Title:	The Dinner Party
	Author:	Nina Manning
	Published:	March 16, 2025,Boldwood
	No. of Pages:	272
	Cover Price:	$33.95 Paperback, $18.99 Paperback, $2.99 Kindle

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Lily Leonard surprises her husband, Stig, for their fifth anniversary with a fancy dinner at an exclusive restaurant owned by a famous celebrity chef, Hector Bolson-Woods in a psychological thriller, The Dinner Party, by Nina Manning. Lily and Stig’s marriage is in trouble – her not wanting to have kids because he won’t communicate with her about his upbringing, and him not wanting to communicate with her about his childhood, being the main issues, as well as money. Lily hopes the dinner helps, but when the chef invites them to dine with him, and then issues invitations to his many homes, the marriage seems to get worse. It’s fairly evident that something bad is going to happen as Lily and Stig attend these dinner parties, but most readers won’t know what until the very end.

Manning has done a good job of developing her characters. Lily, the protagonist, is a selfish person, and is fairly unlikeable. Stig isn’t much better, and is uncommunicative and cold. The supporting characters are also dark and although they support the story and carry it along, are not people most readers would like to meet.

While the story flows, it is a bit boring, especially at first while it is told through Lily. Later, there is prose in third person about Stig and Hector. Readers will keep reading because they think something exciting or suspenseful will happen anytime. However, by the time something does happen, most readers will already have it figured out. There really isn’t that much suspense, and by the dénouement, most readers will just want to get it over with.

All told, the characters aren’t exciting, the story isn’t exciting, and the plot isn’t exciting.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.