The Party by Robyn Harding is a book about the ramifications of one wrong decision on your life and the society around you.

Hannah has a sweet sixteen sleepover party where she invites her four closest friends. Her parents Kim and Jeff think it’s going to be clean fun. Kim lays down the rules like any sensible parent no alcohol, no drugs and no boys . But the girls have different idea of fun and party. Soon in the middle of the night Kim is woken up by a panicked Hannah with her hands covered in blood and every parent’s worst nightmare comes true.

This book is not a thriller or a suspense but a fast paced family drama. Most of the characters were selfish , self-centered and unlikable but Robyn Harding did a good job presenting their perspective forward. 3 ½ stars for this contemporary fiction.

Many thanks to Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books & NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review.

This and more reviews at https://chloesbooksblog.wordpress.com/

It kept my interest but I couldn't stand any of the characters. When I don't like the characters it's hard for me to enjoy the book.

I thought this was a perfect page turner with lots of great twists. Great characters and haunting descriptions of bullying. Not for the faint of heart!

I actually enjoyed this book, but the character of Jeff was really starting to get on my nerves because he kept doing things that were inappropriate. I was hoping to hear more about what happened to Ronni in the end. I hope there would be a second book to see what happened with Hannah and her quest for revenge on Lauren.. But all in all I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from this author.

I felt that this book fell a bit short in the hype that it was getting. I felt that the parents were consumed with making sure there was no blow-back on their lives that they let their daughter fall through the cracks. I was expecting a bit more depth.

I just couldn't get into The Party. It moved slow for me & left me feeling like there were things that never got addressed. What did actually happen at the party? There's the one flashback, but you don't learn that much from it in my opinion. In the end, I didn't feel at all invested in the characters or the story.

This was a little hard to get through. Every character was just a horrible person, which made caring about any of them really difficult. The premise was good, but I was expecting more of a twist reveal that never came. I gave this 2 stars on goodreads..

Permalink: https://bookchatter.net/2017/07/20/review-the-party/

<b>The Short of It:</b>

After just a few paragraphs I found myself completely absorbed by this story of a sleepover gone wrong.

<b>The Rest of It:</b>

Jeff and Kim Sanders host a sweet sixteen party for their daughter Hannah. They open their beautiful home to Hannah’s closest friends, pick-up her favorite cake and make it clear that boys, drugs & alcohol will not be tolerated.

What do you think happens?

As you can guess, something horrible happens and now Jeff and Kim Sanders, perfect in every way, find themselves trying to prove their innocence to the police as well as the parents and children involved. This blemish on Kim’s otherwise perfect reputation is enough to do her in. Then there’s Jeff, who is keeping a secret from her. Hannah is no saint either and forced to choose between popularity and cruelty.

There is a lot going on in this story but it’s SO good. You’ve got the whole “perfect” thing going on with Kim and Jeff but they are far from perfect. The other parents have their issues too and the kids…oh, the kids… their loyalty to each other changes with the weather. People are in. People are out. There are lies and secrets and lots of self-analysis going on. Oh, not to mention the denial!! I could not turn the pages fast enough.

These characters are complex and very well-developed and even though some of them do horrible things, you still feel something for them because the author just pulls it out of you. This book was read while making spaghetti and doing laundry because putting it down wasn’t an option. Plus, the events detailed in this story could literally happen to anyone which makes it all the more readable.

If you want a fast-paced domestic drama then you can’t go wrong with The Party.

For more reviews, visit my blog: <a href="http://bookchatter.net">Book Chatter</a>.

2 1/2 but I'll bump it up to a 3 because it wasn't quite a 2.

I was lured into requesting this book from Netgalley when I received an email that promised me many juicy secrets and perfect people who behave very badly. I admit that I am a sucker for that kind of thing.

This is a great book to pick up if you don’t want anything too heavy, too emotional or basically anything that’ll strain the brain. It makes for a good mindless “beach book” which to me means I can drop it in the sand, get salt water all over it and even crack the spine (ahhhh!) because I’ll be leaving it behind for someone else when I’m done without feeling sad about the torture I’ve put it through. The material flirts with darkness and there is even a throwback “Heathers” moment but it never gets too deep and, for me, that was a great big problem.

So here’s the jist. Heather, uh, Hannah is turning sweet 16 and she invites her two childhood friends and two newer, cooler friends to her party.

She worries that her new friends will find her terribly uncool once they realize her mother is a controlling witch who won’t let them drink, do drugs or play with boys. Ummm, she could’ve avoided all of this angst by not inviting them in the first place but then we wouldn’t have ourselves a book now, would we? As you can suspect, the teens get up to naughtiness after mom goes to bed with a sleeping pill and some wine. Dad sneaks down and gives them a little present and soon after a very bad accident occurs that will ruin one forever and the others temporarily.

All of this setup was enjoyable and had me turning the pages awaiting some great and nasty reveals in the wake of this “event” but it never truly panned out. This accident spawns a series of Lifetime tv movie-like events that were dramatic but in the scheme of things a little too “meh” for my liking. Too much of the book gets hung up on boring lawsuit talk and selfish characters boo-hooing about the meanness of humankind whilst they ponder their navels and act like jerks.

I found myself losing interest in all of the characters somewhere after the halfway mark but especially Hannah who only cared about being the Queen Bee, even when she saw her “friends” being complete deplorables. To hell with being a decent person, popularity is far more important.

If you’re in the mood for something that is more surface than substance and can stomach a cast filled with humorless unlikable people, you may love this book but it wasn’t meant for me. I need my darkness dark and emotional and The Party didn’t deliver that for me. Honestly, if I want to entertain myself with evil teenagers, I’d rather just rewatch Heathers.

This story had its moments of fast paced angst in which I couldn't put it down, and there were times when I easily stepped away from the story. I finished it much earlier than this review, but for a vacation where I was off the grid didn't allow me to express my thoughts sooner.
I didn't like anyone in this story. As a parent of a teen, I wasn't connected to the plight of any of the parents in this book. They were all unlikeable. But I don't think the author's intent was to sympathize with them. Certainly, you feel for what everyone is going through, but each character created their own deplorable situation and end result. At the end of the book, there seemed to be no resolution for the injured girl. I felt her storyline was left unfinished--unless I missed something. I was left wondering what the heck happened to her, which I suppose was also intentional.
All in all, this was a well crafted book that caused me to do a lot of eye-rolling and tsk-ing.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this tale.

The story had an amazing blurb, and the story was good enough, but I felt it needed more. Overall, I did enjoy it, and would suggest it for a quick light read.

A drama filled with teens dealing with all too common issues in our present day life. This title kept me engaged as Harding slowly revealed the secrets that each character had been harboring. A great, quick read that will leave readers wanting to read whatever Harding writes next!

Many thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!



THE PARTY is a roller coaster, unputdownable book where all the characters are despicable. It’s the story of a sweet 16 birthday party gone horribly wrong, with consequences that will last a lifetime. Hannah, the daughter, is just trying to be more popular. Kim and Jeff are her parents, with the trope of “strict goody two shoes mom” plus “emasculated father trying to be cool”. The events of the fateful night are told over flashbacks, over the course of the story; which kept me interested and hungry for more detail.

The complex and turbulent relationships between the characters are drawn well and evoke a great deal of emotion. Everyone is manipulating – or manipulated by- someone else. There are multi layered agendas. There are mean girls. There is isolation, greed, and shallowness.

I literally could not wait to get back to the book, and thought about it while I wasn’t able to read; I just had to see what was happening next. It’s the kind of book you read with incredulity, wondering if there is going to be a happily ever after despite knowing another crash is coming.

The author exposes the ugly side of relationships with adeptness, even glee (if you read between the lines). Just when you almost start feeling sorry for someone, they expose their seamy side and you go right back to sneering at them. Delicious!

Do people really behave this way now, or is it just something that takes place in fiction? I am glad I don’t have to navigate the treachery of high school, where Facebook posts are created to hurt, and cliques do a lot more than name calling.

No one escapes unscathed from THE PARTY – it’s the kind of story that you will think about for days after you finish the book, considering all the wrong choices every character made and how it affected their lives.

Thanks to Threshold, Pocket Books for providing me with a free advance copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

What a very satisfying, exciting, perfect summer read. I simply could not put the book down.

The story starts with a shocking unexpected event at a small five girls, sweet sixteen birthday party.
The big reveal happens pretty early, and the reader is left watching the ramification of that event on everyone’s life.

The book reads like a mystery/thriller.
It is told from the perspectives of four people; Kim and Jeff who are the parents that threw the party, their daughter Hannah whose birthday it was and Lisa the mother of Ronni (one of Hannah’s friends) that attended the party.
Like a train wreck you cannot look away, you need to know how bad it is going to be.

Every character has redeeming qualities, every character has suffered to a certain degree, every character is selfish and self-centered hence the reader constantly oscillate between compassion and hatred/deservedness.

It is a book about relationships, parents/teenagers, couple, friends, coworkers, who we trusts.
This is a book about secrets, do we know our children ? do we know our spouse ? do we know our friends ?

From the teenagers side, the book is inline with ‘cruel intentions’ ‘mean girls’ and ‘clueless', and on the adult side it is inline with with ‘Queen Bee’ and ‘husbands and wifes’.

Affluency, bullying, cheating, marital trouble, suffering, lawsuits, secrets..… it’s all there and some.

If you are a parent, you have no choice but to put yourself into either Kim or Lisa’s side. What would you do ? how would you react ?
whose shoes would you walk in ? it will definitively change your kids next birthday party.

I would file this one under "just okay." It wasn't spectacular. It didn't have the angst and mystery of "Big Little Lies" and yet felt very much a part of the same world. All in all, not my favorite.

This was a tale of terrible people, their children (some irredeemably terrible), and an accident that brings out the worst in all of them. An accident at a "sweet 16" slumber party leaves one of the attendees without an eye and without friends. Her single mother sues the parents of the birthday girl for more money than they have, putting their daughters at odds despite their need for friendship. The narrative structure (multiple points of view, not sharing the exact events until the end) made for a more compelling story, but the conclusion left me feeling like I had wasted my time waiting for a bigger punch.

THE PARTY by Robyn Harding sounded like a book I might like; a family drama.
Hannah is allowed to have a Sweet 16 party with a few friends after agreeing to the rules which are also carefully laid out to her friends by Hannah’s “perfect” mother; no alcohol, no drugs and no boys. Hannah’s party goes from a girl’s slumber party to a mess, a big mess making Hannah wish she followed her mother’s rules.
At the party one of Hannah’s friends is seriously hurt and mayhem ensues; there is not one redeeming person involved in the aftermath. Mean girls comes to mind but everyone in this book is unlikable. There are no relatable characters, perhaps if I were in high school I might have felt a kinship or understood but I just found myself reading fast to get to the end, to leave these horrible people and this intolerable situation behind.
That being said, the book made me thank the good Lord I am not a teenager and my children are adults in such a social media obsessed society. The bullying seemed all too real and did leave an impression on me. If parts of this book could be toned down a bit I truly believe it’s audience is in the young adult market.

The Party, written by Robyn Harding, allows readers to become entranced in one family's drama, and to see firsthand how one single choice can have such dire and far-reaching consequences.

Jeff and Kim Sanders are a successful San Francisco couple. On the outside, they seem to have it all. Great careers, a luxurious lifestyle, a dream home, and two teenage children. When they decide to throw their daughter, Hannah, a simple Sweet Sixteen slumber party, it seems that nothing could go wrong. Five innocent girls relaxing in the basement, sharing in Hannah's joy and helping to celebrate her special milestone. With Jeff and Kim upstairs, surely the girls would not attempt to engage in anything that might be dangerous. Right?

What occurs in the basement that evening is not altogether clear. However, what is crystal clear is that one of the teenage guests suffers a tragic accident, one that renders her both physical and emotional suffering. As a result of this horrible incident, lives begin to become tangled all around. Who, if anyone, was at fault? Were Jeff and Kim ultimately responsible for the actions of the girls, or was there a more insidious reason for the events of the evening? After all, how well did all of these girls really even know each other?

After the shocking events of the evening, it becomes clear that nothing in the Sanders family will ever be the same again. Fingers are pointed left and right, and in the process of uncovering who was ultimately responsible, ugly truths, jealousy, and greed are unearthed. For don't we all know that the most perfect of families are often putting on a show, and that all that glitters is not gold?

I really did enjoy this novel. It sucked me in pretty quickly, and I enjoyed the plot, no-brainer that it was. While I certainly would not say that this is a story that will resonate with you after reading it, it provided a great diversion, and I was sincerely interested to find out how it would all play out. If you enjoy suspense novels or thrillers, I think you would find this novel to be right up your alley.

Oh, and you may think twice about hosting any teen slumber parties in the future.

This book title caught my attention after recently reading The Dinner by Herman Koch. I was also very intrigued by the synopsis and was eager to read and review! This story centers on one fateful night, a girls 16th birthday party, which was planned to be a rather low-key event at her parents home with just a small handful of girl friends invited. The groups of girls come from different times in Hannah's life and as she struggles to fit in with the popular crowd, she has found herself leaving her old faithful girlfriends behind. The new group of "mean girls" decide to bring over alcohol and scripts while inviting boys to crash the party. What happens is the result of many factors, a father that wants his daughter to be happy, girls that want to grow up too soon, kids that want to be popular and parents that will do anything for their children. Friendships and relationships are tested and lessons are learned the hard way. A great read, kept my interest throughout the book. Unfortunately, I felt the ending was a little flat, but it did tie the story up nicely. Great job of the author in portraying teens in a realistic manner.