I received an advanced copy of this ebook from the publisher for an honest review. This book is well written and the characters are described well. I found myself putting this book down to other books but it is a pretty good book. It is set before the 2000s. This book is set in California mentioning Ohio. This book will be in stores on October 4th for $22.00 (USD).

Many are Invited is set in Silicon Valley right before the year 2000: Steve and John meet as coworkers at the phone company and become friends. Fast forward a few years and John is having a housewarming party, except things do not go as planned and before the night is out, something happens that changes everything.

First thoughts are that is this is a really quick and easy read: I binged it in just a few hours because it’s got a nice quick pace. I didn’t expect it to be such a quick read based off of what I knew: late 90’s setting/everyone speculating about the “Y2K problem” - would the internet still work, would the gas stations shut down, etc. I remember this being a thing and all the worries around it, so knowing this was one of settings of the book, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Also because, when I think about that combined with the Silicon Valley techbro stereotype, I expected it to be somewhat slow. It’s not. It sets up a solid workplace and story setting so you’re enough caught up, while not slogging down.

I also really loved all the literary references and the ways they played into the book - at one point I was reading and had the whole “light-bulb” go off, but it wasn’t starkly obvious like you were smacked in the head with it. It was a nice teaser that started early on and was brought up again and again from coincidental moments.

I really liked the characters and all of their faults and quirks - it seems as if every single character put on a different face for different people - they were never the same. I loved trying to figure out where it was going and how it all tied together.

Overall, the book is a sort of quick-pace mystery that feels low-intensity but kind of hits you with a Hitchcock vibe out of nowhere. Recommend for anyone who likes low stakes and being surprised.

ARC was provided by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ok this book left me with so many questions. And I at have wanted to throw my phone against the wall at the end.
I will admit that I had alittle trouble getting into the book, bit so very happy that I stuck with it.
I love when a book ends and things are all wrapped up with a bow, well this is not that.
I highly recommend.

I'll start by saying I didn't finish this book - the premise sounded so good too! This trio of narcissistic main characters gather for a fateful housewarming party on the eve of Y2K. Add Mary the virgin makes it a foursome - she is the only likable character. If there any real point to this story it is well hidden, along with some of the character’s motivations. Innuendo abounds, never to be clarified. Boring, Nothing to recommended here.

Thank you to Celestial Eyes Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this digital ARC

I had many deja vu moments while reading this book, being that the time and setting are very familiar to me. However, the writing is what I appreciate the most.

Steve is a rather vague main character with jealousy issues and a dangerously mischievous streak that made me question his upbringing. I found him quite entertaining in his attempts to come to terms with his best friend' John's financial success, house and marriage. The suspense builds to an ending that almost came too quickly. I would have liked more!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

I was really excited to read this book. I thought the summary was really intriguing and was looking forward to reading this. Unfortunately, this book kind of disappointed me.

It started of slower that I would have liked, with the writing a bit choppy but I continued and thought it'd get better. Well, when some misogynistic thoughts and remarks appeared on chapter 2, it got complicated for me to expect better from this. The story is set in the 90s, yes. We all know that back then people were more openly sexist, yes. And I understand that a character or an atmosphere can have a sexist aspect to it, IF it serves a purpose, IF it furthers the plot in some way. Here, it just felt gratuitous and really just made me uncomfortable.
Plus, further into the story, some clichés appear that really piss me off. One of the characters apparently has a temper, and the narrator basically says "well she's from latine descendent, what do you expect".

Honestly, this alone made me want to DNF the book, but I'm extremely curious and I need to know how a story will end, especially since here, the summary mentionned a big event at a house warming party. So I did, I pushed through.
But the plot just felt odd to me, and you only get to the house warming event at nearly 65% of the book. Everything before is just technology talk and how weird the relationship between the two MMCs is. I honestly had no idea where the story was going. And then the party happened, dragged on for so long, and then it was over. The book ended in such an abrupt way, I kept swiping on my kindle to make sure I wasn't missing any pages.

I binged this book in a single sitting. There was this sense, a feeling that something wasn't quite right between friends. Without spoiling too much, it is a story about two friends who go down different paths in their lives. Jealousy, is the word I would use to describe this story. Jealousy that ends with tragedy.

I really enjoyed the Y2K elements of the book. Politics, drama and a dash of conspiracy are always fun. I also really enjoy books with shorter chapters. As a reader with a busy life and a short attention span, it really helps.

I did find the story was a little bit of a slow burn, the twists and tragedies not occurring until later on in the story.

I always go into books with an open mind. I did enjoy this book, I would definitely recommend it to people who would like to sit down and enjoy a slower story with some unpredictable twists and turns.

This book centers around 2 men, Steve and John, who become friends working on Y2K software issues. Steve is the MC and clearly has jealousy issues towards John. The whole book centers around this big house warming party that occurs on 12/31/1999 that is hosted by John and his wife, Mary.

This book was very slow to build and had a lot of side stories that aren't super relevant. The big event that occurs at the party is the last like 15 pages of the book and I was left with more questions than answers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Celestial Eyes Press for the e-ARC copy.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC.

This was a strange little book. There was virtually no story, just characters interacting around a pseudo-friendship between 2 men who meet at work. The entire point of the book, the housewarming party, doesn't even happen until the last 1/4 of the book and the whole tragedy seems forced and unexplained. None of it makes any sense or even matters. The narrator is all over the place, literally, mentally, and figuratively. I don't know what this book was.

This book focuses on Steve and John, co-workers in the tech industry in the Silicon Valley in the 1990s when the Y2K problem was front and center of the tech world, and two women that they meet and become close with. In the backdrop is a housewarming party that ends in tragedy, as remembered by Steve.

Although this novel has short chapters and is a very, very quick read, it seems to move along way too slowly. Nothing much at all happens until the reader finally gets to read about the infamous housewarming party in the last part of the book. Additionally, I did not find any of the characters remotely likable, and the writing seemed mediocre at best — too much awkward phrasing and overly long, meaningless dialogue and characters who are introduced but never appear again. The premise of this novel was appealing to me, but all in all this was a disappointing read.

Many Are Invited was a really quick read. It's based in the 90's, right during the heyday of the Y2K bug.

It really is a story of jealousy and secrets. Our narrator Steve, being jealous of his friend John's life and choices. All the secrets that John's significant other and best friend seem to have.

Many Are Invited was missing something. It felt a bit meandering with the build up and then the "event" happened and the story was done. I was left with questions and no answers. All the characters were pretty terrible people, by the end, so I wasn't as disappointed as I might have been.

Thank you to Celestial Eyes Press for the review copy!

I'd like to thank NetGalley and Celestial Eyes Press for the Advanced Readers Copy of Many Are Invited by Dennis Cuesta. The synopsis and the cover of the book had me intrigued, so I was ecstatic to be selected to read and review this book ahead of its expected publication of October 6, 2022.

The storyline for Many Are Invited is exactly what I thought it would be based on the synopsis. The first few pages didn't immediately suck me in, but once I got a few chapters into the book, the tale really became interesting. I couldn't read fast enough to see what would happen. I had completely forgotten about Y2K and how many people panicked about it, so there was some nostalgia in reading about that event.

Like most books, there were some characters that were likable and some that weren't. The character development was great for the most part, and I enjoyed the internal dialogue of the main character, Steve. I felt like Steve's perceptions of the early to mid twenties crowd compared to his perception of people in their mid-thirties was spot on. These two age groups are in such different places in their lives. I felt like Dennis Cuesta did a great job of characterizing how John and Steve talked in private about women. I've overhead men in passing that discussed women in that same way . . . not to say that all men are like that though.

The length of Many Are Invited was perfect . . . not too long and not too short. It left me wanting more! I loved the references to The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and some of the similarities between the two stories. If you've read both of these books, I think you'll see what I mean, and I don't want to give anything away. The ending of the novel was bittersweet, which is the only thing I didn't care for, but it was concluded in away that didn't leave me hanging.

All in all, I absolutely loved Many Are Invited by Dennis Cuesta and gave it four out of five stars. I can't wait to read the other book Dennis Cuesta has written and hope he writes many more novels. This is a book I will definitely be recommending to the book club I belong to.

Thank you, NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I tried to get into this but I just couldn't. I didn't think the writing was the best and the abrupt endings made it hard for me to follow along. I'm usually a thriller/suspense or romance novel reader so I was out of my element trying to get into this.

I think the concept of the book was intriguing to me, but the pettiness that Steve displayed at times and childishness was offputting for me.

I had no idea what this book was about until the end when tragedy strikes. The rest of it is about going out and getting drunk and lusting after women. It is set in IT when they are fighting to save the Y2K disaster that turned into a damp squib. Steve is a manipulator, a womanizer and a very jealous, insincere guy. I did read to the end and appreciated the ironic final twist.

DNF! Many Are Invited by Dennis Cuesta

It’s been years since I elected not to finish a book, but I won’t read any more of this one.

From the description in the open invitation to read and review this novel, I expected a fun, mystery-at-a-house-party type book - something like Knives Out. Instead, I’m reading about two misogynistic IT guys working on a phone company’s Y2K fix.

The first time I thought, “C’mon man!”, was when main character Steve describes a female co-worker as having blond hair “a shade shy of pure porn-star platinum”. There’s a rumor that she models for the covers of romance novels, so he “spun through the paperback turnstiles full of trash novels” looking for her. Another of his female colleagues wore “a sweater that stretched in all the right places.”

Meanwhile, his colleague John nicknames attractive women as “Swedes” and numbers them sequentially, and the writing only gets worse from there, adding ageism to the ongoing insults against women. Describing another female co-worker who appears worth checking out from a distance, Steve laments that she was “certainly not a Swede, and the tight lines that appeared on her cheeks when she smiled made [their] five-year age gap seem even wider.” John’s assistant is portrayed as “one of those women fighting hard against being middle-aged-always well made up and always on the latest fad diet.”

When Steve spots “a blond-haired trap” (yes, “trap”) working in a boutique, I couldn’t read any further. This book seems to have been written by a 1980’s frat boy, and I’m not wasting any more time on it after posting this review. Obviously, I would NOT recommend this book to anyone. It receives one star only because NetGalley requires it to submit the review.

This already has lots of helpful reviews, so I don't think I can add anything more. This is OK, not great, but may be worth a go since there are some interesting aspects to the story.

Thanks very much for the free ARC for review!!

3 Stars
This starts off interesting, easy to read and a nice pace, but as I read more I could still not become invested in the characters. The story was not my typical taste and in my opinion, it will interest male readers more. The nostalgia for Y2K was enjoyable and the end was different and left me with an unfished feeling.
Recommended For: For males who enjoy a psychological fiction book with a boring group of friends and some Y2K.
Thank you to NetGalley for my copy of this book.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4983392882
https://www.instagram.com/whiskers_and_words/

Sometimes you start reading a book and you get your hopes up. From the description it sounded interesting and so you are all set to enjoy the read. Slowly but surely the more you read the more you realize you just are not enjoying the book.

I wish I could say there were things I liked about the characters or the storyline but I have to be honest. I didn’t like the characters, in fact, I disliked all the characters. The storyline was strange and at times really hard to understand why the people did what they did, especially the narrator who, well I really thought he was a d**k for no reason that I could begin to understand.

From the reviews it seems people really enjoyed this book but I did not. I guess this book just wasn’t for me.

Many Are Invited by Dennis Cuesta is an intriguing page-turner. I was drawn into the story right away and was compelled to keep reading. If you enjoy books exploring relationships, resentments, deviousness, manipulation and morality, this one is for you. I enjoyed the way the story unfolded, the richly developed characters and the delicious unveiling of circumstances. I was disappointed when I came to the end. Five stars for this book by Dennis Cuesta!

Story set in Silicon Valley in the 1990's as companies prepare to deal with possible Y2K computer problems. The story follows two men, Steve and John, their careers, the women in their lives and the competition between the two as jobs and fortunes change,
I have mixed feelings about the book.
#Many Are Invited #Celestial Eyes Press #NetGalley