A neighborhood full of secrets can only lead to trouble. When one resident turns up dead, we are taken through the lives of the residents to learn what lead up to the death. Told from multiple viewpoints, we are given a view into 2 generations of residents and their drama. This book read like a movie, with building suspense, strong characters and a satisfying resolution!

3.5 stars for this one by Jamie Day! It was a story about a group of neighbours who live in a cul-de-sac community. Everybody in this story is hiding something - it's full of secrets and lies! There are secrets between neighbors, friends and even families.

Each year, the community hosts a block party for memorial day. But this year, things get sinister when there is a murder on site. In order to figure out who dies and how it happened, the author takes you back to a year earlier and explores the characters and their stories leading up to the fateful night. I really liked that aspect of the story. It was a quick read for me and I found it quite entertaining. The twists weren't exactly mind blowing, but I liked them.

My one issue, and it's minor, is that there were quite a few characters and at times it was hard to keep them straight.

I'd like to thank St. Martin's Press for my review copy. Overall, I liked it! This book published on July 18 and is available now! If you enjoy deception and a bunch of people behaving badly, this may be for you!

Revenge is a dish best served.. at a Memorial Day block party. Jamie Day's soapy new novel is reminiscent of Big Little Lies and Ashley Audrain's latest, The Whispers. The novel is narrated by Alex, a wife and mother, who maybe has a drinking problem, and Lettie, said teen daughter of Alex. The cast of characters are the neighbors of Alton Lane and the plot of the story takes place over the course from one Memorial Day black party to the next years. At the latter Memorial Day party police are called for a homicide. Flashing back over the course of the past year we get to know some of the neighbors and the many, many dark secrets they are keeping from their families and each other. While I thought there were maybe just one or two too many dramatic secrets for one small block. Overall a very entertaining read for fans of domestic and neighborhood suspense!

⭐️3 I thought the story was going to be based more on the murders. Insteresting plot and compelling story. Didn’t predict some of the twists. Felt like the Facebook comments about the block party were uneccesary to the plot. Overall an entertaining read.

Even though I feel like I’ve read a number of books with this same concept before, I had high hopes for The Block Party. Unfortunately, it left me kind of underwhelmed.

The story centers around Alex and her daughter Lettie, who live in a swanky neighborhood where everyone seems to be very involved with each other’s lives. While mother and daughter have their own share of problems and secrets to deal with, they spend a lot of time getting in the middle of everyone else’s.

Going into the book, I thought it would be a bit more of an ensemble cast, with lots of POVs, but we only get Alex and Lettie’s. And while that was ok, I thought it really could’ve benefited from featuring other characters, too. Getting the story from the two most boring characters in the story made for a bit of a boring reading experience. The few snippets of the community social media page didn’t really add much to the story, either. While there was some initial intrigue that made me invested in the story, the slow development of the mysteries didn’t keep me engaged. I also guessed every twist long before they were revealed.

Overall, The Block Party, had promise, but didn’t live up to it’s potential for me. The pace was slow, the characters were kind of dull, and the mysteries weren’t all that mysterious. I also thought the end tried to tack on some moral lesson with a very heavy hand, which it didn’t really pull off. This isn’t a book that I would pick up again, but I have seen some more positive reviews on this, so others may enjoy it more than I did.

The Block Party, by Jamie Day, is a perfect beach read! Serious topics like family drama, gunshots, domestic violence, male predators, grief, revenge and coming of age issues are all woven into this tale in a very readable, entertaining fashion, akin to a television mini-series that you just have to keep watching to find out what happens next!
The residents of Alton Road have an annual Memorial Day BBQ, with food, games, and plenty of neighborhood drama. The timeline of the story actually spans two years and includes three memorable Memorial Day gatherings. The protagonists, lawyer Alex Fox and her environmentally responsible daughter Lettie, voice their thoughts and propel the plot in alternating chapters, which lends a bit of a YA vibe to the story. All the characters are well-developed, with very distinctive personas, and mysteries about their pasts and current actions abound.
As in any good domestic drama, everyone has secrets, some dark, some innocent. While there are serious issues related to death and abuse, there is also a warm family vibe, especially with the Foxes.
I enjoyed the hip, modern storytelling style and Lettie’s fresh, witty observations. I recommend this novel for readers looking for an entertaining summer read, with some depth.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

A simple, annual block party. What could be more innocent? Nothing in this neighborhood. And now someone has been murdered and secrets are coming out. It seems that everyone in this privileged neighborhood has a secret behind their so called “perfect” lives. This book is a combination of thriller and humor. When the people on neighboring blocks hear the sirens, they immediately take to social media to theorize what is going on. These comments remind me of the ones I see on my Neighborhood app, from snarky to nosy to off topic. This levity during a murder lightened things up a bit. Many good twists and turns kept me going and I never would have guessed the ending! I highly recommend this book!

Also reviewed on B&N (1IrishEyes430) and Kobo (IrishEyes430)

The Block Party by Jamie Day is a wickedly fun neighborhood drama wrapped up in a domestic thriller story.

I loved the neighborhood drama. Readers who enjoy reality tv for the over-the-top drama will absolutely eat this up. The story gave me all the jaw-dropping dirt, and I lapped it up.

I also love the social media used during the story. It reminded me of an app called NextDoor that I'm on and love for the drama. The story's social media entries were very authentic compared to what I see on NextDoor.

I enjoyed the mystery very much, and the conclusion surprised me. There are clues to what the mystery will be and clues to the conclusion throughout the story. Drama enhanced by a mystery is simply sublime.

One issue is that, though it's not predictable, it also could be more original. This is the same neighborhood drama story told repeatedly. But I knew that going in and looked forward to it.

Another area for improvement is the large number of characters and how difficult it is to keep them and their stories straight. And this continues until the end. I found that it never got better for me.

The characters are well-developed, especially Lettie, though most of the development is wrapped up in the drama, making it very complicated to explain in a non-spoiler review.

The narration is third person focused, and it focuses on Alex, a wife, and mother who oversees the yearly Memorial Day block Party and her teenage daughter Lettie for the neighborhood teen drama. I liked having the story from 2 generations in the neighborhood rather than just one because the stories are intertwined and interconnected, as you would expect them to be.

I found the pace to be breakneck. The story is focused even though it covers quite a few families that live on the block. Still, it focused on the relationships between neighbors, so it never got mired down in irrelevant backstories.

The setting is Meadowbrook, Massachusetts, but it could be any upper-middle-class suburban neighborhood in the US. This works for relatability, but I would have loved to see some aspects particular to that part of the country.

Read if you're in the mood for:
Juicy neighborhood drama
A jaw-dropping conclusion
A cast of flawed characters

3-3.5 stars, rounding down to 3 though.

This book was just okay for me. There were some redeeming qualities, but overall, I was a bit underwhelmed. It falls into the domestic suspense category and gave me Desperate Housewives/ Big Little Lies vibes, so if you are in the mood to read something like that, you may want to check it out.

I will say for it to be such a large cast, I felt the author did a great job keeping everyone apart. I didn't have trouble distinguishing each character or getting them confused with one another and that isn't always the case for me.

We have multiple POVs and lots of drama. One of my favorite aspects of the book and what I thought was unique and fun was the occasional breaks between the chapters with the social media community page where neighbors gossiped and speculated about what happened at the neighborhood Memorial Day block party. It reminded me of my hometown's community pages on Facebook, especially of late. 😅

What made this book hard for me to read and caused me to drop my rating was the pacing. I felt towards the middle it slows down too much and it was hard for me to stay focused to continue reading.

**Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me an advanced copy of this book and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion. I am posting this review to my Goodreads account immediately and will post it to my Amazon & Instagram accounts upon publication.

The Block Party by Jamie Day

My rating:
4/5
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The neighborhood of Meadowbrook is filled with close knit people with lots of secrets. The Meadowbrook Annual Block Party is the celebration season, but one year, it goes terribly wrong.

Told in both mother and daughter perspectives, you slowly find out what secrets people have been hiding.

Overall I liked this book. I rounded it up to 4 because it was pretty enjoyable. However, I will say that for as long as the book is, not a lot actually happens until the end of the book. There was a lot of build up to the end part of the book. I think what I was missing was emotion from the characters. I did however enjoy reading from Lettie’s perspective.

If you like surburban drama with a murder thrown into the mix, I would recommend this one! Overall I really enjoyed, it was just a little bit of a slower pace than most of the thrillers I tend to read! There was definitely lots of secrets and lies!

Thanks netgalley and St Martins press for the Arc! You can read this one now! 🏡

Gun shots were heard at the annual block party? Everyone is speculating. Who shot who? Why? Read this thriller by Jamie Day to find out. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy of The Block Party in exchange for my honest review.

I'll keep this short and sweet since this one wasn't for me. I ended up skipping quite a bit of the book just to get to the end. I think I would've preferred more than two narrators for this since there ended up being SO many secrets and lies and general chaos.

In fairness I won't review this on any other retail sites aside from NetGalley since I didn't *technically* finish it.

The story had me guessing the entire time. The story is told from Alex and Lettie’s POV (mother and daughter). It shows that you never truly know what’s going on in a person’s life. Surrounding neighbors think everyone on Alton Street lead perfect lives and have no troubles. The events of the past year prove that wrong. Everyone has secrets. Over the course of the year, these secrete are slowly revealed, until everything comes to a head. The story was well paced and everything wrapped up nicely.

3.5 stars

This book was good, not great. I couldn’t really root for any of the characters but none of them were all bad either. Alex might have been my least favorite tbh. She was a little too nosy and gossipy for me and ignorant about it to boot. Not quite sure how I feel about the layout of the book since I kinda had to go back and read the 1st part over again to remember. Nice plot, good characters. Would definitely give author another shot.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This felt like a season of Desperate Housewives and I am HERE. FOR. IT.

Seemingly independent storylines all end up converting in a way I would have never expected to tie a neat bow on an otherwise dramatic story?! YES. This is my kind of domestic suspense!

While I really enjoyed the multiple storylines and how they converged at the end, there were SO many subplots to follow that I found it sometimes distracting instead of entertaining. I often found myself going back to reread parts to fully understand the story. There were a few subplots that I could have done without.

Overall, there are definitely some triggers in this book and some incredibly heavy topics. The topics aren't deeply addressed, more so mentioned, so I would read triggers before picking this one up. There were a few jarring scenes that I could imagine might be an issue for some.

I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for a domestic suspense that errs on b*tchy over scary!

The Block party of the year goes sideways and it is so scandalous you just cannot stop reading! It gave me a Desperate Housewives vibe which I loved as it was one of my favorites! I am glad that there was only 2 POV in this book as I was able to keep everything straight. This book was fun and kept you sucked into the story and wanting to know who is dead and who isn’t. Who did it? I am greatful to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this!

This was such an intriguing thriller. It gave me Desperate Housewives feels. The author does a fabulous job engaging the reader. Each chapter ends on a cliff hanger and kept me on the edge of my seat. I liked how the book was written with a dual POV, one a teenage girl and the other, her mother. There's mystery, betrayal, secrets, and.......murder. This is a party you definitely don't want to miss.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed reading this book. A little slow at times, but there was a solid story and solid ending. I think there could have been a few things left out to move through it a bit quicker. Told in alternating POVs from present day and last year, the Block Party focuses on a group of neighbors who get together each year and have…you guessed it! A block party. Someone is murdered at this year’s party, and there is also an online forum that is debating the rumors of a murder and whodunnit. I enjoyed these little forays into the online forum and found them entertaining and funny. The characters were, while sometimes infuriating, very well developed and believable.

*2.5 stars rounded up

I went into this book thinking I was getting a mystery/thriller. What I got was mostly domestic drama. Not that I don't like a good domestic drama if it's done well, but I had quite a few problems with this one.

Let's start with the positives.

The writing is very simplistic, so it's easy to read this very quickly. The chapters are very short, too, usually just 5-7 pages, so that also helps keep you turning the pages.

For the most part, I did want to know what was going on with the various mysteries, even though they weren't very strong. So, I was motivated to finish the story, even though by the end I couldn't stop rolling my eyes at the conclusion.

Also, even though the two main characters, Alex and her daughter Lettie, were a bit annoying, they were well fleshed out and easy to connect to. Most of the side characters...not so much.

Here were my problems.

The writing. I know it was in the positive section above, but the dialogue was so cringy at times! There also wasn't much description, either. It's very bare bones writing. So, while that does mean you can read it quickly, it wasn't interesting to read either.

The other problem that frequently took me out of the story was the logical inconsistencies. A lot of mystery/thrillers have this problem for me, so I'm willing to overlook some things. But so many things just didn't make any sense.

So, if you're looking for an easy-to-read domestic drama with some light mystery elements, I'd say give this a go. But it's far from being a favorite read of the year for me unfortunately.

*Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital arc. All opinions are my own.

This book had my name written ALL over it!

Neighbourhood drama, scandals and gossip, with a touch of murder.

I could not wait to get my hands on this book, I was so ecstatic when I got approved to read this.

The annual summer block party on the exclusive Alton Road cul-de-sac, is one to remember when someone is murdered.

The suspense slowly builds in this book. You’re just itching to find out what happens. But so many little details throughout the book, have you guessing who is guilty and who is the victim. Almost like breadcrumbs being dropping.

It was so simple who the guilty party was, and it all made sense. I really enjoyed this book!!


Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a DRC. The Block Party is available now!