Perfect Summer Thriller! The book got off to a slow star for me, and it was a little tricky to keep track of all the old and new characters, but it really came together as the story kept going. The plot was masterful, building to a surprising and satisfying ending. Definitely recommend!

A midnight feast is planned at the Manor in Dorset for its guests, to celebrate the summer solstice. The owner Francesca has inherited the Manor from her grandmother. The beach below is private and for guests only, but local boys access it by boat from the sea, claiming right of passage through the grounds and woods for the local residents. Strange things began to happen: there is a fire at the manor house, a guest finds a black feather on the bed, the local area is rife with pagan traditions, there are hidden cameras, a cave in a hidden cove by the sea, and then someone falls from the high cliffs overlooking the sea onto the rocks below.

Atmospheric setting, contrasting characters of locals and visitors - but the reader doesn't know offhand who the bad guys or girls might be in the final analysis.

The setting was memorable, the plot just so so, the characters did not really stand out for me. An average thriller from the plot point of view.

It always takes a little while to get into a book with multiple POVs. But once the story picked up I was invested. I 100% did not guess that ending, and it kept me guessing the whole time! The pacing felt a little off, but I still enjoyed this read, Thank you NetGalley, Lucy Foley, and William Morrow for this ARC!

The Midnight Feast is the latest novel by Lucy Foley. The story is set at The Manor, a place that is meant to be a calm retreat but has secrets long ago buried.
For me, this book was a very long slow burn. I found myself almost DNF'ing it multiple times but I pushed through. The details of The Manor were well laid out and I did enjoy how the character Francesca was written.
I found the multiple character points of view a bit hard to follow. I wish it would have been streamlined a bit.
I would like to thank Netgalley and William Morrow Books for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.
3 out of 5 stars.

It’s opening weekend at The Manor, a new luxury resort that spares no expense. On the night of the Midnight Feast, celebrating summer solstice, things go haywire as a fire breaks out, guests begin behaving strangely, and a body is found. Secrets from 15 years prior may be exposed as police begin to investigate this deadly evening, and the mysteries of the surrounding woods.

This book ended up being a pretty middle-of-the-road thriller for me! The whole “The Birds” concept was strange and almost seemed unnecessary to the story at times, and I also felt like some parts of the plot could have been developed a bit better. However, the book had some good twists and a solid ending, and was incredibly fast-paced with the multiple POVs and an action-packed plot. Overall, while not my favorite Lucy Foley thriller, it was a decent read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Williams Morrow Books for my gifted e-ARC!

Sadly, i could not get into this book. No worries, didn’t books satisfy different people! That’s the beauty of reading.

Francesa opens a resort on family property and causes rifts in the community. Townspeople resent the intrusion and the lack of consideration for their businesses that could benefit economically. In addition, a past death on the property is revisited and longheld secrets come to light.

I am so torn about this book. I’ve usually liked the rotating narrators from Foley’s past books, but it felt a bit overwhelming this go around. I spent the first third of the book very confused about who was who, but I did eventually settle into the rotation, and once I did I really appreciated the different perspectives. The plot itself also felt a little too similar to a couple of her past books (particularly The Guest List). Fans of her older books may be overjoyed for more of the same, but it didn’t always feel like we were getting something entirely new. That said, there were a couple of things I really did enjoy about this book. First, I loved the atmosphere and the setting of this book - the small, superstitious community added so much for me, and it really fed into the Agatha Christie vibes. I also really enjoyed watching the relationships between the characters unfold, and I feel like the best parts of the mystery were really found in how they were all connected vs. the whodunnit. Overall, I’d say if you’re already a Lucy Foley fan then you should absolutely check this out. If you’re new to her work, I would go back and read her others first, then make your way back here. If you haven’t liked her before, then this definitely isn’t for you.

I have heard so many good things about Lucy Foley's books, but never had the chance to read one before now. The cover was enticing with the dark woods lit by hanging lanters. The description on the Midsummers celebration sounded like a great setting. But when it came down to it, I just didn't feel a connection to the story, and I wasn't as impressed as I hoped I'd be.

The story was a bit confusing at first, until I started to understand the characters and understood that some chapters were being told in the present, some in the future (the day following the party), and some in the past (through journal entries). There are many twists and reveals with characters not being exactly who they were presumed to be, but it felt like it took too long to get to that point for it to catch my interest. By about 75% of the way through, I was finally invested in finding out how it was going to wrap up, and I was eager to finish the book. But before then, it was hard to push myself to try to get back into the story.

I wanted to love it, but I just didn't get there. Still, I would consider trying Foley's books again in the future and hope for the best!

Thank You to William Morrow and NetGalley for the advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.

Lucy Foley's *The Midnight Feast* offers an engaging premise with a group of friends reuniting for a lavish dinner party. The suspense builds effectively, and Foley's knack for creating atmospheric settings is evident. However, the plot felt somewhat predictable, and some character arcs lacked depth. While it's a decent read for fans of Foley's previous works, it doesn't quite hit the mark compared to her other novels. Still, the book's twists and turns provide enough intrigue to keep readers turning the pages.

A fun atmospheric thriller that has a LOT of characters and tangled history — with some twists and turns amid a Midsommer-like retreat.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. This is by far my favorite Lucy Foley novel. Told through multiple POV. And it seems like everyone is out for revenge,

Lucy Foley does it again! She has crafted such a twisty, atmospheric mystery with quite the cast of characters!

This is as much a story of filthy rich vs poor as it is a murder mystery, and I think Foley does a great job at showing how money and influence can really corrupt ones morals and ethics for life.

Apart from that, this was just a really fun read! I enjoyed the back and forth between past and present, and seeing how everything came together in the end!

This was a quick mystery. While spooky at times, it wasn't overly scary and I was pretty eager to find out what was going on. While not a favorite of the year, Lucy Foley never disappoints.

I tried reading this one but I realized this book is not a good fit for me. I will not be giving a review on social media or GoodReads as I do not want it to negatively affect the author.

Fifteen years ago a group of young people shared a terrible secret in the woods which are said to be haunted by the birds. The town legend says,
- if you go down to the woods tonight
You better go in disguise
If you go down to the woods tonight
Beware of a big surprise.
For every fowl that ever there was is gathered there tonight
Because
Tonight's the night
The Night Birds make their mischief.-
What follows is a night of murder, unburied secrets, betrayal and a fire. No one is what they seem at the Midnight Feast.

💭 My thoughts:

Midnight Feast was a twisty, wild ride of betrayal, dark secrets, and murder. The plot twists kept coming right up until the end which made for a very exciting read. It did give off some guest list vibes mixed with a little Hitchcock The Birds thrown in. The multiple POV and multiple timelines, as well as the journal entries made the story more complex and kept me turning the pages to the very end.

⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

Multiple POV
Multiple timelines
Betrayal
Murder
Secrets
Town legend
Small town


Thank you to @netgalley and William Morrow for providing me a copy for an honest review

Lucy Foley does her best to mystify me and it works every time! I love how she is very detailed in her thrillers but is still able to kept you invested and guessing u til the very end!

"The Midnight Feast" unfolds on the opulent opening night of The Manor, where luxury meets lurking darkness. Amidst sparkling pools and lavish cocktails, old friends and enemies mingle under the summer sun. But when a fire breaks out and a body is discovered, the idyllic celebration turns sinister. With an ancient forest bristling with secrets and a mystery rooted in a fifteen-year-old secret, the tension escalates. Although I didn't find the subplot involving DI Walker as compelling, the novel's overall intrigue and unexpected twists keep you enthralled until the chilling conclusion.

Reading challenge category - 2024 Flourish and Blotts - Charms - Accio: A book you have to get your hands on (I was wrong).

Thanks to #NetGalley for the ARC ebook. Having loved Lucy Foley's books "The Guest List" and "The Hunting Party" I was so excited to get this book as an ARC, but was unfortunately disappointed.

This story revolves around a group of people who at first glance are strangers as guests at a new high-end beach estate called "The Manor." As the story unfolds, we learn that it's more of a reunion and the dinner party (midnight feast) shines a light on the tangle of lies, secrets, old grudges, and hidden agendas.

In her previous works, the cavalcade of characters weren't an issue as I felt like they were well-developed. In this book, I felt that it became a bit confusing to keep people aligned. I think the dual timelines affected this negatively as well.

I did enjoy the intertwining of pagan folklore, but felt that it could have been done better and not so cheesy. Not my favorite of her works, but I will still continue to read any new books she releases for now.

2.5 stars, rounded up.

Bestselling British thriller author Lucy Foley is back at it again with her recently published The Midnight Feast (available, literally, wherever books are sold).

You might know Foley from her last book The Paris Apartment or her previous locked room-esque entries, The Guest List and The Wedding Party. Her latest novel brings us once again to a location that feels a bit remote, even if not technically so. It's all about an exclusive seaside resort that's got the townies in a lather and a target on the back of the very Goop-y proprietor. But the owner of this resort has some serious skeletons in her closet and there's more than one person out for revenge. The story is told in many points of view and multiple timelines where we start with finding an unidentified body and spend the novel trying to figure out who got killed and whether the killer will get away with it.

Even though I've read all of Foley's books, I'm not her hugest fan. And, yet, I keep reading them, which has to tell you something about her writing. She truly is a capable writer and I think her biggest skill is instilling a sense of dread in the reader. I felt that sense of foreboding from the very first page all the way until I was about 70% through and the pacing picked up so much that I was almost entirely focused on the action and whether my predictions would come true. While it took me at least a third to really get into the book (newer authors rarely get that kind of leeway), it paid off. Once I was halfway in, I just kept on reading right on through to the end. So, that's another superpower she has.

I disliked some elements of the novel, however. Turning a happy children's song into something that was meant to be creepy just really didn't work for me. It wasn't scary, and seemed a bit odd. No spoilers here but elements of the final resolution felt anticlimactic and almost like a betrayal of the tension that had been built in the many preceding pages. And there were, in my opinion, too many points of view with some POV characters left a bit undeveloped.

If you liked Foley's prior novels, you know what you're in for and I think you'll be a fan of this one. If you didn't like the other ones, then why are you like me and keep reading them? And if you've never read one of Foley's books, but you are a fan of Ruth Ware (especially, One by One), I say give The Midnight Feast a try and then let me know what you thought of it.