Book Review: The Reunion Dinner (Busybodies Collection, #2) by Jesse Q. Sutanto

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The Reunion Dinner (Busybodies Collection, #2) by Jesse Q. Sutanto is the second book in the Busybodies Collection on Amazon Prime. It opens to an Asian American family gathering to celebrate the Chinese New Year when one of the guest unexpectedly dies. The cops are called, and the family matriarch is trying to figure out who committed murder. I enjoyed the first short story in this series so much that I decided to read the next in the series. These are all stand alone stories by different authors and are available to borrow for free or purchase from Amazon Prime. Unfortunately, I didn't care for this installment as the first one as I didn't care for the characters as much, and the main character seemed a little overbearing. However, I did like learning a little about the Chinese New Year, some of the food served, and a tradition or two.  What kept me from rating this story higher is that I absolutely hated the ending of the story. I won't say more as I don't want to g
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Book Review: The Party by Natasha Preston

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The Party by Natasha Preston opens with Bessie and her boarding school friends preparing to sneak out for Spring Break to throw a huge party in a rundown castle. Things start to go awry when a huge storm hits and keeps them secluded in the remote castle and the friends begin to be killed. Who is doing this and why?

A huge thank you goes out to NetGalley for providing me with an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of The Party for free in exchange for my honest review. I was excited to be approved for this book because I enjoyed The Island, at least until the ending, and thought The Dare was just okay, and I wanted to be able to compare her latest novel to the ones I had already read.

Preston did a fantastic job of having a lot of diverse characters. Despite there being quite a few characters, it wasn't too hard keeping them straight. However, I did have trouble remembering who Raif was at one point because he hadn't been mentioned in a while. Additionally, the characters weren't very developed, but that's to be expected with a Young Adult (YA) Horror novel. Surprisingly, there were quite a few likable characters. The only one I didn't really care for was Allegra. But again, I did end up changing my mind on a couple of the characters by the end of the story.

There were plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing, but I did figure out the identity of the killers and wasn't surprised in the least bit by their motive. However, The Party ended just as abruptly as The Island did. I don't care for abrupt endings and wanted a proper ending. It makes me wonder if the author had trouble wrapping up the ending.

All in all, I did enjoy the novel as it reminded me of the Point Horror Books from the 1980's and 1990's. It made me want to go back and reread some of my favorites from my childhood. If you have a tween or teen who likes horror, then they should enjoy The Party by Natasha Preston. And, if you're an adult like me and want something similar to read to the books they grew up with, you should enjoy it as well. The expected publication date is December 3, 2024 in the United States. Four out of five stars.

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