Thanks to Net Galley and Harlequin Trade for this ARC.

The premise of this book is really interesting - a drug that can open up the past and give you glimpses of your future? Except it’s just not that well executed. I wanted to love this book but I just didn’t. It could use a trim down.

At times the writing is confusing and I couldn’t figure out who was speaking. The book also dragged on in the middle.

I found Sonia and Byron to be compelling characters. Byron was the most well thought out character. At times Sonia seemed pathetic and directionless.

In the past it never landed that all these characters were so close. They seemed to just be background characters in each others stories.

Aura’s obsession with the past made zero sense to me and she felt distracting and it felt like the author was trying to make a higher brow revelation about our past and our memories than she did.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc!

The beginning was a bit slow for me but I loved the time jumps!

I had a hard time connecting with the characters because it was in 3rd person but I did love that it was multi pov and the dialogue was entertaining.

If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be beautiful. Everything about this book was wonderful and it tells such a touching story of aging and life. The mystery, the characters, the plot, everything was captivating and intriguing. The idea of sog was so original and it made me think about the past. This book had an overhanging feeling of nostalgia the entire time which really fit with the theme. I also loved the way Auraleigh’s character arc was written, she became a better person overall by the end. The ending of the story was amazing, and Byron finally realizing that he had to let go was so moving. This book tells such an astonishing story, and I would totally recommend you guys checking it out!

So, this is a book where you just have to trust the process and trust that the author will be able to tie it altogether. Spoiler alert, Margot Harrison was able to deliver.

I do think the format is a little weird (at least reading it on a kindle)- I am sure that will get fixed before publication. I also would not recommend listening to this as an audiobook, unless you're going to take notes on the "magic system" and pause every so often to gather your notes together. Could also just be a me issue!

This was such an interesting concept where you take a secret drug and you not only remember the past, but also relive it. And of course, everyone has secrets and don't want them to be revealed as we try to figure out what happened to their friend Jennet.

Side note, something I really enjoyed was the behind this book excerpt at the end of this book which shared how this book came to be. There are some books, especially murder mysteries, sci-fi and fantasy books where I would love to know how the author came up with the characters, plot points and world building.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for a fair and honest review.

O my goodness!! I wasnt sure what to expect going into this book but I was blown away.

The plot follows a group of friends from college who experience a new type of drug that allows you to time travel in a sense, and catch glimpses of the future. Although your physical body stays in the present, your mind is opened to memories and flashes of experiences in the future.

The premise is that our bodies have already lived through our whole lives and our brains already store the knowledge and experience of our future, and the drug just unlocks parts of the brain that allow us to access those memories.

In the Behind the Book excerpt at the end of the novel (something I wish more books had), Harrison confesses that The Midnight Club was decades in the making. A project born from a college idea that required the vantage of a life more lived before she could tell the story in its current form.

Definitely check this book out for something different or if you enjoy mystery/suspense, magical realism, or deep thinking.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing | Graydon House for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

4/5 stars. Thank you NetGalley for the arc! This book had absolutely beautiful writing. I loved the storyline, such a unique concept. It was a little confusing at the beginning but the time jumps got a lot better after a while. I loved this mysterious plot line and the lesson the characters learned at the end. If you enjoyed If We Were Villians, and want to try sci-fi check this book out when it comes out!

This book didn't do it for me. I could never buy into the idea of 'sog' and couldn't buy into the idea of time travel as provided in this book.

(Thanks NetGalley and Harlequin for this ARC! This is my honest review.)

The formatting on the Kindle made this book challenging to read (hopefully that gets fixed), but overall I really enjoyed the content. It’s different from what I would typically read; it’s a murder mystery, with just a hint of sci-fi. The middle part of this book dragged on a bit, and I felt the portrayal of Bryon was a little wishy-washy towards the end. However, it had me in its grip as the plot climaxed and it provided a number of lingering thought provoking questions. If you could go back in time to relive memories, the good and the bad, would you?

I wanted to like this one but the formatting was wonky which made it hard to read and I struggled to connect as it was 3rd person. Decent plot overall, but not for me

Following the story of 4 college friends coming together for a reunion to honor a mutual friends death, Margot creates a story line that gives us mystery and friendship that makes us want to put on our detectives hat. It took me a little bit to figure out the book and to follow along but I really enjoyed this idea of a “sog” and getting to know each characters relationship with each other and the passing of their friend.

It definitely was an interesting ending that I did not predict, which was great on Harrison’s ideas and writing skills. Unfortunately, I felt like there was something missing besides going into the sog to uncover memories. I wanted more. Though a great book overall.

Imagine finding a secret passage in your attic leading to a time-travel adventure, but instead of a time machine, you've got a magical drug called "sog" that lets you peek into the future or revisit your past. That's the wild ride "The Midnight Club" offers, where a group of old college friends reunite not just for laughs and old tales, but to solve a mystery from their youth involving their friend's mysterious ending. It's like diving into a pool of memories, wondering if you could change the bad parts without messing up the good ones. The book, cooked up over 35 years by the author Margot, mixes the excitement of youth with grown-up reflections, kind of like realizing your childhood ice cream tastes just as good, but now it makes you think about calories.

However, this story feels a bit like being promised an all-you-can-eat buffet and then finding out it's just appetizers. It teases your brain with cool ideas and heartfelt moments but leaves you hanging like a TV show canceled on a cliffhanger. You get into the mystery, the time-traveling brain trips, and the drama of trying to fix the past, but in the end, you're left wanting more. It's as if the story sets up a fantastic party, complete with balloons and confetti, but forgets to invite the main course to the table.

In the end, "The Midnight Club" is like a rollercoaster ride through a funhouse mirror maze of time, full of twists and turns, friendships, and a dash of mystery. Margot's effort to stitch together this wild tale over decades is like trying to complete a giant puzzle with pieces from different boxes; it's ambitious and sparkles with potential. But as you turn the last page, you might feel like the ride stopped too soon, leaving you dizzy and curious about what just happened. It's a light-hearted, quirky trip down memory lane that makes you wish for just a few more loops on the rollercoaster.

Thank you NetGalley Margot Harrison and Harlequin Enterprises for the e-book in exchange for a honest review.

This book follows four colleges friends who reunited to honor a friend who died under questionable circumstances. Available to them is a drug to send them back to the past. Will they figure out the circumstances of their friend’s death?

Truth be told this was not my type of book. The idea behind it was very interested it just felt very underwhelming. It was very hard for me to get into. It was also fairly slower to start which really kept me from feeling interested in the book. It jumped around quite a bit which made it hard to keep track of what was happening for me. I was not wowed by the ending either.

The ebook was formatted terribly for kindle. I truly hope that gets resolved in the future.

If sci-fi and time jumping is your thing I’d say read it. And for a debut novel it is well written, so for that 3/5 stars.

This book is quite different indeed. Took a while to get into it and to understand it, but it isn’t a bad thing. It’s something I had to read slowly and comprehend. It’d gotten more interesting as the book went on. So four friends - Sonia, Byron, Paul, and Auraleigh gathered on the 25th anniversary of the death of their 5th friend Jennet.

Auraleigh has questions about her death 25 years later since she thought it was more than just a suicide, so she has her friends relive past memories or travel to those past memories, unlock them to put together the pieces by giving them a “sog”. Feelings among the characters were unlocked, long with those memories.

The book was again…different, but in the end, I felt more could had been answered. I don’t know if I would call it a thriller, but more of a slice of life and magical realism.

(Also in the Kindle version, or when I transferred it to my Kindle, there were constant gaps in Fl words, between the F and the l. )

The Midnight Club follows four college friends coming together decades later to solve the murder of fifth member of their friend group. Overall, I don’t think this was a bad read at all. However, I don’t think it’s my favorite kind of story. It reminded me of We Were Liars, although I think it’s better than We Were Liars, which wasn’t my favorite book to read.

If you like a murder mystery story with some magical/mystical realism and (kinda?) time travel then this book is for you!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an ARC copy of The Midnight Club.
The premise of this novel was intriguing—a group of former college roommates reunite after 25 years to honor one of them who died under questionable circumstances. Add to this, that in college they were introduced to a drug that allowed them to travel mentally into the future. And now, since in that future, they can travel now back into time. Can doing so help them determine how their roommate died?
Interesting for sure. In execution, it fell a bit flat to me. There is a lot of time jumping and jumping through multiple points of view of the characters. Some of this became jumbled, and it felt the characters had less in common than their supposed friendship required. It took me longer to get through this than I would have liked and was not satisfied at the end. There were also some technical issues with how the ebook read and that made it more frustrating than it should have. If you love sci fi and time jumping, this really is your book.

The Midnight Club by Margot Harrison✨

4🌟

(Thank you NetGalley , Harlequin Publishing and The Hive for giving me the privilege to be an ARC reader for this)

The story revolves around 4 college friends, Bryon, Auraleigh, Sonya, and Paul who later on in life get invited to a “wedding” but in reality it was a reunion for the four of them to catch up and “re-live” their past with the help of a local sap drug called “sog”. If you drank Sog while you were young- you would see glimpses of your future. If you drank sog when you’re older- you would see your past interactions which would all seem too real. To the point where you could alter the past if you truly wanted to.

Together, the four friends initially took the sog to see if they could investigate and truly figure out what happened to their dear friend Jennet that fateful night she drowned. Separately they all had discovered the missing signs that Jennet had been struggling with depression and a huge mystery that had affected Bryon in more ways than one.

In the end they realized that if they changed the past in any way, especially to try and save Jennet, their life as they know it would be gone and never the same.

I applaud Margot for taking 35 years of her life to write this amazing novel. I only wished there were more to the story and maybe looked more into Jennet’s life. I am truly sorry for the loss of Margot’s old colleague who lost her life to suicide at the young age of 23, I loved how it inspired her to write the character of Jennet and I hope she was able to heal during her time of writing.

"The Midnight Club" offers a twisty and nostalgic journey into the past, as a group of estranged college friends reunite to uncover the truth behind a tragic event from their youth. Set against the backdrop of a campus reunion, the novel promises intrigue and suspense with its premise of reliving past memories through a mysterious substance.

This book was interesting, but I left it wanting a bit more. I wanted more details about the pine substance, and answers - I felt a bit unfulfilled at the end. I'd round it up to 3.5 stars. That said, the novel does succeed in capturing the nostalgia of revisiting past loves and mistakes, tapping into universal themes of longing and regret.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I wanted to love this one based on the premise, and there were parts that really delivered. But overall, The Midnight Club didn't work for me. The ending wasn't satisfying because it didn't wrap up the main mystery. It's much more of a cerebral read with sci fi aspects than a traditional thriller, covering grief and nostalgia and asking you to confront those things within yourself. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I read it with that in mind, but traditional thrillers are more of my preferred genre.

“The midnight club” was not at all what I expected! I went into this book relatively blind, except for briefly scanning the synopsis and being captured by the beautiful book cover.

This story was created by the author over multiple decades, the perspective from her youth and the wisdom of going through the experiences and a motions from youth to adult, and how that shapes our mindset and thought patterns.. which is very apt for the plot of the book as it leaves the reader with an open mind and questions about their own lives and choices they may never have thought of before.

The plot follows a group of friends from college who experience a new type of drug that allows you to time travel in a sense, and catch glimpses of the future. Although your physical body stays in the present, your mind is opened to memories and flashes of experiences in the future.

The premise is that our bodies have already lived through our whole lives and our brains already store the knowledge and experience of our future, and the drug just unlocks parts of the brain that allow us to access those memories.

Although things go wrong and one member of the group winds up dead, leaving the rest to go their separate ways. Flash forward to many years later, one member of the group invites them all to return to their pasts and gather together once more to honour their dead. Although there is an ulterior motive and they are looking to find out the truth as to who and how their friend came to pass.

As an adult the same drug now allows to you relieve the memories of the past, they agree to partake to attempt to piece together the events of that dreadful night and finally reveal some truths.

This book was definitely unique with an interesting premise that engages the reader to open their mind. It also makes me question as to whether we only exist in the present moment, or whether our lives have already played out in full and we are long gone, yet our conscious is still catching up and going through the motions of our existence..

Would recommend this book if you are open to deep thinking, alternate reality possibilities, and mystery / suspense with magical / sci fi feels to it

Thank you to Margot Harrison, Harlequin Trade publishing and NetGalley for the EARC

Publish date: September 24

If you could go back in time and change the past, would you?

That's the premise of Margot Harrison's novel The Midnight Club, which reunites four college friends—Sonia, Byron, Auraleigh, and Paul—25 years after the death of their friend Jennet.

While her death was labeled a suicide, Auraleigh is convinced that someone else was responsible for it. She was there the night Jennet died, but she blacked out and has no memory of what happened. She invites her friends back to their Vermont college town to relive their memories leading up to the night of Jennet’s death to uncover the truth.

By taking a drug called sog, they travel through their memories. Sog lets the young glimpse the future. For the older, it offers the chance to relive past memories. Bridging the gap between memory and reality — between what was and what might have been — is as captivating as it is haunting. But each of the four friends has secrets they don't want to be revealed.

Their shared grief and nostalgia coalesce into an examination of how choices reverberate through a life, both intentionally and unexpectedly. Harrison skillfully captures a universal yearning to comprehend the threads of our actions.

In the Behind the Book excerpt at the end of the novel (something I wish more books had), Harrison confesses that The Midnight Club was decades in the making. A project born from a college idea that required the vantage of a life more lived before she could tell the story in its current form. This maturity infuses the work with philosophical weight, urging us to consider what it means to be, as Harrison phrases it in the story, unstuck in time — looping between past regrets/nostalgia or endlessly seeking the future.

The Midnight Club is a page-turner that also invites thoughtful introspection. I wondered if, given the chance, I would dare alter my past. Like the characters in the book, I found that the answer to that question isn’t as straightforward as it seems.

This story, which I hope will be adapted for the screen, is one of my most memorable reads of the year.

The Midnight Club is a thrilling mystery and a contemplation on life, memory, and the inexorable march of time.

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The Midnight Club by Margot Harrison will be released on September 24, 2024.