I loved Catherine Steadman's previous book The Disappearing Act. so I was very happy to get an arc of The Family Game. Harry (Harriet) is engaged to Edward of the generational wealthy, powerful Holbeck family. Harriet is an orphan. Her parents died when she was very young. So now that she is pregnant with Edward's child, all she wants is a family of her own. But Harry has a secret that could make her lose everything.. Upon meeting the Holbeck family, Robert, the patriarch, slips Harry a tape. The tape contains surprising family secrets. Also Robert may know Harry's secret. Robert warns that the family has eyes and ears everywhere. No one can be trusted. If Harry plays the Holbeck wicked family Christmas games and wins her secrets could be covered up forever, and she can find out more dangerous secrets that the Holbecks have been hiding. Because everyone has secrets in this family.
I really enjoyed this fast-paced, thriller and was surprised with the twist at the end. Harry is a likable, smart, sharp, and crafty main character that I rooted for.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Have you seen the movie Ready or Not? because that is what made me request this book!
It was such a spooky and thrilling read - not knowing if you can trust people who are suppose to be your family.
This makes such a dark room, read when its raining read.
I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.

The Family Game had me on the edge of my seat for the entire book! This is a fast-moving thriller about an author, Harriett, who is joining an extremely wealthy family by dating one of the family's sons. This is not your typical family. The family is known for playing games - and not the fun kind. The kind where you might feel like you're running for your life! I totally didn't guess the twist at the end. I really loved this book and can't wait for another book by Catherine Steadman.

This book was a let down for me. I felt like there was way to many characters to connect with, which made it hard to really know who was doing what and where. The plot was good, it just seemed to take forever to get there.

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc copy!

Thank you to the publisher for free Netgalley.

This one was fun. Loved Harry and the crazy large family. Love that there were secrets and twists. The tape Harry receives made the story intriguing to read because I needed to know what was going to happen!

But I really enjoyed the ending as well! Definitely recommend!

Harry has everything going for her - she's recently written a massively popular book and she's engaged to be married to Edward, who's from an old money, American-royalty type family. When the The Family Game begins, Edward is estranged from his family after some kind of incident that happened the year before. The couple begins seeing the family, and all is going well except for the mind games and meddling. The patriarch of the family pulls Harry aside and gives her a confessional recording of himself that he says is his attempt at a book - this sets Harry off on a quest to discover all the families' secrets. The other problem with Edward's family is they have strange traditions that verge on dangerous. It's a perfect storm of extreme wealth, untrustworthy family members, and wild, risky games. A fun, fast-paced read!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

This book is so seriously messed up, I love it! Catherine Steadman never fails to come through with something that will keep me engaged, turning pages, and guessing until the very end. Well played!

This is a Must Read if you love thrillers!!
We open with an author (Harriet) who is engaged to a man (Edward) that comes from a prestigious family. Harriet is a successful novelist and Edward is a businessman. The book opens with Harriet finding her way in New York City after moving
from London. The couple finds themselves expecting and from there his family interjects themselves.


This family likes to play games both literally and figuratively. The players are not always what they appear to be and the game is for keeps!
This book is filled with twists and turns and the ending that I certainly didn't see.
Thank-you to Catherine Steadman, Net Galley, and Random House for an Advanced Reader Copy.

✨Book Review - The Family Game by Catherine Steadman✨

If you haven’t seen the movie ‘Ready or Not’, go watch it because it will instantly remind you of this book. Here’s the premise: Harriet is set to marry Edward but had never met his family. Edward is from a very old money type family and has an estranged relationship with them. But now, the family wants back in Edwards life and Harriet is willing to help do that. But at what cost? Lots of secrets, lots of lies, lots of drama.

I was very engaged with this book and wanted to know what was going to happen. The beginning was a little slow moving but the ending was where it shined. There were a few things about the main character, Harry, that I was like ‘come on girl’ but I was rooting for her the whole time. It’s a dark, twisted, family drama and I enjoyed it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️STARS

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Harriett gets a little more than she bargained for when she agrees to marry her rich boyfriend, Edward. Edward is kind, thoughtful and generous, but he’s apprehensive of her meeting his family and she doesn’t know why. When she finally meets them, Harry finds that not only are they rich and powerful, they’re kind of strange. They play extremely weird games around the holidays that have even crazier prizes and some pretty steep consequences- some that could even mean life or death. Harry is now being blackmailed about something horrible she did many years ago by her soon to be father-in-law and has to play the game to find out the secrets the family is keeping, keep her own secret safe, and escape with her life.

The Family Game had me going back and forth on who I thought it was and how it was going to end. If you enjoy a slow burn thriller, pick this one up! The Family Game will be published October 18th. Thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for my review copy.

Get your popcorn ready to enter the crazy world of the Holbeck family where everyone seems more mysterious and weirder than possible. Harriet falls in love with Edward, the prodigal son and heir of this rich family that seems to control a piece of the world by itself. She is anxious to meet his family and every meeting things become crazier than the previous one. But it keeps haunting her why her fiance is not helping or preparing her when facing these absolutely bizarre situations.

Then the ultimate game is played by this family which is definitely obssessed with weird games, and this game is literally endgame for a lot of family members as it invovles reveeal of all intimate secrets murders and revealing of true identities! This is juicy, bizarre, intriguing and wild without a doubt!

Oh, I am such a fan. This is my fourth read by the author, and time after time, Steadman produces the exactly perfect popcorn thriller: exciting, completely absorbing, fun.
Is it hyperbolic? Is it over-the-top at times? Well, yeah, sure, but that’s just part of the fun.
It never insults your intelligence, never panders to the lowest hanging fruit of the audience, instead it just reaches out from page one, grabs you, and takes you on a wild ride.
It’s the best possible version of the beach thriller, albeit one good enough to actually make you forget where you are.
Some of Steadman’s book have been summery, this one is definitively wintery. In fact, so much of it is set around Christmas that it almost made me wish I’d held off reading it until then. But of course, by then I had read the first chapter and wasn’t going to put it down.
So, true to its title, this story revolves around family. A very particular very wealthy kind of family that our young albeit not so innocent protagonist is about to marry into. And true enough, this family likes to play games. Dangerous, dangerous games.
And our protagonist didn’t sign up for that. She’s a humble English orphan who has found some measure of success with a best-selling debut novel when she meets her Prince Charming. Edward.
Edward proceeds to literally sweep her off her feet and into a New York fairy tale. Edward’s family is insanely intimidatingly old world moneyed, but one can only put off meeting the (future) in-laws for so long and now it’s time.
The family is welcoming, excited, but also complicated, secretive, and manipulative. And then of course, their penchant for games.
The novel’s first pages find our protagonist desperately trying to survive one of those games, then rewinds in time to see how she got there. And then, of course, how she gets out of it, complete with a delicious ending plot twist for genre connoisseurs.
And is it far-fetched? Sure, somewhat, but who cares. It’s so fun. Original. Mostly unpredictable. Riveting. Magnetic. Unputdownable. All one can ever want in a thriller, really. And all, most of the thrillers out there are aspiring to and failing at being. In other words, very, very good.
Popcorn thriller, sure, but gourmet popcorn, all the way. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

"The Family Game", by Catherine Steadman, centers around the Holbeck family: a wealthy, mysterious, and highly disturbed group of individuals. Harriet falls in love with Edward Holbeck and imagines a happily ever after. However, when she gets pulled into the Holbeck's (literal party) games, she has to fight to survive.

I had a hard time really liking much of anybody in this story. I wanted to root for Harriet, but she was foolhardy and kept putting herself into harm's way. However, I thought this book was very suspenseful and did a fairly good job of keeping your attention. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballentine Books for an eARC of The Family Game by Catherine Steadman in exchange for an honest review.

CW: suicide, murder, drug misuse, violence, blood, fire, death of a parent, pregnancy, see growing list on StoryGraph

Cozy mystery author Harriet "Harry" Reed is in a long-term relationship with American royalty, Edward Holbeck, first born and heir to the family fortune. When they get engaged and subsequently find out that Harry is pregnant, she is finally permitted to meet the rest of the family. However, meeting the family also means being invited into their strange and horrifying traditions. Soon, Harry finds herself embroiled in the family secrets and trying desperately to keep her own.

This was exhilarating! I was so intrigued by the mysteries at play here and was engaged from start to finish. However, the ending is where things started to fall apart for me. I thought the author was leading us in one direction, and then within the final few chapters flipped the script 180 in a way that I found less interesting than where I thought we were going. The final scenes were kind of a mess, honestly. I was left feeling unsatisfied. Despite its intriguing nature, there were several aspects of this book that I found extremely cringey, namely the sexual tension between Harry and her soon-to-be-father-in-law and Harry's pregnancy. The former never came of anything, but I think it would have made for a more interesting story if it had. The latter raised the stakes and was intended to be an integral plot point, but we truly didn't find that out until the end. I would have preferred that the pregnancy have been left out all together, as I don't think it would have significantly changed the dramatic outcome.

Overall, this was alright, but not the most cleanly constructed domestic thriller. I recommend to fans of Ruth Ware and Lucy Foley.

Isn't the cover amazing?! You know it is going to be a creepy yet thrilling novel with an electric cover like that. The inside of the book was even better! Great writing and top notch characters. Super suspenseful and the ending really surpised me!

So good! I found myself setting aside the other books I was currently reading to pick this one up!

Typically rich and seemingly perfect in all ways possible, Edward Holbeck from the USA, finds a girl, Harriet Reed from the UK, with no family, money, or anything to add to the family, and plans to marry her. Desperate to know why he chose her, why his family is so okay with her, and to learn more about him, she finally meets his dysfunctional family, whom he very much tries to keep her from, and ends up receiving very eerie tapes from her soon-to-be husband’s father.

She spends the entire novel trying to figure out the truths and possible lies behind the tapes, all the while enduring the family’s very odd and eccentric traditions they shrug off as games.

I was able to figure out the twist before it happened, which was disappointing, but also typical of thrillers, so it didn’t put me off, as the rest of the novel was extremely gripping. The writing was great and I just HAD to know what came next.

Highly recommended for all thriller readers, I really enjoyed this one right til the last page!

Thank you for this ARC that was generously provided by the publisher and author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Another excellent and absorbing twisty thriller from Catherine Steadman who is a superb plotter and always offers up intriguing, complex characters.

This was my first book by Catherine Steadman, and I will definitely read more! “The Family Game” really kept me guessing all the way to the very end. This reminded me of “Ready or Not”, a horror/comedy movie that I really enjoyed. I also love a book with an opulent lifestyle at the center. It just always makes things more interesting. Catherine Steadman's writing allows you to really know and understand the characters. I felt like I knew them all, and I felt like I was in the book participating in everything. I will be recommending this to my friends who enjoy a good thriller. It kept me highly entertained and engaged to the very end. I would have never guessed the ending. She gives just enough information throughout the book to make you think you know what will happen, but you don't. The whole time I wanted to know what was coming next. I thought the pacing was really great except at the end where it felt just a bit rushed. Steadman is a fantastic writer. I could see this being adapted as a movie on Netflix or as a theatrical release. I look forward to her next book! Thanks to Catherine Steadman, Ballantine Books and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my thoughts. I look forward to reading what she writes next.

This book held my interest right up until the last quarter. Then it veered off the rails. I didn't enjoy the last minute "twist", which ultimately left me feeling a little "HUH?" about the whole thing. Sometimes I think authors throw in last minute twists because they feel they need them, but the plot as it was originally presented to the reader (Crazy rich family puts future daughter-in-law through a series of miserable tests to prove her worth) was a much better story. It's too much work to try to wrap your mind around a completely different way of thinking in the last few chapters of the book.

This book was what I could classify as 'Fine'. I didn't dislike it by any degree, but I did find it to be fairly predictable, not as imaginative as it wanted to be, and a little boring when it came to the ending. I think anyone who might enjoy this book would be better off watching "Ready Or Not", as I think the movie is much more interesting and entertaining. I can't tell if everyone in this book is severely underdeveloped, meaning the book should've been longer, or if the book should have been shorter, and more novella length.

Either way, the writing wasn't bad, and I can see the appeal, it's just not something I would necessarily be recommending for people to read. But as a relatively short thriller-type piece, it definitely gets the job done, and I didn't hate reading it.