The Party by Robyn Harding is a so-so domestic drama.

Jeff and Kim Sanders are throwing a sweet sixteen birthday slumber party for their daughter, Hannah, and four of her friends. Kim has listed the house rules to the girls: no alcohol, no drugs, no boys. They provide food and leave the girls alone in the downstairs family room. Naturally, the girls don't follow the rules, resulting in disaster. One of the girls, drunk, crashes through a glass-topped coffee table and is rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night. While the police investigation cleared the Sanders from culpability in the accident, the mother of the injured girl files a lawsuit asking for three million dollars. The impending lawsuit alienates friends and causes division, as secrets are revealed and nothing is as perfect as it appears.

The narrative is told through four characters: Kim, Jeff, Lisa (the mother of the injured girl), and Hannah. Sure, we learn their secrets, but the secrets are not as shocking as the blurb for the novel implies. They are, actually, pretty standard stuff and can be revealed on both sides of the lawsuit, something that no one seems to be pointing out about the mother of the injured girl. It also seems unlikely that one of the five girls would not break down and tell the truth instead of the half-truths/lies about what happened.

Additionally, this is one of those novels filled with unlikable characters. You may try to find someone to pull for, but you will likely be let down as the few characters that seem to take a stand also don't seem to have a backbone. The ones telling you their side of the story never give you a reason to care. Harding does present the mean girls/high school queen bees social hierarchy effectively, although stereotypically. Sometimes I like a novel where everyone is unreliable and unlikable, but it didn't quite work for me here.

For me, The Party missed the mark. It had potential, but something just never clicked for me. I grew very tired of all the characters and sort of wanted to lecture them to just grow up, adults and kids. I also found it hard to believe that a sixteen year old would want a sleep over party. Sorry, but that seems absurd to me. It also seemed odd that given they were doing this party, that the parents wouldn't be checking on the girls, staying awake all night to make sure they were following the rules. I'll also admit that I didn't like the ending.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of the publisher/author.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2017/06/the-party.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2026640420

Thank You to Gallery, Threshold, and Pocket Books for providing me with an advance copy of Robyn Harding's novel, The Party, in exchange for an honest review.

PLOT - Kim and Jeff Sanders are doing everything possible to raise their children right. Despite their Silicon Valley wealth, they throw a simple sleepover for their daughter Hannah's Sweet Sixteen. Hannah has invited over a few friends and the girls are going to have pizza and watch PG-13 movies in the basement. Hannah's parents have been very clear with the rules = No drinking, no drugs, and no boys. 

Hannah's parents trust the girls and go to bed. They are awoken in the middle of the night to learn that one of the teenagers in their care has fallen through a glass coffee table, and is seriously hurt. This accident will change the Sander's family forever.

LIKE- The Party is a page-turner. Harding does a fabulous job at teasing out information that kept me turning the page. For example, early in the story we learn that Jeff's younger colleague has turned him on to microdosing LSD, a new trend in Silicon Valley that is supposed to foster alertness and creativity. This is something that Jeff has done a handful of times and although he does not have a drug problem and this has nothing to do with the accident that occurred at the birthday party, this decision will continue to haunt him. The Party is filled with little decisions, seemingly innocuous decisions, that will have a negative impact. It's about the fine line between perceptions and the truth. It will make you consider your own decisions. It's quite maddening!

Harding's characters are rich and memorable. A large chunk of The Party deals with popularity and bullying, both with teenagers and adults. It's cynical, but also rings true. A theme of The Party is kindness, which seems to be in short supply with many of the characters. 

The Party is reminiscent of one of my favorite films, American Beauty, with regard to tone and themes.

DISLIKE- I'm torn about the ending. Although I felt it was a realistic scenario, it didn't sit well that an accident turned into a punishment/reward scenario. The very last scene was a shock. It made me want to shake the character involved. Was nothing learned? 

RECOMMEND- Yes! The Party is fast-paced and thought-provoking. This is my first time reading Harding and I will definitely check-out her other novels.

The Party by Robyn Harding is a read that will have you riveted from page one. Hannah is turning 16 and invites a few friends over to help her celebrate. After her parents go to bed and leave the girls unsupervised trouble starts. The girls engage in drinking, drug use, and other events. As a result of their behavior one girl ends up seriously injured and in the hospital. Hannah and her family deal with the repercussions of their behavior on that night as well as how they are viewed by the community and their peers. This book delves into the life-long consequences resulting from one night of bad decision making. Read and enjoy!

This book tells the story of Hannah Sanders, a young girl whose life is altered forever on her sixteenth birthday. Chafing under the heavy thumb of her mother’s control, Hannah is determined that her sixteenth birthday will be one for the books. Her recent rise in popularity at school means that the two most popular girls in her class are coming to the party tonight, so it can not be lame, which unfortunately means breaking some of her mom’s rules. Tragedy strikes though and Ronni, one of the popular girls at the party, ends up literally losing an eye. Which is crazy and gross and sad. The fallout that comes afterwards will expose every dirty little secret of Hannah’s family, changing her family forever.
Overall I liked this book. I thought it was interesting and it kept you on the edge of your seat. The whole thing was overwhelmingly sad. After the incident the kids at school treat Ronni like crap, which sounds accurate for high school but really was just so unfortunate. There didn’t seem to be a decent person anywhere in the book. Every character in this story had flaws and selfish motivations. I didn’t really like the ending, I thought more justice should have been dealt out and I thought there was a sense of hopelessness instilled at the end. Even though I didn’t love the ending though I still really did like the book and I would recommend it!

WOW! What a blockbuster! The author gives a true look into bullying and the complicated, twisted lives of friends, families & school students. You will not be want to put this book down.

I was Really looking forward to reading The Party. The premise is right up my alley; I love books where secrets are exposed, values are tested, altercations occur & I already know the gist of the climax- that way, I know what I’m getting Into.

I read The Party in one day & it’s a good summer read. I loved how Robyn told the story of The Party through the eyes of a few different characters; I felt it added some depth to the story. I’ll be honest, there were parts of this book that were hard to read. These are not the most likable characters & these high school girls are awful! Drugs, sex, lies, manipulation, a law suit & more. These characters were a challenge to connect with & even more of a challenge to root for.

I’ve heard The Party likened to my homegirl Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies, but I didn’t think there were many similarities. Robin’s characters carry sadness & a bit more weight around than Liane’s. The cast of The Party is a messed up bunch of folks, more similar to Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s The Nest.

While The Party was a good read, it didn’t stick with me. There were parts I just didn’t buy, parts that made me roll my eyes & the ending wrapped up really quickly. I re-read the last bit twice & it left me with a furrowed brow, confused & frustrated. When I give my time to a book, I don’t like guessing at the end. I could see why someone could be Really Into This book, but it just wasn’t for me.

Special thanks to Robyn Harding, Gallery Books & NetGalley for providing our copy in exchange for an honest & fair review.

This book gets off to a fast start and hooks the reader at once. It's an easy read with lots of drama. However, in the middle the book starts to repeat itself, with Jeff and Kim having the same arguments over and over. I also didn't care for the ending which I thought fell flat. Lots of potential but didn't quite reach the top.

3.5 *s. The Party is a family drama about a 16th birthday party gone extremely bad. For me, it was a very quick enjoyable read. While nothing earth-shattering goes on here, it's a somewhat thought-provoking read for parents particularly. I did not like any of the parents in this novel, but I did see bits and pieces of people I know. It definitely made me think about how one would handle a difficult situation where something terrible happens with teens at your own house. Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book to review.


READING PROGRESS

One invitation. A lifetime of regrets.
The picture perfect, Sanders family plan a sweet sixteen party for their darling daughter, Hannah in Robyn Harding’s novel, THE PARTY (ScoutPress) and everything goes to hell.
Kim and Jeff Sanders decide to hold a sleep-over with pizza, movies and four of  Hannah’s girlfriends, instead of an over-indulgent affair for their daughter, in their fabulous home, in a wealthy San Francisco neighborhood. Mom shops all day for the specified trans fat-free treats, diet colas, veggie platters, Hannah’s favorite purple tulips and a cake that won’t embarrass her daughter, in front of her cool friends. When friends arrive, mom proceeds to lecture them on the rules of the house, including no alcohol, drugs or boys. What could go wrong? How about everything.
Mom and dad wake up the next morning to a completely freaked-out, Hannah standing at the foot of their bed, dripping in blood, telling them they are needed immediately.
Everything changes. The Sanders find the carefully constructed façade of their lives being dismantled right in front of them. Friends become enemies, dark secrets about their marriage are revealed and Hannah might not be such a sweet innocent girl after all.
Robyn Harding has said, she purposely wrote a dark story with unlikable characters making terrible choices. While reading, THE PARTY there were moments I could feel my chest tighten, while these characters chose to make “questionable decisions.” I found myself yelling at the book, “No, no, really?” Perhaps not under the exact circumstances as in the novel, but anyone of us could find ourselves facing similar situations like the ones described in THE PARTY. We’d have to deal with them head on hoping for some kind of a positive resolution. THE PARTY confronts some difficult subjects, teen drinking, bullying, teen suicide and drugs.
Robyn Harding has not only written a novel for women to enjoy at the beach and pool this summer, but THE PARTY can be used as a tool to spark conversation between moms and their tweens and teens.

The Party by Robyn Harding was an interesting read about what happens when something goes terribly wrong and the repercussions to a once picture perfect life. More of a family drama then a suspenseful read.

Told in multiple points of views, we get an interwoven story of what happens when a teenage girl has a sweet sixteen party that goes goes bad and what happens next. Rules are set by the parents. No drinking. No drugs. No boys. But teenagers like to push boundaries. What happens when the kids do not follow the rules and someone is terribly hurt?

Who is to blame? How far do you push? Now both sides are fighting for what they feel is right and just. But what if it's taken to far?

This is the story you get in The Party. The fallout of a terrible incident and how it affects the parties involved. This story shows how we sometimes behave terribly and the costs of our actions. How one incident can change family dynamics and nothing will every be the same.

I really enjoyed getting the perspective of the parents and Hannah (teenager). It gave readers a well rounded view of what was happening and how it is affecting everyone. Though most of the characters were not likable most of the times, the story will intrigue you. I wanted to know how it would all end.

We see a family fall from grace, a mother going for the kill, no matter who is destroyed and a teenage daughter who puts being popular above all else. We see their lives shattered.

This is a great family drama. Though there is no mystery, the actions of all involved will leave you shaking you head and wondering what society truly values.

When a sweet sixteen party turns into one of those nights that every parent dreads friendships will be tested and lives will be irrevocably changed. Kim and Jeff run a tight ship and they review the house rules with the girls before the party gets started but rules will be broken and for Ronnie life will never be the same. As the girls lives unravel privately and publicly their parents grapple with making the right decision and doing what is best for them and the answers are not easy or clear. Taunt prose and deeply developed characters keep the pages turning. as families try to figure out how to move on and rebuild their lives.

Hannah turns 16 today and her parents are letting her have a slumber party with four of her friends.

Hannah’s parents, Kim and Jeff live in a very nice home in San Francisco. They also have a son, Aiden. Jeff has a busy job and is training every free minute he gets for an upcoming triathlon. Kim does a bit of copy writing for a large company. The bad part is that she has a crush on a man with whom she interacts in her job.

Hannah’s boyfriend is Noah, a very popular guy that makes her happy to be part of a clique that includes two girls, Ronni and Lauren. While Hannah enjoys the attention Noah gives her she also knows that Noah will want more than handholding soon.

Ronni is a friend coming to Hannah’s party. Kim has known her mother, Lisa, for a long time but tends to think of the woman as a flake. Lauren is another friend who has been invited to the party. Marta and Caitlin are two girls with whom Hannah has been friends for a long time and they are coming too. Both Ronni and Lauren are more experienced that Hannah, and while they are expecting a wild party, Hannah knows her Mom will not allow it. Kim is very strict with her children.

Later that night, Kim and Jeff are awakened by Hannah saying that Ronni had gotten drunk and fell on the glass coffee table seriously damaging her eye. She needs surgery and Ronni’s mother, Lisa, is furious that her daughter was injured under Kim and Jeff’s watch and has decided to sue them.

This story is one that keeps the reader turning pages as it delves into the lives of the different characters. I was very impressed with how well the author seems to know the minds of teenagers and their feelings. This is a must read and I foresee it on the best seller shelf soon.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This book has it all. This isn't my normal genre, but the description intrigued me, and I'm glad it did. My emotions ran the gamut through this book... from horror, to pity, to anger, to heartbreak. This is the story of an awful accident among a group of teenagers, and the complete devastation of their life and their family's lives that follows. A very disturbing, emotional, and insightful read.

This book was maddening to me so many times! While teenagers do sometimes make poor decisions, the parents were making just as many as the kids! If everyone would have just told the truth from the beginning, it would have changed everything, but then the book would have been a short story 😊 Not a bad read, it was just unbelievable.

If you like the works of Liane Moriarty then you’ll like this one because it’s a very similar style and revolves around domestic drama at its ‘revengiest’.
It’s one of those books perfect to pick up when you need an afternoon escape or a great recommendation for your next book club because after all the success of things like Desperate Housewives was built on our voyeuristic need to watch the downfall of seemingly perfect families.
Like those in its theme genre you’re never quite sure who to hate, love, root for or feel sorry for because they’re all imperfect and caught in a terrible situation of their own making. It’s like a car wreck you feel bad for the victims but can’t seem to stop watching the tragedy either. Harding knows how to make this emotional upheaval work and throw in enough twists to keep us wanting to read to discover how this will all shake out in the end.
This is the PERFECT book for a group to read and find out where everyone’s moral compass really points. I could actually see this being turned into an HBO miniseries like what was done with Little Big Lies.

First off, thank you to NetGalley for sending me a digital e-book of The Party by Robyn Harding in exchange for my honest review. I share my opinions on my Goodreads page, Twitter, Facebook and on Maryse's Book Blog; where I am a resident chatterbox. Outside of social media, I'm usually the go-to girl of all of my friends, when they want to know what is a good choice to read...I am above all, a lover of words. I am a reader, a writer... and I talk, a lot, obviously!

I think that's why I am having such a hard time with this review. I started and stopped this book several times and for whatever reason, I just had a difficult time with it. The premise was so gripping, and there were dozens of opportunities that, to me, were missed for it to have been a 5 star read. There was a bit of contrived predictability about it, that just didn't hold my attention. Well written though... thank you again for the copy to review.

Jeff and Kim Sanders are the epitome of wealth. They live in an affluent neighborhood in San Francisco. They have the perfect life from the outside. They have a far from perfect life. Kim works from home in advertising and is having a pretty serious flirtation with a co-worker. Jeff has a very high profile job and when he isn't working he is training for a triathlon. The couple only seem to communicate when it involves their two children. Their oldest, Hannah, is turning sixteen and to celebrate they are allowing her to have a party with a few of her friends. This one night turns everyone's life upside down. Nothing will ever be the same after Hannah's party. There is a terrible accident that leads to the truth coming out about the Sanders and their not so perfect marriage. Friendships and people are damaged beyond repair.

This book tackles a lot of difficult subjects. There is bullying (physical and cyber), drug use, under age drinking, infidelity, and absent parents. The book is listed as YA and I wasn't sure what to expect but it was very well written. It caught my attention right from page 1 and held it so well that I read it all in one sitting.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publishing house for allowing me the chance to read this as an ARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my honest thoughts.

Tragic, heartfelt and well written. Even though the premise is sad, you want to keep reading.

The Party by Robyn Harding is not for the faint of heart.
This is a story of friendship, families and destruction. What happens when a party goes awry? No one thinks it can happen to them, some alcohol, drugs and teenagers make this a riveting story that you won't want to put down.

As a mom of teenagers, I found this story heartbreaking. A simple second is all it takes and the consequences are unbelievable.

This was an excellent book.

This is a hard book for me to review. On the one hand, I kind of hated pretty much everything about it. But on the other hand, I couldn’t stop reading it.

The characters are awful people. All of them. All the time. I thought maybe Jeff and Kim had just been through some bad times and they would get better as the story went on. They did not. Their daughter, Hannah, and her friends were all awful. Lisa, the mother of the girl to get hurt at Hannah’s party, is awful. All of Jeff and Kim’s friends are just as horrible – the one exception being Lisa’s boyfriend, Allan, who tried to be the voice of reason in her vendetta against the Sanders. It seemed like every time a character was faced with a decision they chose the wrong one. At first I was getting so upset over their actions, screaming at them in my head to stop being idiots. But around halfway through the story, I became a little more resigned to their behavior and just began waiting for the next stupid thing. There is no one to root for in this book, so for awhile I was just rooting for all of them to have their comeuppance. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the ending to be satisfactory at all.

Even though I hated all the characters, I just kept reading. At first I wanted to see the characters redeem themselves, but even after I realized that wasn’t going to happen I still wanted to see what happened. The story is told through the POVs of Kim, Jeff, Lisa, and Hannah and I thought they were all done effectively. Even though I hated them, it has to say something about the writing that I still wanted to keep reading about them.

Overall, The Party has good writing and an interesting premise, but I absolutely hated all the characters. For awhile I did enjoy hating them, but I found it really unsatisfying that they didn’t get the level of comeuppance I was hoping for, nor did they really seem to learn anything from the experience. I’m bumping my rating up a little bit, though, because the author still made me keep reading, despite my feelings about the characters.

Overall Rating (out of 5): 3 Stars