this one was a slow burn, leaving you slowly putting the pieces together right up to the end. This wasn’t my favourite read of the year but enjoyable. If you need an end of summer read this is it

The payoff wasn’t worth the wait.

At first, I found the writing style clever (ending each section on a cliffhanger of sorts). I probably would have continued to do so had the author given up more “secrets” along the way. When things finally did start to come out it was unrealistic and underwhelming and I was irritated. Every character (besides Ruby and her family) was deplorable. Also, where were the consequences for the lies destroying that young man. Or God awful Rex? And then I guess we are supposed to find Nella’s secret so dastardly! Nope. Gross. And the love fest at the end and the pregnancy. I saw that coming but I seriously hoped I was wrong. Nope. Plus too many insignificant characters that just added more unneeded drama and confusion.

This domestic drama didn’t work for me (it’s not a thriller). I did finish it and enjoyed the writing to a degree hence the 2 stars. I think others will enjoy the slow burn and craziness. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Bookouture for a copy in exchange for a review.

Ugh, I could not get into this book. It was so hard to continue. The characters were not likeable in any sense. Unfortunately I did DNF this book. Just wasn’t for me! I would try another story by this author though.

The Street Party was my first Claire Seeber novel, and I really enjoyed it. The characters were very well-written, and I liked that the story was told from a few different perspectives. I was invested in finding out the truth about what happened at the street party, and I liked the way everything turned out. Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read and review The Street Party....I'm looking forward to reading more books by this author. : )

DNF @ 20%

Unfortunately I didn't find myself interested enough in this book to want to continue reading it. I couldn't engage with the characters and I found them rather irritating - maybe that was the point?

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a great storyline with excellent characters. I would highly recommend this book as it was a great read.

What a great psychological thriller this book is. It’s a real page turner which romps along at pace with lots of twists and turns. I found it hard to put this book down. Thoroughly recommend this book.

This book is a bit of a slow burner but worth persevering. It is full of lies and secrets. An ok read.

After a few stops and starts I forced myself to read this book through. Unfortunately, I was never able to really get into this story, so many different people, none of whom I liked didn’t help. I found it to be quite boring and much longer than it needed to be.

Enjoyed this to begin with then I felt as though it fizzled out a little bit.
I would classify this as a family drama as opposed to thriller as I felt not enough happened in parts of the story.
Overall a satisfying read

This book is a slow-burner, which may put off some of the more impatient readers who are looking for more immediate action. In my opinion, this works to its advantage and it isn’t the pacing that bothered me while reading. Getting to know the characters contributes to caring about what happens to them afterwards, when things really get going.

The tension among the characters develops slowly but surely, and the author is successful in conveying a sense of unease and suspense. The book fits quite well in the genre of domestic thriller/family drama. I thought the story was exciting even though it’s been done before, and I liked the discussion of political and social issues. The excerpts from Jan’s blog and the portrayal of the entire Jackson family were particularly successful explorations of entitlement the likes of which we see quite often in real life.

The work on the characters is generally good, and there seems to be a clear distinction between the voices of Ruby, Melissa, and Nella. I thought Ruby’s characterization was the most advanced; she is written carefully and with a lot of compassion and understanding. Some things the characters say by way of banter seem slightly forced, but some land very naturally.

Admittedly, I expected the titular street party would take up a little more space in the book than it did. As it is, we get a lot of the preparations and then a lot of the aftermath, whereas it would have been fun to zoom in on everybody during the event itself a little more.

What I struggled with is the fact that there is simply too much going on in the book; there are too many threads that are picked up and left unresolved. Sometimes I felt insufficient command of individual scenes – it was a challenge to visualize the space the characters are moving in, their spatial relations to each other, and at times even to figure out who is talking in especially crowded scenes. All in all, the story is not wrapped up as neatly as it could have been, and the writing doesn’t run as smoothly as it would have after some editing. However, there is a lot of credibility to the portrayal of most characters, and the overall concept is gripping despite the less than perfect execution.

When I first started reading this it confused me, there were too many characters introduced early on. It was a slow burn and the Street Party didn’t actually happen until about three quarters in.

That being said, once I had got over the confusion it did turn out to be a good read, it wasn’t the psychological thriller I had hoped it was going to be, but there were secrets and lies which always keeps me reading to see if they eventually come out.

This story is a slow burn. It took almost halfway through the book before the street party happens and is told from the perspective of three women at the party. I believe this would be considered a domestic drama versus a psychological thriller.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

An ok book was quite slow starting
The party wasn’t till later in the story
I kept going with this book the second half will have you gripped.
It is definitely worth a read
Thanks NetGalley

Wasn;t quite sure about this book. Thought it was going to be a thriller but didn't quite fit that category. Fitted into a few but not many well. A good story but I did struggle a bit with it, it just seemed to drag a bit too much for me.

A street party is a great way to put your fears behind you, its enough to make you forget the texts you were getting from an unknown number - but who are you letting into your street party? A gripping thriller which had me guessing throughout, I struggled to put this one down!

Who wouldn’t love gossip and a street party between women whose life stories had been set up in the initial few pages of the book?

My first book by author Claire Seeber, it embroiled a lot of read-between-the-lines politics. 3 women with 3 vastly different lives were the core of the story. And soon their children came into picture. And the lines joining them became more convoluted.

The suspense was seen when lies and facades and soon allegations came into the picture. With 3 POVs, it revealed their lives from all angles, and not all of them were beautiful.

The story became interesting from the last 40% and I could zip through the prose easily. The first half was difficult, but perserverence and DJ’s assurance helped.

On to my next…

P. S. The audiobook was a DNF for me as the narrator was pathetic with a weird accent. Never understood a word she spoke.

The Street Party By: Claire Seeber and Narrated by: Anna Cordell, Laura Brydon, Nano Nagle

I really struggled listening to The Street Party by Claire Seeber and Narrated by Laura Brydon, Anna Cordell, Nano Nagle. I felt this book was ruined by the narrator that put on a silly fake posh voice for all the male characters! I felt this was not needed and was so corny which ruined this audio book for me. Plus, I found the Aussie accent was very poor and made me lol and thie ruined the book for me as well.

I ended up aborting this audio book and ended up reading The street party which was so my better., however it os a very slow burner and took forever, to get where it needed to go!

Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishing house and the author for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this book in return for a review based upon my honest opinion.

I really liked this author’s last book, The Stepmother, so was excited to start this one. This is a story about a group of families who are joining together to host a street party to raise money for a tragedy that befell the seedier part of the street. This area has very rich and very poor in the same area and the families that are putting on the party are of both areas. I found this book very slow going, and it felt at some point that there were too many characters, I could barely keep all the moms straight. I was disappointed as to the grand revelation in the story, and I trudged through the book to get to the end not really caring about more than half of the people.

This is classified as a thriller, it is not, it’s a family drama at best. I felt there was too much going on, but nothing going on at the same time and I had a hard time keeping all the storylines straight. Unfortunately this book is a no for me

Good effort. Not my favorite thriller I’ve read but not the worst. I always enjoy a well written multi POV book.