While this one wasn't as good as previous books from the author, I appreciated the skilled writing, as always. Other readers may find much to enjoy here, so don't give it a miss.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This writer knows what she is writing for her audience, Lucy Foley doesn't disappoint. The twists and the turns were easy to follow. Definitely one to add to the bookshelf

Lucy Foley needs no introduction, her writing never misses. I devoured this (pardon the pun). I was worried it might feel samey having read an earlier work of Foley’s fairly recently but didn’t find this at all. For me the twists worked really well and I found the setting extremely enjoyable to be placed in (I find this to be almost an additional character!) a new favourite.!

To be honest this wasn't my cup of tea. The beginning was good and exciting but after 30% of the novel I felt it dragged a lot, also too much usage of the word BIRDS . I almost fell in slump but decided to finish the story. Didn't feel any connection to the characters. I thank net galley for eARC copy

oh lucy foley. nobody more reliable for a decent pop mystery. she’s got her career for a reason. i personally had fun but can imagine some people being frustrated with this one specifically. 3.5 but rounded down

The book delivers the moody atmosphere and tangled relationships Lucy Foley is known for, but it doesn’t quite reach the tension or payoff of her previous works. The setting is richly drawn and the multiple perspectives keep the story moving, but some twists feel predictable, and a few characters lack depth. It’s an enjoyable read for fans of slow-burn mysteries, though not her strongest. A decent, if not unforgettable, entry in her catalog

DogMa
4.0 out of 5 stars Edge of the seat thriller
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 June 2025
Format: Kindle Edition
This haunting dark thriller is set in ancient woodland in Devon. The opening weekend of the controversial exclusive Manor Hotel sparks tensions when decades old animosities arise and eventually culminate in mayhem and death…fast-paced, lots of twists and turns make this one of Lucy Foley’ s signature unputdownable reads!

My favourite by this writer yet! Another blinder by Lucy Foley. I love that you can always pick up her latest and be assured of a brilliant read. This one is told from lots of view points so you can’t put it down. Hence me reading it one sitting. Characters are brilliant. From the lovely to the despicable type you love to hate.

Lucy Foley is fast becoming one of my favourite authors; the go-to for a dependable, entertaining read, perfect for escaping to while travelling. In The Midnight Feast, she masterfully switches between characters, locations and time without ever once losing her reader. You can dip straight back into the book without having to remind yourself what everyone was up to or flicking back a few pages to establish the timeline.

As with her previous novels, there are contemporary themes woven into the story alongside the tense thriller plotting. There are no crazy red herrings, just enough doubts about the characters' pasts, deceits and possible motives for killing to keep the reader wondering just who is behind the mischief.

The Midnight Feast builds cleverly to a final crescendo of mayhem and death, while still being easy to read and never over-simplistic. All in all, a cracking read.

"The Midnight Feast" is a strong execution of the genre it belongs to.

Very atmospheric, heavy with the summer heat portrayed on the pages, with a well written mistery. I appreciate how Lucy Foley is able to write several character with first-person narrative and actually give each of them their own voice that matches their background and who they are in the story. It's definitely an admirable skill. Couple of red herrings and satisfying resolution.

The only thing that I became quite tired of is the overused trope of shady millionaires who would exercise their wealth and power that comes from it to protect themselves and not take ownership of their own actions written vis a vis good-natured and well-meaning characters who needed to go by with a lot less. But maybe it's a part of our social climate that paved its way to literally fiction as well.

🐦‍⬛Book Review 🐦‍⬛

“If you go down to the woods today, you’re in for a big surprise “
“If you go down to the woods today, you better go in disguise …”

This story centres around the opulent and beautiful ‘Manor’, a luxurious and exclusive retreat for the wealthy and insta worthy which was once a summer abode of a very wealthy and influential family. The latest owner of the Manor, Francesca, is the granddaughter of the owners back in the day, and a keen business woman with a head for the exclusive and divine.

Underneath the purity of Francesca’s public persona lurks someone who may not be as wholesome as she seems. However, she is happily married to Owen, a top notch architect who designed the beautiful retreat and nothing is too much for their guests who have paid exorbitant fees to attend the opening weekend; the Midsummer weekend which will be full of the celebrations of nature and the beautiful Devon surroundings.

But there is a sparrow in their wake, a dropped stitch in the blanket of serenity. A woman with an axe to grind and a debt to be paid. But how and why are the questions to ask and as this is a place where the locals consider retribution as something to be handled quietly and deserving punishments to be delivered appropriately, just how much danger is Francesca, Owen and Sparrrow in?

Told through a dual timeline between now and fifteen years ago, the reader is very quickly pulled into one hell of a ride. The story is told through the eyes of the four main characters and together, these weave an intricate and bloomin jaw dropping picture. Nothing is as it seems. No one is who they seem. Nothing is clear.

I absolutely loved this book! The turns kept me guessing constantly and I really didn’t see what the final outcomes were going to be. I read The Guest List a few months ago and now this 🤯 I have now put all of Lucy Foley’s books on my Goodreads tbr! 🤣🤣 I bloody loved it. What a fantastic thriller 🥂🐦‍⬛🥰


I’d like to thank Harper Collins, NetGalley and the author for the arc and the fantastic opportunity, in exchange for my honest feedback 😊

Book released on 6th June 2025

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

I loved this!! Always been a massive Lucy foley fan and this was as good as I expected! The setting was gorgeous (love a destination thriller!) and the characters were so well written, amazing book!

Another great page turner from Lucy Foley! Some good twists and I liked the character development. The dual timelines worked well to keep the mystery going until the very end.

The Midnight Feast is a masterclass in atmospheric storytelling, weaving together suspense, folklore, and complex character dynamics. Lucy Foley delivers a gripping narrative that immerses readers in the eerie allure of The Manor, a luxurious eco-retreat on the Dorset coast.

From the outset, Foley sets a chilling tone: a house fire, a body at the cliff's base, and a community brimming with secrets. The story unfolds through multiple perspectives and timelines, a technique Foley employs with finesse, allowing readers to piece together the mystery from various angles .

The characters are richly drawn, each harboring their own motives and secrets. Francesca Meadows, the retreat's owner, is a particularly compelling figure—her transformation from a mean girl to a wellness guru adds depth to the narrative . The interplay between the guests and the locals, set against the backdrop of the summer solstice celebration, heightens the tension and keeps the pages turning.

Foley's prose is evocative, painting vivid images of the coastal setting and the opulent yet unsettling atmosphere of The Manor. The incorporation of local folklore, particularly the legend of the Birds, adds a layer of mystique that lingers long after the final page .

A slow-burning mystery set against the backdrop of a luxury coastal retreat, The Midnight Feast delivers atmospheric tension but doesn’t quite reach the heights of Foley’s best work.

✨ A glamorous grand opening with dark secrets 💀 Old betrayals resurface 📚 Multiple POVs & tangled relationships

While the setting is rich and immersive, the pacing feels uneven, and some twists lack the shock factor expected from Foley’s thrillers. The multi-POV structure adds intrigue, but certain perspectives feel underdeveloped, making it harder to stay fully engaged.

If you enjoy slow-burn mysteries with layered characters, this is worth a read.

Forget ginger beer and cakes sent from home, this midnight feast is completely different with mysterious, threatening birds and a shadow of death enveloping everything. In this heady novel, Foley recreates the sensual and lethargic feelings you get in the height of summer, particularly when it is the summer solstice. However, the weekend party at The Manor is fuelled by revenge over events that took place fifteen years ago. Thanks to the dramatic opening, readers know that this party just cannot end well.

I really enjoyed how readers played detective as Foley eventually reveals connections between the guests and employees at The Manor. This meant that there were plenty of surprises along the way, ending to the suspense of the story. Furthermore, as the novel jumps between characters and time frames, it means it takes a while before you get the full picture of what is happening. At first this structure meant I struggled to engage with the narrative because I found it difficult to keep track of the different identities however, it definitely was worth persevering.

The journal entries informs the plot of what brings the characters in present day to The Manor. Some of the characters here had nicknames which cleverly disguises their present day identity. I found this journal entry made the plot a bit more predictable than I hoped for and I thought there was too much teenage angst than I wanted. Alison feels an outsider, is unlucky in love and tries to reshape herself in order to fit in with the “rich kids”. It’s a story I have seen too often and felt weaker compared to the events at The Manor.

Sometimes the plot felt a bit far-fetched but I think this reflected the indulgent and slightly supernatural element of the party and the summer solstice. I liked trying to figure out how the characters were all connected, especially when presented with the devastation the day after the solstice. On the other hand, the rich versus poor, the holiday makers versus locals felt like echoes of previous stories and I was hoping Foley would do something just a little bit different.

A good bit of escapism, perfect for the beach and maybe one to read on the longest day of the year.

With thanks to Harper Collins and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Super fast paced read! I thought the setting was great. Lucy Foley has mastered the art of tactful humour and I was shocked that she had me chuckling out loud (a rarity for me)! In addition, it’s common to find books with a multitude of characters overwhelming and confusing, however, The Midnight Feast didn’t just bring them to life, but successfully linked everything in the end. I was starting to become slightly frustrated at the mentions of The Birds and questioned what their relevance was but it was worth it… that final line was phenomenal! Overall, this is a great easy read and thriller read that offers a less heavy approach than others.

Lucy Foley, one of my favorite authors, has done it again with The Midnight Feast—a haunting, atmospheric thriller that hooked me from page one. Her immersive prose and gift for setting a scene are unmatched; she pulls you in so completely that you can almost feel the damp chill in the air and hear the whisper of secrets in the trees.

Set during the grand opening weekend of the luxury wellness retreat, the Manor Hotel, on the rugged coast, the story unfolds as a fire breaks out, secrets unravel, and the dark history of the land begins to resurface.

This is easily my favorite Foley book to date, with an ending—especially that final line—that was haunting and perfectly fitting. It really resonated with me.

Read this if you like:
• Slow-burning psychological thrillers with rich atmosphere
• Stories set in luxurious wellness retreats with underlying darkness
• Modern settings blended with ancient folklore and pagan rituals
• Creepy symbolic mysteries
• Deep character studies with secrets, guilt, and reinvention
• Morally bankrupt characters you can’t look away from
• Themes of family, ambition, betrayal, identity, and the masks we wear
• Non-linear timelines weaving between past and present
• Multiple points of view that enrich and complicate the story
• Short chapters with cliffhanger endings and a final line that leaves a lasting chill


My Rating: 5 out of 5

Publication Date: June 6, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollinsUK Harper’s Fiction for the e-ARC.

As of fan of Lucy Foley’s other works, I was excited to read Midnight Feast. The atmosphere and description had me intrigued and I was ready to dive in. I must say though, the story wasn’t very memorable. I requested this on Net Galley to read and didn’t realized I already read it last summer after it was published. I gave it 3 stars at the time I read it, but had not written a review to go alongside my rating. So here it goes:

The Midnight Feast is written in the fashion typical of its author, with many POVs and twisting timelines. Usually this works for me but in the case of this work, it did not. I remember feeling like the characters were very confusing and that I wished there had been a little tighter of a story.

The diary entries were interesting but I felt like they were merely a device to break up the story and build suspense; the element of mystery occurred merely because the story was still unfolding, and not because it was twisty and turny.

Overall, a forgettable piece of work. Whereas, Lucy Foley’s “The Paris Aparment” is one of my favourite books I’ve read. I know she has a signature style but I wish that Foley would be a little less predictable in her work.

Thanks Net Galley for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Midnight Feast is Midsommar in Dorset. It has a rich background in folklore, twists at every turn, and a gripping multi POV story that switches between past, present and future. My first ever Lucy Foley book was The Hunting Party, and I didn't think crime fiction could ever get any better than that. The Midnight Feast IS better than that.

I loved the character dynamics, the huge reveal at the end, and that every character seemed fleshed out and flawed in their own ways. It didn't leave me wanting for a character arc, it left me rooting for certain characters and yearning for revenge on their behalf. Foley has incredibly reliable writing in that you can go into any of their books and know you're about to be taken on a absolute ride.

I really enjoyed this book and devoured it in less than a day. It was so extreme I found myself avoiding my everyday tasks and spending way longer charging my phone in a Starbucks than I needed just so I could continue reading the ending.