Interesting and well written I just personally couldn’t get into the story. New neighbors. An annual summer block party. Hidden secrets that will eventually come to light. Difficult to follow at times and a little slow. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I really liked the concept of this book, and the inclusion of the social media posts and comments from people outside of the neighbourhood.

Overall, I found it to be a slow read, and it was sometimes difficult to keep up with all of the characters.

It was a good book, but I wouldn’t say I was wowed by it.

An ARC was provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.

Overall I enjoyed this book, but there was a lot going on. Not a ton of characters, but enough that I struggled to keep track of who was who and how they were connected. 3.5 stars rounded up.

The story was easy to follow - the neighborhood block party ends in murder and the author takes the reader through a number of scandals, secrets and multiple sub plots amongst many characters. The story kept me engaged and held my attention and did give me vibes of Big Little Lies. I don't see any other books by this author so if this is her debut novel it was very well done! I would love to see this come to life in a Lifetime movie or something. Thank you St.Martins Press and Netgalley for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC!

What a ride! This must be the wildest Block Party Ever! this is definitely one of those books that you cannot put down, from the characters, to the never-ending shock of finding out a new secret and seeing how it tangled with the others was just amazing. I did NOT see that twist at the end coming but it honestly tied everything perfectly together.

5/5, tis is definitely a MUST read and I cannot recommend this enough.

Time for the annual block party! Every neighbor has their secrets, but which one is actually a murderer? 🤫

2.5 ⭐️ This one seemed to work for so many people, but sadly, not for me. 😕 The writing style felt a bit simplistic (all telling, no showing) and I wasn’t a fan of the chapters from Lettie’s perspective. As a high schooler, her chapters were full of angst and whining, which I never enjoy. There were a lot of characters and details, but nothing caught me for most of the book and I had to force myself to pick it up day after day. The action all happens in the last 15% and while I was curious how things would wrap up, I wasn’t as surprised as I expected to be based on reading other reviews. (I expected the biggest reveal and I think a lot of other readers will too.) There were some smaller reveals that did take me by surprise, but I wasn’t wowed enough to even tip my rating to average. With all of that said, there are plenty of great reviews on this book, so take mine with a grain of salt.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a complimentary advance copy of this eBook, out 7/18/2023.

One of the things I personally very much enjoyed was the alternating point of view between Alex and Lettie. Allowing the stories of both the younger members of the block (high school/college aged and the stories of the parents/adults on the block to be told simultaneously was crucial to this story. This is especially true because of the way their drama is interconnected and how it unfolds pieces of the mystery for the reader. This was a book filled with intrigue and kept you wondering who was going to be a goner in the end. I also liked the bickering and gossiping that was going on in the town message boards, because although it felt true to what goes on in certain communities. I definitely would not want lo live on this block, but I sure had no problem reading about the people who do!

This summer, meet your neighbors.

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.

My Thoughts:

The Block Party reveals the secrets and scandals of the residents living on an exclusive cul-de-sac, and the story goes back and forth in time. Slowly we come to know how the actions of the characters will turn their lives upside down and even lead to murder.

Alex and her daughter Lettie are the primary characters, in my opinion, although their friends and other family members add to their stories.

It will take the whole of a year from one Block Party to the next to find out how everything plays out. The ending is dark, and the characters’ lives will never be the same again. A 4.5 star read for me.

***

My e-ARC came from the publisher via NetGalley

This book was a roller-coaster ride! Exciting from beginning to end! There are so many twists and turns I had no idea how it would end. There are several sensitive topics covered in The Block Party: rape, substance abuse and suicide to name a few. So I think its important for readers to be aware of potential triggers before picking up this book. The premise of a neighborhood of families coming together to celebrate and all the secrets each one is hiding makes for an excellent summer read. Thanks to the publisher and Netgally for giving me the opportunity to read this book. I'm looking forward to reading more by Jamie Day.

As another reviewer said, this was a block party to which I was glad I was not invited. This book did not appeal to me for many reasons. There were way too many characters and they were not developed enough that you could care about them. Too many intense topics were involved, including rape, infidelity, suicide, alcohol abuse, drug use, etc. The shallow people who filled the pages with insipid tv drama-like lives made it a chore for me to force myself to read through to the last word. I’ll never get that time back!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

For more reviews, please visit my blog at: https://www.msladybugsbookreviews.com/. Over 1000 reviews posted!

In a seemingly close-knit community, everyone has their secrets. When a girl seeks revenge on her lifelong friend with the new neighbor's adult son, things go sideways in ways she couldn't have guessed, and not just for her. Fans of domestic suspense may enjoy this.

"How much heartache could have been lessened, lives saved, if people owned up to their hard truths?"

Wow, this was a GOOD one. It was addictive, fast-paced and I just didn’t want to stop reading the story! Though at first it was hard to understand the timeline and dual POVs, the pattern was established quickly and very well.

I loved that this book had drama, thrill, and suspense, but also shed light on more serious issues like drug abuse, firearms, infidelity and addiction. The growth of characters, their blooming relationships, and the stories within stories were amazing to read. I loved that not everything was a happy ending, and how it got across that keeping secrets came with consequences, some of them quite extreme and irreversible. I also loved how the author explored the idea of revenge. And the twists! They were never-ending and truly unexpected.

All in all, I’d say this is a must read to put on your summer list. Thank you to NetGalley and the author for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for providing a free ARC of this title in exchange for my review.

This was to be a domestic thriller of a neighborhood block party. It was that, but it was a lot more, too. I"m not sure if the "a lot more" was good or bad. Overall, I feel rather disappointed by this book.

The narrators of the book were rather annoying, though I did appreciate the fact that the daughter did have more of a YA feel to narration while the mother had more of an adult POV. The time lines changing from one year to another was a bit confusing. The community gossip was a bit much. And there were just far too many characters. I needed a note pad to keep track of them all. It took away from the enjoyment of the overall story. The addition of abuse, rape, drinking, etc ... really took away from my overall enjoyment.

Maybe my expectations were too high for this one, based on the description and early reviews, but I didn't love this book as much as I'd hoped. Had this not been an ARC and I'd promised to give a review, I don't think I would have finished this one.

2 stars for 'it was ok' The writing style was fine, it was just the subject matter that turned me off.

This juicy neighborhood drama is a good fit for fans of Sarah Langhan's 2021 book Good Neighbors: everything looks beautiful and shiny on the surface, but there's so much lying just beneath ...

The story opens with a neighborhood block party with all the joys, faults, and foibles of any such neighborhood bash. Things begin to take on a darker shade when the hose, Alex Fox falls into a pool in a drunken slip. After sleeping off some of her drunkenness, Alex awakes to a commotion outside.

The book then jumps back in time one year to introduce us to the people of Aston Lane. Besides Alex and her husband Nick and their daughter Lettie, there are her sister Emily, her husband Ken and their son Dylan, Willow and Evan Thompson and their daughter Riley, the young widow Brooke Bailey, and the new neighbors Samir and Mandy Kumar, and their son, Jay. Oh, and let’s not forget the annoying salesman known simply as “The Bug Man”. By the end of the book one or more of them will be dead. The question is: who? And why? And the reality was that every single member of the community carried a dark secret.

The frame of the story is actually set by Lettie who is working on an AP special project on revenge. Her issue is that while she and Riley had been BFF’s through their younger years, in middle school Riley and a group of her friends tormented Lettie mercilessly. Lettie wanted revenge.

Balance that with the adult thread focusing on Alex. Alex increasingly focused on the dysfunction in the neighboring households and the private grudges they bore toward others in the neighborhood.

A quote usually attributed to Confucius says, “Seek revenge and you should dig two graves, one for yourself.” This book is a careful working out of the truth of that sentiment and by the end there are multiple graves and, happily, one reconciliation.

I loved the overall story plot. It was tightly focused and well planned. The two narrative foci – Alex as well as her daughter Lettie – gave chance for the unique insights of adults as well as youth. The problem was that at times nearly the same information was given to the reader by each voice and thus bogging down the story. I never did figure out the purpose of The Bug Man in the story.

My biggest complaint was that absolutely nobody in the book was the kind of positive character I could “root for”, though Lettie came closest. When the victims were discovered and the bad guy(s) were revealed I didn’t really care, having figured out some of the guilty secrets much earlier in the book.

I enjoyed the book; it was a nice summer read, but it was not one of the best book I have read this year. Still, I thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this book.

I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, I made it to the end, so that has to count for something. But on the other hand, the sheer amount of times we read about Alex drinking could have been removed, and we’d still know she was an alcoholic, and the book would have been blessedly, drastically shorter. It just got so repetitive it got boring.

Telling the story in alternating timelines and narrators helped to break up Alex’s tedium. The book is dramatic as heck, and there’s always some gossip to be had. As we know, marriages aren’t perfect, and there’s a lot of imperfection in every house on the block. The ending was less than stellar for a huge reason that I cannot discuss without spoiling. So I will put after my review a spoiler section if you’re curious.

As I said, it’s all dramatic, if a little sketchy at times. But I made it to the end because I felt as nosy as all the neighbors, and I wanted to see how Day would tie things together. Overall, it isn’t a bad first novel. My thanks to St. Martin’s for sending this over.

SPOILER SECTION

Okay, so if you dump a bunch of meds into a liquor bottle, and the person (or persons) who drink it get murdered, they will do autopsies, and they will run a *full* toxicology. It doesn’t matter if you “think they won’t test for that drug” because they will test for everything. They will also think it’s incredibly suspicious that two people test positive for the same med that neither is prescribed. You aren’t getting off scot free, which is just absolutely silly. It kind of just made a story I was lukewarm about even that much more blah.

There is soooo much drama in this book. So many storyline and lots of history to unpack with this crew.

This was a good audiobook, I really liked the narrator. It’s one of those audiobooks where even if you lose focus for a second, you’ll be able to jump right back in without being confused of the major plot points.

When I first began I realized there were a ton of characters in this one, I panicked. I legit took notes. As the story progressed I was able to keep the characters separated in my brain.

None of the characters were particularly likable, but I think that was kind of the point. Entitled, pretentious, “above the law,” types.

I thought the social media forum was a fun touch that added a little something extra to the story because we all know how those neighborhoods social media pages can be. No one on the community’s social media page really care for the crew at the party.

The first twist regarding the NEW boyfriend of Riley surprised me. I definitely wasn’t expecting THAT person to be the bf.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

This was a fun time on the cul-de-sac on Alton Road. There is *DRAMA GALORE* and I love that Jamie Day chose to tell this story from both an adult and YA perspective - it made it so much more intriguing! There's lots of engaging action on in this book, making the perfect bingeable summer read.

3 Stars!
Everyone in Meadowbrook is dying to be invited to the block party on Alton Lane! "The Block Party" is psychological thriller worth attending this summer but watch out for secretive neighbors.

Alex Fox only meant to have a few drinks this year at the annual Alton Lane block party on Memorial Day. But she accidentally finds herself soaked in a kiddie pool, embarrassed in front of her neighbors and worst of all, her husband knows she is no longer sober. This is the beginning of the soapiest book of the summer.

The story is told from two POV's, Alex and her teenage daughter. It contains a pretty comedic neighborhood discussion board as well. The book alternates between this year's Memorial Day party and last year's. The characters are plentiful and filled to the brim with drama! Somebody ends up dead and there are a number of possible suspects. It's a very fun who dunnit with plenty of suburban sass! I liked and give it 3.5 stars.

This book bombed for me. It is very repetitive especially when it comes to all the wine drinking and the repeated promises of "I need to stop". I love a good popcorn thriller but this one seemed to drag. We get two perspectives, Alex (the wine drinker forever promising to quit) and her eighteen-year-old daughter Lettie. It starts off in the present at the Memorial Day block party, then we go back a year leading up to a murder. We don't know who is dead nor who did it. Sounds right up my alley but this one lacked in execution. There are lots of heavy topics dealt with in the book, alcoholism, statutory rape, drug abuse and mental health/suicide but I felt they were portrayed unrealistically.

There were a lot of thriller cliches in the plot. The cast of adult characters were all unlikeable and they all need a good therapist, stat. There wasn't one level-headed adult in the bunch and we are talking about an exclusive area, this isn't a neighbourhood of people with a lack of resources and education. The dialogue felt unrealistic and the internal moaning of Alex got on my nerves. I felt no connection to any of the characters, I hated them all. The ending wasn't surprising and it took way too long to get there. This book was a real downer and not very thrilling.