•The Block Party 🍾•

📚Genre: domestic thriller
🤔Rating: 🍺🍺🍺(3/5)
#️⃣ of pages: 384
👯‍♀️ read if you like: Desperate Housewives, The Couple Next Door, On a Quiet Street, What the Neighbors Saw
⚠️TW: suicide, miscarriage
Publishing Date: July 18, 2023

👍🏼:
•loved the addition of the online community forum posts. It adds an element of suspense and makes you feel like you’re there
•definitely held my attention after I became invested in it

👎🏼:
•quite predictable
•this book has alllll the drama and even with that, I felt like it was slow moving. I wasn’t fully invested until around 45-50%.

Overall…
Domestic thrillers are definitely my subgenre of choice and this one definitely had all the makings of a good suburban thriller. This one is a good mix between character and plot driven but it does lean toward the side of being character driven. There are tons of characters in the story but only 2 POVs & those were actually two of my least favorite characters in the story 😬 this plot had SO much potential & I had all kinds of theories of what could have happened. While it was a bit predictable, I still would deem it as an easy, entertaining read & one that I’d say give a shot to!

Special thanks to NetGalley and St Martins Press for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for an honest review!

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The Block Party by Jamie Day
If you’re up for a slow Murder Mystery with a ton of gossip and wine, this is the novel for you!
Alton Road is the place to live in Meadowbrooks. The neighborhood is close nit and infamous for its yearly block party. Only this year there is a murder.
The novel takes us back a year and we get a point of view from mother and daughter Alex and Letties. There is so much to this novel. Secrets, cheating, stalking but it’s set up in a classy sophisticated way.
All this is a perfect setup to destroy friendships and relationships.

This is not one of my favorite books but it kept me engaged and it picked up its speed after the halfway mark.The writing was on point and easy to follow.There we’re a lot of important topics in the book.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martins Press for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

I received an ARC of The Block Party via NetGalley for review.

The Block Party sucked me in immediately. It started with Alex, drunk and waking up to the sounds of sirens arriving at the annual block party that she’s hosting. Then we jump back and go through the year leading up to the block party.

After the initial excitement, it was very slow to develop. But the last quarter of the book was insane. Everything boiled down, and it was super dramatic. Everyone had secrets, some were fairly easy to predict, and some were completely shocking!

Perspective bounces between Alex and her angst, teenage daughter Lettie, and the neighborhood messaging boards. I really liked the banter in the messaging board; it kind of brought us back to reality. Alton Lane (the block) is idyllic, and the families all seem so perfect. So seeing all their drama come out and their dirty laundry getting aired was just so fascinating.

A solid summer read!

Does anyone remember the show Desperate Housewives? This book had a similar feel with a neighborhood brimming with secrets and scandal. The book opens with the annual block party and someone dead. The story then jumps back a year and we follow Alex and all of her neighbors, each of which is dealing with something. Alex and Nick are about to become empty nesters and Alex has been drinking more and more. Their daughter Leddy has been secretly meeting up with the neighbor's older son. Her cousin Dylan has been dating Leddy's previous best friend; however, things are rocky there. His parents are dealing with infidelity issues. One neighbor has a stalker. Everyone is suspicious of the new neighbors. Things get weirder and creepier as the year goes on.

This is a great twisty suspense novel. The neighborhood setting is so much fun. I loved all the suspicion and gossip they all had for one another. There is a whodunnit/what happened mystery to it. The narration switches from Alex to Leddy and back which really worked well. The story flows and the drama of it all is just fantastic. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a fun summer read when you'd rather be outside instead of watching your normal reality show. Block Party is a great stand-in. 3.5 stars rounded to 4.

🏘️ Has anyone else been reading a ton of domestic/suburban thrillers lately 🏘️?? I have read several and I LOVE all the neighbourhood drama, lies and deceit!

“The Block Party” by Jamie Day is full of scandal, revenge and twisty plots that will keep you locked in and unable to put the book down!

BOOK REVIEW: 🖤🖤🖤🖤/5

Alton Road is an exclusive cul de sac neighbourhood that holds an annual summer block party for all of its residents. This is a night of drinking, gossiping, showing off and playing nice to all of the neighbours. Until someone ends up MURDERED 🔪

Everyone at the party is a suspect …
And this book rewinds to one year prior to give readers the 411 on WHO lives in the neighbourhood and WHAT everyone has to hide! The twists and turns of this book are INSANE and every time I thought I had things figured out, I was completely stumped 🤯🤯

For fans of Desperate Housewives, Big Little Lies, Dead to Me, The New Mother, Everyone Here is Lying and What the Neighbours Saw … this one if for Y O U!

Thank you kindly to Jamie Day, @stmartinspress @netgalley for my advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review! This book releases July 18, 2023!!

This one was just pure fun, if you like gossipy neighborhood domestic suspense you’ll enjoy this I bet. There’s a lot going on here as it basically follows every resident on Alton Road so there’s quite a few characters to keep track of but they intertwine in a scandalous and satisfying way. It alternates between present day and then a year prior leading up to the night of the murder and the slow unraveling of so many people with so many secrets was juicy and fun. This is the perfect poolside summer read, lots of drama, betrayal and it doesn’t require a lot of brain power which is basically my summer mood.

"The Block Party" is one event you do not want to miss! This twisty domestic suspense novel is a must-read for the summer.

The story begins with residents of the exclusive cul-de-sac on Alton Road throwing their annual Memorial Day block party. When someone is murdered, we go back one year earlier to the events leading up to the party. The novel is told from the points of view of Alex, a former divorce attorney turned mediator, and her rebellious teenage daughter, Lettie. Interspersed between chapters there are present-day updates on the Meadowbrook Online Community Page, where gossiping residents eagerly await news and share their own theories (hilarious—gotta love nosy neighbors!). In the year leading up to the murder, rivalries and betrayals unfold. The residents of Alton Road are entangled in a web of secrets and scandals unknown to the outside world and to each other. Although their lives seem perfect from the outside, nothing is ever as it seems.

It's true what they say, you never really know your neighbors, and in this book, that was certainly the case. This book was filled with alllll the drama: lies, infidelity, alcoholism, revenge, stalking, and more. I was invested in the story from the beginning and on the edge of my seat to find out who was murdered and who was to blame. There were a lot of side characters in this book, but I thought the author did a great job distinguishing them, and I never felt confused about who was who. I also really enjoyed the dual perspectives of Alex and Lettie. They had their own unique voices, and Lettie's POV appropriately felt more YA. This was such a fun summer read. There were so many twists that I had no idea what was going to happen next. Highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Block Party has got to be my favorite read of the summer...maybe even my favorite read of 2023 so far! It's such a fun, suspenseful neighborhood drama that I couldn't put down. Every character has a secret. Every character is not without flaws. One character takes it all the way to murder. I flipped the pages and honestly didn't want this one to end. I highly recommend to everyone, and can't wait to read more from Jamie Day.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for a widget of the ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Expected Publication Date: 7/18/23.

This is a great summer thriller! It was a fun read and in the beginning I had no idea where this book was going. This was my first book by Jamie Day, and I would read another!!
3.5 stars :)

It’s the day of the Meadowbrook Memorial Day block party for neighbors on Alton Road (aka “The Altonites”, and no, people two streets away won’t be invited.) This annual party is always full of games, drinks, music, food and fun…until a new family moves in. We have quite the dramatic atmosphere with people such as…

Alex, a divorce mediator who goes quite heavy on the wine, her husband, Nick, and their 17-year-old daughter Lettie, who is obsessed with climate change

Willow and Evan, and their daughter Riley, who is a “mean girl” and opiate addict

Lettie’s uncle Ken, aunt Emily, and her cousin, Dylan, whom Riley is cheating on with a much older man

Brooke, the sexy widow with an OnlyFans account and a stalker, and

Samir and Mandy - the new family, having just moved in with their 20-year-old son, Jay, a computer genius.

This is very much your typical neighborhood thriller, filled with “NextDoor” threads, rich people, affairs, sexual assaults, lots of drugs and alcohol, suicidal ideations, teens in trouble, and parents too intoxicated to notice.

I can’t say it’s much different than any other neighborhood thriller, but this was a good beach read. It has most of the same tropes as other books of this type, and the same types of characters. It’s not very inspired, but it was still pretty entertaining and a good summer read. 3.5 stars, rounded up.

(Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Jamie Day and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on July 18, 2023.)

This was a fun summery who dun it block party read. You get thrust into a cul-de-sac block party and trying to figure out who the killer is on why. I enjoyed this fresh approach to a murder mystery and was very engrossed from page one

Reading Between the Wines book review #66/115 for 2023:
Rating: 4 🍷 🍷 🍷 🍷
Book: The Block Party
Author: Jamie Day
RELEASES July 18, 2023!!! Reserve your copy!

Sipping thoughts: Such a great book for those that are looking for deception, lies, frenemies and revenge. Everyone loves to have a party and fellowship with friends and neighbors. But not when this party harbors so much resentment that someone dies. I really enjoyed how the book started with the murder but of course you have to read on to find out not only who the killer is but also who the victim is. I really liked the ending and the message it sends to a certain group of people.

Cheers and thank you to @NetGalley, @StMartinsPress and @MacmillanAudio for an advanced copy of @TheBlockParty.

#TheBlockParty #JamieDay #StMartinsPress #MacmillanAudio #NetGalley #advancedreadercopy #ARC #Kindle #Booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #bookstagram #nicoles_bookcellar #bookworm #bookdragon #booknerd #booklover #bookstagrammer #bookaholic #bookreview #bookreviewer #IHaveNoShelfControl #ReadingBetweenTheWines #fiction #thriller #suspense #mystery #MysteryAndThrillers #GeneralFictionAdult

NetGalley offered me an advanced reader copy of this book and made it sound so delightful I accepted. Instead of a interestingly-plotted mystery, we get filth, terrible people, and depravity.

Reading The Block Party was like taking a step back into Wisteria Lane. An affluent and privledged neighborhood full of secrets and this year the annual Memorial Day block party has ended with murder.

The story is told through dual POV of Alex and her daughter, Lettie. Like many stories in this genre the information is slowly fed to the reader as they continue the story. Some things catching the reader up more than others. There was even the all too real callback to the overly-dramatic neighborhood Facebook page in the midst of all the drama, secrets and lies.

I enjoyed this book but I don’t think it was anything groundbreaking.

3/5 stars

Thank You to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Block Party" is a debut novel by Jamie Day. On first look it is overwhelmingly positive as it currently has a goodreads rating of 3.87 with close to 1000 ratings. I was very lucky to be one of the 1000s who received a ARC of this one. Lol. I love the “flood the networks” with as many copies as possible strategy.

First thought: Beach Read! Turn off your brain and just enjoy it. This might be neighborhood domestic suspense at it’s finest. Or it may just be a long, drawn out story. I have about ten minutes to decide because this review is “go time”.

This book starts at a block party at a well to do neighborhood on memorial day and it's a total shit show. We have our main protaganisht Alex who is the main organizer. She also happens to be, luckilly, shit-faced drunk enough to fall into a pool. As her husband whisks her out of sight she learns there has been a murder. And then we flashback to the same block party a year ago and go through the whole year leading up to this murder. We have multiple POVs of course, with one being Alex’s teenage girl: Lettie.

Obviously this is standard fair but I'm going to try argue how this one stands a little tall above similiar domestic suspense books. Mainly the writing and prose is very sharp and crisp. It really flows and you can just read and not think to yourself, “Who talks like that?” Or “WTF, this scene doesn’t make any sense at all”. It is beautifully written and edited. Also I thought Lettie would be the most annoying character, of course, being a teenage girl but she was the actually the most entertaining and level headed of this bunch. We go through the entire year between two block parties to slow burn our way into who dies at the second one.

The bad. It’s too long. For some reason people think these books have to be over 300 pages. They really don’t. If I’m on the beach it’s happy hour time. I don’t have time to finish this book. And it was really brought home way too much that Alex was developing a drinking problem. “Well, I’ll just have one more glass of wine.” “One more won’t hurt”.

Ok, this book is recommended but maybe speed read?

I really appreciate St. Martin’s press for giving me the opportunity to review this book for a honest review and it has a publication date of July 18, 2023.

In a privileged neighborhood, a small group of families gather annually for their Memorial Day Block Party. Except this year, there is murder on the menu. 'The Block Party' begins with the murder, and winds the clock back to the year prior when the wheels are set in motion, eventually resulting in a death. In the beginning, it may feel like there are too many characters, but eventually, you come to know them all and understand their essential role as players in the drama that unfolds.

As an audiobook it was overall a good listening experience, with two fairly strong narrators; one for the older characters, and another for the younger ones. This split made sense because in some ways there were parallel dramas among the adults, and a different one among the young people with both intersecting very seamlessly near the end of the book. It was very intricately and tightly plotted so that I honestly didn't know what was coming let alone who was a hero(ine) or who was a villain for much of the story. That is NOT easy to do, especially when you've got folks who are seasoned readers of this genre and prone to suspecting everyone who appears, including the UPS delivery guy. So, definitely kudos to the author for maintaining uncertainty and suspicion throughout.

Still there were a couple of elements that made me enjoy this a little less than I otherwise might have. There was a fair amount of repetition of stock phrases, making it feel like the author was paying attention to the story but not the writing, if that makes sense. And the story was sufficiently complicated that it definitely required her to keep track of precisely when and how things happened, and who was connected to whom. But I guess I wanted a different kind of narrative which is just a matter of taste. The other factor that made the book lose a little luster for me was the explanatory chapter, where all the motives, coincidences and connections were explained to the reader in exhausting detail, and characters who were morally ambiguous were thoroughly rehabilitated as "good" people. Again, a matter of taste, but I dislike expository introspection, and I dislike even more when characters are restored such that they leave us as unassailably likable. That renders them less interesting to me. I prefer when the author trusts the reader to "get it" re: motives, etc. and doesn't feel like they need an entire epilogue or chapter to explain; and I really like it when at the end, characters remain complex and in some ways unknowable. In this instance, the explanation was soooo unnecessary, it disappointed me a little.

Recommended for a fast reading (or listening) experience if you like domestic suspense. Thanks #NetGalley!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC. I ended up getting approved for the audiobook of The Block Party and that’s how I ultimately read it.

This is a drama filled slow burn thriller of the likes of Big Little Lies and Desperate Housewives. I do think this book would be best read physically due to the online forums and multiple POV.

I’d recommend this book for a quick summer read by the pool!

First I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC copy of this book.
I’m sorry to say, but I didn’t like Block Party very much.
It starts out on Memorial Day with a block party where several wealthy families live. Someone is killed then the author takes us back a year and tells us about all the characters. It got tedious and boring, but I liked the teenage girl, Lettie. A typical teenager with opinions and is smart, she is also a rebel with her dress and attitude. Th author did not need to spend four hundred pages and make the reader wait until near the end of the book to find out who was killed.
I don’t mean to offend the author but this just was not a novel I liked.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of The Block Party by Jamie Day.

Every year the neighbors on Alton Road get together for an exclusive block party that is the talk of the town. But a lot of the talk comes from the never ending surge of betrayals, infidelities, and even murders amongst this seemingly cheerful group of friends. One block party in particular brings everything crashing down.

I've read a lot of sketchy, upper class neighborhood books, and this was pretty middle of the road for me. It has the usual shady yet shiny cast of characters, with nothing being as it seems. However, it also drags a bit, and gets fairly convoluted, a least enough for me to fall in and out of interest.

This story is an “I told you so” for anyone who has moved off grid to get away from having neighbors or even being around people.

A suffocating neighborhood where everyone is involved in everyone’s business and privacy doesn’t exist.

The Facebook community page tells us at the start that there has been a murder but then it takes almost the entire book to get to the incident. It’s a slow, slow burn.

If you like rubber necking when you pass a car crash then this one’s for you.