Thank you to NetGalley, Catherine Steadman, and Random House/Ballantine for this ARC!

4.5 rounded up to 5 stars

Not gonna lie, this one started off sounding like an age-gap, surprise pregnancy romance (the FMC’s fiancé has a hot dad). I was like, isn’t this supposed to be a thriller? 😂

BUT, that isn’t how it ended up going after all. It became a well-paced cat and mouse game/mystery/thriller and I loved it!

I could definitely see this becoming a movie if it gets the traction it deserves. The MC attends a Krampus night to get to know her fiancé’s family better, and that whole event would be SO good on film.

I highly recommend this one for fans of thrillers or dark family dramas!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I would rate this book 3.5/5 stars, rounded up to 4.
I was immediately interested in this book upon reading the description. The premise reminded me of a movie I really enjoyed called Ready or Not, in which the main character is forced to play a deadly game of Hide and Seek on her wedding night, as it is tradition to play a game when someone new marries into her husband's family. The last line of the description especially made me think it would be similar, "READY OR NOT, HERE THEY COME" So if you are going into this book with a similar mindset, you should not.
This book follows Harriet (Harry) who is a British novelist. Right off the bat, we know that she lost her parents when she was eleven in a car crash, but throughout the novel there are hints to something else that happened last night. She is constantly thinking about something sinister that she did, how it was no accident, how if Edward Holbeck (her fiancé) knew then he would look at her differently.
Harry and Edward get engaged in the first chapter and we are told that they haven't even known each other for two years. Despite being engaged, she has not met the rest of his family because he is mostly estranged from them and tells her that he doesn't want her to be scared off by them. Two days after getting engaged, Harry goes to tea with Matilda, Edward's sister. Matilda invites her and Edward to a family dinner that Thursday while stressing to Harry how much the family wants Edward back in their lives and how they think she can help them accomplish that. She agrees to the dinner, not realizing that it is Thanksgiving since she is British. Edward is like "didn't you know it was Thanksgiving?" and she didn't, but lies anyway and says she did. She rationalizes this lie by saying she doesn't want Edward to think Matilda tricked her (she did) and ruin his reconciliation with his family. Girl......that is literally not at all your responsibility. If you can't be honest with your fiancé about something as trivial as that, then I do not have a lot of hope for your relationship.
Before they go to Thanksgiving, they discover that Harry is eight weeks pregnant, which puts her due date at the beginning of June. At Thanksgiving, Harry meets the Holbecks and they all seem to like her. At some point, one of Edward's young nephews run into Harry and tells her the other boys are teasing him because he doesn't want to sleep in Bobby's room. Harry has no idea who Bobby is, but is especially curious after Edward's sister-in-law made a cryptic comment about how the previous nanny quit after "the Bobby incident". Later in the evening, Robert (Edward's dad) sequesters Harry into his office. Their interaction is very weird, especially with Harry constantly thinking about how she is sexually attracted to Robert, which I found to be a strange and unnecessary detail as it doesn't amount to anything later in the story. Robert is very cryptic and ends up giving her a cassette tape.
On the drive home last night, Edward is very interested in what Robert said to her, but Harry commandeers that conversation by asking about Bobby. Edward says that Bobby was his older brother that overdosed when he was 19 and Edward was 17. Harry is sympathetic but also upset and curious as to why he never told her about him when she told him about her parents deaths many times. He explains this away and all is forgiven.
She starts to listen to the tape and realized that Bobby didn't overdose, but he committed suicide by jumping out of a building, I'm pretty sure it was their family home but this detail was a little unclear to me. On the tape, Robert also confesses to killing an unnamed blonde, who she at first thinks is their old nanny but soon realizes that it was Bobby's girlfriend.
Harry accepts another invitation for her and Edward for December 16 to celebrate Krampusnacht. After looking up the holiday, Harry decides it is innocent enough and doesn't think much of it. Edward tells her that it is a tradition and they play a fun little game. The only players of the game are her, the kids, and one other adult. No one explained the rules of the game with her, so she is confused and terrified when a seven foot Krampus comes through the front door. After talking with another child about the rules of the game, she realizes that only she can end it. She does so, but not before "Krampus" feels her up and makes her uncomfortable. The whole family applauds her for winning in record time, but she is seething because it was a horrifying experience for her, especially since she went in blind. Her and Edward fight that night and he says that you're supposed to go in blind the first time and that's the fun of it. Harry says it was the worst fight they ever had, but I do not think that Edward adequately apologized. She also confronted him about lying about Bobby's death and he made some excuse and it's dropped.
She listens to more of the tape and Robert confesses to killing more girls, none of them looking like a murder. She takes this cassette tape as a threat, which I feel is an appropriate response. On the tape, Robert says to not share it with anyone. I feel like the smart move would have been to tell your fiancé and then never speak to his family again, but that's just me. She starts to make a copy of the tape by letting it play and recording it on her phone, but Edward goes into her office and comments about her "blank cassette tape". She realizes that she accidentally deleted the whole first side, but side B is still there. Also, we find out that her big secret is that at eleven years old, she killed the drunk driver that hit her family by setting his car on fire, which she feels is why Robert felt comfortable giving her the tape in the first place, mutually assured destruction.
At the twelve-week mark of her pregnancy, it is Christmas Eve and at Edward's family home, they tell everyone. Harry listens to the rest of the tape, where Robert tells her that on Christmas Eve she has to play the game alone, even though Edward will try to help her or get her to sit out. The game is where everyone gets a series of clues to a prize of something they desperately need, but only one person can win and they also win the knowledge of what everyone else would have won. Harry wants to win so she can know everyone's weaknesses and go to the police and bring them down
Harry's clues lead her to Edward's childhood bedroom and she remarks about how different he is now, and how it seems like he adopted Bobby's personality after his death. She then goes down a well and finds the corpse of Robert's latest victim, and realizes her present is under the Christmas tree. She climbs back up the well and tries to find one of Edward's sister-in-law that she ran into and had an altercation with earlier in the game, only to stumble upon her recently murdered body. She pulls out her phone and calls Edward, he tells her to come inside and make sure no one sees her come inside. Harry thinks this is really suspicious and finds out that Edward had a hand in Bobby's death and that he is the one that killed all those girls, not Robert.
She goes in the house and finds two housekeepers passed out, as well as Matilda and Edward's mother drugged, gives Matilda her phone (????????) and tells her to get her and her mother out of the house to safety and call the police in the morning.
She finds Edward holding a shotgun to Robert's head as well as one of Edward's brothers dead on the floor from a slit throat. Edward says that after they met he found out that she killed a man when she was young and thought he found a kindred spirit in her. He confesses to killing all of those girls and says they knew too much. Edward resolves to kill Harry when he realizes she isn't a cold-blooded murderer, but Harry and Robert get the upper hand, she shoots and kills Edward and then they set the house on fire.
The last chapter is a time jump to six months later, Harry has just given birth to her daughter, and the whole chapter is addressed to her. It is very strange and doesn't tie up a lot of loose ends or answer a lot of questions. Before Harry went Christmas Eve, she sent three different letters to people, basically so if she died then they would know it was Robert. What happened with those? How did she explain them away? There was no closure with the rest of the family, I think the time jump is very jarring and the book would have benefitted from another chapter or two of the aftermath with Harry talking to the other family members. The ending felt very rushed and underdeveloped to me.
The whole thing about her being attracted to Robert was very weird to me, because not only is she feeling like that, but she says multiple times that she imagines Robert when she is having sex with Edward.
I thought that Edward was pretty shady from the beginning, so I didn't think that the great reveal was anything crazy. I thought that the middle 30% was the most exciting part and I felt like I sort of had to drag myself through the first and last 35% of the book.

I’ve read all of Steadman’s books and I think I’ve come to the conclusion that while I like the books, her writing style isn’t my favorite.

I find it very slow. Incredibly engaging and keeps you hooked, but I also felt irritated that it would take forever for anything to happen?

Overall this was good - really good. A unique premise, an interesting story and one that did keep me guessing far into the novel but then I felt a bit like…wow ok very dramatic ending.

All in all - a good read!

"A game is only a game if you do not fully understand it."

What a deliciously dark little read this was! I wasn't sure what to expect as I cracked this one open. At about 25%, I still didn't have any idea. It's a bit of a slow start as you meet Harry and learn her life. She's met Edward and they are very in love. He works hard but also loves hard and they are devoted to each other.

But Edward doesn't come alone, he's a package. Along with his good personality and great looks is money - old and massive and with all the connections and influence old money comes with. Edward has put distance between him and his family over the last few years and Harry has yet to meet the powerful parents and all the siblings. It's almost Thanksgiving when Harry and Edward make the choice to let them back in to their lives and there are a lot of holidays coming up to throw them all together.

This one is a ride. Harry is very cautious so even though she's given a gift very early, she takes quite a few chapters to unwrap it. Once she does, the plot races and all you want to do is keep reading. The tension, once ramped up, is well played and it will keep you holding your breath and making your wild guesses all the way to the end. I love the holidays traditions as much as I would have been horrified to partake in them! What a fascinating imagincation this author has and I love it! I look forward to reading more of her stories!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for the ARC! Sometimes it can take a while to get into a book, but that was not the case with The Family Game by Catherine Steadman! I was immediately hooked from the first few pages! I read a lot of thrillers and I found this plot very original. A bestselling author is marrying into an extremely wealthy family and her future father-in-law gives her a cassette tape with shocking revelations and so starts a terrifying game. The pacing with this novel was on point; it never felt too slow and the book was hard to put down! The details and setting provide for a creepy atmosphere that only continues to build as you read on. I highly recommend this book and now I want to read more books by this author!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CgFViCCOHs6LkAuQNRpRv_ncipub003NDBPyPY0/

The Family Game is a mix between a family drama and a thriller. We meet Harry, short for Harriet, who has met and fallen in love with Edward Holbeck, eldest son of an extremely wealthy and powerful son. The book centers around her experience after finally meeting the rest of the Holbeck family. They have some very odd holiday traditions and a lot of secrets, but Harry has a pretty big secret of her own.

Robert Holbeck, the patriarch of the family, gives Harry a microcassette recording and she is tasked with solving the puzzle of this recording all whe protecting her own secret. All is definitely not as it appears and the writing is well done, the characters are interesting, but the twist was easily guessed before the final reveal, and Harry's secret was apparently also easily discovered, but the Holbeck family, not once, but twice. I had a hard time believing that her extremely life changing secret from 20 years prior was so easily revealed.

That said, it was a fun little entry. But not exactly memorable for me. Thrillers are tough genre for me to enjoy, so take my review with that in mind.

Thank you to Ballantine and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

The Family Game
A Novel
by Catherine Steadman

A rich, eccentric family. A time-honored tradition. Or a lethal game of survival? One woman is about to find out if she has what it takes to join her husband’s family in this riveting, must-read thriller from the author of Something in the Water, Mr. Nobody, and The Disappearing Act.

THE RULES
1. Listen carefully
2. Do your research
3. Trust no one
4. Run for your life

WOW.Great read. I had to finish but slowed down because I did not want this to end. Great in the crazy, rich people. I mean really crazy, with outright games They loved games, and played to win

Another great story told by the one and only Catherine Steadman! Highly recommend this one! The story and characters stay with you long after you finish it! A must read for the summer!

Harriet is about to marry into money, her fiancé Edward is a member of one of the world’s richest families. Upon meeting the family, Edward’s father slips Harriet a cassette tape, which contains a shocking confession. Or does it? The Family Game is a harrowing tale of lies, betrayals, and bizarre games no other family would play on game night! Harriet, or Harry, as she is known, has her own secrets in this taut and twisty thriller, fraught with ethical dilemmas, a dysfunctional family, and some tension-breaking dark humor. This was one crazy ride that’ll have you flipping the pages. Highly recommended. I received an arc of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5-4⭐️/5
When I first time read the synopsis it gave me the vibe of a “Ready or not” movie, where the newlywed bride finds herself after a family dinner in the middle of a strange family game, she must now hide from midnight until dawn while her new in-laws hunt her down and she desperately tries to survive the night.

I was afraid that the book will have an alike plot and based on the other reviews I was not alone. But it had the same vibe as the “cat-mouse” game (which I loved) and at the same time, the story was absolutly unique. I was guessing what is going to happen and how it will unfold.

The beginning and some parts of the book were a little slower-paced, but the overall thriller kept my attention and I wanted to read more to find out what is next.

I loved that the main character Harrier was a thriller writer, so the research she made for her books gave her advances in preposterous and dangerous situations. It was a solidly good read, I enjoyed this book. And can’t wait to read another book by Catherine Steadman “Something in the water”.
You can read the book synopsis on the second slide in the post.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I had difficulty putting this book down. It had a bit of a "Knives Out" vibe.

The main characters were intriguing, the way the book opened and then unfolded kept my attention. I had things loosely figured out but still found reading the book fun and enjoyable. I would recommend!

An extremely fun read. If you’re looking for something clever and deliciously devious, then this is one you should pick up. There’s plenty of mystery and mayhem to fill the pages and more than enough twists to keep them turning.

Oh, this one was a read! I could not shake thinking about it when I had to put it down. It was a bit slow going in the first third, the middle third the suspense was solidly established and by the last third, I had to know how it would end. I guessed some things correctly but there were a couple of things I didn't see coming so that was great.

Much like the last book I read by this author, I was yelling at and imploring the main character as I read along. She writes main characters that are sometimes more naive than I can believe in some instances and far too curious than I think wise in others. This leaves me with many instances of "Girl, get the hell out of there! You want to know what that cryptic thing means?! DANGER! KILLER BEYOND THIS POINT!" Needless to say, this keeps me riveted and rooting for the success and survival of the main character (in this case Harriet). I very much enjoyed this and it was for me a quick read. The epilogue was well done and I liked where Harriet was at the end with the Holbecks.

I can't drop my favourite lines because I read an ARC but know I had them. This is my second read of Steadman and I was not disappointed.


Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the Advance Reader's Copy.

This book was soo gripping for me! I needed to know what happened/what was happening! The whole book kept feeding my curiosity in addition to a constant eerie twang to it. At times this had my heart racing, my kindle being shaken by the crazy decisions the MC was making and the strong desire to know how the story will end. This book will have you reading past your bed time. This is hands down the best book I’ve read by Steadman.

I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review -
Harriet, a writer is engaged to Edward, an heir to a rich family. The family seems to welcome her.
Robert, Edwards father hands her a book on tape that he's been recording. When she listens she thinks this isn't a book- rather a confession to murder - Now what should she do with this? Why did he give her the tape? Why does this family play strange games? Will she survive them?

If you ever meet someone with the last name Holbeck, please just run away. As quickly as possible. It’s just not work the risk as Harriet can attest that the whole family is neurotic, cruel and insane. Harry meets Edward, falls in love and finally gets to meet the family, she is curious as they are wealthy and seemingly above reproach. Edward had a falling out with his overbearing father but I’d now ready to make peace and get back into the fold. This becomes one of the most terrifying books I have ever read, written in a style filled with dread and misdirected fear, it is really good and really nightmarish. Money power and greed taken to such extremes that I might just avoid any Edwards too.

The thriller genre is my go-to, so it’s sometimes difficult to find a thriller where the plot is unique and different. Well, The Family Game completely caught me by surprise.

The story centers around Harriet, aka Harry, and her boyfriend, Edward. Edward is supposed to come into a bit of money from his family fortune, and when they both go to visit his family, the head of the family, Robert, gives Harry a cassette tape which reveals a shocking story, setting a real life game of cat-and-mouse into place.

The Holbeck family was a very interesting group of people with a very dark sense of humor. I love a morally grey character and the Holbeck family is full of them.

I was definitely taken my surprise from the twist, and for that, bravo! I usually feel like I’m able to pick up on what the twist will be, and this was definitely not the case. This story kept me interested and intrigued throughout and I will definitely be looking forward to reading more by Catherine Steadman.

✧ - 4 stars

❝Matilda grins, her red lips parting to show a perfect set of white teeth. ‘Yeah,’ she says with a throaty chuckle. ‘Run for your life.’❞

Catherine Steadman blew me away with this novel to the point I think we should check on her because girl are we okay? More importantly: I am in love with Harry Reed.

Harry (short for Harriet) is extremely clever, competent, and incredibly hard to dislike. The author does such a wonderful job of doing atypical character development which took me by the throat and drew me in until I was too invested to leave. Harry is received just as we see her, a survivor who has no qualms about the fact that [she literally offed someone (hide spoiler)]and a good writer to boot.

What was pleasant about her characterization was the fact that Harry’s development never really had to do with her wanting to be a good person or being desperately guilty which could then function as her also being an unreliable narrator. Instead, Harry is steady and firm in her past and present, with her characterization being more about her ability to adapt and her need for control which is brilliantly fed into being the underlying reason behind a lot of her actions and thoughts.

In fact, Harry’s need for control is ultimately what I think allowed her to make it to the end of the novel. There’s a clear understanding that her image will only be changed by her, that she determines what she wants and how to get it. Harry does not aim to be likable or relatable, she’s focused on figuring out what the hell is wrong with this family before she quite literally has to adhere to the “till death do us part” of her vows.

❝But my anger is not replaced by triumph. If anything, it hardens into something denser.❞

The book in itself does fall into the common traps of writing a thriller such as the first twenty percent of the book being too much background, and even then the book doesn’t pick up till about forty percent of the way through. I don't think the novel would’ve worked if it was rushed, but it really would’ve been better if we had a sense of increasing unease up until things start falling into place.

Also, please write children normally. Billy is supposed to be three and the man clearly isn’t going to be professing the future but rather than doing weird baby speak he most likely would just have a limited vocabulary, not a lisp.

❝[…]But no one’s gonna be chasing you”. That’s what you think, I reply in my mind❞

This bitch is so smart, I love her. Like I don’t think I can emphasize enough how chillingly competent and focused Harry was to the point where I was like please leave Edward for me. Also, um, [she should’ve swept Robert the fuck up. The man was truly enamored with her, Eleanor is lucky Harry was trying to put down her eldest son instead of stealing her husband. (hide spoiler)].

All in all, this was such a good read. Being on the way to upstate NY with a family event on the horizon was probably not the best atmosphere to read this in but maybe the best books imitate real life.

❝I guess she must have read me wrong too.❞

I loved the last book this author did and this one didn’t disappoint. Definitely had all the elements I was looking for in a book. I’d definitely recommend this to anyone

A page turning thriller. Who doesn't love a super rich family hiding secrets.
A woman finds herself engaged to the man of her dreams; handsome, sweet and super rich but can she survive his family and the secrets they hold while hiding her own past. She finds herself an unwilling participant in a series of games of sick twists and turns but she must play to protect her secret and her unborn baby's life.
I enjoyed the plot twists within the book and suggest this book to psychological thriller lovers.