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The Dinner Party
Nina Manning
Publication Date: March 16th, 2025
Boldwood Books
272 Pages
Amazon | Goodreads | Bookshop.org
Genres: Thriller | Mystery | Suspense
Nina Manning is a hit-and-miss author for me. I enjoyed her book The Bridesmaid, but The Waitress was a flop. I am sorry to say that The Dinner Party falls in with the latter title. The current rating for this book is 3.27 stars, and that seems very generous to me.
My first problem with the book was the fact that Lily had many complaints about her husband. Why did she marry him if he doesn’t talk about his past or his family? If that is what bugs her, then she should have never married him in the first place. Secondly, if she doesn’t want kids, why not just say so? This just seems a stupidly immature way for 35 and 40-year-olds to behave.
I’m not sure if it was meant to be a thriller, more like a psychological suspense, and it failed miserably on both fronts. I know the pacing is deliberately slow. Over and over again, the characters discuss various appetizers, only to have the actual dinner itself be rushed and anticlimactic. There was no tension, just boredom. The characters were like immature teenagers from a bad soap opera. Every interaction felt forced, every secret revealed was figured out in advance, and the twists were very predictable, too.
And the writing? Let’s just say I’ve read grocery lists with more compelling prose. The dialogue was stilted, the descriptions were overdone, and the attempts at suspense were not effective at all. I spent more time rolling my eyes and shaking my head than turning pages. If you’re looking for a book that will keep you on the edge of your seat or even mildly entertained, The Dinner Party is not for you.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.
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