I will read whatever Lucy Foley writes, because I always find her stories so clever and I can't see where things are going or how they will come together (usually). This one, I saw it coming a mile away - and for me that's really saying something. I loved the setting - I could really imagine exactly what The Manor looked like and its clientele, and I loved getting wrapped up in that environment. But the flip-flopping between perspectives, which I usually don't mind at all (and generally enjoy), really started to grate on me by the middle of the book because nothing was actually happening despite all of the effort to manufacture some progression. It was really frustrating!

Overall - for me, I'd put this in the bottom half of Lucy Foley's books. Kind of disappointed since I'd heard wonderful things about this one, and it was a fun, enjoyable, fluffy read, but I was hoping for something a little more detailed and meaty to sink into.

I had never read Lucy Foley before and I am newer to the thriller genre. For some reason I was unable to get into this story. It seemed superficial. I do not post negative reviews on my social media or GoodReads as I do not think it is fair to the author. Additionally, if I do not finish a book I do not think its fair to rate below a 3, for this reason I am providing a 3 rating for this book, as I am sure with the right audience, this would be an entertaining and enjoyable read.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and William Morrow for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Midnight Feast is a multiple POV, multiple timeline thriller revolving around a group of people from a remote seaside English village. The opening of 'The Manor' a chic, expensive wellness hotel turns out to be the perfect excuse to execute all your revenge plots.

It's almost easier to write reviews when I love or hate a book than it is when it was just meh. At least if I hate it or love it I can pinpoint the reasons why but the root of it was that there were several boring parts of this book. There was also some excitement and some twists, but I think between all the POVs, the absolutely unlikable characters and the timeline bouncing around it's just too difficult to invest in the plot. I spent a lot of the book going 'something please happen already'.

I touched on this previously, but I don't know that I can think of a book that had a POV from a more unlikable character. I almost wish that POV would have been skipped since all she does is gaslight you and you already know she's a horror so it's not like it adds to the appeal of the character. Everything I need to know about that character was found in another character's POV.

My favorite plot twist I actually sensed early on, but it was still enjoyable as I found myself really pulling for a few of the characters in certain ways. There is a touch of having to suspend your disbelief for the plot but most of the time if the mystery is worth it that isn't that difficult for me, but I did find it a little difficult here. All-in-all I stayed for the revenge and was pretty happy with the turn out I just don't think this was Lucy's best work. Sometimes doing less is more.

I had such high hopes for this book. I was intrigued by the synopsis: a manor, the woods, the secrets. I just knew I was going to love it. But sadly, this one didn't work for me. It lacked character development I found the characters to be insufferable. I almost DNF a few times but decided to hang in and finish the story.I didn’t dislike it, but I didn’t love it either. A true 3 stars 🤷🏻‍♀️ I did like the setting!

THE MIDNIGHT FEAST by Lucy Foley

★★★★☆

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for the e-arc.

A new hotel- The Manor- is at full capacity for its opening weekend. The resort is high end and no expense has been spared. Everyone is excited for a weekend of activities - including the highly anticipated Midnight Feast. The guest list has been vetted- but not everyone has good intentions. The locals are upset by the construction and looking for confrontation. Some of the guests and staff at the Manor have a past- their lives directly affected by The Manor and its owners. What seems like will be an indulgent weekend turns bad when there's a fire and a body is found floating in the water the next morning.

This book fit right in line with most of Lucy Foley's books! It felt very similar to THE GUEST LIST and THE HUNTING PARTY - all large parties, desitnation/retreat type books with lots of characters. Because of the many POVs, it was a little confusing to keep everyone straight. I did find the plot surprising and there was lots going on. There were so many sinister character with shady pasts and secrets. I wanted to find out their secrets just as much as I wanted to find out who was killed. I wanted more from The Birds - it had such potential to add such creepy vibes to the town's story! Even though I found some areas lacking, I still was super entertained by the story, the party, and the characters. A quick and bingeable book that gets me out of a reading rut is sometimes just what I need!

If you like Lucy Foley's books, this one fits right in!

It’s the opening night of The Manor, and no expense, small or large, has been spared. The infinity pool sparkles; crystal pouches for guests’ healing have been placed in the Seaside Cottages and Woodland Hutches; the “Manor Mule” cocktail (grapefruit, ginger, vodka, and a dash of CBD oil) is being poured with a heavy hand. Everyone is wearing linen.

But under the burning midsummer sun, darkness stirs. Old friends and enemies circulate among the guests. Just outside the Manor’s immaculately kept grounds, an ancient forest bristles with secrets. And the Sunday morning of opening weekend, the local police are called. Something’s not right with the guests. There’s been a fire. A body’s been discovered.

SO GOOD. I absolutely love Lucy Foley novels and this one did not disappoint. There were so many small reveals along the way and that kept up until the last page. This was such a clever and creative book ... is it weird that it makes me want to go to a remote forest retreat? Thank you so much to netgalley for the advanced copy. I'll be thinking about this one for a while.

Another tried and true win by Lucy Foley! A beautiful unraveling of characters and the ties that bind them. I love how Foley paints the setting of this book, I wish I could go there, breathe it in. I can picture what it feels like so clearly. Couldn’t get enough of this book, found myself sneaking away to take in even five pages at a time.

Holy hell. Herculean effort to get through this. It got good at about 85%. All the bird shit was RIDICULOUS. The birds were an attempt to add an occult vibe but it didn’t deliver. And the journal stuff—so boring and really dragged the story rather than move the plot forward. I did like how the mystery came full circle at the end. Spoiler—I wanted more for Bella and Jake so that was disappointing. Thank you to NetGalley for a digital copy

Thank you to William Morrow for the digital copy to review.

I really enjoyed this one, and Foley is up there as a must read author for me. Give me all the secrets, lies, cover ups, and dysfunction you can whilst in a locked room setting, it always makes for a grand ole time and this one did not disappoint. Foley did a good job with this, turning everyone against each other when a body turns up opening weekend of The Manor, and things slowly start to fall apart. Told in multiple POVs, there are plenty of shenanigans and unlikeable characters to go around, and even a folklore element with birds that when all put together, it made for a very entertaining read and was smartly done throughout.

I enjoyed Lucy Foley's last book quite a bit and was excited about this one but found it a little slow and altogether too unrealistic.

As with her other books, this one has a lot of narrators. I did enjoy Bella's character, and felt for Eddie and Owen.

The chapters are short and with the many narrators the pace of this book is pretty quick. I guessed some of the twists but that didn't take away from the plot.

The sense of place was really well written -- it was so creepy and I could picture the the Manor and all the characters there.

I will continue to read Lucy Foley in the future but this one was not my fave.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

I typically like books by this author but something was a bit off on this book for me. It seemed a bit to out there to be a realistic could happen type thriller

I wasn't the biggest fan of this book. I thought the mystery was predictable and it felt like her other books with a slightly different plot

I know going into Lucy Foley's books that I am not going to know precisely what's happening from the get-go-- and I am totally fine with that! It takes a long time to put all the pieces together, and that is part of the fun in reading her books for me.

In previous books, I've been able to suss out some of the major components fairly early on, but this one kept me in suspense for a long time. I had fun really disliking one of the major players, Fran, and seeing the quaint English village with its corvid vigilantes. Solid read!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC of the Midnight Feast

Lucy Foley writes the type of thriller I can get in to. It’s not always my favorite genre but I have really enjoyed her other books. The plot line in this one was interesting and the multi characters and viewpoints kept me entertained. I did find it a bit slow to start but Lucy knows how to pull you in! Another fun thriller from Lucy Foley!

Wasn’t a big fan of this one. Never really connected with any of the characters and the revelations at the end felt too far off

It's opening weekend at an exclusive resort and while the guests expect pampering and decadence we get secrets, lies, deceit and murder.

Lucy uses multiple timelines and POVs to tell this story of murder, retribution and morally gray characters. While I found it entertaining, I wasn't blown away by it. maybe there was too much going on with the multiple timelines, POVs, folklore, journal entries, etc. at times it felt a bit disorienting which may well have been intentional but instead of engaging me it made me feel disjointed in a way that I can't quite put my finger on.

Overall, this was definitely an atmospheric mystery but the reveals never shocked me and it felt a bit too slow for my personal reading preference.
I enjoyed it. I just didn't love it as much as I thought/hoped I would.

Came for a spooky thriller, stayed for unhinged people. They say watching a train derail or a car crash is hard to look away from, that's what reading this book felt like. Not because it was bad, but because the characters kept making increasingly unhinged decisions and revealing wild facts about their pasts. I didn't find the storyline particularly engaging but I did need to know how everything was going to play out.

There's a lot to juggle in this story with dual time lines and multiple POVs but I thought Foley handled it very well. The different POVs were all very distinct and easy to keep track of. The past time line was sprinkled in sparingly enough that I didn't get bored reading it, and it left me with just enough questions to keep wanting more. And the way everything came together at the end of spectacular.

Details kept coming to light that made the story more and more fascinating. It was a fairly quick read because the pacing was increasing through out the book. It started slow and built up and up until it reached the climax. And what a climax.

DNF @40%. Nothing was happening- I was unfortunately incredibly bored and didn’t feel sucked in to the story. I found myself not wanting to pick it back up. I really loved Lucy’s “Paris Apartment”, but this just didn’t reel me in.
I did really love the atmosphere of The Manor, though!

The Midnight Feast was one of my most anticipated reads I’ve loved this authors other mysteries!

I was expecting intrigue, creepy atmosphere, and a gripping locked-room mystery. But I was so bored reading this.

There are five POVs, none of which are interesting. The more POVs added, the more watered down the characters are. Other than Francesca, the characters merged in my head. Unfortunately, Francesca only stood out because of how awful she was. If an author wants to write a large cast, they need distinct traits for each character. Otherwise, you get what you have here: main characters that provide no grit to the story and make it supremely uninteresting to read.

Maybe I could have forgiven the lack of personality if there had been a plot to follow. Mostly, it was just bullies, immature adults, and random folklore bits (which were the best part.) The actual murder victim isn't revealed til nearly the end%, which annoyed me so much. I trudged through so much just for the victim reveal to be lackluster and anticlimactic.

The last 1/4 of the story was easier to digest. All the random plot points and boring characters wrapped up into an ending that would have been satisfactory, even clever if the first 3/4 was slow and difficult to get through. As everything came full circle, I felt relief that the story was over and didn't care how it came together.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for the advance digital copy.

Lucy Foley interweaves the vacation thriller with a folk horror vibe. I thought this was a smart and interesting commentary on the vacation thriller trend that Foley herself started with The Guest List. In The Midnight Feast, she looks at vacationers as an invading species that must be rooted out and destroyed. A bit out-there, but I kind of loved it!