It was designed to be the perfect, out of the ordinary, romantic wedding of the season. A wind-swept island, glamorous guests and a perfect couple. But each one on the island that weekend carries buried secrets. Foley gives her reader's each character's backstory bit by bit, never letting on how they will intertwine at the perfect wedding. Tension builds as the characters realize that they are not the only one with a secret or painful memory to keep and at what lengths they will go to protect those secrets and memories. A page turner as the reader thinks they've figured it all out, only to be proven so very wrong.

Last month my online booklcub read Lucy’s previous title, The Hunting Party. So when I heard about The Guest List, I had to get my hands on this highly anticipated new release. ⁣⁣
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Let me start by saying if you liked The Hunting Party you will like this one too. It had a lot of similarities: ⁣⁣
-remote location⁣⁣
-a close group of friends⁣⁣
-we know there’s a murder from the start but the victim and murderers identities are unknown⁣⁣
-Agatha Christie vibes. ⁣⁣
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While it has a lot of similarities the book stands on its own merits. Jules and Will are getting married on a remote island. Their closest friends and family are in attendance. Each with problems and motives to be the murderer in question. ⁣⁣
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This was a very slow burn story. However the first plot twist was one I did not see coming. I think I dropped my kindle and said oh shit. There were plenty of twists after that but none that landed as hard. Overall it was well written and I enjoyed the creepy island setting. I am leaning towards a 3.5 star rating for this one. ⁣⁣

Thank you William Morrow and Netgalley for the advanced e-galley.

The plot twists! The secrets! The devastation!

Author Lucy Foley raises the motto "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer" to a whole other level... Almost everyone in The Guest List has something to hide, and some are much better at it than others. And while keeping secrets made many of them successful, others have been left devastated in their wake. Foley invites readers to a perfectly posh wedding only to present them with front row seats to murder. (Okay, the little voice in my head made that sound so cheesy, but honestly this plot is filled to the brim with suspense and tension!)

Will, the stunningly handsome and charming groom, appears to be absolute perfection: he's enjoyed a life of privilege thanks to having a boys' school headmaster for a father, and now has his own survival TV show that's gaining popularity and success. Jules, the beautiful yet stoic bride, strives for perfection, both from herself and from everyone around her. She's worked too hard to let others ruin the life she's crafted. But no one is perfect -- no matter how flawless they may seem. Secrets are bound to come out, especially when shady friends and family members are sequestered on a remote island to celebrate and consume alcohol for hours on end. Voices can't be silenced forever -- the truth always finds a way of surfacing...

A wedding that started with a beach theme ends up a game of survival. And not everyone lives happily ever after.

I liked it. I read some reviews and,apparently, there are other books out there with similar plot which made the reviewers dislike this one. But I haven’t read those, so for me, “The Guest List” is a fresh concept.

I pretty much liked all the characters except Olivia; so weak, so whiny; what a wimp!
So you (Olivia) meet a guy online, you both give fake names and pretend to be someone else. You have sex a couple of times, and when he doesn’t return your calls anymore you complain that he made you feel “small, unloved, ugly, stupid, worthless.” Come on! Grow some ovaries, you were looking to hook up online and you got it.

Anyways, there was little action until the last quarter of the book. I kind of figured who was the “villain” because
she/he was the odd character. Regardless, I enjoyed the plot and I liked the writing style.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this title.

This was SO. GOOD. Kept me on the edge of my seat. If you want a page turner with some real depth and great characters, this is it!

Absolutely loved the twists and turns in this one! Some of them I could put together but others surprised me for sure! I loved that the ones I didn’t predict made sense instead of coming out of nowhere like some thrillers tend to do. Can’t wait to pick up Foley’s other work after reading this one, as this was my first of her books!

On a small, remote island off the coast of Ireland, a wedding, meticulously planned and sure to be glamorous, is about to take place. It should be a carefree, happy celebration of two people in love...but people have secrets and heartbreak, and groomsmen, long-time friends from school days revert to past behavior, the island is mysterious...and the wedding does not go off without a hitch.
Told in alternating voices, and jumping from the wedding itself to the day before (with stories of the past also told), this is an edge-of-your-seat read, as pieces fit together and the past and present fall into place for an unexpected ending.

I really enjoyed reading this slow-burn mystery set on a creepy, abandoned island in Ireland. The short chapters and shifting POV kept the action moving, and the writer did a fabulous job establishing an atmosphere of impending doom. The entire book takes place over one short wedding weekend; the action starts right away when a waitress finds a dead body. The book slowly reveals everyone's back stories, and it's not until the end that the victim and killer are revealed. There are two clever allusions to Lord of the Flies, and the entire scenario pays homage to the works of Agatha Christie. Highly recommended diversion for a quick, character-driven mystery! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the librarian preview copy.

This domestic thriller had me hooked immediately. Told in multiple voices it is about a group of family and friends attending a posh wedding on a remote island of the coast of Ireland. Everyone has secrets and things to hide but in such close quarters secrets have a way of coming out and justice is ultimately served. A satisfying and well-paced read.

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one as they celebrate a wedding that’s made for a magazine. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed. But as the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why? review: This was one of my Book of the Month picks and I absolutely devoured it. It’s a bit of a slow burn to start, but it really picks up and is a compulsive page-turner. The author did a fantastic job at crafting an atmospheric setting – I felt like I was on the coast of Ireland with them because of how detailed it was. The different POVs of the bride, groom, and guests made for a fun “whodunit” element – I was SO unsure who was the culprit until the very end. This was the perfect storm of a book. rating: 4 out of 5 ⭐️

This book is a winner. I had to finish it once I started reading. On an isolated island off the coast of Ireland a celebrity wedding is about to take place. The pre-wedding cast includes the wedding planner, bride, groom and wedding party. Soon we will get to know them better as their secrects are revealed. The format, which I liked, takes you through the weekend of the wedding with various characters sharing their thoughts as the weekend progresses. The author does a nice job with gradually revealing the characters and builds to a good climax. You someone is going to get killed - but who ? I really enjoyed this book and am recommending it to friends as a great escape read.

A murder mystery where both the victim and the murderer are revealed at the very end! I really enjoyed this switching-perspective thriller. Great characters and atmosphere that kept the pages turning.

So this one is a complicated book for me to review. Overall, I felt pretty in between about it. I wanted to have stronger feelings one way or another, but it fell right In the middle.

I thought the concept was intriguing. A high profile wedding at a isolated island in Ireland with hidden secrets. A classic “who done it” clue vibe was definitely there and I really liked that aspect. This book was good enough to finish but very slow and felt a bit dragged out. It seemed like it would be a good movie but also felt kind of a cheesy type of thriller It talked about several controversial subjects that were mentioned but I feel could have been addressed better and more in depth. The characters were also not as likable or relatable which is something that’s important to me.

The ending I think is what saved it for me. I didn’t expect it which was a good way to tie up the end. If you need an easy thriller I definitely recommend this one!

The Guest List was such a wonderful mystery. It was clever, fast-paced and so atmospheric. It had great characters and an intriguing plot. But, the best thing about the book was the way in which it was written; it started with the lights going out and a scream in the dark on the night of the murder and then bounced back and forth in time, which was brilliant. It wasn’t until almost the end of the book that you even found out who was murdered! Adding to the enjoyment was having chapters written from the different characters’ points of view. This was a fun take on a classic who-dunnit that I could not put down.

My copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

In a crowded field of British locked room, multiple narrator, slow-burn mystery writers, Lucy Foley stands out as one of the best. I really enjoyed The Hunting Party so was very excited to get a preview of the Guest List. Was happy to learn the premise was similar to her Agatha Christie-like setup in The Hunting Party - a group of suspects, stranded on an island, each with their own reasons for committing a murder.

Lucy Foley's slow burners work because she is masterful at building interesting characters and suspense before the reveal of the crime. By that time, you already have a good sense of the characters, which ones you like and dislike, and which one you think may have "dunit." I also like how she frequently hides the identify of the victim for awhile (both here and in the Hunting Party) and provides you with many people in the story you might like to see knocked off. Her cast of characters here is similar to the Hunting Party: the misfit, the cad (there is actually more than one cad here!), the prom queen, the golden boy and the (presumably) detached outside party are all present. Foley is great at giving each multiple narrator her own voice, so you won't get mixed up even as the story jumps around to be told by various wedding guests. And all of the characters have secrets.

This was as good as The Hunting Party, with another worthy ending (I think I liked this ending even more than The Hunting Party!). Foley continues to write novels clearly influenced by Agatha Christie that are fully modern and original. I'm looking forward to her next mystery.

Many thanks to Lucy Foley, NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishers for the early copy in exchange for my honest review!

All I ask of a suspenseful thriller is thrilling suspense. I require at least one heart-stopping twist that I didn't see coming. The characters can be shallow: in fact they can be forgotten from the instant I turn the last page.

The setting: a destination wedding at a lousy destination, with a Bridezilla, of course, and enormous expense, naturally. A dead body turns up. There are multiple points of view, each one positioned with a purpose, and the author switches among all of them, seamlessly. No one gets in the way of the growing dread. A tangled web of secrets untangles. People are unmasked. Revelations knock down one by one at a perfect pace.

No expensive destination wedding thriller would be any good without Social Media, so of course at least some of the secrets involve the difference between the Instagram Self and the True Self.

The whole spooky-atmosphere thing with the creepy remote island does not work in this novel despite the author's very best efforts: there are random guests wandering around outside, quicksand, storms, candlelight, etc. etc. and it simply does not congeal. The lack of convincing creepy in the setting is saved by the creepiness of the wedding party, and boy are they ever creepy. The groomsmen are skin-crawling creepy.

As for the final twist at the end, Foley nails it like a gold medal gymnast.

I received an advanced readers copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley and was encouraged to submit a review.

A fun fast read with an unusual setting. The setting for "The Guest List" is a high profile wedding taking place at a bleak Irish island venue. Each chapter is told from a different character's point of view. The suspense builds as we learn more at each turn, making it hard to put down. Characters were well developed, and the surroundings were described vividly. Toward the end, I was a bit disappointed by the cumulative number of coincidences that evolved, but there were no loose ends.

Reviewed on Goodreads.

The Guest List
A Novel
by Lucy Foley
Listen to an Audio Excerpt
HarperCollins Publishers
William Morrow
Mystery & Thrillers
Pub Date 02 Jun 2020 | Archive Date 02 Jun 2020

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins publishers I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I will recommend this to our readers when we reopen. In the time of Covid19 I found this book to be a thrilling escape for our day to day activities.

Great read!

Lucy Foley is building a genre to herself. Her style of writing will go down as one of the greatest as she weaves stories and mysteries of characters together into nothing but a brilliance. The Guest List is just as great as her previous The Hunting Party, if not better. A satisfying ending to a wedding that will go down in history, in ways no one could see coming.

I seem to be in the minority with my rating on this one. I had high hopes for The Guest List by Lucy Foley, but unfortunately it fell short! Really short! Chalked fully of forgetful and rather pathetic characters. While I have no issues with books that bounces its narrative from person to person and back and forth in time, this one did not flow right. As I was dragging myself to read each chapter, I was hoping that it would pick up pace and get interesting. That didn't happen until about the 80% mark and it didn't last long. I am only giving The Guest List 2 stars because the end had a couple of things I had not put together. Hard pass here.

Thank you to Netgallery for the free digital copy in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. All opinions are my own. Amazon review to be posted once published.