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

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!