Thank you Netgalley for the advance audiobook copy of The Block Party by Jamie Day in exchange for an honest review. So many secrets on one road leads to drama and intrigue. This was a fun weekend read.

First, this was a nice summer read. I loved the way all the characters in the neighborhood were intertwined and there was not just a single plot but not too confusing. If you live in a neighborhood in suburbia this book is for you with all the gossip, etc.

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 and @MacmillanAudio for an advanced copy of @TheBlockParty.

#TheBlockParty #JamieDay #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

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.

I quite liked the audio narrator and thought they did a good job!

3/5 stars

Thank You to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the Audio-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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 Macmillan Audio for this ARC!

I enjoyed this book and I thought both narrators did a great job. Without giving away too much, The Block Party felt like Big Little Lies meets The Desperate Housewives. I was invested in the story early on, but it did lose my interest towards the end.

Overall it was a good summer thriller/drama, just a bit too much of a slow burn for me.

The annual block party on Alton lane ends with a murder…. This takes the reader back a year and through tons of twists, we get to learn about the neighbors and only hear the very end figure out who doesn’t survive Memorial Day. It was fun, but I couldn’t get into Lettie’s head - she had such an overly dramatic way about her, alas, she was a high school teen. There was a fun cast of characters, including a way-too-pushy exterminator. Very engaging and excellent narration. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

Thank you Netgalley for this audio edition 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 book kept my interest and going back and forth between the teenage and adult narrators added a lot to the story. It allowed the reader to better see both sides and will likely attract adult and teen readers. The ending seemed a bit forced and too "happy" after ever.

Neighbors, gossip, lies, and revenge, all the perfect set up for a Summer Read!
And Jamie Day delivers!
This delightful summer read was just what I needed to kick off summer reading season. It centers on a group of neighbors (warning, none of the characters are very likable, but I think that what makes them so intriguing) each with secrets or lies they want to stay hidden. Alex the (okay way over used troupe) drunk mom married to Alex and they have a daughter Letty (She was obnixiously obsessed with the environment, a total woke snowflake - probably clipping her mask to save the whales). Mandy, Samir and Jay Kumar the new family (Jay has been outstead from college and is tech savvy). Emily and Ken (Emily is sisters with Alexa) have two sons Logan and Dillon( dates Riley--the high school It girl). Riley's parents Willow and Evan are going through a nasty divorce. Things are DEFINATLY not as they seem .
I won't go into details but let's just say Jamie day throws each of these characters onto a blank canvas and all the colors run together to create a beutiful disaster.
The book come around full circle and really enjoyed the character growth which you do not often get in Thrillers.
The Neighboorhood Post were the perfect sprinkling of fun that helped break up all the tension in this novel.
If you are looking for a great way to kick off your summer, I would say add this one to your list
Thank you Net Galley and Jamie Day for allowing me to read this advanced copy for my honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25

🎧Song Pairing: Neighbors - Friendzone

💭What I thought would happen:

I didn’t even know what genre we were working in. I suspected thriller. Maybe some May Cobbs vibes

📖What actually happens:

There has been a murder on a quaint suburbia block where everyone’s a suspect this Memorial Day weekend. The story backtracks a year to the prior Memorial Day and works forward to the current murder - who died? Who did it? What is the motive?

Multiple POV, plenty of neighbourhood drama. Get your tea cups ready.

🗯Thoughts:

This book gives MAJOR Big Little Lies vibes so if that book was your jam just read this one oooook

I crushed it in like 24 hours with a newborn and therefore praise! It is quick, fast paced and a little bit unpredictable. More please from Jamie Day!

I suspect this will be a popular one this summer! I have never been to a block party mostly because I don’t make an effort to know my neighbours and our home owners association kind of blows hard. Nooo thank you for forced socializing

A block party. A group a friendly neighbours. Secrets. Murder. This was a good read that I enjoyed very much.

Told in the dual POV of a mother and daughter, the story recounts the year leading to the fateful block party. It felt a little stretched out sometimes, but I feel like it helped set up the mood. I was still fully entertained. I even audibly gasped at some point. Solid domestic thriller.

The annual block party takes place every Memorial Day in the neighborhood on Alton Road. The families on Alton Road share drama and scandal between each and all of them. This year, there is a murder at the annual block party. With alternating timelines between present day and one year prior, we learn the secrets, lies, scandal, and inter-workings of relationships between all of the families, leading up to the present day murder. The book alternates narrators between Alex, the block party’s planner who’s wrapped up in all the neighborhood drama, and her teenage daughter, Lettie. There are also portions of the book depicting the neighborhood Facebook chat, with many of the residents of Alton Road sharing their input on the recent murder. But who did it? The chapters illustrating the events of the past four seasons since the previous block party slowly share the secrets leading up to the murder.

I enjoyed the alternating narrators in this book. I liked that it flipped between an adult perspective and a teenager’s perspective taking place at the same time, during the same events. I really admire this author’s ability to change her writing style. Lettie’s chapters truly had a YA feel to them. Very well-done. I also liked the alternating timelines, slowly acquiring all information and events leading up to the murder. I listened to this book via audio, and struggled to keep track of the many characters- all of the residents of Alton Road. I think this book would’ve been better consumed as a physical read. I also felt like the plot dragged on and moved slowly- I’m not sure if the audio format played into this or if it was actually a slow burn. Overall, it was an okay read. I would recommend reading physically versus listening via the audio.

Read if you enjoy:
☀️ summer BBQ vibes
🤔 whodunnit
🇺🇸 Memorial Day setting
🏡 suburb neighborhoods
🫢 domestic suspense
⏱️ alternating timelines
🔀 multiple POVs
👱🏼‍♀️ YA elements

I listened to this book via audio, courtesy of @NetGalley!

The Block Party was such a fun book! I mainly read (or listen) to psychological thrillers so a suspenseful domestic murder was right up my alley. The characters were all very different, and I was intrigued by the drama each one brought to the story. The neighborhood antics made me glad I live on a boring street. Day did a wonderful job of including twists appealing to readers of thriller novels. There was a bit more character-driven YA-type content than I prefer, but I appreciate the author’s lack of vulgarity and explicit sex. I enjoyed Day’s writing style; she’s on my to-watch list!

I received an ARC of this book from St. Martin's Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a middle-of-the-road suspense for me. It had a decent, if not overly original, plot involving a neighborhood block party and a cast of sordid neighborhood characters and was mildly entertaining but it will not be a book that stands out for me a year from now. The narrator did a good job of telling the story, it just wasn’t that memorable for me.

This reminded me very much of a tamer American version of Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty. There are several women and their families living on the same block in an affluent Northeastern suburb. There has been murder during the huge Memorial Day block party and you go through the past year to uncover what happened.

The story is delivered through two POV's that switch on/off through the past year: Alex and her teen-aged daughter, Lettie. I noticed that Lettie's POV chapters were told in first person where as Alex's is told in third. It was an interesting choice by Day. There are small chapters in between that are forums from the town gossiping in present time about the murderous block party. It perfectly embodied how much gossip passes around on social media.

I enjoyed the plot twists. I couldn't stop listening the last 3 hours. I called one of the major ones right away and it was pretty obvious. Normally that would annoy me, but since there were several others that I was not predicting at all, I loved it. It was a slow burn until the neighborhood's dirty secrets started to all unravel. Jaime Day does a great job with character development amongst the families. I would have liked more character development amongst the moms and their friendships. I feel like Alex's third person POV got in the way a bit of that development.

Great audiobook thriller. I recommend it.

This was my first book by Jamie Day but I really liked her writing style. There was a wide cast of characters in this so I was a bit afraid that I wouldn't be able to keep them straight, but the author did a great job of making their voices and personalities distinct. I found every character to be really interesting and intriguing because of all the secrets they were hiding. I liked how the stories all ended up intersecting in some way as well. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Alton Street cul-de-sac annual Memorial Day Block Party is to die for... literally! This book is quite reminiscent of Desperate Housewives. It's a murder mystery told in different timelines and by two different POVs. My issue with it was that it didn't feel fresh, it was slow to get going and there were way too many characters (mostly unlikable) with a barrage of secrets. My favorite part was the cattiness of the neighborhood FB group and their snarky comments. If you live in a neighborhood with a community FB page, then you'll probably be able to relate. I do think that the audiobook narrator did a good job with the characters, as it was easy to identify who was who. Thanks to the author, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the ALC in exchange for my honest review.

This story was delightfully full of twists and turns, drama and suspense.

The narration was great and I had a hard time stepping away from listening to the book to get other things done.

There were a few moments where time jumped back and forth that confused me, but eventually it all made sense and wrapped up perfectly.

I really liked this Desperate Housewives type drama, murder mystery. I did not guess what was really going on and everyone had secrets…. Everyone! Definitely enjoyed the audio.