I have to admit the beginning of this was really slow/boring and I didn’t really get into it until about more than halfway through. The chapters were sooo long however, in the chapters were the pov of each guest which helped make the chapters “not feel as long”. As the guest died their pov obviously wasn’t included. I enjoyed everything unravel trying to figure out the host/killer, but the ending was a little lackluster and I honestly was disappointed.
If you’re a mystery fan and need something to read it’s worth the try but there is no hype behind it.

Thank you NetGalley and SourceBooks for this ARC

A point of view for every character and a bit of a slow burn. This was entertaining, but wasn't a favorite.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for access to this eARC.

This was another great whodunit dinner party mystery. When each of the seven guests are presented with an envelope that shows the age they will die, they all think it is just some funny joke. But when one guest dies, and the card happens to be right, they all panic and try to unravel the mystery behind the envelopes. I’ve read a lot of these types of books this year, and this one has the most unique storyline by far. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it if you can get passed the long first chapter.

the killer's identity was so blatant, and this story really didn't have that much hunting for the killer, in favor of some character studies, but i really liked the characters. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

Seven strangers are invited to a mysterious dinner party by a host who remains anonymous. We expect them to be murdered one by one because we've seen this plot so many times before. Instead, they all receive envelopes telling them the age they will be at their time of death, and everyone tries to play it off as a joke until two weeks later, one of the guests dies by a seeming suicide at the predicted age. The book follows each character in turn over the next months and years as they die one by one according to their numbers. This ended up being much different than I expected, not the typical kill-your-guests plot at all, and I enjoyed it a lot. 4 stars.

To say this book is a slow burn is an understatement. I read a lot of reviews about how it was and so I was prepared for it. But you aren't meant to like these characters and as such I really didn't care. Even 50% of the way through the book, I was still trying to understand why this was all happening and why it was important.

3.5 ⭐️s rounded up to 4 ⭐️s

The title of this one had me excited for a fun cozy mystery! 🙌

While it was fun, I do have to say it was a bit predictable. A lot of unlikable characters to keep track of, but I did enjoy the Vivienne character! Recommend checking this one out if you like mysteries! 👏

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the opportunity to read the eARC in exchange for my honest review! ❤️

Seven strangers are invited to a fancy dinner party with amazing food and wine and each receive an envelope with the age at which they will die. When the first dinner guest dies a couple of weeks later at the age listed on her card, the guests gather again at her memorial. As time passes, the guests continue dying at their predicted ages. Each time, the surviving guests gather and share their theories and the changes (or not) in their lives since they last met.

The book begins with the dinner party, told from the perspective of each guest. Each section afterwards is at or around the place where the deceased guests' memorial is being held and the surviving guests meet. It continues to be told from the surviving guests' POVs so you get a look at each person's backstory and how they approach the mystery of the dinner party's host. While I suspected the host's identity about midway through, I wasn't completely sure until closer to the end and still enjoyed the story's unraveling.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions below are my own.

Seven seemingly random people get mysterious invitations for an upscale dining experience. When they arrive there are unusual clues around the room, curious conversations and cards which reveal their age at death. They disperse thinking it was all a hoax until they start dying just as predicted.

I liked the idea of this one more than the execution. I liked the beginning and the end but the middle was a bit too choppy for me. I don't personally love when a story has huge jumps in time and this one does mainly to serve the fact that their deaths are quite spread. I think the plot could have been a little tighter and more fast paced. The clues are all there in the snippets of life we get as they meet for various funerals so I did figure out the who but not the why. That was quite an info dump at the end, it did make sense but I felt it could have been eased into the story a little more tactfully.

Seven strangers are invited to a lavish dinner party by a mystery host. As they arrive, they meet the other invitees, seemingly unrelated with no known connection among them, ranging from 23 to 60 of various genders, social status and employment. At the end of the dinner, when the host still has not made their presence known, they each receive a card. Listed inside is the year of their death.

The ensuing story circles around several questions. Who was this mystery host? Is the death year accurate? Why did they get invited to such a bizarre party?

And each character struggles with what they do with the time they have remaining if in fact, the card is accurate.

The story is very Agatha Christie inspired (she’s even name dropped early in the book). Like many locked-room / closed-circle type mysteries, there were several characters to keep track of… seven as the title might suggest, and it took me a minute to really understand who was who. But don’t worry - these very unlikeable characters start dropping like flies, so it narrows down your focus rather quickly.

What I liked about it:
- Fast read - the pacing kept me interested
- Redemption arc for one character in particular allowed me to invest in her to a degree.

What I didn’t love:
- The characters are VERY unlikeable that I really didn’t care much about what happened to any of them. I do love flawed character, but these were a bit one note.

Overall, I recommend. Thank you Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for an early copy. This review is honest and my own. It’s due out September 9th.

Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests is an entertaining, atmospheric, and super creative thriller filled with quirky characters and unsuspecting twists. A group of seven strangers, who could not have less in common, are invited to a secret dinner party. As the evening winds down, each guest receives a card with a number - the age in which the guest will die. While none of the guests take their numbers seriously at first, once members of the group start dying (at their predicted ages), the remaining members are forced to work together to solve the mystery.

Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests has all the vibes of a classic murder mystery. The story is told through the POVs of all the dinner guests. The author did a fabulous job developing the characters both within their own POV chapters and within the other characters' POVs. I absolutely loved how the author organized the book (by event and then by character) - this formatting truly added to the overall feel of the book. Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests uses dark humor and suspense to dive into themes of morality and mortality. I cannot say enough about this book. Easy 5 stars! One of my favorite books of 2025!

Long after I finished reading this book, I kept asking myself "would I want to know the age that I was to die?"

This is a super creative twist on the class "Then There Were None" trope. Not taking place over one night or in one isolated location, the story starts with 7 rather unlikeable people gathered together for a mysterious dinner. Nothing is revealed until after dinner when they all receive a little envelope that includes the age they will die at. Then the rest of the book (in the most basic sense) tracks them until their deaths. The story is very predictable, especially if you've read any other book in this trope, and I could have done without the last chapter where everything is explained. But, like a good puzzle, just because you see the finished picture on the box doesn't mean you aren't going to have a good time and a few missteps putting it all together!

I really enjoy reading and sometimes find myself diving into books at a fast pace, which can make keeping up with my NetGalley reviews a bit tricky. Honestly, I sometimes have a tough time finding just the right words to share my thoughts.

This book definitely achieved its goal and had a unique concept, which I appreciated. However, I found it a bit challenging to stay engaged with the plot and connect with the characters.

I thought this book had an interesting premise, but I thought the ending was somewhat disappointing when the killer goes after one of the main characters, even after we learn what motivated them to do away with each of the characters, and that character no longer fits the mold. That part of the plot didn't add up for me. The characters were written somewhat as stereotypes - they were fairly formulaic, but the overall the story was interesting enough to keep me turning the pages. I think the premise of what we would do with the information if we knew the exact expiration date of our lives and what we might do the same or differently going forward would be a great topic for a book discussion.

I was so excited when I was approved to read this book. The chapters were long and the book got boring. I figured it out before the end. The best part was the ending when the reason for the dinner was revealed.

This was an entertaining and suspenseful read that gave me the classic murder mystery vibes I love! A group of strangers each with their own secrets and flaws are invited to a mysterious dinner party and the tension builds as the night goes on. I liked how the story shifts between different perspectives which made it fun to guess who was hiding what and who might not make it out. The eerie setting mixed with the sharp character work kept me hooked and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good whodunit.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for the ARC.

This is a great, fun idea for a mystery. But this is the 3rd book in this format that I've read just this year. If this were the first of this type I'd read, I would probably enjoy it more. I really wish these books had been released further apart.

That being said, I did enjoy this book. The author managed to write an annoying, insufferable first chapter, but just so awful that I didn't want to stop reading! Getting introduced to all the 'players' and their POV of the other players is a bit tiresome, but it is necessary. I hope the author meant to make all of them unlikeable, because they were all awful. (Also like the other 2 similar books this year.)

All very mysterious, the secret invitations, no host, cards appearing on the table predicting the age the person will die at. It's a lot of POV's to go through in each chapter. I wish I'd kept a score card as I read.

I expected a fun, Clue-like murder mystery (partially based on the title and cover), but I never felt a whodunnit plot, and there were very few clues. It was readable, but not an enjoyable mystery to me.
I'm not really sure how to rate this because I didn't enjoy it, but I didn't hate it. IT was readable, but disappointing.
3 stars.

A mysterious host lures seven guests to a posh dinner party in Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests. While there, they each receive an envelope that includes a card with their age at time of their death. Most think it is a not-very-clever PR stunt. Until the bodies start piling up.

I enjoyed this clever romp of a homage to both Final Destination and Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. I did figure out the solution but only just before the reveal. If you like your mysteries with a bit of snarky dark humor, Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests is the perfect book for you. 5 stars and a favorite!

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me with an advanced review copy.

2.7 Stars
One Liner: Interesting premise, but it became boring after a point

Seven guests meet at an anonymously hosted dinner party. Each of them gets a card with a number on it (the age of their death). Everyone thinks it’s a prank until one of them dies two weeks later, at the mentioned age.
As more guests die similarly, it’s clear that this is not a coincidence. The remaining ones have to figure out who the killer is and why they are being targeted.
The story comes in the third-person POVs of the seven guests in the present tense.

My Thoughts:
This was a fun premise, not a locked-room mystery, but inspired by Christie’s popular book, And Then There Were None.
The story takes place over a few years, so the deaths don’t occur one after another. Even the structuring is different. The chapters are big and named after places/ events. Each chapter has the POVs of the characters involved or the ones who are still alive. So, as the story progresses, the number of POVs comes down.
All seven people were deliberately made unlikeable, so it is hard to feel sad when they start to die. Moreover, one death happens too quickly to even know more about the character. The others fare a little better since we get extra details that add a few layers to their portrayal.
The planning and presentation are great. However, the plot is such that we cannot really call it a mystery. Deaths happen, someone tries a bit to investigate, more deaths, a lot of back-and-forth dialogue, and then we get to the end.
It feels very passive. This made it hard to stay interested in the plot despite the other tidbits of information about the characters. It is more of a character study or analysis than a proper mystery with clues, tension, sleuthing of some kind, etc.
I did guess things at one point and was proved correct. The last two chapters bring everything together. Does it make sense? Some of it, absolutely! But the reveal is still underwhelming. It was more like, ‘Oh, good, I finished the book,’ rather than, ‘Oh, wow, this is cool!’
And of course, we have a last paragraph that appears like it would lead to another book, but is more of a thing we see in thrillers, where readers are left to guess a few things.

To summarize, Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests has its moments, but it dragged on almost throughout and made me just want to finish it soon. Do check out the other reviews before you decide.
Thank you, NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

I enjoyed this book. The chapters were long in the beginning because of all of the POV's and although the many of the characters were unlikeable it made it easy to tell them apart and not to sad when the inevitable happened. The bread crumbs were small enough to slow down you figuring out the twist to soon. This would be a good full cast audio book and I am wondering if the ending was a set up for a sequel. I would be interested in a sequel as long as it wasn't a direct copy of this book.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing an arc in exchange for my honest review.