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

I thought the premise was interesting but unfortunately I had a hard time getting into this book and struggled to read it.

2.5 Stars

Many Are Invited was a quick read that left me conflicted and intrigued. It’s a book with realistic but very unlikeable characters. You really are rooting for no one, but that makes for a compelling book… sometimes.

Unfortunately, I think I just wanted more from it. Although it was short, it was slow. A lot of characters are brought up, but you never spend enough time with any of them to truly get to know them which makes them easily forgettable.

The premise is what initially caught my attention, and I think I just went into this book thinking that it was going to be bigger and twister, but it didn’t go that far. Which, as I mentioned previously, made the story more realistic. The emotions and circumstances felt honest which I appreciate. I could understand Steve and his motivations, though his actions felt a little out of left field.

So overall, it was just mediocre. Interesting enough to keep you reading because you want to know what would happen at the end, but don’t expect anything super clever or unique. Honestly, this book is comparable to Malibu Rising, but where this one lacked the character depth, Malibu Rising delivered it.

I think I was completely missing the point when reading "Many are Invited" by Dennis Cuesta but as a result, I didn't enjoy it, hence my low score. The mid-90s scenes were interesting enough as was the whole discussion of the Y2K bug again. If I'd have known it was a retelling of the Great Gatsby then I might have ben on the look-out for parallels and it would have given it more depth.

In the.mid-nineties John and Steve work on the potential Y2K problem. There seems an established pattern: John succeeds, Steve not so much. John grows wealthy and marries Mary who in turn has a friend Lauren in constant competition with her. To complicate life, Steve loves Mary and Lauren is making moves on John. The plot is slow and detailed, tedious and confusing at times. When finally the story reaches the housewarming party alluded to throughout, the detail remains but the tension increases and we seek answers as the lives of these four unlovable characters spin out of control. Initially I was not a fan of Dennis Cuesta’s style, but, having reached the conclusion, I would try another work.

The author has a warped (in a good way) sense of irony and humor.
This is a love story gone wrong.
A premillenium tale of what could go wrong... and it does.
It may take some readers a while to get into this story but stick with it.
You will be rewarded.

I didn’t find any of the characters in this book particularly likeable. While Steve and John’s friendship was interesting at the beginning, it devolved over time through competition, jealousy and spite. The ending did come as a surprise so there are some good twisty plots. But there is an underlying meanness of several of the characters that was unsettling.

This should have been a quick read but, it was a struggle to become invested in the characters or their lives. Two young work buddies at the phone company navigate the Y2K era. John and Steve are not close friends and have a competitive undercurrent. They have made a game of dating and dumping hot, blonde chicks. John’s life progresses and prospers while Steve’s career stalls and he flounders. The story is related from a more youthful masculine perspective and may well be better perceived from that audience. There was potential in the characters, would have appreciated more background on them and less of the office particulars.
At about seventy percent into the plot the action picks up and the suspense builds. The emotions were tense and raw. The conclusion was tied up nicely with a good pace and some surprising results. It was more of a domestic drama than thriller. The author has potential, however this storyline was not for me.
Thanks to NetGalley for the digital advance reader copy of “Many Are Invited” by Dennis Cuesta and to Celestial Eyes Press. This is my honest personal opinion and my thought given voluntarily.

This book was an easy, quick read set around the turn of the millennium. The Y 2K worries were familiar and true to the period as I remember it. Great revisit of this time period. The characters, friendships and mystery part of this fell a little flat for me, and I liked the period references more than I liked the story. I never felt invested in them or what happened to them. After closing the books last page, i found they were easy to forget and ,move on from. So, there was good and bad in this book for me… with that I’ll rate it a goodreads 3 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and David Cuesta for the advanced uncorrected proof in exchange for an honest review.

hank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. I love a good thriller and the premise sounded great, something terrible happens during the time of Y2K which is a time I remember fondly. Steve and John become friends working at the same phone company. We see how one of their lives continues to advance on to bigger and better things one of their lives remains quite stagnant. I think we all know the feeling of someone else’s life just being better than ours and looking quite effortless. There’s a big long build up to the terrible event at a housewarming party. I don’t feel that I got to know any of the characters especially well and the big event was not especially shocking although I liked that the book didn’t get wrapped up nice and neatly! Quick and fairly intriguing read!

What a delightful surprise! This book was a short, fast read that I accomplished during a rare uninterrupted afternoon. I immediately felt drawn in to the story about Steve, who narrates what happened over the course of a a few years, centering around the last few months of 1999.

The backwards-story begins with Steve ruminating on what happened at a housewarming party in Dec. 1999. We then go back to see how his life unfolded regarding his relationships with his coworkers, his friend, John, Mary (John's girlfriend), and Lauren (Mary's roommate). The author's descriptions about life in the late 1990's includes details about Y2K and the tech boom in Silicon Valley.

The jealousies that arise in Steve and his friends culminate in a tragedy. Who is at fault? This is more of an introspective question than a mystery. There are themes resonating with The Great Gatsby and The Brothers Karamazov, which are referenced in the book.

Sometimes a book hits you just right, and this one did. I recommend it as a fast read (took me about 4 hours) and one that while on the surface might seem shallow, is actually deep with meaning.

John and Steve become friends during the Y2K frenzy. John becomes rich, marries and has a fabulous lifestyle. Steve is envious of John. One night during a dinner party, lives are upended by what occurs. This story was a slow burn and the ending was abrupt. The author has a fantastic premise, shows promise and I would like to see more tension in the plot. Tease us a little.


Disclaimer: Thank you to NetGalley and Celestial Eyes Press for this ARC, I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Many Are Invited
by Dennis Cuesta

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC.
Sadly, I just could not get into this book. It was so slow paced and the characters just felt ehhh. It seemed to take a week to almost finish.

Thanks to NetGalley and Celestial Eyes Press for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The prologue had be intrigued. What could this man have done that was so horrible and led to such tragedy?

The worry over Y2K joins Steve and John together at work where they quickly become friends. Steve is the type to do just enough to get by, whereas John seems to prosper without much effort. John is the right place at the right time sort of guy, and Steve often times feels irked watching his best-friend reap the rewards. On the surface, Steve and John have a great friendship, but there is an undercurrent of competition. On a bet, Steve sends John into a high-end clothing store where they spied a beautiful woman dressing a mannequin to get her number. Steve's glee over John returning without her number quickly fades as John mentions Mary, another employee he met in the store. After a few months of dating, John and Mary get engaged and Steve realizes he has fallen in love with Mary. What transpires after this moment will drastically change their lives and one night of celebration will end in tragedy.

As the story is being told through Steve's POV, you sense his underlying indignation of his friend's successes and his feelings of schadenfreude. Mary's best friend Lauren also exhibits the same feelings towards Mary but seems to be more expressive with her uncomplimentary actions and comments. It makes you wonder why these people are friends in the first place.

I was misled by the prologue, which to me felt like a set up for a thriller. Instead, it was a slow-burn story of how ironic life can be. I didn't care for any of the characters, not because they were unlikable, but I couldn't relate to any of them. I'm about the same age as the characters in the story, I just couldn't relate. This was just OK for me.

A quick read that leads through the POV of Steve. A jealous character that wants what his best friend has. John is one of the top tech guys making sure his Y2K theory will work as the year 1999 rolls over to 2000. This was a technological threat that the coding of computerized systems was projected to create havoc in networks around the world at the beginning of the year 2000. The news broadcast the fear of a shutdown. John figures out the glitch and was paid 2 million dollars and a new job for his level of genius. It plays a small part in the story line other than catapulting John into a different income bracket.Steve played the part of a friend, but he was envious of John's life, his wife Mary, their new house they bought in a superb neighborhood, and vehicles. With Steve, he was not so lucky with his job, money or the girls. They're like a fraternity rival playing out, but John is unknowing. It doesn't take long to realize Steve is on the psycho side and capable of wreaking anyone's life. When a house warming party turns tragic, who is to blame? This does have a twist at the end, but leaves you wanting an explanation of what took place. The characters are believable and unlikable.
Thank you NetGalley and Celestial Eyes Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I found this book very slow going with nothing much happening throughout most of the book. You could read the last few chapters and get the gist of the story. I read the whole thing, wondering when something interesting was going to happen all along the way, and eventually, it did, but I found it kind of unsatisfying. The characters were mostly unlikeable as the narcissistic "me" generation.. I did enjoy the Y2K references, the onset of the internet and personal computers, and the twist toward the end..

I liked the premise of the book but in execution it fell a bit flat. The characters were not very endearing which I can work around. But, it seemed there was a lot going on without not much really happening. I honestly put the book down at the end and thought to myself “what was that supposed to be?” I thought on it for a few days and I really didn’t get any clearer of an understanding where the author was trying to take us unfortunately. I will try more of the author’s books though.

Many Are Invited
⭐️⭐️
Genre: Fiction
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 10/6/22
Author: Dennis Cuesta
Publisher: Celestial Eyes Press
Pages: 242
Goodreads Rating: 3.29

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Celestial Eyes Press and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: A housewarming party ends in tragedy. . . Steve Galanos, a native Midwesterner, reflects on his time in and near Silicon Valley during the 1990s, a time when the two-digit year emerged as the Y2K problem, the burgeoning Internet fueled the expansion of the New Economy, the dot-com bubble created unseen prosperity and real estate frenzies. Yet it’s a housewarming party, held in late 1999, that affects him the most.

My Thoughts: The chapters were short in this book, which I tend to gravitate towards. It is just easier to stop at the end of a chapter. The tragic event occurs very late in the storyline, the first is filled with the Y2K bug (I definitely remember the country during that time), politics, and religion. Not that those are bad topics, just topics that I generally would not read. I believe the backstories of the characters could have been filled in less space and more expansion on the tragic event and the aftermath. The tragic event should open up the story and then work backwards from there, then the Y2K bug, politics, and religion would not have seemed out of place. The ending of the book just stops, not a cliffhanger, and not a resolution. It’s not a bad read, just not what I expected or hoped it would be. That could be on me as I may have misinterpreted the synopsis.