I had goosebumps as I read this thrilling locked-door mystery. As I started reading, I just knew chaos and danger would ensue. The slow build up gave it the perfect amount of suspense. While some parts were a bit predictable, the story held my interest and had me flipping through the pages at record speed.

10 years ago: four women disappeared on their annual remote island getaway. Present Day: six friends unite at the Baltic Vinyasa, a newly built retreat on a small island in Sweden, to celebrate a long time friend’s upcoming wedding. Queue the creepy music as this nefarious saga unfolds.

Just a couple of things that were an issue for me with this book

1. The two different stories and timelines took me quite a while to get everyone’s name straight and grasp the story.
2. The ending with a confusing character development. I had to go back and see if I missed something.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press | Minotaur Books and the author for an advanced DRC.

3.75 ⭐️

The Bachelorette Party is a quick and easy mystery/thriller read. Though I did find it relatively predictable, I enjoyed the journey. Tessa as a main character was interesting, and I found myself eager to learn more of her backstory. Does she make some bad decisions? Absolutely. Does that make her more of a realistic character to me? Yes, it does.

The plot itself was pretty standard. It wasn’t mind-blowing, but it also wasn’t bad at all. It kept me interested enough to continue reading, and though I wasn’t super satisfied with the ending, it also wasn’t bad. I think I just expected a little more. Either way, it was a fun read for me. Heavy at times, naturally, but I enjoyed the complexity those times brought to the book.

If you’re looking for a quick mystery/thriller, I’d recommend The Bachelorette Party!

Thank you Minotaur for the early review copy. All opinions are my own.

This was an intense, classically Swedish, thriller! I loved that this was written by a female author and that most of the characters of the novel were female as well. It was an interesting take on a thriller as I often feel the creepy male characters get too much hype in thrillers.

While there were some aspects that were a bit outlandish, most of the plot was easy to follow, interesting to bounce between multiple timelines, and really threw me for a loop of just how vengeful some of the characters could be. I didn’t find the pace dragging at all. If anything, it keeps you on the edge trying to figure out all of the complex pieces of the characters and the decisions they’ll make!

A bachelorette party on a deserted island that is famous for the disappearance of four women years ago, what could go wrong???

This is the premise for Camilla Sten’s The Bachelorette Party, a tense, atmospheric thriller that blends the claustrophobia of a locked-room mystery with the emotional stress of secrets among old friends. Set on a remote Swedish island, the novel delivers a chilling tale of obsession, revenge, and the dangerous allure of the past.

Tessa Nilsson, a disgraced true crime podcaster, joins her best friend Anneliese’s bachelorette party at Baltic Vinyasa, a yoga retreat on Isle Blind—a secluded island infamous for the unsolved disappearance of four women a decade earlier. That name alone would have given me some reservations.

For Tessa, the trip is more than a celebration; it’s a chance to revive her career by investigating the cold case that has haunted her. But as the women settle into their tech-free weekend, eerie parallels to the past emerge, and guests begin to vanish. Tessa must unravel the island’s secrets before history repeats itself. Yikes!

The isolated island gives off a creepy, foreboding atmosphere and the retreat’s no-technology policy, amplifies the sense of vulnerability and suspense. It's like a scarier version of 'White Lotus'. The narrative alternates between the present and the original disappearances, gradually revealing connections that keep me guessing. There are lots of good twists and turns that maintained my interest and created a hightened sense of tension throughout the novel.

One caveat, there is a large cast of characters that might be challenging for some to track, particularly with similar names and shifting timelines. Additionally, certain twists felt a bit predictable and some characters are underdeveloped. However, these aspects didn't detract from the overall suspense and entertainment value of this book. It kept me guessing till the very end!

A deserted island no one knows about is the perfect place for four friends to meet every year to catch up on life, drink and swim. No one even knows they are there. So when all of their bodies disappear, the police rule it as a boating accident gone wrong. Ten years later, the island is now owned by the sister of one of the victims and she plans to open the island up as a resort. Before the grand opening, Anneliese and a group of her plans book a private week for her bachelorette party. Four new friends, same island. One of them disappears. Is this revenge for what happened years ago? Or is someone just messing with them? I will say I strugged through the audio version of this book (though I can't pinpoint why). I was given the opportunity to both read and listen and found I enjoyed reading this novel more. However, it was still difficult to get through and I found myself losing interest. Too many characters to keep track of and it was just really hard for me to follow. I still give it three solid stars as it was an okay read, just not my favorite. Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to listen and read this one prior to release date!

I really enjoyed the majority of The Bachelorette Party. The premise was super intriguing, and the characters were interesting and engaging. The pacing kept me turning pages, and I found myself really invested in the story. However, the twist at the end didn’t quite work for me. It felt a bit predictable, melodramatic, and I would have loved a more surprising resolution. Overall, it was a fun read, and I’m excited to see what Camilla Sten writes next!

Camilla Sten's The Bachelorette Party is a chilling thriller that intertwines a seemingly innocent celebration with a decade-old mystery, all set on a remote, ominous island. Every year, four childhood best friends—Tilly, Anna, Linnea, and Evelina—escape to a secret Swedish island, a sanctuary for wild fun and intimate confessions before returning to their regular lives.

Ten years later, true-crime podcaster Tessa Nilsson is consumed by their disappearance. Despite her wildly popular podcast covering Sweden's most gruesome cases, the fate of these four women remains an unsolved enigma. Now, with her podcast in ruins, Tessa sees one last opportunity to uncover the truth.

Her best friend, Anneliese, is planning her bachelorette party at Baltic Vinyasa, a sleek yoga retreat on a small island off the coast. The location sends shivers down Tessa's spine, as its characteristics eerily mirror the site of the original tragedy. While the other guests anticipate cava and sunrise yoga, Tessa is driven by a singular, desperate mission: to finally learn what happened to the four missing women. Unbeknownst to her, this bachelorette party is also "someone else's last chance to get revenge." The Bachelorette Party promises a tense and atmospheric read where past horrors resurface, and a celebration turns into a fight for survival.

After reading the description for The Bachelorette Party, I was very excited to read an early copy of it. And the cover is stunning! If you like locked room type mysteries, I recommend picking this up on June 10th. It is told in multiple timelines from the current events of the bachelorette party and then of the Nacka Four from years prior. There is a lot of build up in the story until the last 25% of the book. Then it’s a fast thrill ride to the end. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s - Minotaur Books for the ARC!!

Thank you St. Martins Press and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Mmm I didn't love it, didn't hate it. Unfortunately this just fell a little flat for me. The suspense factor was lacking, I thought the concept pf the plot was good, which is why I was so disappointed in the execution.

Always remember, book ratings are subjective. What I may love, you may not and vice versa. Give it a try, you never know, you may find your next favorite book!

Holly Collins

I hate to say it but I was not a big fan of this one. The characters were not likeable for me. I couldn't connect with them. The ending was overly dramatic to the point that I wanted to quit reading. I love this author but this one was a miss for me.

Suspenseful and original. Tessa is obsessed with true crime. When she’s invited to her friends bachelorette party at a new resort built where four women went missing she feels this is a chance to solve the mystery. What happens is shocking and kept me turning the pages.

Four women go for an overnight stay on an island that they’ve been visiting for years. None of them return and the disappearance is ruled an accidental drowning. 10 years later a group of friends are invited to a brand new resort on the same island for a bachelorette party. Just so happens to be owned by one of the missing women’s sister. Things are not as they seem. Suspicious things start to happen and they have to solve the mystery before they disappear too.

To me, this was a mashup of a thriller and a horror.
It didn’t feel like you had to figure out WHO so much as WHY; because of the isolated setting, there is a lack of suspects to choose from.

Thank you, Camilla Sten, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC!

The Bachelorette Party follows a group of women as they celebrate their friend's upcoming wedding. Tessa is a bridesmaid who is trying to deal with her past and failed podcast. Although she is hesitant to attend the bachelorette party, she can't resist when she finds out that it is being hosted at a new yoga retreat on Blind Isle, which was once the suspected site of the disappearance of four friends who were enjoying their annual trip to the island. In the hopes of reviving her true crime podcast, Tessa plans to look for clues to find out what happened to the four friends. As one of the guests disappears, Tessa and her friends must determine what is going on and if it is linked to what happened 10 years before.


While I saw some reviews saying the ending was predictable, I didn't expect all of the twist and turns that happened. It was a quick read that I was able to enjoy in one sitting! Learning about the friendship dynamics and slowly learning more about what happened to Tessa in her past kept me eager to read more.

On Isle Blind, a secluded Swedish island, four childhood friends, Matilda, Anna, Linnea, and Evelina, disappear on one of their annual girls trips. A decade later, true-crime podcaster, Tessa, obsessed with the case, is invited to a bachelorette party with her lifelong friends on that same island. With her podcast failing, she seizes the opportunity, hoping to finally uncover the truth behind the disappearances, unaware that someone else is also seeking revenge.

This has all the right ingredients to be the exact type of book I would absolutely love.... True crime podcast, a group of friends with secrets, and an isolated occasion. However, it had such a slow start that I had a really hard time caring about what was going on, and I didn't like any of the characters. Also, there is a secret mistake about Tessa's podcast that is haunting her so damn near the whole book, and then when it is revealed, it feels so irrelevant to the story that I found myself confused about why it was hanging over the readers' head the whole time. The last 25% of this was pretty fun, which saved this from a lower rating, but overall I'm pretty disappointed because I loved The Lost Village by this author!

'The Bachelorette Party' is Camilla Sten's first book written directly in English. It has a lot of suspense and atmosphere. Tessa has alterior motive for attendinding her friend's bachelorette party. She wants to incestigate the disappearance of four girls from the same island as the party. However, members of the party have their own secrets to hide. There is a dual timeline. I enjoyed the prose and imagery of the book. 4 stars.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the gifted e-book copy! Overall, this was a quick thriller read. There were some twists and turns I didn’t expect. But I did find myself confusing the characters many times - they all had very similar names?

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the early copy.
I quite enjoyed this book. It is fast paced with shorter chapters. Good atmospheric settings that would be perfect for summer reading. Some pieces of the puzzle were sprinkled here and there but I didn’t put the story together at all. Some of it felt too simple, but at the same time I don’t think that is a problem. This book is the perfect summer reading thriller and I truly enjoyed the ending. It wrapped up but also felt realistic.
Additional appreciation for highlighting the problematic side of the true crime podcasting. We don’t see it talked about nearly enough.

Thank you Net Galley and Minotaur books for the opportunity to read this book. I was intrigued by the description of the story, and loved the cover and setting. However, I was disappointed that it did not live up to my expectations. I felt that the number of characters and how they were introduced led me to be confused, and therefore could not connect to them or engage in the story. I love a dual timeline and this is a dark, twisty thriller that was interesting but just was not as enjoyable as I hoped it would be.

This not really surprise me as I am not typically a locked door mystery reader. The vibes of this, and the setting had me so hooked in on the story. I really loved all of the characters in the novel and felt like I was immersed in the story at times. I really enjoyed the dual timeline and felt like the author really kept it easy to follow. At times, they did seem to be some disjointed moments, however as I progressed in reading it all kind of came together to me. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the ending of the story however I don’t think it took away from my enjoyment of this book. I would definitely be interested in reading another book this author in the future.