This book was okay. I enjoyed it but it was nothing spectacular. The "fun" description of this book, along with its cover page is what prompted me to read it although the description was not too accurate. Sure, the book was entertaining but I wouldn't describe it as fun--or "hilarious debut" like Goodreads states. I feel like I've seen too many movies about exes trying to spend the holidays together. I enjoyed the author's writing style though.

I read this during the holidays spent with a niece with the manners of a stapler who works in ya publishing never disconnects from her devices and expects somehow to be
taken care of by the industry so that made the book even more fun. I read it more for the writing and characters the plot seemed a bit
inconsequential.

A fun dysfunctional family novel set during the holidays—this would be an especially good read for anyone who enjoys a bit of cringe comedy.

Divorced couple takes their daughter on a holiday with their new partners .... what could go wrong? A great read that has humor, a little mystery and a lot of dysfunction in the book! Thoroughly enjoyed the book and definitely recommend it!

If you like all things cringeworthy, look no further for your next comedic read. Here is a dysfunctional, blended "family" which surely many of us can relate to: Matt and Claire are parents to Scarlett, a 7-year-old whose best friend is an invisible, giant, talking purple rabbit named Posey, who currently lives with Claire and her boyfriend Patrick, while Matt lives with his girlfriend Alex, seeing Scarlett only intermittently throughout the last 3 years. Hoping to finally spend another Christmas as a family, Matt suggests doing just that- planning a trip out to Happy Forest Lodge with Claire, Scarlett, and their new partners. The ensuing story answers the questions: "What could go wrong?" again and again and again....

The first few pages detail an emergency call Alex placed in response to one of the guys' being shot on the archery course on Christmas Eve, and the rest of the book details the haphazard geniality over the week before that led up to the dire injury. Following the POVs of Patrick, the obsessively anal rule-follower and hopeful Ironman, Alex, the practical, oft humorless non-drinking scientist, and Scarlett, the precocious child relying on the help of her imaginary friend to reunite her parents and push Alex out of all their lives, Hulse's sweet and uncomfortable novel led me through a predictable, albeit entertaining romp through a well-tended resort in the back woods of the UK. Would recommend as a palate cleanser between heavier reads!

Claire and Matt decide to celebrate Christmas together as a family for their daughter, Scarlett, even though they are no long together and have new significant others. You know the ending of the book at the very beginning but you don't know how four civil adults end up there until the climax of the book. There's a role reversal in this book, with the four adults acting childish and Scarlett, the actual child, being more adult than those around her. Sometimes funny, the characters are not very likable but recognizable.

Great read! I really enjoyed this story. The premise seems very normal with the divorced parents wanting to do what's best for the child. What could go wrong when they all go on vacation together? The characters are wonderful and at times like people I know. I received a copy from NetGalley and the publisher and this is my honest opinion.

If you are an adult, you will enjoy reading this book. I read it as a 30 year old woman who has been divorced and has two children. This is just one of those books that makes you keenly aware of what is so good about your life and helps you reexamine your own questionable choices.

Apologies that you’re going to be seeing Christmas book reviews so late (knowing how I review, probably in February or March), but when I take a vacation I really take a vacation and don’t log on/post reviews so it is was it is.

Wow, this kind of has a low rating. It was also a mixed bag with my friends. But for me????? Haters gonna hate, but I love love loooooooved it. And you should totally trust me because I'm never wrong. I mean I haven’t been told I suck turtles in like MONTHS now guys ; )

First off, it starts with a 911 call reporting someone has been shot . . . . WITH. AN. ARROW. Ummmm yes please. Also, reminiscent of the hen party gone bad in In A Dark, Dark Wood. But this one promised it would be darkly funny so not exactly the same? Whatever. My brain makes connections the way it wants – I’ve given up trying to fight it.

In case you aren’t aware, the premise here is that Claire, Matt and their daughter Scarlett – oh and Scarlett’s best pal .- are going to have a combined Christmas with Claire’s boyfriend Patrick and Matt’s girlfriend Alex. It’s the epitome of co-parenting and as Clark once said it’s sure to be the “hap-hap-happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap danced with Danny Fucking Kaye.” Or as Matt says . . . .

“If barking royals like Prince Andrew and Fergie can manage it, we should be OK. We’re all normal, right?”

Okay, so The Adults had like my FAVE.O.RITE. things. # 1 . . . . dysfunctional family.

Seriously. Nothing makes me feel like I’m not so fucked up like reading about other people who are not so fucked up either . . . wait, that’s not right. Or it shouldn’t be, but much like the Griswolds or the McAlister’s – these people put the FUN in dysfunction. They aren’t perfect, but they’re trying their best.

#2 . . . . THE MOST WONDERFUL TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME OF THE YEEEEEEEAAAAAAARRRRRRR!


For realz. Christmas is my crack. Normally I’d have like eleventy thousand photos to prove how much Christmas spirit I barf out all over my house in the form of overly decorated trees in every room, but I think I spent way more hours spending money I don’t have and actually doing the decorating this year than admiring my handiwork. Also, I did things like read in my Christmas jammies . . . . and watched traditional Christmas movies like Die Hard . . . . and hung out with a horrible little psycho kitten (who can only sleep upside down because he is part vampire????) . . . . and also publicly shamed myself sending my family members photos like my cats on the kitchen island eating turkey carcass as soon as I turned my back to make the gravy. . . .

Who let’s this happen? Garbage humans, that’s who.

Anyway, all that non-reviewing nonsense is to let you know that maybe I was just in the right place at the right time for this, but whatever the case was I absolutely loved it.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Hey, at least I gave you a decent Instagram pic for once since you got a shitty bit of nothing in this write up!

Darkly funny, as well as twisty, the plot of this book is fascinating and this was a delight to read. All of the characters have ulterior motives, but they aren't all good or all bad. The best part is that they are portrayed realistically and the twists aren't gratuitous. I enjoyed this one!

A holiday with your current partner, your ex and her partner sounds fun right? Right? Right? WRONG!
This book is about Matt and Claire, who are divorced and want to spend Christmas with their child. But it’s not that simple, they also have live in partners in their respective lives whom they bring along. Together for 5 days at a family holiday park! Perfect plan for a perfect disaster.
This was a fun read, filled with confusions and misunderstandings. Oh and an invisible 🐰!

I love a good snarky story (Skipping Christmas is my all-time favorite) about family drama happenings around the holidays so I went into this one with high hopes. Honestly, you would think that a story about exes vacationing together with their new partners and the child they share could be uproariously entertaining but not only did I find this one dull and lackluster but I don't recall laughing a single time. I know this was well-loved by many, however, even though it wasn't a bad story in the least it just wasn't anything that I anticipated when I went into this.

This book was ok, rather drawn out to my thinking. A weekend at a holiday park at Christmas time: for a 7 year old girl and 4 adults ( 2 couples) Exes and their new partners.


Living in close proximity to each other for a weekend-not the best plan.


A 911 call states that a man was shot at the archery range with an arrow.


The little girl Scarlett has an imaginary friend, Posey a purple rabbit that goes everywhere with her.
She doesn't like her dad's girlfriend,, Alex..

Arguments and insults abound when Alex gets drunk and insults Claire (Scarlett's mother). There's also a case of male hormones-jealousy.

Tempers are faring at a high level when 3 of the foursome are at the archery range. The load up their bows and threaten to shoot each other. Claire shoots Patrick (her boyfriend) in the shoulder because she thought her ex (Matt) was going to shot him. She claims she saved Mat's life by shooting Patrick.


Alex drops Scarlett off at a burlesque dance class before going to the archery range. They agree on a story that to tell the authorities that Alex shot Patrick by accident (this protects Claire from losing custody of Scarlett or worse..

The authorities don't believe their story but have no idea who did the actual shooting.

While they were at the park Patrick noticed an old girlfriend and managed to have everyone stay at the cabin next to her.

Patrick wants to keep the arrow that shot him an display it in a case over the mantel.
l
At the end of the book Patrick is telling the authorities that everyone got on well, no fights.





.

This sounded like a fun Christmas story where a divorced couple decide to have Christmas vacation together for their daughter. And bring their new partners with them. A weekend where the four of them will make it great fun for their daughter, Scarlett.

Well, things didn't quite turn out so magical and perfect! There were some funny moments but it didn't entertain me like I expected. Don't get me wrong, it was good and a light read at the holidays.

I didn't really connect with any of the characters except maybe Scarlett's imaginary rabbit! He had some of the best lines to make me laugh.

* I was provided an ARC to read from the publisher and NetGalley. It was my decision to read and review this book.

Perhaps the first mistake was in marketing this as a comedy because in that regard it definitely falls short of the mark, and once I realized I wasn't going to be amused, it was hard for me to get into this book. 4 adults (two of them ex-es) and the daughter they share travel to a holiday get-away to spend Christmas together. Nevermind the fact that none of the characters are terribly likable, the situation just isn't funny. I felt like an unwanted onlooker thrown into the most uncomfortable domestic dispute ever.

Unfortunately, I think the mismarketing led me to have more negative feelings about this book than it probably warrants. The shifting prose is a nice technique that propels the story forward without getting bogged down in the narrative. Posey the imaginary bunny is sweet and clever, even if misguided on the job details of scientists, and may be my favorite character of the novel. The characters are well written, if predictably flawed and relatable even when they are unlikable. I suspect many will find more enjoyment of this book than I did. I went looking for a light holiday read, and that isn't what I found.

The Adults is a fun read that will keep you chuckling page after page. It is a good read during the holiday season especially if you can relate to blended families. This is my first book to read by Caroline Hulse and will definitely be reading more of her books.

I’m writing these words on December 24, 2018, which is rather apropos because I’ve just finished up reading what amounts to being a Christmas novel — or a novel that’s set in the days leading up to Christmas in any event. Caroline Hulse’s The Adults is kind of a comedy thriller with a Christmas setting, as it involves a group of ex-lovers spending time with their families together at a holiday theme park somewhere in Britain. That’s the funny part. The thriller bit comes into play when one of these characters gets shot with an arrow (because this is the UK and all) and the novel becomes sort of a whodunnit and then, once you think you’ve figured that out, a whydunnit. Twisty and turny The Adults is.

However, the premise may have you saying “Bah Humbug!” Yes, even the ancillary characters in The Adults question the sanity of ex-lovers sharing a house at Christmastime. Who in their right mind would do this sort of thing, especially when there’s also a bit of a love triangle that emerges from the murk, which again may have readers questioning the set-up? You see, you have Matt and Alex happily carrying on, but Matt was once married to Claire, with whom they had a child: seven-year-old Scarlett. Claire is now in a relationship with Patrick, who is missing his own children this Christmas just to be with Matt, Alex, Claire and Scarlett in a Christmas village theme park. Complicating matters is that the woman Patrick had a crush on as a teenager has shown up in the lodge just next door to Patrick’s extended family. As you can imagine, nasty hijinx ensue — except that these hijinx and arguments and whatnot may or may not eventually lead to murder. (Or was the shooting just a harmless little accident?)

Oh, and further muddying things up is the fact that Scarlett has an overactive imagination and has a human-sized stuffed rabbit companion named Posey that talks to her. What this element is doing in a book like this is questionable — it’s already stuffed to the gills with people bickering and arguing and being everything but an adult, so I’m not sure where author Hulse was going with this particular bit of narrative arc. Is Posey just a stand-in for the fact that Scarlett is trying to make sense of the very adult world of divorce? Or is something else going on? It’s hard to say because Posey kind of just “appears” magically one day. Posey is based on a favourite toy that seems to have gotten lost somewhere, but this character is pretty much all surface and exists a bit as comedic relief more than anything else. Posey is a narrative device then — and a shaky one at that — and not much more.

To be honest, while the book is enjoyable in a kind of trashy way, it’s hard to really get into this novel — much less at Christmastime — when every character is at every other character’s throats. Basically, the plot of this novel could be summed up by humming the theme song to The Itchy and Scratchy Show from The Simpsons. (Doesn’t it go, “We fight. And fight. And fight and fight and fight. Fight, fight, fight. Fight, fight, fight?” Well, something like that I suppose.) Yes, that means that these characters are often not very likable, and, to fill up a thread-bare story to novel length, the characters get into arguments over the stupidest of things, such as jealousy over a karaoke duet that gets a little steamy. That’s when characters aren’t “overacting.” Alex, at one point, notes that she doesn’t drink alcohol, but then decides to have a glass of wine, and immediately starts going off the rails once she’s had barely a sip of the golden goblet. I can’t make up my mind as to whether or not this plot element is meant to be predictable in its treatment of alcohol as a potent potable or just unbelievable. Or both.

In any event, I found The Adults to be equal parts fun in a dumpster dive kind of way and utterly annoying. It’s completely unbelievable from the get-go (again, would you get together with both your partner and one of your exes for a Christmas holiday?). It also suffers from a resolution that tries to be a “happy ending” for everyone involved, even if little matters such as criminal culpability come into play. Basically, this book is meant to be read as though you don’t believe a single minute of it for it to have any sort of impact whatsoever. It’s a glitter ball of mess and mayhem, all set with the most family of family holidays as a backdrop. If you look up the definition of “unbelievable” in the dictionary, a little picture of the book cover will appear.

In the end, I don’t know how I feel about The Adults. It’s utterly silly. But it’s also like a very bad train-wreck that you can’t entirely look away from, either. I suppose if you know going into it to not take it very seriously and that it’s filled with over the top high relationship drama, then maybe you might enjoy it and get something out of it. It’s not particularly well crafted, but, on the other hand, if you have one of those families that do nothing but bicker at Christmas get-togethers, you might enjoy the never-ending and constant disagreements these characters have over things big and small. Yes, the ending is a bit too pat and there is a missed opportunity in this book for really black and dark comedy, but it is what it is. The Adults is just an enjoyable time filler. Props to you if you can read this book at Christmas and not have it drive you crazy with all of the background commotion going on. Me? I think I need to go and lie down after reading this novel. Remind me to never invite anyone I had a past relationship with to any sort of holiday gatherings again, this book included.

I found all of the characters in this book unlikable. I expected the adults in this book be behave badly but it was a bit over the top. They didn't seem to recognize their own childlike behavior. I would not recommend this book.

Thanks to Netgalley for my copy.

This book is billed as "The most hilarious debut you will read this year" It isn't, it is however a fun read with some unlikeable characters but also a funny little girl with a an imaginary rabbit as a friend. The interaction between these two was cheeky and adorable.

The parents of Scarlett are divorced but amazingly decide to spend Christmas away together with their respective new partners. What could go wrong? Well as it turns out nearly everything, jealousy and recriminations added with alcohol is never going to turn out well. This was a good read but not what the publishers are trying to bill it as. I will definitely read more by this author.

This was an amusing book with a few laugh out loud sections. It starts with a call to emergency services to report that someone has been shot, then goes to where it all started, a Christmas getaway to the Happy Forest Holiday Park. The guests are seven year old Scarlett and her imaginary rabbit, her dad and his girlfriend and her mother and her boyfriend. They spend a long weekend there and tensions start to run high quite quickly. The archery scene towards the end is hilarious. A nice Christmas read.