Well this book was one hell of a ride, and I really enjoyed the twists and plot in this one!

The story is told in alternative chapters so you get each of the 6 friends perspective - although I am not sure I would call them 'friends', what friends hold so many secrets and treat each other so poorly?!

For me this was the perfect thriller: face paced and so much drama!

This was the first book I have read from Victoria Jenkins but I am looking forward to picking up more now.

Six friends go away for a relaxing hen weekend - but as the drama unfolds, it is clear that each person has their secrets. As one member of the party is found dead in the pool, the book provides a narrative of showing the events as they unfolded.

There were so many twists and turns to this story that I was constantly surprised and left guessing at what would happen next.

Recommended for those that enjoy British thrillers/whodunnits.

The Bridesmaids
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Thriller
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 5/23/22
Author: Victoria Jenkins
Publisher: Bookouture
Pages: 246
Goodreads Rating: 3.92

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing a digital copy of the book for me to read in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: Holly is getting married, but not before a celebration weekend with her closest friends. After a night of arguments, a body is found floating in the swimming pool of their secluded cottage. Holly must face up to the truth – one of her bridesmaids is a killer, but which one?

My Thoughts: The narrators of the story are Suzanne, Holly, and Claire, told from their POV. All 3 of narrators had a similar personality, so at time, this made it a little difficult to keep them straight at times. The story opens up with tragedy and then backdates up to that point. I like this style, makes for an interesting read. The way they treated each other, one would begin to wonder if they were truly friends, then again this is a work of fiction. The characters were well-developed and untrustworthy. There is drama and twists galore. At times, it was hard to put down, you could definitely binge-read this in a sitting. When every woman has something to hide, they all have a motive, well it makes for an interesting read. I recommend this book.

If there is one lesson to learn from The Bridesmaids (a new psych thriller by Victoria Jenkins), it’s that women do not need men to screw up their lives. They are quite capable of being vicious to each other and causing all kinds of devastation.
That may sound a bit dramatic, but then again, so are the plot threads in this book.
What is supposed to be a fun hen weekend away for Holly and her bridesmaids, most of them lifelong friends, turns dark in many ways.
It is apparent almost immediately that everyone at this party has something to hide. Some secrets are ancient history, and some are more recent. But they all affect each of the other women in some way.
I imagine these connections were not easy to establish and keep straight, because it does become quite a web of lies and deceit. So, kudos to the author on that.
I liked how the action is told from alternating points of view. The reader gets a holistic sense of the events because each person has a different perspective and very different motivations for their actions.
While you would think that Holly is the main narrator (as it is her weekend) that isn’t necessarily the case. I would say that she isn’t even the one who is most impacted by it all.
I don’t want to give anything away, but let’s just say that nobody gets out of the weekend unscathed.
There are a few unfinished threads. For example, Zoe doesn’t seem to have much to do except be there as a catalyst for the others. It would have been nice to have her be a bit more balanced with the others.
That being said, there is so much else going on, it kind of doesn’t matter. I guess that is a bit nitpicky on my part.
There is a point in the book where the secrets start to come to light and once that begins, the actions of the women and the ensuing event come fast and furious. The author holds nothing back – it is punch after punch of “holy crap, no way!” revelations.
I also think the author is bold in the choice of ending. Many books wrap everything up neatly and characters make amends of some kind. But real life isn’t like that. So, allowing everything to be more natural actually reflects the impact the weekend had on the women.
And even then, the author still has one last revelation in the last pages.
As I said at the beginning of this review, women are quite capable of sabotaging and being horrible to each other. Victoria Jenkins does an excellent job of illustrating this in The Bridesmaids.

What in the actual world?! The drama, suspense and insane plot twists! Okay, what happens when you get several women, all with dark secrets, together in a remote area to celebrate an upcoming wedding? Whatever you think, add that x 10! Holly is celebrating her upcoming nuptials and her friends plan her a bachelorette party at a super posh house with a pool and sauna. While it is a little remote and the wifi is awful, there are plenty of drinks to go around. But with alcohol, comes loose lips, jealousy and hot tempers. What a wild ride!!! Highly recommend.

thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Oh my this has some drama! If you are looking for thriller look no further. Holly is set to get married in a few weekends and goes on a “Hen weekend” with her bridesmaids and long time friends. But we’re these ladies ever REALLY friends? This is told from multiple points of view and has a major plot twist towards the end! I really enjoyed this book overall. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this advanced copy!

When a weekend getaway goes horribly wrong and one bridesmaid is found dead in the pool, everyone becomes a suspect.

I was captivated by the synopsis of this book and had high hopes going into it. Unfortunately, The Bridesmaids wasn’t my favorite read. It took me a while to finish this book because I wouldn’t feel compelled to pick it back up again once I’ve put it down. I didn’t find the characters likeable, which made it hard to care what was happening in the story.
I also didn’t particularly like the multiple POVs. However, I did appreciate the twists in this story. There were several moments that caught me off guard, which made the read worth while. If you’re a fan of mysteries and thrillers, I’d rercommend you check out The Bridesmaids. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it more than I did. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

locked room thrillers seem to be all the rage. this is yet another. it has six friends and a lot of secrets. i wish i had loved this one more, but it was similar to others i have read. i did not hate this by any means, it just lacked the shock value i expect since i tend to read a lot of thrillers. make no mistake, the writing is good and i would read more from the author. i just think the storyline has been a tad oversaturated in the current thriller market, and i would have loved to see a different approach. albeit having some predictable twists and a lackluster ending, it was still a solid read. i would suggest this book to fans of locked room thrillers, fans of lucy foley, and of course, fans of the author.

thank you netgalley and bookouture for the digital review copy.

The Bridesmaids: A must read for 2022! This book has everything it's gripping, thrilling and keeps you turning the pages. I loved the multiple first person POVs. A great book and one I will be recommending.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

RATING: 4⭐/5
There is ONE spoiler in this review (start & end has been placed so you can avoid it)
TRIGGER WARNINGS: Murder, car accident, cheating, pregnancy, blackmail, incest* (?)

⭐ FULL REVIEW: I finished this book in just one sitting because it was that gripping. It was like you couldn’t put it down, because you needed to know what was going to happen next. One thing that I found really refreshing about this book in the genre that it was in was that in addition to us readers not knowing who was the killer, we also didn’t know who actually died until later on in the story.

I also wanted to commend the author because not only was the writing phenomenal, but it accurately captured the eerie feeling of the book, especially from the halfway point. Reading this made me feel a little unsettled, but in the best way possible, because that means the author’s portrayal of what’s happening in the books is very spot on that the reader can really feel the vibes.

One thing that I didn’t like was that it felt like there was one character too many in the book. I understand that everyone’s lives were all wrapped up in the others’ but I admit, at times, the different POVs was a little confusing. That was especially true because I feel like some characters had the same personality, with just slightly tweaked backgrounds. I felt like Toni and Claire had a bit of the same personality, and sometimes Suzanne felt monotonous, but I feel like the pacing of the book made up for it.

This books felt overwhelming & a bit frustrating at times, because everything gets scrambled eventually that you have to have a really good memory of who was what and what they did, to make sure you wouldn’t get confused. It felt like a good kind of chaos, though, because it felt like the book was finally leading somewhere, and finally showing us some answers to the many questions I definitely started to have from the start of the book.

I feel like this book really showed the dark side of being human, and being friends with people. In a lot of ways, you kind of wonder if these people were ever really friends with one another in the first place. There are a lot of secrets, and I can’t believe how long some of these secrets started coming out, especially in a group that was supposedly as close as they all were.

I also feel like the author knew what readers wanted to read because there were times the characters said what I had just been thinking, which felt eerie, but also satisfying. I was also oddly satisfied with Holly’s character development in the book and I wish we got to see more of it, instead of just in the latter part. Please do check out the trigger warnings before reading the book, especially because the last one kind of felt like it came out of nowhere? *Out of all the plot twists the book gave, that was the one I heavily disagreed with, felt the closest to cheap shock value and wished wasn’t part of the book at all, even though it wasn’t really talked about much in detail.

[ START OF SPOILER ] I understand the secret that started it (Tori & Joseph having a one night stand that resulted in Georgia) because that was very important to the storyline of Tori & Holly, but the secret of Georgia & Caleb seeing each other (knowing what us readers now know) felt so wrong, especially because we were all made to believe she was pregnant with her half-brother’s child at the time, only for the author to turn around and be like ‘Sike! She wasn’t pregnant!’ (hence the feeling of it being cheap shock value) [ END OF SPOILER ]

The ending felt a little rushed, in my opinion, and I wish the book would have been given at least ten more pages, just so we could see more of the aftermath instead of just snippets, but overall, this was a really quick and good read for me. Definitely intrigued me enough for me to want to check out the author’s other works!

📖 WOULD RECOMMEND TO: Fans of fast-paced psychological thrillers!

Expected publication is on May 23, 2022!

A bachelorette party gone wrong. When Holly and her closest friends head to a secluded cottage, they have no idea just how intertwined all of their lives truly are. When one of them ends up dead, secrets start to come out. Told through multiple narrators, this book will leave you constantly wondering who else is hiding something.

I found myself struggling to get at into this book at first, a bit confused as to which character was which as there weren’t clear introductions to each character in the beginning. This book picked up significantly a third of the way in and left me constantly wondering not only who had committed the murder the book opens up with but also who had been killed. Be prepared for a rollercoaster of drama in the very best way.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, this was an excellent thriller.

The story unfolds with narratives by the main characters, Holly, Suzanne, Martha, Claire, Toni, and Zoe. In between current scenes we read the views of one of the characters at different times of the event. Everyone has secrets and eventually, they all come out. There are surprises and unexpected twists throughout the story. It is a bit confusing at the beginning learning who everyone is and whose point of view your reading, but it gets easier to follow. Having said that, it’s worth learning who is who, as it’s an excellent thriller that’s written well.

My review is voluntary and all comments and opinions expressed are
my own.

I can’t wait to read more by Victoria. This was intriguing, engaging and thrilling. The plot was cleverly unravelled as the story progressed.

Explosive. Completely gripping and I just could not put it down. While there is little suspense, there is so much drama and so many revelations to be had. What starts off as a lovely weekend away hen party, soon turns into an out coming of all the lady’s deepest darkest secrets, all intertwined. Executed fabulously and I can’t wait to read more by this author.

I attended a lovely beach wedding a couple of weeks ago and I'm still all fizzy over the day so when I was looking for something new to read and came across this on Netgalley, my interest was piqued. It's wedding season and I love a good "sequestered group with secrets and it's all going to go off the rails" story so I requested it. The approval came through and I dove in. It was a great time,

It's a party of six plus one on Holly's hen weekend do and seven is not a lucky number for this group. There's a super posh converted barn out in the wilds with all the amenities: luxurious suites, a fabulous kitchen and a spa complete with a pool and sauna. It's all spectacular except for the intermittent Wifi and cellular signals. The rager of a snowstorm adds to the atmosphere and foreboding. There's also the not-so-small matter of secrets within the group. And I don't mean one or two, these ladies have decades of secrets in tow and it comes out in this weekend trip (well, not all of them but the reader gets it all). Drinks are had, jealousies and slights come out, tempers flare, affairs are exposed, there's stuff posted on Instagram and before all is said and done someone's dead.

The story opens with the fact of the body and is told in POV chapters in the hours leading up to it to reveal who it is and whodunit and howdunit. Motive abounds for every character so it made for a good puzzle. I very much enjoyed it. It felt a bit slow in the first third but picked up in the second and finished strongly in the third.

Recommended.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for the Advance Reader's Copy.

A fabulous thriller that I couldn’t put down. An absolute pleasure to read & review. Highly recommended by me!

3.5 stars

This is my third book by Victoria Jenkins and a gripping read. First of all, the cover is gorgeous and I loved the premise: six friends enjoying a hen weekend getaway at a remote cabin. But as we learn from the first chapter, by the end of the getaway, someone is dead and one of them is the culprit.

This is the perfect beach thriller: fast-paced with lots of drama and juicy secrets. Surprisingly, where this book fell a bit flat for me were the twists. Victoria Jenkins has a clever way with her writing, of not showing you the full picture and withholding crucial information from the reader. She did it perfectly in The Argument and when the twist came, I was completely blown away. I think my problem with this book was there were so many twists that after a while it became a bit too unbelievable for me. I think it been more surprising and impactful if she had stuck with a few twists rather than letting all the characters have something shocking revealed about them. I did enjoy Holly's final chapter, though.
Overall, not my favorite by this author but still a thoroughly entertaining thriller. I just wish I had connected with the characters more. I think that has definitely played a role in why I didn't love this book as much as I expecting too.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Oh my goodness, the bachelorette party (Hen Do) from hell. Where do I even begin? There was blackmail, secrets, and someone ends up dead. This was a short/fast paced story, that got straight to the point. There were sooooo many twists & turns in this one that I didn’t see coming. It was nonstop! Which 10000% kept me on my toes while reading. I had an idea of who I thought would end up dead, and the “who did it” aspect kept changing.

What I didn’t like about this one was that I honestly had to start taking notes of who was who and what their secret was lol. Because it honestly was getting out of control with the secrets coming to light. I also had so many questions about how/why these women were even friends. There was literally not one likable character, but also because it’s so short I couldn’t really get invested in any of them.

I definitely recommend reading this one, because it was WILD lol

The Bridesmaids: what can I say about these bridesmaids.

They certainly host a hen/bachelorette party to remember.

There are so many secrets, lies, betrayals.

At first glance they all seem nice as they gather to celebrate Holly's upcoming wedding.

That does not last long.

It is a hen party that will have repercussions for all.

The pages turn quickly; I had to know who the biggest pretender was.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for a very entertaining read.

Holly is going on her “hen” weekend for her upcoming wedding. Five of her friends will be joining her at a secluded cottage with all of the latest amenities to celebrate her upcoming nuptials. Holly is excited to be spending some time away from wedding planning to catch up with her friends. What she doesn’t realize is that every single one of her friends has a secret and it appears that all the secrets will come out this weekend. Friends will become enemies, lies that have been covered for years will make their way to the surface and at the end of the weekend someone will be dead. So much for a relaxing and fun weekend.

This book is told through the narratives of the different characters involved in the story. I really enjoyed how the author used each of the characters and their own secrets to evolve this story. It seems everyone is not who they would appear to be and there were a lot of exciting revelations throughout this book. This was a fun read and while a little overwhelming at times trying to keep up with everyone and their secrets, I found it to be a quick and enjoyable mystery read. I was left wondering who was going to end up dead until the very end and it was a little shocking as I totally did not see that coming.

Overall, this was a great psychological murder mystery where the reader is trying to figure out the mystery when every single character has the motive and opportunity for murder. The ending wasn’t wrapped up in a tidy little bow, but such is life and the author did a great job of making the ending realistic based on the story. I really connected with a few of characters while reading this book, but by the end I really didn’t like any of them, but that was the clear intention of the author. This book really makes you think about whether you really know the people you are friends with and what secrets are they keeping in the dark?

Overall Rating: 4 stars
Author: Victoria Jenkins

Series: N/A

Publisher: Bookouture

Publication Date: May 23, 2022

Pages: 275

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Get It: Amazon

Disclaimer: This book was given to me by the publisher, through NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review. I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.