The relationships were dull and often obviously fake marriages with multiple affairs, friends w/ crushes, friends who want to hurt you, etc. There were no confrontations (other than one, not even the murder scene). The plot, underneath the actual key scenes, is strong, but it was left in the background too long. The scenes were there, but the author didn’t focus on them she went back and forth way too often between characters and time periods, so it missed the opportunity to align readers with characters. Had the characters shined, or the twist (which was good) had more shock-and-awe, I would’ve rated it higher.

Overall, tho, I felt like it was an ordinary novel with boring characters and a story that happens all too frequently. By the last quarter, it had several great scenes. At about halfway through, it suddenly got more interesting. Today… I buckled down and convinced myself to focus. I got to 25% and still felt like it was missing something. I thought I was tired, so I put it down and picked it up again last night. I’ve been swamped with writing/editing my next book and haven’t been able to read for two weeks (very rare)… finally I began it earlier this week. I was next in the queue last week and downloaded the novel. I had high hopes and ordered it from the NYPL. I’ve been pushing myself to test things recently, and when The Guest List by Lucy Foley came out, it looked intriguing. I am typically a creature of habit and don’t usually look at new releases until they’ve been out for a year.

Wow… let’s learn some more! My Book Review It really had nothing to do with that angle… someone died, of course, but the background was unrelated. Any guesses? As for this week: have you read The Guest List? I was mostly disappointed because I thought it would be about a shocking guest list or a secret guest no one knew about. But I have something ready for next week, and since there’s an accompanying TV show, I must read it before I watch it. It’s been a light week of reading, and I wasn’t thrilled with my choice.

Book review the guest list