I tried to get into this one and i just couldnt. I didnt find the story was flowing and the characters werent there for me.

What starts off a fun hen party for a recently recovered bride-to-be devolves into a horrific trip where the bride is murdered in her bed. Who can it be? The groom;s mom or sister or teenage daughter who all seem less than enthusiastic about the wedding. Her sisters, one of whom, is obviously jealous or the neighbor who feels shunted aside. The maid of honor who seems to have handled everything, but did that include planning a murder. While this is a murder mystery is actually a fun romp through the book to get to the very surprising ending which I did not see coming but was very pleased with.

WOW The Bridal Party an absolutey tense psychological thriller by Maria Frankland. I could not put this book down as Maria is such an exciting author.

Caitlyn is celebrating her hen party in Dublin with her hens which include her future Mother-in-law, Caitlyn's future stepdaughter, and her fiancee's sister.

The party has begun but most of the hens have attended because they felt they had to and not because they wanted to be there in the first place and this includes her future in-laws.

A lot of secrets are revealed as the games unfold and animosity and jealousy rear their ugly heads.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer springs to mind when Caitlyn has been found dead in her bed.

The Gardai arrive on the scene and take statements from all the hens in order to deduce who had murdered Caitlyn.

All is not what it seems as this amazing thriller escalates like an express train to it's final destination which will reveal the truth and a lot more besides.

This is a quick read that will keep you engaged the whole time. As someone who is getting married, I knew I had to read this! The different POVs throughout the book allows you to get a better understanding of how the different characters think. There are twists and turns that you may not expect throughout the book. Who killed the bride to be? You may have different guesses but you have to continue to read on to find out! Highly recommend if you’re looking for a quick thriller

Caitlyn is now in remission after a battle with cancer. Jen, her Maid of Honor, throws a hen party in Dublin. In attendance: Caitin’s soon to be mother-in-law, sister-in-law and step daughter; her two sisters; her two college friends; her friend from grade school and her neighbor. This eclectic mix leads to tension amongst themselves as petty arguments happen.

The next morning Caitlin is found dead in her bed. And all of them have some sort of motive.

Ah so good. I love the locked in trope, and this had me guessing the entire time. I could not put this one down until I reached the very last word.

RECOMMEND

This is my third book by this author and she is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.

She makes the stories so easy to read and writes about things we can relate to like a Christmas party with the family (Last Christmas), meeting the right person at the right time when you need it the most ( I let her in) and a hen party (The bridal party) and adds of course a dire situation to the mix in order to turn them into thrillers.

In the beginning of this book we meet the 10 women who attend the party and I was thinking "Am I ever going to remember who is who?" But I did not need to panic, because I think the author took the time whilst writing to put herself in her readers shoes and understanding she was giving us a lot to digest in one go. So she took the time to feed us the info we needed without breaking the flow of the story. In no time I knew the relationships between the ladies and could place them in my mind;

The green eyed monster is pertinently present and although I worked something out, I was pleasantly surprised by the who and how and why. I loved it to bits.

My heart broke for Caitlyn and if you play with fire, you can easily get burned. 

A great and well written book by an author who never disappoints. 5 stars

Thank you

This book was one that surprised me as I thought it would be like others with a similar plot but the twists and turns definitely caught me off guard!

While I feel like the bridal party and the bride is murdered plot has been done a lot, I enjoyed this book. It was funny and mysterious. I did figure it out pretty quickly but I read a lot of thrillers. All in all not a bad book at all. I liked how the killer was revealed also that was a fun twist.

An addictive page-turner with delightfully loathsome characters. The plot and characters unfold beautifully creating a very engaging read. Lots of twists from multiple POVs and an incredible twist that had me re-reading pages. Really excellent.

I remember previously reading this book as the hen party. Loved it then and reading it again never took away from that enjoyment.
Amazing book and recommend it.

I love stories like these!

Murder mysteries that take place on a trip where anyone could be the killer. Especially a “hen” or bachelorette party! All of the drama and nastiness makes it hard to stop reading! I had to know who killed Caitlyn.

I did guess the ending, however that didn’t make it any less satisfying! It definitely put a unique spin on the trope!

All of the characters absolutely sucked. Like… badly. Meaning they were all horrible human beings with motive to kill Caitlyn. Normally, this would have turned me way off to a book, but to this story it made it that much better.

I definitely recommend this quick read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing this book, with my honest review below.

The Bridal Party was an engaging thriller that I’d recommend for mystery lovers! For whatever reason I thought the premise indicated Caitlyn, our bride, was going to be revealed as having done wrong to everyone in the party giving them all a motive. This wasn’t the case as we follow Jen, her maid of honor, and her party’s perspectives to understand who Caitlyn was after her passing. Almost everyone in the book was not a great person leaving Caitlyn to really shine and invite sympathy about her death, as well as casting suspicion on almost everyone in the party not because of what Caitlyn did to them so much as their own flawed hangups about her. As we also follow the detective’s perspective, Maria Frankland does a great job painting a picture of not only who these people are but of the crime’s details that make the culprit harder to guess at.

I loved the twist at the end and how this book flowed, pick this one up and enjoy!

Overall an enticing fast read. did not see the ending coming however, I will say an I was not a fan of the split perspectives. some of them felt unnecessary. Having a point of view from the DI was just super random and didn't fit the plot. I enjoyed overall and it was nice to read something so fast because I wanted to figure out the ending so badly.

Publication date: April 29th, 2024
Page count: 280
Genre: domestic thriller
Setting: Dublin
POV: multiple

Caitlyn beats cancer, and is now on her destination bridal shower. The first night of the bridal shower, she is killed in her sleep. Who and why?

Fun read. Great book for the beach, pool and plane. Will be checking out other books by this author!


Thank you to author, publisher, NetGalley for advanced copy. This is an honest voluntary review.

Flew through this, a really easy, engaging read.

Caitlyn is found dead in the apartment she is sharing with her 'hens' on her hen do. The police are called and all the hens are questioned.

Secrets are exposed and it seems there are a few people who might have motive, one in particular.

Told from the different characters point of view the story unfolds at a good pace.

I had mostly worked out the ending, the why and most of the how, I just had the wrong character in mind for the person who knew the whole story....

Would recommend.
Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book, this is my honest opinion.

Solid weekend read. A hen party takes a turn when the bride ends up dead. Everyone is a suspect - from her future in laws that can’t stand her, to old friends who felt angered by not being asked to be bridesmaids. The story unfolds as the book takes you from each persons perspective of the night before, with a huge plot twist. The story had a few unlikeable characters and I kept waiting for them to get their comeuppance. Had it not been for the plot twist ending, I might have rated this book differently.

Meet Jen the Chief Bridesmaid who has organized a wonderful Hen (Bachelorette Party) weekend in Dublin for her best friend Caitlyn. Joining them are Annette (Bride’s middle sister), Emma (Bride’s youngest sister and Bridesmaid), Adele (old school friend and single mom), Mari (neighbor), Shelley (old work colleague and Bridesmaid), Michaela (Groom’s sister), Karen (Groom’s mother) and Lucy (Groom’s daughter).

Barely off the plane in Dublin the bickering begins and the feuds start to be seen. The Groom’s family doesn’t care for Caitlyn and don’t try to hide it. Adele and Mari feel out of place and not included. Annette is grumpy and Shelley is on her phone the whole time. Jen tries to hold everyone together and keep the party going for Caitlyn through all the drama. After a night of drinking and playing games the women wake up to discover Caitlyn has been murdered and it’s one of them.

This is a psychological thriller with plenty of twists to keep you guessing. Multiple POV story telling. It’s like a game of Clue or Whodunnit! I loved the ending so much!

Thank you to Netgallery and the publisher for this ARC. The publication date is the 29th April. I loved this book especially the Dublin setting many of the characters didn’t like each other which was surprising!

This book had many twists and turns that had me gripped to my kindle I didn’t particularly like any of the characters and wow what an ending I wasn’t expecting it my guess was so wrong! I’d highly recommend this book! 😊

#TheBridalParty #NetGalley
Caitlyn, fresh in remission for cancer, is off for her bachelorette party with friends & family from all stages of her life. There's clear tension in the air as the complicated relationships all come to a head. With cliques and secrets amongst the group of 10 women (and Caitlyn's groom-to-be), you're not sure who to trust. The morning after the 1st night of drinking, games, and drama the bride-to-be is discovered dead in her bedroom....apparent suffocation. Who has a motive? Is it one of the ladies on the bachelorette party, did someone break in...You'll have to read to find out!
It's a bit of a "who dun it," with a handful of possible suspects. I love the way the story was told through different POVs & shifts as each character is interrogated by the police revealing secrets from each character and insights to their relationship with the deceased. There was just enough information given from each of the ladies that you think they MIGHT have something to do with the murder.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for giving me an advance copy.

A tense and taught thriller at what should Caitlin’s happiest time prior to her wedding. Lots of characters but they are well written and believable, I raced through it, loving the twists!