A chill bachelorette weekend on a remote Swedish island? Cute. Until the host goes missing, your phone dies, and oh yeah—this place has a very creepy past. Now listen, I truly do appreciate a fast paced and easy thriller. I know that some
people will really enjoy this.

I just had so much trouble keeping up with all the characters and jumping around back and forth on the timeline.
Some readers are probably better than me at this, but I almost got a whip lash trying to keep up with it all.

Overall, I give this book 3.5 stars but since I am
unable to do half stars I am rounding it down.


Thank you so much NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for
opportunity to read this arc

If you enjoy a good mystery/thriller then you’ll enjoy “The Bachelorette Party!” This one is a page turner full of twists and turns. It also changes perspective by character as well as the year with each chapter. The story and character development happens slowly but in the best way. We’re treated to different character personalities that you get to loathe, feel bad for, as well as come to like. There’s lies, betrayal, murder, and it’s done so well, even when I figured out the ending I was not only wrong but totally shocked! This one will be a great Book Club read for groups looking for a fast paced thriller!

This book was okay. It seemed like it would be one of the locked room thrillers that I enjoy time to time but I was a little let down overall.
Four friends take a bachelorette trip to an island with a wellness resort. One of the friends is going to investigate the disappearance of four friends in the area 10 years prior in an effort to save her podcast.
The writer did well writing the dual timeline - I really enjoy it when a writer can do this well - many writers cannot.
The characters were fairly developed.
The plot pace was good but as this was a thriller, I wanted to speed up at certain areas of the book.
I do think with some minor added details and increase pace - this is easily a 4 star book. I also think this could make a creepy movie!
All the elements are here.. history of a missing friend group 10 years prior.. current day bachelorette party.. deserted remote island... a locked room.. super creepy vibes. I think I was let down because I had all this build up but then it was almost like the writer backed away and wrote the book in way that felt almost censored.
Again - not a bad book - just wanted more and expected this to give major thriller vibes.. not baby thriller vibes.
Thank you so much to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC!

The Bachelorette Party by Camilla Sten was my first slow burn mystery, and I really enjoyed the shift in pace from the typical high-stakes thrillers I’m used to. The writing was strong and emotional, with a tone that leaned more reflective than terrifying, which I wasn’t expecting—but really appreciated.

Told in dual timelines, the story follows two different groups of characters, and I loved how their narratives slowly wove together. The two lead women in each timeline were standouts for me—both complex, layered, and written with a quiet intensity that stuck with me.

While I did guess where things were headed by the end (I tend to do that with most mysteries), there were still some satisfying surprises along the way. The remote, isolated setting really amplified the tension without relying on nonstop action.

If you’re someone who enjoys a moody, slow burn mystery with emotional weight, dual timelines, and character-driven suspense, this one’s definitely worth checking out.

This was such an easy read. The book jumps right into the characters and their story, and you pick up little quirks right from the beginning. You know there’s a twist coming, but I didn’t know what it was going to be until it hit me in the face. Such a fun fast paced thriller!

3.5 stars

Thank you Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book, out in June.

This book gave serious White Lotus vibes and I was here for it!

Following a group of gal pals who visit an exclusive and not yet open to the public yoga retreat on a private island where four girls disappeared 10 years earlier, The Bachelorette Party is a bingeable popcorn thriller perfect for summer.

While a little predictable, it kept me hooked and on the edge of my toes right until the very end.

Gosh I really wanted to enjoy this book- as I’m always on the hunt for a good thriller!
But this one has just been so hard to get into.

There are TOO many people & keep getting confused by who is who & why they matter.

There was a lot of crash language that I personally don’t care for, as well.

I really wanted to enjoy this one! But maybe I’ll try a different one from this author.

sometimes with back and forth times i get lost.
a few times i did with this one.

But all in all was pretty good. I an really liking this authors works.

This was a fine thriller, definitely one that is easy to binge! Back in 2012 four best friends went on their annual trip out to an island only to all never return. What happened to the Nacka Four is unknown, though there are theories about what occurred that fateful night. Now, 10 years later, Tessa has been invited onto the bachelorette trip of one of her estranged childhood friends that happens to be on the same island that women disappeared from. Tessa is a true crime junkie who had a successful podcast until one incident led to her demise and she now is now struggling financially and with rebuilding her reputation. However she takes this trip as the opportunity to do some digging to see if she can find out what really happened a decade again. The plot itself wasn't anything super unique as it did just feel more like a locked room (or secluded island) mystery. I do feel like it lacked some depth as I wanted to know more about Tessa's history and the mention of the incident that was her downfall was just brushed upon that I ultimately didn't find it super necessary to progress the narrative. I also didn't really find any of the characters to be likable and the twists/ reveals weren't that surprising either. This may be picky of me, but for some reason I didn't like how at one point Tessa was so insistent on who had committed the crimes in the past and present when as a reader it felt very obvious that it was not this specific individual and who it actually was. Overall I didn't think there was anything special to this book, but the quick chapters and fast pacing do make it an easy one to read!

Great book! Quick read with twist I did not expect! Would recommend! Follow along as a group of friends go on a bachelorette trip where the unexpected happens!

A group of friends go missing after their yearly trip - presumed dead. 10 years later, the isle where they went missing is now a resort hosting a bachelorette party, which ends up not being such a party. Twists and turns kept me very interested.

I really enjoyed this book. Tessa is experiencing a really challenging time and a bachelorette party weekend at an island where 4 women went missing 10 years earlier is probably not the best plan. However Tessa was also fascinated by the mystery of what happened to the missing women. The chef at the hotel on the island is also a bit suspicious and needs a bit checking out and the hotel owner happens to be the sister of one of the missing women. I really liked Tessa and her sister Lena as well as Natalie. There's a mix of likeable characters as well as not so likeable characters and some surprises in the story. I also really enjoyed the dual story line of Tessa's story and the story line of the women who went missing 10 years prior.

I was excited about the story setup in that there are clearly ties between the party in the past and the current trip. I also love to explore old crimes so was thrilled to be sneaking onto a site of a past crime in order to find new information to explain what happened to the original group of girls. The story was told in dual timelines for the most part, I found the story to be a nail-biter where the tension increases as the pages turn. I even enjoyed the manner in which the clues of the past crime were uncovered. However, as a true crime podcaster, I felt that Tessa should have had better deductive skills. Her continual jumping to conclusions became tedious to me (also made it obvious what was NOT going on). Throughout it all, I was still very surprised by the culprit in the end - a sign of excellent writing, where the clues are all present, but interpretation is key! Thanks go to Katie Layton of St. Martin's Press (Minotaur Books) for allowing me access to an ARC copy of this very exciting read!

ARC REVIEW!!!

On a girls trip on Isle Blind, 4 friends were murdered, but it was dismissed as a boating accident. 10 years later, Tessa, a disgraced true crime podcaster, and her sister travel to Isle Blind for their friends bachelorette trip, and things quickly take a turn towards sinister.

This book was interesting, but I definitely found it to be a bit predictable from the jump. I enjoyed the writing style & the dual timelines that told the stories of Matilda & her friends, as well as Tessa & her friends. There was definitely a lot of drama & I think the set up was fantastic, but the end left a bit to be desired. Overall, it was a quick & entertaining read, just a bit expected.

"Out there, on the waves, is the dinghy. The one Irene showed us, telling us it was our way off the island, in case we needed it. In case we needed to get away."

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press & Camilla Sten for an ARC in exchange for an honest review 🫶🏼

This book was just OK for me. At times it felt too slow and a bit repetitive. The characters were not all that likeable either. I figured out who the 2012 killer was well before it was revealed, but there was a brief moment when I thought Adam might be Carl.

I love a thriller on vacation, but this one didn't captivate me as much as something like The Guest List did. Overall, an easy-to-read story, but nothing too groundbreaking.

A group of ladies took off to an island to have some fun for the weekend. They left their phones behind, drank, danced and felt the freedom to be themselves. They were never seem again.

10 years later Tessa contacted one of the girls sisters Irene and suggested going out to the island to see if they could discover what had happened. They invited friends to go with them…..one night only, again phones were collected to ensure no contact with their significant others. First night there was a bonfire and lots of partying and fun, then it suddenly all changed. One of the girls had left a note to say she was taking off in the dinghy to go home, but did she?? A good read.

This was a well-written thriller. I liked the dual timeline aspect of the story, and the ‘reveal’ with backstory wasn’t too outlandish like some mystery/thriller books can be. All loose ends were tied up as well. Areas for improvement are signaling that information is from the past within chapters (a couple of emails and correspondences confused me) and letting us get to know the characters a bit better so we are able to connect. I also thought, without spoiling, that the two groups of girls’ names were too close together and was hard to follow in the beginning but that may just be me!

A group of women go to a remote island in the Baltic Sea for a bachelorette party. One of them seeks the truth about an incident that happened years ago, and she finds herself surrounded by danger fighting for her life. Despite a bumpy start when the reader is jostled between the past and present timelines, I enjoyed this thriller. I didn't care for the main character at first and found her self-loathing over the top, but as the story progressed, I liked her more and was cheering for her. The book reminded me a bit of Lucy Foley's The Guest List.

I have a love/hate relationship with thrillers, in which I enjoy reading them even though most of them are bad. Imagine my surprise then, when I opened the Bachelorette Party and very quickly realized that it's good.

It's very good.

Everything seems to WORK in this book. The setting, just outside Copenhagen on a small island, is perfect for a pseudo locked-room style of thriller, during which our characters can neither escape nor get help until a pivotal point. The mystery within a mystery- the conflation of past and present coming together for a singular purpose. The characters, who I think are really what made this shine, because the characters within this novel, unlike so many other thrillers, are actually COMPETENT. It is so unusual to have a book like this where the women within make the right choices, despite being flawed individuals- and despite those flaws, have redeeming characteristics as well. It would be easy to take a character like preppy, social media savvy Mikaela, and have that be the entirety of who she is. But she's not- she's someone deeper, and despite being intensely unlikable at one point, her tenacity feels actually admirable.

Our protagonist, Tessa, is (of course) the best of the lot. A true crime podcaster who has just destroyed both her career and her personal life, Tessa has moments of startling interiority as she reflects on what drew her to true crime, even as she can't resist investigating things further, when it's already hurt her immensely. Through Tessa, we see how privilege can play a role in making a person seek out those experiences- and what happens when they try and confront it. But Tessa isn't a pity party; she knows she fucked up, and she knows it's her fault, and she's desperately trying to juggle all those things in her mind.

The pacing of the book is excellent too; it's not very long, so it's easy for it to move swiftly, without any big snags or hold ups. It switches between an event a decade ago and the present with ease, never showing exactly what happened and leaving the reader guessing. I actually was truly surprised at the ultimate revelation of motive, which again, incredibly unusual for a thriller.

This is definitely a must read not only for fans of the genre, but for fans of competent women, who want a story that is focused on womanhood in ways that aren't cliche.