I really enjoyed this book. Definite promise however I found there was way too many chaacters too keep track which is a negative for me.. it was a good story though

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martens Press, and Jamie Day for providing this ARC.

All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Block Party is a fun murder mystery to start summer of with a BANG! Or two? Fans of Big Little Lies will love this domestic thriller.

The book begins at the annual Memorial Day block party in an affluent Massachusetts neighborhood. Almost instantly you learn from local Meadowbrook Community Facebook group that there’s been two fatalities at the cul-de-sac block party. The story abruptly shifts to one year earlier and moves forward. I really enjoyed the alternating perspectives shifting between a wine guzzling mom and her rebelling teenage daughter. As the story unravels you learn that the relationships in this seemingly perfect community aren’t what they appear to be. Everyone has a secret and the drama is unending.

This novel was packed full of twists that kept me engaged and turning pages. The characters are so well developed that the story really comes alive. Every time I thought I had it figured out, something new would happen. This is a debut novel that is sure to be a hit!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The Block Party releases July 18, 2023.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Jamie Day, and St. Martin’s Press for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for a free advance e-reader copy of The Block Party in exchange for an honest review.

I had to make myself finish this book, which wasn’t all that well-written and with a plot that was completely far-fetched. I kept going because I was curious about the end which did have a twist I didn’t see coming and that kept my review at two stars instead of one.

The only character I cared about at all was high school senior and climate warrior Lettie, and I enjoyed the chapters from her perspective. The adult characters I found shallow, whiny and unsympathetic. The story itself was contrived and forgettable. I won’t be recommending this book.

This book has potential but was so long and drawn out. I like the plot device of starting in the present and going back a year to tell the story. But there was just too much dragging and not enough to hold my interest. Told from Alex and her daughter Lettie’s POV, I felt like the story was limited in its scope. I would have very much liked to hear more from the other characters POV, especially when discussing the same topics. Their perspectives would have added so much I think. Thank you to St. Martins Press and netgalley for my copy which in no way affects my review.

This was a disappointment to me
Very slow to get started and not very engaging characters
Sorry but I didn’t finish it

The families on Alton Road are like their own little town. Connected by friendship but some of the connections go deeper than anyone saw coming. A few mysterious connections has Alex questioning what she understands and getting involved in things she maybe shouldn’t be.

The block party had me thinking with every turn of the page! This was a great, easy read. Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book!

I received a free copy of this book on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Block Party follows the lives of the residents of an exclusive neighborhood; revealing secrets and lies over the course of a year that leads the murder of one of the residents.

What I Liked:
- Told from dual POVs
- Events unfolded over the course of a year & broken into seasons
- Enough drama to keep me interested in what happened next
- Each character had a story and a stake in the outcome

What I Struggled With:
- Dialogue (both external and internal) felt unnatural & forced
- POVs were a different tense (one MC was written in 3rd person and the other written in 1st) - I have read other books like this before and enjoyed it, but I felt it didn't quite work here.
- Some of the story told from Lettie's POV made her seem inexperienced, or not fully flushed out as a character. Many of her attributes & opinions felt cliche. I felt this character was needed as a link to tie a lot of things together, but wasn't a strong character on her own.

The premise of this book sounded very interesting, and I was hoping for some gossip and drama that pulled me in enough to feel invested in the characters. While it was entertaining enough to keep me curious, I did not feel a lot of investment in the story and I found myself skimming through the second half of the book to get to the ending.

You think you know your neighbors but you really don’t. In this neighborhood is infidelity, drug use, a stalker, murders .. and so much more. The Block Party tells a story of a neighborhood that is full of secrets. You start in present day, go back a year and then move forward to present day Memorial Day.

The beginning was slow, I felt like there were a lot of characters. Once you got to remember who is who, the story got much better and realize each person was important to the story. Towards the end, I couldn’t read fast enough and wanted to find out the truth about everyone.

This would be a great book to read with friends or a book club. Sip some wine and talk to your friends about who you think did what.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The block party starts off with present day at a memorial day party. What starts off as an annual night of fun carefully planned out by Alex and her husband turns into tragedy. We are then brought back a year and all the events that lead up to this day. I loved each and every character. Each one had a great story line and they are all interconnected. The secrets and twists in this book were extremely well.crafted. I did not want this book to end. If any book needs to be made into a TV series, this should be it.

This book centers around the interconnected drama that involves a small group of affluent families living together in a suburban cul-de-sac and starts off with something big happening at the annual memorial day block party. The plot then flashes back to a year prior and then unfolds over the interceding months. Even though there is quite a lot that happens (paternity secrets! a stalker! blackmail! creepy husbands! an aggressive pesticide salesman?) the book lost a little steam for me due to the dual perspectives of mother and daughter that it's written in. The mother, Alex, who is responsible for organizing the doomed block party, is much more compelling as she is struggling with an increasingly worsening drinking problem and has much stronger relationships and interactions with the other characters that live in this neighborhood. The author seemed to be less adept at the daughter Lettie's perspective, and some of her actions and word choice used almost seemed unbelievable for a modern-day high school senior (i.e like describing another character as being dressed as a metrosexual??), which made those chapters harder for me to get through.

Overall, there are some genuinely surprising twists in the end, and it was satisfying to see what had appeared as pretty disparate storylines all come together.

*Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Block Party reminded me of one of my favorite books/shows, Big Little Lies. This was a long book with lots of characters, full of plot twists and scandal and I loved every minute of it. This was the kind of book you don’t want to end. Everything about this one was perfect from start to finish!

Wow, I adored this book! I loved that the beginning kicks off with the murder. The whole time I was reading I kept changing my mind on who I thought was murdered and who I thought did it! So many different storylines and enemies. I loved it. It kept me guessing and in the end, I was still wrong!

3.5 Stars

You think you know your neighbors, but do you really?

This book starts at the annual block party where a murder occurs and then takes you back a year earlier with back story in the POV of Alex and her daughter Lettie.

Throughout the book there were a few different mysteries going on, some that were easy to figure out, others that were surprises. The author did a good job of capturing the neighborhood dynamics and also the teenage relationships.

All in all a good read. I didn't care for the main characters personalities and found that the timeline was hard to figure out at first.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martens Press, and Jamie Day for providing this ARC.

this was a page turner!!
oh god, the drama, the secrets, and the suspense I read this in one sitting

I loved this so much. the writing was really good and easy to go through, all of the characters were written nicely.
every single one of them had secrets and i love drama. this book takes on 2 memorial days (a year apart from each other) , this story is told from the POV of Alex (the mother) and her daughter Lettie. Every single character was flawed, no was perfect and I loved that.

this is a book I would definitely to anyone I know.




thank you to Netgalley and the author for an eARC, in exchange for a honest review.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for this ARC!

This book was giving major Desperate Housewives vibes and I loved every single part of it! I thought Jamie Day did a wonderful job with The Block Party. I felt like I was watching a TV show and I found myself wondering what was going to happen to the characters after I put the book down.

I really enjoyed how this was told using Alex and Lettie’s viewpoints. I thought it was clever using a mother daughter relationship to tell the story of the craziness happening on Alton Road.

I definitely think this will be a hit when it comes out this summer and I will be suggesting fellow readers to give it a shot! Solid 4 stars for me!!

The residents of tony Alton Road really know how to throw one killer party! Among the guests at The Block Party are scheming spouses, angst filled adolescents, and a whole bunch of "desperate housewives." With this crowd there's always something (or someone) to talk about. The title is a little misleading-while the "main event" takes place at the annual Memorial Day block party, most of the plot occurs during the year before this event. We learn about Alex's excessive drinking, her brother in law's cheating, and daughter Lettie's crush on an older and somewhat mysterious neighbor, along with a host of other misdeeds. Certainly the saying "money doesn't buy happiness," applies to almost everyone living in this exclusive enclave in Meadowbrook, Massachusetts. The story moves briskly despite some lag in the back story. We learn fairly quickly someone dies at The Block Party, but the victim's identity is not revealed until the end. The Block Party is not a pulse pounding thriller-most of the characters are breaking at least one law or marital vow so it's hard to summon much concern for any of them. But The Block Party is a fun ride as a peek into the lives of the upper middle class. Their money, expensive homes, and posh lifestyles don't insulate them from trouble-if anything they add to it.

The Block Party was a ride. A twisty story about a group of neighbors who all have something to hide. The reveal of the victims identity late in the book kept me intrigued, and I wanted to know how everything was going to play out. This story gave me Desperate Housewives vibes with plenty of drama to keep me hooked.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press/NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

While this book had a lot of characters to keep straight, I found myself unable to put it down! Lots of unlikeable neighbors, a couple you really felt for. I loved the twists and turns and was totally satisfied with how it ended!

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What a good book! I loved how this book was told from 2 different perspectives. Both perspectives flowed together nicely and kept the story going. It was full of drama and suspense and kept me on the edge of my seat. The ending was such a twist that I never saw coming and I enjoyed that.

Opening with a deadly incident at a summer block party, this breezy domestic thriller explores dark secrets and rising tensions among neighbors in a tony New England town.

A new family moving onto the block at the previous Memorial Day shindig sets off the yearlong drama, recounted through the alternating points of view of a "wine mom" and her activist daughter. A series of community messageboard posts interspersed throughout provide a humorous outsider perspective and serve as a reminder of things to come. A range of issues from addiction to abuse come to light as things reach a boiling point.

Summer fare with a bite for the suburban set.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy.