The Bridal Party is a solid three star book. At first I had trouble keeping all of the characters straight, but they soon took on their own personalities and became for identifiable.

Unfortunately once the author disclosed who the deceased was (which came as no real surprise), the book plateaued. The remainder of the book takes place with each chapter detailing the police interview of each character. Since they all more or less tell the truth, this leaves each chapter providing the same information give or take a few details. The plot never really progresses until the suspects are arrested and the book concludes by revealing who killed the victim and why. I feel the conclusion is what saved The Bridal Party from being a two star book.

Thank you to Bookouture for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
#netgalley
#thebridalparty

A Hen weekend set in Dublin - this sounds seriously fun!! With these Hens however....not so much!

From the outset it is clear that this is a seriously miserable group of women. Caitlin, the bride-to-be brings with her friends from her childhood, university and work friends, a neighbour, alongside 3 women from her future husbands side. The first night of the weekend away see's tension, a topic atmosphere and a fair few heated arguments. Come the morning, someone we be found murdered in their bed! This is a bit of a whodunit, a bit of a police drama, and a bit of a a psychological thriller.

All in all a decent read, but not my favourite from this amazing author - just too many thoroughly unlikeable characters!!

My thanks to Netgalley, author and publisher for an advance e copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Friends? Enemies? Who knows when ten friends embark on a hen party but only nine survive. Oh my! Interesting plot, characters and a gasp-worthy twist!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC!

In the beginning it was a little bit hard to keep up with all the different characters, but once you got into it and got to know everyone it was much better. I really enjoyed how the book was set up, with all the different points of view. That way you gradually got to know every character and you learnt more about each of the women's lives as you got on and some secrets start to come to light.

I liked the ending very much and I did not see it coming, it was a nice twist.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

I love a good thriller but this book was just very hard to get into and stay involved.

The Bridal Party is a domestic thriller under the guise of a "hen party."

I always get suckered into reading these types of books because they sound good. but after a few pages I see that I have fallen for a book that is not as interesting as it should have been.

I also found this on GoodReads under the title of "The Hen Party" not sure why, but it is the same description for both.

There was drama and female cattiness galore in this book! Initially, it was difficult to keep up with all the different characters. Also, the main scene backdrop seemed to be the police precinct, which also threw me off. Once the story got going, I feel things picked up and I found myself enjoying the development of things. It was interesting to see the POVs of the women at the hen party. I had no idea who to trust throughout the story, and I doubted everyone and their motives. There were definitely twists and turns, and oh so sweet revenge in this book! The ending made me change this from 3 stars to 4 stars! The ending was completely unexpected and brilliant!

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The first third of this book was a little slow for me tbh. It wasn't until things started happening that it really picked up. I really enjoyed reading all of the different points of view. It's really difficult to do a bunch of POV's. It typically is done either really well or not so much but in this book the author did a pretty solid job with the multi-POV. The author reminds me of Freida McFadden in the sense that she also adopts shorter chapters that are engaging and page-turning. The big twist was mildly predictable but it was still pretty well executed in my opinion. I was still shocked by it when I was finishing it because I hadn't focused on putting all the pieces together. Overall, it was a solid 4 star and anyone that likes the twists and turns of Freida McFadden should give Maria Frankland a try.

I appreciate being selected to read this arc. This book just wasn't for me. I found myself spacing out a lot on this one.

As a future bride, this story was so incredibly intriguing to me! I was hooked from the very beginning! It was so suspenseful and so relatable that it was scary. The twists and turns, the suspense, the drama. I am truly frightened for my own bridal party because of this book. It's honestly so believable and realistic, it just draws you in from the first few pages. I didn't want to put it down, was absolutely terrified of it to end. Loved it and will be recommending it to my friends! I might even buy copies for my bridal party lol!

Do yourself a favor: read this while at a “hen” party!
I had so much fun reading this while on a bachelorette party (in our down time).
What happens when family and friends come together to celebrate their loved one’s wedding? Lies come out, affairs, alliances, and old friendships reignited. I never once figured out the twist, and as an avid thriller reader I was impressed!
This story is told through various POV’s, from the party attendees to the police. This story covers all the views. Occasionally it was hard to keep all of the characters separated.
I thouroghly enjoyed the story until the ending, it felt abrupt. Most ends were tied up but somethings were left open. This wasn’t an instance where the ending was open ended, it just felt abrupt and not fully fleshed out. Also, I enjoy multiple POV’s and understand why this was a story writing tool, but the number of different POV’s was a little hectic. The story mainly follows Jen’s POV and then moves on to 10+ more POV’s while sprinkling more of Jen’s throughout.
Overall, I enjoyed the book! Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture!

⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Bridal Party (The Hen Party) by Maria Frankland is an easy-to-read murd£r mystery with a good twist and a shocking ending!
There was a little bit of struggle to follow who is who at the beginning as there are 10 characters to start with but somehow, really quickly I wrapped my head around, and then things went much smoother. I liked this book and definitely everyone loving murd£r mysteries will like this book!

As we can guess this story is set up at a Bridal Party (A bachelorette party, Bridal Shower, hen(s) party, or hen(s) do). Caitlyn, the bride-be, and 9 of her guests are traveling to Dublin for the Bridal party.
The atmosphere is cold and confusing and readers catch the vibe that not everyone is happy to be there even more not everyone is happy for an upcoming wedding.

The real drama starts the next morning. The bride is dead.

This is a story about hate, betrayal, and revenge.

Thank you, NetGalley and Bookouture for this copy!

Was pretty addictive - Had a great time with this domestic thriller. There were some twists I didn't see coming
4 STARS

I really liked the redesign of the cover; it's much more eye-catching.

A soon-to-be bride's life is cut short unexpectedly when she and her bridal party, including friends, future family in-law, and some questionable choices, travel to Dublin for her bachelorette (or hen party) celebration. We get introduced to the nine women travelling with Caitlyn, the bride, and even though most of the book is seen through Jen, the best friend's lenses, once the death kickstarts the book, we read from the point of view of everyone. There were A LOT of characters; there are a lot of books that have wide casts of characters; however, in The Bridal Party, it gets very info-dumpy at times, especially when the party arrives in Dublin, I must say, though, some bridesmaids had identifiable voices, so that helped.

It got very boring when the book stalled after Caitlyn's death because we spent all the time in one single setting, the police department, everyone being questioned, and every time a chapter finished, the other was the same, just from a different point of view. This, paired with the fact that I saw from a mile away how everything was going to pan out, made for a bit of a slog of a read. Still, I think Frankland's writing is fine, and perhaps I will check out more of her books, depending on their synopsis more than anything else.

The Bridal Party by Maria Frankland tells the story about a Hen Party and a murder that happens after a night of drinking. The book then tells the story of the party goers while being interviewed by the police.

Let me just start by saying I love a multiple POV book, this book mainly was told by the perspective of Jen, who is the maid of honor, however after the murder we do get the POV of all the Hen Party guests as they are interviewed by the police. I thought the multiple POV helped the story move along and made the book much more interesting to see each character and their reactions as they are being interviewed by the police. Even though I kind of guessed some of the things that did happen, I still enjoyed the story and the ending. In my opinion, the book had a good pace, especially after the murder, the author moved the story along with the input of each character seamlessly.

Overall, this book was a great read, it was a fast read and very entertaining. The author pulled off a great ending, with it being very well explained and not rushed at all.

This was my first read by Maria Frankland but it certainly will not be my last.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookoutoure for the chance of reading this ARC, the above review is of my own thoughts.

Thank you Net Galley for the copy of Bridal Party.

This is my first book by Maria Frankland. While it was alright enough I felt like the ending was rushed. No I definitely didn’t see the twist coming but they kinda just threw it as us with no rhyme or reason. I was so confused by the end of it. It ended abruptly it felt like.

The characters were okay. The couple of friends and in-laws annoyed me, but not enough for me to not finish the book.

Thank you NetGalley and Maria Frankland for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I was very excited to dive into this one. The description sounded like it was right up my alley. Unfortunately, The Bridal Party didn't grab me and couldn't keep my attention. I didn't even make it very far into the book to be honest. I would still recommend others to give it a try. Just because it wasn't for me doesn't mean it isn't for you.

In The Bridal Party by Maria Franklin Jen has arranged a hen party for her best friend Kaitlyn and it seems she invited everyone who has a bone to pick with the bride. Kaitlyn has recently gone in to remission from cervical cancer and she assumed to marry “the love of her life!“ Jen and Kaitlyn stay up late the first night in Ireland because Kaitlyn wants to tell Jen she learned Ben was cheating on her and his mistress was pregnant. Jen is shocked by the news but is even more shocked when they wake up the next morning and find the bride to be dead in her bed obviously by murder. After calling the police the book is mainly the iris Garda interviewing the ladies and it’s certain points it really looks like the suspect is known to the reader but hold on they have twist coming that will shock the most well read thriller reader! I have been reading the authors books since her very first and find she always comes out with the most spellbinding twist interns that never cease to astound me I dare say Maria Franklin is one of the best thriller mystery writers out there. She is one of those go to Author’s when you want a verified good book no reviews needed if it’s Maria Franklin it’s a great read! A totally five star read! I want to thank Bookoucher for my free arc via NetGalley please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

I finished this one in 2 days! It was a quick and easy read. Despite it being pretty predictable it kept you reading and wanting to know more.

A bridal party gone wrong, the bride to be is found dead in an apartment surrounded by her hen party - police are called and interview them all - a who done it story.
My second read from the author and was really looking forward to it as I love a good psychological thriller. I did find this story to be a bit slow and at times monotonous - when each person was being questioned.
I did not particularly like any of the characters - they all had pretty bad attitudes apart from Emma - one of the victims sisters.
I did think the ending was clever and enjoyable which won me over however I was left with unanswered questions that I felt could have been fleshed out a bit more.