This was a brilliant read. As soon as I started reading this book I just knew I was going to love it. Highly recommended

There is a good reason why this book became the bottom of my to-read list on my old device. There was nothing to like about this book. Absolutely nothing. The writing style, the flip of narratives and timelines, the characters - all absolutely awful. Why were these people even friends when they had nothing in common with each other? Why were mer-chickens so important? Who really cares? The writing was difficult to follow and most of the time, it had nothing to do with the plot. Speaking of the plot, I really failed to understand what the actual plot was. A complete time waster. Avoid at all costs.

A great book that I read in one sitting, The characters were well written and the storyline was intriguing and really made you think. Highly recommended.

The Guilty Party by Mel McGrath is about 4 friends who meet up at a festival, witness a horrific attack and basically ignore it. Full of highly unlikeable characters this will leave you questionning how you would behave in this situation.

Cassie, Anna, Dex and Bo have been friends for years, and despite two of them being in long term relationships with partners outside ‘The Group’, they are closer to each other than to anyone else.
But they’re getting older, in their thirties, and the cracks in ‘The Group’ are beginning to show – at least for Cassie, who seems to have always been just a bit on the outside.
It’s Cassie's 32nd birthday that brings everything to a head. The four friends witness something horrible – and their reactions, both as individuals and as ‘The Group’ begin an unravelling in the friendship that will lead Cassie on the path of some really sinister discoveries.
It’s not easy to write characters that readers will despise while still making sure they are engaged and invested in the story. The author manages do that here. I didn’t care what happened to any of them, but I did care about what they witnessed and what was going to happen about that.
I wasn’t sure about the whole ‘fossil’ theme, and I did wonder at Cassie’s very quick friendships with Julie and Will but this is a very clever and complex novel, and definitely worth a read.

This book follows the acts of 4 friends who witnessed a terrible act on a night act and turned the other cheek
Roll on to the next get together to celebrate Bo's birthday weekend and Cassie, is the only one that seems to feel any particular guilt or concern about the woman, who is later found dead, drowned in the river.
None of them are particularly nice people and left the woman to suffer as they didn't want to get involved as it could implement them
As the book progress's you learn more about these so called friends and begin to wonder why they even are friends from reading the book I would say that is because no one else would like them.
There is even a black book sexual conquest competition between them
As the book went on the plot thickened but also got confusing as it flicked back and forwards through the chapters with from the different characters part in the story.
There was also a lot of references to fossils and fossil hunting which I found boring
Eventually Cassie twigs there is more to her friends links to the woman who was found dead and as the pieces come together she realises she doesn't know these people as well as she thought she did .

Brilliant book I devoured it in one sitting, fantastic characters and storyline and left me wanting more! 5 stars from me!!

I love the idea of a group of people making the “wrong” choice and living with the consequences of that, I think guilt and selfishness are really interesting ideas to explore. However these characters felt largely unlikable to deplorable and it didn’t feel that the back context was deep enough to care why they were this way. Interesting idea that didn’t quite live up to what I hoped.

I could not get into this book. The characters were not very likeable, I got bored quite quickly and I had to give up.

The task of repopulating the senior library has been an exciting and daunting task aS in a boarding school our aim is to encourage all members of the community to read. Because of this, I have been searching down a wide and diverse range of books to read that will entice a wide cross-section of the school to come in, browse and find books that they love.
Books like this will ensure that the senior students in the school see the library as a diverse, modern and exciting place with books that speak to them and they want to recommend to their friends, classmates, teachers and tutors.
It is an engrossing and exciting read with fully-formed characters and a plot that ensures that it's hard to look away. It is as far from formulaic as it is possible to be and kept me up far too late in order to finish it. I immediately wanted to read all of this writer's other books as I loved their voice and found that it really drew me into the story and made me think about it even when I'd stepped away from this tale.
This is a thought-provoking read which I'm sure will be a popular and well-read addition to our new library; I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to read it and I know that the students are going to absolutely love it too!

It was an ok read. I found it a little slow and did not connect with the characters. The ploy was a little difficult to follow at times as well. It sounded good from the back cover but left me feeling disappointed.

I am not quite sure what I feel about this book. I found it intriguing how the death of one person affected four people and you knew it hit at least one of them hard because the death was completely at the forefront of the book. At some points I found it was a bit much, we know someone had died but we don’t need it mentioned on nearly every page. However, I guess when you have seen that person on the night they have died, maybe it would play on your mind, maybe you would become obsessed with it and wonder if you could have done anything differently.

The chapters jump quite a bit, we flick between present-day and that night. I did have to flick between my ebook and my audiobook because I got a bit lost in some points. When we go back to that night, the timeline does not always fit which did confuse me but mainly I think that the author might have done this to confuse the reader so we didn’t have a clue what was going on. If that is the case, then she achieved that for sure.

I must admit I did enjoy the premise for the book, a night out at a music festival with friends, where they witness something horrifying but how is this one event linked to them all. I introduced you to the Six degrees of separation theory and that is all I will say. On first meeting the group, you have Cassie, Dex, Bo and Anna, friends since school and they seem like a solid group. However, as we meet them in the present day, a month after that night, we realise that a relaxing weekend away in Weymouth exposes the true ugliness of this friendship. This is a toxic group of people, they are quite frankly awful and irredeemable people. Not only down to the actions from that night but their actions when they are together now. They are spiteful, manipulative and so secretive. These secrets, like all secrets, are explosive!

In this story, I felt like Cassie, always on the outside looking in, with too many jigsaw pieces missing to complete the picture. As much as we want answers, it is way too dangerous for us, so maybe we should back away. I mean it is not like we do not have enough opportunity to do so, but like a moth to a flame, we have to see it through to the end. That end, well it was chilling and it poses a completely honest question. What would you? If you were in their position, what lengths would you go to protect your friends? Even when you know how heinous their crimes are.

I found the concept of this book quite interesting despite being completely confused with what was going on. Once you can get your head around the jumping timelines and the completely toxic and awful people it’s not a bad book. It starts off with the hook, but the middle starts to lose itself but it picks up in the end as we begin to uncover the terrifying truth.

In all honesty, I really do not know what I would do. The good part of me would love to think I would run to the rescue but the other part of me would probably be too frozen to know what I would do.

So let me ask you, What would you do?

I tried to read this one a few times but I just always felt uninterested. It was quite hard to get hooked and I found myself lacking motivation to read it. Unfortunately this one just wasn’t for me.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

This was a very hard read but I wanted to finish it to try and understand what was behind the story but it was hard going and I didn't really enjoy it.

Really struggled to finish this book, but kept going in order to try and work out what was going on. It was quite confusing and highly unrealistic in places.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book. I’ve only just managed to get to read it.

The story of four friends, told in two time periods about a night out to celebrate a birthday and a weekend away to celebrate another where the story unravels to discover that they are all hiding something from their so called friends.

I enjoyed this book, but sometimes found the time switching confusing but nevertheless it was an interesting read and I did want to find out what happened.

The Guilty Party

Four friends who probably shouldn't be friends...what could go wrong?

The book starts off with the group witnessing a horrific crime and turning a blind eye. While guilt eats away at one of them, the rest would rather move on with their lives and not talk about it. However, as the plot develops, the scene they witnessed is not left buried and the ugly, twisted side of their friendship rears its head.

Although I appreciated the darkness of this book, I found it difficult to love. The toxic friendship within the group was pretty unbelievable considering they were all 30 something adults. The dynamics between them also meant I disliked most of the characters as they were selfish and manipulative. One character out of the group, Cassie, was the only one who was likeable but I found myself getting extremely frustrated with her as I couldn't understand why she continued to entertain a relationship with the rest of them when they barely seemed to put up with her and most of the dialogue she shared with the others involved them patronising her.

I'm giving this book 3 stars because the premise of this book was promising and I liked the past/present narrative between the chapters as it allowed me to build up an understanding of how each of them were led to that fateful night however I just didn't find the events believeable or the characters likeable.

Cassie, Dex, Anna and Bo all witness what might be a rape but they dont say or do anything except leave. Later they learn the young woman has died. Cassie finds herself feeling guilty over doing nothing but shes about to learn this is more complicated than she ever imagined. How are they connected and what is actually the truth.

The whole premise of the story was really interesting but I found it a little slow. This also jumps around a lot which can take some figuring out what actually happened when. I did enjoy all the connections and how each person came to be linked the the woman. The ending was well done but seemed a little rushed, it jumped too quickly to the conclusion for my liking. Still a good thriller though.

This book has me confused as I really didnt like it, but couldn't stop reading it. The main characters were so unlikeable that they really made me quite angry, which was not really how I want to feel when reading.