I was so excited to get to read The Block Party, by Jamie Day. I think it was a good introduction to Jamie’s work, the title and the description sold me right away and the beginning of the book caught my attention immediately. The book starts off at the annual Memorial Day block party in Meadowbrook and we find out there is a murder. The next chapter takes us back to last year's party and events throughout the year that lead up to the end where we are back at this year’s Block party to discover what actually happened. We meet a full cast of characters through this book, with the main focus being on Alex and Lettie and the story told from each of their point of view. I do not read YA, so it was different having a YA POV, and I am not sure I really liked the teenage storyline, but it was unique having a mix of the two.

So as mention there is a lot of charters:

Alex, Nick and their daughter Lettie
Emily, Ken and their son Dylan
Willow, Evan and their daughter Riley
Mandy, Samir and their son Jay
Bug Man

I know there are more but wow that is a lot! There are marriage issues, teenage drama and angst, family secrets, some unsavory bits thrown in there (alcoholism, blackmail, among other things…), and so much more we experience with all of these families and relationships, and it was a lot to keep up with!

I thought the characters were very well developed but I also thought that the introduction to all of those characters and each of their story’s made this book a little slow paced for me. It took me longer than I expected to finish this book. I will say, I think it would have been a fantastic audiobook and I wish I had the opportunity to hear it narrated!

I don’t think this book was predictable and it drew me back in at the end. Jamie did a great job keeping us all guessing. I also enjoyed the online community page for the neighborhood, very gossipy. I would never want to live in a neighborhood like that but it's so fun to read! I also enjoyed the epilogue, one year later, more drama to follow! Book 2, maybe?

Thank you St, Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing a copy to review. Overall, I give this 3 stars but very close to 3.5. I ended up feeling good about the book and I am excited to see what is to come from Jamie Day in the future.

If you’re looking for a juicy, summer read full of suburban secrets, look no further than the The Block Party by author, Jamie Day.

Set on the “perfect from afar” Arden Street, the neighbors gather each summer for the annual block party to kick off Memorial Day weekend. But it quickly becomes apparent that way more than burgers that are sizzling at this shindig.

Told in alternating timelines, right after the audience is introduced to the effect the reader gets to learn the cause. The story unfolds through the viewpoints of multiple residents who live in the neighborhood including Alex, a burgeoning alcoholic, her brooding daughter, Lettie, and the mysterious new family that moves in, quickly occupying all of their thoughts for a variety of reasons.

The Block Party is the perfect twisty page turner to devour pool side, reminiscent of Desperate Housewives or Big Little Lies. I’ve always personally had a soft spot for this niche of fiction. So, while this particular story might not rank as my absolute favorite, it was enjoyable for what it was- seasonal escapism staged in one cagey as hell cul de sac.

Not the typical block party....someone will end up murdered. It takes a while to get to the heart of it, but the suspense is well built into a year of leading up to it. A lot of cheesy friends are introduced as the cheaters, psychological abuser, division between groups and a lot of secrets to sift through. This is an upscale neighborhood with a Facebook community chat to help solve the crime, which is amusing and my suspicions were gathered. I liked trying to solve the mystery with the information given.
It is an entertaining book written with two POV's through Alex's eyes and her daughter Lettie...entertaining, yet nosy neighbors are the worst.
The author does an amazing job with the story, but it does drag in some areas. It wasn't long that it picked up and one by one you are able to eliminate a few.
Thank you NetGalley and St Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a fun book to get us ready for the summer season! Told from two different points of view, the neighbors on Alton Road are getting a little rowdy. Everyone always thinks the Altonites are stuck up and above everyone else, until one of their own is murdered.

I really liked this book! It was fun to get to know all the neighbors over the year and see how the plot really built up. The neighborhood gets a shake up when a new family moves in. Immediately people start questioning them and making assumptions. I found myself enjoying Alex, the mother’s plot more, and I was racing through her teenage daughter, Lettie’s POV. It needed more adults and less teens. I loved Brooke, she’s a femme fatale character who needs her own book!

Thank you again to St Martins Press. The Block Party is out July 18! If you enjoyed, Big Little Lies or Desperate Housewives, you’ll be happy!

4 stars / This review will be posted on goodreads.com today.


Everyone dreams of a cul de sac home with neighbors that become your besties, right? Alex has that. Not only is she friends with the women on her block, but she also lives by her sister. It’s a perfect neighborhood with families that are hiding awful secrets.

Alex thinks she’s the fixer, so when things are going horribly wrong with all the families on the block, including her own, she feels compelled to make everything right again. Even her daughter has inherited the ‘fix-it’ gene.

But things spiral horribly downward at their annual block party. So much so that the police are called. Will anything ever be right again?

This book dives into not only familial relationships, but friendship, and the secrets we keep from others. There is a lot to unpack. Written in a way that will keep you turning the pages well into the night, you won’t be sorry for reading this one. It’s summer. Grab a drink. Climb into your favorite chair, and read until you reach the end.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC!

I held onto this eARC for a while and was finally prompted to pick it up when I saw quite a few booktubers talking about reading it. Overall this book was a solid domestic mystery. I wouldn't call this a thriller as it didn't have that kind of tension running throughout. I liked the premise of this book and the ways in which the different lives of the characters were woven and connected. It felt a lot like "Desperate Housewives" to me. However, in the last 1/4 0f the book, things felt pretty repetitive and I think overall the book could have been tightened a bit and definitely shorter. I will definitely pick up another book by Jamie Day, but I wouldn't call this a 2023 favorite. Overall a solid 3 star.

I couldn’t really get in to this book. I dnfd it. Meaning I did not finish it. It was kind of boring and I only read the first few chapters. Sorry.

The Block Party is a domestic suspense story. A murder happens during an annual Memorial Day block party on Alton Road. This is definitely a block party I would not want to go to!
An upper class neighborhood and lots of problems by the residents living there.
The night ends with a murder. Lots of characters, and drama. Everyone becomes a suspect, secrets revealed and some twists.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this book.

This book was good but there were so many characters and story lines to follow I found it hard to keep up at times. Overall though the story itself was really good

The Block Party by Jamie Day is a suspenseful novel that takes place in a suburban cul-de-sac. It's about a murder at a neighborhood block party and the surprising interactions of its residents. The author skillfully weaves together a cast of well-developed characters, secrets, and lies.

With its compelling narrative and palpable sense of community, The Block Party feels like a modern episode of Knots Landing (yes, I'm that old.). Mystery and thriller enthusiasts seeking a dark tale of suburbia will be thoroughly entertained. Recommended.

An absolute great way to kick off summer block party season! Told from multiple points of view going back and forth in time during the annual block party, this novel kept me guessing until the very end. Will be recommending to all in my network!

I love neighborhood dramas and The Block Party was the perfect encapsulation of what I love about them. The setting was beautiful, there were strong characters with strong character development and drama and secrets kept me on my toes! This was a great summer read that kept me interested throughout.

Oh to be a fly on the wall of the opulent houses on Alton Road… This fast-paced juicy mystery is the perfect summer read. The twists just keep coming!

There is something about books set in well-to-do neighborhoods filled with drama that I really enjoy. And Alton Road has no shortage of drama! I would love to hang out with Alex, drinking wine and getting involved in everyone’s business.

Thank to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Block Party is the perfect summer thriller following the residents of the exclusive cul-de-sac on Alton Road. On the night of their annual block party, a murder has occurred and we the reader are transported back to exactly one year ago as our residents experience the events, secrets, and scandals that led to this moment. At the beginning of the book, we aren’t privy to who the body of the deceased belongs to, so the rest of the novel becomes a bit of a guessing game. I really enjoyed the format of the book and how the prior year leads right up to the night of the murder. In addition to the past perspectives, we also get to view the speculation happening on the community message board. It’s exactly as funny and frustrating as reading a real community message board. We’re primarily following Alex, a mom with a bit of a drinking problem, her husband Nick, and their teenage daughter Lettie. Alex’s sister Emily, her husband Ken, and their teenage son Dylan also reside on Alton Court. And we’ve also got a very unhappily married housewife, a teenage girl with a secret, a widow who’s husband died under mysterious circumstances, a new family who seem to be harboring secrets of their own, and a ton of drug and alcohol abuse. It’s bursting with the type of juicy scandals you can only expect to find in a seemingly but not so perfect privileged suburban paradise. I thought The Block Party was a ton of fun and I’ll definitely be reading whatever Jamie Day publishes next. If you were also a fan of Desperate Housewives or Big Little Lies, you will definitely enjoy this book!

Okay. First of all, I LOVE this cover. It screams summer drama. I typically like books set up with alternating timelines and POV's, however, I found these timelines hard to follow. I found myself constantly flipping back and forth to figure out where we were in the story, so I think titling with dates would help tremendously.

Pros--loved going through the year and seeing the seasons change with the characters. It was fun to see how that neighborhood handles holidays, and aside from a homicide, I really want to live there! Lol.

Cons--I feel like this author had a lot of influence from old school Lianne Moriarty (think Big Little Lies era) however this one didn't fully work for me. The interactions and friendships between the characters was a bit silly and so many conversations were far fetched. I highly doubt there would be lasting friendships with the whole Only Fans fiasco. I also think the story dragged on a bit, and it could've benefited from knocking off about 100 pages.

I'm not sure who I'd recommend this to. Possibly someone who doesn't read many thrillers, but wants something fun for the summer.

I am never one for meddling with neighborhood affairs but believe me when I say, I will not turn my head away from this book’s juicy neighborhood scandals, gossip, happenings and incidents. I will gladly grab my drink, pop up my lawn chair right at my front porch, keep the pop corn fresh, salted and buttered because this is better than binge watching Netflix!

Told in 2 voices of Alex, the divorce mediator who fixes things, watch out for neighbor’s safety and drinks way too much wine and her smart, rebellious, environment conscious, black outfit wearing misfit daughter , Lettie. BLOCK PARTY is a story that has spice, angst and grip in a scandalous, juicy, pleasurably guilty and dirty kinda way. I enjoyed the writing, I love the characters and all their big and small quirks!

The conflicts are so intertwined with one another that untangling them seem so impossible, the secrets are deep and revenge is sweet. The ending is very well put. I think it is a perfect summer read! Special thank you to St.Martin’s Press and Netgalley for sharing this amazing digital copy both in e-book and audio format in exchange of my honest review.

This super twisty book is a perfect summer read, especially because it takes place over the Memorial Day holiday. This neighborhood has secrets, and the double-blind format (who was killed and who did the killing) kept me guessing over the course of the novel. I loved the format with chapters interspersed with dialog from the online neighborhood forum, which gave some outside perspective and also a bit of comedic relief.

Oh, the drama!

I expected either a lighter read with some humor, or a full out thriller, but instead I would classify this as drama, like a Sunday night TV show - and not that that’s bad. It was a good summer read, a lot of shenanigans going on in the background, and some unexpected (& some expected) twists. There is really no one to root for in this book, and that’s okay. Still a good read that I enjoyed at the pool.

{This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.}

I was looking forward to reading The Block Party and was excited that the 6 of us n my bookclub all received advanced copies so we could read it in June and I was very underwhelmed.

I love neighborhood gossip and rich people behaving badly but this one just didn't do it for me. There was a lot going on, almost too many characters and subplots. The ending was different than I expected but ultimately not a book I'll remember.

Ebook/Suburban Mystery: I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the beginning is as boring as the suburbs with Alex's spiral into alcoholism and Lettie's teen drama of school misfit seeking revenge. During the middle of the novel, Lettie's story became more important to me. Lettie is written in first person and seemed more honest and relatable. Alex is written in third person, but seems more like an unreliable narrator, as she is in denial about a lot of things. I found the ending exciting, but after thinking about it, I thought the characters were disingenuous to the whole situation and everyone was in denial of the the severity of the situation, like why did Riley agree to do what she did in the first place.
I am giving the book 3.5 stars, mostly because it was entertaining. The characters, and there are a lot, were not cookie cut and each one had its own personality.
I want to thank Netgalley for a copy of the book.