DNF at 59%. I tried with this one… I really did. Especially since most of the reviews here are all so great! For me, the writing style was a snooze and it felt like a chore to pick this book up and continue reading. The characters are shallow (not in the fun way) and lack depth/complexity.

Thank you to St. Martin Press and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

5 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 for The Block Party
By: Jamie Day
Release Date: July 18 2023
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The story begins at the annual block party where sirens are blaring when Alex wakes from a quick drunken nap. What happened? How long was she out? The story then goes back to Memorial Day the previous year when a new neighbor comes to live in the cul-de-sac. The story is told from 2 main points of view, one from Alex and one from Alex's teenage daughter Lettie. There is also a 3rd viewpoint of an online community forum during the present day. This book has a large cast of characters that all have problems such as drinking problems, infidelity, hacking/blackmailing, revenge, suicide, drugs, and stalkers, etc. Who is the neighborhood stalker? What is going on with the teenagers on the block? Why is the new family so withdrawn and suspicious? Who died at the annual block party?
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This book is not fast paced, it is a slow build, which is usually not my thing, but I LOVED IT! Even with a huge cast of characters, it was easy to keep them all straight. There wasn't non-stop action, but everyone had secrets, and they slowly unraveled throughout, leading back up to the present day. I was invested in the story of each character and was trying to figure out the multiple mysteries the entire time. This was a thoroughly enjoyable read, and I can not recommend it enough!!!
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You don't want to miss this one!! This July, grab a chair and immerse yourself in The Block Party!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for another great ARC. I love a good wealthy, neighbourhood drama - dare I say this is now in my top 3??! This book kept me on edge and so much better than what I was expecting! I couldn't put this down until I finished it. This will be THE go to thriller for the summer - I highly recommend this one!

This book could have been melodramatic and it was but it was SO much FUN to read!.
Definitely exceeded my expectations.
We are initially at a block party in an exclusive suburban neighborhood. We learn there has been a murder but no further details. We meet the families living on Alton Road.
Then we go back in time one year and learn the story of what happened with the characters that led to the outcome. What a wild ride!.
I thought the characters were well done -definitely a bit of type casting but fun to learn about.
The moral of the whole plot is that secrets can burn you and revenge is not a great idea.
This is a book that I totally powered through and could not put down. It would make a very entertaining miniseries.
I really enjoyed the fresh approach of this writer. Domestic suspense done very well!
Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC to read and review!.

Oh my! So many secrets! I loved how all the neighbors lives were commingled. You think you know who is living in your neighborhood, but do you really? This book kept me very interested. There was so much going on that there was no chance of it getting slow or boring. I loved the way the author gave us two point of views from Lettie and her mother Alex. There were many twists along the way and a surprise ending. I enjoyed reading and would recommend this book. Thank you Net Galley for an advanced copy.

enjoyed this book very much. I read it in one day, it was hard to put down, it will keep you guessing until the end..

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin's Press for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I found this domestic drama to be highly entertaining. Alton road is a beautiful neighborhood and famous for hosting an annual party that is exclusive to the area. Alex prepares for the annual blow out but not for the murder. Who died and who is the killer? Told by various narrators starting a year ago, we learn the secrets of each family on Alton Road and their not so perfect lives.

This was an entertaining read that had my attention from the first chapter. There is slow burn suspense, neighborhood drama, the well-drawn characters, and shocking conclusion.

Highly recommend!!

This book was full of neighborhood drama and surprises. It was full of many many characters and many many crazy things going on with them all. Everything was linked and brought full circle in the end. I was guessing who died and who the murder was the whole time but I wasn’t right!

The book follows a past and present time line. It also alternates between third person chapters following Alex and first person chapters following her daughter, Lettie. I did wish it was consistent but I appreciated Letties more from this first person approach.

Read The Block Party this summer if you want an easy to digest thriller full of gossip and secrets!

“That’s life here on Alton Road for you — plenty of surprises and a rainbow of emotions.”

I enjoyed this book. It took me a bit to get into it though. However I’m glad I persevered and will definitely look out for more from this author in the future.

This was an ARC I received through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. The book releases in July 2023. The Block Party by Jamie Day: I give it 4 stars.
If you are a fan of twisty turns, this may be for you.
The basic setting is an annual block party goes awry when a multitude of secrets are revealed in this affluent neighborhood in suburban
Massachusetts. I tend to write down the themes of books in my journal to keep track of my reading and this is what I wrote for this book: Revenge.
Infidelity. Control. Envy. Stalking. Alcoholism.
Gossip. Teenage bullying. SECRETS.
This one had me reading as fast as I could when I got close to the end, eyes hungry to read what would happen next. Truth be told, I guessed 2 of the major twists of this book, which doesn't happen super often, but it didn't bother me when I did. There were plenty other twists I got wrong and the story was still engaging.
The story was told alternating from a third person

You never know what goes on behind closed door, and that's especially true in The Block Party! This twisty novel begins with an annual summer block party (held on an exclusive cul-de-sac) that ends with a murder. From there, the story (which is told from the perspective of Alex, a divorce mediator and heavy wine drinker, and her daughter Lettie, an environmentally-obsessed high school student who was recently suspended) rewinds a year. As the book progresses, many juicy secrets are revealed, as story makes its way back to that fateful party.

This book made me want to grab a glass of wine and gossip with my neighbors! It was a little hard to keep the characters straight at first and the pacing was a bit slow at times, but this thriller kept me hooked right through the surprising conclusion. The Block Party comes out this summer, and it would make the perfect beach read!

The story has a little bit of everything into one complex web of secrets surrounding the Alton Road residents and a one year timespan between their annual Memorial Weekend block party. It kept me interested to continue reading and find out what happens but was not one that kept me hooked to feel the feed to read every spare minute of my day until I finished it. The book flips between first party narrative and third party. There’s nothing wrong with this but I’m not sure what the point of it was.

NOTE: I received an advanced reading copy of this novel in exchange for a review. The ARC was a digital version.

I found myself compelled to keep reading chapter after chapter, much more than I thought I would be. Some of the main characters felt a little bit formulaic, designed to create tension and conflict amongst one another. The male characters especially were a bit flat and not fully developed, though maybe that was because the narrative POV was a female character (Alexandra, 3rd person, and Lettie, 1st person). And that's a shame because the male characters are rather central to the narrative and plot.

The primary female lead, Alex, I found pretty insufferable. She is a meddler and gossip, which perhaps is how supposedly close-knit neighborhoods can be. But I felt it left her making silly choices, with little to no self-awareness. That is her Achilles' heel and blindspot, which leads to more dramatic tensions. Oh, one particular point I didn't understand is that the novel starts with a Memorial Day BBQ, and Alex drinking. Then the timeline shifts to earlier in the year and we witness Alex's descent into alcoholism. And we see her finally ask for help, go to counseling, get sober. Then, inexplicably, she's drunk at the party. Of course, alcoholics struggle and relapse, but the regression was unexplained. Or perhaps I got the timeline wrong? Hmm...

Basically, if you read and like Big Little Liars (by Liane Moriarty) then I think you'll enjoy The Block Party. The plot is along the same vein of neighbors, families and the secrets we keep.

SYNOPSIS:

Several families live on an exclusive cul-de-sac on Alton Road. Someone is murdered at the annual block party. The book jumps back in time to a year before the murder, and in that year, you learn about the characters, the motive, & the murder.

MY THOUGHTS
- I really liked this book. It’s my first read by Jamie Day, but I found it easy to read & suspenseful throughout the book.
- This was nail-biting, tense, fast-paced thriller, and the author does a wonderful job crafting the story.
- I liked the idea of a neighborhood scandal/drama, and it felt pretty original to me. I read a lot of thrillers, and I haven’t come across one with this block party setting before.
- This story involves a lot of drinking, gossip, scandals, & drama.
- The story is told from multiple POVs (namely, a mother & a daughter).
- Author’s writing style is solid.

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Nail-biting, fast-paced, tense thriller with original plot. Solid writing & good story.


Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. It's due to be published on July 18, 2023.

*BIG thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of this novel

Do you like scandal, drama, secrets and maybe a bit of murder? If so, the block party on Alton Road is for you!! It’s Memorial Day - beautiful weather, cookout food, boozy beverages, and neighbors all around partying and having fun. But what’s a picnic without murder? All the sudden, we are taken back a year where we learn all about the families of Alton Road. We learn their stories, secrets and scandals. Everyone has them. As we learn about the happenings of the prior year, we come to understand why tensions were high at the picnic. Who was killed? What secrets do they have? Who found out?

This story gets 5 🌟s from me! Each page made me more excited to uncover the next drama, the next secret and next scandal! I love that the story was told from Alex, a mother and from Lettie, a teenager. It gave you different perspectives of everyone’s story from very accurately described points of view. This book was a soap opera type story that I did not want to end. I felt like I was in the community watching everything unfold and I loved every second! The online posts were very comical throughout - really captured the different types of Social Media users today.

I really enjoyed this book. It reads like a lot of other thrillers and was very Desperate Housewives. I love St.. Martin’s Press and they have put out another winner with this. I preferred Alex’s POV to the teenage daughter but it all worked out in the end. I’d definitely recommend this domestic suspense! Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press and the author for the ARC!

Really enjoyed this one.
For fans of Big Little Lies, The Lifeguards and the Nest I think will a good read for you too.
I’m a fan of domestic drama/thrillers and found this one to be well composed. The residents of Alton Road were certainly not short on the drama. This book was full of surprises and I enjoyed watching everything unfold over the course of the year.
So excited for more readers to get their hands on this one when it publishes this summer. Thank you Netgalley and St Martins Press for an early copy of this one.

As soon as I read the email NetGalley sent informing me that "The Block Party" would be available for 72 hours, I knew I had to read it immediately! The title, cover, and synopsis drew me in at once, and I couldn't resist despite the fact that I was already juggling about four other books.

The story is set in a wealthy neighborhood (that's where all the crazy stuff always happens, right?) and told from the alternating perspectives of Alex and her teenage daughter Lettie. Alex tries to get along with all of her neighbors, but relies quite heavily on alcohol to get her through the day, while Lettie, an aspiring environmentalist, is bored and easily tempted by the neighborhood bad boy.

I enjoyed this book a lot since I am a fan of messy neighborhood dramas. It wasn't quite as compelling as I would have hoped, but it was still a quick and worthwhile read. 4.5 stars rounded up. I am thankful to Jamie Day, St. Martin's Press, and NetGally for this arc!

A murder is committed at the annual summer block party on Alton Road. With all the families on the street seemingly having something to hide, everyone is a suspect.

I love an idyllic neighborhood with a group of neighbors who all have something to hide. While I found the plot interesting and enjoyed many of characters, it felt a little slow at certain points Additionally, the writing style took a little to get used to. But all in all, I ended up enjoying all of the complexity of the characters and twists along the way.

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

The Block Party is a Liane Moriarty want to be....I don't mean that in a bad way! In my opinion, it's hard to top Liane Moriarty's books. She is the queen of the suburban-murder-drama-infidelity-scandal all wrapped into one story. Day attempts this in The Block Party but falls short.

Aspects of this book were enjoyable. I appreciated that the reader received a teenager's point of view throughout the story. However, the story would have been even stronger if the reader received points of view from more of the neighbors. This story alternates between a mother and daughter. I liked those narrators, but definitely felt like the story lacked because those were the only voices present.

My biggest complaint about this book was that the author didn't seem to trust the reader to connect the dots. SO much of the "twists" were spelled out by the characters. It was a real bummer. Trust your readers to make the connections! I promise we can do it!

Overall, I think most people should skip this thriller. It was fine, but there are SO many stronger thrillers out there so I wouldn't waste your time with this one.