So the hunting party was a great read and on the edge of my seat but this just topped it!
I just couldn’t put this down! This is a must read.
Great characters and a wicked twist you will not be disappointed!

This was a solid story with lots of twists but too many characters. While there were one or two characters i was invested in there was just too many to feel properly connected to. I loved the descriptions of the island and the history of it. The ending was very surprising. It came out of nowhere and i felt it needed more building on for it to be a good pay off.

I was so excited to be approved on NetGalley to read The Guest List after I read and loved her previous novel, The Hunting Party.

Well, The Guest List is even better than The Hunting Party.

The Guest List was, quite simply, excellent.

The introductory chapters and characterisation were very good; I clearly knew each character's personalities, motivations, andI was intrigued to learn what secrets they were keeping from one another. The descriptions were so vivid and immersive that I could imagine everything inside my head perfectly.

In addition, the pacing was just right throughout, and I thoroughly enjoyed my reading experience. I couldn't put the book down, but I also didn't want it to end!

The Guest List is full of excellent twists and turns and, due to the well-crafted chronological structure of the book, I was kept guessing until the very final chapters.

I can't wait to buy a physical copy of The Guest List, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

A compelling read from Lucy. I enjoyed the dramatic setting on a remote island off the coast of Ireland, you imagine yourself there in the terrible weather as the Lucy was very descriptive in her writing.

What a juicy read!

The Guest List follows the high profile wedding of television presenter Will Slater and online magazine publisher Julia Keegan, on the storm-swept island of Inis Amploir - Cormorant Island - several miles off the Irish coast.

As the guests arrive by boat, we meet the bride, Jules; the best man (Johnno, old school friend of Will); the bridesmaid (Olivia, Jules’s troubled younger half-sister); the plus one (Hannah, wife of Jules’s old friend Charlie); and the wedding planner (Aoife, the owner, with her husband Freddy, of the wedding venue).

By the end of the wedding day, as the storm rages and the lights go out, more than one revelation will have profound consequences for the participants.

The characters are brilliantly drawn, from the bride’s parents to the groom’s friends, alumni of a public school which apparently specialises in turning out completely repulsive, overly entitled people. Yes, there are some hateful individuals here, one in particular....

A highly enjoyable read, though I’d like to know what happened afterwards...

Book of the year so far, in fact best book for 2019 as well. Written with different viewpoints from different characters throughout the book keeps you working things out all the way through. Is it a horror story or isn’t it? You’ll have to read it to find out. Lucy Foley has created totally believable characters of which there’s not many you will like but you hope they don’t fall to the island which makes a forbidding backdrop to the story. Put this book on your list to read as soon as you can.

A celebrity wedding on an island of the Irish Coast, a luxurious refurbished hotel for the guests to stay in....what could go wrong ?

The guests soon discover areas unsuitable for walking,a storm is raging and then ...

Having not read this author i was intrigued by the write up for this read and can honestly say i was not disappointed

Excellent novel by Lucy Foley, and a worthy successor to 'The Hunting Party'.

A stylish 'media/celebrity' wedding on an Irish island, and everything planned to perfection. But, things start to unravel, for lots of different reasons. Told in episodes, going back and forwards over the weekend, by different characters, we realise this is not a fun joyful occasion! I won't say too much more at risk of spoilers - but I would definitely recommend it.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an advance copy.

I received this ARC from Netgalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. I normally would of said Thank you at the start of that sentence. But on this occasion, the only thing to say thank you for was that it was reasonably short.

I requested this, as from the blurb it had great promise. Boy was I wrong. The first chapter was quite good. After that each chapter was written from a different guests pov. Jumping all over the place. None of the characters were likeable at all. It sounded like the wedding from Hell, and not for the reason the author intended.
At times felt like the author had dropped the chapters, and picked up quickly, getting them out of order. I did
manage to finish this, which was mainly because it was an ARC, and I felt obligated to finish it. Also because I kept thinking it would improve.. it didn't.

If you enjoyed Lucy Foley’s The Hunting Party (as I did) I think you’re going to love her new offering, The Guest List. The premise is great – a minor celeb wedding on a remote Irish island, featuring a cast of characters plagued by insecurities, suspicions, resentments and guilt stemming from their entwined histories. From the outset there’s a storm brewing – in more ways than one! The author uses the same tried and tested format that she put to such good use in her first thriller: the identity of the victim is concealed until near the end and the story is told in ‘then and now’ chapters using multiple POV - from characters who are as likely to be the victim as the killer. Coincidences and contrivances abound, but Foley’s fluid style, her skillful littering of intrigue and her brilliant use of short chapters and hooks had me turning the pages with such speed that I didn’t care! Whilst I very much enjoyed The Hunting Party, in the end its romantic subplot made more of an impact on me than the murder mystery at its core. For this reason, I can’t help feeling that, as a thriller, The Guest List is the more gripping book – I found myself fully engaged in the main drama, and the characters somehow played their parts with greater aplomb. I have no doubt this will do exceptionally well and it’s a solid 4* from me. Lucy Foley is rapidly becoming my go-to author when it comes to reading for pure pleasure – I’m already looking forward to her next book!

Thank you to netgalley.co.uk for giving me a free copy of this book in exchange for a free and honest review.
I thought this would be a light, fluffy book about a wedding but I'm glad I was wrong, this is an interesting mystery that would give Agatha Christie. My first book by Foley but it won't be my last. It was very well written and had me hooked for the first sentence.

A society type wedding held on a remote island off Ireland. What could possibly go wrong?

The story is told from several different characters, including the bride, groom, best man and bridesmaid. I lost count of how many others, there were too many. Even though each chapter tells you who it is easy to forget and then you have to check back. Also the time line skipped back and forth and it completely broke the flow of the book.

I liked the idea of the story but found it wanting. Too many coincidences and an unsatisfactory ending.

I requested this book through NetGalley UK and it is by a British Author so I expect British English spelling. Careen is US English and not used in the UK, we use Career. Careen means something else, to run a vessel aground to clean the hull.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for my ARC in return for an honest review.

This is a wonderfully atmospheric murder mystery set on a haunted treacherous island. I really enjoyed this book and I got pulled into the mystery and the lives of the characters.

It begins on the wedding night when the guests hear a scream, the ushers set out to find what caused the cream. Then we get sent back to the day before the wedding and then the day of with little parts of the wedding night throughout until we get to the wedding night and all is revealed.

The writing was really good and it helped pull you into the story and the lives of the people. The atmosphere was ominous with a storm and power cuts making the island seem more haunted than it is. I loved the setting and how the guests were basically trapped on an island together. It reminded me a little of Agatha Christie and a little of the game Cluedo which are two things I like.

As well as the different timelines, we follow 5 different character POVs. And then get an extra POV towards the end.

The POVs we see are;
Aoife: the Wedding Planner
Johnno: the Best Man
Jules: the Bride
Hannah: the Plus one
Olivia: the bridesmaid

All these 5 characters have motive which I thought was interesting. They also have secrets, lies and jealousy among other things giving them motive. They are all also seemingly connected to the murderer which was interesting and I did guess a few of the things that were revealed about the characters. However I didn't guess who the murderer was until I was shown which in hindsight I can now see the signs that point at the murderer but I didn't whilst I was reading.

I'd say the majority of characters are not likeable but the mystery and the secrets keep you reading to find out what happened. The amount of secrets and questions in this book is what kept me reading because I wanted to know what happened to each character and it leads you in multiple directions as everyone is a suspect.

Overall it was a murder mystery that was ominous and atmospheric. I really enjoyed the mystery of it all and I would highly recommend it to mystery lovers or those who want to try reading a mystery.

I really enjoyed the Hunting Party by Lucy Foley so I could not wait to read The Guest List and I was not disappointed. The book is set on a remote island off the coast of Ireland on the weekend of the wedding of celebrity couple of the moment: Jules Keegan and Will Slater. The dangerous mixture of drink and drugs, old relationships reunited and high jinx by the guys from the boarding school provides quite enough suspects even though it is close to the end of the book before we discover who has been killed. In the end, there is an unexpected but very satisfying twist that rewards the reader with a sense of justice.

What a read! This book is an absolute cracker! Full of unlikeable, entitled and self-obsessed characters, I really couldn't guess 'whodunnit'. In hindsight all of the clues were there but this book is so intricately woven that you would have to be a super sleuth to pick up on them. A flawless read for me.

Absolutely Brilliant. Never falls into boring bits that you speed read to get through. The book, to me, is an amalgam of an Agatha Christie whodunnit and Big Little Lies (series 1).
You know that someone has been murdered but only when you reach 90%+ through do you find out who, although as you progress through the book the victim becomes more obvious.
You have a short section progressing what happens after the scream (tells you someone has found a body) through sections headed by each of the probably culprits from the last couple of days.
The reasons/justifications why each potential murderer could have done the deed become clearer as you read on. At the end it would not have been surprising and would have been justified if the ending had mirrored Murder On The Orient Express - but it doesn't
After about 75% I convinced myself I knew who the murderer was but as usual I was wrong
The ending sections are very, very clever and the murderer was a surprise to me
Definitely a book not to be missed

I was very keen to read The Guest List, having read all the rave reviews for Lucy Foley's previous murder mystery, The Hunting Party.
It is a classic "locked room" murder mystery, the room being a small island off the west coast of Ireland. The author ramps up the tension very nicely using different narrative voices to describe the events of barely two days. She gives vital backstories in a way that does not interrupt the flow of the main plot but which provides important insights into the characters of all the key players many of whom are not very pleasant. Nothing is irrelevant.
This was a quick read into the wee small hours, because I was so hooked that I couldn't put the book down until it was finished. I shall now read The Hunting Party and look out for Foley's next book.
With many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me a copy of the book in exchange for this review.

Lucy Foley follows The Hunting Party with this even more hugely entertaining atmospheric murder mystery, a modern take on Agatha Christie, set on the wild and stormy Cormorant Island, off the west coast of Ireland. The golden celebrity couple, Julia 'Jules' Keegan, publisher of a successful online magazine, and the handsome Will Slater, rising star of TV show Survival, are getting married in style in front of their friends and family, an exclusive event being organised by wedding planner, Aoife and catered for by her husband, Freddy. However, it immediately becomes clear on a dark, wild and stormy wedding night of power cuts that something has gone desperately wrong, and in a narrative that goes back and forth in time, a distraught waitress speaks of seeing a body outside, which has the ushers setting out into the night to find out what has happened.

Foley provides the perspectives of a wide host of diverse characters, with their fears, secrets, lies and silences amidst the drink and drug fuelled wedding celebrations over which hang an ominous air of upcoming disaster, a feeling that is enhanced further by the island location with its haunted history, its ghosts of the dead, its treacherous terrain and the approaching storm. Jules is worrying about a anonymous note that warns her not to marry Will, her bridesmaid, her sister Olivia, is a fragile self harming wreck. The best man, Johnno, is desperate not to lose touch with Will, they have a shared past history that goes back to their school days. Hannah is the plus one, married to Charlie, the MC and best friend of the bride, they are a cash strapped couple, determined to make the most of their first opportunity for a long time to be away from their children and their humdrum lives. The ushers are a bunch of sneering, entitled, bullying and malicious ex-public schoolboys who have never grown up.

Foley skilfully reveals the past history of the characters, the grief, the losses, the simmering resentments and jealousies, the guilt, the secrets, the lies, a past that adds up to a bubbling cauldron full of motives to kill, and a present where the chickens of the past have finally come home to roost. Foley excels in writing a riveting locked room murder mystery, with the vibrant creation and development of larger than life characters, attending a strife ridden wedding in a location that is just perfect for the darkest of deeds to take place. A fabulous crime read that I recommend highly. Many thanks to HarperCollins for an ARC.

Set on a remote island for during a celebrity wedding this is a wonderful murder mystery.

The story is told from several points of view and spans both past and present to weave the narrative. Many of the characters have a dark secret or tragedy in their past and ultimately these come together in the present day.

The story is not simply a whodunnit, the story leaves the reveal of the victim until the closing chapters too and there are plenty of characters vying for the position of both killer and victim through the novel.

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for an advanced copy of The Guest List.

This was my first time reading Foley and it will not be my last. The Guest List is a wonderfully atmospheric murder mystery set on a remote island off the coast of Ireland. The story is told through multiple POV and each character is beautifully fleshed out and helps to slowly put together the pieces of the story. Each POV is believable and flawed in their own way. The tension is built further by the timeline switching between the murder and the days leading up to it.

I would recommend this to anyone who wants to get lost in a mystery filled with twists and turns in a gothic setting.

4/5