Thank you to Jamie Day, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I am on a thriller kick and this book is at the top of my list for great thrillers. The twists and turns I didn't see coming. The mystery aspect kept me glued to the pages. I liked the different timelines and different POVs.

The online community page was an amazing added bonus. I loved it.

3.5 stars

This was a fun summer read full of gossipy neighborhood domestic suspense. We as readers are dropped into the middle of the Alton Road Memorial Day party where the drama begins right away.
The story alternates between present day and then a year prior leading up to the night of the murder and the unraveling of so many secrets and lies.

The premise reminded me a bit of Big Little Lies which I enjoyed, but this book has a lot of characters and subplots and at times it is hard to keep track of them all. I understand that the author was trying to build the suspense, but there were so many domestic issues thrown in that it started to muddy the main storyline and all that was revealed at the end seemed a little over the top.

Desperate Housewives is one of my Top 3 favorite shows of all time. This book took me back to Wisteria Lane, and I LOVEDDDD it. I loved the drama, the scandals, and of course trying to figure out whodunnit and why. The excerpts from the local community page were fun to read also, because my community page is just as outrageous 🤣

I wasn't able to predict the ending. This is something that RARELY happens when reading mysteries/thrillers. So when an author is able to keep my assumptions flying, I have to give BIG props for their creativity.

For thriller lovers, this is a fun summer read.

The Block Party is available July 18! 📚

4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This domestic suspense novel starts at a neighborhood Memorial Day Block Party that goes awry and possibly leaves someone dead - then without telling us who or what happened, goes back a year to the previous Memorial Day so we can see the events of that year. It’s told from the alternating perspectives of middle aged mon Alex and her teenage daughter Lettie, occasionally interspersed with posts from a neighborhood forum from the future Memorial Day. And of course over the course of the year we learn that everyone in the neighborhood has secrets and/or grudges, so really anybody could be either the killer or the victim.

This book was an enjoyable page-turner, but also was one that was kind of over the top unbelievable and which went extra crazy and nonsensical towards the end. The last few chapters really were A LOT plus a lot of exposition too. With its time shifting structure and neighborhood behaving badly plot, this one definitely had Liane Moriarty vibes (though not as good) or The Lifeguards by Amanda Eyre Ward, so if you like those types of books, you might enjoy this one too

3.5 stars

DNF @ 7%
The plot itself was fine, but the characters were so obnoxious. I couldn’t get past anytime they spoke

On the seemingly idyllic cul-de-sac of Alton Road, not a single house is exempt from suburban secrets. Alex's evening glass of wine comes earlier and earlier each day--sometimes a glass, sometimes a bottle. Her sister Emily is holding on to her marriage for dear life, that fresh start not as fresh as she's let the neighbors think. Recently-widowed Brooke hardly seems to be mourning the loss of her husband Jerry.

As the residents of Alton Road know, it's all just harmless gossip, though.
Until someone ends up dead at the Memorial Day block party.

An sizzling, explosive summer suspense, "The Block Party" is everything you could want in a domestic drama. A well-defined cast of characters, secrets galore, and a slow-burn fuse that's lit in the first chapter and comes to a shocking conclusion by the end, readers looking for an escapist read that's not your usual Nantucket romance are bound to love this story.

By no means a perfect novel and a little heavy-handed on the theatrics at times, "The Block Party" is still a worthwhile summer read that does manage to dish a little depth along with its drama.

Looking for a fun summer romp and not too worried about implausibility? Then pick this one up when it publishes July 18.

In the vein of Big Little Lies, The Block Party begins with a bang at a Memorial Day Block party in an upscale neighbourhood. Narrated by Alex (stereotyped wine-swilling wealthy white woman) and her daughter Lettie (eighteen and privileged), the characters of the cul de sac are revealed along with all of their various secrets. The timeline moves back to the year previous and then moves forward to the present day.

The characters, while unlikeable, were interesting and each had a lot of drama going on. I am going to be honest, this book is for the reality tv watchers. If you enjoy the drama of 90 Day Fiancé and the Housewives franchises then I believe this book will fit into your summer reading list. While I love a good character driven literary story or a twisty suspense book particularly ones with situations I worry about getting myself into, I can so easily fall into this kind of popcorn book. I am not knocking this book and really enjoyed it but it won’t be for everyone. Will I be looking for whatever this author writes? Yes, I will be!

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for an ARC of The Block Party in exchange for my honest opinions. Another fun one by a favourite publisher.

Check out my storygraph account (Pomoevareads) for content warnings!

What should I call The Block Party? A domestic thriller? We all enjoy a peek into the messy home lives of others. How about calling it something more menacing like Suburban Noir? In the end I enjoyed very much this summer read chockablock with many interlocking situations that are all satisfactorily tied up in the end with a nice, neat bow.

This is a new author to me. This book was quite unusual to me. I thought it would be thriller but the book fooled me. It was about the neighborhood.

This book was very intriguing and interesting. It held my interest thru the whole book.

I'm going to look for more books by this author. I really loved this book. Great job.

Phew this one took a while for me to finish! I've never read a Jamie Day book before but would read another one. The book gave a Heathers vibe, "Writing about revenge is cool, I guess, but taking revenge ... now, that's something to truly savor." I thought to try the reverse psychology on my daughter but it didn't work, "Parents just don't get it. The more they want us not to do something, the more likely it is we're going to do it. Such thinking is hardwired into our teenage brains." I don't think I've ever heard the phrase, but it stuck with me, "if everyone threw their problems up in the air, people would race to catch their own." It resonated with a teenager who didn't want to catch what another one was lugging around.
The Block Party by Jamie Day. #NetGalley #july182023

I really wanted to love this book but I just could not get into it. I started/stopped it 2 times before pushing through because the publish date was approaching but reading this felt so much like a chore. The characters are not at all likeable and there were so many secrets that by the time the end arrived I was just glad not to be learning anything else about these people. This was a miss for me.

I was irritated with Alex and how she is portrayed at the beginning of the book and that possibly colored my opinion from the beginning. I found Lettie and her perspective interesting, but I struggled to stay engaged in the story, skimming and sometimes outright skipping sections of the book to get to the end. It just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Jamie Day for the eARC.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable neighborhood drama told from multiple perspectives over a couple of different timelines. The characters were engaging, the plot was well paced, and there were several twists that I didn't see coming. Highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced reader copy.

Told in alternating viewpoints by Alex and her daughter, Lettie, this story highlights the drama in an elite neighborhood. The party begins in present day with a murder and then switches back to the block party the previous year leading up to the event. Lots of drama and hidden facts slowly emerges in this lively story. Too slow for me.

I really was looking forward to a thriller or mystery about a small town wealthy suburban neighborhood filled with secrets and lies that unravel at a block party. Unfortunately, the block party doesn't begin until toward the end of the book. There were so many characters that I honestly had to take out my phone and take notes to keep everyone straight. Everyone had a backstory and a relationship and/or children, and I kept losing track of which person was married to which person or which child belonged to which family.

I felt that the book really dragged, and I wanted more of suspense or mystery. It never really came. I enjoyed the two perspectives, but I wish that they were both in first person. I wanted more excitement from the block party, but it was just lacking.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this book.

This was such a fun read!!! I feel like anyone living in a neighborhood could relate. I love how the story enfolded and it had be guessing until the end!

An annual block party and neighborhood full of secrets. This was a medium fast paced suspense novel told through multiple perspectives. I guessed several of the twists early on, so I was only lukewarm on the book. It's low-stakes and not to stressful.

Thank you to Netgalley & St. Martin's Press for the advanced reader copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for this ARC of "The Block Party" in exchange for an honest review.
As much as I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I couldn't help wondering......did author Jamie Day want us to take this stuff seriously? Or does "The Block Party" function as a sly, dry humor spoof of those plunges into uppercrust suburban dysfunction like "Big Little Lies" and "Little Fires Everywhere"?
I only mention this because the host of troubles in the sumptuous Alton Place cul-de-sac makes those other books look like Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. And the neighbors of Alton Place, to the everlasting entertainment of their community chatboard members, make the characters of TV soap operas look like the Teletubbies in comparison.
And that's what makes this book such a fun read........you'd have to plow through 800 episodes of "Days Of Our Lives" to revel in the Mt. Everest of tribulations that author Day compactly piles into one single swiftly paced novel. On this one cluster of houses, those "sands in the hourglass" come pouring out at the speed of light.
In cataloguing the sheer amount of heartaches, anxieties and deep dark secrets on display, I'm almost tempted to put them alphabetical order......
Just name your poison and it's all there waiting for you on Alton Place. Crumbling marriages, infidelity galore, spousal abuse, drug abuse, booze abuse, (enough wine guzzled to fill several Olympic pools) ,rumored mariticide, racy photo apps, psychotic stalking, rape, emotional wounding of adolescent kids, and some serious anger mis-management issues. That's as much as I can remember at the moment, but I'm sure I'm leaving out more than a few additional miseries and maladjustments.
And YA readers may also want to dive into all the turmoil, since one of the gang's teen daughters co-narrates, thereby providing a bonus list of teen angst tropes......parental torment, peer pressure, forbidden sex, aching crushes, college applications, bullying, drugs, cyber-revenge....and horror of horrors... summertime grounding!
As anyone can tell from these descriptions, sooner or later, this ongoing melodrama kept a constant boil will not bode well for more than a few of the neighbors and come to a rip roarin', twist-revealing finale. In that regard, "The Block Party" doesn't disappoint.
Whether you swallow this for real or chuckle along with it as a guilty pleasure, I fully admit I had a great time with "The Block Party"......but never, ever as a neighbor, just casually visiting.....like slowing down on the highway to rubberneck a fender bender.

3.5 stars rounded down - This was definitely an interesting and unique domestic suspense book! I feel like the title is a little misleading because this centers around so much more than the yearly block party. I loved the drama, secrets, and unexpected twists but I found myself bored once in a while.

This is a must summer read! Everyone loves summer block parties until they go horribly wrong! Find out why in this new fabulous book!