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.

FANTASTIC READ!!! This book was suspenseful and keeps you on the edge of your seat. I couldn’t put it down! Very well written!!

This started strong - a group of women are on a secluded island, together for their annual trip. They are murdered and the reader is left wondering what happened...fast forward to the present-day storyline of a podcaster who needs to redeem herself and has been invited to a bachelorette party taking place on the same island.
This was a so-so read - the past storyline was more interesting that the current day and it just fell a little flat overall.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for access to this eARC.

A quick read thriller with some elements of psychological thriller, drama, and mystery involved. Some red herrings as the main character tries to find out what happened ten years ago and save herself and her friends as well.

I really wanted to love this one, It has a great premise. Ultimately, this book has a lot going on The mystery of the women’s disappearance in the past, the main characters podcast eternal, and the current bachelorette party.

I did have a little difficulty following along on the audiobook, there were just so many characters, and the past and present characters/settings are very similar making it difficult to distinguish at times. The book works up to an exciting climax, This would be a good one to pick up if you enjoy slasher/thriller movies.

Four friends (Tilly, Anna, Linnea, and Evelina) meet every year and go to a tiny remote island off the coast of Sweden. These four friends have been friends since childhood and they use this yearly one night trip to have fun, drink, dance, and shrug off their problems. But one year, none of the women return. The story now jumps to ten years later. Tessa Nilsson and her sister Lena have been invited to a bachelorette party for their good friend Anneliese. The party is on a tiny remote island off of Sweden, accessible only by boat. They are to stay at a newly built yoga retreat that hasn’t even officially opened yet. The bachelorette party is supposed to last several days and includes Anneliese, Mikaela, Caroline, Natalie, Lena, Tessa. The only other people on the island are Irene, the owner of the yoga retreat, and Adam, the chef. Tessa is a true crime podcaster whose career is all but gone after tragic events. Tessa is hoping the bachelorette party will also allow her to look into the ten year old mystery of the missing four friends, known as the Nacka Four. If she can solve the mystery, then maybe she can get her career back on track. Tessa is convinced this tiny island might be the site where the Nacka Four used to go to, especially when she finds out Irene is the older sister of Matilda (Tilly), one of the missing women. The setting provides for a very creepy backdrop and of course you know the party weekend will turn into something not so fun but the plot keeps you intrigued and moves at a good pace. The characters are a variety of flawed people, interesting in their own way. We mainly focus on Tessa and hope she can get herself together. I thought the characters could have had more depth but I did enjoy the suspenseful story. I give the book 4 stars out of 5.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on June 10, 2025.

I had a lot of fun reading this book! I love the writing and was sucked into the story right away. I had a little trouble keeping track of the characters is my only issue but maybe that's a me thing lol If your a thriller lover this is a must read. dual timeline, locked room kept me reading it straight through!

I was really excited to read this one since I'd read The Lost Village and loved its creepy vibe. This one definitely has a creepy vibe to it as well. It's really dark with lots of violence, so if you're just looking for a psychological suspense, you might want to skip this one. However, if you can handle horror mixed in with your suspense, you will most likely enjoy The Bachelorette Party. It has multiple timelines with the primary one in 2022 which revolves around the 2012 timeline.

As you can see from the synopsis, the 2012 group of friends mysteriously disappeared, and Tessa, in 2022 is obsessed with the story. Tessa is really the only character who is fleshed out. The others, though they play important roles, don't have much depth to their characters.

I thought that the setting was great for this novel. An island, surrounded by really cold water that you couldn't possibly swim in long enough to escape is you needed to...rocky beaches, uneven terrain...the island was like an unwelcoming character. In 2012, no retreat existed. The minimalist decor in the retreat, built in 2022, felt cold and unwelcoming.

I was pretty sure that I knew who was behind the evil happenings on the island, but I was surprised by some of the events that transpired in the end.

In spite of the weaknesses in the execution of this novel, I did read it really quickly because of the suspense. If you're after a creepy novel with elements of horror and you can put up with mainly filler characters, you might enjoy reading this for a quick escape from reality! I give it 3.5 stars rounded to 4.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.

You’ve never been to a bachelorette party like this before… or maybe you have? Ever walk into a room and you’re bombarded with so many new faces and names that it’s hard to keep up? Then, maybe you’ve been to this bachelorette party, a “thriller” from Camilla Sten. Hopefully sans a killer, though.

I knew this wasn’t going to be a party I ever wanted to be invited to (like our MC Tessa) as soon as the prologue started. I’m not a fan of authors who offload characters from the jump, wipes their hands after giving them just minor discernible qualities, and move along. Except here, it happens twice, with dual storylines each with 4 to 5 women.

I think there’s a good story here — we follow our MC back to an island where four women went missing a decade before — filled with a slow burn intrigue but neither the parts nor the whole are ultimately worth the trip. Short chapters (at least that’s what appears to be on the kindle) keeps the story moving. You might just want to RSVP “no thank you” and send a gift instead. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press and Minotaur Books for the ARC.