“What is up with the men on Alton Road? When did they all go nuts?”

The Block Party is a solid Domestic Suspense debut!

The residents of Alton Road are all keeping secrets. Within the year, their lives will be forever changed by their own despicable behavior. Not all is fun and games, like the block party they throw each Memorial Day. When their secrets are revealed, there will be terrible consequences for all the residents. Someone was murdered and the Meadowbrook online community can’t get enough of the juicy gossip. What really happened at the Memorial Day celebration?

Jamie Day explores themes of alcoholism, revenge, infidelity, suicide, drug abuse, and depression in her debut novel. While the themes and format of this book are not unique to the genre, Day’s fully developed characters are stand-outs. Two things that are usually deal breakers for me with books are long length and YA perspective, but I really enjoyed this one! Although Lettie is a teenager and shares half of the narration of the book, she is the only upstanding citizen in this neighborhood. Since all of the other characters are flawed, I had someone to really pull for.

The many juicy secrets come together in an unrealistic, but satisfying way. Some of the twists are predictable, but others won me over. Overall, I am impressed by this debut, and will be happy to read more from Jamie Day.

Note to publisher: This book could benefit from further editing before publication.

Trigger warning: Suicide

4/5 stars

Expected publication date: 7/18/23

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of The Block Party in exchange for an honest review.

This was a juicy, neighborhood drama packed thriller. There was a lotttt going on though so at times it got confusing. The end was a bit too cheesy for me.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

The Block Party by Jamie Day

New adage: never judge a book by its first chapter. I expected a typical story about a drunk with a sullen teen at a Halloween party. What I got was so much more. This well conceived novel created suspense and got more and more intriguing as it went on.

The yearly Alton Road community block party is the tip of the iceberg. What goes on behind closed doors, and even open doors is the story here. The five main families have their secrets and they all are revealed by the end.

The characters are well developed and their points of view alternate throughout the story. The writing is very real and up to date with present day expressions, ideas and use of technology.
A thoroughly enjoyable read, I give it a solid five stars and thank #StMartinsPress and #NetGalley for this ARC.

The Block Party - 4⭐️ read from me. Entertaining from the start and moves quickly. Lots of drama and secrets - very much desperate house wives/pretty little liar vibes. Thank you to St. Martins Press for the advanced reader copy!

Thank you author Jamie Day, Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this granted eARC in exchange of an honest review.


The residents throughout the entire block of Alton Road are tight-knit in their own little bubble - which means their lives have become entangled one way or another whether in a good or ugly way. On Memorial Day, as they celebrate their usual block party, one was found murdered…

Okay, so if you’re going in expecting a thriller, let me stop you right now…it’s not. I heard somewhere on Bookstagram that it was more of a family drama and indeed it was. Even though I did see the thriller part of it, I would say it was about 5% of the entire book, but still did not capture my attention to feel the suspense. The redeeming factor was I did like the domestic drama, gossip here and there in the neighborhood, as if I live in the close-by community lol! I enjoyed each character’s back story and their personalities, although I have to say, the only first person POV is 18 years old so you also get a YA vibe while reading it. Overall, if you’re down for some family drama-rama, gossips and such, this is a good recommendation that you guys can pick-up and read! The Block Party releases on July 18th!

Jamie Day's richly satisfying debut novel, "The Block Party", heads into familiar territory when gunshots are heard at the annual block party. To answer the question of who is behind the possible murder? The story goes back to the previous year before the incident. Five well -known women in the community have their own reasons to justify going after the victim. There are some familiar clichés such as an alcoholic mother, a beautiful woman with a secret, and a marriage at the brink.
At the same time, Day manages to successfully string together each story into clean narrative. Day also adds humor in the right places and create moving scenes as well.

The Block Party is one of those books where you can sit in your.beach chair and keep reading until sunset.
I look forward to reading Jamie Day's next book.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Mind-blowing domestic suspense packed into 374 pages. The Block Party provided me with enough drama, revenge, crazy secrets, and lies for the rest of the year! This book is told from dual POVs - Alex Fox and her teenage daughter, Lettie. There's a bunch of characters to keep up with and they all have intricate secrets...some woven together. I enjoyed this book more at about the 50% mark because that
s when most of the craziness came out. I will say this is definitely a long read where you really have to pay attention and remember what all the characters are doing and what they've expressed from their past. The character development was nothing short of amazing. I had so many favorites--Alex, Lettie, Jay Kumar, and Brooke.
The ending was truly satisfying and my head was spinning!

The Block Party was such a fun read! Highly recommend getting your hands on it July 18!!

Thank god I don’t live on this block! What goes on behind closed doors does not stay secret for long in this neighborhood. From stalking to infidelity to drug and alcohol abuse. Revenge is just another dish at this party.

Thanks @netgalley for read 80 of 2023. I read @megans_bookcorner’s review of this book, and I knew that I had to read it. If you’re a fan of BIG LITTLE LIES, you’ll love this book. Similar vibes. I loved the online message board writing. This novel gripped me, and I had to keep reading to see how things ended. There were lots of surprises in this book, and I love how everything came together in the end. A ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 read in my books. Highly recommend. #avivaandfriendsrecos

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the summer and while I enjoyed it, it fell a little flat.

I'm a sucker for a neighborhood drama - give me all the moms drinking too much wine, the misbehaving and bratty children, and the philandering husbands. And while The Block Party had all of this - and more - it had almost too much. There was SO much going on.

We had narrators from several families, of all ages, and with all backgrounds. There were about 9 subplots going on and while everything eventually tied together nicely, getting there took some work and it was occasionally difficult to keep everyone and everything straight.

I probably could have done without most of the teenagers' storylines and had more focus on the female protagonists. At first I was invested in Lettie's plot, but it ended up taking up more of the story than I needed and I started to lose interest.

I listened to The Block Party on audio and it was pretty good. Multiple narrators were used which I always appreciate but none of them were particularly stand out.

All in all, I enjoyed The Block Party but it's not one that will really stick with me. It's a fairly quick and certainly entertaining read and would definitely be perfect by the beach with a fun cocktail.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the copy.

The yearly block party is sooo much more than a neighborhood party. Each year, secrets are revealed, and eventually there are casualties. This was a good storyline with a different ending than expected.

In Meadowbrook, MA, there is a street of nice homes inhabited by families. Think Desperate Housewives. Everyone knows everyone and each Memorial Day there is a block party. But this year, there is a shooting.
Go back 1 year, and Alex Fox is setting up the party. Her husband, Nick, and daughter, Lettie, are milling about. Alex's sister, Emily, a realtor, is showing a house to Mandy and Samir Kumar and their son, Jay. Emily lives next to Alex, and they both note a spark between Mandy and Emily's husband, Ken. Willow and Evan are getting a divorce, but he won't move out. Their daughter Riley was best friends with Lettie, but is now a mean girl. Brooke lives down the street, a widow, after her husband went overboard on a cruise.
So, what is going on? Lettie wants revenge on Riley, who is dating Lettie's cousin, Dylan. But, she sees that Riley is doing drugs and meeting with an older, married man.
I figured out 90% of what was going on, but not the Mandy connection. A gossipy, juicy novel.

This is a block party like no other. We start out with a murder, and then the author takes us back to a year earlier to explain how we got there.

We have Alex, Nick, and their daughter Lettie. Then Willow, Evan, and their daughter Riley. We have Brooke, whose husband died under mysterious circumstances. And Emily (Alex's sister), Ken, and Dylan. And a new family is joining the neighborhood - Samir, Mandy, and Jay. All the families are loosely connected, either through relationships, friendships, or dating, in the case of Riley and Dylan. And they all have secrets they are hiding.

I enjoyed the format of the story and how the author keep us guessing as to who was murdered. Our main narrator was Alex, and she was definitely unreliable, drunk most of the time, and chief instigator, or should I say investigator, for many of the issues in the neighborhood. I found the other narrator, Lettie, to have a more well-developed storyline and plot points. The author did a great job spending enough time with each family so that you truly got to know the characters and how interconnected they were before you got to the block party and the murder.

I'd highly recommend if you enjoy a good mystery, unreliable characters, lying, gossip, and a strong sense of place. You feel a part of the neighborhood and become invested in the characters.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review.

This book! It grabs your attention, sucks you in, won’t let you sleep, it will tell you don’t need to cook that dinner tonight, it will tell you that you need to read just one more page, ok, and then that page also, and sleep, who cares about sleeping, no, you stay up and read, what, no, you don’t have to work next day, work is just there to keep you from reading.
Ok, I might be slightly exaggerating, but in all seriousness, this book sucks you in and it keeps you there until the last page. And then you will sit there wondering what is actually going on.
There are so many characters in the book, and there are some crazies too (yeah, I love crazies in books). This is an absolute top notch domestic suspense read. There should be more books like this one. There should be so, so much more books like this one.

The neighbors on Alton Road have a yearly block party on Memorial Day Weekend, and this year, someone is dead. Through flashbacks of the previous year, readers learn what lead up to the events of the block party and who is dead. The main characters are Alex, a divorce mediator who loves her wine a little too much, and her daughter Lettie, a high school senior seeking revenge on her former best friend who ratted out her out as the vandal who protested the dress code. The chapters alternate perspectives between the two, and readers get to see their relationships with all of the neighbors including some newcomers and their college- aged son, Alex’s sister and her family, Lettie’s best friend and her parents, and a sexy widow with an Only Fans account. This tale of neighborly gossip, betrayal, and revenge will keep readers guessing until the very end. Who is dead, and which neighbors have motive to kill?

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
When the book started, I really thought I was going to end up hating all the characters but that changed quickly. The main characters were well developed and layered enough to find them likable despite their flaws. I loved the way the story was broken up by season with snippets from the online forum. There was just enough mystery to keep me guessing until the end. Solid summer read!

I contemplated not finishing this one and probably would have if I was not obligated to review it. I thought there were too many characters and storylines that I did not care about. This pulled focus from the main “murder at the block party” plot line and made the whole thing move way too slowly. One of the main characters we follow is a teenager, and I did not enjoy her perspective or voice. I was not a fan of the author’s writing style and thought they made use of way too many idioms. For 90% of the book, I didn’t even care who was dead, I just wanted it to be over. But things pick up at the end and I must say I did not predict one of the big twists. If you are looking for a gripping thriller that you can’t put down, unfortunately, this isn’t it.

Thank you NetGalley and St.Martin’s Press for a complimentary copy of this novel! The book’s title, The Block Party, refers to the annual Memorial Day block party that neighbors on Alton Lane hold every year. But this one year, it literally goes out with a bang!!! A murder takes place! I felt that the entire story was a slow build to the final showdown. Seemed to move really slow at some points. The timeline alternates between last year’s Memorial Day Party and the Present. We are introduced to numerous characters, some crazier, nosier and deadlier than others. Everyone on Alton Lane has secrets. The question is, “Which one is the deadliest?” While this novel was a slow build, I kept wanting to read it till the end to find out what the mystery of the murder was and who the victims was. 3.5 stars round up to 4.
Available July 18, 2023

The Block Party is an entire cul-de-sac filled with domestic suspense. A group of affluent neighbors gets together annually for a BBQ/party that turns out to be the denouement revealing what actually has been going on behind closed doors. Spanning over a year, the disintegration of the families is apparent and the next party will be a real killer.
Author Jamie Day reaches further than the mystery, as she attempts to weave in sister-hood both by birth and proximity, #metoo, substances abuse, and suicide. At times it feels a bit much but ultimately it all plays into the who and why when all is revealed.
In a fun twist, some short chapters are dedicated to an online platform similar to Nextdoor. Neighbors adjacent to Alton Road but not really a part of the in-group, chat about the goings on at the party. The variety of participants in the chat brings some humor as there always is the chat police person, the individual that can't stay on topic, and the one that offers prayers and good thoughts. These portions were my favorite.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for an early e-copy. All opinions are my own.

The Block Party by Jamie Day is a great novel that I really enjoyed.

The story is a domestic suspense novel about a murder during the Memorial Day block party on Alton Lane.

There were so many characters, SO many, but only two narrators.

There was a lot of suspense that I really enjoyed.

And so much drama, which felt like Desperate Housewives, in the best possible way.

I really enjoyed this book, was so well written with great twists.