MIDNIGHT FEAST, Lucy Foley

It is the opening weekend for the new exclusive luxury resort, The Manor, owned by Francesca Meadows and her architect husband, Owen Dacre, and they are determined to make sure everything goes perfectly. The opening chapter, however, reveals that something went horribly wrong and now the police are investigating a death.

The story is told from multiple perspectives as well as 3 different time lines: the time leading up to the inauguration’s Midnight Feast, right after it when a body is found, and a 15-year old diary. Although the frequent shifts between past/present/diary were at times challenging, the story develops with lots of twists and turns exposing lifelong secrets, keeping you engaged and curious. Lucy Foley is a master in misdirection!

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow’s Press for the advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review!

I enjoyed reading The Guest List and The Hunting Party (in spite of the unlikable characters in both) and thought the premise of Foley's newest book sounded intriguing. A luxury resort is having its grand opening celebration. Most people are having a wonderful time, but many local residents resent the resort owner and what she has created. Some of the guests and employees may have a motive for being there other than enjoying the ocean views and curated food and drinks. There is a flash forward very early on in the book letting you know that all is not going to go as planned at the main event - the Midnight Feast.

This book was another one that was full of unlikable people. I was able to find a couple people to root for, but I wouldn't want to spend much time with most of them. One exception is resort employee Eddie, who I really liked throughout the book for his honesty and down-to-earth personality. The story is told in three timelines showing events leading up to the party, the aftermath, and journal entries from one of the characters written 15 years ago. The journal entries are an excellent way to show past events, but I kept getting confused about the sequence of events in the other timelines.

There were frequent mentions of local folklore throughout the book that added to the creepy, foreboding atmosphere, but was also confusing. However, I found it clever how some of the characters are slowly revealed to have unexpected connections. The way everything comes together for a fitting and surprising ending helps bump this book up to four stars.

I received an advance copy of this ebook at no cost from NetGalley and William Morrow Books. My review is voluntary and unbiased.

Thank you to William Morrow and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts. Unfortunately I have to DNF this at about 15%. The timeline and the point of view are all over the place. I cannot keep track of what is going on for the life of me. On top of that, I’m just not invested at all. The writing is meh and the plot makes no sense. This was my first book by Foley and I’m not sure I understand the hype.

I really loved this! It was fast paced and full of twists and turns! Truly hard to put down. I can’t wait to read more by this author!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book is a crazy ride. Multiple pov’s and every one of them has secrets. Up until the final moment I was not able to unravel the twists myself. Lucy foley does an amazing job at keeping you on your toes!

Confession: I did NOT expect to enjoy this book. I requested it out of curiosity, and promised myself I would promptly DNF it if I felt like it was going down the same path as The Paris Apartment, which I found to be a disappointment.

What I received instead was a juicy, secretive, simmering thriller perfect for summer. It has Foley’s trademark multiple-POVs that each brilliantly support the story. There’s plenty of backstory, which I love, that intertwines with present-day tension.

Summary: It’s the opening weekend of The Manor, a no-expenses-spared resort on the coast in Dorset. But what begins as an elegant summer celebration turns violent—by Sunday, a body has been discovered, a fire has ravaged, and a fifteen-year-old secret has come to light. 👀

It’s compulsively readable and has the kind of juicy drama you love to watch unfold. This makes for an excellent, slightly creepy thriller with some paranormal elements that makes for an excellent summer read.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

The book is overwhelming in the beginning because of how many different characters perspectives go back and forth. The writing for the journal was hard to read, but I recognize the intent is a teenager writing it.

With that said, the business of the book doesn't leave a lot of room for speculation and I quite enjoy that. It caught me from the beginning though there were times it slowed down for me.

Overall 4 stars. It was a good read. The ending did not surprise me but I'm happy with it. There were several twist that you may not catch along the way though.

The slowest of slow burn thrillers, which I have to admit I am a bit over. I find myself gravitating towards faster and suspenseful books. I love a good locked room thriller, especially a creepy manor, so I wanted to give this one a try. The beginning of this one I found to be boring (probably because of the whole slow burn thing) but the book also has a large cast of characters, and I kept finding myself forgetting who was who. All of the characters just seemed so underdeveloped. Also the folklore seemed to be underdeveloped as well. I also hate birds, so the constant mention of them started to grate on me (but that's a personal thing and I can't take stars off for that).

Thank you to Netgalley, Lucy Foley, and publisher for the ARC of this.

This is a locked room who-dun-it type of thriller, as is most of her books. I loved the more or less isolated 'Manor'. I loved the dark spooky atmospheric setting. Birds, birds, and more birds. There is a huge cast of characters in this, as well as a journal style chapters sprinkled in. It did take me awhile to get through this one, and it is a slower burn type thriller, BUT I plan on listening to the audiobook when it comes out in a week or so.

Midnight Feast
Lucy Foley
Pub: 6/18
4☆

Secrets. Lies. Murder. Let the festivities begin…

This is a sloooow burn, so pack your patience. BUT it’s so worth it in the end as all of the puzzle pieces start falling into place. It was a fun, atmospheric read with questionable characters and so many twists I didn’t see coming. A well written mystery that will ultimately have you going… 🤯!

What I enjoyed;
✨ SO Many Twists
✨ Locked Room Mystery
✨ Multiple POV
✨ Past/Present Timeline

Thank you to William Morrow for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

It is opening week for The Manor, a high end and exclusive retreat center owned Francesca Meadows. However, during the festivities, old friends and enemies attend and secrets begin to resurface. Along with that, a body has been discovered.

I love a slow burn thriller when I am invested in the characters and the build up, but for the first 50ish % of this I was bored. There were too many perspectives and the timelines kept flipping before any strides in the plot were made. Still, I am happy I stuck with it because the ending definitely came full circle and had some shocking twists. Plus, I loved the full cast audio performance

Read if you like:
-Locked room stories
-Slow burn thrillers
-Birds
-Dark and creepy settings
-Large cast of characters

Thanks to William Morrow for the gifted copy.

My friend sent me two texts 45% into this book:
1. So like someone is dead
2. And there’s a lot of people

And that’s a pretty good summary of the book.

I really didn’t feel like a lot happened, and was very bored for most of the book. There were too many points of view - they weren’t all needed. Unfortunately, this was a big miss for me.

Lucy Foley is a master of ongoing tension. Similar to The Paris Apartment, she set a drum beat of tension that did not let us from beginning to end. I thoroughly enjoyed the curated ridiculousness of Francesca's character. I loved her surface-level wellness, meditation, calm perfection that was so easily undermined by her actual thoughts and behaviors. I also loved the role the architecture and the landscape play as a characters. The Manor, the cliffs, the wood, the town of Tome, the vacation park - they all feel like characters who we had to keep up with just as much as the main players.

This book gets 3 stars for me because I found it more predictable than most mystery / thrillers. I found myself guessing several chapters ahead what role a character would play and how things would wind together. I also found that each character was multi-faceted in overly-similar ways. All dark backgrounds with redeeming qualities. It made me feel like I was following the same stories to the same resolutions.

I would definitely recommend this book to fans of Lucy Foley and others who love a quick read in a beautiful (and spooky) setting.

Many thanks to NetGalley & William Morrow for granting me an early release e-ARC of this book in exchange for a candid review.

Another luxury vacation hideaway thriller from Lucy Foley? Sign me up.

I'm always eager for the next Lucy Foley thriller and The Midnight Feast does not disappoint. It's a slow burn for sure, full of interesting characters, POVs, and even time jump arounds. A luxury resort in a remote part of the UK is finally ready to open, much to the grumblings of the locals who have not appreciate being put off land they consider to be public, let alone the owner whom some find unsavory.

I have one teensy complaint and it is that I always long for a bit more insight into the luxury of the location. I want delicious imagery into the fabulousness. The imagery was lacking a bit in favor of a meatier plot, which I cannot complain about.

I definitely saw a few of the twists coming, but it really did a nice job of wrapping every little bow up, which thrillers can forget to do sometimes. It really stuck the landing for me, which is the mark of a truly good thriller.

Could not recommend more to any Foley, Ware, or Jewell lovers. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my ARC in exchange for the honest review.

I truly want to like Lucy Foley’s work, but The Midnight Feast was hard to get through. I couldn’t follow pieces of the confusing plot despite the constant inner character exposition. And I swear, so many of the chapter endings should’ve been punctuated with “dun dun DUNNN!” The dramatics were just silly. No one’s inner monologue is that stilted and awkward. I get how she was trying to depict the GOOP-esque antagonist but man did it sound cheesy. The mystery took forever to build, and it really wasn’t satisfying. And everything involving birds was confusing and then rushed at the end. It would have been interesting if we discovered what the birds were halfway through and played on that symbolism. I genuinely wish that I enjoyed this. I do look forward to Foley’s next book because she really did grip me with The Guest List.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the opportunity to read this arc in exchange for my honest review.

“The Manor” is a thriller set in a historical house renovated into a boutique hotel by Francesca Meadows. The locals are uneasy about its existence, citing an old superstition about “the Birds,” strange figures associated with horrific deaths. The plot unfolds through multiple timelines and perspectives, including a mysterious woman from Francesca’s past intent on revealing her secrets and DI Walker, investigating a series of arson and murders.

Despite its atmospheric setting and gripping premise, I found the constant timeline shifts and multiple POVs confusing and a little disruptive to the narrative flow. Grammatical errors and unresolved plot points further detract from the experience. Hopefully those will be addressed by its release date. I appreciated the suspense and the unpredictable nature of the mystery, which makes it a very spooky and entertaining summer read. Overall, the book’s unique concept and eerie vibes were fantastic. The execution just left me wanting a little more coherence and clarity.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for the opportunity to review this novel, in exchange for an honest review. All thought and opinions are my own.

She's done it again! Foley has delivered once again with The Midnight Feast. She has proven to be a master at combining POV'S and leaving you guessing until the end.

Bella has just checked in at the beautiful Manor on it's opening weekend but her intentions are not what they seem. With tensions rising between the enigmatic Manor owner, her husband, her staff, and the town locals things quickly delve into chaos. It's not long before the past and present start to tie themselves together, unwrapping secrets that were supposed to be buried long ago.

The multiple POV'S were great and trying to figure out how they all come together to tell one cohesive story is half the fun of the book. But what made this a book I couldn't put down was the diary entries. I couldn't wait to get to the next one to try and figure out what exactly the hell is going on. It all came together perfectly in the end. I love a book that after a twist is revealed I have to go back and re-read chapters because YES it was there the whole time but so subtly you would have to know exactly what you were looking for.

https://www.tiktok.com/@litstacked/video/7379691919821098283?lang=en

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the free e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I was excited to read this latest book by Lucy Foley as I really enjoyed her other books. However, this one just did not work well for me. You can read the blurb to figure out that "The Manor" is the creation of Francesca Woodland, the woman who inherited the property and her architect husband, Owen. The opening of their health resort is set up to be magical but predictably is a horrible fail with fire and dead bodies.

I loved the idea of the story and all of the depictions of the sea, the cliffs and surrounding farmland. I did like a couple of the characters as well.

However, there are too many characters and they are underdeveloped. Several of the characters grew up together and then did not recognize each other as adults? I think this would have been much stronger had the author stuck with the 4-5 kids from the journal and then used that development to bring them into present day.

Also the "folklore" was not well woven through the story and very predictable in the end. I think it could have been either left out or addressed differently.

The book just seemed underdeveloped. 3 Stars as I know the author's potential.

4/5 stars
Pub date 6/18/24

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of Lucy Foley’s newest release, The Midnight Feast! Despite not loving Foley’s last novel (The Paris Apartment) I was excited to receive a copy of this one, and it did not disappoint.

A beautiful new resort has opened in the wooded countryside, owned and run by the ethereal, earth Francesca. But the locals distrust her, and there is more than one person visiting during the resort’s opening weekend who has a score to settle. There were a couple twists I didn’t see coming in this one that definitely surprised me. Told in alternating POVs and timelines, this one is second only to Foley’s The Guest List. If you liked that one, pick this one up!

The Midnight Feast really redeemed itself for me in the last 10% of the book. Initially, I had a hard time getting in to this one - the multiple POV was fairly confusing, the different timelines made it hard to keep it all straight. None of the characters was "popping" enough for me to differentiate through the different timelines and perspectives. I don't need a mystery thriller to make it totally obvious who and what happened, but I do need there to be a reason for me to care, and in that sense, the author really buried the lead. I did feel like the ending redeemed the book enough that I came away generally feeling like it was an enjoyable experience, but I just needed there to be more hints to at least some of the inevitable conclusion closer to the beginning of the book. Will definitely recommend for Lucy Foley's many, many fans, though.