Thank you to Minotaur Books via Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I thought this was a great read. It had suspense, the end had shock value that I was not ready for and closed it out beautifully. It had moments of teen drama that I was too thrilled with reading, but it is set at a sweet sixteenth birthday party so you have to take that with it. It flipped between before and somewhat after what happened, but you still did not know who or what happened which I liked. I wish we had a little more on a particular characters backstory since a particular incident was mentioned a few times, but nothing was elaborated. Overall a really great whodunit? Story and sort of haunting like story.

Thank you to St Martins Press and NetGalley for a copy of Party of Liars in exchange for my honest review. Rounded up from 4.5 stars. I loved the layout of this book with the multiple POVs, flashbacks, and quick chapters. I felt like it built the tension very well but I do think the reveals were a little slow going and could’ve been better spaced. I liked the ending of the book and I didn’t see it coming, especially the final chapter. I really enjoyed the characters and felt like the book really sucked me into it.

Party Of Liars by Kelsey Cox is an atmospheric thriller with intricate puzzles and morally complex characters trapped in a high-stakes, claustrophobic setting and I could not put this book down!

It's Sophie's Sweet 16 and her dad and step-mom are throwing her the biggest party at their newly renovated (haunted?) mansion... but this party is more than just for Sophie, it's for Ethan, too, to show off all that he's accomplished.
I loved that the book took place in roughly 24 hours, with flashbacks peppered in to build the tension, the four points of view to really keep the suspense high, and each chapter revealed a little bit more about this complex group of people.
From the start of the book to the big climax, I changed my mind about seven times about what I thought would happen and this ending was SO SATISFYING. (So much so that I even reached out to Kelsey Cox to thank her for it!)
I can see why Aardvark picked this book up for their July selections, it's the perfect summer mystery.

This is the perfect thriller read for summer! A jaded ex-wife, extravagant ex-husband with a young new wife, the birthday girl and friends, a strange elder nanny with supernatural suspicions, neighborhood acquaintances who may have hidden agendas… all crammed together for a lavish birthday party thrown for the 16 year old honored guest. Well, not really. It’s more for show with these types, isn’t it?

Coming from multiple viewpoints and steeped in secrets, this book will have you invested from page one! As grudges and motives unfold, a decadent party turns to a murder scene. Who was callous and evil enough to be the culprit? Follow the twists and turns and enjoy the ride! I sure did!

Many thanks to NetGalley and publisher for gifting me an arc copy. This review is my own opinions.

Today is Sophie Matthews’s sixteenth birthday party, an exclusive black-tie bash in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, where secrets are as deep-rooted as the sprawling live oaks. Sophie’s dad has spared no expense, and his renovated cliffside mansion—once thought haunted and shuttered for years from outsiders—is now hosting the event of the season. Then, just before the candles on the three-tiered red velvet cake are blown out, a body falls from the balcony onto the starlit dance floor below.

This is a slow burn full of intensity and an ending you do not want to miss. I loved the creepy feel of the house and the folklore about the ghost. Now, it does have quite a few characters but the author and the narrators did a great job keeping these separate for the reader.

I loved the guessing game surrounding Dani. Is she officially crazy, does she have postpartum depression, is her husband making her crazy, or is the ghost doing all of this?? This created so many possibilities and I enjoyed wondering where this story was leading the reader…then there is another a twist!!!

This story is narrated by Dan Bittner; Kate Handford; Pearl Hewitt; Saskia Maarleveld; Suzy Jackson Now, being the pharmacist that I am, one of the narrators pronounced Midazolam incorrectly and another pronounced it correctly. I think all publishers should contact me for correct pronunciation from this southern pharmacist😂😂😂. But, like I said before, these narrators helped keep all the points of view straight in the reader’s head. And the one that was the voice of the nanny…NAILED IT!

Need a guessing game…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

Sophie's Sweet Sixteen is at her dad's cliffside mansion, one side being completely glass like a giant dollhouse. Among the guests is Dani, Sophie's step mom who recently had a baby girl and is suffering from post partum depression. Or is the mansion haunted? Or is she going crazy?

I really liked this twisty, atmospheric whodunnit mystery. I can't believe it's a debut! I will definitely be reading whatever Kelsey Cox writes next.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book was everything. Twisty, tense, and totally addictive. I started it thinking I’d read a few chapters before bed, fast forward six hours, and it’s 5 a.m. and I’m still glued to the pages. Every time I thought I had it figured out, it flipped the script on me in the best way. The pacing was perfect, the suspense was constant, and the ending wrapped it all up so satisfyingly, I just sat there for a minute after finishing like… wow, JUST WOW. Perfection!!! If you love psychological thrillers that keep your brain spinning, this is the one.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC! Really enjoyed it!

3.5 stars

This was a fun domestic thriller, full of wealthy, over the top Texans behaving badly. Sophie Matthews is having a blow out Sweet Sixteen party, but really it's for her father Ethan to show off his much younger second wife, Dani, his infant daughter, and impressive home, even if it may be haunted. Sophie's mother, Kim, is a bitter and jealous alcoholic with an axe to grind, and the new nanny from Ireland, elderly Orlaith, is death obsessed. Even though it's Sophie's party, we only get the youth POV from her best friend Mikayla, a plain farm girl to Sophie's sparkling star. The party comes to a crashing hault when a body falls from the balcony, and we get glimpses of the before and after to figure out what truly happened. To say there was a lot of threads weaving together in this one would be an understatement, and at times I felt like one of the POVs, any of them really, could have been eliminated and not have really impacted the story. I was on the hook initially but felt the middle drag, and the slow burn didn't really pay off for me. There was all the gaslighting and manipulating of women that runs rampant in thrillers and real life, so I had my hopes for who the victim was. Where that didn't end up surprising me, I didn't figure out the final twist, and really should have, because it was so obvious in hindsight. But I'm mad when I do figure it out and mad when I don't, so there's really no pleasing me 😂

Thank you to Kelsey Cox, Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was really good. It was entertaining and honestly kept me guessing. The pace wasn't too fast or too slow. The writing was fantastic.

I liked that it was told in three different parts. I felt that we were able to get a lot more information that way, instead of just having flashbacks.

The characters all had different personalities and were all battling something different. They were well written, and you could tell them apart.

It's Sophie Matthew's sweet sixteen birthday party today and it's going to be memorable! Adults behaving badly, teenagers being all teenage angsty, what could possibly go wrong? I loved it! Told in multiple POV, it was easy to follow and highly addictive. Love locked room kind of mysteries and this one did not disappoint.

I enjoyed this so much more than I expected! I was initially worried about the Sweet Sixteen party aspect and that this book would be all about teenage angst and drama. Yes, there is a bit of that, but I'd really call Party of Liars a modern Gothic, with a new wife, an angry ex-wife, some gaslighting, a possibly vengeful ghost, and a possibly haunted mansion. (There's even a Rebecca reference, yay!)

The format is Big Little Lies style, in which you don't know who dies until the end. If, like me, you love books with psych suspense and Gothic vibes, I think you'll enjoy this.

Told over the course of one night and interwoven with flashbacks, Sophie is turning sixteen and her dad and stepmom are throwing her a huge party and also wanting to show off their newly completed house. Her mom also attends the party, and tensions are strained. There's the new wife who everyone thinks is crazy with post-partum, the mysterious Irish nanny, the arrogant father, the sassy and spoiled teenager, and the drunkard mom. The party ends in disaster, but the real question is, couldn't the author kill off all of them instead (I think it would have been a better ending!)

This debut novel is set in the Texas Hill Country and I'm pretty familiar with this setting, which I enjoyed. The book did have a lot going for it- the author left many of the characters trying to keep you guessing as to what had happened and to whom. The big problem was- it was very slowly paced, I didn't care about any of the characters (many of whom were basically interchangeable), and
reading this book just felt like a whimper and not a whoop. It is getting a lot of hype which I find interesting, so the publisher must be excited about this author. I would give her another chance, but I felt like this book was a silly draft of a potentially good book.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

A sweet sixteen party turned deadly, and no one is who they appear to be! I LOVED this book and devoured it in just a couple of days. I’m a sucker for multiple POVs in a thriller, and these are done so well, not at all confusing, and very distinct… Cox skillfully uses them to build up the mystery, intrigue and also the list of suspects.

4.5/5 rounded up
Thank you to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book exceeded my expectations and is an impressive author debut. I was engaged the entire time, desperate to know what came next. I thought I was predicting the twists well, but then I kept getting surprised by the twists.

Is this anything super special or unique in the genre? Well no but it’s very bingeable, easy to read, and i had so much FUN with this one! The whole book basically takes place at a sweet 16 party told Big Little Lies style- where we know something bad has happened but not the who or why, and we alternate perspectives between a few different women to give context to the story. Highly recommend for a quick summer thriller!

What a great debut mystery thriller. This is told from 4 POV at a Sweet 16 party for Sophie in a large mansion that has a dark history of it's own. We get to see Kim, Sophie's drunk, bitter mom; Dani, Sophie's Stepmom struggling with postpartum depression; Mikayla, Sophie's best friend with her own secrets, and Orlaith, the Irish nanny for Dani's baby Charlotte. Everyone thinks of the house as a dollhouse with the back of it being all glass. I couldn't put this one down. I wanted to know what was going on. There were a few twists that I guessed and a few I didn't see coming. I liked the writing style and the short chapters with each character. Thank you the NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book.

This book was FANTASTIC. Wow I was hooked immediately and couldn’t stop reading. I devoured it. It was twisty and shocking, while at the same time being deep with characters that I felt attached to. THIS is exactly what I’m looking for in a thriller and I had a fantastic time with it

Messy, dramatic, sexually charged, lots of twists and turns. Probably didn't need the supernatural element, but I guess it did help to anchor a particular character in the story. All in all, an engaging read.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC.

Locked room mystery. Murder. Teenagers. Haunted house?! TBD.

I enjoyed Party of Liars by Kelsey Cox. I think this story had the right amount of twists and kept me hooked and guessing!

Tantalizing thriller that keeps you guessing. The constant red herrings kept me off the trail of who was orchestrating everything. It brought to mind the old saying "just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't really after you."