I received an arc copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion of it. I love the books by this author but this one and the previous one were really disappointments to me. With this book. I got to 40 percent and could not finish. I found the storyline very confusing regarding the timeline and also the characters. I had to keep reminding myself who was married to who and who was divorced and there were not many characters. This book did not read like a psychological thriller but more like a women's fiction book. I have loved so many books by this author but I am not sure I would try another one.

If you're looking for a quick little thriller then this book is probably for you. There were moments in it where I was intrigued to know what was going to happen next but they weren't as frequent as I would have liked and overall these characters didn't really surprise me in the ways that I would like for this kind of book. I thought the characterisation of Katelyn and Leah was a bit rushed and so there were things that didn't feel like they were in character just because the history wasn't really there in the characterisation. I also found myself getting a bit lost in the timeline in the chapters that weren't specifically set in the past and therefore sometimes things got a bit confusing and it was easy to lose track. The ending could kind of only go one way but even that felt rushed. I liked it enough to finish reading, but it wasn't a thrilling as I would have liked.

Another twisty, intense thriller from Nicola Trope that kept me turning the pages. The Day After the Party is filled with angst and questions that keep the reader guessing and I found myself keen to find out what would happen next. 5 stars!

Secrets, lies, childhood trauma.
This book kept me turning the pages!
This book is focused on Katelyn’s birthday party. Things happened, and Katelyn can’t remember. We learn pieces of it as the book goes own. It’s told in two perspectives. Katelyn’s and her best friend Leah’s.

Katelyn and Leah have been best friends for 30 years, since they were 6 years old and Katelyn, the daughter of an alcoholic and Leah, seemingly perfect hit it off in kindergarten. All grown up, Katelyn is married to lawyer Toby and Leah’s life is falling apart. At Katelyn’s 36th birthday party, Leah witnesses something terrible and Katelyn loses her memory, but all of their lives are changed forever. Switching between Katelyn and Leah’s viewpoints the story was intense and fast paced, leading up to an unanticipated conclusion.
I enjoyed this book very much and kept turning pages to find out what happened. I may have missed a few chores today!

The Day After the Party tells the story of two best friends and the aftermath of a birthday party. At the start of the book, we learn that Katelyn is in the hospital, with no memory of the last several hours. As the book progresses, we move forward in time, and see how Katelyn, her husband, and her best friend Leah deal with the trauma of Katelyn’s memory loss and an unspecified event that occurred at the party. We also go back in time and see snippets of the friendship evolving between Leah and Katelyn over the years. I thought it was an interesting thriller and kept my attention, although I very much disliked the ending.

Kate wakes up the day after her birthday party with no memory of it at all. She digs and digs and keeps finding out terrible things.
Her husband is kind but far from perfect.
Then we get Leah's perspective and we have to decide who is the problem here; Leah or Kate. Every chapter I changed my opinion. It was amazing! This was way better than watching people argue on Facebook all night.
It was a glorious experience.

Great book, kept me hooked all the way through - wasn’t sure how it was going to end but didn’t expect that.

The day after the party is a story about two best friends and their not so perfect life. It’s about a party that doesn’t go the way it should have; a party where years of friendship is put to the test and where difficulties in this friendship are brought up. Katelyn wakes up in the hospital with no memories of the party, a husband who is not telling her everything and a best friend that seems distant and hurt. How the perfect life of Katelyn and the not so perfect life of Leah is in reality much more than what appears..

Always loved reading Trope’s novels, and was really happy to have the opportunity to read this one before its due date (ha, cause you know? pregnancy.. anywayyy). First, I would like to say that I hated the characters, which means Trope did a great job! They were so toxic to each other, selfish and really not supportive. I mean, if these were real people, I would run. And I never run, so that tells you a lot! I couldn’t wait to get to the end of the book because I knew that something would happened, something I wouldn’t see coming. And once again, I was not disappointed by the author! Kinda guessed a lot of things, but never saw the end coming! I would give it 3.5 stars, just because I hated reading the characters thoughts. They were so mean and toxic, felt like it was stretched a bit. I do hope Harper gets therapy!!!

This book started off strong. Temporary amnesia definitely was a good story line. 3/4 of the way through the book and it took a turn which I wasn’t a huge fan of.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #Bookouture and Nicole Trope for the opportunity to read an advance copy of The Day After the Party, to be published 30 Oct 2023. 4/5 stars for this domestic thriller in which two girls at the age of six become best friends for life. Leah’s mother is what Kaitlyn wishes her mother was - loving, engaging, and maternal. She longs for a mother who cares about her. When she later gets married and becomes a mother, she has more appreciation for what was involved in raising a child. Kaitlyn and Leah’s lives become inextricably entangled over time, leaving Leah to wish for more. Their worlds collide and their friendship is called into question. Great Read. #NetGalley #Bookouture #NicoleTrope #TheDayAftertheParty

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What was supposed to be a big "reveal" at the end was very obvious and I knew it from way before the scene took place.

There were some moments where the book tried to drop what are meant to be bombshells on the reader but these "bombshells" were very obvious from early on unfortunately and alluded to previously way too heavily for it to be that surprising.

The author could have gone in a more shocking/twisty direction with the set up for this plot but didn't and it feels like a missed opportunity. I also thought the subject matter was going to be deceivingly surface level but really be revealed to be much darker and it never went below the surface.

Also, I don’t feel that the "past" chapters were very necessary I felt they detracted from the present story and were much less interesting by comparison.

I will say I was entertained for most of the book and the writing style did make things easy to read and fly through with short chapters which I do enjoy. It was a very quick read but unfortunately very predictable and surface level domestic drama which never tipped the edge to what a truly gripping harrowing thriller should be.

Deceit, betrayal, infidelity, toxic relationships...sounds exactly what a 3 decades long friendship should be right??!!

Ultimately, it’s a tale of toxic friendship and jealously, rather than a thriller but it still sucked me right in!

The chapters switched back and forth between the past and present, which was a great way of delivering the backstory!

3 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Nicole Trope and Bookouture for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Katelyn is excited to celebrate her 36th birthday with a winter wonderland party and she's been planning for weeks to have a special night with her nearest and dearest. But when she wakes up in a hospital bed the next day she can't remember a thing about it. She doesn't remember how angry her husband Toby was and how upset her best friend Leah was. When she asks Toby what happened and how she ended up losing her memory he claims it was nothing but she knows he's lying. Leah is also acting strange and Katelyn doesn't know where she's going to get the answers from. Did someone hurt her? Is she in danger?

This was a great suspense novel about toxic friendships how Katelyn and Leah survived being friends for 30 years I'll never understand. They were thrown together as children and were kind of stuck with each other. Leah is also a very unlikeable character I couldn't stand her moaning about her life all the time when only she has the power to change things. The TGA was done so well it actually terrified me how someone can just randomly lose their memory and that the memories are gone forever. The postnatal depression is handled very well in this too and how it affects everyone and how they all individually deal with it.

This was super fast paced and gripping it had me from the first page and I didn't want to put it down. I would have like more thrilling scenes as its marketed as a thriller but I enjoyed the suspense at the end.

A fast paced and fun read! I finished it in one sitting. At times you could see the toxic dynamic between characters and you just want to shake some sense into them!!!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

Secrets. Lies. Betrayal. Deceit. Infidelity. Double-crossing. Drama. Not words to describe your best friend of 3 decades. Katelyn and Leah have been bff’s since age 6. Turning 36 marks a milestone in their friendship. Katelyn is hosting her big and unforgettable 36th birthday party to share with family and friends. Only to wake the next morning in the hospital diagnosed with TGA - amnesia that is stress induced.

Secrets. Lies. Betrayal. Deceit. Infidelity. Double-crossing. Drama. Not words to describe your loving husband.
Katelyn and Toby have been married for years and have a beautiful 3 year old daughter, Harper, who was conceived by IVF. Then Katelyn suffers from postpartum depression which leads to stress in a “perfect” marriage.
Dual POV. Dual timelines. Twist, turns, and intense plot had me on the edge of my seat. A must read for psychological thriller lovers….. just when you thought you have it figured out, you turn the next page and BAM💥. Looking forward to reading more by author N. Trope. Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for ARC in exchange for my review.

Another twisty and suspenseful story from Nicole Trope! She gets me every time. My heart is in my throat!

Katelyn and Leah are longtime best friends. Katelyn had a bad home life and Leah's family was like her own. Katelyn is now a housewife and Leah was a glamorous career woman.. until her life fell apart.

No one knows she's been fired and that's on top of her recent divorce. Her life hasn't turned out how she'd hoped and she envies Katelyn's life and is angry that Katelyn is ungrateful for all she has.

Things come to a boiling point at Katelyn's much anticipated 36th birthday party. The two couples have been too close for comfort for a while but something so traumatic happens that Katelyn loses her memory.

How convenient! Leah thinks. It's time to get to the bottom of all that needs sorting between the two and there's much more than meets the eye. Sometimes your best friend can turn into your worst enemy..

Nicole Trope has delved into another complicated and nuanced situation, this time temporary memory loss, which isn't something I'm familiar with, nor did I Google it. All I know is it really helped ratchet up the tension because we just want to know what happened at the party!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review.

Thank you for allowing me to read and review this book!
I love a twisty story and this one kept me on the edge of my seat. The timing element of the chapters keeps the pace moving quickly and the twists are impeccable!

The premise for this book is fantastic and I had really high hopes, but it sadly fell a little flat in places.

Ultimately, it’s a tale of toxic friendship and jealously, rather than a thriller and I found I didn’t really care for any of the characters, except for Katelyn, who had a really tough time as a child.

The chapters switched back and forth between the past and present, which was a great way of delivering the backstory, but was quite slow in parts and took away from the tension and build up of finding out what happened at the party. When it was revealed, it was a bit of an anticlimax and I feel that was more to do with the delivery than the event itself as that, and the actions that led to it, were pretty shocking and so I do think this is a great story, but perhaps needs an edit in terms of the delivery to give the reader that gut-punching omg moment.

3 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Nicole Trope and Bookouture for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of the day after the party.
This was a quick read at 200 pages, the storyline with the amnesia and the twisted best friend was interesting. The ending was a little anti-climatic but overall i enjoyed the read.