Book Review and Giveaway: The Christmas Party

This is our post during the blog tour for The Christmas Party by Mikayla Davids. The Christmas Party is an addictive psychological thriller with a jaw dropping twist.

This blog tour is organized by Lola's Blog Tours and the tour runs from 19 till 31 December. You can see the tour schedule here.

The Christmas Party

by Mikayla Davids

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Age category: Adult

Release Date: 12 November 2022

Synopsis:

A family reunion. A shocking secret. A night to die for…

On a snowy December night, the Bailey family are gathered at an isolated hotel in the English countryside. They’re reuniting for the first time since the accident that shattered their lives ten years ago.

It’s a time for love and forgiveness. But more than one guest has an ulterior motive:

The perfect daughter

The alcoholic

The single mother

The liar

The handsome husband

The adulterer

The beautiful sister

The jealous sibling

The murderer…

As the clock strikes midnight, one member of the party is found dead at the foot of the grand marble staircase.

Everyone is a suspect. But which one of them is a killer?

This completely addictive psychological thriller is packed with chilling twists that will keep you up all night. Perfect for fans of The Hunting Party and The Chalet.

 

Review by Sara Steven

The Christmas Party focused heavily on the estrangement between three sisters and their mother, who lived through a horrible event in their past, unable to truly move on. While two of the sisters, Sasha and Leah, have managed to maintain some semblance of a relationship with their mother, the third sister, Erin, has not been part of the family circle in over a decade. The reason behind it is spread out over the course of the novel, and while I feel it might not have needed its own chapters told from Erin’s past perspective in order to allow the reader the chance to see what caused the rift, the event itself is a believable reason. It made sense.

Each sister has their own reasons for wanting to be reunited, and many of them aren’t meant to repair family ties and work on their damaged relationships. Erin wants to show off where she is in her life, while Sasha had to be dragged kicking and screaming, mostly sticking around due to morbid curiosity and feeling as though she needs to respect her mother’s wishes. Leah wonders if the isolated hotel holds a potential love interest; someone who can provide and make life easier for her. The sisters shroud their true meanings for attending the party with supposed family love, until more than one truth slips out, threatening to unravel everything.

At first, I wasn’t sure what would make this book a thriller, feeling more like it might fit under the drama category. Yet, when a dead body is found splayed out “starfish style” on the floor, I could totally see why The Christmas Party is labeled that way. I honestly had no clue “who dunnit.” There are so many people to choose from, and many have a motive. In fact, there’s a scene at the end of one chapter which made me think it could be Erin, but when Erin accuses Sasha, I could see why she did that. Their mother isn’t off limits either, but really, the best thrillers are the ones that aren’t so obvious, and the answer isn’t obvious here. 

Despite its wholesome title, The Christmas Party was anything but. It’s a thriller. It’s drama. It’s filled with some twists and turns, and it was fun trying to figure out who was murdered, and even better, why it was done in the first place, while all of it is set in a gentle, peaceful setting, meant to elevate the starkness of reality. It was a fun, suspenseful experience. 

Thanks to Lola's Blog Tours for the book in exchange for an honest review.

Links:
Goodreads * Bookbub * Amazon

About the Author:
I'll let you into a little secret... Mikayla Davids isn't my real name, it's just the pen name I write under. I could be the person sitting opposite you on the train, furiously tapping away at a laptop, or the woman scribbling in a notebook on the table beside you in Starbucks. Everyone has their secrets. And this is mine.

But I will tell you I've lived and breathed fictional worlds all my life. I've been the child who spent hours in the library, the teenager who stayed up turning pages way into the night, the publishing editor who poured every working hour into helping authors achieve their dreams of being published. Now I'm the secret writer who's finally ready to share my own stories.

I write about family dramas, complicated relationships and everyday moments that can suddenly turn into nightmares.

I hope you've been gripped and entertained by my novels. I'd love to hear from you if so, you can contact me across any of my social media pages or sign up to my newsletter.

Author links:
Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram
Amazon * Goodreads * Newsletter

Giveaway:

There is a tour wide giveaway for the blog tour of The Christmas Party. Two winner both win an ecopy of The Christmas Party by Mikayla Davids and get to name a character in the sequel to The Christmas Party (US Only).

For a chance to win, enter the Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway ends January 6th.

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