This was a cozy, holiday type mystery. A little slow to start but the twist at the end was definitely surprising.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book for an honest review

Lizzie has been in love with Dean forever however Dean regards Lizzie as only a friend. Dean is really in love with her best friend. Lizzie is unaware of this relationship and plans to tell Dean her true feelings on the night of the Christmas party, instead he tells her of his love for her friend and he’s unhappy because this relationship is coming to an end because she plans to leave the village. This is a big shock and she leaves the party in a hurry asking her mother to come and pick her up. Lizzie is unaware until the following morning that the friend has gone missing after the party. Who is responsible, there are some twists and turns. The attending police are treated with suspicion and the villagers are not happy with their presence. What happened to this girl on a cold frosty night after the Christmas party read the book and find out you might be surprised.3 stars

An easy holiday read. While Rebecca has disappeared following an office Xmas party the main focus of the story is Lizzie. I found it difficult to like Lizzie which probably limited my enjoyment.

Thank you to Netgalley, Harper Collins and Georgina Lees for an ARC in return for an honest review.

"He should have chosen me. I never should have chosen him."
A story full of lies, deceit and murder. What's not to love?
This was a great read of 'what's happened' and 'who's done it'.
Although this is a quick-paced thriller and a good plot, the ending disappointed me.
I still enjoyed it though.

This book took a while for me to get to however once I did I'm very glad. I was a bit unsure because of all of the hype that it had very big shoes to fill but this book surpassed all of me expectations. It took off like a bullet and never stopped. One of the parts that I really liked but didn't expect to was how our main character doesn't have a name for a good chuck of the book. We get everything from her point of view and her conversations but we don't get her actual name for a long time. It wasn't something that I'm used to in books but it was an
interesting chance and it suited the writing style and the plot of the story perfectly so I'm glad that the author chose to go that way. I loved the main character in this story and her determination to get to the bottom of everything that was going on. This thriller will keep you guessing through the whole book. This story was all about our main character Lizzie being in love with her co-worker Dean. She thinks about him all of the time and has been in love with him forever. When Dean confesses to her at their Christmas party one evening that he is in love with her best friend Rebecca, Lizzie's world crashes. How can this be happening to her? Her world is shattered and she doesn't know what to do. Then suddenly a few days later police show up at Lizzie's door, Rebecca is missing. What happened to Rebecca? Where did she go? And who if anyone is responsible for her disappearance? This thriller will keep you guessing and with a first person narrative it is very easy to get lost in the plot. Great read I'm so glad that I got the chance to check this one out if you like psychological thrillers than this is the one for you. This book had me so wrapped up in the characters and the story the world could have caught fire around me and I would have been none the wise. While I was so invested in this plot and wanted to know what was going to happen I never wanted this book to end. Great read this is one thriller that will be talked about for a while that's for sure. Check it out if you haven't already. I think the best part about this book was the ending, I never saw it coming and it made it so much better. I can't wait until this book is released and everyone else can enjoy this book as much as I have.

The things we do for love….
There’s nothing to like about any of the characters here but that just adds to this excellent psychological thriller.
Just how much would you do to protect those that you love?
Dean loves Rebecca, Lizzie loves Dean, and no one can love you like your mother does……

After The Party is a 3.5⭐️ rounded up to 4.
Lizzie has been in love with Dean for years but he doesn’t know it. It’s the office Christmas party and Dean takes Lizzie outside, her hopes are high but crash down very quickly and what happens over the course of the night will stay with Lizzie for the rest of her life.
I found this very slow going at the start, I feel it’s more a cozy mystery type read than a psychological thriller. I didn’t like any of the characters but somehow that seemed to work in this read. The ending was not one I whole heartedly wished for but the big reveal was not even on my radar so I massive plus for that. On the whole I enjoyed it I just missed the big moments you usually get in a thriller.
I would like to thank Netgalley and HarperCollins One More Chapter for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

Description 🔖

Lizzie has been in love with her colleague Dean for years. The only problem is, he doesn’t know and hasn’t given her a second look in a romantic capacity. When Lizzie gets a job offer in London that means she can finally pursue her passion for art, she is seriously contemplating giving up on her love for Dean and moving away.

Until the night of their work Christmas party. Dean admits his love to Lizzie; and it’s not for her. It’s for her work friend Rebecca. A few days after the party, Lizzie is questioned by the police. Rebecca is missing.

General Thoughts 🤔

This was quite an easy to read psychological thriller as it wasn’t overly complex and therefore easy to follow. It was enjoyable, but it could have been a bit more. I feel like the author played it safe and scaled back on the thrilling aspects. The story had the potential to be great and I liked this author’s writing so it could have been superb, but I think the plot somewhat let the book down.

Characters 👫👭👬

I had doubts about all of the characters in this book because I didn’t like any of them. I’m not saying this as a criticism of the book, I think it can be good when you feel strongly about a character, positively or otherwise.

Lizzie was far too obsessed with Dean. She was like a teenager moping after her school crush and I was begging for someone to give her a shake and tell her to snap out of it.

Dean was simply not a very nice person in my opinion. Considering his girlfriend who he was apparently in love with was missing, he didn’t seem to be too concerned about her whereabouts.

Writing Style ✍️

This is the first Georgina Lees book that I have read and I did really enjoy her writing style. In fact
I think it was the strongest aspect of this book. I don’t think that the plot lived up to her writing ability.

As much as I didn’t particularly like the main character Lizzie, I think that she was written well and her gloomy vibe definitely rubbed off on me as a reader. I felt her emotions and I did get absorbed into what was going on in her head.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

I liked the setting of this book and it was an easy story to follow but it did feel like it was missing something and I would have liked some more shocking twists and a different ending. That said, I enjoyed this authors voice and I would like to read more of her work.

Thank you to HarperCollins, One more Chapter, Netgalley, and Georgina Lees for a copy of their book “After the Party” in exchange for an honest review.

First the things I liked,

I genuinely did not see the “who done it” coming. I’m glad that I was taken by surprise because it’s not very often that I feel like I couldn’t see it coming from a mile away. But with After the Party, I genuinely had no suspicion until the “twist” was revealed.

I also liked that the cast of characters was pretty small. Sometimes mystery/Thriller books can get confusing when there’s such a large cast of characters. But I was able to keep all of these characters straight and unconfused.

Now the things I didn’t like,

The mystery itself seemed like the stakes were pretty low. There was no part of the book where my heart was pounding or I was reading pages as fast as I could to get to the end.

The motivations of the characters seemed pretty flimsy at best as well. When I got to the end everything made sense, but I still wasn’t totally convinced why that person would do what they did.

Thirdly the main character.

Her obsession with the character Dean was slightly off putting. Not once was I convinced she was actually in love with him as much as she seemed like she was in love with the idea of him. I didn’t think they had any chemistry, and she had more chemistry with the police investigator assigned to the case in their interview/interrogation scenes than her and Dean did in the entire book.

Over all I thought it was a pretty cozy mystery with low stakes and no gory or graphic descriptions. If you want a mystery but don’t want any of the gory or scary bits this is definitely the book for you!

Not sure what to say about this book, I didn’t dislike it, but I didn’t like it either. It’s a very slow start for a thriller, it starts off more contemporary fiction instead. I think this author would be great at writing these type of books. Her writing style is good, very descriptive and you get a good knowledge of the characters. I personally found the main character a tad annoying though. The emphasis on the storyline was more a romance than a thriller.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy for an honest review.

Lizzie has been in love with Dean for three years but Dean hasn’t even given Lizzie a second look so when Lizzie gets a job offer in London which promises to launch her art career Lizzie finally feels ready to move to London in pursuit of a new a fresh start of her dream job until the night of the office Christmas party when Dean confesses his love for someone else who is one of Lizzies closest friends Rebecca and then a few days later the police show up on her doorstep saying Rebecca is missing

I thought the story was good, and the I liked that you weren't sure where it was going. However that being said - I was bored. I know people just LOVED this book, but I barely made it through. I thought it was just ok...

I do want to thank the author, the publisher and #netgalley for the ARC which did not impact my reivew. I just wish I could have given a better one..

I found After the Party a really difficult book to get into. I found it a little slow and drawn out and I couldn't connect with any of the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC.

Found the book rather slow. The party wasn’t until half way through. I sadly didn’t enjoy this book. It just wasn’t what I expected

Lizzie works in an office but isn’t that keen on her job. She does a lot of drawing and she loves painting pictures, even one of her local pub which is hung in there. She is friends with Marie, Rachel and Dean but fell in love with Dean when she first set eyes on him, three years ago. Marie knew how she felt about Dean and that was the only thing at the moment keeping her at work, his smile and wave and the odd chat or night out after work. One day Dean mentions to Lizzie about how good her website is and what a competent artist she is. She is surprised that he knows about it and she assumes Marie must have told him about it. She looks at it one night and decides to update the paintings on it for her portfolio and her C.V. then sends her details to some prospective employers and waits to see what happens if anything.

Lizzie is surprised to get an offer of a job interview in London for Monday week, so she books the day off work and invites Marie out for drinks that night to tell her the surprise news. Marie wants to know if Lizzie is going to tell Dean about her job interview and that she could tell him on Friday at the staff party. Lizzie said that yes she would tell him. Friday came and Marie arranged to pick Lizzie up to drive her to Tinley Manor House for the party. Lizzie was surprised but Marie said she and Robbie had argued about her drinking and staying out, hence the driving but she did offer Lizzie a swig from a hip flask for dutch courage. We see Rachel at the bar and she tells me her news. She is leaving for London to start a new job. Later that night, after the meal, the dance music comes on so we get up to dance but after Dean has been watching us, I go over to him to speak to him. We go outside and walk through the gardens when he says he has something to tell me. He has fallen in love with someone but she is leaving. I think, how could he know? I haven’t had the interview yet. He carries on, ‘It’s Rachel. We have been seeing each other on and off for a few months.’ I throw up and ask him to get Marie. Mum comes to take me home.

I go to the interview on Monday and it goes well but when I get home that evening, there are two men coming out of Sheila’s front door. They approach me and introduce themselves as police officers and ask if they can come inside, there is something they need to discuss. When we enter the house, they tell me they tried me at work. Then they tell me that Rebecca has been missing since after the party on Friday evening. They asked when I left so I told them and who with. Why had Marie or Dean not messaged me. Poor Rachel. Why hadn’t she been found yet?

This was a great thriller to read. The suspense could be felt throughout the whole book. The author did a great job with writing this book and I was hooked into reading in two sittings. I thought Lizzie was a really lovely person.

This is the story of budding artist Lizzie, who lives alone in a cottage that she has recently purchased in a small village in Norwich. Lizzie is hiding a secret, one which only her best friend and colleague Marie knows about. For the past 3 years, she has been in love with a colleague Dean, a Scottish native who works in the same office. Lizzie decides that at her office Christmas party, she is finally going to reveal her true feelings to Dean, however on the night. he tells her a secret of his own. He is love with Rebecca, another mutual colleague and a close friend of hers, and has been in a secret relationship with her for the past year. Lizzie is devastated, and leaves the party, asking her mother to pick her up. Days later when the police show up on her doorstep to inform her that Rebecca has been missing since the night of the party, Lizzie is shocked, and decides to do some digging herself. What will she discover about the night Rebecca went missing, and who is responsible?

I did enjoy this story, and the twist at the end was good, I didn’t see that coming! I did feel that the book dragged on a bit in certain parts. The characters were interesting, and there were a few red herrings along the way, but it didn’t blow me away completely where I thought wow! It did feel I wanted to read on though, and find out what happened in the end.

Thank you for ARC of this book!

An intriguing psychological thriller.

Lizzie is in love with Dean.
Dean confesses his love for Lizzie's close friend Rebecca.
Rebecca goes missing.

Full of twists and turns, a compelling read.

This book had way too much "Oh but I love him" and not enough actual suspense for me. Or maybe it had the right enough suspense but it was overpowered by the constant mooning of the main character about how much she loves a coworker. It felt like a middle school crush more than a grown up person having actual feelings. That is too bad because the actual mystery was good! It was really good! But it got overly bogged down by the weird pining and that made it extremely difficult to even try and like or sympathize with the characters. So, if you can handle a lot of that adolescent love talk (the word "love" was used 145 times) interrupting your murder and suspense, this is a great book for you!

Lizzie has just been promoted to Project Manager at her firm. At university, she studied art and is a talented artist. However, she has yet to try and go out on her own as a artist. Lizzie has a small cottage of her own and has a crush on her co-worker, Dean.

Lizzie’s, friend, Marie has just gotten engaged and everyone is happy for her. However, she drinks too much. Lizzie has offered for her to stay at her cottage on the nights that she is too drunk to go home. Rebecca, another co-worker, seems to be depressed and Lizzie is worried about her.

The office Christmas party was held at a nice location which included dinner, dancing and an open bar. When they all have too much to drink, some secrets come out and Lizzie calls her Mom to take her home. But that night, Marie has offered to drive Rebecca home. Marie has had too much to drink, but drives anyway, resulting in an accident. But, then Rebecca goes missing, and no one knows where she has gone. When the police get involved, things get scary.

This book was just so depressing. It’s about unrequited love, lots of alcohol and even more rain. I did not care for any of the characters and felt the plot just dragged. All I can say is I’m glad to have reached the ending.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Wow, Georgina Lees can deliver fantastic psychological thrillers, indeed she can!

This one is packed with relatable, but mostly unlikable characters, a great, unusual plot and the most unexpected, unforseen ending you would ever think of (and which I had to read twice just to be sure it was really ending that way).

This is the second book I read by this author and I will recommend both to anyone!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lizzie's life is stagnating. She still lives in her hometown, & works a job she doesn't like all that much instead of pursuing an art career. One major reason for this is that she has been in love with work colleague, Dean, for three years. Lizzie has never told Dean how she feels but, after all the lingering gazes between them, she wonders if he feels the same. When she is basically goaded into applying for a job in London, she realises that now is the time before it's too late.

On the night of their work's Christmas party, they go out into the garden where Dean confesses his love.......for someone else, other work colleague, Rebecca. Apparently they have been dating for a year & Lizzie had no idea & feels humiliated & ends up leaving early, claiming illness. The next day, two police officers turn up to question Lizzie about the party as it seems that Rebecca never made it home afterwards & no-one knows where she is or what has happened to her.

From the synopsis I thought it was going to be a taut thriller where the main character fights to clear their name, but instead, Lizzie goes all Nancy Drew & decides she is better placed than the police to find Rebecca & work out what happened. In fact most of what she does is chase after/call Dean to find out what's going on. It gets very repetitive & very boring very fast. It's obvious the detective is attracted to her but really, would any police officer have a drink in the local pub with someone who is involved in the case they are investigating? Not if they want to keep their job I would have thought.

The main character is so much in Dean's thrall that it's slightly embarrassing to read about it. Her mother is almost smothering in her attention, & as for Dean - I think most of us have met a Dean sometime or another. The kind of person that has no qualms in taking advantage of the feelings of the woman who has a crush on them & yet viewing her as pathetic for having those feelings. Everyone else was quite thinly drawn, even the detective investigating the case seemed a rather shadowy figure. It's a bit of a shame as the author can definitely write well but this is not a great book. Finally, I hated the ending. 2.5 stars (rounded up)

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, HarperCollins UK/One More Chapter, for the opportunity to read an ARC.