After 19 years, and the passing of her grandmother, Lucy is back at her Nans cottage, for a short visit to pack up her Nans stuff. Her short visit is extended due to a body washing up on the beach. She is now pulled into a murder investigation. The Whitlams live next door to her Nans. Who, nineteen year ago, were THE family to befriend. So when sixteen year old Lucy was let into their inner circle, she was prepared to do anything.

I loved the cover and the synopsis but there was something about this book, I just couldn’t get into it. It kept losing me.

I found the summer party a very complicated read.
It’s the story of Lucy going back to her nans to clear her house after her passing. Lucy had spent one of her best summers there and we go back and forward from past to present telling us how that summer shaped her life.
Lucy finds herself involved in a murder when body parts are found on the beach.
I felt there was too much going on with Lucy’s story that I found myself having to reread pages and I’m still not sure of who done what at the end.
Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

This book was amazing! I couldn’t put it down. Absolutely terrifying and thrilling at the same time. One of my favorite books!!

The book was good with a few plot twists I didn't see coming. I do recommend the book and look forward to more from this author.

Rebecca Heath is Australia's new offering to the ever-growing list of mystery-thriller writers. "The Summer Party" is Rebecca's debut novel and I must say she has entered the arena with a bang.

The story depicts the events happening in two different timeliness - one in the year 2000 and the other in the present day - at the Whitlam mansion in Queen's Point, with the past events culminating in a party at the house and the present still facing repercussions of that party. In 2000, Lucy, who considers herself one of the inner circles of the influential Whitlam family while staying with her Nan at Queen's Point during the summer, witnesses something out of the ordinary but is not able to remember it completely in the light of the day.

In 2019, the discovery of a body near the Whitlam place prompts Lucy, now living in Adelaide, to visit the place and reconnect with her old friends. But when the remains are identified as Brooke Whitlam, her friends' mother, the police start digging out old secrets and Lucy is forced to remember the long forgotten summer. She is compelled to see both her friends and look at the life she has lived so far in a different light; she is also inevitably forced to confront the truth of what happened in the fateful party night.

Rebecca has used this story of dual timeline, which is basically a whodunit mystery, as a tool to portray the less attractive side of human nature and explore the selfish and darker facets that human beings can possess. The story is predominantly told in Lucy's POV but also shifts to the perspective of other key characters intermittently. Rebecca manages to grip the reader's attention soon after the book starts and the way the story unfolds slowly in the memory of all the characters in quite interesting and captivating.

My only small issue with the book was that all the characters in the story, including the main character Lucy, are all very unlikable. However, it is a mark of the author's skill as a story teller that I was completely hooked into the story and rooted for Lucy till the end. This book is an impressive debut by Rebecca Heath and I can't wait to read more of her work.

I won't give you guys too much of a synopsis regarding this book but let's just say there's a family who seems to have it all, a washed up dead body and lots of secrets.

This was such a gripping read that I struggled to put it down throughout! This is exactly the kind of thriller I enjoy with dual timelines and an Australian setting. An outstanding debut by Rebecca Heath - I'm excited to read what she writes next.

Captivating and suspenseful with a twist I never saw coming! I absolutely devoured this book. I could not put it down. Highly recommend!

Fast past murder mystery that keeps you guessing. Definitely a fun read and will definitely recommend.

When I sat down to read this, I was intending to read just a chapter or two. Instead, I found myself chapters deep and up way past my bedtime. I had to know and the writing pulled me in. I don't recommend reading this at night if you have plans early in the morning!

Even when it’s cold outside (in fact, especially when it’s cold outside), I often love a summer thriller. I was drawn in by the cover and the title of this one. I hadn’t read the synopsis but to be honest, I’m not sure that would have stopped me requesting it because it sounds pretty good. Cue the disappointment…

Lucy is back in Queens Point, South Australia to sort through her recently deceased grandmother’s house. 19 years before, Lucy was part of the Whitlam family’s inner circle and it seems that the Whitlams are still in the area. A body appears on the beach and Lucy realises that it might just relate to the events of a party that happened almost two decades before.

One of my main issues with the book was Lucy’s very dull personality. I understand that she is in finance (seriously, is there a more boring industry?) but she didn’t have to be quite so two-dimensional. She even knows that ‘work’ as her answer to the question ‘what do you like to do?’ is boring and yet she still gives that as her response! I just couldn’t connect to her or like her at all and unfortunately, that caused me to be quite detached from the whole narrative.

Harry is Lucy’s former (and perhaps current) flame and he is ‘all liquid darkness’, whatever that means. I don’t think the author could have made it any clearer that he was danger but in a sexy way. But also, he’s definitely dodgy. Watch him because he’s probably central to the ‘mystery’ of this dead body.

Anabelle is the youngest Whitlam sibling and Lucy’s first point of obsession with the family. In the chapters that look back to the summer party, Anabelle is very much the typical blonde Queen Bee. We’ve all met her before and know that she’ll do what she wants to do and with whoever she wants to do it with. Of course, plain Jane Lucy (who has two men interested in her, 20 years later) doesn’t get a look in to Anabelle’s life.

The dialogue felt very unnatural, which seriously diminished the believability of the characters. Many of the conversations between multiple characters lacked flow and it all felt very forced. I think a bit more editing could have fixed this, so it’s a shame that this book didn’t get that treatment.

The book is ultimately about obsession and realising that the object of your obsession probably isn’t obsessing over you. It’s a tough lesson to learn and most people learn it in their youth. It apparently took Lucy a bit longer than most because she definitely still harbours those feelings in the present day chapters! Perhaps I had the benefit of the distance between myself and the Whitlams but I failed to see the fascination that Lucy had with this family.

The Summer Party is a very slow, uneventful thriller that I found pretty difficult to get through. If Lucy had been more charismatic, complex or even just slightly interesting, I might have found it more enjoyable but the mystery did bore me too. It’s a shame because I really wanted to love it as my first thriller of 2023!

I had high hopes for this one but it was only okay. It had some good mystery elements but it wasn't really much of a thriller. I also didn't like any of the characters, which made me not want to keep reading. Overall this one was meh.

I really enjoyed this book! The Summer Party is a fun whodunnit mystery that takes place in Australia. The story is about Lucy, whos grandma used to work for the neighbors, the Whitlams. Lucy became friends with the Whitlams one summer as a teenager. Lucy returns to her Nan's home to clean up her house after her passing and reconnects with the Whitlams. However, the Whitlams mother's body has just been discovered on the beach.

I was not expecting to love it because I have read a lot of books that alternate between the past and present and countdown to the mystery in question. However, I felt engaged and interested the whole time.

I really thought I had it figure out, but was surpised by who the killer was. I stayed up late reading the last quarter because I was so excited to find out the different.

The only critique I have is that none of the characters were particulalry likeable. I don't mind a flawer character, but they were all kind of bad people. I did also feel a lot of anxiety that the author was going to kill the dog, and that would have been a deal breaker. So that may be a trigger warning.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this arc!

I just finished Rebecca Heath’s debut novel The Summer Party abc I’m not even sure where to start! There were SO many unlikeable characters and so little time! But these characters do help the story move along and make all the difference. Exceptionally well written and full of all the twists and turns I look for in a thriller! I would recommend this one to anyone that loves a slow burn with characters you’ll love to hate! I can’t wait for her next one!

Thank you with all my heart to NetGalley and The Publisher for choosing me to read and review this ARC

Slow moving for a suspense novel- I found myself getting bored. I didn’t care for *any* of the human characters. I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced that before. I loved Hades though. Dogs for the win!

Thank you to the publisher & Net Galley for this ARC.

The Summer Party is an atmospheric psychological thriller with a host of unlikable characters and a slow burn story.

Told in dual timelines: Summer 2000 where we first meet Lucy Ross who sees something she shouldn’t after having her first kiss and Winter 2019 when Lucy comes back to Queen’s Point after years of silence.

The book was both tense and slow moving at times. There were a few times that I wish the author sped up the story. I liked reading about the glam beach town in Australia. The unlikable and unreliable characters helped the story move along. I enjoyed the writing and the twists though.

Thanks to NetGalley, Aria & Aries, and Head of Zeus for this book. The Summer Party is out now.

It’s hard to believe The Summer Party is a debut. It’s a well written psychological thriller. Almost all the characters are pretentious and unlikeable but that only adds to the story. I read this in one sitting as there are so many well thought out – astonishing twists and turns so you can’t look away even for a moment.

I’m excited for more from this author. Highly recommend this quick page turner.

A house to be cleared, memories to be revisited and a large house full of rich people as neighbours. This is a story of old dramas that are remembered during the story. People that seemed friends are turning out to be something quite different.
A decent read.

To be honest I did find that I was getting a bit bored with the whole lot of them.
This review will be posted on Waterstones

Lucy is returning to Queen's Point, Australia to go through her Nan's estate. In the last year, Lucy has lost both her husband and her grandmother, but she finds comfort in the nearby Whitlam family: her grandmother's former employers and Lucy's friends on her summer visit as a teen. Nearly two decades have passed since she last saw any of them; things were never quite the same after a midsummer party that was held all those years ago. The Whitlam matriarch, Brooke, seems estranged from her family, and the Whitlam children are scattered about Australia. Lucy has questions, but tries to focus on the task at hand; that is until human remains wash ashore nearby and spark questions about the whereabouts of Brooke Whitlam. Is she missing or deceased? Lucy is finding more and more in her Nan's belongings that make her curious about a possible connection to the missing woman. The Whitlam children are all returning home with the news of their mother, and Lucy senses their suspicion of her presence in Queen's Point. The Whitlam family is wealthy and powerful, and Lucy fears what might have happened on that night twenty years ago - and what could become of her if she keeps digging.

The Summer Party gets a lot of things right: unreliable narration, questionable timelines, and things that can only be answered by deceased characters. Many times, I developed an opinion about a character, only to feel differently a few pages later. Heath keeps you guessing with her complex cast. Bonus points for a dog who functions as a major supporting character; to be clear, he is good all the way through, of course.

I found this book enjoyable. It was a slow burn and not necessarily an edge-of-my-seat page turner, but it kept me engaged, especially with all the guesswork around who was trustworthy. That said, the climactic scene was intense and did have me tearing through lines to find out what would happen next. I appreciated the commentary on social media and how an entire life can be misrepresented, and I enjoyed the twist at the very end. The author tied things up nicely and gave the reader resolution.

I do believe this is my first Aussie author, I am ashamed to say; I look forward to peppering more Australian voices into my library.

This book really just took me for a ride. I loved the build up, the character development, and the writing. I would definitely read more from this author!

I loved the dual timeline in this story however I found it very slow moving towards the end. The characters were overall very unlikeable. I did enjoy some of the twists at the end!


Thank you NetGalley and Zeus Publishing for the ARC in return for my honest review!