Like the previous book, this whodunnit takes place in a beautiful English manor in the countryside. This time 7 guests are invited to a murder mystery weekend at the manor. Throughout the dinner they discover how they are all connected to the history of the house. The book also flashes back to the 80s when the previous people lived at the manor before tragedy struck. A slightly disappointing ending but a good page turner.

3.5/5 - Thank you so much to Berkley for this ARC of The Perfect Guests by Emma Rous!
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A couple of years ago I read Rous' novel, The Au Pair, and I really enjoyed it! Rous likes to write some family drama and it makes for a very spine-tingling, page-turning adventure! The Perfect Guests was no different! Talk about your family drama, man! My family life seems utterly dull now - lol!
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This book kept me up past my bedtime, there's not question about that. I loved the twists and turns and definitely had that "got-to-know" feeling. What sort of dampered the book for me, and why I rated it 3.5 stars, is the ending. It was rushed, contrived, and really far-fetched. If you suspend any notions of reality, you can make the plot work - but I really had to reach to think - oh yeah, this could happen? Additionally, there were some plot holes and bits that were never really explained. I think some more backstory for the characters would have helped with that!
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I am definitely an Emma Rous fan, though, and I look forward to her next book! If anything, I know that her books will keep me guessing til the end!

I had high hopes for this. While I enjoyed it, I didn’t love it.

Most of this story is really good and filled with surprising twists. But at the end, a few things felt unrealistic...almost like a tv drama.

I also felt part 2 was a bit repetitive.

Overall, a decent read.

Emma Rous could write the phone book and I would read it. I seriously love her ability to tell a story and her writing. I had just finished watching "The Haunting of Bly Manor" and considering that Raven Hill is also an estate, I felt like I could accurately picture what was going on in this book. I really enjoyed the story and mystery of it all. I think I would definitely prefer "The Au Pair" but this one still slaps.

I really enjoyed this book a lot. It was my first by Emma Rous. I thought I was reading 3 different storylines, but after awhile, it starts to click that it is actually one storyline told during different periods of time. I will admit that when they first came together, I was a little confused. I was hard for me to keep track of who was who as the story unravelled. But if you can push past those few chapters, everything comes together. The plot gets more and more shocking even up until the very last page! Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

While there are three timelines, and three narratives, this really felt a bit like a crazy game of clue told in shifting timelines. Readable but not especially entertaining.

I was slightly disappointed with Rous's previous novel, The Au Pair, but picked this title up because I was on a beach trip and it seemed like a "beach read". I was again slightly disappointed; think I must not jive with Rous's style.

There is something creepy going on at Raven Hall. The story is told in two timelines that eventually intersect. In 1988, 14 year old Beth is brought to Raven Hall to be a companion for Nina. Life is wonderful for Beth and Nina as long as they never leave the grounds of Nina's ancestral home; however, Beth soon discovers that the family is playing a bizarre game and she doesn't understand the rules. In 2019, Sadie is brought to Raven Hall under the guise of acting in a mystery weekend. She quickly realizes that not all is as it seems and her fellow players are not who they initially seem to be. Along with Beth and Sadie, a strange woman lurks around the grounds of Raven Hall giving the reader clues to the history of the house. I enjoyed the different timelines and how they intersected in the twisty last third of the book.
Overall, The Perfect Guests is an engrossing read that keeps you guessing. Fans of both mysteries and family dramas would enjoy this novel.
Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for an advanced copy of the novel for review.

Two timelines set 30 years apart take the reader to Raven Hall, a manor house situated on a remote island where the occupants are subjected to a series of menacing and disconcerting events that threaten their lives and futures.

Beth Soames is 14 years old when she is taken to the island as a companion for the owner’s daughter, Leah.
Beth has been struggling to find her place in the world as an orphan and Leah and her parents offer the love and inclusion she seeks. She and Leah develop a sister like friendship and Leah’s parents treat her as one of the family. She later discovers that there is more to mere companionship involved in her presence on the island when she is asked to assist in an odd deception.

Many years later, Sadie Langton, an unemployed and struggling actress is invited to participate in a weekend party at the very same Raven Hall. She is sent a suitcase of clothing and a script outlining her character and the role she is to play. It sounds weird, but she needs the cash and the job pays an exceedingly attractive salary. Once at the island she discovers others have been hired to fulfill roles in this “weekend play” and that their host is definitely not playing.

A. J. Finn has constructed a clever, multi-layered tale that is more complicated than it appears at the outset challenging the reader to unravel this tale of revelation and revenge.

Dual timelines that don't confuse you, finally! Love how the characters get intertwined into the story.

Great twists. Not a suspense novel. Just a wild twisted story.
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When I started reading this book I thought it was going to be a murder mystery suspense type novel but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

This book is not like any story I’ve read before. It almost reminded me of a soap opera. Don’t ask me why as that doesn’t really even correlate in my brain.

But with each layer of information and each new person that came into the story, the author wove these tangled ribbons around and around so many times that I almost felt confused. What I thought was happening was not anything like what’s truly going on in this twisted family saga.

What Rous brings us is a plot spanning decades that we meticulously untangle one knot at a time, until the conclusion, which totally blew me away. She litters the playing field with droplets of clues. An intricate plot that I could not stop reading!

That author killed it with her compelling storytelling and her ability to tell multiple streams at the same time. The story is just an amazing contemporary mystery with the intrigue of not knowing the true story until the end.

This was an interesting story of an orphan taken in by a family in a big mansion to be companion to their daughter, but things aren't quite what they seem. Flipping to about 30 years later, a group of strangers are invited to a big mansion to act out a murder mystery dinner party, but things aren't what they seem.

I was all in for most of the book - fascinated by the story of the young girls in this house and whatever the adults were doing, and interested in the mystery dinner party. The writing was well-done, the plot believable and well-paced, and the storyline interesting enough to keep me reading well after I should have been asleep.

However, as is such the way with mysteries today, the last 20-30% of the book falls of a cliff, into a twisty, absurd whatever. I'm about done reading these kinds of books because I just don't need a million twists to enjoy a mystery, and frankly, it exhausts and annoys me, which this book ultimately did. The ending was just soap opera like and ridiculous and completely over the top. It would have worked so much better had that just shaved itself off. Heck, I might have even liked it more if I'd just stopped reading it. I suppose many many people will love this, because TWISTS! But I'm over this type of thriller, personally. I felt the same way about the end of "Au Pair," ridiculous and over the top, so I think this author is not for me.

Thank you to the publisher and author for providing me with a digital ARC of this title via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Netgalley was my first introduction to this title and author and I found the premise to be enticiing. It sounded like a fun mystery. The story is told between two narratives in two different time periods which I enjoy when done well. This was a little slow to get into especially the story in the past. I just didn't connect to it as much nor found it as interesting, although it was necessary for the overall storyline. I was much more interested in the current timeline and the character invited to work for the weekend as a guest in a new murder mystery role playing experience that was being tested out. I loved how she was sent clothing for her character and was so excited for her to arrive at the party. I was hoping to be able play along with her in trying to solve the mystery. That part of the storyline really pulled the book together and made it more enjoyable to me.

The Perfect Guests will make you want to stay up late reading! Told from multiple perspectives spanning 30 years, Emma Roy's creates an engaging, compelling story. The plot revolves around the beautiful Raven Hall - a gorgeous home with several tragedies and mysteries hidden in its past. As the present day storyline unfolds with Sadie as primary protagonist, we also meet Beth telling her story from three decades before. As the tensions build in both past and present - and numerous twisted secrets are revealed -the story will keep you guessing until the very end!

The Perfect Guests by Emma Rous

304 Pages
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Release Date: January 12, 2021

Fiction, Mystery & Thriller

The book begins in July 1988 when Beth arrives at Raven Hall to be a companion to 14-year-old Nina. The story timeline then jumps to Sadie January 2019. Sadie is an in and out of work actress who has just lost another temporary job. She receives a telephone call from her agent letting her know that she has been offered a weekend role for an advertisement for a mystery game. She is to play a young woman looking for work in Raven Hall. The money will pay her rent for two months and she even received a suitcase with elegant clothes.

This book reminded me of the game Clue. Everyone has a made-up sounding name and a mystery must be solved. I was completely taken in by this book. The story flowed very well and kept me hooked from the beginning. It was written two perspectives: Beth and Sadie. In Beth’s chapters, the story is written in first person point of view and the third person for Sadie’s chapters. The characters are mysterious since they are playing roles and we do not really know who they really are or why they are attending this event. I highly recommend this book to anyone that likes a good mystery and a surprising ending.

Really good read! Suspenseful and intriguing! The story is great and kept me on the edge of my seat. The main character was interesting and easy to read. Definitely a good read for Halloween!.

Thanks to #NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I was hooked from the beginning. The book switches back and forth between 1988 and 2019. I takes place in Raven Hall. Guests are invited to Raven Hall to play a little game sort of like a mystery event and soon find out that there is a motive behind this gathering.

Unknown to each other, they all have something in common and are connected in a way to Raven Hall. I didnt find it difficult to keep the two eras apart and soon was eager to know what the big deal was. The more I got into the story, the more I could not put the book down. The ending of course makes everything clear - the connections - the relations - and a few surprises in between. New author for me but was delighted with her book. #fivestars

This book channeled some Agatha Christie energy. Beth, an orphaned teen, is grateful for the Averell family’s generosity until things get WEIRD. Their daughter Nina is temperamental girl and the parents are controlling and totally up to something. There’s an ulterior motive for wanting her here.
Meanwhile in the present day, as a struggling actress Sadie can’t hold down a job, a relationship or an apartment. She has a bit of a wall up, mostly due to her cold relationship with her mother. But she thinks her luck is turning around when she lands a gig, basically getting paid two months rent to play in real life Clue for the weekend…but the games played in this book aren’t fun. They are twisted. And there’s also an ulterior motive to why she’s here now…hmmm.
You simultaneously read through two timelines, then there’s another presence watching over Raven’s Hall who gives us some extra insight into the past. Emma Rous builds a captivating gothic atmosphere. There are both likable and unlikable characters but that didn’t deter us from the story at all. We wished some of the characters were a bit more developed. The slow burn beginning ramps up in the second half where A LOT happens at once. We really enjoyed how the stories eventually intertwined.
Murder mystery/family drama fans, pre-order this ASAP!
Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for this ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.
(PUB DATE: 1/21/21)

A solid 4.5 rounded up! This one is a lovely, Gothic-tinged domestic(ish) British thriller with YA crossover appeal with some compelling character study and fun guesswork.

You get three POVs that ping-pong across time, and half the fun is trying to connect the dots of who everyone is and how they are related. In 1988, Beth, an orphan with a shitty would-be caretaker aunt (who can't be arsed to halt her career/single life and leaves her niece in foster care), is dropped off to spend the summer with the wealthy Averell family of Raven Hall. Located in a sleepy town in the Fens, the Averell's daughter Nina has an over-protective mom and Beth is there to be her companion. Summer turns into 18 months and Beth integrates well into the family, but for two blips: she falls for Jonah, Nina's only friend, and has to keep it a secret, and the small matter of Nina's grandfather. He's old, rich, and cantankerous, and when he shows up unexpectedly when Nina is ill, Beth has to stand in for her--pretend to be Nina to win over the old man (who holds the family purse strings). It works, but drives a wedge between Beth and Nina. Terrified of being a homeless orphan once more, Beth struggles to reconcile her true self with fitting in at Raven Hall.

In 2019, struggling actress Sadie is invited to a murder mystery party at Raven Hall, where thirty years ago there was a terrible accident. It's a small party, and soon odd things start to happen... Sadie's POV is in third person and, yes, half the fun is trying to puzzle together who everyone is (they're all using code names!) and who connects to Beth's past POV and how.

The third POV is also first person of a young woman, but it's obscured who she is and when she is. I'll not say more for spoiler reasons, but her POV ends up being very interesting, indeed.

All three POVs do eventually tie together in a fun third act, though the third act is also where a few of the narrative choices were a bit disappointing hence the small half star deduction from me. I quite liked the final twist, but there was something hard to explain without some spoilers about one of the POVs in act three that felt a bit heavy on "telling" for me and light on tight, forward action?

This one is GREAT for fans of Gothic tone, old English country manor houses, villages and titled families with secrets, guessing at character identities across time & POVs, and, well, murder mystery parties, ha. (honestly could have used more of that theme/POV but oh well). There were times when I thought of one of my favorite suspense tonal words--languid. I enjoyed sinking into the pages, especially in Beth's POV. It may appeal to some YA readers who also like adult thrillers since a good third of the book is from teenage Beth's POV.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishers for the Advanced Reader Copy in return for an honest review.

Let me start by saying I was sucked in from the very beginning. Set in an old manor? Automatic check in my book. Add in a murder mystery game night? Check and check.

The Perfect Guests was overall a fast-paced, easy read, and I was loving the storyline until it slowed a bit at the end. While I prefer novels not leave you hanging, this one was quite the opposite. There was a bit too much explanation regarding character connections and personal outcomes, it seemed excessive.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to anyone who loves a good mystery!