The Beach Party wasn't as entertaining as I expected. The book switched timelines too often in the middle of the chapter, leaving me confused (this coming from someone who loves dual timelines). There were way too many characters to keep track of, and multiple times I stopped trying to figure them out and just listened to get through it.

Amalia Vitale didn't have much inflection in her voice, so parts of the story dragged on. I think her tone added to my boredom with the book.

I did piece together who the killer was before they were revealed, but not too far in advance that I lost complete interest, which I appreciated.

I would give Amy Sheppard another chance, as I did see potential, but can't rate The Beach Party higher than 3, 3.5 stars for the ending.

Thank you to Bookouture Audio for providing me with an ALC.

This was an enjoyable read - I liked it but didn't love it. The focus is on Katie and Sophie two young journalists that have a true crime podcast. They focus on an unsolved murder from Katie's hometown with shall I say a rival of Katie. I enjoyed the setting in Cornwall and going back home aspect. At times it felt a big long going into the relationships between individuals. I think some of this was done to create suspicions, however, it caused me to disconnect with Katie. The idea was great, and the execution was above average. This was well done for a debut novel, and I hope Sheppard has more ideas.

How did this book find me? I received an Advance Reader's Audio Addition through NetGalley.

#TheBeachParty#AmySheppard #BookoutureAudio #AmaliaVitale #NetGalley

Katie and her friend Sophie, who do podcasts on cold cases, decide to do one on the disappearance of their friend Lacey, after a party at the beach with friends, five years earlier. Katie, who had been there at that party, rather reluctantly, returns to Pengelly in Cornwall, with Sophie.

As part of their podcast, they meet and interview as many of the original party goers as possible, revealing boyfriends, exes, broken relationships, rumors of an affair with an older man and purported rape.

Who was Lacey really? As they delve into it, their clues lead them on a twisting trail until the completely unexpected ending.

This was an entertaining ALC.

Thank you for this advanced copy. This book looked so good to me, but sadly I feel like it was misleading. The narrator sounded like she had a cold throughout the book. The book itself was good, but didn't seem to have a lot of thriller suspense. My hopes were higher though.

The description of this book was very misleading. I thought it was going to be about a beach party in which someone dies, with the follow up to finding the murder. Instead, it came back years later in a podcast to find the murderer. It wasn't a bad book; just not what I expected. It seems more of a mystery to me vs a thriller. I would def give another one of her books a try.

Lately true-crime-potcast-related stories seem to be very popular. And what should I say: I love it!
Katie is more or less forced to return to her hometown to produce a Podcast about the dead of Lacey. Katie wanted to leave what happened five years ago behind her but her friend Sophie is of another opinion. And as she always gets what she wants, Katie agrees reluctantly. A lot of locals are not happy about the two young women stirring up the past. But once things are getting started they develop their own dynamic.
I particularly enjoyed the audio version of this book since it helped me to keep up with all the characters.
Thank you very much #NetGalley #Bookouture Audio for the advanced audio version of this story

The Beach Party follows friends and fellow podcasters, Katie and Sophie, who return to Katie's home town in Cornwall to record a true crime podcast. They are covering the unsolved murder of 19 year old Lacey from 5 years ago. This brings back many memories for Katie, who was there at the beach party on the night of Lacey's death. The story follows the pair of friends as they speak to friends and relatives to try and uncover the secrets surrounding the murder.

I really enjoyed the premise of this story and the podcast element, it felt new and different to anything I have read before. There were quite a few different characters to get to grips with, but this wasn't a huge problem. The book has a lot going on and there are numerous twists and turns along the way, with one big twist at the end. Overall, I enjoyed this book and will look forward to more from this author.

My thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers for sending me this ARC in return for an honest review.

Wowee zowee! Main character and her cohost, I could give or take, but cold cases in small coastal towns are my catnip. I will devour each and every one of them. I had the right person with the wrong motive and out a few things together and I had a great time! I love being able to track the progression, and I STILL was gasping with surprise. Perfect summer read

Katie and Sophie start a true crime podcast to discuss the murder of, Lacey, 5 years ago. Lacey was murdered at a beach party that Katie was at, so it makes her close to the case. As they start interviewing old friends of Lacey's more evidence and secrets are brought to light. The mystery in the book is sound, and the author leaves believable red herrings throughout, causing me to regularly question who the culprit was. The story is told from Katie’s POV entirely in the current timeframe but with references to previous events that fill in the blanks. Though people are willing to tell them things for the podcast that they never told the police earlier, it felt believable to me since some time had passed and Katie was someone they all knew. The end was really good and caught me by surprise. I can say I definitely didn’t predict the culprit in this one. Though I think it would be difficult to with the way the information surrounding Lacey at the end of her life and for about a year prior is slowly revealed. There are quite a few characters in the town and can be a little difficult to keep track. Overall, a solid debut novel. It was slow going in the beginning, but still fast paced and intriguing. I'd be interested in reading more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and Bookouture

I really loved the setup of this book, and it started out really strong with the starting of a podcast focusing on a crime that happened to one of the host's friends 5 years ago. That intrigued me and I was interested in the dynamics between Kate and the small town where it happened. But the pacing was entirely too slow and there was a lot of ominous hinting at bad blood between Kate and the victim.
But beyond that there was an overlying sense that someone was wrong with Kate and how she's jealous of her friend's time...or something? I couldn't put my finger on it. Between the pacing and the annoying hints I had to DNF.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to listen to this audio book in return for an honest review.

This was right up my street. Two friends hosting a true unsolved crime podcast what could go wrong?!
When their unsolved crimes podcast takes them back to Katie’s home town, her and best friend Sophie are determined to dig deeper into the murder of Katie’s school frenemy Lacey. The things they uncover are fascinating, disturbing, chilling and thrilling.

Our protagonist Katie I found likeable and relatable, as with Sophie. Some of the bits of past relationships seemed to open and close a bit too quickly for my liking, but I guess that happens in life. Started off at a good pace, continued at pace throughout and then thoroughly picked up momentum towards the final 3/4 off the novel, and then when I was saying to myself yes yes I knew it. I was WRONG (I love to be wrong, it happens too little in a thriller) I love a twist that I don’t expect. The main characters are well developed with a good back story, whether they’re all likeable is clearly up for debate, some of them are clearly criminals after all. Really enjoyed the narration. Brilliant, in fact I had to check several times that this was a debut novel.

I’m a big fan of the podcast/cold case trope and so this was an engrossing read for me. I liked Katie better than Sophie but neither one of them was a strong character. I enjoyed the way the story unfolded and how the case was solved, even though I figured it out early on. It was a little slow in the middle but held my interest for the most part.

Audio was well done, no issues.

I didn't love this one. I wanted to and I tried but I just couldn't get into it. I couldn't relate. I'm not sure if it was my own crappy mood, the narrator, or the pacing. I kept tuning it out. By the end I wasn't sure who was who or what was what. It might be that I don't listen to podcasts or something.
I just wasn't feeling it.

Light summery mystery read, revolving around the death of one of a group of 19 year olds at a beach party.

5 years later, one of the people who was there is now living in London and involved with an unsolved-crime podcast. Her co-presenter persuades her to return and investigate the crime for their series.

This is exactly the sort of book I love to read. It was narrated well and although marred a little by some repetition, this is an author I would be interested to read again

I really struggled with this one got too just over the halfway point and was just bored and so have given up on it. Not for me unfortunately might have felt different if I'd read instead of listened but just couldn't get into it.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Thank you Netgalley, Bookouture and the author for a copy of this book! Overall, I would rate this a 2.5 rounded up to 3 stars. I found this book rather difficult to get into. I didn’t really start gaining interest until 50%/60% of the way through. The twist is one I didn’t see coming so that was enjoyable. Overall a decent debut novel from the author and I would read one of her books again.

Five years ago, a small seaside town is rocked by the murder of 19 year old Lacey, the queen bee of the group of teenagers who hung out together that summer. But after a beach party, she was found dead, and nobody was ever arrested for her murder, although her boyfriend at the time was considered the prime suspect.

Now a wannabe journalist and occasional podcaster, one of the girls from Lacey's group of friends, Katie, is encouraged by her social media influencer friend Sophie to return to her home town for a special podcast series where they try to investigate the murder, and why the killer was never uncovered. Katie has her doubts but does it anyway, and finds out there were a great many secrets that the police never uncovered...

I quite enjoyed this story although there were very few scenes actually at the beach party, and I would have liked more of that since I couldn't really envisage how it had all worked - how, on a beach, there seemed to be so many places to wander off to. Sand dunes? It was night, presumably it was dark away from the campfire. Why were they all still partying outside when it rained heavily? Why was there this sense that it happened a long time ago when it was only five years? Why was everyone so ready to spill their secrets to a podcast that would be broadcast to everyone (including the police) but wouldn't say a word when the police were investigating the murder? Small things really but they didn't make much sense to me., although overall it didn't impact on my enjoyment of the book, which was a solid psychological thriller with some good characters and a reasonably surprising conclusion.

I enjoyed the narrator, who paced it well (this was one of the very few audiobooks I have been able to tolerate listening to at normal speed rather than sped up!) and gave the character voices just enough distinction from each other to be recognisable without distracting from the story.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this audiobook in return for an honest review.

3.5 stars rounded up for this debut novel.

I was fortunate enough to receive a kindle copy and the audiobook to review. I started out listening to it, then switched to my kindle, then back again and ultimately my favorite was the audio, so that's how I tackled most of it.

Katie and Sophie start a true crime podcast to discuss the murder of, Lacey, 5 years ago. Lacey was murdered at a beach party that Katie was at, so it makes her close to the case. As they start interviewing old friends of Lacey's more evidence and secrets are brought to light.
I was blindsided by the murderer, I love when that happens. Yay!!

Overall, a solid debut novel. It was slow going in the beginning, but still fast paced and intriguing. I'd be interested in reading more from this author.

Side note #1~ I could have went for the blurb to hint at this really being about the podcast. I thought I was going to be at the party in real time.

Side note #2 ~ I have never once listened to a podcast, but this jumped out at me ~ when they were speaking during the podcast I found it odd that she would say her sentence then the word pause. Why say pause, instead of just pausing?

Side note #3 ~ I was cracking up when their "smells collided" 🤣

Amalia Vitale did a fine job narrating for 9 hours and 12 minutes, easy enough to listen at 2x, but a little too slow for me.

CW ~ references to off page rape

Ooh this was great! I love true crime podcasts, so this was right up my street.
Going back to her home town to record a podcast for an unsolved murder katie has to face more than she expected.
This was a gripping, twisty read that keeps yours attention untill the end. And a totally unexpected end it is too!


I voluntarily read and reviewed this book, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I love the premise of The Beach Party! Katie and Sophie are college friends who began an unsolved murder podcast together. They are asked to do a series based on a murder that took place several years ago in Sophie’s hometown.
Although I loved the premise, I needed a bit more character development in order to feel fully invested in the story. Overall, it’s a fine thriller with an amazing ending.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for my ALC in exchange for an honest review.