This vibey, spooky mystery was really fun to read, if not particularly surprising. The upstairs/downstairs element was fun, although I found some of the plotting around the wealthy Whitham family to stretch credulity. Sometimes I find flashbacks and multiple perspectives to slow down the plot, but because this is more of a mystery than a thriller, it didn't bother me much until things picked up at the end. A solid 3-star mystery.

Oh, the allure of young love in the summer! Lucy falls in love with a wealthy family while staying with her aunt one summer. Years later Lucy returns to settle her aunt’s estate coincidentally after a shoe with human remains is found. She finds herself immediately sucked back into the lives of this family she is still enamored with. The two sisters and especially the brother have a powerful hold over Lucy’s emotions and she so wants to be part of their family.
She finds herself pulled into their drama along with the mystery over a body recently found buried. Given the number of characters, I never found any of them likable, other than her amazing dog, Hades. The connection with Jake added interest and some believability to the story. In my humble opinion, this story would have been so much better if Lucy was more likable. The connections between the families was a thoughtful twist. A satisfying read overall.
Many thanks to Rebecca Heath, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read an arc of this recently published book. Looking forward to reading more from Rebecca Heath.

I voluntarily read an advanced copy of The Summer Party by Rebecca Heath. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thanks to NetGalley and Aria & Aries for this ARC.

I really wanted to like this book, but so many things did not work for me. First, the back-and-forth timeline in the first half of the book was messy. It worked better in the second half but kept me from connecting with the main murder arc. Secondly, there were so many red herrings and side crimes that occurred. It was easy to lose focus on what was going on. Finally, I did not like Lucy and did not feel invested in her journey. Everyone was shallow and selfish as teenagers, and they didn't seem to mature at all as we shifted into the modern story arc. Everyone was unlikeable, and I didn't feel like I had anyone to root for. Except maybe Hades who was pretty awesome. I give this book 2/5 stars.

This is my second thriller this year and I feel like I’m really setting a high bar for the rest of years thrillers!

This new release (published on 1/5) is so much more than a beautiful cover, and don’t let the fact that ‘summer’ is in the title dissuade you just because it’s winter in the US… this book takes place in two timelines so you get summer and winter vibes! It also is set in Australia so for my US peeps you’ve got to keep it straight that their seasons are reversed from ours 🤣

I loved the way the story bounced back and forth from the weeks preceding ‘the summer party’ in 2000 and the current day 2019 characters. You also get multiple narrators and with each tidbit you wonder how they will all tie together to determine what really happened that night.

I found a few of the twists a little predictable but also didn’t see others coming. The characters were intriguing and fun while also being mysterious and shady, I’d that makes sense.

This was a quick and easy read, would be great for a winter vacation to the beach somewhere warm, or just as a way to lose yourself in a bone chilling book!

I wanted to love this one, but it just fell a bit flat for me. I didn't find any of the characters very likable. I kept reading just to figure out who had done it, but this one really just wasn't for me.

I really enjoyed this book. It was very well written and the characters were great. Would definitely recommend.

Lucy heads back to her Nan's home for the first time since she spent a summer there 19 years ago. Back then, Lucy was enamored by the wealthy, seemingly perfect neighboring family, the Whitlams. She was instant friends with Annabelle, in puppy love with Harry, and thought their mom, Brooke, was picture perfect. But now, the town is shaken to learn Brooke is dead, and has been for 19 years since the night of that end of summer party everyone attended. Who could have killed her? And who has been updating her social accounts for nearly two decades?

There are alternating timelines with all present day chapters told from Lucy's perspective and all past chapters alternating POVs to help color the background for everyone leading up to the summer party. I liked this element a lot because it helped fill in the blanks and show the motives of nearly everyone. That said, I felt the book was too slow of a burn and dragged on a bit. I also hate when stories have the underlying conflict, but will not give us the details in the end, which was the case for why Lucy was on leave from her job. But in the end that did not really have anything to do with the story so it felt more annoying of a build than anything.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Reading a book by a debut author can be risky. But I was instantly intrigued by the cover and synopsis of this one. I'm so glad I took the risk, because it paid off. Australia is a dream country for me, and that is a huge weakness for me in books. I loved that this book was set in Australia. While I feel like most of the time it felt like it could have been set anywhere, the Australian language and terms that were used helped it to feel Australian.

One of my favorite parts of this book is that it opened with the mystery instead of dragging on at the beginning. However, the overall pacing of the book felt more like a mystery than a psychological thriller. Nonetheless, it kept me engaged the whole time and guessing what would happen next.

The Summer Party is a dual timeline novel that jumps back and forth between Lucy's present day and the time leading up to the infamous summer party. Dual timeline novels can sometimes be hit or miss for me, but I thought Rebecca Heath did a great job with this one. This format really helped to build up the story and keep the reader interested.

I loved her descriptive writing so much, I could sometimes feel as though I was right there in the story. I also think this would make an incredible movie!

Mae, Harry and Anabelle Whitlam allow Lucy Antonello, then aged sixteen into their tightknit circle in 2000. Now, its 2019; Lucy is back in Queens Point, Australia to sort out her grandma's estate. A shoe containing bones caught on driftwood have been found on the beach by a man. Lucy is forced to confront the truth she witnessed on the night of a summer party, way back. Compelling, pacy and a great début.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Aria & Aries, Head of Zeus via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

As far as I can tell The Summer Party is Rebecca Heath’s debut novel. Told via dual timelines, jumping between present day and the summer of 2000 when Lucy Ross was only 16, The Summer Party is at times an intense mystery/thriller with a twisting plot that had me guessing most of the time. If as I said this is Ms. Heath’s first novel, I most definitely look forward to seeing what she comes out with next. Thanks so much to Aria & Aries and NetGalley for the chance to read and review The Summer Party.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-summer-party-rebecca-heath/1141899826?ean=9781804541005&bvnotificationId=26f7f0ac-8ec8-11ed-80ab-0a4d5b2a4243&bvmessageType=REVIEW_APPROVED&bvrecipientDomain=gmail.com#review/237582042

A murder mystery in a very atmospheric surroundings, however the plot is thin and revolves around a lot of very unlike or characters. The story didn’t really hold my attention.

Unfortunately I had to DNF this book and it was due to the characters being unlikeable. for me, character and their development and how they play out with the plot is significant but sadly I could not see it with this book.

There are times when a book just does not work for me, and this is one of those times. I'm giving this book 2 stars, but there were times I didn't want to finish it. So in reality it might be closer to 1.5 stars. I’ll try to explain why this book didn’t work for me, but also why it might work for others!

This book might work for you if you like a guilty-pleasure beach read about terrible people. The murder mystery is decent! I had an inkling how it would all play out, and I was right in some ways and wrong in others. So I can’t say this was extremely predictable. Also there’s a great dog in this book! Hades, a giant lovable black dog, was by far my favorite part of the book.

One complaint I had with this book, as I have with many other books, is the narration does a lot of telling and not showing. I think this happens a lot with debuts, but I really noticed it here. The narration will drop nice sublte hints that the reader can pick up on if they are paying attention - but then the author goes and literally asks the questions in black and white that the reader should be puzzling out and asking these questions themselves. I think in this book it did the plot a huge disservice.

Minor spoilers below - I find it hard to critique a plot without getting into some specifics that aren’t in the book description. But I won’t spoil any major plot points, like the killer or any major twists.

I just did not connect with the main character. Lucy was 35 years old and extremely naive. She’s obsessed with a family she spent one summer with almost two decades ago. And it’s not like they’ve all remained close friends! It seemed like Lucy would reach out to them and get no response! Have some self respect Lucy!! It felt like she was obsessed with Harry Whitlam, and we got more inner musings on him than we ever got about Lucy’s dead husband. Which bothered me!!

Thank you NetGalley and Head of Zeus for my copy in exchange for my honest review.

An awful cast of unlikable characters! The story is told from Lucy's point of view in the present day and from multiple perspectives in the past, the pacing is very slow to begin with, but it does pick up. There were a few surprising twists but overall an unmemorable read.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Aria & Aries Head of Zeus for gifting me a digital ARC of the debut novel by Rebecca Heath - 4.5 stars!

Lucy Ross has to come back to her grandmother's cottage in South Australia to deal with her Nan's belongings after her death. But soon after Lucy's arrival, a body washes up on the beach. Everything in Queen Point revolves around the wealthy Whitlam family, whom Nan worked for as a housekeeper. Lucy can't help but get pulled back into the past, that fateful summer she spent with Nan, and her obsession with the Whitlam's.

I was pulled into this atmospheric mystery from the beginning. The story unfolds from the past in different characters' voices, all leading up to a climatic party on the beach. In the present, Lucy still wants to be accepted by the Whitlam's and is determined to come up with answers to what happened that summer. You're never quite sure who to believe in this story, right up to that powerful ending. Lots of interesting characters, including the dog, Hades. I felt for both young, anxious to be accepted, Lucy, as well as older, still trying to cope Lucy. A great debut - can't wait to read more from this author!

Thank you to NetGalley, author Rebecca Heath, and Aria and Aries Publishing for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

This was a fun, if not predictable, mystery! I didn't realize that this was a book set in Australia/by an Australian author, so I really enjoyed the setting and some of the different dialect used. I love drama regarding rich people, and there was definitely plenty of that here. However, this was not a stand-out read for me; I found pretty much all of the characters annoying, and I felt like the flashbacks didn't add much to the story. There were some details that I was just confused about, even after the reveal, and nothing was too surprising overall. It was a fun read that was easy to fly through and would be a great beach read!

Picture summer 2000 and a glamorous clifftop mansion, with an equally glamorous family party. Everyone wants to be friends with the Whitlams, and for teen Lucy Ross, living in the town of Queen’s Point for the summer with her grandmother, it’s a chance to see how the other half live. And party. It’s at this party that she gets her first kiss and also sees something she shouldn’t. Fast forward to 2019 and Lucy is back in the town to clear her grandmother’s home. She wants to arrive and depart swiftly, and leave no time for any awkward reunions. But when human remains wash up on the beach, police close the town. Unable to leave, Lucy’s faced with her past and all those secrets she’d hoped never to think about again. She’s got a decision to make: either confront the past and be honest, or do whatever she can to protect those she once cared deeply for?

The Summer Party has all the trappings of a gripping, escapist thriller, relating the story of a woman revisiting her past and her personal obsession with a seemingly perfect, glamorous family. I did enjoy it, but while it's mostly a pretty solid suspense/mystery, it fell short for me in a few ways. The character development felt very surface-level, unfortunate for a character-focused, psychological thriller, and some plot pieces didn't quite line up for me. Furthermore, I wish the revelations toward the end didn't come so wholly in the form of "so here's how I did it" style speeches. I also think there weren't, really, quite enough actual suspects for the main solution to avoid feeling too obvious. Just the same, there were some extra twists and turns to keep it from being entirely predictable, and I did enjoy my time spent reading it. Given it's a debut, I look forward hopefully to what the author might write next.

Thank you Head of Zeus for the advance review copy!

I finished The Summer Party a week ago. I stopped today to write the review and realized I couldn’t remember a thing about it. Going back to the notes again, I found that I didn’t like any of the characters. Except the dog. I liked the dog.

Lucy spent some time with some kids 20 years ago. Now shen is back to clean out her grandma’s house and these people treat her like she was a huge part of their childhood. It’s weird. Of course, someone died. The question was who did it. The rest of the book was just giving different motives for different people. Who doesn’t have multiple people who want them dead? Who doesn’t have a motI’ve for murder? Is it any wonder that none of them were likeable?

Even Lucy cam off as weak and whiney. She was fascinated by these people she spent a small amount of time with. So much that she has stalked them online, even when they won’t respond. It wasn’t terribly believable.

A fast paced mystery thriller that kept my attention the entire time. I enjoyed the multiple point of view and the dual timeline. Overall it was a good mystery and I look forward to reading more by Rebecca Heath.
Thank you Netgalley and Aria & Aries for the ARC!