Imagine having a lifelong friendship with your girls, going on a much-needed girls’ trip… and then one of you doesn’t make it back. 👀 Now suddenly, you and the rest of the group are the last ones to see her alive—and the whole town is side-eyeing y’all like you’re suspects.

As if that wasn’t messy enough, there’s also a wannabe detective/podcast host in the mix, harassing everyone while trying to solve the case and boost her own career. The audacity. 😒

This story is told through multiple POVs, and it works. You really get to peel back the layers on each friend—the secrets, the lies, betrayal, and the unspoken tension. Every chapter brought something new, and the character development? So good. Just when you think you know where it’s going, the story throws a curveball that leads to a gut punch of an ending. I was not okay (in the best way).

Also—can we talk about priorities? Because if your best friend is missing and you’re planning a housewarming party instead of a search party… girl, something ain’t right or was it?

Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Fast-paced, messy, emotional, and twisty with a satisfying payoff. Add it to your TBR!

Thanks to Thomas & Mercer for the eARC.

This was a great book. I loved every paragraph, every sentence and every word of this masterpiece! I read it in 12 hours, which is a lot for me to do! It had everything and more laid out in the novel! I sure hope There is more to come from this author! I am totally hooked!

First, I’d like to say thank you to @netgalley for the ARC even though I didn’t finish it before publication. I truly enjoy being an ARC reader.

Anyway, the housewarming starts off strong and roped me in. It’s the story of a missing girl and her friends and the aftermath. One of the friends Callie returns to block island where their friend Zoe disappeared five years earlier. Her plan to host a housewarming party /memorial for her friends 5 year anniversary. In the meantime, a very nosy, annoying “reporter” named Patricia is destroying their lives. She pushes boundaries beyond extremes and appears at some random times, very stalker and obsessive type. Anyway, the friends join together at said party and some things start to unravel. Patricia shows up at party, Lindsay’s new boyfriend isn’t who he says he is, Callie’s dad reveals some juicy details, it gets messy.

Overall I gave this book 3.5 stars but good reads doesn’t allow half stars. The book starts strong and just fizzled out. It seemed to take forever and often was repetitive. I would probably have wrote in a Zoe POV to explain her perspective of the disappearance. I felt like the writer missed on this. Also, everything with Patricia never really resolved.

Thank you to NetGalley for the early ARC in exchange for my honest review!

The Housewarming is an engaging and atmospheric read that kept me turning the pages. I loved how each character felt distinct, with their own secrets and layers, making it easy to connect with them individually. The Rhode Island setting was a personal highlight for me—I grew up there, and reading the descriptions brought back so much nostalgia. It felt true to place and added an extra layer of enjoyment.

While I was hooked throughout the story, the ending felt a bit anticlimactic and left a few threads unresolved. I personally prefer when everything ties up neatly, especially in a suspenseful or mystery-driven narrative. That said, the journey of getting there was compelling, and the strong character development kept me invested.

Overall, The Housewarming is an intriguing story with a well-drawn cast and a vivid sense of place. Perfect for readers who enjoy character-driven mysteries with a touch of small-town secrets.

Honestly speaking, I've read books like this before. The plot and setting and the tropes. But I like it. I like the trope of a group of friends reuniting at some special event or location after one of the former friends have disappeared or died in the past. So, I had fun with this book.
I especially like when we follow multiple POVs, and the story doesn't drag long or takes place during so many days. The writing was engaging enough so it kept me interested all the time.
I personally didn't relate to any of the characters, but I cared for them enough. And even though I wasn't shocked or precisely surprised by the reveal in the end, I didn't see that coming, so that was good, too.
I'd recommend this book to any readers who enjoy mysteries with this trope.

Thank you, Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer Publishing, for the electronic advanced reader copy. This book had a fun start and gripped you from the jump. It did slow down later in the book, but i overall enjoyed it.

This was my read of the week, must say all the time I was thinking how it is like a PLL / desperate housewives baby. I really never thought that would be the ending, that plot twist surprised me.
I enjoyed the book, the story, just didn't connect a lot with the characters, it was hard for me to keep up with all the girls and who was the pov of, even though each chapter they tell you but still, I keep going back to see who I was reading to & taking mental notes to remember.

My rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨️ 3.5 just because of the multi-pov not working for me, overall, good and entertaining.

Congrats to the debut author, I'll definitely be reading her work! Thanks to netgalley for allowing me to read it!
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this book was a brilliant time in making me tense, thanks for that Kristin! but in the best way that a book like this should. we have characters in this book who you can truly picture, in both good and nooooot so good ways. you could feel their feelings though, you understood them and sometimes didn't. you felt for them and sometimes didn't. you could see why they did what they did, but sometimes dont. a great book for thinking on with some bright spark surprises mixed in that i never saw coming but totally fit.
this book brings us to the characters now. but five years ago five best friends went on a trip together. but only four of them came back. one of them is missing and has been since. now Callie one of the group wants to bring the group back together. because as you might assume they fractured. so she throws a housewarming and kind of memorial to the friend they lost on her anniversary.
we get the side of this story from all sides of the group which i thoroughly enjoyed. it meant we really did get full perspectives here. but also you were never quite sure what was reliable or whether this was actually truths or their truths as so often is the case. the little parts of the reveal was also cleverly subtle and seamlessly took you through the book. never giving too much away, just softly guiding you whilst letting you enjoy the getting there immensely.
we also get that added layer of social media when someone from the true crime word comes and threatens to help or just throw a bomb in the story which we do see so often with these kind of true crime cases in real life.
we get to see the friendships of this groups and also of how they have been since their friend went missing. you get this birds eye view of how each took the event and whats impact it might have had on their lives going forward. i did feel for what a few of them were going through. whether it was just struggling with life at the moment or whether the impact of that event i got so involved with their stories and personalities. Kristin writes every point, theme and characters so well. its comes alive and spring to you off the pages so you've no choice but to feel with this big, and felt for it, with it, i did.
a great read. fully held me from start to finish. and by that ending i was having NEED to know how this would turn out. and what a great wrap up.

On the 5th anniversary of Zoe's death, her close friends return to Block Island for a housewarming. Callie has moved back, and it is a good time to celebrate her return as well as honor Zoe. There are secrets within the group and past fractures. Things were not as they seemed. I couldn't connect to the characters or story; it felt a little flat. However, I did finish and was underwhelmed by the conclusion. The book just didn't come together in a way that pulled me in.

This book had an interesting premise with a group of friends haunted by a fifth friend's disappearance on Block Island years ago. However, the execution was a letdown. It spent too much time on the friends' current lives and their problems with an intrusive reporter instead of focusing on the actual mystery. I also felt like we barely even knew Zoe well enough to care about her. Since this focused on so many characters, some were definitely more fleshed out than others.

The ending was the most disappointing part. After enduring page after page of what felt like pointless filler, the mystery fizzled out with no real resolution. The author left us to guess what happened, providing no satisfying conclusion or sense of closure for the characters.

I listened to this book and my goodness it had me guessing the entire time. I truly never would have thought of that ending.

This story takes place 5 years after the death of Zoe. Her friends Callie, Meg, Lindsey, and Tess all end up back on the island for Callie’s housewarming as she just moved back. Callie holds the party on the 5-year death anniversary of Zoe. Podcaster/Aspiring Author , Patricia, keeps harassing the girls as she is really is trying to get to the bottom of this case. She has always blamed the 4 friends and thinks they are hiding something.
This book dragged and hardly kept my interest. I liked the premise, but it was not well executed to me, engaging, or thrilling at all. Most of the story had nothing to do with the point of the book (Zoe’s death). The twist was a bit far-fetched and I never would have guessed it since it was so random. But also, we never even got full closure at the end, so who even really knows what happened.
Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Kristin Offiler’s The Housewarming is not just a psychological suspense, it’s a masterclass in atmospheric tension, fractured friendships, and the kind of secrets that feel alive enough to reach out and grab you by the throat.

From the very first page, Block Island becomes more than just a setting, it’s a living, breathing accomplice. Its fog choked mornings and salt stung air seep into the bones of this story, making every chapter hum with unease. You can almost hear the echo of footsteps you can’t quite place, smell the ocean before a storm, feel the eyes watching from somewhere you can’t see.

The setup is deceptively simple: five friends go on vacation, and only four come back. But Offiler doesn’t give us a neatly wrapped “whodunit.” Instead, she plunges us into the messy, haunting aftermath, five years later, when wounds have scabbed over but never healed. Callie’s ill-advised reunion on the anniversary of Zoe’s disappearance is the match, and the true crime podcaster circling them like a vulture is the gasoline. The result? An explosive, claustrophobic unraveling of loyalty, guilt, and fear.

What makes this novel unforgettable is how Offiler builds her characters, not as archetypes, but as living contradictions. These women are brittle and resilient, innocent and complicit, self-preserving and self-destructive. Every conversation is loaded. Every silence feels like it’s covering up a scream. By the time the truth slithers into the light, it’s less about what happened to Zoe and more about what it’s cost everyone left behind.

The Housewarming is sharp, elegant, and deeply unsettling. It’s about the kind of friendship that binds and strangles in equal measure, the way grief can warp memory, and the terrible, magnetic pull of the past.

Read it with the lights on, but don’t expect to sleep after.

I loved this book! I was lucky to receive an eARC and could not put it down! We paint the picture on Block Island circa 2014. 5 friends went on vacation together but only 4 came back. We learn about Callie, Tess, Lindsey and Meg and where they have ended up 5 years later after their friend, Zoe, disappears. Once upon a time, the 5 were best friends who attended camp together. After Zoe, who was growing her jewelry business goes missing, the other 4 seem to each go their own way too. Callie is now an influencer who is married and living a luxurious life. Tess is a new mom who just wants to make sure her daughter stays safe. Lindsey who was Zoe’s roommate never really recovered and is living a flaky sort of lifestyle. Meg is now a literary agent new to her company. Then, there’s Patricia. Patricia is a crime junkie blogger turned podcast sensation. She was a small blogger who caught her big break covering Zoe’s case. Zoe’s case was the first time she was a part of a search party as well as being on site when everything went down. I’m unsure if the intent was for us as readers to hate her BUT I DID! She was very invasive with her approach and had constantly harassed the girls in the aftermath. 5 years after Zoe’s disappearance, she is now writing a book revolving around the case and decides to go to the publishing house of none other than Meg’s. I wasn’t a fan of her baiting each of the girls. “You can either help me or risk looking guilty” was her favorite line. I loved her ending and wish her nothing but the worst. (Fictionally bc she’s not real) The premise reminded me very much of Pretty Little Liars and that was one of my favorite shows and book series. When Callie and her husband decide to move to Block Island, she invites her estranged friends to her housewarming party which overlaps with the 5 year anniversary of Zoe’s disappearance. All girls are initially hesitant but with Patricia’s book proposal out there, they have to regroup. I loved seeing them each bond with one another and remind each other why they were friends in the first place. What I love about a good thriller is when I don’t expect the “culprit”. This book kept you guessing. Being this story was multiple POV, I ended up thinking everyone was responsible at some point 😂 I did not predict the ending but my annoyance with Patricia is the reason I rated this book 4 stars. I loved every thing about this story and again, it took me back to the PLL days but with better friendships.

I love a good thriller!
This was tense, suspenseful and a page turner.
If you like thrillers definitely give this one a try

Books that contains weekend trips and murders are always a plus for me. This story we follow a group of friends that have a trip to remember the dissapearnce of one of their friends. But then things happens, everything start to get a wild turn. Amazing book!

This was such a good summer read! A group of friends vacation on Block Island but at the end of the trip, one of the women disappears. This story combines mystery, layers of friendship, and the perils of social media. The remaining friends are gathering for a housewarming party combined with a memorial for Zoe (the missing friend). Each woman is navigating the years since the disappearance in vastly different ways. Lindsey's spiral really stressed me out and I felt for Tess as she dealt with new motherhood. A podcaster is determined with find out what happened that weekend and the character comes across as pretty ghoulish. I found her so unlikeable and rough but it added to the tension in the story. I really enjoyed this book and it was a great poolside choice. Thanks to Kristin Offiler, Thomas & Mercer, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Five years ago, five best friends went on a week long trip to the island where they met, but only four came back. With Zoe missing, the group fell apart. Now, Callie has bought a house on the island and wants to reconnect with the group so she decides to throw a housewarming party and a memorial service for Zoe on the 5th anniversary of her disappearance.

What I enjoyed the most about this book were the characters. At first, 5 POVs seemed like too much, but I greatly enjoyed getting the full story from different perspectives and trying to figure out what's the truth. The hints of the full story were so subtly and beautifully woven in with each POV.

The characters felt realistic, in good and bad ways. I absolutely couldn't stand Patricia and she's a great representation of the True Crime community and their invasiveness (and I say this as someone who has enjoyed her fair share of true crime docs). It reminded me of TikTok's behaviour and the accusations thrown out during the Idaho college murders. The fallen friendship between the group hurt but also was so understandable. I hated and loved the girls. I could see their side but just wished they could see others' too... (but I get why they don't lol).

I'm usually good at predicting plot twists and reveals, but this one truly took me by surprise with something that was not on my radar. Great, enjoyable mysterious read. I'll be happy to read more form this author.

Received an early copy from NetGalley

Having read several recent mysteries centered around a cold case rediscovered by the “true crime” media ecosystem, I was excited to pick up The Housewarming. While the opening chapters set up a neat tension between the four women mourning their lost friend and the podcaster who wants to crack the case, the rest of the book plods along to a somewhat disappointing conclusion. None of the four lead characters seemed particularly realized to me; by the end, their alternating perspectives felt interchangeable. The podcaster Patricia, the main antagonist, was especially flat, popping up only to menace and trespass. I wish we’d gotten to see more of the main quintet’s actual friendship, or even their formative time at summer camp. The author does have a keen eye for detail, though almost to a fault; each page was stuffed with physical description. Overall, I was underwhelmed.

WOW, this was such a fun one to read. This book was recommended to me by two friends and I cannot tell you how much I am thankful I read this one. This book had me guessing and reguessing the entire time. Then like any good thriller had me contemplating everything I read with the last few pages. All I all, I think this was such a good debut novel and will continue to read novels by this author!

The narrator, Jordan Claire McCraw, did a wonderful job bringing this thriller to fruition.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for both Advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.