🥂✨ARC Review✨🥂

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for giving me the chance to read Camilla Sten’s latest thriller before its release day!

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
•locked room
•dual timelines
•true crime
•twisty

My thoughts:
I really enjoyed this thriller. It was a quick and fast-paced read that I didn’t want to put down. Each time I thought I’d figured something out, I was wrong. Was it a deep and profound read? No. Did it entertain me? Absolutely. These are the kind of thrillers I eat up in the summer.

The plot:
On a remote island four friends meet every year to celebrate their youth and their friendship. In 2012 none of them make it off the island and a decade later, their disappearance is still a mystery. Irene, sister of one of the missing, has opened a wellness, holistic retreat on the same island her sister went missing on, and a new group of friends are coming to the island to celebrate a Bachelorette weekend.

Read if you like closed door mysteries and fast-paced, entertaining thrillers!

The Bachelorette Party by Camilla Sten is a slow burn of a thriller with a shocking twist that is unpredictable. Tessa, a true crime podcaster, gets invited to her friend's bachelorette party at a remote island spa. It just so happens that this is the same location where a group of women went missing ten years earlier. Tessa hopes to find information on the lost women while on the island. What she finds instead will shock you.
This was a very slow paced story and at times I wanted to stop reading it but I am very glad I finished it as the twist was to die for.
Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Minotaur Books for the advanced copy.

I love a great reclusive setting for thrillers. Down on her luck podcaster Tessa is at the remote retreat as a bridesmaid but her ulterior motive is to learn more about the four women who disappeared there ten years ago. Hoping it will make good material to help her relaunch her career. This is like Agatha Christies’s And Then There Were None meets a R.L. Stine/Christopher Pike book. I’m a good way!

The alternating chapters between the current storyline & the missing women from 2012 were really helpful. It made the missing women more actualized & their disappearances have more stakes for readers. If you like a good whodunit mixed with a bit of 90’s slasher vibes then this is a good thriller for.
🍾

Read if you like:
* The Weekend Guests by Liza North
* The Search Party by Hannah Richell

THE BACHELORETTE PARTY
myster/thriller
2.5 stars

This one had some really high points for me, but also had some really low.
Whenever I finish a book, my husband (very kindly) asks me about it. When I was explaining this, it became obvious how silly some of the story line was and how some of it really made no sense.

things I liked:
- i love books that involve a true crime podcast! seriously, they always loop me in with this!

-along with that, there was a really cool line that said "which would be bad news for the people, but very, good news for me." She is a true crime podcaster and is noting here how good being this close to a case would be for an episode for her! I always think about how people profit from this insane pain of other people's, hell, how much we all enjoy it is crazy!

- the main character is obsessed with true crime and extremely jumpy. This is ME!

- I loved the commentary on bachelorette parties, all kinds of kinds on this trip and everyone has to vacation together for a week, you learn to love and hate people QUICK.


things I didn't:
- the beginning was a bit confusing for me, trying to keep track of the trips and characters. When you have TWO trips with 5 women each, the names are really hard to separate and so forth.

- I hate books where the writing is cheeeeesy and feels like it's trying to make a life lesson happen where it didn't need to. This did that at times.

- There was really only one suspect the entire time? He was the obvious red herring to use, but I needed MORE.

- When the "clue" is revealed, I had to flip back tons of pages to find it. I wish it would have stuck with me more? It was such a small moment.

- This book is gruesome! The discussions about the killings are DARK! I wasn't expecting that, which may be more of my own fault.

- So many parts of this DIDN'T make logical sense. I won't include details because they are major spoilers.

I love getting eARCs and hate when I can't give a glowing review.
Thank youSt. Martin's Press for this book!

ARC review: The Bachelorette Party by Camilla Sten ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur books for the opportunity to read this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Bachelorette Party is a dual timeline mystery thriller taking place on the remote Isle Blight. In 2012, four girls went missing after a girls night on the beach of Isle Blight, and 10 years later, true crime fanatics are still puzzling over the mystery. Tessa, a disgraced true crime podcaster attends a bachelorette party on that same isle with the intent of discovering more about that fateful mystery.

I enjoyed this one! It kept me entertained and I enjoyed the back and forth of the different timelines. It wasn’t slow moving but I did predict both twists by the halfway point. I still had a good time though!

The Bachelorette Party releases June 10th 2025!

The prologue sucked me in and did not let go until the end! I so enjoyed the fast pace, the unique setting of Isle Blind (and more broadly Stockholm as that is not your typical starting point location for a story), and the way the author blended the past and present from the POV of two strong women.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read The Bachelorette Party ahead of its publication!

I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this copy for read and review

I’m so grateful to receive this arc! It is one of my most anticipated thrillers for this year! The story was great and I liked the plot however, the actual execution of the locked door could have used more work. I also didn’t like how abrupt the ending was sadly.

Tessa is in the middle of handling a very public fallout from a podcast she created on her true crime platform. Determined to regain her reputation, Tessa decides to attend her friend's bachelorette party on the mysterious and infamous Isle Blind, where 4 friends mysteriously disappeared 10 years earlier. But the island seems to have bad luck as Tessa and her friends start to experience scary incidents and make them wonder if the island is cursed.

This was a good whodunit murder mystery and kept me guessing until the very end. It was reminiscent of Lucy Foley's "The Guest List," told on a creepy island intermingled with flashback scenes, all adding up to help solve the mysteries laid out. Good book for fans of Lucy Foley or those looking for a good mystery.

*** I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. ***

This book has a good plot, interesting characters..

What threw me off was the different POVs.
I got attached to Tilly’s character… unfortunately. So it threw me when we started with Tessa’s story.

Too many details of the surroundings.
But the plot twists were quite good!

This book was really hard for me to get into. I thought the writing was a bit basic for my taste. I liked the premise but unfortunately just couldn't get into it.

The Bachelorette Party blends the suspense of The Guest List with the slasher tension of Scream, delivering a thriller that’s atmospheric and fast-paced—but ultimately didn’t quite live up to its chilling premise.

The story alternates between the disappearance of four lifelong friends a decade ago and the present-day bachelorette trip that might hold the key to their fate. Tessa, a disgraced true crime podcaster, sees this getaway as her last shot at cracking a mystery that’s haunted her—and reviving her career.

The setting is a definite highlight. The remote island, the eerie yoga retreat, the haunting echoes of a cold case—all of it creates a claustrophobic, slow-burn sense of dread. Camilla Sten is skilled at building atmosphere, and there are genuinely unsettling moments sprinkled throughout.

But while the setup is compelling, the execution feels a bit uneven. The pacing stutters at times, and the characters—especially Tessa—often feel underdeveloped or make choices that strain believability. The emotional stakes don’t always match the tension, and the twists, while surprising, aren’t as satisfying as they could be.

For readers who enjoy a moody setting and a thriller that leans into its creepy vibes, this might hit the spot. But for fans expecting the same chilling originality as The Lost Village, this one may leave you wanting a bit more.

The Bachelorette Party by Camilla Sten is a dual timeline thriller. Four women went missing 10 years ago. A decade later, a former true crime podcaster is on a bachelorette weekend at an isolated yoga retreat on the island the missing women visited. What could go wrong?

It opens with violent bang in the past then takes us to our protagonist. It switches back and forth in time between the missing women of the past and the women in the present. 

We start with normal tensions of people with history and petty judgments. It builds with suspicious things going on but nothing too sinister. There’s a few times when there’s something you know will be coming back to in the story. Is something truly amiss or is Tessa paranoid? The true crime addict reading too much into something?

As we see the bachelorette weekend unfold, we also see parts of the past. Who Matilda was and the depth of what was really going on. It all slowly builds until we see what happened and who did it. How it all comes together to what is happening to Tessa right now.

Once it starts, it goes from ‘suspicious but explainable’ to very violent very quickly. The lead up does not prepare you for that. Maybe there wasn’t a subtler way to build it up, maybe it’s to juxtapose how violently that loss can hit you. 

The parallels between the logic of the murders of the past and the violence of the present is a chilling reminder. The pretzels we will twist to justify our bad choices, to keep from really seeing ourselves or facing the senselessness of our pain. It was masterful.

There were 2 things from the ending that I appreciated. The first was the reality of a violent blow to the head and traumatic brain injuries. The movies really lie about what that can do to a person. The second is this quote:

“It’s not all going to be okay. I’ve come to accept that. Sometimes there is no such thing as okay. Sometimes all there is, is good enough…Sometimes you have to let go of any idea you ever had of reclaiming the person you were before, because that person is gone. Sometimes you have to learn to live in the “after,” because you can’t go back to “before.”“

I really enjoyed this thriller. Be prepared for things to go full throttle very quickly. Once it started, I didn’t want to put it down. I had to avoid picking it up so I wouldn’t get mad at my kids for interrupting. I’d definitely recommend it. 5/5

Bachelorette party on remote island where four women previously disappeared from ten years ago. Dual time lines with a lot of characters. I didn’t mind the dual time lines but the flashbacks really did not add much to the storyline except for a small hint of foreshadowing. The twists were not unexpected at all. It was a quick read but I preferred Camilla Sten’s previous books over this one.
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for the Advanced Reader’s Copy.

I usually really enjoy Sten's books, but unfortunately this one did not work for me. It felt too chaotic and overwhelming with sooo many characters to keep track of, it was hard to enjoy the book. Also, the plot seemed too far fetched for me.

I loved the premise of The Bachelorette Party. I’m always excited for a “locked room” mystery and if that’s an island, even better! I am also drawn to stories with a true crime podcast element. Plus that cover!! So this was definitely catnip for me to pick it up. Unfortunately it just didn’t work for me and I was bored and decided to dnf.

If you are looking for a summer thriller - this is a great one. If you are looking for something new - this is probably not it. Quite formulaic (island, mystery, murder, people are not who they say they are) but that’s how I like my summer thrillers ! It was a fun read

There were a lot of characters and switching timelines to try to keep track of, which got confusing at times for me. But overall and really interesting read.

This was an interesting murder mystery that had me enthralled with the drama unfolding in each chapter. It jumps around from a mass murder that takes place ten years previously and a little bit of backstory with those characters involved, back to the current timeline where a bachelorette party is taking place on the same Swedish island where those previous murders took place. Things start to get sketchy on this girls' trip, and it looks like history is about to repeat itself. Is the murderer who was never caught back for more?!

The main character, Tessa, is feeling broken after a failed podcast career, farce of a relationship, and an impending lawsuit all being thrown at her within the last year and her mindset isn't the best. She agrees to go on this bachelorette trip with ulterior motives of rekindling her podcast career by trying to get an exclusive interview with the owner of the island's hotel, who happens to be one of the previous murder victim's sister. But as the trip progresses, and she continues to dwell on the murders, Tessa's intuition is telling her that all is not right on the island and something more sinister is taking place.

This book is perfect for fans of Scream and The Guest List.

This was a wild ride! A locked room mystery on a secluded island? And a murder? Oh, and this exact thing happened on this same island 10 years prior? Sign me up! (Well not to visit this island, but sign me up to read this book!)
There weren't dual timelines and many different characters which took me a while to get a handle on, but once my brain sorted it all out, I was hooked!
There are some pretty gruesome details and descriptions in the book so keep that in mind if that is something that bothers you.
This was a quick, thrilling read. The Bachelorette Party will be available June 10!