What a scandalous and dramatic read! And I loved every second of it!! Not many twists but lots of mystery! The final reveal shook me!! I loved this book so much and highly recommend!!

This was a really good thriller! I was interested from the get-go, and stayed invested in the characters and story the whole time. I highly recommend!

This was a slow burn book that had a great build up to the grand finale. We see both the neighborhood dynamic with all the “Altonites” beginning a year from today, as well as chatter from the current time period from a nearby neighborhood’s online chat group. As the story progresses you find that the killer, and the one killed, could literally be just about anyone. Each person and family has their own secrets that they are trying to hide and I loved how I couldn’t figured out who did what. And the finish?!? Completely unexpected yet altogether perfect! I also liked the way Jay seemed to sort of come around and become a better person, as he was probably one of my favorite characters in this book. This is a strong 5 stars and I will definitely be encouraging both friends and my local library to get this book.

Fun and entertaining, the block party keeps you glued to the pages!
I really liked how the book went full circle and ended right where it started - at the block party.
The characters are messy and chaotic and lowkey toxic but that's what's great about this story. I like complex characters who feel like real people.

Didn't really feel like the ending was flushed out but still enjoyed the book!

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Block Party was unputdownable!! There is so much going on in the neighborhood, that there is never a dull moment! With each secret that comes to light, the reader gets more and more sucked in!

Thank you to the publishers at St. Martins Press and Netgalley for this e-ARC of The Block Party.

I’m sorry to say that this is a DNF for me. I only made it to about 29% before I decided I couldn’t read any more. The writing style never drew me in and it just felt too long. It didn’t seem to be going anywhere. I really wanted to like this and I will definitely try to read this author again in the future.

All I can say is this book is insane!! There were constant twists and everyone was keeping so many secrets. Neighborhood drama always is a good read but this was something else.

The families on Alton Road have an annual block party and this year, there has been a murder. No one knows what has happened and everyone is keeping so many secrets that it is hard to know the actual truth.

My review will be posted to my instagram @annas.book.reviews on March 15th.

The block party takes place on a street full of flawed characters harboring dark secrets. The story warms up slowly and builds until about midway through you can't stop turning the pages. The story both begins and ends at the neighborhood block party with lots of action packed in between as the reader is left, wondering what exactly is going to happen at this final block party.

I really enjoyed this fast paced book and will definitely read more from this author. The story was well told and the twists made sense.

A close knit neighborhood has a yearly block party. This year, there’s something different about the get together; it ends in murder. Can Alex and the other women on Alton Road uncover the lies, secrets and deception that led to the murders?

I really enjoyed this book. It’s not my usual romance read but I needed something different. The plot twists, turns and revelations were so well written, it had me guessing almost the whole way through the book. My only complaint is that there was a certain phrase that I felt was over used throughout the book, but it’s an easy thing to get over. Overall, I would recommend this book to everyone if you need something to keep you guessing and in suspense. Thank you @netgalley for the approval!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's for the ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book.
2.5 stars
In a word, boring. Each character more blah than the next. There are many, many characters, not confusing keeping them straight but I would like to have had a different point of view than Alex and Lettie. And I don't think we really needed to know every single thing each character was doing a year ago before getting back to present day. I thought the Online Community Page messages slowed down the narrative unnecessarily. There should be lots of trigger warnings before reading this - too many to mention. The writing wasn't terrible which is why I didn't DNF this.

It’s giving Desperate Housewives 💅🤌

The Block Party starts at a Memorial Day Block Party on Alton Road. Then it transitions into the year prior with flashbacks in a Facebook group in the present. The timelines got a little confusing for me and took me a little bit to get my head around the overall timeline.

Then there’s the characters - lots of lies, cheating, dysfunction, and even a little bit of murder. I will say that there is almost one too many characters to keep track of (especially when the book is only told from a couple POVs). I wish the book would have focused on diving deeper into some relationships/ characters instead of breezing past some.

Overall, this book was binge-able and I finished it quickly. Reminds me of the high school days where your crush doesn’t like you back and the pressure of college apps and all the drama that goes into high school.

Thank you to Net Galley for this ARC! Be sure to checkout the Block Party when it comes out in July.

A suspenseful thriller in the neighborhood noir genre that is both entertaining and engaging. Alex lives a good life with her husband and soon to be college bound daughter Lettie. Her sister and brother-in law live next door and she is friends with most of the people on her upscale street. When a new couple moves in, divisions and secrets begin to make themselves known. Told from both the perspective of Alex and her daughter, multiple storylines emerge and keep the reader guessing. The characters are well developed and the plot twists keep the reader wanting more. An excellent novel that will keep you up reading until the end.

Alex Fox has somehow become responsible for the annual block party in her upscale neighborhood. Despite being busy with her job as a divorce mediation specialist, parenting a soon-to-be college-bound daughter, and having problems in her marriage (mostly related to her drinking), Alex still is the driving force behind the annual party. The book begins with Alex trying to stay on top of things even though she's already had a bit too much to drink. When this leads to an embarrassing accident, she stumbles home to change clothes and get some space from her husband Nick. Once home, she falls asleep and is woken up by police sirens which seem to be right outside -- at the party. Then neighbors a few streets over, who are all a bit miffed at not being good enough to be invited to the block party begin having an online discussion about what is going on. Rumors soon begin to fly that someone at the party is dead.

The story then goes back in time to the previous year's party when things weren't so tense in the neighborhood. We meet all Alex's neighbors, all of whom seem to have secrets behind the walls of their large, well-kept homes. Alex's sister Emily is concerned that her husband Ken is a bit too interested in the wife of the new couple in on the street. Gorgeous widow Brooke might or might not have had something to do with "losing" her husband. Alex's daughter Lettie used to be best friends with the girl across the street, Riley, but Riley has turned into a mean girl. Riley's parents, Willow and Evan, are headed for divorce, just as soon as Willow can figure out how to get around the pre-nup she signed. The new neighbors, Samir and Mandy, are a bit too secretive for the other neighbors -- just what are they trying to hide? Their son Jay, who Lettie takes an immediate liking to, has been kicked out of college and spends his days in the basement "working on coding."

The chapters alternate between Alex discussing the various goings-on in the neighborhood and Lettie, who is trying to get revenge on Riley for bullying her. When Lettie enlists Jay in her revenge plot, things soon spiral out of control.

The story is certainly a page-turner as Alex continues to drink, Lettie is behind the scenes trying to help her friends, and the other adults in the neighborhood continue to act sketchy. It's fun trying to catch clues to work out what happens at the most recent block party. I was a bit disappointed in the ending, as it felt a bit flat after all the build-up, but the rest of the story was enjoyable.

I almost put this book down. It started off good and then the middle was kind of ehhh, but then it picked up again and I’m glad I kept going. Ended up being a pretty good book. Lots of drama throughout. A little predictable but I liked it

The families living on the exclusive Alton Rd. cul-de-sac hold a summer block party yearly, but this year it is marred by a host of police cars and ambulances. Speculation soon runs rampant on the community FB page with everyone more interested in taking shots at each other than what has actually happened. Could someone actually have been killed??

The story flashes back a year and the deep secrets of four families are slowly revealed. Everyone has something to hide, but some secrets are unforgivable. And, when it comes to taking revenge, you won’t get anywhere by playing it safe.

This one definitely keeps you guessing till the last page!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4.25

I enjoyed this one a lot more than I initially thought I would!

In the beginning, I found the way certain characters (especially the younger ones) were written came off as the "teenager" archetype. Through the story I found the younger characters frustrating, and the normalization of Jay and Lettie's age gap was slightly concerning, considering she was in high school and he was a college drop out. The storyline with Lettie and Riley was also surprising as they set aside years worth of animosity all of a sudden and were back to the good old days? It just seemed a little convenient there.

The second half of this book really carried. I got used to the authors writing style, figured out the (huge) cast of characters and the plot flowed a lot better. I like how the author used the community Facebook group to help tell the story and I thought it added a cool layer to the story.

I am a huge Desperate Housewives fan and I saw another review saying this was the perfect mix of Desperate Housewives and Big Little Lies and I would have to agree. These characters held their own but the nostalgia of nosy neighbours, secrets and murder was reminiscent of these classic stories.

The twists and turns were unexpected and the drama and mystery tied together very nicely at the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review ❤️

“If everyone threw their problems up in the air, people would race to catch their own.”

 A tony cluster of homes sit on Alton Road, a cul-de-sac in Meadowbrook, Massachusetts, where other stylish folks long to live. The residents’ annual summer block party is quite the soirée. Until it ends in murder.

When the Alton Road neighbors search for the killer, all sorts of secrets emerge. And, of course, no one’s perfect life is quite what it appears to be.

As the neighbors’ lives collide and intersect, I found the coincidences a bit contrived. However, told from multiple points of view, this novel is a quick-moving, escapist read. The story kept me guessing—and turning the pages.

Likeable characters and good story. Kept me guessing and had a few surprises. First read with this author, won't be the last. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

First I would like to thank Jamie Day, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my copy of the ARC.

I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery thriller.

I would like to say there should be a trigger warning at the beginning. I won't go into why because that would give away too much plot.