This book is definitely one of my top reads of this year. What a thrilling and absolutely addictive and twisted read this was! Loved it from start to finish. Did not want it to end as I was enjoying it so much even as I raced through the pages. Loved this one - do read it. You will love it.

The Girl at the Party a quick afternoon read.

Chris and Laura are working on a podcast about the murder of their friend Stephanie who died while walking home from a party.

The timeline alternates from the past and present help the reader relive what actually happened.

Not necessarily a fan of podcasts but it was an interesting way to bring interest of an unsolved mystery.

I’ve never listened to a podcast, but love reading books about them. But I should warn you this one is heavy on the research and light on the actual podcast components compared to some books I have read with podcasts. at the heart of them. The duo hosting the podcast could just as easily be PIs or detectives investigating the case.

Chris tracks down Laura and invites her to help him produce a true crime podcast that investigates the death of their friend. back when they were in college. There is a mystery surrounding her death at a party. And Chris, Laura and a bunch of their friends were all there yet no one claims to know what happened. I liked the angle that Chris and Laura kinda had a relationship back then. And I knew they were on to something when things start happening to the two of them.

It was kinda a different type of mystery. As I read, the story seemed to put a spotlight on a character and give you a ton of reasons to think aha, this person did it. Then the spotlight would shift to someone else without ever really clearing the previous person. So this “spotlight” just kept rotating around basically cast a shadow over everyone. And man when you get to the end, there is quite the unraveling. There is no way you’ll figure out all the moving pieces.

This is another of my reads that I also had the audiobook. And I both were terrific. The narrator does voices and I am not a huge fan of her male voice, but not enough for it to take away from the story. She was able to keep my attention and keep the story at the focus.

While being a slow burn mystery which just hints of danger for the characters, I really did like it.

Stephanie was part of a close-knit group of 8 friends at college. While she lived in a dorm, she often visited with her friends who lived in a run-down coed house off campus. They loved to have parties and enjoyed life. One night at a party to celebrate the end of their college days, Stephanie decides to leave late and walk back to her dorm. Only, she never made it. The next morning she was found murdered .

It’s 5 years later and Stephanie’s murder case has gone cold. One of the 8 friends, Chris, does true crime podcasts and decides to do one on Stephanie. Fans of his work are delighted and anxious to see the episodes. He calls upon Laura whom he greatly admired in college and asks her to join him. Reluctant at first, she finally agrees. As they begin to interview various of their friends during their college time, there are mixed reactions to the idea of the podcast. When Stephanie’s car is spray painted and Chris’s gets a brick through his window, they realize that someone doesn’t want them to solve this crime.

This book has lots of twists and turns as I tried to figure out who the killer was. I thought it could have been one of three people but in the end, I was so very wrong. This is a good story that shows how some people in college indulged way too much in alcohol with dire consequences. I hope that is not always the case. But back to the book. It’s a good whodunit that I know readers will enjoy.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Danielle Stewart, has hit the ground running and smacked us right in the face with a five star thriller. The Girl at the Party, was my introduction to Stewart and I am thrilled to have found her!

This book is narrated between dual time lines, flashing between past and present. Filled with unreliable characters, your suspicions will change throughout the entire book. You may "think" you have it all figured out, but you will be dead wrong.

Fun Fact : I loved this book so much, after I finished reading, I listened to it on audio... yes, it was that good.

Congratulations to Danielle Stewart on her publication, The Girl at the Party, is sure to be a hit!

Teaser :

Slamming the door shut behind her, Stephanie takes one last look at the party where her best friends are busy celebrating. As the drinks are poured and music blasts, she disappears into the darkness alone. Some say she was crying. Others think they heard an argument that night. But we never saw her alive again…

Ever since our best friend Stephanie was found murdered four years ago, I’ve been haunted by the feeling that I should have done more. The eight of us at the party were inseparable – and we always thought she was the perfect one. The one who stayed out of trouble. The one who always looked out for us…

But when we discover more about the events leading up to that fateful night, I realise that our friend was far from perfect. The golden girl was keeping secrets. Secrets that someone would kill to keep quiet. The more I learn about that night, I realise I never really knew her at all.

And as we get closer to the truth of what happened, the threats start. A warning message is keyed onto my car. Then the house is broken into, and my belongings are destroyed. The killer is watching us, and they are coming out of the shadows…

But when I find out that Stephanie knew her killer, my blood runs cold. Are they closer to me than I could have ever imagined? And just how far will they go to make sure the truth stays buried forever?

This addictive and gripping psychological thriller is perfect for fans of Megan Miranda, Lisa Jewell and Laura Marshall.

When a group of college friends decide to move off campus and live like real adults that are looking for a sanctuary from the drama of dorm life. Time moves forward and now they are days away from graduating and moving on to the next adventures in life. They decide to throw one last party. This party will turn out to be anything but a celebration when one of the groups friends who is upset decides to leave the party and ends up murdered. The story moves forward five years the murder has never been solved. Chris (one of the old group) who has had some successful podcast that have helped solve murders decides to dig up the past and produce a podcast that involve all of the old friends from the college house but he has to have help in the form of Laura who he was dear friends with they will have to convince all of the friends to talk and answer questions about the events surrounding the friendship and the time leading up to the party. This will be hard for some as their life's have changed and there is someone who does not want this story dug up and will cause them all to relive the past and discover everything may not have been as it seemed. This has many twist my only complaint is the ending my have been a little convenient.

Stephanie leaves the party of her mismatched group of friends, never to be seen again. Years later, two of her friends, Chris and Laura discuss the cold case of their murdered friend in a podcast. As they delve deeper into the case, they realise that their friend was not who they seemed, hiding secrets they she had never shared. They also discover that Stephanie knew her murderer. Could they be in danger? How far would someone go to hide their secrets?

This narrative was fast-paced and the movement between 2 chronological times made it interesting as the past was revealed to us as a reader bit-by-bit. As an example of the psychological thriller genre, this book ticks many boxes, with an unravelling of tangled lives and an unexpected twist at the end.

Thank you to Netgallery, Bookouture and the author for the opportunity to read this book as an ARC.

"WE WERE ALL THERE THAT NIGHT BUT ONLY ONE OF US IS A KILLER"

Okay, so I am back in the space of my favourite genre - the psychological thriller, although in all honesty, I would probably describe this story as more of a slow-burning murder/mystery than anything else, but right up my street nonetheless. New to me author Danielle Stewart, has brought this storyline bang up to date with the inclusion of a podcast production as a means to help solve this cold-case murder. I am awarding a solid 4 star rating, rather than a more abstract 5 stars, as there were one or two loose ends which didn't sit too well with me, although they in no way detracted from my edge-of-the-seat experience, or the fact that I still managed to incorrectly identify the perpetrator(s) - Intrigued?

...

In Massachusetts, New England, back in 2013, eight friends are coming to the end of their final year at college and as most of them live together, off campus in shared rented accommodation, a farewell party is planned at their house. As the most well brought up and sheltered of the group, Stephanie is the only student to still live in halls, although she spends as much time as possible, unbeknown to her devoutly religious mother, hanging out with her friends. That is until recently, when the others have noticed a complete change in her personality, her ability to concentrate on getting the good grades she is predicted, and that she is consciously trying to place more distance between herself and the housemates, of which Laura is her closest confidante. Having refused an invitation to the party, but not wanting her to miss out on the group's final gathering together, Laura thinks of a plan to entice Stephanie to the house, although she is totally unprepared for the ferocity of Stephanie's reaction when she realises she has been duped. After acrimonious words have been exchanged between Stephanie and a number of the group, including Laura, she insists on leaving alone to walk back to the campus - and that is the last time anyone except her killer will see her alive - maybe!

Rather than bringing the others closer together, the murder appears to have instantly and irrevocably fractured their friendship and driven them apart, to the point where they no longer keep in touch. So, some five years later, when Chris reaches out to Laura, with the idea of producing a podcast in an attempt to re-open the investigation which had long ago been consigned to the police cold-case files, she is initially horrified. Chris however, is very persuasive and to his credit, has achieved a good measure of success using the same approach on a number of other abandoned police cases. So, eventually Laura, who had always been close to Chris and had been perceived by their friends to be the couple who never quite were, capitulates and they agree to work together on the project. They quickly discover the frightening and horrifying reason for Stephanie's change of demeanour and personality leading up to her death and are shocked about the potential implications for the re-opening of the murder investigation itself, once their evidence is turned over to the police. Friends and family of Stephanie are tracked down to make statements and then comes the difficult task of contacting and speaking to the remaining five housemates.

One of them, Jake, is Laura's brother, who still shares a place with his sister and has huge emotional and mental health issues. Kent and Mary Anne, sweethearts back in the day, have now married and are basking in the success of Jake's political career and bright future ahead. Lucas is CEO of his own successful tech company, despite his ongoing difficulty in communicating with anyone on a personal level, although he always noticed Stephanie more than any of the others. Corrine is happily married with two small children, having readily abandoned all her personal aspirations for a career in favour of motherhood.

It appears that not all the potential witnesses are happy with Chris and Laura resurrecting events from so long ago and would prefer it if sleeping dogs had been allowed to lie. Small wanton acts designed to instil enough fear in the couple to make them give up on their investigation, soon escalate into something much more organised, malicious and potentially deadly. The two friends are busy investigating all Stephanie's acquaintances and family, but who has checked out the two of them? and, more importantly, how much do they actually know about one another? Eventually, Laura takes her eye off the ball, as her own demons and guilty truths seem about to explode in her face and she fears the consequences if Chris is allowed to continue with his quest. However, the whole truth is much more unexpected and Chris needs to decide where his loyalties really lie and who should shoulder the bulk of the blame for Stephanie's death.

...

In this well constructed, multi-layered, intriguing storyline, nothing was ever quite as it seemed and there were more twists and turns than you could shake a stick at, which kept me on my toes from beginning to end, complicating the tangled web of lies and secrets which overlaid everything. And yes, whilst I might have worked out a couple of the denouements for myself and one was revealed during the course of the story, the aura of apprehension and tension was still unbearable throughout.

The chapters were concise and well-signposted, written mostly across the dual timelines of 2013 and 2018, with one short reference back to 1999; and narrated by the voices of Laura and Chris, with a single interspersion by the killer and a second short poignant chapter by Stephanie herself.

Author Danielle Stewart, was also not afraid to shine a spotlight onto some of the more pressing societal issues of the time, which she had clearly researched well and treated with great empathy and sensitivity: The all too commonplace event of the police being too stretched to carry out comprehensive investigations when a crime has been committed and their seemingly undue haste in consigning cases which are not solved almost immediately, to the 'cold case' files: The manipulative, coercive and 'gaslighting' behaviour which plagued Laura and Jake's family, from the abuse their mother endured at the hands of their father, to the anger and frustration which their mother then took out on her children, but mostly Laura, whom she resented with a vengeance: The mental health issues which then controlled Jake's life so completely, coupled with the PTSD which had dogged him since his childhood near brush with death: Whilst Laura herself, who had thought she had made good her future and hoped to become a nurse in Boston after graduating college, resorted to self-harm when she realised that she was never going to escape the clutches of her demanding mother and out of control brother, with Stephanie's murder being the final straw for her, sealing her future without realising her nursing dream.

Thankfully the cast of characters was quite small and easily managed, as just about everyone was a suspect, each with either their own motivation for killing Stephanie, or for helping to conceal the identity of someone who they believed to have been the guilty party. In truth, Stephanie was probably the most innocent of people, who only wanted to strike the right balance between the standard of life her mother wanted for her, and that which she wished for herself, although in all fairness, the two were never that far apart. My own named perpetrator varied from chapter to chapter, as each new revelation came to light. However, the suspense was kept up right to the very last and I was to be proved completely wrong by the time the final gut punch twist was delivered right near the end. Just don't assume anything is over, until it's over!

Surprisingly and quite unusually, despite their being well defined and fleshed out, I couldn't name any single character with whom I felt any empathy or connection, except for Stephanie. I found them simply too manipulative, untrustworthy and malevolent to be in any way compelling or with any depth I could invest in or engage with. It was always the thought of which of them was least unlikable, but even that was a bit too much of a stretch for my imagination, although Corrine was probably top candidate for that title. For many, there are no happy outcomes from this story, however for Chris and Laura, the future is theirs for the taking, even though it may not be together and any sense of 'normal' isn't going to happen overnight.

As an avid 'armchair traveller', this storyline probably didn't quite tick all the boxes in the location stakes, which was a mix of real and fictional places. But, I'm good with that, as the location was never really that important in the scheme of things. This was a story of people, events and outcomes, rather than places.

Author Danielle Stewart writes across multiple genres, so whilst I wouldn't be looking to read all her books, there are definitely more items in her catalogue which are heading for my wish list.

If you enjoy a good old-fashioned whodunit mystery, you will love this book. It was classified as a psychological thriller, but I think it was just a great mystery. I guess you could call it a psychological thriller in that it played with your mind as you tried to put the puzzle pieces together to find out what happened on that fateful night four years ago.

A group of 8 college friends have decided to have a end of year party to celebrate. Stephanie was a kind soul who never really fit in anywhere. She had no use for partying and other things that most college students enjoy. She was there to get an education. When she walks out of the party that night, she is never seen alive again. Someone murders her on her way home. The case soon grows cold, and their little group goes about living and basically, it seems, forgot all about Stephanie. Chris never forgot, and now he is an accomplished crime podcaster. He decides to feature this unsolved case on his podcast which means he will have to touch base with his friends.

Laura was special to Chris. So, he decides to go see her first. They team up together to work on this podcast, but boy do they stir up a hornet's nest. It seems everyone has secrets, including Stephanie.

The story is told from the viewpoints of the characters and goes back and forth from past to present. I suspected everyone at one point and time. The author did a great job of providing red herrings and planting seeds of doubt in my mind. It was a slow burn mystery, but it held my interest just because it was a good, well-written mystery. It gets a little exciting as they get closer to finding the killer.

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for this ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

digital ARC was provided by Netgalley & Bookouture

Synopsis
Stephanie was murdered one night after a get-together, and now, years later, her friend, Chris, tried to find what happened to her through a podcast he launched, with the help of another friend, Laura. It's hard to believe that one of their friends did it, and Chris and Laura tried to get the bottom of it.

Likes and dislikes
It was an OK story for a popcorn thriller, but it didn't help my reading slump at all. I've spent days trying to finish it, and only succeeded on the last day.
I can forgive several typos, regarding the pov (example: it was Laura's POV and author mixed the chapter using 'I' and 'she') and such. But the story itself was a bit let down.
It focused a lot on Chris and Laura and the drama in their lives, which, fair, but I almost didn't see any about our victim, the titular girl at the party. Not before I reached almost 50%-ish. It did make sense in the end, but also, I was disappointed.
I root for none, except Stephanie, and I don't think [redacted] deserved the kindness at the end. hate everyone here.

The Girl at the Party took me many chapters in to become more immersed in the story.
I experienced difficulty connecting with any of the characters which in turn made the book hard to become immersive.
There was quite a bit of jumping from different voices which I found hard to follow.

The description for this book sounded promising but there was something in the delivery that didn't click for me.

Once I found out it was the setting for a podcast, I think I was expecting some of it to read as the actual podcast....instead we get the actual interviews which are going to be edited down.

There were a lot of twists and turns and some good backstories for each character. The main character Laura, was so overly protective of her brother, and even though the reasons are explained, it really made me want to scream at her!

This was a quick read, but a rather slow burn, with characters that needed a little more oomph to fully engage me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for an advance reader's copy.

In 2013 Stephanie is murdered while walking home from a student party but the police are unable to solve the crime. In 2018, Chris and Laura start a podcast to try and solve the mystery. This involves interviewing the people who were present at the party.
The story is told over the 2 timelines and although there are a number of plot twists, I found the pace slow.
The story introduced several characters but they were not fully fleshed out.
Overall, an OK read but not particularly gripping.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for an e- ARC. All opinions are my own.

Podcasts are all the rage and here we have a whole mystery/thriller centered around a group of people who were the best of friends in college - until someone died. Now comes the intrusion of the podcast raking up old wounds and making someone mad enough to kill to stop it!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC!

What to say about this story?????
I do have to say, when I first started the book I had issues with who was who.
The story is told in two timelines of past and present. Past being the actual crime/mystery and present a pod-cast looking into the murder.
It was so so so twisty…..with so many secrets, lies and coverups.
I didn’t see that ending coming at all!
Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and the author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Girl at the Party by Danielle Stewart is my first book by this author and I really enjoyed it.
Well-written, strong characterizations and an equally strong story makes this latest book by Danielle Stewart a thoroughly compelling read.
This one kept my interest throughout and I truly could not wait to find out what happened.
The characters were well developed. It's filled with mystery, intrigue and surprising twist.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Bookouture for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

The Girl at the Party
By: Danielle Stewart

A raging party with eight best friends secrets and a lot of alcohol end up with someone missing. Stephanie comes up missing.

Laura and Chris start a podcast and the their determined to bring the cold case of their friend Stephanie to light.

Will they find out more than they really want to know? Could the killer
Be one of their friends?

Thanks Bookouture and Netgalley for this advanced copy due out July 12. #booksconnectus, #stamperlady50, #bookreview, #bookouture, #daniellestewart

⚠️ trigger warnings ⚠️
mental health issues and self harm
violence
sexual assault
drugs / drugging
emotional abuse
grief
threats
arson

💔🎙️🕵️‍♂️

i’m so torn with this one. i liked the story and the way it unfolded and i liked the plot twists, but i think the way the story was told is what’s holding me back. the story is told through the recording of a podcast, and despite the fact it’s dual timeline and dual pov, it didn’t really work for me. it just felt a bit stuck in one place. i can’t quite pinpoint why, as the story follows so many side characters who come in and out of the story in different ways. i just think if the story wasn’t told via the podcast i would’ve loved it so much more.

the first plot twist felt kind of predictable, however the one that came soon after definitely made up for it, i like the fact it makes you think you’ve solved it but you haven’t at all.

as i’ve said so many times, i’m hard to please when it comes to the ending of books, but i was quite pleasantly surprised with this one. i enjoyed the twists and the way the last bit of the story played out.

overall i did enjoy this book, i still read it very quickly and wanted to know what was going to happen. i don’t have anything critical to say about this book as i think the only thing bringing the rating down for me is personal preference. i would still recommend this as a read as the story is great.

❔do you usually predict plot twists?

This was great intriguing thriller which I really enjoyed I really liked the writing style which kept me hooked. It is told in past and present which helps build the tension within. I didn’t know who to suspect or how it was going to end everyone had secrets that they want to stay hidden. Fantastic thriller!

Years ago Stephanie was murdered was on her way home from a party. Years later Chris and Laura decide to do a true crime pod cast on what may have happened to Stephanie. While looking into Stephanie’s old friends statments they fund out some disturbing clues. But someone is watching them and that someone will do anything to protect there secret. How much danger are Chris and Laura?

I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves a book with lots of twists and turns which will have you hooked from start to finish.

I really enjoyed this book! I will be looking for more from this author. It keep me on the edge of my seat and I couldn't wait to see what happened. I would definitely recommend this book!