Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book.

It is Memorial Day and time for the annual Block Party for the residents of the cul-de-sac called Alton Road. But something terrible happens this night, and to find out what happened and to whom, and why, we go back to the party the year before.

A new couple has been invited to attend and make one final walk-through of the largest house on the block, hopefully to make an offer. But when one of the husbands meets the couple, he has a strange reaction to the wife in the new couple. He has strayed before, and his wife is super alert, but no one there can miss the reactions of these two people!

But there are a LOT of secrets hidden behind these expensive closed doors, and over the course of the year many of them are revealed and the women of the block become closer with every revelation. The young people, including three about to be high school seniors, have their own secrets, too, and they all come to light, some with devastating consequences.

As you get to know these wealthy people, you realize their lives are not as perfect as they seem. Some you will like and others you will not, but they all make an impact on this good read.

Drama, drama, drama! If that is your thing, you will probably love this book. This book is your classic everyone-has-their-secrets neighborhood drama with a side of murder. I feel like based on that, I SHOULD have loved it, but I had a very hard time getting into this one. Half of the chapters are told by Lettie, who is a teenager who talks like a teenager, thinks like a teenager, and well, acts like a teenager. I'm not saying this whole book read like Young Adult, but enough of it did where I felt a bit blindsided and disappointed.

Okay, so I didn't end up loving this one. But it ended up not being as bad as the first 10 or so chapters had me thinking (look, I REALLY hate surprise teenager chapters). The drama was over-the-top, but in that way that made you have no idea what was going to come next. My favorite thing about this book was not knowing who died or why until near the end. Oh and the use of the scorpion fable!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love mysteries/thrillers and read tons of them, but this one was just hard for me to read. I get that there has to be suspense for the story, but this one was just really hard to follow. It flips between 2 narrators, neither of which are relatable to me. Lettie, the teenager, just seems whiny annoying tone and Alex, her mother, seems a drunk, busybody. Normally when I can't get into a story I just stop reading, but in this case I did want to know what happened at the end so I finished it. I was surprised at the ending, but it just seemed like it took a long time to get to the resolution.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This review is based on an ARC from NetGalley, courtesy of the publisher.

I really liked the premise of this book. It reminded me so much of Desperate Housewives. The pace of the book was great and I enjoyed the different perspectives. The only thing I had trouble with was believing Lettie was a 17/18-year-old girl. That being said, I loved her story line, it just didn’t sound like a young adult.

The Block Party is a delicious, soapy and sometimes irreverent take on an unscale neighborhood as they navigate their separate dysfunctions. While there is a large cast, the author has made it easy to follow each family leading too a terrible event which was destined. Really well done Jamie Day!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The premise of the book drew me in but once I started reading it, I just couldn’t get into it at all.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

📚 #BOOKREVIEW 📚
The Block Party by Jamie Day
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / Pages: 367 / Genre: Domestic Thriller
Release Date: July 18, 2023

Alton Road is that block in the neighborhood with the best houses and the most successful neighbors, where everything and everyone is just picture perfect—on the outside anyway. All hell breaks loose during the most memorable Memorial Day block party ever. Weaving back and forth between before the party and after, the characters and story take shape slowly and then speed up with a crash landing into the party itself. I really enjoyed this fast-paced domestic thriller. This is the perfect beach read to take on your summer vacation.

Thank you @stmartinspress and @netgalley for the advanced copy of this book.

Read if you like:
📺 The Desperate Housewife Vibes
2️⃣ Two POV
🎊 Drama Surrounding a Party
⏳ Past and Present Timelines

This one was such a juicy thriller with so many characters but told through 2 POV the mother and the daughter that are embroiled in the neighborhood drama.

I loved how the book started out in the present at the block party and meeting the characters and starting to see dysfunctional and points that our narrator may be unreliable then going back one year and bouncing between Lettie and Alex’s POVs!

If you are looking for a juicy, gossip worthy, suspenseful summer thriller I highly recommend checking this one out! Thank you so much to SMP for my ARC of this one!

A lot of people live on Alton Road and they all have connections to each other. Every Memorial Day Alton Road hosts an annual block party. This year there is a murder. The story then jumps back to the previous year's block party. There is a huge list of who could have been murdered, and also who the murderer was.

The story mainly focuses on Alex and her daughter Lettie. There is a lot of drama in the neighborhood including divorce, cheating, alcoholism, and family dynamics.

A Memorial Day BBQ in the exclusive Meadowbrook, Alton Road cul-de-sac is the scene of a murder. Who dies? Who did it? Why did that person do it?

The timeline moves from present day back to a year ago and we get all of the juicy gossip, and secrets about the characters, Brooke, Mandy, Emily, and Alex and their families. The story is told through different points of view. I found the best part of the story to be the Meadowbrook Online Community Page, think a snarky NextDoor site, that contributes comments and observations.

The story is fast moving, perfect for a fun summer read.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC. The review is my own.

There is the hint of a murder at the beginning of this novel then we are taken back and go through the year leading up to the current time. That year of background explores the people living on the cul-de-sac. We read of divorces in the making, surprised parentage, desire for teenage revenge, blackmail, a closet alcoholic, one addicted to porn, spousal abuse, and relationships not being what they appear. I would think one could investigate the dwellings on any street in general and explore similar circumstances. We are given a number of possible villains. There is a revelation near the end that we had no way of anticipating that clarified the murder issue.

This is a novel for readers who would like a dive into the people and relationships in an upper scale neighborhood, none of which are likable. Secrets come out, some of which could be deadly. The build up is slow and tedious. Who likes to read angry dialogue again and again? The last bit of the book has good suspense and action, however. The novel is a good explorations of the damage caused when so many secrets are kept.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Jamie Day and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of this intoxicating (pun intended) thriller! Loved reading this twisty thriller during the summer time - could not get enough!! I rated this book as a 4 star, but I would like to round up to 4.5 ⭐️. Highly recommend!!

This story is definitely a lot more character driven, which isn’t always my favorite but it was definitely scandalous and fun to read.⁣
⁣
We start out this story at the Memorial Weekend Block Party. ⁣
⁣
We follow the Kumars- the son got kicked out of college, mom and dad are caught several times in heated arguments, is there domestic violence or just a spat?⁣
⁣
The Foxes- psychologists/psychiatrists, with a 17 year old daughter who appears like the goth child that got suspended from school to finds interest in her college neighbor. Mom is an alcoholic, and this couple haven’t had sex in a while. They don’t communicate. ⁣
⁣
The Adairs- attractive, successful parents, two high school boys who are also brilliant, except the wife is worried the husband might be cheating, and one of the sons is really struggling living in his brothers spotlight. ⁣
⁣
The Thompsons- are in the middle of an awful divorce and haven’t noticed that their daughter has gotten herself in a mess of trouble. ⁣
⁣
&& bad ass Brooke is a widow, a black widow maybe? Her husband died in a yacht accident and she’s sassy and wild and always knows the tea. ⁣
⁣
The end result of all of the drama along the way, was nothing that I expected. This was a wild ride of drama, drama, drama in this neighborhood. Nothing is ever what it seems.⁣
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Block Party by Jamie Day was a thrilling read. It asks the question how well do your know your friends and even your own family. From start to finish I couldn’t put down, so many twists and secrets plus you never know what somebody else is going through. This was a good mystery, I highly recommend you read this book. Thank you Netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Block Party started off very, very slow for me and I think that ultimately took away from me enjoying the story. I also found the characters very unlikeable.

The Block Party by Jamie Day is a highly recommended domestic drama with murder, secrets and scandals emerging on every page.

In Meadowbrook, Massachusetts, Alton Road is known for it's exclusiveness and the annual Summer block party the wealthy residents hold every year. This year, however, something more serious than the egg toss competition occurs. Murder. Then a jump back in time introduces us to the residents and the secrets and scandals that lead up to the present.

The novel starts at the current block party and then jumps back a year in time to introduce all the residents. Readers follow these characters through a rich plethora of action, lies, secrets, and all the potential motives for murder leading up to the current party. Everyone could be a potential victim or suspect.

The narrative is told through the alternating point of view of Alex, party organized and divorce mediator, and Lettie, her teenage daughter. They introduce you to the large cast of characters that are all distinctive and unique enough to easily keep track of who is who. And this cast of characters displays all manner of dysfunctional behavior and relationships, subterfuge, and secrets. As the action unfolds, interspersed between the chapters are excerpts from comments and speculation made on the Meadowbrook Online Community Page.

The Block Party is well-written and a great choice for an entertaining summer read that will hold your attention to the end.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of St. Martin's via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, Edelweiss, and Amazon.

[ Thank you St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own! ]

PUB DATE: July 18, 2023

THOUGHTS:

Looking for drama, drama and more drama?! This is the book for you!

This is told with dual pov - Alex and Lettie (mother and daughter). And the story has two timelines, Memorial Day present & a year earlier. I wasn’t sold on Lettie’s perspective at first. She was an angsty teenager but I really grew to enjoy it as I kept reading.

It was a bit slow in the beginning for me to become invested but once I got past that, I had to know what was going to happen. I definitely had feelings and theories on everyone in the neighborhood but I couldn’t figure out the ‘why’ behind it all.

And the ending? So good. It was juicy!

Overall, a good summer domestic thriller! I’m just grateful I didn’t have an invite for this block party. 😉

It's time for the annual block party in the exclusive Alton Road neighborhood of Meadowbrook, Massachusetts. Alexandra Fox is the one who always organizes the party and makes sure it's up to the expected standards of the residents. Things start out fine, but before long, the sound of sirens invades the party atmosphere. This brings back memories of the part the year before and the story shifts to telling all about a series of events leading up to the present day. The story alternates between the point-of-view of Alex and her teen daughter Lettie. Mixed in are posts from an online community page from people who don't live on Alton Road gossiping about those who do.

This is a story that has a lot going on which sometimes takes away from the tension of the main plot, but does keep you guessing about what ultimately occurs during the present day block party and what that will mean for the Alton Road residents. I enjoyed this suspenseful, domestic thriller.

I received an advance copy of this ebook at no cost from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. My review is voluntary and unbiased.

This book kept me engaged, however, it also really annoyed me. ALL the characters are annoying, whiny, petty and just bleh. Not people I would want to associate with. There are two people narrating the book, but there are a lot of other characters in the book. In my opinion, we do not get to know enough about any of them. It is surface level info - and it is all annoying. I was expecting a much more juicy, dramatic story line - instead it was a lot of complaining. That being said, I was interested enough in figuring out what happens to continue reading, but I didn't particularly like any of the characters.

Thank you Netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

I love dramatic crazy neighborhood stories just as much as the next person, but throw in their kids, a crazy Bug Man, a stalker and you have a party! I wish I could say one of the neighbors was a good person, maybe Emily MAYBE, but she also stayed with her cheating spouse so hello trust issues. I went back and forth on who was keeping the dirtiest secrets. The angsty teenagers or the crazy parents?! As it turns out it was all of them!

There are some good twists towards the end, but they have big consequences for some more than others! This book got me out of a meh month of reading so I am highly recommending it!