I want to start out by saying I was so drawn to to this book because of the beautiful artwork on the cover ( I am a huge artwork girly when it comes to covers and sprayed edges). So immediately drawn to that and then the description of the murder mystery plot, I was hooked!! I do think they executed the mystery portion of the book perfectly and the connection between the Nacka 4 and the present. However, there was just so many characters and so many time switches that it was overwhelming and hard to concentrate. I loved the idea and the mystery of the book which is why I am confidently able to give this book a 3-star. I think Camilla Sten is a great writer and it was a great concept but it just kind of got lost at times and that is why I cannot give it a 5 star. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the ability to read and review this book. These thoughts and opinions are of my own.

Wow!! I kept seeing this was an anticipated book all over social media platforms. This did not disappoint. Very engaging and kept me wanting more. I really enjoyed this

Not terribly interesting up until the climax but the author was able to introduce some surprises in a limited setting.

To celebrate their friend's marriage, six women embark on a trip to a not-yet-open luxury health retreat for a relaxing, mindful look weekend. Their phones are taken at the door to encourage a fully unplugged experience and although the women may not have seen each other in quite some time, the trip is going nicely. What these women do not know is that one of them has come with the motive of investigating a decade-old murder that may put all of them at risk.

The Bachelorette Party is a story you have probably read before. A bunch of women agree to go on a private retreat where something spooky happened once and, lo and behold, the spook is back with a vengeance. The thing that made me give this book such a low rating, though, is that the author takes this tried and true formula and proceeds to do nothing interesting with it.

First of all, the book starts out very slow. I can take a slow burn, but waiting until nearly 60% for something interesting to happen goes way past the "slow burn" threshold - that's just bad pacing. There is a smaller sub-mystery that strings the reader along for that time, but the payout is just too weak to really be engaging enough to warrant that kind of page space.

There's a lot of danger floating above the characters in this book which would be effective if I felt any sort of attachment to them. Every character is so flat, though, that it was really hard for me to care about the fate of any of them. Any woman that wasn't Tessa (our leading lady) or Irene the yoga teacher faded into the background for me in a muddy swirl. Even Annalise, who was the bride being celebrated, felt like an afterthought at her own party. The other women, whose names I'm even having a hard time remembering, had very few defining characteristics at all and completely merged into each other. Natalie and Liane and Caroline and Mikayla could all have been the same person. I wouldn't know any better (except that one was super annoying about her kids).

Frankly, I wasn't a huge fan of this author's first work, The Lost Village and I probably should not have agreed to review this one. At least in TLV though there was a maybe-paranormal-maybe-not mystery standing behind the characters to make the plot interesting. Although I found the writing amateurish, I did find the core of the story interesting. This book, though, read like a stripped down version of every other locked-room mystery I've ever read. I know I personally called the killer from a mile off which, while not a cardinal sin, definitely left a damper at the end of the book when there was no twist to twist - just a lukewarm confirmation of what was pretty obviously hinted at the whole time.

4 friends have a tradition of visiting a remote island to let off steam and reconnect. Little do they know that their most recent visit is their final.

10 years later another set of friends plan to visit the same island to celebrate the bride to be, Annellese. Tessa has been obsessed with the story of the missing women from 10 years ago and while she doesn’t want to go on this trip, the thought of being the one to possibly crack the cold case and revive her failing podcast is enough to make her put her troubles aside and join the other ladies for a weekend of yoga and drinking.

While I found myself unable to connect with the characters, this was still a quick read and kept me wanting to see what was going to happen next.

This book publishes on June 10, 2025.

hank you, St. Martin’s Press, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I thought it too convenient to place blame on the chef, but I also see the reasoning for it. I couldn’t not put this one down-I loved the short chapters and the pace of the story was great! Really enjoyed this one from beginning to end!

Thank you to Minotaur books and Netgalley for the ARC copy.

When I read the description of this book and saw that it was supposed to give “Scream” vibes I immediately requested it. If you know me there is nothing I love more than a scream style slasher.. and this book had all the potential.

A locked room mystery on a remote island with an unsolved disappearance… Unfortunately this one starts off very slow and is a bit unorganized and all over the place. Though it had all the potential of a hit it just kind of fell short for me. It didn’t have the slasher vibes I hoped when it was compared to my favorite movie franchise.
The characters were diverse, interesting and well written and the mystery of what was going on with the narrators backstory had me more hooked than the actual story. The author did an amazing job of capturing the emotions of our narrator as she slowly tried to figure out what had happened years ago and what was really going on in present.
I think for someone who is newer to the thriller genre this may be the perfect easy read but it didn’t have the jaw dropping twists and gut wrenching suspense I’m used to in my favorite books.

The Bachelorette Party is a gripping story that pulls you in. I listened to it, courtesy of the NetGalley App. 4 friends go to a remote island, for a night of drinking, dancing and just being girlfriends, never to be seen again. 10 years later, for a bachelorette party, a new group of friends are headed to a remote island for one last hurrah before the wedding. Will they suffer the same fate?

It’s taken me quite a while to write a review because I can’t seem to give this a good review and I’m reluctant to give it a bad rating. Reading the description gave me hope that this would be an intriguing book. I didn’t find it to be a “wickedly compelling and compulsively page-turning thriller” as described. It was a duel time line 10 years apart. I found it was too easy to figure out the current day “who done it” but the motive was far from obvious. This ARC was provided by St Martin’s Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have to start by saying this cover is gorgeous. The setting of a secret deserted island is right up my alley. Both the synopsis and epilogue drew me in right from the start but after that it was slow for the first half of the book. The story is told in dual timelines with two separate sets of friends staying on this same small island 10 years apart. The first set of friends disappeared. Going back and forth it took a moment to remember who was from which set of friends as well as who did what.

While attending her best friend’s bachelorette party, the present time POV is told by Tessa, a former host of a true crime podcast. Only being told by one POV made the story a little boring. There weren’t many twists or turns until the end, where the killer and motive came out like a runaway truck.

Thank you @CamillaSten, @St.Martin'sPress @Minotaur and @NetGalley for a free e-ARC. The opinions are mine alone and not biased in any way.

⭐️⭐️⭐️¾

This book definitely gave me Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer vibes right from the start—and I was here for it. The eerie, isolated island setting combined with a bachelorette party gone very, very wrong? Yes, please.

The dual timeline worked well to build tension, and I found myself flipping pages quickly, eager to unravel the Nacka Four mystery. It was definitely a thrilling, addictive read that kept me hooked from the first chapter.

That said, the ending did feel a bit anti-climactic. The big reveal around what actually happened to the missing women (the Nacka Four) didn’t hit as hard as I hoped—it felt a little off or rushed somehow. Still, even with that, I really enjoyed the ride.

If you're into twisty thrillers with a slasher-movie energy and a creepy, atmospheric setting, this is a great one to pick up. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely a fun, fast-paced read with plenty of suspense to keep you entertained.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing a copy of this thriller in exchange for my honest thoughts.

The blurb sold me instantly—“Scream meets The Guest List”—say no more. As someone in her 30s who’s been dragged to one too many destination bachelorette parties, I was already hooked by the premise.

A group of friends used to retreat to a secluded island every year to relax and reconnect. In 2012, they all vanished without a trace, presumed drowned. But that explanation has never sat right with Tessa, a true crime podcaster who’s convinced something darker happened. When she’s invited to a bachelorette party on that very island, she jumps at the chance—not to party, but to uncover the truth.

This one delivered exactly what I was hoping for: a chilling, atmospheric setting, a cast full of shady characters, and enough twists to keep the pages turning. It’s the perfect mix of moody and bingeable. A solid thriller with a fun setup and a satisfying payoff.

3⭐️

This was just okay. I was invested right off the bat sine this involved a group of missing girls that went missing from a secluded island as well as a true crime host running from a scandal. The island lead to an eerie, atmospheric story and the tension surrounding a group of women who have little in common besides the bride did lead to an exciting story. The infighting between the women and the similarities between the timelines lead to a gripping story.

After a while, though, the story got a bit convoluted. There characters between the two timelines became too similar and it was hard to tell which timeline we were actually in. I also found a lot of Tessa's choices to be odd considering she was a 'famed' true crime podcast host.

Thanks Netgalley and Minotaur Books for providing this ARC to me!

This book had an interesting if not predictable plot but I’m inclined to enjoy it as thrillers usually deliver regardless. There’s only so much you can do to make a story more innovative especially as almost everything has been done before. Sten made it work to create an enjoyable reading experience.

I needed a palate cleanser, and The Bachelorette Party was the fix. Although parts of the book were predictable, I enjoyed that it wasn't another true crime podcaster based in the U.S. The location was a nice change of pace, and I liked the dual timelines. It reminded me of a mash-up between I Have Some Questions for You and The Guest List.

Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for this arc of The Bachelorette Party!

Unfortunately this book was not for me. It started off very promising and exciting and then immediately took a nosedive in my opinion. I could not continue once I got to 30% as it just became flat and uneventful.

A remote island. Four friends go missing.
Ten years later, that same island. Four friends reunite for a bachelorette party.
Will ghosts start to appear and ruin this “last fling before the ring”, or will these four girls make it our alive?

The Bachorlerette Party is a basic mash-up of a few common Troupes in the suspense genre.
True crime podcaster✔️
Main character who made a mistake in the past ✔️
Cliche group of women✔️
Closed room mystery ✔️
Story that jumps back and forth✔️
Easily Figured out twist ✔️
In addition the whole set-up is so far-fetched, it goes off the rails for me.
There is nothing new in this story … not one I would recommend.
Thank you to net galley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

In the Bachelorette Party, we come to an isolated island called Isle Blind, where new friends and old have congregated to celebrate the upcoming nupitals of one of the party. Our protagonist, Tessa, is a former podcaster who, after a horrid interview with the parent of a murderer went wrong, found herself in a bind over the last few months. However, going to Isle Blind is going to be a reawakening for Tessa, as it is possibly the site of a murder of a group of four friends a decade earlier, now home to a spa built by the sister of one of the missing women. Instead of being the relaxing and exciting experienced promised to her, Tessa is instead met with a nightmare she thinks is her own doing.

Camilla Sten has brought us a masterpiece of a thriller. The setting of an island that can only be reached by boat brings with it a sense of foreboding. While the storyline could easily be predicted, which I did in the long run, it doesn't take away that you can physically feel the grief of the characters and what each of them has been through. Will absolutely be recommending this one to my friends!

Thank you to NetGalley, Camilla Sten and St. Martin's Press for this ARC.

I was so excited by the premise of this book, yet it just never seemed to come together. The characters were hard to keep track of, and then hard to connect with. The way it came together at the end was predictable and overly dramatic. There were some twists that I did not see coming, but most of them were in the sidelines.