Thank you @Netgalley and @harperperennial for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Dawn is celebrating her 50th birthday at the tail end of the pandemic. Her old friends have decided to host the birthday celebration over a weekend in a canyon retreat. While at the getaway they decide to take a drug; however, that’s when the weekend takes a turn for the worse. One of her friends has gone missing and then other people keep disappearing. Dawn finds herself alone and tries to figure out if they abandoned her or if they were somehow taken from her.
*
*
I haven’t read a book by this author before. The Last Party started out very slow and left me with more questions than answers. I thought that the author did a good job with the writing and storytelling, but this was just a hard book for me to really get into. There are some mentions of COVID and the pandemic in the book and I feel like that could have made it difficult for me to really get into this book because of how devastating the pandemic has been. I also felt like this book didn’t have a lot of suspense and the part that did was in the last 35% of the book. Overall, I still enjoyed the authors writing and would try another book by her in the future.

A great premise, but a confusing read. On the tail end of the pandemic, Dani (or Dawn) is invited by her old friends to celebrate her 50th birthday in an extravagant weekend in a canyon retreat - a rugged outdoorsy cabin advertising hiking,meditation and great meals.

Interspersed with the chapters we also meet Raj, who is a mysterious character involved in a strange unclear goal until the end of the novel.

Midway through the book it becomes clear that at least one of the participants at the ranch does not have good intentions. Enough flashbacks are provided to provide the backstory to the who/what and why. Still, there was A LOT in this book and it would likely have to be twice as long to wrap up all the outstanding threads.

I enjoyed the premise, and the ideas behind most of the characters. There was just too much in one book - autism, anitvaxing, covid, treachery, dementia, family secrets and lot and lots of animals. The end tied up the main issues but left me with so many questions regarding the secondary characters - what happens next to any of them? A few real cliffhangers remain unclear.

If you like thriller, this could be the book for you. It' s not a locked room, and it's not a true vacation-gone-wrong, There are lots of covid mentions that make it quite contemporary and I learned a bit about ranch life that I did not know! #NetGalley #TheLast{Party

I would assume turning 50 isn't too much fun but for Dani Sanders, turning 50 just feels like another nail in the coffin. Her ex-husband is making her life hell and her daughter is regressing. When her best friend Mia, suggest they celebrate with a little getaway, Danny figures "why not" what could she possibly lose?

How about everything.......

6 friends get together for the weekend and decide they want to take a drug that will magnify their senses but the weekend takes a turn for the worse when secrets, long buried, begin to be exposed.

After taking the drug, Dani realizes one of her friends has gone missing, then another. All of a sudden Dani is alone. Did her friends abandon her or did someone take them ?

The Last Party was very well written, the character development was on point and the ending was like no other. I really enjoyed this book and I can not wait to see what Cassidy Lucas comes up with next.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

A thriller this book was not!!! The characters were boring and extremely vapid. It was a slog to finish this book. I received an ARC from NetGalley, and the opinions expressed are my own.

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review

This is exactly the kind of book you want to read on a cold weekend with a mug of tea under the covers. Trust me. It’s a bit OTT in a good way but suspenseful enough to keep you turn in pages. Perfect escapism. I really liked the characters as well, which always helps

Wow. Im left with more questions the. Answers. It was a slow start but I eventually got into the flow. It was ok
I world read another by this author !

I had read the authors first book Santa monica, and even though that book was a little slow to start I eventually got into it and enjoyed it. So when the last party was a bit slow to start I was thinking it was going to be the same thing. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into the book. That's not to say I didn't finish it because I did. The storytelling and writing itself was excellent and if I was just judging off that it would be five stars all day, but the story itself was a little lacking I thought. There were many characters you had to keep track of and that did get a little bit better after you got through the first quarter of the book but there wasn't much in the book that would make me classify it as a thriller and there were quite a few unanswered questions or maybe the author did that on purpose but for me I would have liked a few more answers.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for a honest review.

2.5 - The Last Party left me with more questions than answers.

{Dawn's fiftieth birthday is approaching, and her best friend Mia is planning a weekend getaway to Celestial Ranch, 18 acres of private property on a mountainside, with their closest friends. The friendships have been rocky, due to an incident over a decade prior, but that is in the past and all is forgiven. Right? The weekend is carefully planned out with many activities, but no one quite expects their last night to go how it did--certainly not Dawn.}


Hear me out OK?

I was pleasantly surpised this book flowed so smoothly with the multiple-character POVs throughout. It was a bit confusing the first 5-8 chapters but pulled together nicely.
COVID-19 was sprinkled throughout this book, and I'm all for a sense of realism but not this. This illness has been devastating, life-changing, and an everyday occurrence in nearly everyone's life for the last (almost two years), so I certainly don't want to read about it in a fictional book.

In my opinion, this isn't a true mystery/thriller.
Where was the suspense? Barely anywhere in this story.
What about a plot twist? Not really, definitely nothing major that shocked me.
No suspense, twist, or thrill was in this book until well past the halfway mark.

I don't want to dilute the fact that this was well written with fantastic storytelling. I'm simply disappointed because it had so much potential.


SPOILER ALERT - the questions
-Raj - Was the main point of his character to show the impacts of COVID-19 and prove a point? I'm a little confused, as his character throughout the book didn't have great placement. I thought maybe something would come of him and Quinn (Dawn's daughter), but nope. Arnold didn't truly need him for the tasks around Celestial Farm. His character just didn't quite fit and the book would have been fine without.
-Dawn - What happens between her and Graham? How does she feel after realizing her impact on her friends after their group fell apart.
-Jax - I enjoyed this little twist of him being Sibyl's younger brother, but what happens after the basement incident? Surely, he doesn't get away with how he treated Sibyl, right? How do the others act after finding out who he really is?
-Twyla and Arnold - Does Twyla find out that Arnolds presumed dementia is an act? Does Twyla find out about all the stuff Arnold set Raj up to do?
-Are they all friends still? Were they all really in the first place, especially after everything crumbled with the group?

Of course, some things can be left to the imagination. However, I could go on and on, there were several things that did not tie together or were left unanswered.


***Thank you NetGalley and Harper Perennial for access to this eARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.***

What a fascinating thriller. I really enjoyed this well paced story with a definite tense feeling that left me reeling. I am immediately identified with the main character.