thank you to netgalley and publishers for this free eARC!

idk this one pissed me off guys. it took so long for anything to really happen. with way too much alluding to “serious things that happened in the past” without telling the reader what it is until way later. the MC’s “secret past” wasn’t even relevant to the central plot whatsoever. and the “reveal” didn’t make any sense and wasn’t explained at all.

the twists were 100% predictable to me. i don’t know if i just got lucky or if it was just that obvious (i think the latter), but i was not shocked at all during the reveals.

so much of this story felt unrealistic, and a lot of things felt not drawn out enough/relationships were not fully fleshed out. the scope of focus on these characters was way out of wack in my opinion.

none of the motivations of these characters made any sense at all. random scene time was given to making one of the characters be slightly homophobic for no reason? like nothing felt like it had any purpose at all throughout this book.

i also had issue with the formatting of this/the style in which it was written. so often i didn’t know who was speaking the written dialogue or who was being addressed. it made the story even more stunted and frustrating.

wouldn’t recommend this one pals.

This book takes place primarily on a remote island, and gives two different timelines- 2012 and 2022. In 2012, four women go missing and it is presumed that they had drunkenly taken out the boat and had drowned. In 2022, a group is headed back to that same island for a bachelorette party. In this group we have our FMC, Tessa, who had been a true crime podcaster. She is a bit obsessed about the perceived drownings, and begins to dig into the past to uncover all of the secrets as to what had happened ten years prior.

This one was entertaining! I did figure out the twist pretty early on, but it was still neat watching all the pieces connect as the story goes on. All of the characters were awful though, I couldn’t connect to a single one!! Thanks so much to publisher and NetGalley for this ARC!

I love secluded location setting, especially one in a very cool place like this. I also really enjoyed the other two books I've read by this author. That being said, I feel like this one just didn't use the setting at all. I never really got the creepy, isolated vibes I loved so much in The Lost Village. I still thought the writing was good and the plot was fine, had some good twists, I just struggled to get into it. I ended up listening to the audiobook, and the narration helped keep the pace and help the characters sound a little more distinctive, but I still just missed the creepy vibes of the other book.

read if you like:
🏝️ remote islands
🔪 mysterious deaths
👯‍♀️ girlfriends

summary:
This book follows the story of four childhood friends—Tilly, Anna, Linnea, and Evelina—who vanished during their annual trip to an island over a decade ago. Their disappearance was never solved and became a mystery of the remote land. Cut to present day, Tessa Nilsson, a former true crime podcaster, is invited to a bachelorette party at a luxurious hotel and resort on that same remote island. Even creepier, the retreat is owned by Irene, the sister of one of the missing women. In an attempt to uncover the truth and fix her own career, Tessa decides to attend the trip, determined to investigate the past.

Throughout the weekend, weird and concerning events begin to occur — one of the girls go missing, secrets are exposed, and Tessa realizes someone is trying to keep the four girls disappearance buried. How does the weekend end, and do they get off the island alive?

The book alternates POV’s between past and present, which is a little confusing at first since it also changes timelines in the past. It starts fast though and keeps up the pace, which makes it impossible to put down. The characters are unique and well defined, but sadly, not that likable? We find out that Tessa is struggling with something in her current life leading to a lawsuit and her unemployment, and once we find out what it is, it’s hard to still like her. Her quest to find justice though for four strangers is admirable, even if it is for her own self interest in the end. The only part of this book I didn’t love was the end. There is a LOT going on, and the connections are a little confusing and far fetched. That being said, it’s still a shock, and still worth the read.

Thanks to St Martins Press, Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the ARC. If you love a good cold case mystery, check this out when it releases on June 10.

This is a book for thriller lovers everywhere. The story starts out a bit slow but quickly picks up the pace. The characters were dynamic, each with their own personalities (some a little less likeable then others). Definitely an edge of your seat thriller / mystery that keeps you guessing!

3.5 stars! This took a little too long to get going, and at times I got confused about who certain characters were, simply because there were so many of them or they were only mentioned once, in passing. I felt like the main characters back story took too long to unfold, but otherwise I enjoyed the twist and did not see it coming.

Moving from past to present, the past tragedy of four friends gone missing during an annual friend’s trip overshadows a trip 10 years later by a group of girls celebrating a bachelorette party. One of the bachelorette party guests, Tessa, is heavily invested of the story of the four missing women. She has had a terrible experience with her true crime podcast, losing her producer (and maybe lover?) in the process and is trying to find the positive when feeling like the constant failure of the friend group.

The bachelorette party has some strict rules like no phones, no outside contact, and relying on one boat for transport back to the main island- what could go wrong ?? Tessa sees this bachelorette party as a chance to have a good time, and also uncover the truth about what really happened on the island. She befriends Irene, one of the missing girls sisters, and sees this as a chance to finally get her break. Then things start to get weird, people go missing, their boat drifts off and it feels eerily similar to the past tragedy.

I will say that there were a lot of character names, I struggled to keep it straight between past and present and felt there was not enough development and individualization of each character to keep them apart. The narration was great and I enjoyed reading while following along with the audiobook.

Fast paced, popcorn thriller but it just fell short of five stars for me.

Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC/ALC in exchange for an honest review. Release date 6/10/25.

On a remote island in Sweden, four best friends on an annual girls trip were brutally murdered. But to the outside world, they just disappeared, many have come to the conclusion that they drowned while boating.

Ten years later, Tessa Nilsson, a disgraced true crime podcaster, is invited to a bachelorette party on this very island. While the fall of her professional life has left her hiding from her personal life, she decided to go on the trip to see if she can find out more about the missing girls, now known as the Nacka Four.

The bridal party and two staffer members are the only people on this island, everyone’s phones are locked up for the weekend, and from there #TheBacheloretteParty kicks off a locked room/island thriller with slasher/final girl vibes.

The first half of the book moved a little slow for me; especially when it kept alluding to why Tessa’s career as a podcast host fell apart, a reveal that didn’t turn out to hold much weight with the ongoing situation. But once it got to the 50% mark, the book really started moving for me.

There's a scene, around the midpoint, in an elevator that stuck with me. It's quick, but you know that it'll be important later. It was so poignant in the little details.

One thing I really enjoyed about this book was that Camilla Sten’s prose was so wonderful, the physical descriptions of things from the island, to people’s clothes, to sunlight shining through the curtains, adding to the reading experience. When some scenes get a bit graphic, as many in the slasher genre do, it matched with the flow of her descriptiveness.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Minotaur Books for an ARC of this novel!

The Bachelorette Party
By Camilla Sten
Publishing Date: June 10, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thank you to netgalley for this arc. I am so grateful I got to read this book before the publishing date! Wow!!! What a page turner! Tessa is having a bit of bad luck in life and decides to go on a bachelorette for her best childhood friend. The destination takes the group to a place where the four women disappeared 10 years earlier. Tessa makes it her mission to go on this trip in hopes of finding out what happened to those four women. If you love thrillers and suspense, this book is for you! I devoured it in one sitting and could not turn the pages fast enough. I enjoyed all of the twists and turns and it truly kept me on my toes the entire time I was reading!! I highly recommend to my mystery/thriller/suspense lovers!!

The writing style wasn't for me and the storyline wasn't anything new for a thriller. There was too much info dumping and telling rather than showing right from the beginning and the dialogue between the characters felt off somehow.

The changing time lines and POVs were hard to follow - the personality of the characters didn't feel very distinct or unique so it was hard to keep them straight in my mind.

It also felt like the story had a lot going on with the shifting time lines but hardly anything actually happened for the majority of the story.

. The story itself was barely engaging enough but it all seemed to be predictable. Even the twists . Also each character was so paper thin.

The Bachelorette Party by Camilla Sten is a twisty, time spanning thriller with a mystery of the disappearance of a group of women slowly being revealed by another group of women visiting the site of the disappearance ten years later. How the two groups are linked, and who is behind events years ago and in current day unfolds slowly, with layers of revelations keeping readers turning the pages.
While I found the concept and connections intriguing, I found some of the characters to be more caricatures than someone I could relate to. The book drags in sections, and I eventually found myself scanning over sections rather than get bogged down in slow and sometimes repetitive details. I figured out the current villain fairly early, but that didn't make the eventual revelation less impactful.
Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC of #TheBacheloretteParty.

ARC Review- pub date 6-10-25

Finished this book and all I could think was, WHAT did I just read?! In a good way.

First, I typically don't enjoy the secluded island themed thrillers, so I was a little nervous going into this one. However, it was pleasantly surprising to find that it didn't give me those vibes at all.
I was captivated from the prologue and when a book gets your full attention that quickly, it's usually a good sign!

The violence is on another level though! Totally shocked at some of the graphic descriptions in a book with such a pretty cover! The big twist didn't completely shock me in the end. I had some suspicions, but I didn't have all the details correct, so there was still a "gasp" moment when some of the character's secrets were unburied.

Overall, for me, this was a great read! I enjoyed the characters, their secrets, and in this specific book- the setting was perfect! Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press|Minotaur Books & Camilla
Sten for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

3 stars

This is one bachelorette party you'll be happy you were invited to witess in fiction and not to attend IRL.

The cover is giving beautiful location and a dose of mystery, and while the setting part is accurate, the mystery is not as prominent as it should be for the genre. That makes this suspense novel more about the journey than the outcome, which takes a lot of the fun out of it.

While I was somewhat interested in the relationships between characters, I also struggled to focus on the audiobook. The characters are in bizarre situations in some cases (the true crime podcast and related outcomes were a bit over the top, for example), and I had a hard time connecting with any of the characters' behaviors or choices, which made it difficult to root for them, too.

While there are some intriguing possibilities presented here, this one fell a little flat for me. I'll still be back for more from this author but with the hope that I'll get some added surprises next time.

Please note that this ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

There were definitely aspects of this book that I liked, but others that fell flat for me. To start, I did enjoy the parallel stories of Matilda and Tessa. I always enjoy books that have parallel storylines with different points in time. It was fun to piece together how the people may be connected and how the murders in 2012 contributed to the story in 2022. There was some ancillary character development that I loved (mostly, Carl… fun to read about him in a creepy/bad way). That said, the “twists” were fairly obvious (IMO). Additionally, I felt the demise of Tessa before 2022 was depressing and, frankly, unnecessary.

Overall, entertaining and very readable. 3.5 rounded

Wow! What a read of twist and turns! Not your typical Bachelorette Party. Tessa, her sister Lena, Natalie Mickaela, and Caroline head to Isle Blind for their childhood friend Anneliese’s Bachelorette Party weekend. Four days of relaxation, yoga and meditation. If only they knew what happened 10 years ago on that Island. But Tessa does know, she had researched it for years as a true crime podcaster, always interested in the story of the Nacka Four as they were called Matilda, Evelina, Anna and Linnea. It wasn’t until the ladies arrived at the island that Tessa realized Irene the New Hotel/ Resort owner is Matilda’s sister, yes the Matilda from the Nacka Four.

This book goes in a crazy direction I wasn’t expecting. I only tend to read a few thriller books a year, as I’m not a horror or suspense loving person. But this book was fast paced and got me hooked.
Great job Camilla Sten.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press - Mintour Books for this eARC for my honest review. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading others of Camilla’s books. Will definitely tell my thriller seeking friends to get this book when it comes out.

I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review-
Every year four friends party on an island. There is a story that four friends disappear on that island. Being she is a true crime reporter she would love to do a story on this. But will a night of partying etc be fun or another night of terror?

I read this book in tandem—switching between the ebook and audiobook—and it made for a gripping experience. The story is fast-paced and tense from the very beginning, The plot itself is compelling, with several twists I truly didn’t see coming. While a few scenes were more graphic than I expected, they felt purposeful rather than gratuitous, adding to the raw, high-stakes atmosphere. The pacing never let up, and I found myself constantly wanting to know what happened next. It absolutely held my attention from start to finish.

If you're in the mood for a suspenseful, high-energy read with a few shockers thrown in, this one’s worth checking out!

Thanks to Netgalley , St. Martin`s Press| Minotaur Books for the ARC. . This is my honest review.

Dreamy setting. Podcast mentioned. Locked room. Fast paced. Short chapters. Heart-racing action. A thrilling summer read with a satisfying ending. You won’t see this one coming. Thank you to Camilla Sten, NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed The Bachelorette Party. I wouldn't say it's ground breaking or fresh, but it's very readable and moves quickly. The prologue begins with four friends on a remote island and they quickly meet an untimely end. The book then begins with a group of friends heading to that same island 10 years later for a yoga retreat bachelorette weekend.

One of the guests Tessa, is going through some things — which we eventually learn more about — and seems to be a bit of the odd woman out. But she couldn't stay away because she's a true crime podcaster and wants to uncover the truth about the missing girls. Especially since the retreat owner's sister was one of the missing girls.

We learn a little more over time about the her sister and what led up to the trip. I think the murder and motive was unexpected, but they won't be the only ones killed on this island.