I had high hopes for a neighborhood drama thriller, but it didn’t end up being the page turner that I was itching for.

I liked the dual mother/daughter POV, but the plot was a bit slow for me. I almost wish it jumped between the past and present throughout the book to keep the pace of the hook up, but the present was only at the beginning and then abruptly at the end.

Not my personal pick for a thriller, but kept me distracted while on the Peloton.

If you like snooping on your neighborhood’s NextDoor page, this is for you! It’s a juicy neighborhood drama, and I will say the neighborhood chats were by far my favorite part. 🤣

That being said, if you like scandalous neighborhood dramas, I think you’ll like this one! If you are hanging on to that last bit of summer this year, pick this one up before diving into spooky season reads. It’s one of those scandalous dramas where everyone has a secret. And can I say the neighbor with an OnlyFans account was the most grounded!? 🤣

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the copy in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 stars
Block Party is a scandalous summer neighborhood thriller. This story has a whole host of interesting characters, intertwining relationships, and a lot of shocking, even lurid backstories. It’s full of dark secrets and a whole lot of enticingly good fun! This rich neighborhood showcases families behaving badly, though they are somehow redeemable and sympathetic for the most part. Everyone is shocked, but no one is really surprised when the worst happens.

Our story starts at a Memorial Day block party in the present day, while the majority of the story reflects back on the block party from last year, and the events leading up to the present day. When a person ends up dead, the story takes off and boy are there a lot of twists, turns and potential victims.

The characters in this story, admittedly, have a lot of secrets to keep buried, but somehow the author makes you feel for them, at least to an extent. They certainly have issues, but the women of the block are also quite close to one another and seem to truly care. Jamie Day seems to strike the right balance of grey characters full of shady choices who somehow aren’t wholly reprehensible, but oddly understandable.

Block Party is a juicy, dark drama that also strikes a deeper note that feels important to ponder. It’s a lot of twisted, toxic fun, but it’s also a contemplative and satisfying thriller. I’m thoroughly impressed with the debut novel!

Thank you to Jamie, St. Martin’s, and Netgalley for an advance copy of The Block Party.


Alton Road is a cul-de-sac of secrets with it’s wealthy residents proving that money can’t buy class. The annual block party kicks off with booze and fake smiles but ends in murder. Told from multiple points of view in the year leading up to the murder, we get a glimpse into this posh world where nothing as it seems and many neighbors have secrets worth killing for.

This was a fantastic summer read, perfect for devouring poolside while sipping on white claws.
An entire cast of unlikable characters makes for a fun ride when you’re trying to figure out who dies and who committed the murder, anyone can go and I’m cheering for all of them to fail! I know there are readers who don’t enjoy those types of books, but I love a roster of ‘love to hate’ characters as long as they’re entertaining.

I loved the comic relief of the neighborhood facebook group comments in between chapters.

The pacing was good, I enjoyed the short chapters and the story moving along quickly leading to quite the reveal at the ending tying up all of the loose ends that were introduced throughout the pages.

I love a good neighborhood thriller, so I was excited to get my hands on this one.

The Alton Road Memorial Day block party is the event to be at each year, but this one’s different – someone is dead.

Rewind a year and we meet the cast of characters. There’s Alex Fox, the queen bee of the neighborhood, and her husband Nick and daughter Lettie. There’s Alex’s sister, Emily Adair, and her philandering husband Ken, and two sons. There’s young widow, Brooke Bailey, who’s rumored to have killed her husband. There’s divorcing Willow and Evan Thompson, and their daughter, Riley. And then there’s new neighbors Samir and Mandy Kumar, and their delinquent son, Jay, who come to the street and set in motion a year no one will soon forget.

Told through dual points of view, we follow the goings-on on Alton Road that lead up to the fateful block party murder and whodunit.

For fans of Desperate Housewives and Big Little Lies, this delicious drama was full of twists and turns that made for one satisfying beach read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jamie Day and St. Martin’s Press for an early copy of this book for an honest review.

This must be the most dysfunctional group of neighbors! Each year the street holds a block party, which becomes deadly. Gun shots are fired and the police arrive. But who is dead? We are taken back to the year before where we learn about all the crazy things going on. Many, many secrets are revealed. Many are really bad, but also some positive things happen in some of the relationships.

I really enjoyed this book. The different POVs and how it went from the past up to the present. So much drama from beginning to end., I couldn’t stop reading.

This was a fantastic debut novel! I loved that while it was a thriller it also had the drama with the neighborly gossip. I devoured this one!

Thank You to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

If you are friends with your neighbors and think you know all there is to know, think again. Do you really know what happens behind closed doors, could they harbor secrets you know nothing about and would never suspect.
This is the truth for neighbors living in a cul-de-sac, including sisters, that organize a block party every summer.
The story is told over a year's time beginning with the arrival of a new family moving onto the street and the following summer's party. The story is told in a back and forth style between summers from the perspectives of many individuals, concluding with a very dramatic explosion of truths.

This was a thrilling ride of constant revelations with a cast of well formed characters, leading to a surprising finale.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a fast paced well of secrets showcasing the fact that nobody really knows their neighbors the way they really think they do.
Fantastic Book!!!

🪑 I’m pretty impressed by this debut novel! There was a lot going on and I thought the author juggled the various narratives well.

🪑 The story is told from two time periods (one year apart) and two POVs – Alex and her daughter Lettie. If I’m honest, I really couldn’t stand Lettie. She annoyed me tremendously. I also hate it when the adult female MC is an alcoholic in books like this. It is a big turnoff for me when that stereotype is used.

🪑 There are a ton of side characters to keep up with. I think the author did a good job with such a large cast, but I must admit I was getting a little bit lost as a reader. It took me a while to get the hang of who everyone was.

🪑 One of my favorite elements of the book was the neighborhood online chat. I can’t tell you how many chats like that I’ve read in real life. The author nailed just about every demographic possible!

🪑 Overall, I think the author created a complicated tale and an interesting murder mystery. While I had a few nitpicks, I do think it was a good read. I look forward to her next book.

Thank you @NetGalley and @stmartinspress for an eARC of this book, which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

The book opens on present day, someone is murdered, you don't know who, and then the book shifts to one year prior. I really enjoyed the shift in the book as this is where the reader gets all the background on everyone in this small subdivision. As I got to know everyone, I had to restrain myself multiple times from jumping to the end to see who got murdered and who the murderer was. The author wove an intriguing mystery that kept me guessing to the very end.

The novel opens with a party taking place on Alton Road in the Meadowbrook Community. It is the annual Memorial Day block party and Alex, part litigator and part neighborhood busy body, is in charge, again. Very quickly we learn that a murder has taken place, and the neighborhood is buzzing as to who the victim might be.

Then we jump back in time a year, to be introduced to the families on Alton Road, their dramas, and see what might have led to a murder. We have two narrators, Alex, and her teen daughter Lettie, who clues us in as to what is happening with the younger set on Alton Road.

The things I liked in The Block Party, first, lots of drama! Drama on overdrive. Everyone has secrets or dirty laundry and we slowly begin to discover it all. I liked that even though there were a multitude of characters, I was able to keep them separate in my head and distinguish between them fairly quickly, which is not always the case. I've read some books with a lot of players that it takes me until three quarters of the way through the book to keep them straight.

I also liked the fact that I couldn't guess the answer to the mystery. And I also liked that there was more than one mystery, in fact there were several! Also, if you hate how some mystery dramas have such quick wrap ups of the story at the end when everything is being solved, than you'll like ending. It is deliberate, it is explained, it is not rushed. And then we even have an epilogue, where we visit the key players a year later. So all this was enjoyable.

On the complaint side, I did think the novel was quite a bit too long. I listened to the audiobook, and although it was well done, I wanted to hurry through at parts because I felt we were going over old ground. Some judicious editing would have made this a tighter, more intriguing book, at least for me.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed The Block Party, and it was a book that made me want to finish it and find out the answers. I would give it a 3.5 stars, but I'm rounding up because I do think it was good writing, just long.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to preview this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

<b>The Short of It:</b>

If you like neighborhood drama, in that “train wreck” can’t look away category, The Block Party is your book.!

<b>The Rest of It:</b>

The folks on Alton Road are about to host their annual summer block party. The anticipation is palpable as the neighborhood prepares their dishes, opens up the wine, and settles in for a lovely evening. What they don’t anticipate is the sound of sirens blaring through the neighborhood. You see, there’s been a murder.

The author takes us back to Alton Road a year before the murder. As a reader we are introduced to each household and all of their secrets. There’s an alcoholic in denial, paternity questions, teens battling depression and worse. As a reader, I had the feeling that I was listening in on private conversations. It’s deliciously wicked and at times so stressful! I was wondering how the author would carry that pace throughout but Jamie Day does! I could not put the book down. Every time I picked it up it was like returning to a favorite show.

The Block Party was just what I needed. Flawed characters. Secrets. Beautiful people with a lot of insecurities. All living in gorgeous homes with manicured lawns. It’s as if someone lit a match and set the neighborhood on fire because it is non-stop drama. I loved it.

For more reviews, visit my blog: <a href="http://bookchatter.net">Book Chatter</a>.

The Block Party by Jamie Day is a novel about a highly dysfunctional upper-middle class cul-de-sac. Told at 2 different points on time from 2 points of view, it has quite the build up to great reveal(s). Maybe just slightly too loud and drawn out. One point of view is Alex, the mommiest mom in the cul-de-sac, with a wine drinking problem and penchant for getting involved in everyone else's problems. The other point of view is Alex's teenage daughter Lettie. These chapter have a very YA feel to them. Lies, deceit, misunderstanding, murder and mayhem ensue in the year this books takes place.

My favorite parts of the book are the neighborhood message boards and there's just not enough of those in the book!

Overall a fun read that has that YA vibe for about half the book and slogs a little along getting to the conclusion.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for an advanced readers copy of this book for my honest opinion.

While overall I enjoyed The Block Party it didn't quite deliver on the thriller aspect that I was expecting. It did have me questioning a few of the characters at different points but it was longer than it needed to be. The ending caught me by surprise, which I really liked.

The people who live on a cul-de-sac on Alton Road have so many darn secrets! On the night of their annual Memorial Day block party, someone gets murdered. We don't know who died or who the killer was because the book flashes back a year prior and works back up to the murder.

The story is told through the POVs of Alex and her daughter, Lettie. Through them, we get to know all of the neighbors and all of their drama! I didn't really find any of the characters likable, but I was definitely invested in finding out what happened at the block party!

Although this was a bit of a slow burn and the book could maybe have been a little shorter, I thought it was entertaining.

Thank you, @netgalley and @stmartinspress, for the gifted e-arc and physical ARC of this book!

3.5 stars rounded

The Block Party follows a close and gossipy neighborhood through dark secrets and ends with a high crime. With past and present mixed together, we learn of each neighbor’s history which helps to unlock what happened the night of the block party. The plot twists were pretty predictable and trigger warning for sexual assault. With that said, this is a fun quick thriller for a weekend read.

I really enjoyed this debut novel by Jamie Day. I am just realizing this "neighborhood thriller/suspense/mystery" is a subgenre that is gaining popularity, and I apparently am here for it! I found myself hooked from the opening prologue where impressions of neighbors were created in my mind, only to be ripped to shreds as the story went along. The reader gets the thrill of the experience of being a fly on the wall of several character's lives, all who live on an idyllic street, but where what goes on behind closed doors is not what neighbors suspect. MOST of the characters had good and bad aspects to them. It took a while for me to know which ones I was rooting for or against, which was part of the fun. I loved the device used where teenagers of the neighborhood have secret lives their parents never would suspect and parents have secrets they would be mortified to know their kids are telling each other. The murder that this story builds around is almost like a locked room mystery. For a long time, we don't know who the victim is and once we do know, there are a limited number of characters who could be the culprit. This book kept me on the edge of my seat and there was not one story thread that disappointed.

Oh. My. What a fun thriller! I loved it. The setting was perfect and the web of lies was juicy. This was a quick read and I enjoyed it all. The plot, the characters, and the setting!

Thank you so much @StMartinsPress for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 18 July 2023)

SYNOPSIS | Alton Lane is a popular wealthy neighborhood, but when a murder takes place after their annual Memorial Day block party everyone begins to question how well they actually know their neighbors.

WHAT I LIKED:
- I liked going through the majority of the book not knowing who was murdered or why
- witnessing the story unfold only through the eyes of Alex and her teenage daughter Lettie
- the snippets of gossip from the community board sprinkled throughout

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- a lot of characters to keep track of
- the story unfolds over the course a whole year which honestly just felt like a very long time
- considering how much drama there was the story moved along quite slowly
- pretty much everyone is unlikeable