The Block Party, a mystery written by Jamie Day, takes readers on a journey filled with suspense, secrets, and unexpected twists that keeps them guessing until the very end.
The story begins at the annual neighborhood block party where a new family is introduced becoming the catalyst to unraveling a dark web of secrets. The twists and turns are skillfully executed, leaving readers on the edge of their seats and eagerly turning the pages to uncover the next revelation. The characters in The Block Party are well-developed and multi-dimensional, each with their own secrets and motivations.

Jamie Day's talent for storytelling shines through in this intricate tale of secrets and intrigue. (I reviewed an advance reader copy and all opinions are my own.) With its well-drawn characters and skillful plot twists, this novel is a must-read. The Block Party delivers an enjoyable and immersive reading experience.

If (Queen!) Elin Hilderbrand recommends it, you know its going to be good. This novel certainly didn't disappoint. Thanks Netgalley & the publisher for the ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

This books is perfect! It has it all. This story includes family drama, mystery, overcoming addiction, and suspense. The residents of Alton Road have their annual summer block party on Memorial day weekend every year. This year the block party included murder. This story takes you back a year to find out the backstory to unfold what really happened. The characters and their relationships are slowly developed and revealed in such a creative way that I couldn't put this book down. I highly recommend this book! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

The Block Party by Jamie Day
Narrators: Megan Tusing and Suzy Jackson
Rating: 3.5 stars
Pub Date: 7/18

I think this will be a favorite for many. It had a Desperate Housewives feel to it and was full of secrets, lies, and betrayal. Everyone on the cul-de-sac is hiding something, but who is desperate enough to commit murder?

The Block Party is an addictive thriller with a captivating neighborhood backdrop. The story starts with a murder at the annual block party on the Alton Road cul-de-sac. We go back to one year ago and work our way forward, following multiple families and slowly unraveling clues.

I love neighborhood dramas where the characters are tied up in each other’s lives, and this one kept me guessing! I really enjoyed the alternating POVs and timelines, and I loved the format of working backward to solve the mystery. I couldn’t put this one down, thanks to the twists and turns throughout, and I did not predict the ending at all.

I alternated between the ebook and the audiobook, and I thought the narrators did an excellent job with the cast. Each character came through with their own unique voice, which was probably challenging because there were so many.

There were a few pacing issues, where the beginning started off strong but then started to drag. There are also a LOT of characters, and it was difficult to keep them all straight. And while I love thrillers like this, I've also grown tired of the alcoholic, suburban housewife narrative.

Overall, "The Block Party" is an addictive thriller perfect to throw in your beach bag or read by the pool.

Read if you like:
* neighborhood drama
* dual POV
* dual timeline
* a big cast of characters
* Big Little Lies

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the complimentary ARC copy and to Macmillan Audio for my ALC. The Block Party comes out on 7/18.

This was a fairly fast paced, slow burn thriller.

I was able to read along as I listened to the audio. I enjoyed the different narrators, and it was super easy to tell them apart.

This story takes place over the course of the year in an upscale neighborhood. It is told from the perspective of Alex, and also from her 16-year-old daughter, Lettie. Every neighborhood has its secrets, but this one tries especially hard to keep up appearances. You get all of the adult's drama from Alex's perspective, and all of the teenage drama from Lettie's perspective, until eventually it collides.

All is well in the neighborhood under a new family comes in, and slowly the secrets come to life. In this one, you know right from the beginning that there was a death (possibly murder) in the neighborhood, told through a neighborhood chat message board, which was kind of a funny spin due to how accurate it portrayed the off-topic comments and arguing. The book then takes you through the events leading up to the night of the death, and what leads to it. No one is entirely innocent.

The book ends with an epilogue, a year later. The one thing that threw me off was how nonchalant everyone was about it, the adults all essentially agree to continue to keep each other's secrets. No one seemed to learn a lesson.

Murder in the cul-de-sac! Who was murdered? Who is the murderer? With all the drama, secrets, and lies involving all of the wealthy families on Alton Road it could be any of them! I very much enjoyed this gossipy, crazy clan! I also liked how I wasn’t able to guess the ending.

This is the first book by Jamie Day I have read. It deals with very dark and disturbing secrets. I read it in one sitting and then could not sleep afterwards. The book is well-written and is a page turner once you get through the preliminaries. Whenever I thought something was moving slowly, I just skimmed forward.

The people of Alton Road have plenty of secrets and somehow their secrets connect to several families. This is a train wreck that you can’t put down.

The topics of this book are: Bullying, rape, friend and family dynamics, over drinking, and human decency.

I was given an advanced copy and am NOT required to leave a positive review.

Where do you live? A neighborhood? Out in the country? An apartment? In The Block Party by Jamie Day, the characters all share a cul-de-sac on an exclusive street. On the day of the Memorial Day block party there's a shooting. The reader is taken back a year to see what led up to the shooting. Everyone has secrets - but which secrets are strong enough to kill over?

The story is told through the POVs of Alex and her daughter, Lettie. It intially feels like a story of adults behaving badly, but there's more to Day's story. There is some terrible behavior but there's substance to the story. There are several storylines but it's never overwhelming. It did take a bunch of pages to keep the names straight and who goes with who. Day keeps adding to the narrative until we finally find out the why. And you won't guess.


The character and interactions reminded me of Big, Little Lies. Great debut from Jamie Day.

Every Memorial Day the residents of Alton Road have an epic block party. They have everything, food, games, music, booze. When a new family moves in across the street, they find out things aren’t always what they seem. Add in revenge, stalking, blackmail, cheating and lies and you get a perfect recipe for disaster. Next Memorial Day will go out with a bang.

Thanks NetGalley for this opportunity to read The Block Party.

The Block Party is a debut novel by Jamie Day. While I didn't know a whole lot about the story or the author prior to picking this up, I was very intrigued by the synopsis. Books about dysfunctional families set in perfect little towns are some of my favorites. I love the contrast in the characters and settings. Unfortunately, this one didn't really cut it for me. I listed to the audiobook for this story and quickly found that I didn't enjoy the characters or much of what was happening. I thought about DNF'ing the story many times, but because I needed to write a review, I gave it my best chance and completed the story. I honestly think my biggest issues with this story was the lack of transparency with triggers written into the story. There's very little to go on in the synopsis, and while read this, there were incidences of infidelity, rape, drugs, suicide, guns, and so much more. Additionally, there were too many side plots that I was confused and couldn't ever truly stay connected.

A block party gone awry. The story starts at the end and then takes us back a year so we can see the progression and events leading up to the murder. The families are wonderfully wacky and full of secrets and betrayals. I did feel like the pace slowed down in the middle, but the ending had a delightful twist and I enjoyed it overall. The audiobook is a fun way to read this novel and the narrators do a great job.

This was fun, twisty and kept me guessing. This is a perfect summer read. I read it on the beach and had such a good time with it!

There was a lot I liked about The Block Party. It had dual POVs, the yuppie neighborhood setting was well done, the plot combined the adults and their teenage children nicely, and it included social media posts which was a clever touch. However, I could not stand the main character, Alex. She grated on my nerves the entire book! She was not the unlikeable character you often encounter in a book that gives the story some zest and vitality; she was a character I wanted to tell to put the stupid and, quite frankly, unnecessary wine bottle down and get on with the drama. Honestly, at times her teenage daughter was the more mature one of the two.

There were lots of secrets on this one street and they came out very slowly until the explosive end. The author did a good job keeping me interested throughout the book and wondering just who would get shot and why.

My copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

Wow. This book was a wild ride! Kind of like reality TV that you just can’t turn off. Could anything else happen to these characters?! So fun to read!

Ah, this book was just another story line of neighborhood drama and scandalous behavior. The characters weren’t really like-able. They have two narration characters, which maybe it easy to follow, but the downside was a lot of characters being mentioned, that never really fully developed. Then they had drama / issues that needed to be kept track of.

It’s a quick read, however the story is just mediocre. It was not a book I would have stopped reading it held me in there to carry it out. To me, there is way too many books out there to read with different settings, experiences and not unoriginal…if you like unique stories this one probably won’t be for you.

It’s just super hard to love a story when you can’t like the characters and it’s just another story repeated in a little different way.

However, I did enjoy reading it and I do truly appreciate the work put into making a book possible.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this story of a neighborhood and their residents. Not finding out the victim until towards the end was a great idea. As I read the story I kept thinking it is this one then no it is this one. I highly recommend.

The annual block party is the unofficial start to summer on the exclusive, upper-class cul-de-sac of Alton Road. It’s always an exciting day full of grilled food, drinks, fun and fireworks, but this year the festivities are interrupted by police sirens. There’s lots of speculation on the online neighborhood forum, but rumor has it that a dead body has been discovered!

I absolutely love a gossipy neighborhood thriller, and The Block Party definitely fits the bill! Secrets, affairs, and suspicion abound when the neighbors come together. The story starts with the incident, then goes back in time to the previous year’s block party and moves throughout the year to the present date. The juicy excerpts from the online forum are a fun touch! Jamie Day’s debut novel is thoroughly entertaining and a perfect poolside read for summer!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me an advance copy of this book.

The Block Party was a soapy domestic suspense novel about a group of wealthy neighbors with LOTS of secrets. If I could tell the characters in this book one thing it would be, "STAY IN YOUR LANE"!

There are nosy neighbors and then there are the these people. These women (and men!) are serious drama queens but the plot actually ended up being a little more troubling than I expected. There are some discussions of sexual assault and suicide that were hard to read.

I didn't necessarily enjoy this story but I did stick with it because I had to find out what happened. If you're looking for a Desperate Housewives-esque read, this might be something to check out. As for me, I would rather watch reruns of Desperate Housewives.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to be an early reader. All opinions are my own!

Everyone on Alton drive has secrets. This book combines themes from lots of different sub genres. There’s a little bit thriller as there are some mysteries meant to scare the reader a bit and there’s murder and plenty of mayhem. However, I don’t think this is best classified as a thriller; it’s more domestic suspense. In the same vein of “the last thing he told me “, there’s more diving in to what families project to the world and what’s going on behind closed doors. Throw in a teen character for some coming of age angst and it was a very readable book. I will recommend this to friends.

Thank you Netgalley & St. Martin's Press for an eARC of The Block Party by Jamie Day! I was so excited to be approved for this one, as its premise is truly the perfect way to kick off the summer.

This one kicks off with the annual summer block party on Alton Road, and there's been a murder. Jamie instantly takes us back to one year prior, unraveling the secrets and scandal that leads up to the big event.

I really enjoyed this one, great tension and a fun suburban suspenseful read. There's two major types of storylines here - the adults (parents) on the street - and their children, the teens. Seemingly separate, the two find themselves weaving together to provide the perfect plot. LOVED the ending, major big little lies vibes. I absolutely cannot wait to see what Jamie Day comes up with next. Fantastic narration, too, for audiobook lovers :)