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 :)

This was a juicy, entertaining domestic thriller! Perfect for summer! It reminded me a lot of Big Little Lies / The Husband’s Secret. I enjoyed the multiple POVs and was surprised by the twists/ending.

I enjoyed this so much that I got the audiobook on NetGalley when it came out just so I could listen to it. It was surprisingly good!!

What’s better than neighborhood drama? In classic suburbia fashion, the residence of Alton Road each have their own secrets their hiding. Now, which of their secrets ended with one of them being killed?

A multi-view story from both a mother and daughter as they deal with revealing the secrets of their neighbors and working through their own over the course of the year. How much really changes in a year? This story proves a lot. From the beginning of the story, we know someone is dead... but who? We then are transported back in time as we learn about what brought them all to the moment and helps leads us towards who may be dead and perhaps who did it.

I wouldn’t call this book a thriller necessary- but it was a fun mystery!

Thank you NetGalley and St’ Martin’s Press for the ARC!

One of the wealthy residents of a suburban cul-de-sac ends up dead at the annual Memorial Day gathering. Jumping between Memorial Day a year ago, the current Memorial Day, and Memorial Day a year from now, secrets are slowly revealed in this snarky telling by the women of the cul-de-sac. Rather evil fun.

It was slow going neighborhood drama book. I struggled with the first half of the book but couldn't put it down in the last 1/4. The community forum foreshadowing kept me interested.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC

I was really excited about the premise of this book - who doesn't love a good neighborhood thriller? Overall, this was an easy read & would make a great beach book. While the characters weren't always likeable, I couldn't help but wanting to know more about this neighborhood and what exactly happened at this year's block party. The book did fall a little short for me due to the large number of characters who seemed underdeveloped in places but this was a perfect light thriller for a day outside!

Loved the premise of the book. Could see this turning into a series of "Stories from the Cul de Sac." While I enjoyed the plot and the series, I don't think there was one character that I actually "liked." The combination of flawed individuals and all their secrets felt a little like everything and the kitchen sink at times. Overall a fun and entertaining read. This would be a very good beach read and if I were working in a Public Library this would be on the list for the annual vacation/beach read display. I do think it could make for an interesting book club read since it has so many different issues explored in the story.

I received a complimentary copy of this book "The Block Party" and all opinions expressed are my own. I had both the kindle and audio of this book. I'm glad I went with the audio because I don't think I would have finished the book on the kindle. Definitely a slow start and too much going on. Narrators were good but book was just ok.

The Block Party isn’t my favorite. It feels like it’s going for Liane Moriarty/Sally Hepworth, but it doesn’t work. Overall, excellent concept, poor execution - 2.5 stars

What didn’t work for me:

-Stilted dialogue. No one in real life talks like they did in the book. Admittedly, dialogue that doesn’t feel organic is a huge pet peeve of mine, so I’ll acknowledge i may be overweighting this

-All the characters are insufferable. Okay maybe not ALL. But the main mother/daughter duo that narrate the majority of chapters are SO self centered and annoying that i could help rolling my eyes over and over and over. This is not a nice experience when reading for fun

-The whole book leads up to what happens at the MDW block party one year in the future. The chapters at the end of the book when they’re at the block party are great. The lead up was tedious. It’s a super slow burn and not in a good way

-When I finally reached the interesting final chapters, I FINALLY felt invested in reading on to find out what happens… and then BLAH. There was sort of a twist in HOW the ending happened, but WHAT actually happened was what I expected to happen, so again, BLAH.

Thanks to netgalley for the gifted copy. Opinions are (obviously) my own.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for the free book.
So much fun. I love a juicy story for summer and this delivered. If you like rich people behaving badly and all of their gossip and drama, you should check this out. Told from the POV of a mom and daughter, it kept the story engaging because both the adults and teens have a lot going on in their lives. The author did a great job of giving snippets of reveals throughout, and I especially liked the community page addition to keep me guessing. There are quite a few characters but once you get into it, I promise they’re all distinct enough to keep straight. The two narrators did a great job, and I highly recommend the audio. Each captured their characters and the other ones perfectly.

The Block Party is a fun murder mystery told from two different points-of-view, Alex and her teenage daughter, Lettie and it kept me guessing until the very end! I spent a long time thinking I knew what was going on and who did it, so the extra revelations at the end were a nice surprise. I both read and listened to this title and I thoroughly enjoyed both experiences, particularly the two narrators for each point of view. This is the perfect summer beach read or listen and I look forward to recommending it to everyone! Big thank you to Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for the early access in exchange for my honest opinion.

I wanted to like this so much more than I did -- it wasn't BAD, but it wasn't good enough for me to want to tell other people to read it. Too many characters, a continual shift between third person and first person narration, the first person narration coming from a teenage character written in a decidedly un-teenage voice, clunky plotting... it just wasn't for me.

It's time for the Memorial Day Block Party. Alex has done so much in preparation that she deserves a little treat(much booze) and passes out inside. When she awakens, sirens are blaring and it's full pandemonium.

To gain some context, we go back in time to last Memorial Day and revisit that party and the year leading up to the tragic one in question. We meet a whole cast of characters, perhaps way too many.

There's Alex, our main girl, and her daughter who narrates the rest. They're both likeable enough, the wannabe Greta Thunberg daughter is a little annoying but she's a youth. It just felt very long and it had so many side quests that it was getting tedious halfway through.

It's a pretty average domestic drama that started off really clever but just got too clunky. I'd definitely check out more from this author in the future but this one missed the mark for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This was an easy read, but there were too a many characters who weren't developed and Lettie's storyline was just not it for me... this felt very much like an adult writing as a teenager.