Fun beach read that, in my opinion, tried too hard to be more. Also, the big hidden family scandal was so yawn worthy it’s not even worth reviewing. Overall, quick and forgettable but not badly written.

Family drama encompassing a political extended family. Ethics are blurry for some characters, sharp for others. The interplay between the various characters, blood relatives or extras, made for an interesting book.

Okay, this book is so good, they have to be making it into a Netflix series! A political family on vacation agrees to allow a production crew to film their summer in hopes of setting the next generation on the path to further success. But the patriarch has announcements to make that will leave no one happy. His four sons must adjust their goals as they figure out how their father's plans affect each of them. While the men of the family absorb the news and prepare for change, the women make their own decisions; and everyone knows it's the women who keep lives running smoothly. The family dynamic in this book is central yet complex enough to leave cracks that let readers see that not everything is as it seems. And it's all on camera! Meg Little Reilly, I'm not sure why I had never read any of your books before...but that's about to change!

Is this doesn't grab you .... This book is a review for an arc I received on #Netgalley #netgalleyreview #themisfortunesodfamily #meglittlereiley a man who is a retiring politician, his wife, their sons, and the extras. Their parents sign up for a documentary where the family is to be watched/recorded during the summer. Where that journey will take you is one that will keep you up at night turning the pages. It's an amazing story of family, marriage, and the secrets we keep. #mystery #family #marriage #Brightfamily #bookreader #booksofinstagram #books📚 this book is a definite read and will be a great addition to your #beachreads

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this ARC!

In Meg Little Reilly's The Misfortunes of Family, readers are introduced to the Brights - a political family with a touch of Kennedy magic whose menfolk are buffeted by scandal, unfulfilled political ambition, and who try to make use of incidents of terrorism to find their way back to the light that should rightly flock to their name. Reilly plays an interesting game of bait and switch with the reader, however. On the surface, the book seems to be about the bright men - the powerful ex-Senator looming over all - but its actually a book about women and the choices women make when it comes to family. The most interesting scenes in the book focus on Farah, a documentarian trailing the Senator in hopes of reviving her career, and her attempt to riddle out the truth of the Bright brother who is least like the rest of his famous family. Another key player is the "extra" (what she calls spouses who are not Brights) Mary Beth who is raising the next generation of Bright men and trying to mold them into good men even as they mold versions of themselves on social media. There's also Chelsea, a Bright girlfriend who has to decide if the sacrifices the Brights demand she make in order to be part of their world are worthwhile. The character who plays the biggest role of all is also a woman, but Reilly hides her in plain sight and I don't want to ruin the twist for you. Suffice it to say that readers interested in how we construct ourselves in a world with social media and the 24 hour news cycle will be caught up in the political drama of the Brights - but so will readers who grapple with what it means to be part of a family.

This book was great. I loved the family dynamics and how the story was told from the point of view of the “extras.” It’s also a reminder that a life in a political family would be DREADFUL. This was a book about a lot of people who aren’t so very nice but you find yourself rooting for them anyway.

Family secrets and drama! What sets this apart from much of the genre is that it's about the four sons (vice daughters or a mix). of retired Senator John Bright and it's told from the POV of their extras (how insulting is that to their partners!). Three weeks in the Berkshires would be tense under the best of circumstances for this crew but add in the fact that a documentary filmmaker is there filming and well, it gets dark in spots (don't worry, not that dark). JJ, Spenser, and Charlie all have their issues but Phillip has a whopper that will throw things off balance. John is so self absorbed that he doesn't see that another run for office is not in his or anyone else's best interest. Several of these people are not particularly likable but you might recognize them from your own life. How did Patty deal with all of this for all those years? Denial? Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A story of a family that has to face facts.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Mira Books, and Meg Little Reilly for the opportunity to read and review her latest book. I have enjoyed this author's other books and really enjoyed delving into her latest.

The Brights are a political family - John Sr is a recently retired US Senator. He and his wife, Patty, have 4 boys, each struggling in their own way to live up to the family name. Summer means spending time in the Berkshires with the family and the extras (I love that way of describing the sons' significant others). This year, John Sr has allowed Farah, a documentary filmmaker, to spend the month with them filming their daily lives. When a devastating family secret comes out right as the Senator announces his candidacy for governor, the family has to look a bit deeper into what being a Bright means.

While the Bright family occupies that elite, moneyed, power spot that our regular families can't relate to, there is still much to relate to in this book - after all, families are families, with all the good, bad and in between. This book is written mostly from the viewpoint of the extras, Farah included, to allow us a bit more of an outsider's look into the family dynamics. A great read!

I liked reading about the Bright family and enjoyed the writing, but the end POV was pretty powerful and made me think about what that would have been like interspersed through the story. Solid read, I'll read more by Meg Little Reilly.

Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

i really enjoyed this one but felt the pace a little slow in the middle. I love family dramas and found myself invested in the family. Overall, well written, a quick read with a great ending.

This title grabbed me because I'm a sucker for a great ensemble family cast and tales about the misadventures of the rich. My experience reading the book was mixed though. Also the title is just fabulous!

The page-turning was pleasant and rollicking enough; I felt like I was on a resplendent vacation with this wealthy political family. Added to that was the POV of the documentarian recording their summer, though with her own agenda, who falls in love in spite of herself with one of the brothers. There's lots of drama too, and political intrigue, and psychodrama, and a twist at the end. However, the dramatic turns didn't pack as much of a punch for me as they could have -- I just did not feel emotional connect with the characters -- even the ones I really really wanted to feel something toward, I did not (the "others" -- the matriarch Patty, Mary, Phillip, Charlie's girlfriend, and the reporter). The brothers aside from Philip felt shallow and limp, and the father just seemed like a real jerk!

On the whole though this was a fun read with great drama, just not as much character dimension as I enjoy. I will definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoyed The Nest or other family ensemble tales. There are fun twists aplenty. Thank you!

This book was really well written and the storyline was good. It was little flat for me at parts but for the most part I enjoyed it.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a truly engaging read. I enjoyed the story a lot but I do feel like it was missing something.. I just cannot figure out what it is. I really loved the character and the story but something was missing.

I really enjoyed the twists and turns through this story and how the family dynamic in this book. It felt very relateable but also entertaining.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me to review this title.

The Bright family is the personification of the political dynasties we know. During a trip to the home of the Bright patriarchs all four of their sons become involved in the unraveling of years of parental machinations and lies.

This was really a great read with interesting characters. I was totally engaged and willing to accept some of the clearly absurd situations that are built into the story. Rather than question them, I let myself enjoy this good read with incredibly likable characters.

Thanks Netgalley.

I enjoyed this book! The documentary angle puts an interesting spin on a family drama. The story is well-paced and I liked that it was told from the perspective of the “extras”.

The story started out a bit slow, little hard to figure out all the players. Seemed like it was going to be a typical theme of all goes great, small hiccup and then huge family make up. Wow.... nice twists and turns...leading to a very unlikely end.

A family of a retired senator gathers for a few weeks at their vacation home to shoot a documentary. The documentary is supposed to be about how his retirement is going, ends up being about so much more.
The Bright family is big and beautiful and flawed, although they don't want you to know it. Seen through the eyes of the "extras" in the family, Reilly shows how any family, even the perfect seeming can be damaged.

I always enjoy a good family drama. I loved that this was not see through the immediate family but through their spouses and the documentarian, Farrah. However, I would have liked more information about the Senator and his wife, who seemed just as interesting if not more than their kids. The ending should have felt huge since there was enough of a build up, but ended up feeling small and not worth it. You know something is coming and then feel like "is that it?"

You would think that anyone in public life these days would know that their past will eventually catch up with them - you only have to watch the news! The secrets of retired politician John Bright and his wife Patty are revealed, throwing the family with their four grown sons into turmoil. Suddenly this family that seemed too good to be true is revealed to be exactly that. But the truth can also bring the family together again.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I was not expecting to like this book but was pleasantly surprised, I loved it. Exciting family drama.

I was given a free e-arc from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The first 90 percent of this book was a solid, enjoyable 5 star read. It was well written, and covered interesting themes, such as family, loyalty, what it means to belong. The main characters were all likeable, flawed and only a little bit "typed" (political wife, gay professor, sensitive brother etc) .
It troddles along very satisfyingly, and then starts ramping up the DRAMA, which is fine. That's not where it starts to go wrong.

The book is written in third person, and focuses on the POV of the 'extras" not the Bright family itself, but their partners. For no explicable reason, at 95percent there is a chapter written in first person. Its a very short chapter, but it jars. And then the book moves on to "three months later" where it explains how everything got resolved. The ending is so rushed and trite for a book that is otherwise well paced and thoughtful. It detracted from the rest of the book, and that's a shame, since the rest of the book was a 5 star read. I will look out for other books by Meg Little Reilly, because this book showed so much potential.