I support women's rights and women's wrongs!!

I'll be honest, I had no idea where this story was going until nearly the end. I almost expected a paranormal aspect to this story? I enjoyed the multiple POVs which kept me on my toes and guessing the entire time I was reading.

This was a nail biting thriller! The characters were perfect and I really enjoyed the relationships between them!

3.5⭐️

I'm so conflicted on this. I'm particularly sensitive to books featuring gaslighting so I was very on edge through a majority of this book. From poor postpartum Dani who everyone, including herself, believe she shouldn't be left alone with her newborn daughter to alcoholic Kim who may not have been the only one to blame for her addiction, I just felt very anxious reading this. Which, I guess is a good thing for a thriller? The reveal of who actually died also felt like it's been done a lot before and wasn't that shocking once it was actually revealed.

As much as I hate gaslighting, I do love a chaotic, delusional character who believes that their relationship is the real thing and just causally threatens their partner's wife throughout. The mystery behind if the house was truly haunted by 'The Mother' or if the happenings surrounding everything was a fun twist.

The locked room mystery aspect of this was well done and did keep me engaged. I did find the constant back and forth of timelines a bit hard to follow and it made things more confusing.

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

this was fine. that's really all I can say. I didn't love it. I didn't hate it. I don't think I'll remember it for long but it was entertaining enough.

A big thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books for the ARC. I was super excited for this book. The synopsis provided made me super excited for what I would find in the text, and I was not disappointed. My favorite part might be the thought and attention put into the storyline and the characters movement within that. Great work!

This well thought out mystery kept me guessing until the end. We know that a murder will happen at a sixteenth birthday party, but we don't know the victim or the motive until close to the end of the book. Like peeling an onion, we get to see the characters and who they really are. There were times I wasn't sure about this story because the characters aren't always likeable especially when they are partying. It all comes together in the end with some surprising twists and makes perfect sense. I am so glad that I continued because this book and its characters will stick with me for a long time. I received a free copy of this ebook from the publisher through Netgalley. This is my honest and voluntarily given review. Kudos to the author for a great debut. I look forward to reading more by her.

This is the perfect summer thriller! A cool setting- the “haunted” glassed in dollhouse mansion on the hill, with a pool and 100 of your closest friends and colleagues all getting hammered in celebration of a Sweet Sixteen. You know SOMETHING is going to happen and it’s not going to be good. There’s lots of drama and hard feelings between friends and exes, so it makes it difficult to even guess who the victim will be (you find out early that there is an accident during the party).

This book was a super quick read, mostly because I was sucked in and don’t want to put it down at bedtime! I will admit, I was disappointed at WHO turned out to be the villain of the story and the situation that started the wheels rolling. (Mostly the situation honestly- he was bound to be the gaslighting villain from the beginning!)
I was very surprised by the final twist- I had forgotten that we didn’t know the full back story with this particular character. Great ending!

Thanks to Kelsey Cox, Minotaur/St Martins Press and NetGalley for providing the free advance readers copy!

A closed-room thriller with an air of supernatural mixed in; Party of Liars will take you on quite the rollercoaster

The book takes place during Sophie's extravagant 16th birthday party, hosted by her wealthy father and her newly postpartum stepmother. Like the title infers, every character at the party has something to hide and the reader will have a hard time deciding which characters to root for and which to fear.

I did find some parts of the book to be a bit cheesy but overall it was well-paced and kept me engaged. I could see a twist or two coming, but there was enough going on to keep me entertained.

Title: Party of Liars
Author: Kelsey Cox     
Genre: Thriller   
Rating: 4 out of 5 

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—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.

It’s a killer guest list . . .

DANI: Sophie’s new stepmother who’s been plagued by self-doubt ever since the birth of her own baby girl

ÓRLAITH: the superstitious Irish nanny who senses a looming danger in this cavernous house

MIKAYLA: the birthday girl’s best friend who is not nearly as meek as the popular kids assume

KIM: the cunning ex-wife who has a grudge she can’t let go of . . .

Everyone is invited in. Not everyone will get out alive.

I really never figured out exactly what was going on or who was guilty—of what until the end! Kim was pretty horrible for most of the novel, so much hatred and vitriol and alcohol. I couldn’t figure out if Dani was crazy, or as almost-perfect as she seemed. Sophie and Mikayla seemed like typical teenage girls on the surface, but were they really? Ethan and his friend Curtis were just a little too high-handed, weren’t they? There was a lot going on here, and I was engrossed from the beginning. And what about the dollhouse/mansion? Creepy!

Kelsey Cox lives in the Texas Hill Country. Party of Liars is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

(Blog link live 7/7).

Plot
This novel is a locked-room mystery where everyone has a motive and not everyone will make it out alive. It is Sophie Matthews’s sixteenth birthday party in a huge, renovated, once-haunted mansion. The black-tie affair should be a night to remember and it will be but for a different reason – because someone has been murdered…. and one of the party guests did it!

Why Kirsten loves it
With multiple narrators ALL lying, this story will keep you guessing until the end – both with who was killed and who is the killer! I couldn’t read this fantastic book fast enough. The drama was intense, secrets were unraveled throughout the entire story and I did NOT see the ending coming!

I really enjoyed this one! It was fast paced, I never knew what was coming next. I thought I knew who did it but then I wasn’t sure, it kept me guessing non stop. I enjoyed the twist at the end, it was built up just right.

This was okay, I think I was a bit confused from the beginning and I couldn’t really get into the book, maybe because of that. It did hold my interest enough but I didn’t feel super pulled in.

I loved Party of Liars by Kelsy Cox. This mystery starts with a death but you don't learn who it is until the end. So many twists and turns with creepy apparitions and tales of haunting. It's Sophie's 16th birthday and the party is filled with the whole town, eager to see the renovations in the manor. As the booze flows, so do the secrets and lies. Who can be trusted? Truth is twisted and jealousy abounds. Sophie's mom, the Ex-wife is angry that her dream home now belongs to the new 27 year old wife and new baby instead of her. Sophie's best friend Mikayla is pissed that the boy she's crushing on is off-limits because he's Sophie's ex-boyfriend... Only the old Irish nanny, who loves to talk about death seems to know what is going on, but will she be able to unravel the truth before it's too late?

This one was okay, nothing too special. I enjoyed the characters and the description of the house but I thought the ending was confusing.

This book was a little slow moving for me, but I did like all of the misdirection and lies. It was hard to guess who was actually a reliable narrator, everyone felt suspicious. I definitely didn't guess the ending and I liked the twists. Overall, I would give this book 3.5 stars, but I'll round up to 4 since I can't give a half star rating.

Thank you to Kelsey Cox, St. Martin's Publishing Group, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book prior to its July 1st publication date.

I think the easiest way to describe this book is to call it: The Great Gatsby with a twist of darkness of murder. I know that The Great Gatsby includes murder, of course, but this book is entirely dark and centers around a dead body -- whose identity we don't discover for awhile.

Even though it is told in alternating character perspectives and timelines (jumping between the day after the murder to the day of the murder), I didn't find it confusing at all. In fact, it worked very well to jump around and Cox did a phenomenal job of applying this technique smoothly.

I like how deep this one gets, too. We get to see the struggles and darkness from the inner thoughts of a slew of characters and you could FEEL for each one. I highly recommend this one for a solid character study but also as a dark, gothic novel as the house itself is personified as the author paints a picture of a horror-filled Sweet Sixteen birthday party.

This was a classic fast-paced whodunnit that is perfect to curl up with on a beautiful summer day. I enjoyed the slow unraveling of the story and was pleasantly surprised at the ending. Overall this was a great thriller and I will be looking forward to more books from Kelsey Cox! Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC in exchange for a honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Party of Liars by Kelsey Cox tells the story of Sophie’s Sweet Sixteen Party. A very lavish affair told through the eyes of Dani the new wife and step mother, Orlaith the Irish maid and Mikala who is Sophie’s best friend.

This is very cleverly written. You think it’s going this way and then the author throws you in another direction. It does keep you reading because you need to find out what is going to happen next. If you like mysteries then this one is for you

Thank you NetGalley and Minotaur Books for a copy of this ARC book.

This book takes place in Texas and is a typical "who did it" type of mystery. The characters all have a lot of drama making this book really entertaining and twisty. I didn't see the ending twist coming at all! The only downside was the character arcs were somewhat predictable overall.

It is time to celebrate Sophie’s sweet sixteen, and the party is going to be one to remember! Her dad, Ethan, and his new wife, Dani, are hosting at their newly renovated mansion on the hill, but this party will certainly not be without drama! Told from several points of view, Party of Liars had just the right amount of twists and deceit to keep the reader invested.
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.