Hmmm.. a bridal weekend at the Stanley Hotel? Well, of course things go awry. Well, murderous. Luckily, Andi, an FBI SA, is there, meant only to be a plus one but as it turns out the one who will solve the whole thing. This is deeply implausible in spots as well as over the top. And the prose is purple, I ultimately DNF. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Over to others.

I absolutely love a locked room mystery and this one delivers with a bang!!!! This was written beautifully and I could not figure out who actually did it til they told us. I was totally in suspense. Perfect book to curl up to on a rainy day! So good! 5/5 stars!!
I just reviewed The Wedding Party by L. R. Jones. #TheWeddingParty #NetGalley
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My second book by this author and it was just as good as the first. I love the idea of the joint bachelor/bachelorette party at the Stanley Hotel. Agent Andi Castle is looking for a get away after a huge case but the drama just keeps following her. The humor was great and I was intimidated at first by so many chapters but they were quick and had me hooked. This was a fun mystery that will keep you drawn in wanting to know what happens next.

Ahh, this was seriously so much fun to read! I think I am getting back into my juicy thriller era and I am obsessed. This was a delight from beginning to end. And what an ending!

Told in dual narrative, we get this rapidly unraveling whodunnit… a truly juicy popcorn thriller.

Carrie and Oliver are the cutest couple. Everyone thinks so. They have a real honest to goodness love for each other and with their nuptials fast approaching, they have family and friends join them for a weekend getaway to The Stanley Hotel, home of well known paranormal activity…

A gruesome murder turns the whole weekend on its head, but detective Andi Castle, a friend of a guest brought as a plus-one, just so happens to be in the right place at the right time to begin investigating.

What I love about books with isolated settings and big groups is that there is always so much to dig through. This person looks guilty until this person does… and so on. And Jones doesn’t disappoint in this book. The blame is all over the place, with everyone having their own assumptions. Andi doesn’t deal in assumptions though… she deals in facts and she refuses to quit until she digs up every single one.

I just had so much fun with this that there was no other rating to give it but five stars!

Wow this book had you on your toes guessing right from the start. Carrie and Oliver were very much in love and about to be married. Oliver is CEO for his family’s company. Carrie is adopted and is a nurse working in the ER. They invited guests to a wedding party which turned out to be one they would never forget. FBI agent Andi was not friends with either of them but was asked by her friend to accompany her as her plus one. Andi needed the break after cracking a big case. This was not to be after Oliver is found stabbed to death on his bed and Carrie is found hiding naked in the attic covered in blood. This book will have you trying right to the very end to figure out who did it. If you like a good murder mystery I highly recommend reading The Wedding Party

This book was during for me. I could not get through reading this. One seen other people enjoy this but it wasn't for me

Carrie is a nurse living in Denver, engaged to Oliver who just took over Phoenix Technology after his father retires. Oliver is a JFK Jr clone and Carrie believes herself to be average compared to him. Their paths crossed when Oliver was in a car crash and taken to the hospital where Carrie was a nurse. The two are excited about their upcoming combined bachelor/bachelorette party which will take place in the infamous Stanley Hotel in Estes Park.

The two are relaxing at home, waiting for dinner to arrive when the doorbell rings. Concerned that Oliver isn't returning to the kitchen quickly with the food, Carrie makes her way to the door to find a stunned Oliver, holding a card and box. Carrie asks what has him so upset and is brushed off with Oliver saying it must be a sick prank from one of the groomsmen. Her concern grows when Oliver excuses himself to his office and locks the door.

Meanwhile, Lana - a coworker of Carrie's - invites her friend Andi to be her plus one for the bachelorette party. Andi hesitantly agrees but knows it would be a good idea for her to get out of town for a few days. Andi is an FBI agent who just tracked down and caught the serial killer known as the Spider Man. The press are hounding her not only for her latest capture but also because she's the daughter of Eddie Castle - legendary FBI agent known for beating up a criminal who was in custody.

Unfortunately, when a member of the party ends up with 50 stabs wounds and another takes a knife to the stomach, Andi is no longer just a guest attending as a plus one; she's immediately on the job to figure out who came to the party with murderous intentions.

I gave this book 3.5 stars, rounded up to four. It seemed as though Andi's status as an FBI agent was mentioned multiple times on every single page. There was also some dialogue that seemed rather out of place and unnecessarily derogatory toward women. Women overly worried about appearing thin for men; divorcee's needing a man to tell her she's beautiful; referring to women as bimbo's are a few examples.

Aside from that, I did enjoy the overall plot. It was fun to read about places and people I'm familiar with - loved the Mahomes reference when the men were sitting around drinking and talking about football!

I would be interested in reading other works from the author.

Thank you NetGalley, L.R. Jones, and, Thomas and Mercer for the opportunity to read this book ahead of its proposed release date on February 20th, 2024.

CARRIE and OLIVER are engaged to be married. As their wedding day draws near, they gather their bridal party at the same luxurious hotel where Stephen King wrote 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜. But then everything goes wrong! Someone is murdered, someone else becomes a suspect, and dreams are shattered.

ANDI, is an FBI agent who happens to be at the event as a plus one for one of her friends. Luckily, she doesn’t know how to pack without including her gun, badge, and a crime scene kit! She agrees to question hotel guests. However, it soon becomes clear that there are quite a few secrets!

This mystery kept me guessing and thoroughly engaged to the end, and the conclusion caught me by surprise (always a plus). However, I was puzzled by some of the writing. Andi starts out as a hesitant but fun guest at a bridal party; then she changes to a stereotypical police detective, with coarse behavior that didn’t quite match the character we first met. There were also constant, unnecessary (I felt) references to Andi’s father. But, the author provides lots of red herrings guaranteed to keep keep the reader guessing, and I liked that! I LOVE talking about books and I think this book would provide a fun read for a book club. There are interesting characters, solid motives, and lots of discussion points!

Thank you @LisaReneeJones @KateRockBookTours & @amazonpublishing for my complimentary eBook. My thoughts are my own.

This was rather disappointing. There were inaccuracies and errors in descriptions (an orange shirt became a red shirt etc). Much of the language was inappropriate and needed to be reworded (calling a woman a bimbo, talking about a woman having “pudding pads”, referring to a divorced woman as her life being over). And this all happened within the very beginning of the book. I couldn’t go on. Maybe if it gets edited (highly edited) I could give it another chance but I had to dnf.

My thanks to Thomas and Mercer, L.R. Jones and Netgalley.
Calling time of death @ 10:18 a.m. on December 27th, 2023. I managed to get to 45% then couldn't do it anymore. The feeb "F.B.I. and her Columbo routine was too much. Repetitive and mostly just ignorant writing. This is not an author that I would ever waste a minute on. Awful.

A bachelor/bachelorette celebration at a haunted hotel gone wrong.

The combined celebration turns into the murder of the groom-to-be.

But where is the bride-to-be?

She was found in the attic covered in blood.

Did she witness it all and become so scared she ran away - she's too sweet and probably couldn't handle it when she saw him.

Luckily an FBI agent was on the scene to start the investigation.

We follow the investigation as clues pop up, but the biggest mystery may be the box that was delivered to the groom-to-be before the party.

What was in that box?

Was that a hint of things to happen?

Was it the reason the groom-to-be was murdered?

THE WEDDING PARTY will have you blaming every guest and every person at the hotel except the bride-to-be, even though she was the main suspect….the spouse is always the first to be looked at.

Was the sweet bride-to-be the one who murdered her beloved fiancee or was she set up?

Find out who the killer is in this thriller that will keep you turning the pages.

It's a good one. 4/5

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own

I enjoyed this and found it to be entertaining, but I don't know that this one will stick with me very long.

I love a good wedding thriller/mystery story, but this just felt sort of "already-done" to me.

This is a fun whodunnit set during a combo bachelor/bachelorette party at the Stanley Hotel. 👻 Before you get too excited my fellow spooky book lovers, there’s no ghosts involved! 🤪

But we do have quite a few unreliable characters! I did like the Andi character - I could definitely see a series based on that character! ❤️ What I didn’t like was how incredibly rushed the final twist/revelation was. I would explain that further but then we get into spoiler territory! 🙅🏼‍♀️

I’d still recommend it though for a fun little whodunnit read! 🤓

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I was approached by the author on Instagram to read and review this book. This book was a very quick read even for me, and I am a slow reader. The pacing was good for the most part, with only a few sections that dragged. There was some fun humor and I liked the story. However, this book was VERY repetitive. The author mentioned Andi’s job as an FBI agent, Carrie’s job as a nurse, and Lana’s divorce so many times that it got very grating. The dialogue was not very realistic or natural at all. And this book contained a lot of different professionals including FBI agents, detectives, doctors, lawyers, and psychiatrists, and clearly the author did not do enough research on actual legal protocol because none of these professionals acted in any sort of realistic way whatsoever, and that was very distracting. This story had a lot of potential and was actually pretty compelling, but more editing and more research should have gone into this book. Thank you to L.R. Jones, Thomas & Mercer, and Netgalley for the complimentary Advance Copy of this book on exchange for my honest feedback!

This story had my mind bouncing around trying to figure it out and know what was happening L.R Jones did a fantastic job keeping you guessing the entire time and just when you think you have it figured out you are thrown loops to make you second guess what you thought. The multi P.O,V change was also great because it also had you thinking you knew those characters since you saw their thoughts but were even their thoughts truthful? I loved the characters, I loved the ending and can see myself re-reading it.

While i enjoyed the overall premise of this book and the writing was good, I found that it dragged and I kept putting the book down and picking it back up. For me at times there was so much going on with so many different people it was hard to keep it all straight. I personally would have enjoyed if some of the middle parts had been cut and there was a bit more at the end. I was shocked and then felt like the story ended.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC to review.

The Wedding Party is a suspenseful thriller that keeps you guessing and turning the pages. I loved FBI Agent Andi Castle and hope for more books featuring her. Twist at the end I didn't expect. Enjoyed this story!

I loved the story, the setting, and the unreliability of the characters. My biggest negative was the writing. There were plot holes, and the character descriptions and personalities weren’t well fleshed out.

A combo bachelor/bachelorette party at the Stanley hotel, where Stephen King wrote The Shining, ends in a murder. I loved the idea of this hotel for a murder mystery. I wish it would’ve played more with the ghost aspect, but it did add a creepy factor to the plot.

Overall I recommend this for a fun, popcorn thriller. It’s far from perfect but still a good time.

3.5 stars

This had a lot of potential, but kind of missed the follow through.

A bachelor/bachelorette party held in a haunted hotel... and a murder. This should have been right up my alley, but I just couldn't make myself get invested.

I majorly disliked the groom, the way he spoke to his fiancee was awful in some parts. The way characters talked about things like divorce, desperation at being single, and body image were really off-putting. And that was all before we even got to the murder investigation.

I received this Arc via Netgalley, these are my thoughts

The Wedding Party follows Special Agent Andrea 'Andi' Castle as she tries to take a weekend off after catching a notorious serial killer. Andi is invited to a joint bachelor/bachelorette party by her friend, Lana, who is a coworker of the bride. At the same time, you also get the POV of the bride-to-be, Carrie. Unfortunately for all involved, the weekend doesn't go as planned, with the groom being murdered and the bride missing.

The premise was really good, and really had so much potential. I kept reading because the premise was so well done. Unfortunately, the story itself was inconsistent and lacking.

A couple examples of inconsistency:
1. Andi and Lana have drinks and lunch when Lana is trying to convince Andi to come to the party. They order drinks and the drinks are dropped off by the waiter at the table. Three paragraphs later, the same drinks are again being delivered, and this time handed directly to each woman.
2. When Andi is questioning Natalie, the groom's sister, she asks her if the groom owned a knife and then a gun. She says yes, that he owned a gun and that SHE does too. Very specifically, for protection. Maybe a page later, Andi asks another questions referencing weapons and Natalie yells "and before you ask, NO, I don't own a gun." DESPITE literally saying the exact opposite a page prior. Andi, supposed FBI extraordinaire, does not flag this in any way, shape, or form. It's just an inconsistency with the book itself.

I was also disappointed with the way women were portrayed in this book. Andi was emotionally unavailable, morally/legally grey, and self-deprecating. Carrie was a sociopath. Lana was a weird mix of sex positive and desperate. Natalie was unstable. Both mothers had deep, severe emotional issues. The lawyer, goodness gracious. Every single woman was a caricature of bad female stereotypes.

Also, I felt it missed an really good opportunity to explore nature vs. nurture with Oliver and Carrie both being adopted and who their birth parents/adopted parents were. This could have been really really good.

2.75 Stars