This neighborhood looks perfect but is so incredibly full of drama! Just when you think you have it all figured out, there's more! We immediately know that something big happened at the annual block party, and then the story falls backwards a year. The chapters are short, the timeline jumps around a bit, and there is a smattering of relatable neighborhood social media speculation thrown in....all of which makes it easy to just keep reading. I blew through this one pretty quickly! 3.5 stars, rounded up.

Thanks to NetGalley for early access to this fun summer read.

I LOVE books like this.

The setup--someone has died in a beautiful setting. The readers don't know who has died. Then the backdrop where the reader gets to learn the history of the cast of participants and slowly come to terms with who it could be and who could have done it! It's so very Shakespearean.

The author sets it up in a modern upper-class neighborhood with the surrounding (not so influential people) acting as the peanut gallery.

This title will be enticing as a summer read and will be a great page-turner.

Loved “The Block Party”! I didn’t always know where the author was going, definitely kept up the suspense throughout the book and I enjoyed it all the more! There are plenty of surprises towards the end I would have never expected. A great summer read full of fun and excitement I would definitely recommend it goes in that beach tote!

I did attempt to read this one and it couldn't hold my interest. Thank you for the ARC and best of luck!

Just when you think you know, you get a nice twist and you are kept guessing. It is definitely a story that peaked and kept my interest. I dove into this story and next thing I knew, my Saturday morning was gone. Did not want to stop reading. It is a terrific read that I will be recommending to others.

Jamie Day’s The Block Party definitely has some similar vibes to Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies, but it just doesn’t have a propulsive vibe to it; it’s so slow burn that’s it’s hard to stay interested in how it will all play out. It starts at a Memorial Day block party where something bad clearly happens, but then starts a year prior and works its way back to the present day, alternately told by a mother and daughter who can’t help but let themselves get sucked into the soap opera that is their neighborhood. There were already problems lurking beneath the surface, but the arrival of the Kumar family to the neighborhood seems to set everything into a higher gear. In all fairness, a year is probably a reasonable amount of real life time for things to start falling apart, but it just seems to happen so slowly. That’s kind of unfortunate because the different revelations about things going on in the neighborhood and the past of some of those residing there is thoughtful and well done. The storyline is interesting, but not as exciting as I thought it would be or as fast paced as I wanted it to be. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I realized several months too late that I hadn’t written a review for this. Bad me and I apologize to the author and publisher for my extreme tardiness!

I love a neighborhood gossip story and my predictions for such books don’t extend beyond airy busy bodies and hopefully a murder or two. Always welcome and I never seem to tire of the trope.

However, this one surpassed the usual and the unexpected intricacy was refreshing and welcome. There was a balanced mix of immoral and nicer characters and no apparent path for who was doing what. I was guessing until the end.

This was a group read with Jayme, DeAnn, and MaryBeth. Hearing their thoughts and discussing it with them enhanced my reading experience even more!

Thank you to Jamie Day, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for my advance copy set to publish July 18, 2023.

This was well done. I love an ensemble cast and seeing disparate pieces come together. I was also a big fan of the ending— I had been worried / invested in the relationship between the initial narrator and her daughter and I was thrilled to see their reconciliation. Lots of little twists throughout this, some little red herrings. Trying to puzzle out who died and who killed them was engaging and reminded me why I like thrillers. While I appreciated the plot, I will say that the book itself felt a bit slow, and dragged a bit in the middle. I think some of the exposition / scene setting was overdone and unnecessary . We could have gotten the character development in a more concise fashion, I believe. I understand that the flashback encompassed a year, from one block party to the next, but it felt a bit drawn out.

Thank you NetGalley, Jamie Day and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of The Block Party. This is my personal review.
I read this book without realizing how long I had been reading because I had to find out how it was going to end. I was tangled up in the story and was impressed with how the author combined everything and everyone in such a way that trying to guess the next step was impossible.
This is one of those books that telling too much of what happened isn’t possible because of how everything hooks together.
Pick up this book on July 18 publication date and be prepared for a story that will keep you immersed in what is happening.

Such a quick and twisty read! Engaging characters and dynamic! In some ways, I felt like it was a good shift on the Desperate Housewives dynamic. Also very much appreciated the author's use of characters of different ages.

I really really wanted to love this one, we started out really strong but unfortunately just couldn’t keep the momentum going. The characters fell very flat for me and I didn’t find any of them likeable or relatable. Unfortunately the story line was just taking absolutely forever to go anywhere and I feel like we did not need 400 pages to talk about all these wives drinking problems and their husbands cheating on them. I just felt very bored and for the most part uninterested. I was trying very hard to get into this every time I would pick it back up, but the writing just did not excite me at all, even though the concept could of been exciting and really gone somewhere.
I’m sorry to say this one just wasn’t for me.

Thanks you Netgalley for my free copy, I am leaving this review of my own free will.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Jamie Day for the opportunity to read and review this amazing ARC.

This one kept me entertained from beginning to end. So much gossip and drama to fuel the entire book. The twist and turns keep you on your toes, and it was definitely one of my top reads this spring!

The Block Party is a fast-paced thriller about a neighborhood full of rich families that are all hiding dark secrets. The story takes place over the span of one year (Memorial Day block party to Memorial Day block party). In that year, secrets are revealed, friendships are tested, relationships are destroyed, and ultimately someone is killed. There are two POVs - Alex and Lettie. Neither narrator is overly likable or relatable. Alex has a drinking problem and that takes up most of her chapters. The "drunk woman narrator" is definitely overdone in thrillers and this was nothing new. Since Lettie is a teenager, her chapters focus on "teenage" drama, which is difficult to find exciting. Since the story focuses on the secrets and betrayals of the whole neighborhood, there are a lot of characters and keeping everyone's problems and secrets straight could be a bit challenging throughout the book. The Block Party is a good beach read, and I do think plenty of readers will enjoy it; however, it just wasn't for me.

The annual Alton Road Memorial Day block party is getting underway when tragedy strikes in the affluent cud-de-sac neighborhood. A suburban drama filled domestic thriller where all the characters have secrets, lies and out for revenge. The Meadowbrook community Facebook page had me laughing out loud. If you follow a community Facebook page, you know how irritating or funny they become. Highly recommend for your summer reads. Expected publication July 18, 2023.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

The Block Party is a fun beach read. It has a lot of drama, suspense, mystery, and delicious salaciousness. Of course all of the neighbors have secrets. And there is always THAT ONE that just has to be "in charge of the neighborhood". There are a lot of characters and sub-plots to keep track but by the middle of the book I was able to keep track of them. Reading on an e-book helped as it is easy to search to remind myself of a character's particular drama. I recommend this book as a great summer read. I look forward to more books from Jamie Day. #NetGalley #TheBlockParty

This was a very entertaining and twisty read. This story is told from the point of view of two characters, Alex and her daughter Lettie. The book starts at a Memorial Day block party in a very rich exclusive neighborhood. Alex is a queen bee of the neighborhood, the one who organized the party this year, and is trying to make it all perfect, except everything is going wrong. Then we flash to a community forum that lets us know a tragedy occurred at the party. Then we go back in time a year and meet all the characters in the neighborhood and start learning all their secrets. As the book progresses all kinds of crazy secrets and issues are revealed, leaving you wondering what tragedy occurred at this years party, and when are we going to get back to the current party to find out. A very interesting read that keeps you guessing until the end. I received an ARC and this is my honest review.

An annual Memorial Day block party for the Alton Road residents is the setting for Jamie Day’s new novel The Block Party. This is a revenge story involving the secrets, lies and dirty deeds of friends, family, and neighbors. It all culminates with a murder on the evening of the block party.

This mystery/thriller pulled me in at the very beginning and kept me captivated until the last page. There are a lot of characters and plots to keep track of as the story progresses but that is part of the appeal. With all the twists and turns, lies and secrets, it will keep you guessing. No one is completely blameless and the flaws just make the characters seem more realistic.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but I was definitely pleasantly surprise. I will be looking forward to more from this author. Mystery/thriller fans will not what to miss this one. A great summer read.

I actually was very intrigued by the cover of this book, and I love a good drama with neighborhood couples. I was enjoying this book, but it was focus too much on Lettie. As I continue to read about her, I felt like I was reading a YA novel, which I do not like. I really enjoyed the authors writing style, but I just lost interest in the book because of the YA feel.

This felt like a neighborhood Facebook group come to life with crime. Definitely a top book of the summer and a must purchase for libraries.

Block Party
by Jamie Day
4/5

There has been a murder in Meadowbrook! The overall quiet community is disrupted when the annual summer block party on Alton Road ends with sirens and chaos. The neighbors do not have answers so they turn to gossiping and commenting on the community's Facebook page. There is a mix of concern and shame as the truth eventually comes to light.

Going back in time, we met the families of Alton Road. The Fox family is the core of the neighborhood pretending to be perfect. The Adair family has secrets they would like to keep private. On the edge of an ugly divorce, the Thompson family is very dysfunctional. Also add in the new neighbors, The Kumars, who keep to themselves, Brooke Bailey, the recent widow whose husband went overboard on a cruise, and the “Bug Man” who is harassing the neighborhood for business. Each family puts on the neighborly front but behind closed doors, there are layers of secrets and wrongdoings.

This book comes full circle starting on Memorial Day and ending a year later on Memorial Day. I wanted to read this book based on the premise alone. A neighborhood functioning on drama, gossip, and hidden secrets. I am in! The main plot is sprinkled with so many subplots, the book kept me guessing and intrigued. Brooke Bailey was my favorite character with her sassy, I don’t care attitude. Unfortunately, Alex, one of the main narrators, was a disappointment to me with her drinking problem. This character trait is overdone. Overall, this thriller is scandalous and entertaining.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. All my opinions are my own.
Publication Date: Jul 18, 2023