The Club is one part murder mystery - like an Agatha Christie at set at Soho House - and one part social commentary on sexism and misogyny in the #metoo era. It's a whodunnit with a large rotation of POV and hidden motives, slowly revealed chronologically, with interspersed segments of future new coverage cut into the story to drive along the narrative. It felt remiencent of Sandie Jones' The Guilt Trip, Lucy Foley's The Guest List, or Peter Swanson's Every Vow You Break, but also unique on its own.

The book opens with a scene set at the height of the action - with no identifying details, just a teaser - before resetting to two days before at the beginning. The Home Group is about open its latest and greatest location in its collection of glamorous celebrity members' clubs arrayed across the globe, where the rich and famous can party hard in its five-star suites, far from the prying eyes of fans and the media. No cameras, no phones, no questions asked. This latest addition is named Island Home - a private, ultra-luxurious resort just off the English coast - and the three-day launch party is the most coveted A-list invite among the rich and famous. A very elite number of members are invited for a pre-launch dinner party, even more exclusive than the launch weekend. These members, along with a few Home employees, make up our cast of characters. It took me awhile (a few chapters) to start keeping them all straight. Ted and Adam Groom are the owners of the brand. Annie Spark is their head of membership. Nikki is Ned's personal assistant. Jess is the head of housekeeping. All of them have hidden motives for why they are there and what their agenda is going into the weekend. Kurt, Keith, Jackson and Georgia are the invited guests with secrets aplenty. As all the backstabbing and machinations play out, the tension amongst the group escalates until all hell breaks loose.

I generally really enjoyed this book. It was a clever commentary wrapped up as a murder-mystery/thriller. I saw a lot a negative posts going into this, and I have a feeling that a lot of readers may have been underestimating the commentary aspect of the book - this is not a straightforward thriller or mystery. So much of the who, what, how and why is wrapped up in that. I did find the jumping POV and "continued from" news coverage a little confusing - simply having those as part of the chapter or table of contents tabs would have made navigation a little easier, but that's something that might already be worked out in the final draft.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper for an ARC of this book.

This is an unusual story with a bizarre assortment of characters which is what makes it so entertaining. Island Home is an exclusive resort for celebrities and A-Listers. Ultra-posh where every whim is catered to and overseen by head honcho Ned, his brother Adam, Ned’s PA, Nikki, and Annie, who handles memberships. The guests are ridiculously self-centered, pampered, egotistical, all with baggage and hidden secrets and issues. The same goes for those who run the show.

When Ned sets up a blackmail scheme, centered around several of his guests’ worst secrets, the situation implodes in ugly ways. Till all is said and done, there isn’t just one body that turns up, but several.
Told from multiple third person POVs, the book also uses clips from an article about what took place on the island. There is plenty of glitz, and the twists and turns in the plot are nicely executed. It’s a little slow to get off the ground, but worth sticking with, especially when everything starts to slot into place.
If I have one quibble the book is on the wordy side. I’m a reader who loves description, but I often felt like I was wading through passages of lengthy prose, many that seemed repetitious of what came before. That aside, I would recommend The Club to those who like locked room mysteries with an eclectic assortment of characters.

The Club- a SoHo House-like, ultra-excusive resort is made to cater to the very rich and famous. The team behind the scenes is just as power hungry as their guests. Power, murder, and resort behind the scenes made this book interesting but not very good.

Each chapter changed points of view. I usually like this in a book but this one had too many narrators and I had trouble distinguishing them and keeping them separate as I was reading. I liked the character development for some of them, but I wanted more, with less voices. I liked the setting and the drama, but this book was just overall fairly mediocre.
2.75 stars

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

I am rounding up from a 3.5. This was an interesting mystery. I am not quite sure how to rate it because it did have its issues, even though the story was great and I enjoyed reading it.
The book begins with what appears to be a murder at the opening of Island Home, an incredibly exclusive getaway for the incredibly rich and famous. The island is the newest addition to the Home Group: world-wide members-only resorts for the creme-de-la-creme of celebrities. The celebrities--all paying members of the Home Group--vied for highly coveted invitations to the jaw-dropping opening weekend in order to be pampered in absolute luxury. However something quite sinister is happening at Island Home. And the question then becomes what exactly is wrong with Home? Who knows what secrets are being kept, and how far will people go to keep--or reveal--those secrets? When people disappear and then dead bodies begin to pile up, it becomes obvious that it is the people who have the most who will do the most to keep themselves safe.
This was a very twisty, well-thought out mystery. The reader is never really quite sure, especially at the beginning, who has died and who might be responsible for those deaths. Tidbits are slowly revealed that shed light on what exactly happened on that fateful weekend, and what events led up to making that weekend a flashpoint for murder, vengeance, and desperation.
The big issue with the fact that tidbits are slowly revealed is that very small tidbits are incredibly slowly revealed, while buried in pages and pages of inner monologs. Characters ruminate on why they don't like other characters, or how they dealt with serious events and tragic setbacks in their life, or how they ended up in the positions they are in now...and it got a bit boring. These interludes do shine a light on how exactly everything leads up to multiple deaths on Island Home and make each circumstance very impactful, but things also could have been trimmed. A great deal of time was spent in unnecessarily detailed descriptions and ruminations on what happened in the past. If these sections had been tightened up it would have created a greater sense of suspense and urgency and would have made the book that much better. I also would have liked a little more from Ned. He was such a huge part of the story that it would have been nice to perhaps see things from his point of view or get a larger sense of who he was. Most of what the reader sees of him are interactions with other characters when he is incensed or irate or enraged. Therefore he didn't come across as a three-dimensional character until towards the very end of the book. Fleshing him out a bit would have really added some depth to the story.
I did enjoy the book and would recommend it, despite of the issues I had with it. The ending was great and I loved it. If you enjoy a slow-burn twisty mystery, then you should check this one out.

I hate leaving bad reviews, but we are supposed to give honest reviews on Netgalley. So here it goes. I hated this book. There wasn't a single decent character in it and the plot was ridiculous. I'm not going to go into any more details, but yeah - skip this book.

It’s too bad that it was so bitter cold here today because The Club is the kind of page flipper I prefer reading at the beach or at least outside.

There were quite a few characters to get familiar with, but once I had them straight, I enjoyed each of their perspectives.

The location is a private island, where the latest ultra inclusive Island Home Club is opening. It takes more than money or fame to get a membership, and Ned Groom, the CEO has a lot to say about everything. To put it mildly, he’s a rather unpleasant man right from the get-go, and as his secrets are revealed, let’s just say he took more than one step down in my opinion. The other MCs, whether staff or guests all have secrets that make for a lot of twists and turns.

Oh, and did I mention the book opens with a death, though the identity and motive will not be revealed until much later, so I had plenty of opportunities to guess what had gone wrong on this little slice of super-wealthy heaven.

I didn’t love how it ended but part of that probably had more to do with my location. Wealthy people behaving very badly and all their dark secrets just scream beach read to me. If you enjoy peeling back the curtain and seeing how very few people get to live, it will be easy to get caught up in all the drama. I would most likely add a star if I did read this on the beach.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ ½
Genre: Mystery Thriller

The Club is the story of a VIP club where all the rich, celebrities and A-list members meet in a luxurious place for parties and fun. Everybody is eager to be a member of this club and even the staff who serve these celebrities consider themselves lucky to have this job. Island Home is the latest luxurious club that is run by Ned Groom, the CEO of the Home Group. The story is set on an isolated private island and all the events occur during the first few days of the launch.

The story is told from multiple POVs using the third person narration. There is Jess, who is among the housekeeping staff. Adam, who is the CEO’s brother (Ned), Annie, who is responsible for memberships and later becomes the acting CEO, and Nikki, the personal assistant of Ned. The book has many other characters and needs some focusing so you won’t feel lost. For the size of the book, I do think that there were far more characters than required.

I absolutely loved the premise of this story. An isolated place, celebrities, hardly any likable character, and lots of secrets and backstabbing! There is lots of tension building if you are able to be patient with the pace. That is the main problem with the book, the pacing. The first 70% of it was very slow (I would have been OK if that pace continued) and then the last 30% was too fast and somehow went over the top with many characters dying and falling like flies! I was a bigger fan of the subtility that the slower part has offered. I feel it fitted the theme more. My one criticism of the story is the believability factor. I mean when you have a club like that with big names and VIPs staying there is supposed to be some kind of security force. I don’t recall there were any.

I have read the digital ARC version (ePub file) and I feel this book is not suitable to be read in such a format because there are many parts of the story that continue from a previous page. You get a header that says “continued from page 65”. Of course, reading an ePub means there is no way to know what page 65 was about. So I had to continue reading disregarding all that. If you are choosing a digital format go for a PDF if the pages are numbered. Otherwise, your best option will be the physical book once it is out.

This was quite an entertaining read for me. The characters were very interesting, their different motives were fascinating. The atmosphere and the setting both were superb. The pacing is the only downside of the story. I think the authors (Husband & Wife) did a pretty good job.

Many thanks to the publisher Harper and NetGalley for providing me with an advance reader copy of this book.

The most exclusive party only 150 people are invited to the private Island to enjoy a life of luxury and a weekend they will never forget. So many secrets from guests to staff make this book one intriguing read. How are they all connected? Ned is the ultimate puppet master with all their lives only no one knows but him.

For some this will be the last party they ever go to.

A locked room mystery in a Fantasy Island meets Lifestyles of The Rich and Famous setting. Slow start, but once the pace picks up, a fun ride

Welcome to The Club where not everything is as it seems, everyone has major character flaws (some of them fatal), and more than one person has reason to off another. This quick read thriller offers a unique setting (tide-limited access private island off the coast of Great Britain), multiple whodunnits, despicable characters, an eerie interactive costume party, and yet the opportunity for human redemption. An interesting take on the #MeToo movement and how things could go down if left to human nature. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars based on ending. Thank you #NetGalley and #HarperCollins for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review..

From the synopsis I was very intrigued to read this story. It started off slowly and unfortunately stayed that way for me. The characters and all the events very described in lots of detail but it just never got interested! Honestly, if I did not receive an ARC I would not have finished this book. I have heard so many good things about the author’s previous work so I will definitely check that book out instead. Thank you to author, publisher and Netgalley for the ARC -
This story releases March 1st. My review will also be posted to my Instagram blog books_by_the_bottle shortly.

Published: March 1, 2022
Harper
Pages: 303
Genre: Psychological Fiction
KKECReads Rating: 4/5
I received a copy of this book for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.

Ellery Lloyd is the pseudonym for London-based husband-and-wife writing team Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos. Collette is a journalist and editor, the former content director of Elle (UK), and the editorial director at Soho House. She has written for The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Sunday Times. Paul is the author of two previous novels, Welcome to the Working Week and Every Day is Like Sunday. He is the program director for English Literature with Creative Writing at the University of Surrey.

“This ain’t a members’ club, is it? It’s a racket with a reception desk.”

Ned Groom took the idea of private and selective club membership to the extreme with his Home clubs, located globally. As he and his team prepare for yet another launch of Island Home, the last thing anyone is expecting is ulterior motives.

This was a twisted game of clue set on an island. So many secrets, so many devious intentions, and one hell of a launch.

This story is told through altering timelines and through various characters. For the first several subchapters, it seems to be random. But then pieces start falling into place.

Like a carefully crafted domino design, as soon as that first domino falls, the rest come tumbling down, and we are thrust into the most intense storyline ever.

The characters were all memorable in unique ways. And the level of their membership varied upon just who they were and what they had done.

This was a keep your friends close and your enemies closer whirlwind of chaos. It was orchestrated beautifully, and things came together in a very synchronized way.

I didn’t know which way was up for most of this one, between the secrets, the plots, and the audacity of these guests. Lifestyles of the rich and the famous- Wowza!

When The Guest List was given a the hype, I fully expected it to be the type of page turning mystery on a locked Island. I was bored 15% in. The Club, similar premise but basically SoHo House on a secluded island, and the mystery of who is dead and why unfolds over the pages. I finished it in one sitting, compulsively turning the pages each narrative distinct and compelling although one, the looming presence over the book Ned, is only told through how he interacts with everyone else. I really enjoyed this one with all the breadcrumbs dropped throughout and a very well earned ending.

The second release from husband/wife duo Ellery Lloyd did not disappoint! Compulsive & bone-chilling, this thriller will definitely keep you up late into the night!

Centered around an exclusive, members-only club, “The Club” takes you into the dark world of celebrity & the secrets surrounding its world-famous individuals. We meet wealthy brothers Ned & Adam Groom who appear to have it all, even while a dark side lingers to everything they do. As proprietors of the worldwide “Home” brand, they wine & dine celebrities before eventually accepting their membership, which is shrouded in secrecy. The rich and famous are able to visit the Home franchises all over the world, where they can dine, relax, visit the spa & engage in outdoor activities, all without cell phones & the prying eyes of the media.

As the Groom Brothers prepare for the grand opening of their newest location in England, it appears the weekend is going to center around more than just the party. An ominous vibe begins to descend as it appears many of the characters are gearing up for what’s sure to be a memorable time. Jess, the new head of housekeeping, seems to be harboring a sad past that has driven her right into her new position. Nikki, personal assistant to CEO Ned Groom, is almost so meek & mild you just know she has something to hide. While Annie, head of membership, is fake to the point it’s apparent she can’t be who she says she is.

As the plot deepens, the author tells the story from the points-of-view of not only Jess, Nikki and Annie, but also ends each chapter with an excerpt from a magazine article detailing the events of the infamous grand opening weekend. Yes, I said infamous because as the secrets around each character begins to unravel, the event crescendos in terror with not one, not two, but four deaths on Groom’s prized island getaway. Who will survive and who will walk away unharmed? Pick up “The Club” today to find out!

The Club was like the plot of The Guest List but written like Big Little Lies, where the reader knows something big has happened. We know someone is dead or missing, but we don’t know who or why. We also know that Island Home is a place where celebrities with too much money for their own good go to let loose away from the prying eyes of the media, and that something crazy is bound to happen.

This book has a lot of characters, and it takes a few chapters to start to get them all straight. There are four POVs: Jess, Nikki, Annie, and Adam.There are countless secondary characters, mainly the guests at Home, some of whom are important to the storyline but not all. In addition to the four POVs, the story is interspersed with sections of a Vanity Fair article that came out after the big incident.

I thought the story was well-told, but definitely got bogged down in places with some of the fake celebrity gossip. I admittedly skimmed a few passages to get to the meat of the chapter.

I really enjoyed how the different plot threads in The Club came together, and the ending was a satisfying one in which all the worst characters got what they deserved. If you like a twisty thriller with lots of moving parts, pick this one up!

Thank you NetGalley and Harper for the eARC.
This was a fun read, with several murders and lots of information on the running of exclusive clubs for the rich and famous, as well as the not so admirable or acceptable behaviour of stars and socialites, or the owners and staff of the HOME clubs. These clubs are very expensive, very exclusive and all.over the world.
There are several characters with back stories and I admit to basically not liking any of them, except for two of the women working there who have genuine cause to hate a couple of the guests. The guests are all highly obnoxious and despicable, you don't care that several.of them are murdered, but that certainly doesn't take away from the fun of the book. I genuinely had a hard time putting it down and will definitely read People Magazine or any of the other entertainment magazines with even more scepticism than usual. Good beach read. Rounded up to 3.5 stars.

What could have been better?
This book got very slow for an against the clock suspense story. Like very slow. At the beginning I felt pulled in but the further I got in the more I felt disconnected.

There were multiple POVs but I felt like I didn’t get enough time in any of them.

It was fairly predictable, I guessed almost everything.

I just couldn’t stay as engaged as I wanted, and I think this has a lot to do with the pacing?

I just wanted more thrills, more suspense, just more.

What I liked?
The premise was a great idea and it had a great set up.

I thought that Jess’s POV and Nikki’s were fairly interesting and, at times, Annie too.

Mixing in the present day news clippings made it more interesting.

I thought that everything connected together logically.

I also think this would probably translate well into a Netflix series or lifetime movie.

If you don’t mind a slow burn, and like a mystery with multiple POVs so you can see the lies unravel in front of your eyes? Check this out!

2.75 rounded to 3

The Club is a thriller with lots of twists and turns, celebs and rich elites, told from multiple points of view. A page turner once you get past the initial part of the book; this one would make for an entertaining beach read. “If your name is on the list, you’re not getting out.”

Thank you to Harper and NetGalley for this ARC.

Intense story of an exclusive club with various locations around the world, where members pay dearly for doing whatever they want. The owner is shrewd and cocky, but the staff do what they must to cater to the members.

It was a rough start for this book as you are thrown right into a body being found and dozens of names are thrown at you with no real context. There are also various timelines that do not have a definite label but the premise intrigues me enough to stick with it. Once the novel hits its stride and you recognize the names, you realize this is a story about revenge and karma. Home is a club with many locations but very limited members that allows certain clientele to do whatever they want within its walls but, that all comes at a price. The Club follow the owner, his brother, and various members and employees intertwined through Home and how their web of lies is about to be revealed. As the story progresses and you learn its secrets you horrified and cannot wait to see how it all ends. This is one of my favorite type of thrillers in which it started off a mess but ends up pretty tidy.