A.A. Chaudhuri is a new favourite author of mine and I was really looking forward to reading The Final Party especially when I realised it was set around Sorrento and Capri-two of my favourite places in the entire world! And I wasn’t disappointed as the author transported me through her beautifully written novel back to the Amalfi coast. The plot is perfectly pitched as a story of friendship and betrayal with a cast of (often unlikeable) characters and multiple points of view plus a dual timeline-everything I love in a psychological thriller!
A perfect holiday buy for fans of dark, twisty and gripping reads.

"The Final Party" by A.A. Chaudhuri takes 6 friends to a luxury villa in Italy to celebrate one of their 40th birthdays. Tensions and jealousy run high, and their perfect reunion quickly becomes a holiday from hell. By the end, one of them is dead and their history of dark secrets is exposed.

Before reading this book, I was so excited by the premise. However, the POVs (six in total) were so similar that I quickly lost interest. I had to drag myself through the first three quarters of the book because I felt like each chapter was a repeat of the last.

My least favourite thing in mystery books is when the characters keep alluding to their "big secret" but don't reveal anything until the very end. This book has this in abundance.  As a reader, you need small revelations (tiny, even) to keep you interested.

The last quarter of the book slightly redeemed itself by picking up with a couple twists, but it was very anticlimactic.

A big thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for this ARC!

I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review-
It’s Ness 40 birthday party planned by her husband and what a party it will be! He invites three couples to a beautiful location - each carrying baggage from college years and a party that went wrong—- something that should never happen. Makes you wonder if you really know your friends. Ness wants everyone to come clean but what will happen if they do? And what is the true story? And- will it lead to murder? A great psychological read!!

My thanks to Hera Books, A.A. Chaudhuri and Netgalley.
This story was just plain awful!
The writing was bland. The characters were not anyone that I would waste my time on, and the fact that I read the whole story instead of d.n.f.ing it somehow managed to piss me off!
This is not a book that I can recommend.

A fast-paced, always surprising to the last page story! The Final Party has layers upon layers upon layers of reveals. Most are not predictable and some are rather shocking. A.A. Chaudhuri has written an intense thriller that keeps the reader guessing to the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hera for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This book was okay. I loved the beautiful descriptions of Italy and I had some decent twists. I did have trouble trying to remember the relationships and friendships between all the characters. There were also 7 POVs and a dual timeline. The characters were not very likable and many things kept getting repeated. First of all I would just like to thank, NetGalley, A.A. Chaudhuri and Hera Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not going to exaggerate on this, but it is a real fact that I had a headache when I read this book. And I'm not even sure I read this book when I got a headache or because of that book I got a headache🤷‍♀️?.

Never mind....let's begin the review.

SUMMARY:
This is a story about six friends;
Padma and her husband (Nick); Vanessa and her husband (Marcus); Lana and her husband (Johnny); They've been friends for the last 20 years (except for Marcus). Together, they're having a holiday to celebrate Vannesa's 40th birthday in a fancy villa in Sorrento, Italy. However, it turned out someone had planned something to haunt them for their past mistake. Then one of them gets killed; who is our victim among those six people?, also, what mistake haunted them all along?

👁️‍🗨️This story is told in first person POV
There are six POVs in this book and alternate among those six people.
(To be exact there are seven POVs.)

🕰️There is dual timeline in here
-The first one is the present (2019)
Talk about when they're having holiday and an accident about to happen.

-The second one is the past, back then in 2001, 2002, 2015
Talk about when they were still in college and something happened to Padma that caused her to lose her memory. So , the author wants to unravel what happened in the past.

MY THOUGHTS:
📌 I despise all the characters in this book; all of them are unlikeable. As you can see in my summary, they've been friends for at least 20 years, but all I can see is them bitching at each other.

📌 I never read any of book that described one character in such detail way; and at least half of this book was devoted to describing Johnny's character, and this sickening description of Johnny is in every of six POVs. And I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs.

I too can summarize what kind of person Johnny is, in one sentence: "He is literally that twisted character out of a millionaire or billionaire's romance book." He is handsome, an asshole, athletic, a playboy, has an abs, and wild in the bedroom, smokes weed, etc.
Did I say asshole? Yeah, that is a summary of him. ASSHOLE.

Those whole things about Johnny kept repeating 🤢. And it's not just Johnny's character that's described over and over; other characters are same; however, this piece of sh*t (Johnny) is way too much. The author has to cut off these repetitive descriptions.

📌 I kept losing my track, due of these six POVs and dual timeline. (I hate this)
During each chapter, I was like,
"Hold on, whose POV is it?"
because, you know, sometimes you can miss the chapter title, when you have six POVs on your plate.

📌 Despite being in their forties, they acted like teenagers. What they think and how they behave are immature. (I really want to use bad words in here, but huh... I'm holding it.) They just didn't really care about each other, and all they could think was "how to look better than the other." Okay, that one is a reality check; it is indeed true that this happens in real life, but again in this context, they've been friends for 20 years. What use are 20 years of friendship if that's all you can think of? (People like them are what you call "Strangers," not "Friends."!)

WHY IT DIDN'T WORK OUT FOR ME:
☠️ The story started slowly, and as I mentioned before, half the book is useless, with endless repentitive descriptions of each character. This is really time-wasting and tiring to read this part. But I think (as I read the author's note) the author wanted to highlight
that each of them is so jealous of the other.

☠️ There is a cliffhanger in some chapters, however! I didn't find it nerve-wracking; instead, I found it iritating. There's not even a single hint or clue in that cliffhanger, but you can still guess it.

☠️ Now let's talk about the timeline in this book. As I said before, there is a dual timeline (past and present).
- Let's we discuss the past timeline:
The past timeline is laid out in 2001, 2002, and 2015. And here is where my problem lies: if the author is not going back and forth, back and forth, I think I'm fine. What I mean is, if you're done with a specific year, then let's move forward and don't go back. However isn't the case in here.  When I thought she was done with 2001 and would move on to 2002, then I found myself reading someone's POV from 2001 again and again. I hate this because it makes me confused. Everytime I'm in a new chapter, I had to go back to the chapter title to make sure whose POV I'm reading. I even kept forgetting their names.

☠️ And THE ENDING is too rushed, after wasting half the book on a bunch of unnecessary detail; it's like, after you hit 80%, then everything was like "Fast & Furious." Thank God, at least there's no plot hole. Everything is clear and answered. But again too RUSH and did not pay off what I need to endure in the first half book.

☠️ If you really paid attention to every detail, you could guess it correctly, but that was what I called "The Very Predictable Plot." Okay, I admit there were some twists that...didn't make sense. Some twists felt like being forced. It's like it shouldn't be there, but there it is.🤗.

WHAT I THOUGHT WHEN I PICKED UP THIS BOOK:
💘'Six Friends, One Body, Countless Lies"—that is the sentence on the cover, so I thought
Ah hah💡...I will get an opening with someone gets killed, and then the police interrogate each of them to find out who's the killer and what this person's motive is. Uwwww... I can't wait!

HOWEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..........

That is not the case here; no one gets killed until +90% of this book🫠.

CREDIT:
Thank you NetGalley and Hera Books, for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

EXTRA COMMENT:
Dear another reader (who wants to read this book),

Don't let my review stop you from reading this book; you should try it; I may not like it. But you?  We never know unless we try it. Last one: Thank you for reading my review.

And....... See ya

“SIX FRIENDS. ONE BODY. COUNTLESS LIES.”

The Final Party is a story about friendships, secrets, lies, and deceptions. Six friends travel to Italy to celebrate their long time friend’s 40th birthday. What was supposed to be a relaxing vacation and a chance to reconnect with friends, ends up taking a turn for the worst as secrets start to surface. By the end of the week, one of them ends up dead.

Right from the start we are introduced to all six characters with their own individual chapters detailing their thoughts regarding the trip, and more importantly, each other. There seems to be a lot of animosity between everyone that I’m honestly shocked these people are still friends! It definitely took a few chapters to really understand who is who, and how everyone relates to each other, but once it clicked it was smooth sailing the rest of the story!

I found the way the story is told, by switching between present day and the events that happened years ago when everyone was attending university, really helped pull me in and kept me wanting more and more! The present day chapters tended to end in cliffhangers and with many words left unsaid, which only made me want to read the flash back chapters even quicker! There were so many twists and surprises that I hadn’t even considered might be possible. I really love when a book truly keeps me guessing until the very end, and The Final Party definitely did that! I ended up reading The Final Party in a single sitting!

Thank you to A.A. Chaudhuri, Hera Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an early copy of this book! I had a great time reading this, and I look forward to checking out A.A. Chaudhuri’s other books! All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

First of all I would just like to thank, NetGalley, A.A. Chaudhuri and Hera Books for an ARC of “The Final Party” in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a thriller set in Italy and told between the alternating perspectives of six best friends, all hiding secrets. As well as chapters being told from different POV’s, we also have an alternating timeline- between 2001 and present day.

I really enjoyed how each POV showcased the character’s own stream of consciousness, as well as narrating what was occurring in present day.

I found it a little daunting at first trying to remember the relationships and friendships between all the characters but you get familiar with them very quickly, so this wasn’t an issue for long.

Along with some lovely descriptions of Italy and the imagery to go with it, the twists were those that I hadn’t expected at all- which are the best kinds of twist. The plot is very intelligently webbed together so that every little thing you learn could be relevant to the overall story.

However, I did struggle with character like-ability a lot. All the main characters are significantly flawed and I found it hard to empathise and connect with any of them. There are vast amounts of lies and gaslighting that take place so it can be hard to keep track.

As well as this, I did have trouble with the writing style, it was a bit too colloquial and repetitive for my taste, but I just think it wasn’t for me personally.

Apart from that, the plot is brilliant and I can guarantee that even when you think you know all of their secrets, you’ll be hugely mistaken.

The Final Party by A.A. Chaudhuri is an absolutely phenomenal thriller and among the top ones that I have ever read!
The best way that I can describe it is to picture a switchback road that takes you to the top of a mountain, as seen from the sky. There are a number of vehicles on it, and they drive forward and then back, then forward again, and so on until they reach the top. And along the way various pieces of scenery are revealed, yet the entire vista isn't clear until the summit is reached.
The vehicles in this analogy are the six characters, each of whose point of view goes forward and back in time as their secrets and lies are slowly revealed. Having an insight into each character's feelings and thought processes is riveting and enlightening, and the events that unfold and the manner in which they are seen by different characters - the pieces of scenery along the way - are jaw dropping even when not taken as a whole.
The book holds revelation after revelation, peeling back the layers of secrets and lies slowly and inexorably, and once you think all has been exposed, the shocks keep on coming, beyond the point where a reader would expect any revelations to remain.
In short, this book is absolutely brilliant in its compelling style, its complicated characters, its intricate plot, and its shocking conclusion, and it keeps you turning the pages in fascination to the very end.
I believe that this would make an excellent thriller series on one of the streaming services.
I was fortunate to get an ARC of #TheFinalParty from #NetGalley, and anticipate that this will be one of the highest acclaimed books of the year.

Three couples (who are all friends) travel to a luxury villa in Sorrento to celebrate one of the friends 40th birthday. Soon into the glamorous vacation, one of them starts receiving anonymous texts. The texts indicate whoever is sending them knows a secret and will reveal it. By the end of the week, one of the friends winds up dead.

The chapters alternate between all the characters, so we get to see the events unfold from different perspectives. As the book goes on, the readers learn more about the secrets and who knows what. I quite enjoyed this book. It made for a juicy read, full of twists and turns. Definitely will be reading more from this author!

Thank you NetGalley and Hera books for the advanced copy!

Another incredible read by the talented A.A. Chaudhuri!

This is written by one of my favourite authors and I especially loved that this story was told from six characters point of view.
It was thrilling throughout and kept me guessing until the very end.
Highly recommend!

Three couples share a luxurious villa in Italy for a fortieth birthday celebration...or so they think. Some of them have decided that it's time to bring the past to light and one of them has a devastating new secret to share. Even though only four of them attended uni together, all six of them have pieces to the puzzle of some horrific events in their last year at uni. As these pieces are gradually put together, they all realize that what they thought and what happened are horrifically different and the truth turns out to be deadly for one of them.

This is a well-written book that reveals twist after twist until the very end.

My thoughts throughout…
8% in and I’m obsessed!!! So many crumbs! Loving it!
25% getting a little wordy. Let’s get to it!!
50% still wordy but it’s setting things up nicely! Tons of theories floating around in my head!
Chapter 33…..I need to knowwwww
Chapter 47…..WHAT?!?!
This was quite the ride!! I enjoyed it so much! I did figure out one of the twists. Only con is there’s alot of characters so I got confused at times and had to reread some to make sure I knew who they were.

This book had me gripped from the first page.
Such an easy and enjoyable read.
The characters were well rounded and I enjoyed how the story progressed.

I liked reading from the characters perspectives and the way it went from the past to the present day.

The book was set in Italy and I could imagine being there with the vivid descriptions the author gave.

The book kept you guessing what had happened and who was the killer and why. Kept building the suspense till the final pages.

Really enjoyed this and would be keen to read more by the author.

Searing With Shocks..
As three couples come together in a luxurious villa high in the hills above sultry Sorrento for what should be the perfect reunion, the perfect celebration of a fortieth birthday milestone, nerves and friendships will be tested and they will be shredded. A compelling and wholly engaging whodunit with a deftly drawn cast populating a plot bubbling with tension, resplendent with red herrings and searing with shocks. Atmospheric and menacing right up to the, perhaps, unexpected and explosive denouement.

I just finished reading the book - The Final Party by A.A.Chaudhuri.

This was the first book I have read from this author and I must tell you, it has left me hankering to read more of her books. This was such a fast paced and twisty book that I just wanted to keep on reading till the last page.

The Final Party is a story about six college friends who were once very close with each other but now each of them have deep, dark secrets from one another all in the name of protecting either oneself or each other. They have gathered in the beautiful town of Sorrento, Italy to celebrate the fortieth birthday of the problem -solver of the group, Vanessa. The setting is beautiful & the atmosphere tense. The dynamics within the group have changed. Long kept secrets are threatening to come out. And each characters real personality is slowly unraveled.

Even though it took me a few pages to really get into the book, once I was hooked, I literally flew through this one. I was never able to fully fall behind a character, so brilliantly has the author shown the various shades of each characters personality. There are twists & surprises at every turn and one is left gasping the reveals. This is a story about betrayal, guilt, privileges' and conscience.

Will I recommend this book? 🌟🌟🌟🌟
An absolute must read!

I absolutely loved this gripping thriller! It was fast paced and it was unputdownable. I could not get enough. I love books like this. This was one of the best thrillers I've read this year.
I just reviewed The Final Party by A.A. Chaudhuri. #TheFinalParty #NetGalley
[NetGalley URL]

This book was the perfect cross between The Holiday, Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six and Friends Like These. It kept me on the egde of my seat trying to figure out what they did in college and who the killer is and why the first victim was chosen. With wine flowing freely in a beautiful scenic villa in Italy, the Romans didn't coin the term "In vino veritas" for no reason - lots of secrets are bound to come out. I wasn't a fan of the multiple character POV and formatting because it was a bit confusing to follow 6 characters in the present day then jump back to their college days in the early aughts. The author luckily kept each chapter to a few pages so it wasn't too much information per each character to remember which helped when jumping between timelines and characters.

Six friends descend upon a castle like villa in Sorrento, Italy. It's a perfect site for the 40th birthday, but almost everyone attending has secrets to hide. Join these couples as many secrets are revealed over the weekend - all of them life changing!

A fun twisty thriller!
#HeraBooks #TheFinalParty #AAChaudhuri