What a fun summer read. I love a book with multiple POV’s. While I did feel like it was slow at points, I did really enjoy the book overall.

The Block Party is a typical domestic suspense drama that adds nothing new to the genre. The book is narrated by Alex, a mediator, and her daughter Lettie, a senior in high school. Both are unlikeable characters. Alex is the nosy neighbor with too much time and her hands and Lettie’s chapters are written like YA which made the character come off as annoying. Instead of being juicy fun, the plot moved slowly. The characters were unlikeable and I didn’t care what happened to them. While the Block Party isn’t the most original in this genre, it would make a good beach or poolside read.

Great summer read with many twists and turns! Some parts I saw coming and others were a surprise. There were many characters but I didn’t have any trouble keeping track of who was who.

The Block Party
by Jamie Day
Pub Date: 18 Jul 2023

The Block Party contained a little bit of everything from drama (lots of it), lies, cheating, heavy drinking, revenge, stalking, and even murder! Block Party is well written, smart, it's a well crafted mystery with a bunch of amazing entertaining characters. I highly recommend this for a great summer read.

Synopsis:

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.

Block Party is a suburban mystery that centres around the neighbours of the elusive cul-de-sac of Alton Road. The novel begins with the annual Memorial Day block party where a murder occurs. The lives of families of this upscale enclave are intermingled and their seemingly picture perfect neighborhood is filled with scandal, secrets and many lies. Told alternating points of view from adults to teenagers, the reader gets a glimpse into a less than idyllic world of privilege, one where a murderer is unveiled.

What I liked about this book:
-alternating POVs of teens and adults
-the tony, upscale Alton Road setting
-Desperate Housewives vibe
-the secrets and lies coupled with some twisty reveals
-well developed characters
-spans of different time periods to present day
-Meadowbrook online community board added some interest to the writing style


What I disliked about the book:
-unlikeable characters that I couldn’t relate to
-slow pacing
- too long and repetitive, I found it could have been more impactful with shorter length
-more domestic drama than thriller or mystery

My rating: 3 out of 5

Trigger Warnings: Alcoholism, drugs, domestic abuse, stalking, underage relationships, suicide, infidelity

My final takeaway: I’d recommend this book for fans of domestic suburban dramas with elements of mystery thrown in. Readers who enjoy Desperate Housewives will enjoy this popcorn read.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this eARC.

What a wild ride this book was! I will say this one started off a little bit confusing with all of the different characters. A lot was thrown at me at once and I found it hard to keep everyone straight. However, once I got a good handle on who was who I started really getting interested in their storylines and what would happen next. There are so many details but they all come together in the end for a huge plot twist. I did unfortunately guess the big twist pretty early on but still appreciated the ending. Overall I enjoyed this one!

“What is up with the men on Alton Road? When did they all go nuts?”

The Block Party is a solid Domestic Suspense debut!

The residents of Alton Road are all keeping secrets. Within the year, their lives will be forever changed by their own despicable behavior. Not all is fun and games, like the block party they throw each Memorial Day. When their secrets are revealed, there will be terrible consequences for all the residents. Someone was murdered and the Meadowbrook online community can’t get enough of the juicy gossip. What really happened at the Memorial Day celebration?

Jamie Day explores themes of alcoholism, revenge, infidelity, suicide, drug abuse, and depression in her debut novel. While the themes and format of this book are not unique to the genre, Day’s fully developed characters are stand-outs. Two things that are usually deal breakers for me with books are long length and YA perspective, but I really enjoyed this one! Although Lettie is a teenager and shares half of the narration of the book, she is the only upstanding citizen in this neighborhood. Since all of the other characters are flawed, I had someone to really pull for.

The many juicy secrets come together in an unrealistic, but satisfying way. Some of the twists are predictable, but others won me over. Overall, I am impressed by this debut, and will be happy to read more from Jamie Day.

Note to publisher: This book could benefit from further editing before publication.

Trigger warning: Suicide

4/5 stars

Expected publication date: 7/18/23

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of The Block Party in exchange for an honest review.

This was a juicy, neighborhood drama packed thriller. There was a lotttt going on though so at times it got confusing. The end was a bit too cheesy for me.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

The Block Party by Jamie Day

New adage: never judge a book by its first chapter. I expected a typical story about a drunk with a sullen teen at a Halloween party. What I got was so much more. This well conceived novel created suspense and got more and more intriguing as it went on.

The yearly Alton Road community block party is the tip of the iceberg. What goes on behind closed doors, and even open doors is the story here. The five main families have their secrets and they all are revealed by the end.

The characters are well developed and their points of view alternate throughout the story. The writing is very real and up to date with present day expressions, ideas and use of technology.
A thoroughly enjoyable read, I give it a solid five stars and thank #StMartinsPress and #NetGalley for this ARC.

The Block Party - 4⭐️ read from me. Entertaining from the start and moves quickly. Lots of drama and secrets - very much desperate house wives/pretty little liar vibes. Thank you to St. Martins Press for the advanced reader copy!

Thank you author Jamie Day, Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this granted eARC in exchange of an honest review.


The residents throughout the entire block of Alton Road are tight-knit in their own little bubble - which means their lives have become entangled one way or another whether in a good or ugly way. On Memorial Day, as they celebrate their usual block party, one was found murdered…

Okay, so if you’re going in expecting a thriller, let me stop you right now…it’s not. I heard somewhere on Bookstagram that it was more of a family drama and indeed it was. Even though I did see the thriller part of it, I would say it was about 5% of the entire book, but still did not capture my attention to feel the suspense. The redeeming factor was I did like the domestic drama, gossip here and there in the neighborhood, as if I live in the close-by community lol! I enjoyed each character’s back story and their personalities, although I have to say, the only first person POV is 18 years old so you also get a YA vibe while reading it. Overall, if you’re down for some family drama-rama, gossips and such, this is a good recommendation that you guys can pick-up and read! The Block Party releases on July 18th!

Jamie Day's richly satisfying debut novel, "The Block Party", heads into familiar territory when gunshots are heard at the annual block party. To answer the question of who is behind the possible murder? The story goes back to the previous year before the incident. Five well -known women in the community have their own reasons to justify going after the victim. There are some familiar clichés such as an alcoholic mother, a beautiful woman with a secret, and a marriage at the brink.
At the same time, Day manages to successfully string together each story into clean narrative. Day also adds humor in the right places and create moving scenes as well.

The Block Party is one of those books where you can sit in your.beach chair and keep reading until sunset.
I look forward to reading Jamie Day's next book.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Mind-blowing domestic suspense packed into 374 pages. The Block Party provided me with enough drama, revenge, crazy secrets, and lies for the rest of the year! This book is told from dual POVs - Alex Fox and her teenage daughter, Lettie. There's a bunch of characters to keep up with and they all have intricate secrets...some woven together. I enjoyed this book more at about the 50% mark because that
s when most of the craziness came out. I will say this is definitely a long read where you really have to pay attention and remember what all the characters are doing and what they've expressed from their past. The character development was nothing short of amazing. I had so many favorites--Alex, Lettie, Jay Kumar, and Brooke.
The ending was truly satisfying and my head was spinning!

The Block Party was such a fun read! Highly recommend getting your hands on it July 18!!

Thank god I don’t live on this block! What goes on behind closed doors does not stay secret for long in this neighborhood. From stalking to infidelity to drug and alcohol abuse. Revenge is just another dish at this party.

Thanks @netgalley for read 80 of 2023. I read @megans_bookcorner’s review of this book, and I knew that I had to read it. If you’re a fan of BIG LITTLE LIES, you’ll love this book. Similar vibes. I loved the online message board writing. This novel gripped me, and I had to keep reading to see how things ended. There were lots of surprises in this book, and I love how everything came together in the end. A ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 read in my books. Highly recommend. #avivaandfriendsrecos

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the summer and while I enjoyed it, it fell a little flat.

I'm a sucker for a neighborhood drama - give me all the moms drinking too much wine, the misbehaving and bratty children, and the philandering husbands. And while The Block Party had all of this - and more - it had almost too much. There was SO much going on.

We had narrators from several families, of all ages, and with all backgrounds. There were about 9 subplots going on and while everything eventually tied together nicely, getting there took some work and it was occasionally difficult to keep everyone and everything straight.

I probably could have done without most of the teenagers' storylines and had more focus on the female protagonists. At first I was invested in Lettie's plot, but it ended up taking up more of the story than I needed and I started to lose interest.

I listened to The Block Party on audio and it was pretty good. Multiple narrators were used which I always appreciate but none of them were particularly stand out.

All in all, I enjoyed The Block Party but it's not one that will really stick with me. It's a fairly quick and certainly entertaining read and would definitely be perfect by the beach with a fun cocktail.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the copy.

The yearly block party is sooo much more than a neighborhood party. Each year, secrets are revealed, and eventually there are casualties. This was a good storyline with a different ending than expected.

In Meadowbrook, MA, there is a street of nice homes inhabited by families. Think Desperate Housewives. Everyone knows everyone and each Memorial Day there is a block party. But this year, there is a shooting.
Go back 1 year, and Alex Fox is setting up the party. Her husband, Nick, and daughter, Lettie, are milling about. Alex's sister, Emily, a realtor, is showing a house to Mandy and Samir Kumar and their son, Jay. Emily lives next to Alex, and they both note a spark between Mandy and Emily's husband, Ken. Willow and Evan are getting a divorce, but he won't move out. Their daughter Riley was best friends with Lettie, but is now a mean girl. Brooke lives down the street, a widow, after her husband went overboard on a cruise.
So, what is going on? Lettie wants revenge on Riley, who is dating Lettie's cousin, Dylan. But, she sees that Riley is doing drugs and meeting with an older, married man.
I figured out 90% of what was going on, but not the Mandy connection. A gossipy, juicy novel.

This is a block party like no other. We start out with a murder, and then the author takes us back to a year earlier to explain how we got there.

We have Alex, Nick, and their daughter Lettie. Then Willow, Evan, and their daughter Riley. We have Brooke, whose husband died under mysterious circumstances. And Emily (Alex's sister), Ken, and Dylan. And a new family is joining the neighborhood - Samir, Mandy, and Jay. All the families are loosely connected, either through relationships, friendships, or dating, in the case of Riley and Dylan. And they all have secrets they are hiding.

I enjoyed the format of the story and how the author keep us guessing as to who was murdered. Our main narrator was Alex, and she was definitely unreliable, drunk most of the time, and chief instigator, or should I say investigator, for many of the issues in the neighborhood. I found the other narrator, Lettie, to have a more well-developed storyline and plot points. The author did a great job spending enough time with each family so that you truly got to know the characters and how interconnected they were before you got to the block party and the murder.

I'd highly recommend if you enjoy a good mystery, unreliable characters, lying, gossip, and a strong sense of place. You feel a part of the neighborhood and become invested in the characters.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review.

This book! It grabs your attention, sucks you in, won’t let you sleep, it will tell you don’t need to cook that dinner tonight, it will tell you that you need to read just one more page, ok, and then that page also, and sleep, who cares about sleeping, no, you stay up and read, what, no, you don’t have to work next day, work is just there to keep you from reading.
Ok, I might be slightly exaggerating, but in all seriousness, this book sucks you in and it keeps you there until the last page. And then you will sit there wondering what is actually going on.
There are so many characters in the book, and there are some crazies too (yeah, I love crazies in books). This is an absolute top notch domestic suspense read. There should be more books like this one. There should be so, so much more books like this one.