This would make an excellent book club pick for fans of authors like Ruth Ware. Our patrons cannot get enough when it comes to innovative thrillers and suspense. It reminded me of a great Agatha Christie combined with Tana French and I can see several demographics of book club readers enjoying this selection.

This story was A-MA-ZING!!!! I usually don’t care for thrillers because they rarely manage to transport me or move me. Lucy Foley did exactly that and then some. I knew I was going to enjoy this book because of the story occurs in a closed space (a remote island) over the time frame of a couple of days. Old secrets and tragedies resurface, the story is being told through different angles (makes it richer), and all actors seem to have a reason to be the murderer.

All characters seem pretty shallow and caricatural early in the book. The more I was reading, the more human they were becoming and the more I started to care for them. Lucy Foley is a tremendous writer and technician: she knows how to build a smart story and suck the reader right into it. From page 1, each chapter was bringing another piece to the big puzzle. Bowing down to Ms. Foley’s talent.

My favorite 2020 thriller so far! And it gets to my all-time favorite list.

Thank you Net Galley and William Morrow for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Friends, family, and loved ones gather on a remote island off the coast of Ireland to celebrate the marriage of a perfect couple. In fact, all anyone seems to be able to talk or think about is how good Jules and Will look standing next to each other. And they do seem a perfect match. He, a reality TV personality, the star of his own survival show. She, the founder and CEO of a successful blog and lifestyle brand. But when tragedy hits on their wedding day, one is left to wonder if looks are in fact deceiving.

The Guest List by Lucy Foley is an exciting thriller told both in split narrative and split timeline. Chapters alternates from perspective to perspective, and readers are treated to the thoughts of the bride, several wedding party members, wedding guests, and the wedding planner. The story jumps back and forth in time during the wedding weekend on the island, as Foley expertly reveals tantalizing bits of information little by little. She likes to take her time with the reveals, which only adds to the delicious suspense.

Foley excels at weaving a good mystery, drawing us in, leading us astray, only to shock with a juicy reveal that changes everything. While some of her twists were predictable, some were genuinely a surprise! And even those that felt obvious were still exciting to follow, thanks to Foley’s skill with suspense. Her characters are created with true humanity and feel very real, their actions believable. What happens when you feel like you don’t belong? When you already doubt yourself, and then someone takes advantage of your insecurity? How much harm can be done, and what are the ripple effects? This book examines the tensions between classes and the danger of ‘boys just being boys’. It will inflame your rage and satisfy your thirst for vengeance.

And can I just take a second to discuss this SETTING!? Talk about setting as a character. Treacherous cliffs, deadly tides, quietly fatal bogs, winds that threaten to rip you apart. Foley selects settings that are both stunning and brutal. Nature alone would kill you in these places, but their beauty is so enticing. This is just like how I would imagine a siren to be. The island itself is so dangerous and holds so much death, grief, and history that you can never quite count it out as the perpetrator.

This was a fast-paced, plot-driven, wild ride full of twists and turns! Reading The Guest List was a welcome delight. It swept me up and kept me entertained. Make no mistake, Foley is the Christie of our time.

While the psychological thriller is not really my cup of tea, I found this book to be pretty compelling and suspenseful. The wild, isolated island setting is done well, and I for one didn't see the twist coming (though I may be in the minority here as I almost never see twists coming). As in many thrillers, most of the characters have some sort of secret, so it's not always easy to find someone to root for -- but the villainy is so villainous that everyone else is a pretty sympathetic character in comparison. I look forward to recommending this to patrons!

Many thanks for the opportunity to read and review!

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A wedding is held on a remote island. Mysterious happenings occur and in the end, a murder results. The twists and turns make this novel an interesting read.

Lucy Foley became one of my favorite authors after reading "The Hunting Party." That being said, this book had a lot of parallels to her previous book. The characters both go off to an isolated place and someone dies mysteriously but we don't know who is dead or who killed them until the end. However, I am here for that. I love the similarities. Some people might not. But I loved the first one so I was pleasantly surprised to find I was almost reliving my reading of "The Hunting Party."

I really felt like I could connect to some of the characters in this book and others may have had similar experiences to what the characters did.

I was also genuinely surprised with some of the twists! Which rarely happens anymore because I read so many thrillers. It can be hard to surprise me.

So, if you are not a thriller newbie, this one would be great for you!

I picked up this book because it was compared to Agatha Christie and I love her stuff. Also, the cover reminded me of her story, And then there were none. It very much has that feel in the beginning. I felt like I got to know a lot about each character, but at halfway through and again at about 60 percent through, I kept asking, who died? It took a while to find out what happened, but in the end, it very much made sense. It was a good read although it felt a little drawn out at times. The characters were weaved together in ways I could not have guessed and I promise, if you stick with it, the story does make sense at the end.

Thank you William Morrow Books for gifting me a copy of THE GUEST LIST to read and review!

I sat down to read a few pages of this book on Tuesday morning and then the next thing I know, I have read 200. I was hooked from start to finish. Lucy Foley is an immensely talented writer and knows the ins and outs of writing a gripping thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

With each chapter, more pieces of the puzzle were laid out in front of me and as I started to put it all together, I was in awe of how perfectly Foley wove all of the wedding guests' stories together. The last 50 pages were one surprising twist after another.

I can’t wait to see what Lucy Foley writes next!

THE GUEST LIST was picked up by Book of the Month as one of their April choices but will officially be published on June 2, 2020.

Wow! Another winner from Lucy Foley! I really enjoyed the author’s last novel, The Hunting Party and the same goes for her latest, The Guest List! This book has all of my required ingredients for an addictive thriller. So many motives, multiple suspects, several perspectives, and major suspense! I found myself questioning the entire list of characters and ended up being completely shocked in the end. For this reason alone, the novel receives high praise from me. I had every intention of going back and forth between reading the physical book and listening to the audiobook, but ended up listening the whole way through! My ears could not resist the lovely accents. I could listen to the narrators all day long. I highly recommend the audiobook, it was fantastic.

Any book that promises to evoke Agatha Christie vibes has big shoes to fill, and Lucy Foley has done a pretty good job doing so with The Guest List. Set against the backdrop of a haunting Irish island, The Guest List follows the progression of a wedding weekend as strangers and friends come together to celebrate and to escape their lives. We encounter conflict past and present, and more than a few dark secrets.

While the story itself wasn’t entirely unexpected – the plot twists and turns weren’t predictable, but nor were they totally surprising – it was a compelling, gratifying read full of rich characters with complex motivations and histories. The island seemed to be another character in the story, looming, and adding an air of foreboding and creepiness to the entire story. Pro tip: don’t read this one when you’re home alone at night if you’re at all skittish!

All considered, this was a worthwhile, if creepy, read. I would recommend it to patrons, and have already recommended it to friends.

I loved this thriller, and plan to included it in my summer book roundup on Mashable.com, going live fourth of July weekend.

This was such a good thriller! It starts off with a wedding on a remote island and as you get into each chapter you realize the guests are not what they seem. There are many secrets that lead to a lot of twists that I really enjoyed. It was well paced and kept my attention the entire time! The alternating view points were written very well. Sometimes multiple view points can get a little confusing but the author did a very good job here. The ending completely shocked me and I loved the fact that I didn't see it coming.

Nicely paced, edge-of-your seat story about the prominent wedding of Jules and Will on a remote island off the coast of Ireland. Make your list and check it twice...!

A super fabulous wedding on a secluded island for the perfect golden couple! What could possibly go wrong? Booze, drugs, drunken guests, infidelities, terrible secrets, a haunted graveyard, major storm and, of course, murder. The story is told from multiple viewpoints and starts out kind of slow, setting the stage. Long buried secrets are exposed. The story and the storm slowly intensify to build suspense, and then . . . the lights go out!

On an Irish Island called Inis an Amplora, Jules and Will are getting married. All of their closest friends and family, 150 in all, are attending. When a body is discovered during the wedding reception, it throws everyone into chaos. How are the characters connected besides knowing the bride and groom?

I did not see the ending coming, really, taken off guard and loved it! The story sweeps along, pulls you with it and before you know it, you’re at the end. Such a good book!

This was such a solid thriller! So spooky with so many twists and turns. There were multiple points of view and two timelines which could’ve been tricky, but I never found myself lost or wondering whose story I was in. This is the first book I’ve read from this author, and I can’t wait to read more!

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for an advanced copy of this book.

This was a stunning domestic-ish thriller. An A-list wedding event is to take place on an isolated island off the coast of Ireland. The cast of characters is relatively small, as only the bridal party stay on the island, while the other guests boat in on the day of. The story is told from multiple POVs - the bride, maid of honor, groom, best man, a friend of the bride's plus one...As the day of the wedding, the wedding and the wedding night progress, you start to understand how everyone knows the happy couple, and what everyone does, and doesn't know about each other. The author leaves plenty up to the imagination, even leaving the reader guessing what actually happens until the very end. Who could carry that strong of a grudge against whom? You'll have to read it to find out!

I love weddings but I rarely get invited to them. I feel better about that after finishing off The Guest List by Lucy Foley because who wants to attend a wedding that goes horribly wrong on a remote Irish island where a group of rather unpleasant people may kill or try not to be killed? Foley is a solid thriller writer who likes to present multiple perspectives while whatever social occasion driving the plot goes impossibly bad. Even after all hell breaks loose the endlessly shifting points of view are so discombobulating that the victim or perpetrator or both aren't obvious until the very end. This trick keeps the reader guessing but also serves to keep us from idenitifying with any character too closely or for too long. It's rather like reading your hundredth Agatha Christie, minus Poirot or Miss Marple.

Foley's types are certainly a batch of chilly ones, with secrets galore and quite a bit of free floatinng anxiety/trauma/rage to spare. The remote sea swept Irish island is as well described as the Scottish estate in The Hunting Party, Foley's previous thriller. Like that book, this one has the sort of rugged, inaccessible, beautiful but dangerous scenery where Britphiles love to wallow. Foley's people may be dangerous, vengeful sociopaths or just high-strung hedonistic nutters, but they're certainly never dull. I just wouldn't want to attend a wedding with ANY of them.

Julia Keegan and Will Slater are about to be married on a remote island off the Irish Coast. As the wedding party and the elite guests begin arriving, the secrets that lie festering just below their perfect façade threaten to expose the truth behind their smiles. Reminiscent of "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie this story had me staying up very late because I couldn't put it down. The characters with their explosive secrets and the extreme remoteness of the wedding location combine to create a perfect storm that will keep you guessing until the very end. I highly recommend this addictive thriller!

Wow!!! This one is everywhere! If you haven’t picked this one up yet I highly recommend it!
It consists of my favorite things multiple points of view, short chapters, and an ending that leaves you remembering hints that were given throughout the book that ties it all together. .
Also this one I jumped back and forth from reading it on my kindle to listening to the audio version which I loved!!!