secrets are revealed. It would have been better without the social media interruptions. They did not sound authentic, but more like a parody of social media by someone who avoids social media. They were the single sour note in the thriller, but since they kept interrupting they got very annoying.

Alex and her daughter Lettie are at the heart of this book. Not that they are amazing detectives or anything. They are ordinary nosy people who when they see something’s wrong, they try to something about it They talk to people at a deeper level than the usual banalities and can see patterns. Lettie wants to be a tough, avenging angel but has too much compassion and good sense to be good at being bad. Alex wants to be and do good, but her drinking is getting in her way.

I like the book a lot. The pacing is excellent, the plot hangs together. Nobody is too smart, no Poirots or Marples, but just good old neighborly nosiness gets to the heart of the matter. I like that. The characters are satisfying and complex. The only false not comes from the neighbor’s social media, but isn’t social media always the ruiner?

I received an e-galley of The Block Party from the publisher through NetGalley

The Block Party at St. Martin’s Press | Macmillan
Jamie Day on Facebook

The Block Party was told from two POVs, mother and daughter. This was the first book where I read a mother./ daughter POV and I enjoyed it a lot. It was great to see how the two points of view collided in the end. I feel like If I right a lot about this novel, I will give it all away. I thought it was a great book and kept me entertained. The only thing was it wasn't one of the those novels that I could put down and it too me a little while ti read the book.

Thank you Jamie Day, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC e-book. This book is definitely in my top right now for favorite mysteries. I loved it. It was funny and so relatable and yet had a dark undertone to the entire thing. That said I felt like we all know someone who could have been these different characters. Like every neighborhood, or small town has all of them and I related so much to that I felt like it could have been set in real life. The twists and turns as each chapter switched between mother and daughter went together seemlessly. And the twist at the end made me say What?! like out loud it was the perfect mic drop to an all around jaw dropping mystery.

The Block Party by Jamie Day is a domestic suspense with a timeline of the current day and one year ago. There are many characters and lots of drama, starting off you know there has been a death/murder but you need to read the story of how things unfolded and who was to blame.

It’s a good read, I was interested to see what happened to the characters. It’s not a nail-biting, page-turning suspense but more of a slower story that is still entertaining.

This summer, meet your neighbors.

The residents of the exclusive cul-de-sac on Alton Road are entangled in a web of secrets and scandals utterly unknown to the outside world, and even to each other.

On the night of the annual Summer block party, there has been a murder.

But, who did it and why takes readers back one year earlier, as rivalries and betrayals unfold—discovering that the real danger lies within their own block and nothing—and no one—is ever as it seems.

Just came out! Get it now.

This was a fun read, the setting and the characters were enjoyable to follow. However it seemed like there was too much to follow. In addition, the pacing felt a bit off which made some parts feel slower. It was a twisty book which made it quick!

The Block Party is an entertaining, suspenseful, drama filled, and twisty mystery. The story is told via an alternating timeline between one year ago and present day; and multiple POV between a privileged mother and her teen daughter. I was hooked from the first sentence and powered through alternating between the book and audio because I couldn’t get enough but was forced to adult. As the secrets of the neighbors are revealed, the twists start appearing. I couldn’t have asked for a better ending for this story, I really enjoyed it.

Thank you, St. Martin’s Press, and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advanced reader copy of this book!

I loved the twisted mysterious story about people living on a suburban block who all have secrets they’d kill to keep hidden! It was interesting to see chapters written from a 3rd person perspective alternate with chapters written from one character’s first person perspective. I don’t know how I feel about it. Not sure if the author was testing out the different POVs or if she was trying to hone in on the first person for a different reason.

Other than that, great book, good pacing, characters were believable, and I love a good old fashioned story about privileged people brought down by their own hubris!

Alton Road is anything but boring! The neighborhood seems idyllic but the Memorial Day block party shows all the crazy that’s been hiding on the street. Lots of surprises and action in this enjoyable read.

Jamie Day has created a block party unlike any of the block parties I've attended. My neighborhood seems very boring in comparison to the cul-de-sac on Alton Road. In fact, I was reminded of Desperate Housewives and Knots Landing, two of my favorite night-time soap operas from years past. I predict that this will be a very popular summer read. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy to read and review.

Dollycas's Thoughts

Welcome to Alton Road, an exclusive cul-de-sac that is hosting its annual block party.

Do they really know their neighbors as well as they think they do? When one of them is murdered they realize there are a ton of secrets being held by everyone.

We have to go back a year to see which scandal, betrayal, rivalry, and/or secret drove someone to murder.

____

As soon as I started reading this book I felt like I had landed on Wisteria Lane 2.0 (Desperate Housewives). Saying Jamie Day's characters have issues is a huge understatement. The book is mostly told from Alex's point of view. She is a divorce mediator who has a dangerous relationship with wine that she thinks she is hiding. Her 17-year-old daughter Lettie is doing whatever she can do personally to save the planet. She is also crushing on the son of their new neighbors. After a suspension for vandalism at the end of her junior year she just wants to graduate high school and go cross country to attend USC. Alex's husband is miserly when it comes to his daughter's education and is trying hard to get his wife to give up her vino.

The other residents of Alton Road include a widow who may have killed her husband with an interesting occupation, a teen that is having trouble coping with life especially when his girlfriend breaks up with him, a controlling husband, a wife hiding a connection to other residents on the road, a stalker, a drug addict, a cheating husband and more. All of these things come out over the course of the story. Because of my personal experience, I was very drawn to the troubled teen especially because I could feel what was in his future. I felt all of the characters were complex but needed more depth but with the large number of characters, it is hard to do that in one book.

The author fills the book with a lot of hot-button issues. Alcoholism, drug abuse, adultery, statutory rape, computer hacking, blackmail, stalking, revenge, and more. Not one house on the cul-de-sac escaped having problems, and many of those problems could destroy others. Truthfully, all the characters were unlikable but their situations kept the pages turning for me. Plus I needed to know who was murdered, who did it, and why.

I did enjoy the Facebook chat group talking and gossiping about what could be happening on Alton Road. I belong to similar groups for my hometown and the town where I currently live. Thankfully our moderators don't allow gossip but they are a great way to find out what is happening around town, like when you hear a ton of sirens and wonder what is going on or what is on fire or if there is a prison break which really could happen here.

The Block Party is filled with dysfunction and drama. So much drama. If you were a fan of Desperate Housewives you will enjoy this story but unlike the housewives, I have no desire to be friends with anyone on Alton Road but they will probably stick in my brain for a while.

This appears to be Jamie Day's first novel. She is an author to watch. I am open to reading more of her work.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book!

Synopsis: told from two perspectives (Alex and her daughter Lettie), there's a lot of drama in one year on Alton Road. As the year progress, you dive deeper in to past connections, revenge, teenage angst, and a lot of booze. In the end, Alex and Lettie get a satisfied closure at the end, and the secrets of their neighbors are fully revealed.

What a trollop! A perfect book for those who like Desperate Housewives, the Real Housewives, or authors May Cobb and Lucy Foley- there's a lot of neighborhood drama here (some that's a bit over the top). I would list this more as a domestic suspense more than a thriller or psychological drama; it doesn't have strong character development, but that doesn't mean the plot isn't a whirlwind. I found myself quick caught up in the Alex's story right at the beginning of the book. It gets a little slower and stagnant towards the middle third of the book, but things pick back up quickly about 75% through the book- I finished the last portion in one night!
Lettie's story took me a little longer to get into- I just didn't like the writing style of her story as much as Alex's. I also could have done with all the alcohol references for Alex, as I don't think it added much to the story at all; the other neighbors stories were much more interesting. Overall, still felt satisfied with how the book wrapped up, and would read other things by Jamie Day.

Overall, good summer read or for someone who wants to forget their own stress and drama for awhile and get caught up in someone else's.. 3.75 stars.

Every neighborhood has its cast of characters and antics that at times has you shaking your head, this one is no exception. Like mother like daughter; sometimes being bossy has its advantages and sometimes it doesn’t. In this lighthearted novel that tackles some heavy emotions surrounding alcoholism, drug use, suicide and rape, one family and neighborhood comes together even as it’s being ripped apart. Well written and fast paced, Day delivers a neighborhood mystery with a lot of heart.

I love uncovering new great authors!

I loved this book!

Who wouldn't want to read about a murder on a street where all the neighbors know each other and all have secrets and are up to some unsavory shenanigans!!

This book has a lot of characters but Day writes them so seamlessly that you're able to keep them straight and not get lost.

Highly recommend picking this one up!