This book was fine! Almost exactly what you'd expect from Lucy Foley and middling compared to the rest of her catalog.

I'm not sure the payoff was quite big enough to justify the many many POV/journal entry jumps and convoluted set ups. It was frankly a very scooby-doo like mystery. But I don't regret my time reading it and will gladly read further Lucy Foley books!

Thank you to NetGalley for the early release of this book. I have read several Lucy Foley books in the past and have really enjoyed them. This book was a fairly quick read.
The story takes place outside of London in a newly remodeled hotel on the ocean that is very upscale. Francesca is the owner and she inherited the property and has a goal of making The Manor a destination. The story is complicated by visits from The Birds which creep into the woods around the property.
I had a difficult time initially getting into the story as it is told from many points of view and in multiple timelines including a diary from a teenage perspective. All of the jumping around made the plot difficult to follow. This was not one of my favorite books by this author but I will definitely continue to read her books.

It’s opening weekend at a fancy resort in the woods. These woods have a dark past, and owner of the resort Francesca had a part in their dark history as a teenager. She’s gone to great lengths to make this weekend perfect, but will mysteries from the past come back to haunt her?

This story is told from multiple POV and a teenager summer diary from 15 years ago. There is a lot going on, but it all comes together perfectly in the end. I enjoyed the multiple POV writing, and this was a fun read!

I LOVED how different this book was!! I read a lot of mystery/thrillers, and a lot of times, these stories tend to feel formulaic, but everything about Lucy Foley's Midnight Feast felt fresh and new. The characters, the setting, and the local lore all combined to make a truly intriguing, creepy novel that I could not put down. It's easily my favorite Lucy Foley book, and I'll definitely recommend it to everyone I know.

The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley is a cunning mystery thriller that will leave you guessing until the end. Using multiple points of view, the novel alternates between Francesca, Owen, Bella, Eddie, Detective Walker, and a Summer Journal. Francesca is the owner of The Manor, a new expensive hotel on opening weekend. Owen is her husband who has secrets he’s hiding from everyone. Bella is a guest at The Manor who knows more than anyone what sinister lies are hidden there. Eddie works at the hotel giving us a back door look into its’ operations. A Summer Journal gives the backstory of a summer long ago. The story is cleverly woven to keep you reading to discover the truth. There’s a body found on the beach and the hotel gets burned down, all during the opening weekend!

I recommend this book for mystery and thriller readers, it’s Lucy Foley’s best book I’ve read to date. Overall, the novel is entertaining with gut wrenching twists and backstories.

Thank you William Morrow and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.

OH. MY. 🤯 I absolutely loved this book! It took a while to get into it and the characters but man, once you did it was such a quick read! I did not want to put it down. So many twists and jaw dropping moments!!! I loved the different POVs and the flip between past and present! If you need a good thriller this summer, this is the one, totally recommend! Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for a copy of this book to review.

The Midnight Feast

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lucy Foley always does such a good job of the multiple perspective twisty mystery. I was sooo excited to get a copy of this one via @netgalley!

The Manor is newly opening and ready for high-end guests to visit the English coast. To celebrate the solstice, they’re having a Midnight Feast for the guests. Local legends create a creepy vibe while told from the perspective of guests and staff alike.

I really enjoyed this murder mystery where you don’t quite know who all died until the very end. Lucy does such a good job of buttoning things up, but not too nicely 😉

Got an advanced copy from @netgalley. I was excited for this one since I loved “the guest list” & enjoyed “the Paris apartment.” It was a little slow to start but once I got into it I couldn’t put it down. Tons of twists, you don’t really know who to believe or which character is good/bad. Overall, a fun book & perfect for summer. Anticipated release date of 6/18

Lucy Foley strikes again! This book was so fun. I really loved the spookiness, the supernatural elements, and the drawn out suspense that Foley always does so well. I usually don't love the super split timeline because it can be hard to keep up with but this wasn't that bad! I feel like the only parts that dragged for me were the past (summer 15 years ago) timeline. It had quite a bit of unnecessary information that became convoluted and I found myself skimming those chapters. However, I did enjoy the multiple POVs - if you've ever read any of Foley's other works, you will know that it is usually at least 4 or more to keep up with. I tend to read books by her, including this one, more slowly in order to get the whole picture because every bit of information in this story matters! It is fun for me to piece all of the puzzle together until it fully clicks at the end.

I think that if you generally like Lucy Foley books then you will enjoy this one. It had a more spooky feel, which I really enjoyed. I genuinely felt a bit unnerved at times and even decided that I need to read a fluff book next in order to fully recover. Thank you so much to Netgalley and William Morrow for this arc!

Holy Heck! I devoured this book in less than 24 hours! I fully admit it started out slow and I did not think I would enjoy it, but then the journal entries came into play, and I was hooked! It is told from the POV of 5 characters, all impacted by their pasts at Tome. I loved the Birds folklore intertwined with the mystery and the way it ends all nicely intersected! This is a 2024 must read, especially for those who love Lucy Foley or for those looking for a new author to try! Thanks to NetGalley & William Morrow for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. Publication Date: June 18, 2024 Rating: 5 stars

I like a good locked room thriller but this book just felt chaotic. Too many characters with storylines that didn’t add up and were not all that memorable. Timelines that jump around too much. And then a very anticlimactic ending that left a lot to be desired. And what a weird way to end it. Honestly I just didn’t like this book all that much and it took me way longer to finish than it should have.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow Publishing for the advance reader copy. Publication date June 18, 2024.

The ending and character reveals were the highlight of the story.
Had looked forward with great anticipation to this latest but unfortunately not my favorite of the author’s.
Despite her wacky wickedness, I really enjoyed Francesca's character!

With thanks to NetGalley & William Morrow for this e-ARC.

The Midnight Feast was everything I love about Lucy Foley. A twisty mystery with genuine surprises right up until the end. HOWEVER, there are SO many birds. Flocks of birds, bird symbols, bird nightmares... birds everywhere. Why am I telling you this? No one told me and birds are terrifying in a way totally unrelated to a mystery. Now you've been warned. Trigger warning for birds!

I am heartbroken that this one wasn't for me. It was really tough for me to get through. The flashback parts of the book really dragged, and while I saw what Lucy Foley was attempting to do with the birds and setting the atmosphere, it just didn't do anything for me. I've loved almost every Lucy Foley book I've read and I'm sure I'll read more in the future.

Intriguing but cringe worthy at the same time.
It's opening night at the Manor, a newly renovated mansion/resort in the middle of a local forest
and not everyone is thrilled with the idea.
Locals are employed as day workers and the lady of the manor is the granddaughter of the former
lord o the manor., having inherited it from him at his death.
Undercurrents are everywhere and not one single person appears to be who they are valiantly trying
to present themselves as..
Creepy crawly but really entertaining.
Has you rooting for the underdog but are they really the underdogs??
That's the fun part - trying to decide who are the good guys and who really is the bad guy.
Good character development with absolutely alluring possibilities surrounding every singe one of them.
And the plot just grabs you and does not let go.

Having been a huge fan of The Hunting Party, The Paris Apartment, and most of all, The Guest List; I was extremely excited when I found out I was approved to read The Midnight Feast. I loved the almost cult-like premise and was immediately drawn to the story.

At first I ft like there was a small disconnect with the plot and Lucy Foley’s previous novels. However, as the story went on, I did feel like it settled in to the Guest List style that I loved so much.

Only a small portion of the story was predictable for me. There was still plenty of twists and turns to keep me guessing. I did really enjoy this book and would absolutely recommend!

Many thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for gifting me an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Lucy Foley is at it again with another multiple POV, large cast mystery. With the opening of The Manor, a high scale, nature based resort, multiple people with intersecting pasts reunite in an explosive conclusion.
With alternating time lines, we see the opening weekend of The Manor, along with the pasts of two characters present at the opening. Although we spend the majority of the book at The Manor in the present, I appreciated the way the past was told through journal entries. It felt much more impactful than if the past was related through a conversation or through the thoughts of the narrator. It added an extra layer and element to the story to give it some texture. As for each narrator’s POV, the different voices and motives were so distinct. It felt like I was listening to each person’s inner thoughts, without the styles overlapping. I was able to really get to know each character. However, I did have trouble with connecting with any of the characters. Even though you aren’t necessarily supposed to like any of them, I’m usually able to find one character to root for, even if they’re unlikeable. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case and I didn’t especially care what happened to any of them. Another barrier I ran into reading this was the repetitive chapters that were consistent throughout the story until the final climax. Said climax was very rewarding and tied up everything nicely with some really surprising twists that paid off. However, up until then I was mildly bored after three or four of the narrator’s POVs. Finally, I felt as though the kind of supernatural aspect of the story was more or less rushed and wasn’t investigated or explained enough. It felt like those scenes were from a different book that somehow were stuck between the pages of The Midnight Feast.
All in all, this was a pretty average mystery/thriller with some solid surprises, but I found myself feeling pretty uninvested with what happened to the characters.

The Midnight Feast just didn’t hit the way The Guest List and The Paris Apartment did for me. It was confusing and frustrating, as well as, predictable.

Francesca Meadows inherits her childhood summer mansion and converts it into a posh resort. The locals despise it and many individuals are looking for ways to bring her down. During opening weekend, disaster strikes…arson, multiple dead bodies and a strange tale of bird-like monsters terrorizing people in the woods.

There were various points of view this story was being told from (5 and a diary) with many chapters only being as long as a paragraph or two. I felt whiplash at times. I kept wondering why the detective had a point of view at all, since his chapters were the most confusing and boring of all, but one of the big bombshells at the end needed him in it. I could see how the author tried to really draw the reader in with the last line of each chapter, but they almost all felt flat to me.

I have not been put off Lucy Foley by this and will continue to read and recommend her work, I just didn’t enjoy this particular book.

Thank you the NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this book. This was classic Lucy Foley with subtle supernatural elements, multiple POVs, and the dark creepy atmosphere she does so well. I like the way she told this story, the narrative style she used, and the flashbacks to the past and future that were eerie and foreboding I loved the setting of the cliff-side retreat surrounded by ominous haunted woods that caters to the rich, powerful and self-important. There is a very sharp social commentary hidden just below the surface as well which I appreciated. I like that she made some of the narrators completely unlikable, but you still end up feeling a little empathy for them -even when they're being horrible. My only personal complaint about this book is that I was able to guess all of the reveals before they happened. I kept questioning if they were red herrings and then was disappointed when I guessed every single one. It still didn't affect my overall enjoyment of the book and I would recommend this one to people new to the thriller genre as the twists may be less evident to someone not expecting them, and the story, plot and setting are immersive and compelling.

Thank you to NetGalley for letting me read The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley. I’ve also read The Paris Apartment and The guest list and I’d say this one is my favorite! Francesca inherits her grandparents manor and decides to turn it into a luxury getaway. The locals are none too happy about this but what do they matter anyway? Francesca plows on with her plans and handsome new husband but it seems everyone around her is hiding something and the town’s ancient folklore about “the birds” catches up with her. I enjoyed that many people in this book aren’t who you thought they were and it all tied together quite well in the end. I also enjoyed the multiple timelines tying the past to the present! Spooky and intriguing.