This was a nice, reliable read. While the plot didn’t offer a particularly surprising hook—I’ve definitely seen similar storylines before—it was still thoroughly enjoyable. The writing was engaging, and I liked going along for the ride. Sometimes a familiar setup with solid execution is exactly what you need, and The Bachelorette Party delivered on that front.

Tilly, Anna, Linnea and Evelina meet every year on a remote island. But one trip they all mysteriously disappear. Tessa Nilsson is consumed by the story and has covered it in her podcast but could never find the answers she wanted. When she has a chance to go to the island with some of her friends, she jumps at the chance. What will happen while they are there?
The book alternates between the four girls who disappeared 10 years ago and the present-day group. Although it is an interesting concept, I couldn’t get into the characters much. For lovers of true crime, though, the book will be a good one. It was just an OK thriller for me.

The Bacherlottte Party is a well paced dark and intense read that captures your attention from the first to last page.

Ten years ago on a remote island four friends were murdered and the case remains unsolved.

When Tessa gets an invite to a bacherlotee party on the same island she is excited to go ( I would have run the other way) as she hope she can solve the murder.

This will be a Bacherlotte Party like no other.

No cells phones are allowed

Tess has a premoniton that something just isnt right.

Camilla Sten takes the reader down a dark path with twists and turns that keep the pages turning.

If you love a locked door mystery this one is for you.

This was my first but not my last Camilla Sten book.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Pess/Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read and review The Bachelorette Party.

Imagine going to a friend’s bachelorette party at a vegan yoga retreat—only to learn that four people were killed on the same island ten years earlier.

Camilla Sten’s book delivers a thrilling cat-and-mouse game centered on a disgraced podcaster who’s trying to fit in with the bachelorette group while also investigating the mysterious disappearance of four friends a decade ago. Surprise! The sister of one of the missing owns the retreat.

I really liked how the author handled the twist, and the last 20% of the book is especially intense.

My first book by this author and Camilla you did your thing girl. I’m a sucker for a great thriller. I was immediately hooked from the start and that made me excited to continue on. Women, a remote island and a tragic history tied to it? Sign me up! I feel like the author did a great job of revealing the plot twists and keeping us on our toes! Queer representation will always be a plus as well! I ate this book up! Thanks to St. Martins Press for the arc!

I ended up putting this down because I really just did not care for the characters in this book. I couldn’t connect with any of them and therefore made me not want to read further. I do plan on giving this book another try eventually

I think I spend too much time with locked room mysteries, so this could be a me problem, but I guessed the ending pretty quickly. I think the last 1/4 of the book was entertaining, and I really did want to keep reading to figure out how they’d get out of it (and who would get out of it). I didn’t find the structure to be confusing except for the one part that dealt with the phone log. I had no idea who was who and only put the pieces together toward the end. Learning Matilda’s situation and then immediately seeing her get murdered….and then having flashbacks where we are constantly reminded about her situation was a little triggering? Not really a fan of using that as a plot device. However, I fear without that part of her character, I would not care much about Matilda. The murder being the first thing that happens in the book leaves no room for you to feel anything for the characters, and the flashbacks don’t really help.
At first I thought Tessa was unlikable, but she grew on me a lot. I was invested in her podcast backstory but felt slightly let down by the reveal. I appreciated her character arc and ending though.

Thank you to Camilla Sten and St. Martin's Press for my copy of The Bachelorette Party to read and review!

Overall, this was a fast-paced, fun read! The thriller elements are spread throughout the book, although it is a bit predictable to some degree. But I promise it's worth it to get to the big twist. I definitely wasn't expecting the murderer to be who it was!

There are time jumps (with dates) sporadically throughout the book. I know that not everyone likes this type of structuring in books, myself included, but I feel the structure of this one works for the plot.

I do wish that this could've included multiple POV's, as this would've elevated the story for me. Although two key characters, Matilda and Tessa) have their own chapters, I would've liked chapters from Irene and maybe the killer, especially for the past flashbacks.

What a wonderful, fast paced thriller. This story captured me from the beginning. Likeable, relatable characters with an ending that I didn't see coming.

I wanted to like this book but there were so many characters you are introduced to I'm not sure I ever learned who was who. For a short thriller this took me a long time to get into and then it felt like all the tension and drama were in the last 10% of the book. The pacing and reveal were not my favorite.

“The Bachelorette Party” is a mystery thriller by Camilla Sten. This book follows two timelines - one set in 2012 and the other in 2022. The two timelines are about two different groups of women - making it easy to keep the timelines and stories separate. Like others, I suspected pretty quickly who had “done it” for the 2012 timeline (and had a great guess for who might in the 2022 timelines) but I was missing the “why” in both cases. I actually found myself more interested in the story behind the scandal that affected Tessa. Overall, I found the pacing to be good in this book and the back and forth between the two timelines was solidly written.

“The Bachelorette Party” is a variation on the closed room mystery. Tessa, the main character, is fixated on a 20-year-old crime. Happily (?) for her, she’s invited to the island where it occurred. Tessa has been going through a rough patch and it’s clear that the other party guests don’t regard her as reliable.

So begins the yoga-themed bachelorette party. While the rest of the invitees are focused on Anneliese, the bride, Tessa is looking for clues surrounding the murders of four young women who died twenty years ago on this very island.

Author Camilla Sten doles out clues sparingly, adding to the suspense. Naturally there are some people who seem creepy, but are they really?

I enjoyed “The Bachelorette Party.” This author was new to me; I look forward to reading her other books. “The Lost Village,” for example, has been published in 19 countries.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance reader’s copy. This is my honest review.

This was a solid 3 star read. The story takes place across two timelines, centered around a Swedish island where an infamous true crime case took place. The main character is a true crime podcaster and gets the chance to visit the island on a bachelorette party, and chaos ensues.

The story is fast paced with a lot of named characters, but I didn’t feel like it was difficult to keep track of the characters. The story is a locked room mystery with a fun setting and premise. A bit predictable at times, but great beach read to pick up this summer.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for providing an advance copy. It’s out June 10th. Opinions are my own!

I went into this book already so intrigued so it’s really no surprise this turned out to be such an intense read. Character development was amazing. I did have to get used to the back and forth narratives but I think it was very important for this story to be told in this way so I didnt mind. . I can’t wait to read more from this author. I received this from NetGalley for my honest review

The Bachelorette Party didn't work for me. Honestly I should have trusted my gut and DNF'd it instead of finishing it. The story failed to fully pull me in. I didn't find myself rooting for any of the characters either, which was unfortunate. The story didn't feel like anything new either.

Thank you to Minotaur Books and Netgalley for a copy in exchange for review consideration.

I really wanted to like The Bachelorette Party. The premise was intriguing, and I was excited for a tense, twisty thriller. Unfortunately, this one just didn’t land for me.

I tried both reading and listening to it, hoping one format would click—but no matter how I approached it, the story felt disjointed and hard to follow. The constant time jumps between eight different characters were especially confusing. Without clear labels indicating the time period or perspective at the start of each chapter, I often found myself flipping back to figure out where—and who—we were supposed to be with.

Worse still, the eight main characters all felt indistinguishable. None stood out in a meaningful way, and they blended together into a bland, forgettable mix. I never felt connected to any of them, which made it even harder to stay invested in what was happening.

The actual plot—the one teased in the description—doesn’t really get going until about halfway through the book. By then, I was already fatigued. The first half is heavy on world-building and backstory, much of which could have been trimmed. It dragged and lacked the suspense I was hoping for.

The potential was there, but in the end, The Bachelorette Party was a struggle to finish. A promising idea weighed down by poor execution.

This was a twisty locked room (albeit an island) thriller!! 🙌

I do have to say it was a bit predictable, but I was hooked from the get-go! While not my favorite from Camilla Sten (The Lost Village claims that spot), this was still a very enjoyable read! Check it out if you like a good thriller with slasher vibes and deserted islands! 👏

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and @
Camilla Sten for the opportunity to read the eARC in exchange for my honest review! ❤️

An easy and fast read for fans of locked door mysteries!
Let's be honest- locked door can get repetitive. But the vibes are usually still there, and it's a much loved setting! I find the key with locked door is to not speculate too much as I read and just enjoy the ride. I read quickly, so I sped right through this one as I do with majority of locked door settings.
The bachelorette trip as a setting is a fun time, and I enjoyed the characters as well as the duel mysteries going on. The chapters moved along at a nice pace and I was entertained throughout the book. I would recommend the read if the setting suits your mood!
Thank you to the publisher for the ARC

This one took a while to find its footing for me, I wasn’t really hooked until about 35% of the way in.

The final 20% did deliver, it was tense, stressful, and kept me flipping pages. But to get there, you really have to slog through a lot of filler. I think a tighter edit through the middle would’ve made the impact of the ending hit harder and more exciting to get through.

There’s a definite The Guest List vibe here with the isolated setting and the slowly unraveling tension, which I liked a lot! The location was immersive and atmospheric, and more unique than most which was impressive.

There were some things about the characters that didn’t really make sense to me -
1. Irene’s character arc made very little sense. Revenge is one thing, but the leap to methodical mass murder felt like a stretch. Also killing Adam simply for being a man and disagreeing with her seemed unnecessary and a little over the top. I also found it hard to believe Irene’s omniscient understanding of everyone’s movements. Like randomly guessing Annelise was visiting a friend in the same apartment building as Matilda and Carl - it would have been far more effective (and simpler) if Annelise just lived there.
2. Carl, too, felt like an unfinished character. His sudden turn into unhinged territory lacked buildup or explanation. If he was meant to be broken in some way, I would have liked more behavioral cues and background to buy into it.
3. Tessa’s backstory was oddly extensive for how little it actually contributed to the plot. Her personal trauma and guilt were presented in detail, but they never really fed meaningfully into the main narrative. And her decision to run instead of helping her sister? That moment made her frustratingly unlikable and hard to root for.

I found the flashbacks super compelling - they added some intrigue and backstory, and I think leaning more into them, especially to flesh out Irene and Carl, could have given the narrative more emotional weight.

It’s official: I will read anything Camilla Sten writes, and most likely, I will love it. Her third thriller is once again a winner for me, and I can’t wait to see where she goes next!

Ten years ago, four women, dubbed the “Nacka Four,” disappeared from an isolated island in the Baltic Sea, Isle Blind, during their annual camping trip to the island. They were never found, and presumably drowned while taking a dingy out on rough seas while drunk. Ten years later, a we resort has been built on Isle Blind, and a group of friends are going for an exclusive preview weekend as a bachelorette party for one of the group. Tessa, whose life s falling apart, has an alternative motive: to find clues about what happened to the Four that night. But there’s more going on behind the scene than anyone anticipated.

The story is told along two timelines: in 2012, from one of the missing girls’ POV leading up to the fateful trip; and Tessa’s in the present day.

Once again, Sten has created a unique story that just sucked me in right from the beginning. The opening chapter is super creepy and just sets the stage for what is to come in the book. And with that, the action really takes off right away. With the resort being isolated, there’s a foreboding and suspenseful atmosphere throughout the book that just ramps up as it goes on.

I didn’t guess most of the solution at all, even through it all made sense and the clues were there, which makes for a good book, imo. I had an idea about one point and was right about it, but like I said, there were still enough surprises and twists to keep me interested, which is what I love about Sten’s books. She always has a little something up her sleeve.

I also loved the character development with Tessa, who had a complex background story, and had to deal with her own issues throughout the book and its events. I liked how she was very multifaceted.

Again, I highly recommend this book, then checking out the other books by Camilla Sten. It’ll be worth your while if you’re looking for some good thrillers.