THE CLUB

SYNOPSIS

Everyone's Dying to Join . . .

The Home Group is a glamorous collection of celebrity members' clubs dotted across the globe, where the rich and famous can party hard and then crash out in its five-star suites, far from the prying eyes of fans and the media.

The most spectacular of all is Island Home—a closely-guarded, ultraluxurious resort, just off the English coast—and its three-day launch party is easily the most coveted A-list invite of the decade.

But behind the scenes, tensions are at breaking point: the ambitious and expensive project has pushed the Home Group's CEO and his long-suffering team to their absolute limits. All of them have something to hide—and that's before the beautiful people with their own ugly secrets even set foot on the island. 

As tempers fray and behavior worsens, as things get more sinister by the hour and the body count piles up, some of Island Home’s members will begin to wish they’d never made the guest list.

Because at this club, if your name’s on the list, you’re not getting out.

Title: The club

Author: Ellery Lloyd

Publisher: Mantle

Publication date: March 31, 2022

REVIEW

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐💫

The blurb reads “There’s no place like Home” (if this is what Home is like I’d rather be Homeless) and “if your name’s on the list, you’re not getting out” (or you are…feet first!). With such a promising blurb and an island setting (you know I’m a sucker for an island setting) I knew I had to be a member of The Club, and over all I had a satisfying experience over there.

The Home Group, a collection of celebrity member clubs around the world, is launching their new project, Island Home, with a three day party event. Every A-list celeb would do anything to get an invite but, not all that glitters is gold and soon after the first guests arrive tensions will rise and a weekend of luxury and exclusiveness will prove deadly for some of them.

The story follows the often used trend in this kind of stories where we know right from the start that someone is dead, the question is who, and that won’t be revealed until the last pages. And let me tell you, there’s no shortage of candidates to die, and most of them would make great victims as most of the characters are truly despicable!

There’s Ned, the CEO and founder of the Home Group; Adam, his brother and reluctant right hand in the business; Annie, Head of Membership, who will do anything to keep celebs happy; Nikki, Ned’s PA, and who is hiding a big secret of her own; and Jess, Head of Housekeeping, who had an unexpected agenda when she interviewed for the position.

Those were the main players but there were several other characters that made it a bit hard to keep track of who was who, especially during the first half. Too many characters and too much info and backstory about them made me struggle a bit during the first half of the book. Even though it served to flesh out those minor characters, some of it didn’t really add up to the main plot. 

But be patient, cause the second half of the book won’t let you catch your breath with secrets and revelations galore! Some of them were really shocking! This second half was so much fun and the outcome really satisfying. Justice was served!

Although the pacing was a bit uneven, the main plot was very entertaining, so pick up a copy if you wanna read about the rich and famous suffering and getting (or not) their comeuppance.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pan MacMillan/Mantle for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.