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.

Didn't like this, I'm sorry and I didn't finish it. The main reason were that the characters were extremely unlikable and the irritated me.

A really interesting book that explores friendship and how far loyalties influence our decisions.  
After witnessing a crime on a night out, does not doing anything make you just as guilty as the perpetrator? This book goes so much deeper into answering this question and has enough twists and turns to keep the reader interested. A great read that had me hooked

The Guilty Party is a tense psychological thriller.  A close knit group of university friends, bound by history and a dark, twisted game reunite for a long weekend on the Dorset coast.  One of them, Cassie, is haunted by the recent memory of a woman they witnessed raped.  The themes of guilt, regret and friendship are threaded through the novel.  Despite the unlikeable characters this was an extremely taut and fast read.

I started reading The Guilty Party several months ago, but I had to stop after only a chapter or so, because I was furious at the characters and their behaviour, which I know is one hundred percent intentional on behalf off the author, but at the time, for some reason I just really struggled with it. There’s no denying this novel is very intense. It is dark and it is violent, therefore it’s not for everyone. 

That being said, when I picked the novel back up last week, I read it all in a matter of hours.There’s no denying that it is a great thriller. The characters are awful, and I mean that in the best way possible. They are selfish. They are weak. They are cruel. I like to think that there are not too many people in the real world that are actually like that, but I am aware that my view is naive. Of course there are. Like the characters in the novel, there are plenty of people that lack empathy; that put themselves and their best interests above justice and what is right. This is a sad fact of life, but it is most definitely a fact. 

So yes, the characters were abominable. Even Cassie, who is touted as ‘the only normal one’ by her friends, is a terrible person. Less psychotic than the others, perhaps. But normal? I hope not!

I loved the setting of the book, which is the Island of Portland near Weymouth. Having been there recently, I could imagine it all perfectly, although I do think the book made it seem way bleaker than it actually is – it really is a beautiful place! – but the isolation of it really worked. 

The plot had several strands, and I liked the multiple narrators. Often, having several narrators and timelines can make a book confusing, but the Guilty Party was easy to follow, and I liked the break in the narratives. Short, sharp chapters made the book pacy and tense. 

The only thing I didn’t like was the ending. The one question I wanted an answer to was not answered, and I found the last few paragraphs a bit preachy. I think it would have been better if the mystery was solved properly, although I’m sure there was a reason why McGrath left it open. Perhaps it was just lost on me!

Compelling. A great read. I was keen to finish this one and find out the ending and there were lots of twists and turns along the way. Brilliant,

Four friends see a terrible crime but leave a young girl to her fate. When a body is discovered they realise their inaction has left them almost as guilty as the perpetrator of the crime. But they all had their reasons for not stopping in...and it soon becomes apparent that the victim was not as much a stranger to them as they wish.

This is difficult to rate as it did keep me hooked. But I can't say I enjoyed it. I can cope with not really liking the protagonists in a book but I despised everyone of these people. Honestly I hoped they'd all suffer some grisly Reservoir Dogs fate at the end! So if you don't mind hating everyone in a book (well the barman is ok) and enjoy a gripping story you may well like this. As it is I can't say I did like this but can't rate it lower than three stars as it is most definitely a gripping page turner.