I had to throw in the towel on this one. I just couldn't do it. This book made me want to not read. I dreaded picking this book up. In theory, the plot should have been thrilling and engaging but it was just slow and boring.

I could not connect with the characters. They felt shallow and superficial. The MFC was so whiny.... completely insufferable. We know something has happened to Tessa but you spend and excruciating amount of time talking around it. She talks about the awful things that happened, this thing she did that ruined her podcast/career but she never names it. I made it to 30% and still never knew what happened. She just talked in circles about it.

I loved the setting. I'm always a fan of homes in remote locations, only accessible by boat or perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. That seclusion, in itself lends an aire of mystery and foreboding. Unfortunately, for me that is pretty much where the suspense ended. There was absolutely nothing thrilling about this book. I cared so little about what happened that I finally just gave up.

I won't discourage anyone from reading a book but this one was just not for me.

I would have liked this more if the storyline wasn't so obvious. From the first chapter I had my suspicions of who did it and what was going on. The story is well written though and maybe if I didn't read so many thrillers and mysteries I wouldn't have figured it out and would have given it a higher rating.

There were too many characters . The chapters were confusing what was narrating.
Thank you St.Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

** “There’s a lot to be said for desperation. For the will to fight. I may not be the predator, but even prey can fight, when driven into a corner. With tooth, and claw, and rage.” **

Camilla Sten once again delivers a heart-thumping thriller with “The Bachelorette Party.”

The story follows two incidents — the 2012 disappearance of four friends on a small island in the Baltic Sea as well as the 2022 bachelorette party on the same island.

When former podcaster Tessa Nilsson learns the party is taking place on the same island, and the new hotel is owned by one of the victim’s sister, she can’t say no to the trip with five other women, including her sister.

But as strange occurrences start, Tessa must decide whom she can trust, all while preventing what happened in 2012 from happening again.

Sten does an incredible job of developing a heart-pumping thriller that keeps the reader guessing until the very end. She develops an intriguing cast of characters, many of whom are dealing with secrets and trauma of their own. She also reminds us that “Caring too much is better than not caring enough” and to never give up and follow our instincts.

One disclaimer: this novel, which is due out June 10, does contain coarse language throughout as well as violence and discussions of adult situations.

Fans of suspense thrillers, authors like Ruth Ware, books like “The Lighthouse” by Fran Dorricott, “The Sanatorium” by Sarah Pearse or “The Hitchcock Hotel” by Stephanie Wrobel, or even closed-door mysteries will love “The Bachelorette Party.”

Five stars out of five.

Minotaur Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers, provided this complimentary copy through NetGalley for my honest, unbiased review.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a digital ARC of this book for review.

This is my first time reading something by Camilla Sten. If you are a fan of The White Lotus, you will love this. I enjoyed the dual timelines, navigating back 10 years to the original disappearance of 4 friends and the present group of friends visiting the island for a bachelorette party. Seeing the parallels between the two groups of girls added an interesting dimension. It was a face paced, eerie, and engaging thriller.

Camilla Sten’s The Bachelorette Party is an exhilarating rollercoaster of suspense, masterfully blending multiple timelines and perspectives to craft a murder mystery that grips you from the first page to the last. The intricate narrative structure adds depth and intrigue, allowing readers to piece together clues through the contrasting lenses of friendship, family, and hidden secrets.

The characters are richly developed, each with their own motivations and flaws, making them both relatable and suspect as the tension builds. Sten’s ability to weave emotional complexity with thrilling suspense is nothing short of brilliant. The exploration of relationships—be it the fragile bonds of friendship or the complexities of family ties—adds an emotional core that resonates deeply.

The pacing is impeccable, with twists and turns that kept me eagerly turning pages, desperate to uncover the truth behind the chilling events. The dual timelines converge seamlessly, creating a satisfying and unexpected climax that left me in awe.

The Bachelorette Party is a must-read for fans of psychological thrillers and murder mysteries. Camilla Stan has crafted a masterpiece that not only entertains but also provokes thought about the nature of trust, loyalty, and betrayal.

Tessa has lost her job as a true crime podcaster and is being sued by a family. This is not the time she wants to go to a Bachelorette party. The only reason she goes is maybe she can salvage her career by finding out what happened to four other women who vanished from the island 10 years ago. This bachelorette party does not go as expected when one of the participants turns up dead. Will any of them leave the island alive?

This is an exciting read that will command your attention. You will wondering if the same killer from 10 years ago is on the island with the party now. If so what does he want with them? This is scary and raises the tension in the story. I was definitely reading to see what happens next. I would recommend reading this book if you are a thriller fan.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #CamillaSten and #MinotaurBooks for a copy of this book.
#TheBacheloretteParty

The Bachelorette Party by Camilla Sten is a bit of a locked-room mystery.

"Four friends visit a remote island off the coast of Sweden every year. A chance to unwind and have fun. No one knows where they go but them. Until one year they don't come back and they are never found.
Ten Years Later - Tessa has always been obsessed with the gilrs that were never found. She was the host of a wildly popular podcast until a bad decision caused it to crash and burn. Her friend has invited her to a Bachelorette weekend at a remote yoga retreat run by the sister of one of the missing girls. If Tessa can find out what happened she can get her life back on track.
It's also someone else's last chance to get revenge..."

Sten puts you in the middle of this group of friends, some that haven't connected in a long time. It's a multi-timeline story so we get what happened to the missing group of girls to cause them to go missing. And we get Tessa's backstory to see why she is so desperate. There's a lot of misdirection and you're unsure of what's really happening until the end.
Tessa was a little hard to root for. She got a taste of attention and was willing to do anything to keep it - one time with disastrous consequences.

Better to read this one on a warm, sunny beach.

A great cover always pulls me in, so I knew I had to read this book! This one was a slow burn, with two different mysteries unraveling ten years apart.

I thought the author did a fantastic job of giving us both storylines for each group of friends, alongside the story of Tessa and her unraveling. However, I think Tessa’s fall from grace storyline intrigued me more than either of the mysteries on Isle Blind. That piece of the plot left me in more suspense than what was happening on the island, as there wasn’t much guessing of who was responsible for the deaths that occurred.

This was a quick read that flowed really well between past and present.

Scream meets The Guest List in this wickedly compelling and compulsively page-turning thriller of friendship and murder from the author of The Lost Village, Camilla Sten.

On a remote, craggy island nestled off the coast of Sweden, four friends—Tilly, Anna, Linnea and Evelina—meet every year. Best friends since childhood, the idea is to drink beer, dance by the water, and shake off the weight of life's expectations. The location of the island is a secret to everyone but them. One night of reckless fun and secret-sharing, and then they return to their normal lives.

Ten years later. Ever since she was a teenager, Tessa Nilsson has been consumed by the story of four friends who disappeared on their annual trip to a remote island together. As her true crime fervor turned into a wildly popular podcast, Tessa urgently covered Sweden’s most gruesome cases, but could never find the answers behind what happened to these women who disappeared, leaving a few maddening clues but no concrete answers. Now Tessa’s podcast has crashed and burned, any chance she had at uncovering the truth vanishing with it.

Anneliese is Tessa’s best friend, and before she walks down the aisle, she wants to have a bachelorette party. The Baltic Vinyasa, a sleek, sophisticated yoga retreat on a small island off the coast—one with such similar characteristics to the tragedy years ago that it raises the hair on Tessa’s neck. The idea is to drink gallons of cava, do sunrise yoga, and get in their last chance to bond with the bride. Tessa will not pass this up. It’s her last chance to find out what happened to the four women, once and for all.

And it’s someone else’s last chance to get revenge.

Just a word of thanks to both netgalley.com, as well as Minotaur Books/St. Martin's Publishing Group for an advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest review.

2.5-3 stars on this novel.

This is the third suspense novel by Camilla Sten. Looking back, the previous two novels Sten wrote - The Lost Village and The Resting Place - were both suspenseful, and for me, believable thrillers. I was looking forward to The Bachelorette Party for this reason. I can't say I was disappointed, but The Bachelorette Party didn't deliver for me. It seems to me that the genre of suspenseful thrillers are similar to the old Agatha Christie, "And Then There Were None." The premise being that a group of people are in an isolated area and there is a murderer on the loose removing them one by one. That set the bar, for me on suspenseful thrillers - Sten seems to have taken from this theme and used it in The Bachelorette Party. A group of friends get the opportunity to see one another for a weekend of fun for a bachelorette party. They are to meet at a resort on a secluded island to celebrate their friendship and, more importantly, the upcoming wedding of one of the friends - Anneliese. Our antagonist in this novel - Tessa - is the only one, initially, who knows that a series of murders occurred on the same island years ago. Tessa is a podcaster of serial killers and their murders, and has knowledge of the previous murders on this island. However, Tessa has a sketchy past that we hear about, and, is therefore a bit unreliable.

Like "And Then There Was None", one of the ladies in the bachelorette party is found murdered, and thus begins the suspenseful part of the novel. Was it interesting? Yes. Has this theme been overdone? A definite yes. The unreliable protagonist cannot be trusted, and there is a murderer on the loose. I defintiely knew how the ending would play out, so I was disappointed in that regard.

Certainly not a bad novel, but the theme has been played out for a while.

3.5 Stars! I feel the plot had a lot of potential, going in with a crime on a lone island and a true crime podcaster trying to figure it out years later at her friends bachelorette party. I had a hard time connecting with the main character and her friends. Tessa's relationships with all the girls was strained, and her wanting to come on the bachelorette party more for trying to solve a murder rather than one of her oldest friends parties was kind of odd.
There were a few twists, but nothing super wow factor for me. I'd be willing to read another one of Camilla Sten's books!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

As someone who loves true crime podcasts, this one was by far a favorite this year! This gave off And then There Were None and horror movie vibes all mixed into one. Definitely recommend!

"The feeling that has been haunting me ever since we arrived, the feeling of being hunted, stalked like an animal, is growing ever stronger."

Two different groups of friends a decade apart. One mysterious, remote island. And one killer out to get them all?

THE BACHELORETTE PARTY by Camilla Sten is an extremely dark, locked room thriller that will have you thinking twice before saying "yes" to that girls' trip 😬

We alternate primarily between two timelines in this story - 2012 and 2022, following along with 8+ characters (some were difficult to distinguish as we didn't spend a ton of time getting to know these characters in either timeline), with a building eerie atmosphere during what should be a pleasant time.

I really did love how dark Sten went with this story (though it did take me by surprise 😅) - she twisted expectations and normal thriller tropes, which allowed me to really just be taken along for the ride.

This one will be a great beach read for the summer!

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Minotaur Books for the early copy in exchange for an honest review - out June 10!

This is a fast paced mystery that connects the unsolved disappearance of 4 friends to a bachelorette party ten years later. All of the guests except one were childhood friends of the bride and the owner of the resort lived in their neighborhood. The male chef was the only stranger on the island. Determining the scandal that caused the implosion of Tess' life was very compelling throughout the story. The events will keep you bouncing from suspect to suspect but the ending is a little over the top.

The Bachelorette Party by Camilla Sten is a twisty psychological thriller set on a remote Swedish island with a dark past. The story alternates between the disappearance of four friends and a present-day true crime podcaster determined to uncover the truth.

While the premise was intriguing and the writing strong, the book didn’t fully live up to the hype for me. I found the pacing a bit slow at times, and though the characters were well-developed, the plot didn’t completely hook me. That said, I still enjoyed the eerie setting and layers of mystery, and I think fans of atmospheric thrillers might find it more their style.

I give it 3.5 stars and would still be interested in seeing what Camilla Sten writes next.

3.5 stars for me! This was my first novel by Camilla Sten and won’t be the last! I love the concept of friends revisiting a place that had a mysterious tragedy happen 10 years prior. It kept me hooked and I finished it pretty quickly. I would recommend to people who like thrillers.

This had a strong start that hooked me but then quickly lost me as the book progressed and I found myself wanting it to put it down more than I wanted to pick it up.

I think this one just wasn't for me. I will be on the look for others by this author.

Thank you for the advanced reader copy St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books & Netgalley.

Tessa gets roped into attending a bachelorette party at an exclusive new yoga retreat in the Baltic Sea on a tiny island for her oldest friend. But what her friends don’t know is she’s there to find out what happened to the Nacka Four - four women who went missing and are presumed to have accidentally have drowned during an overnight getaway. Tessa immediately feels something is off about the island but can’t put her finger on what it is. Then when one of the party members suddenly goes back to shore without telling anyone, Tessa gets suspicious and starts poking around even further. And she may not like what she finds…

Camilla Sten wrote an excellent broody locked door mystery set on a remote island that will have you turning the pages to figure out what happens next.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my personal review.

Creepy, atmospheric, and impossible to put down. The Bachelorette Party delivers everything I want in a thriller,an isolated setting, a dark past, and secrets that refuse to stay buried. Camilla Sten builds tension masterfully, weaving past and present into a chilling mystery.

The remote Swedish island was the perfect backdrop, and the twists kept coming. I only knocked off half a star because a few side characters felt thin, but the suspense and setting more than made up for it.

#Locked-room thrillers #Survival horror # psychological suspense