Ohhhh boy. I just did not enjoy this one. I wanted too. But both storylines were too similar that I was getting them confused. It felt like a drama but then bam it was like a slasher movie. I just did not connect with any characters at all.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio as well as the author and the narrator for these ARCs in exchange for my honest opinion.
#NetGalley @NetGalley #St.Martin’sPress @St.Martin’sPress #MacmillanAudio #MacAudio25 @MacAudio25 #Mystery #Thriller #Fiction #BookReview #audiobook #LauraJennings

Title: The Bachelorette Party
Author: Camilla Sten
Formats: eBook and audiobook
Narrator: Laura Jennings
Publishers: St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio
Publication Date: June 10, 2025
Themes: Friendships, relationships, LGBTQ+, marriage, murder mystery, remote island
Trigger Warnings: Disappearance, murder, some homophobia, remote island, isolation

I really enjoyed Camilla Sten’s previous books and I loved the synopsis of this one.
Tessa is a disgraced podcast host and a true crime junkie. She has long been obsessed by the mystery of the four friends who met for their annual weekend at a remote island off the coast of Sweden. When her friend Annaliese gets married on the very same island, Tessa sees the opportunity to revive her podcasting career by solving the mystery. This is her chance to get her life back on track. It’s also another's' chance to exact their bloody revenge. When history starts to repeat itself, Tessa tries her hardest to solve the mystery before it’s too late.

I really have enjoyed this author’s work in the past. I was excited to start this one. Unfortunately, it was a lot harder for me to get into than her other books have been. The characters were hard to like, which made it hard to care what happened to them. The plot was engaging, the pace was gripping, the writing was great. When I have trouble engaging with the characters, it’s hard for me to care enough to follow the mystery and, unfortunately, that’s the trouble I had here. Tessa was a weak character and her relationships with the other characters were never really firm. I felt like Tessa was as disengaged with them as I was. I found the ending unsatisfying as well.

The narrator of the audiobook, Laura Jennings, did a nice job. I may not have finished the digital copy if I hadn’t listened to it first. She was able to bring some life to these characters. Her voice was pleasant to listen to and her interpretation was great.

All in all, I will continue to read Ms. Sten’s work, but this particular book wasn’t my favorite.

Thank you to St Martins Press for the opportunity to review this ARC.

I wish you could include half ratings so I could give this book 3.5 stars instead of just 3. The story was really good & kept me pulled in- wanting to know what was going to happen. The locked room mystery vibes with multiple layers kept me reading. Despite that, I did catch on to who the “bad guy” was which (not going to lie) I don’t usually do. Overall, it was a good, quick read!

Dark, intense and creepy but so fun to read. I read this in a day, so addictive.

I do love a dual timeline, locked room mystery.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review!!
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Tessa is set to go on a bachelorette trip she really doesn’t want to go on. She is going through her own hard time. However the trip is on Isle Blind….which is the location 4 women (dubbed the Nacka Four) mysteriously disappeared from and Tessa thinks if she can figure out what happened it can save her career. However they get there and it would appear whatever happened to the Nacka Four on isle blind isn’t over.
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This book is good enough, I don’t know how else to describe it. It is a perfectly fine story, going between the Nacka four and the current trip. Honestly I was MUCH more interested in figuring out what happened in Tessa’s personal life, that plot line was jaw dropping. There were a lot of characters to keep track of, I still wasn’t sure who was who by the end. And I’m not sure if it was meant to be shocking, but the ending was so painfully obvious I hope it was on purpose. I wouldn’t skip this one, but it’s nothing groundbreaking.

This book is a total page turner. It sucks you in within a few pages and keeps you on the edge of your seat until the very end. The story is perfect for fans of dark thrillers, and adds its own unique twists. This book gets 5 stars for anticipation, and gave a lower rating only because the author doesn’t quite stick the landing at the end. She stumbles, but mostly manages to land gracefully. Worth reading if you’re into it who-done-its! Also, trigger warning that something upsetting and pregnancy-related happens.

Thank you netgalley and Minotaour Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review of this book.

Once I read Scream meets The Guest List I was immediately like … count me in. I felt like it was a quick, easy read that was told in 2 different times so keep that in mind.

Its an easy mystery that you could read on the beach that will keep you engaged but not necessarily gasping for air. But overall I loved the book.

This one gave me serious Scream meets The Guest List vibes—in the best way. Four childhood friends disappear without a trace on a remote Swedish island? I was hooked. And then a decade later, a true crime podcaster with her own crumbling reputation lands on a suspiciously similar island for a bachelorette trip? Yeah, there was no way I wasn’t going to finish this in one sitting.

Camilla Sten knows how to build tension. The dual timelines kept me flipping pages late into the night, and the slow drip of secrets gave me that creeping unease I love in a thriller. There’s something about old friendships, unsolved mysteries, and isolated settings that just works.

That said, a couple threads didn’t tie up quite as cleanly as I hoped, and I had to suspend disbelief in a few spots. But honestly? I didn’t mind. It was eerie, fun, and atmospheric—and I was invested.

If you love cold-case podcasts, messy friendships, and islands where things go very, very wrong, this one’s worth the read.

Four friends disappear after a night of fun off of an isolated island on the coast of Sweden. Ten years later, Tessa agrees to go on a bachelorette party for her best friend on an island also off the coast of Sweden. Although ultimately there for her best friend, Tessa has another motive for wanting to go, she is a true-crime podcaster who has been obsessed with the 4 women who disappeared 10 years earlier and feels as though this island may hold some answers.

A weekend that was supposed to be full of bonding and yoga turns into something much darker as Tessa begins to sense similarities between the disappearance of the women from 10 years ago and the island.

This sounded like a fun premise...who doesn't love a thriller that revolves around something that is supposed to be joyous such as a bachelorette party? It had a good formula, however I feel the execution wasn't great. It was an okay read but unfortunately after reflection I felt it was an easy to forget one.

My main complaint was that there were way too many characters and their respective timelines to keep track of. I had to keep notes on who was who and which timeline they were from and their connection to each other and the plot. I feel as though if there had been less characters, there would have been more time to build connections with them and they would have felt less disposable.

The ending was also quite predictable as very early on there were red herrings as to the direction the story was going in.

I really enjoyed this book! It’s a classic thriller, locked room scary story. It has multiple time lines that end up linking up in a way that I didn’t think would happen. It was a quick read and had twists I didn’t expect!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a copy of this ARC.

Mystery/thriller based in Sweden. Four childhood girl friends go to a remote island every year for a fun filled time until they do not come home. Ten years later Anneliese wants her friends to go to the remote island for her bachelorette party. One of the gals, Tessa has a true crime podcast and has always been obsessed with the disappearance of the four girls. With her ratings dropping, she hopes to uncover clues on what happened and save her program. Today, the island boasts of a wonderful spa like retreat. All is not what it appears to be on the island. I went between reading and listening to the book. The narration was done well. The story jump back and forth between the years. It’s a quick read.

Thank you #Netgalley, #StMartin’sPress, #MacmillanAudio, #CamillaSten, #LauraJennings and #TheBacheloretteParty for the advance copies for my honest review.

Thank you for the ARC copy of this book, I love that I got to read it before being released. This was a good book. Quick read and decent length chapters. I was not blown away by the twist, but I was a bit suprised as the turn of events. I would recommend this book.

This is a perfect beach read for this summer. A fast paced, fun locked room mystery that doesn’t require a super amount of thought- you do have to keep a large cast of characters sorted though. It is a story that begins like many other “bachelorette party” themed books, a group of women taken to a resort where their phones are taken away and there’s no WiFi or way off the island. That was a little disappointing because it’s so “been there, done that”. The basis of the mystery and culmination proves to be a fresher take, although I do feel like it’s not difficult to pinpoint the killer in both timelines.
One question- is it just me or do the ages of the women make it super confusing? The original disappearance happened ten years prior, but all of the cast of characters seem to be the same age. I might be overthinking that part.
Thanks to Camilla Sten, Minotaur Books/St Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the advance readers copy!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

For some reason I really love plots involving podcasts/journalism & cold cases, and this was no exception. I was questioning the motives of every character as we went, trying to figure out who was being simply too suspicious. The interlacing time jumps taking us through the present, recent past, and the prior decade were placed perfectly, leaving you wondering how everything was going to come together in the end.

It wasn’t perfect, I wasn’t a fan of Tessa’s immediate mistrust of Adam with no evidence to go off of, but overall this was a fun and enjoyable book. If you like true crime and thrillers, this one is for you!

3.75 ⭐️ In the beginning of this book four best friends embark on their yearly trip to a remote island where they spend one night enjoying each other's company without the stress of their everyday lives. Unfortunately for them this one night ends in tragedy and they will be remembered as the "four missing girls who were dumb enough to take a boat out while drunk". Tessa Nilsson is a successful podcaster who is currently being canceled by the internet, but she believes she can turn her bad luck around by solving the tragedy of the missing four while on her friend's bachelorette trip.

While I enjoyed this book, it was very predictable in regard to who was plotting to use the bachelorette trip as their opportunity for revenge. That is the only issue that I had that kind of deterred me from rating this four stars. The pacing was great and I appreciated the two timelines being intertwined.

Thank you Netgalley, the publisher, and Camilla Sten for allowing me to read the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love locked-room mysteries, and this one is just that - all of the characters are on a secluded island. However, it feels as though this has been done so many times and quite similarly. I'm not convinced about the reasoning or the logistics of the original crime. Also, I suspected the perpetrator in the second timeline quite early on, so there wasn't much of an element of surprise for me.

2.75★
“the years go by, and you turn into this other person, and then one day you realize that the person you used to be seems like a stranger.”

while i liked the premise of this story, i ultimately felt the execution was a little bit disjointed. a few thoughts:
⟡ for context: we jump back and forth in time between a present day bachelorette party and 10 years prior with another group of women. while i really enjoyed the time jumps, i didn’t always feel like what was happening in them made sense in the grand scheme of things
⟡ tessa’s fall from podcast grace was an interesting subplot that i wish had been explored earlier in the story
⟡ the villain in this story felt predictable given the circumstances, but the choices made by them didn’t make sense to me
⟡ the ending felt really rushed

thank you to camilla sten, st. martin’s press and netgalley for this arc 🖤

*The Bachelorette Party* by Camilla Sten is a psychological thriller set against the backdrop of a remote Swedish island, where a group of women gathers for a bachelorette celebration that quickly turns sinister. As secrets unravel and tensions rise, the story keeps you guessing who to trust.

While the premise is intriguing and the setting adds a nice eerie touch, the pacing felt uneven at times. Some of the characters lacked depth, making it harder to stay fully invested. There are a few suspenseful moments and decent twists, but overall it didn’t leave a lasting impression. A good read if you're in the mood for a quick thriller, but not a standout in the genre.

I was very excited to be able to read and review this book by Camilla Sten, having read all of her other English translations as well. The setting was well described and all of the characters flawed enough to seem real, however parts of the story were very predictable. Despite this, I still was surprised by a couple of plot twists and very much enjoyed devouring this book during a non-stop flight.

I had such high hopes for this book. I recently listened to another thriller with the same title that I ended up giving one star, so I was really hopeful this one would redeem the concept—and while it was slightly better, it still fell flat.⁠
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This story had so much potential. The premise was incredibly strong, and I was immediately hooked by the idea. It's marketed as Scream meets The Guest List, and as a huge fan of both, I was pumped. Unfortunately, that comparison couldn’t have been further from the truth.⁠
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The book starts with a bang—it’s gripping, eerie, slasher-like, and full of promise. But then… nothing really happens until about 80% of the way through. The middle dragged and felt frustratingly predictable. Worse, there were too many characters—especially among the women—with similar names, nicknames, and unclear backstories. I kept getting confused about who was who, and honestly, by the end, I still wasn’t sure which group had gone missing and which was currently on the island.⁠
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It’s such a shame, because this had the bones of an amazing thriller. Sadly, it just didn’t deliver.