Thank you to Darby Kane, William Morrow, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I have mixed feelings about this one. I liked the plot. It kept me guessing until the end. But I did not like the characters. It also dragged and was a bit repetitive.

I LOVED Pretty Little Wife but really struggled with this one.

Sadly, I did not enjoy The Engagement Party nearly as much. There were too many unlikeable characters thrown at me all at once. I had trouble keeping them straight and detested them all. They argued constantly about things that happened in their pasts (mainly the death of one of their college friends.) All of them bickered and argued and pointed fingers at each other through the entire book. I didn't really care what happened to any of them.

I am a Darby Kane fan and will read her next book, but this one just wasn't for me.

The Engagement Party was the perfect suspenseful thriller to get me out of a reading slump.
It reminded me of the movie I Know What You Did Last Summer with a group of friends who are hiding dark secrets, a murder that took place over a decade ago, and a killer who wants the truth to come out.

It's a fast-paced read with twists and turns. I loved the isolated setting of being on an island, and the gruesome violence was unlike anything I've read before.
I love it when an author can make me dislike almost every character but still evoke so many emotions that I can't stop reading. Seriously, these characters are flawed but I couldn't stop reading the alternating povs.

I highly recommend picking this one up today if you're in the mood for an unputdownable whodunit!

Thank you Netgalley, Darby Kane, and William Morrow for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬:
I am a huge fan of anything that @hkdimon writes, so I was so pumped to receive a copy of her latest book, which publishes tomorrow! The marketing for this one is 100% accurate when it states that it is a combination of AND THEN THERE WERE NONE meets I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER! A group of college friends, a secluded private island, a dead man found in the trunk of a car, and a single note that states: time to tell the truth…SOLD! The first half of this book sucked me in. It is full of murder, tension, twists, suspense, and secrets. It also has short chapters, which of course are always a win for me! The author did such an amazing job with the plot as it is fast paced and grabs the readers attention right away. I absolutely loved the build up suspense, the game of cat-and-mouse, and the endless amount of secrets and mystery that are slowly reveled. The second half of the book bogged down a bit and became a bit repetitive at times, and it seemed rushed as well. The ending wrapped things up, but it was a bit underwhelming. This is what knocked it from 5 stars down to 4 stars for me. Overall, it was a fun locked room mystery read that is sure to keep the reader entertained and guessing whodunit.

𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞?
This one is for fans of locked room mysteries, Agatha Christie books, slasher movies, and isolated and secluded settings.

𝐌𝐲 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️4/5


Thank you so much to the tagged publisher for my #gifted copy in exchange for an honest review!🤗

Strap yourself in folks, cause you’re going to fly through this like a bat outta hell! WOWZERS!! What a book! My eyeballs couldn’t keep up with the twists in this one! 👀 they’re fired at you hard and fast. Just when you’ve gotten to grips with one, BOOM 💥 there’s another, and another, and ANOTHER!!! Talk about throwing a match into a box of firecrackers!!! 🧨

A modern take on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, this locked room mystery was just bloody fantastic! I’ve not read a book by @hkdimon before (which I’m kicking myself over) but her writing is so unbelievably tense and dramatic - and I’m here for every part of it. It gave me Taylor Adam’s No Exit vibes - which was a favourite of mine.

I loved all the characters - some were NUTS, some were awful, some were just genuinely likeable. But all immensely written. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you just pop this straight to the top of your TBR and READ IT NOW 🤩🤩

I loved this riveting story! It was truly an edge of your seat thriller with gore, whodunnit, locked room, blame game, cat fight goodness! All of the different POV kept me guessing and I rooted for Sierra the whole time. The ending blew my mind and I did not see it coming at all! When a book promised a cross between And Then There Were None and I Know What You Did Last Summer, I definitely expect it to blow me away since I love both of those. This one lives up to the hype and I’d definitely recommend you dive in!

Thanks to NetGalley, Darby Kane and William Morrow for my digital ARC of this book which publishes 12/5/23.

Darby Kane is the ultimate locked room/island mystery. The best thing about this book is how unhinged the villian is. When you have a villian (and an author) who is willing to kill, the stakes feel so much higher. The tension through out is palpable. I completely connected with Sierra and was rooting for her. Her realness, shown through her vulnerability yet toughness made me want to be her friend. Kane twists you at the end and I never saw it coming. I was enthralled the whole time!

Would recommend for fans of…
💍 Scream
💍 I Know What You Did Last Summer
💍 And Then There Were None

Darby Kane’s debut, Pretty Little Wife, was one of my favorite thrillers a few years ago, so I was very excited to score an early copy of her latest thriller, The Engagement Party.

The Engagement Party follows a group of friends who head to an isolated island to celebrate one of their engagements. Upon arriving, they discover a body connected to their past and that’s just the start of the terrifying trip.

This book is reminiscent of what I like to call mild slashers – think Scream where the gore is minimal but the tension is high – and will have you turning pages as you try to figure out which of these supposed friends is the killer. Kane’s signature short chapters and shocking twists also make for a fast-paced and perfectly creepy reading experience. I will say there are some things about the story that don’t quite add up, but I still enjoyed trying to puzzle my way through the book.

While The Engagement Party incorporates many good tropes from the horror genre, it also shares some of the common negative qualities, namely impossibly dumb characters. There were many times throughout the book where the characters made stupid decisions that had me internally screaming “DON’T GO IN THERE!” or “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!” If you consume enough content in this genre, you kind of come to expect this foolishness but I still found it to be very frustrating.

The Engagement Party is out today, Thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

After Emily Hunt went missing from her liberal arts school on graduation weekend, her body was found floating in a river. When another student died by suicide, law enforcement found a link between the two and closed the case, believing that the quiet loner had killed Emily. Twelve years later, Emily's college friends gather together for an engagement party on a private island in Maine, with only one way in and one way out. Things grow tense when the group finds a dead man in the trunk of a car with a note: "Time to tell the truth." As a torrential storm strands them together, the group’s long-buried secrets will be exposed. It soon becomes clear that someone believes that law enforcement got it wrong, and that person will stop at nothing to find Emily's real killer.

This was a really fun thriller in the same vein as "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "And Then There Were None." Reading the book's description, I was immediately sold on this locked-room mystery set on a private island. With its fast-paced plot, shocking twists, atmospheric setting, and unlikeable characters, I was completely absorbed in this book. I enjoyed that the story was told from multiple points of view with "book notes" that allowed the reader to learn more about Emily and her disappearance. This was my first Darby Kane novel, and I look forward to reading more of her books!

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When a group of friends gathers on a remote island for an engagement party, they are faced with their past. Who will come out alive? As the cover says: “The guest list is a real killer.”

The Engagement Party is a juicy chaos of a mystery. I was blown away with how Kane wove together all the most salacious early 90s crimes and wrapped them in a classic locked room mystery. It was like being trapped in an 80s horror movie with an Agatha Christie twist…I simply couldn’t read it fast enough. Kane hits this one out of the park. Packed full of her trademark twists and turns, but this time wrapped in a classic horror mystery vibe. Her best novel yet.

Darby Kane really can write a twisty thriller and this was no exception. She packs a lot into this story so the plot takes off quickly and doesn’t let up. I love how she peppered details throughout to make you think you know what is going to happen but you don’t know the full story until it plays out. This was a very atmospheric read (a must for a locked room thriller!) and I loved the ending. All I have to say is you couldn’t get me to stay at a remote house, even with my besties!

Thanks to #NetGalley and #WilliamMorrow for the ARC #TheEngagementParty by #DarbyKane. This book was very interesting about a two people’s death that were covered up with lies and secrets. In a rage for revenge, an engagement party was set up on an isolated island to find out the truth.

Years after Emily went missing and then was found dead after her college graduation, her friends are gathering in a remote island. But they aren’t alone.

This was an interesting locked room thriller. There were a lot of characters to follow and three POVs split along in the chapters, so it was a lot to take in. The books also ran really fast, with a lot of action happening on each page. This will appeal to any thriller or action readers because of that! There were also lots of plot twists that will keep you guessing.

All in all, this was an interesting and fast paced thriller in the vein of Agatha Christie.

Thank you to the author and publisher for the gifted copy. My reviews are always honest.

Darby Kane returns following The Last Invitation with her latest, THE ENGAGEMENT PARTY —Inspired by the author's love of locked-room thrillers and Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.

Who will survive as this twisty thriller unravels when old friends gather on a private island one faithful weekend, which turns DEADLY?

Emily Hunt, a college senior, disappeared on the Saturday of graduation weekend, but no one noticed until Sunday afternoon. She morphed from a young woman with promise to a cautionary tale. Her body was found by a couple in their sixties four miles from the campus in the weeds in the New Meadows River. She was 22 years old and a college graduate for one afternoon.

Her death turned out to be a horrible beginning to a winding and tragic tale rather than an ending.

Not an accident.
Not a result of alcohol.
A MURDER.

Ironically, none of this would have happened if she had gotten into Amherst as she dreamed. Some blamed it on her lifestyle. Then someone suspected Brendan Clarke, another student, murdered her. Then, not long after Emily, he was found dead, too.

The murder was never solved.

Twelve years later, college friends (Hunt's former classmates) —Will Mayer, Mitch Andersen, Alex Greene, and Cassie Holder (now Alex’s wife)—have reunited on a private island off the coast of Maine to celebrate Will’s engagement to his girlfriend, Ruthie for the weekend with one way in and out. The invitations have gone out. Who will accept?

Sierra Prescott, invited as a guest and unconnected to past events, is the only person who soon senses not all is what it seems.

Will and fellow Bowdoin College graduates— Alex and Cassandra Greene and Mitch Andersen share secrets about the deaths 12 years before of two fellow students, a weight they have carried.

Told from alternating chapters POV: Sierra, Alex, Ruthie with Book notes.

They find a dead man in the trunk with a note: time to tell the truth. Then, things turn into a horror nightmare as the storm bears down. They are cut off from the mainland by rising waters. Someone is murdered. The secrets and lies are unraveled. To survive, they need to STOP the killer.

Everyone's life is on the line!

From unreliable narrators and a cast of unlikeable characters, an atmospheric, chilling locked-room thriller with amateur sleuths and social media provides a modern twist for this cat-and-mouse whodunit mystery.

For fans of Alice Feeney, Sarah Pearse, Lucy Foley, Ruth Ware, and Carol Goodman.

Thanks to William and Morrow and NetGalley for a digital advanced reading copy for an honest review.

Blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: Dec 5, 2023
My Rating: 4 Stars
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Thank you @williammorrowbooks and @netgalley for approval on this ARC 📚

This is the first book I’ve read by Darby Kane, although I’ve had Pretty Little Wife staring at me from my TBR shelf for way too long 👀

The blurb mentions that it’s a mix of And Then There Were None and I Know What You Did Last Summer… and boy can I picture Sarah Michelle Gellar sprinting around this isolated island…

Sierra goes on a weekend getaway with her “friend” ( 😉) Mitch to celebrate the engagement of one of his college friends. Not knowing anyone aside from him, Sierra quickly becomes the most likable character and it seems like the only one who can be trusted. It turns out this group of friends is harboring some very dark secrets about the murder of their friend Emily that happened on graduation day AND a second murder shortly afterwards. But then trapped on the island, finding a dead body in a car, and a note saying, “time to tell the truth” … not quite the fun weekend any of them were expecting.

This was a fast paced, locked room (or isolated island) thriller that kept me turning the page. I really enjoyed the multiple POV and my favorite chapters were past chapters written as “Book Notes” where we learned about Emily from what seem like research notes or articles written about her. I liked getting to learn about her character and about the manipulative games she would play. I do wish we got more of a connection between her manipulative personality and her murder.

The Engagement Party is the book for you if you like secluded locations, unreliable narrators, unlikeable characters (anyone could be the killer), and the "final girls" kind of tropes. The atmosphere is mysterious and dark. Unexpected characters turn up murdered. If this sounds like a book you'd enjoy, pick it up! For me, if I can't like at least one of the characters, I have a hard time staying connected to the plot or getting that "I can't put this down" feeling.

If you’re looking for a great “who done it?” book, this is the right one for you. This is a very intriguing mystery/murder suspense. It kept me on the edge of my seat! I recommend it to any murder/mystery fans out there! This book is told in multiple viewpoints with short chapters, which I enjoyed. The book has well developed characters with a thrilling plot. I am going to look for other books by this author. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to share my unbiased review on the book!

I loved the location of this story. Set on a remote island that can only be accessed at low tide.

Emily was a college student who was murdered after a party. Now, twelve years later her former friends are meeting up at the island to celebrate the engagement of one of the friends.

Things start to go wrong almost immediately after the party starts.

I loved to hate these characters and didn't guess the whole truth until the end.

A little over the top at times, but good all the same.

Thanks to netgalley and William Morrow for the arc.

I really enjoyed the mystery of suspense of this one! If you're a murder mystery fan, you'll wanna check it out. I loved that it was a new spin on the locked room mystery type of story and that the secrets were stacking up right from the start. I was pulled right in and loved the pace.

The Engagement Party by Darby Kane is a fast paced, locked room thriller that leaves readers screaming “oh my got what?!?!?” to the very last page.

I read this book in less than 24 hours - from the start, Darby Kane does an amazing job of slowly letting the readers in on what’s going on and who to look out for - except this information keeps changing every page. Through notes for a book and multiple POVs, we see a group of college friends gather to celebrate an engagement, but this party isn’t what it seems and the island they gather on certainly is not as safe as it appears.

As the details regarding the night their friend Emily dies become exposed, the suicide of Emily’s killer starts to look more suspicious, and this group of characters becomes a lump of suspects as the reader tries to discern who is innocent and who is guilty - and who just needs to survive the night.

This was a feat of thriller genius and was such a rush to read. I audibly gasped and screeched out loud while I read, and had to fight my urge to scan the pages quickly to find out what was going on. I loved that the big twists kept coming and the end I couldn’t predict! I am a huge fan of Darby Kane and cannot wait to see what she has in store for readers with her next read. If you’re looking for a fast paced thriller to binge, this one is for you.