I need more from Karen King!!! Great read!! This was fast paced crazy ride. The storyline and characters were excellent. Kept me up and turning pages way past my bedtime. Highly recommend

I haven't read anything by Karen King in the past but this book has made me want to read everything that she has written.

Mary grew up in a single parent household with a father who commanded respect and obedience. She constantly felt that she was lacking love and when she meets Robbie she thinks he is the one thing that can change her life. And she is right. She ends up pregnant and he ends up going to jail.

She hides her pregnancy and gives up her baby girl, knows that she can't give her the life that she wants her to have. But, after her husband dies and many years have passed she decides it is time for her to seek out the daughter she so desperately wants to know. But what she hopes will be a positive thing in her life proves to be the start of something that goes very wrong.

This was a great book that kept me guessing until the end. I can't wait to read more by this author to see if this is what all of her books are like.

I was drawn to this title solely because I am infatuated with the cover! Anyways, I was not disappointed in this title! I do not believe I have read any of Ms. King's work, but I do look forward to reading more! BRAVO!

5 stars out of 5!

This was a captivating and suspenseful read that kept me guessing until the very end! Highly recommend it to any of my thriller lovers!

TERRIFIC domestic thriller involving the reappearance of a long lost daughter who was given away at birth due to dire circumstances. Well written, with great characterization & suspense throughout. RECOMMEND all of this author's novels as they are all intriguing & totally enjoyable. Thanks to #NetGalley & #Bookouture for #The Family Reunion in return for my honest review

3.5 stars

I love thrillers with a few secrets and twists along the way, instead of one big reveal at the end. This story is told through multiple povs and multiple timelines which help to flesh out the details and add to those twisty secrets. I had some inkling as to the final twist but I was slightly off the mark and I was shocked by the epilogue.

I found the story intriguing and it was super easy to follow. It's not an intense read and is perfect lazy afternoon read, engaging and keeps you wanting to turn the page

This book was full of secrets, lies and deception with plenty of twists along the way. I found the story very interesting and easy to follow. It all tied together nicely at the end. Another fantastic book by this author who never disappoints.

Unfortunately, I found THE FAMILY REUNION to be boring. Maybe it’s because it’s an ARC, but there were SO MANY TIMES in this book where sentences were literally repeated word for word. This book was very repetitive and boring. The author makes reader wait until 80% of the book is done for the “big reveal” and it was disappointing.
I didn’t like any of the characters. They were all terrible and had no redeeming qualities.


Below I’ll go into more details but SPOILERS AHEAD

I did not like Mary at all. I felt like she abandoned her two children for Cathy at a drop of the hat. I did not like how she treated them at all.
I also hated Cathy so much. Everything about her sucked.


This book actually just made me mad.. but like?? Good job to the author for evoking emotions like that out of me.

Mary is holding a family reunion but this one is different from any others. As a teenager she gave up a baby girl for adoption and has recently been reunited with her. Mary has always felt guilty for giving up her child so she wants to do all.she can to make up for lost time. Her family seems to accept her and all seems to be going well. As the weeks pass and weird things start happening Mary tries to just let those things go. We soon begin to realize that all is not what it seems. This was a truly suspenseful read that had me on edge all the way until the end. There were so many twists that I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next. I didn't but it down until the end and was completely surprised by the end!

The Family Reunion had me completely hooked from start to finish. It was full of twists and turns and had plenty of suspense throughout. I highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC.

Wonderfully tense and thrillingly suspenseful. What an amazing read! I couldn't put this one down. Just wow!

Having lost her husband, Mary sets out to find the new born daughter she abandoned when she herself was only a teenager. When she succeeds, her wish is to make up for what she did by welcoming her daughter, Cathy into her family but she hasn't anticipated the reactions of her other two children and their families. A series of unpleasant occurrences leaves the reader wondering who is to blame. Is Cathy a cuckoo in the nest or are her half-siblings to blame? Along the way numerous twists reveal the controlling nature of Mary's husband Peter and we witness the serious character flaws of all Mary's children and of Mary herself. It was this onslaught of negative revelations that meant I didn't find this story a comfortable read. The final twist I found quite implausible (for technical reasons I can't divulge without ruining the plot) although I had suspected it might be coming. This book will be enjoyed by readers who enjoy a thriller with multiple twists who are prepared to suspend their disbelief.. .

Karen King did not disappoint in The Family Reunion.This cracking read whizzes along for the most part and I was certainly kept on my toes. The surprises and shocks are in plentiful supply while I was led down one avenue and then another. The unforeseen ending was a good one in this compelling family drama-style psychological thriller. The Family Reunion is a great tale I highly recommend.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Bookouture via NetGalley and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

Mhhh, this sadly fell into the category of quite a few thrillers that are more like domestic dramas. Since i expected a 'proper' thriller, I was a bit disappointed about the lack of suspense, but I was entertained enough to finish this one. :)

BOOKWORMS REVIEW:
Following the death of her husband Paul,Mary decides to reconnect with the baby she gave away as a teenage single mum of 16. This is 40 years later and nobody in her family knows this secret from her past. Her grown kids however are open to the idea and things look good at the start. But when Cathy(who was once baby Hope) arrives,things seem off from the get-go..and bad things start happening. Its a good enough read with a decent ending,that wasn't very obvious. With thanks as always to Bookouture, NetGalley and Karen King for an advanced copy to read and review.

Mary’s husband, Paul, passed away suddenly leaving her devastated. She has worked hard with her grief. She has two children, Joanne who is married Damien and has two children. Her son, Jason, is married to Alison and they also have two children.

Mary kept a dark secret for many years and was always afraid to tell Paul. Now, she feels it’s time to open up about it. When she as a young teenager, she got pregnant and never let her father know. She ended up giving birth alone in the house and then gathered the baby girl that she named Hope and left her in a phone booth. She watched from afar until the baby was found. Now, she wants to find her.

Her search is successful and the daughter she left behind is now called Cathy and had been adopted. When they find one another, Mary and Cathy are so happy to be together. When Mary introduces Cathy to Joanne and Jason, they are shocked and are not particularly welcoming to her.

When vandalism starts happening at Mary’s rather remote house, all three children encourage her to move into a smaller place. But when Mary decides to rent a place for all of the family to celebrate her 60th birthday, many secrets are revealed.

This was an OK read for me. It doesn’t come across as a thriller but more like a domestic drama or soap opera. I hope readers enjoy it though.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This book had so much potential, but sadly, it fell flat for me. The story itself was quite compelling - long lost daughter and mother reunite, daughter tries to figure out where she fits into her mother's already-established family - but the writing was surprisingly juvenile. There were themes and phrases that were repeated ad nauseam, such as the idea that the protagonist should have told her husband about her daughter before he died, because he surely would have understood. Or, the fact that she was so happy to have her daughter back in her life. Or the phrase "that's so kind of you". There has to be another way to say that someone is being thoughtful and nice.

The book built to a climactic ending, which was alluded to from the beginning when the book began in the present day and then flashed back to all the events that led the characters to where they ended up. However, the climax seemed forced and kind of thrown together. There's "big plot twist" and then there's "where in the world did this come from" and this ending fell into the latter category. Overall, I just wanted to be done with the book because I didn't really care about any of the characters and, by the end, even the interesting parts of the story weren't enough to keep my attention any longer.

Wow! This book had me hooked!
At the start I thought I'd figured it our and know how it was all going to play out, but I was very wrong! Towards the end, the surprises kept coming and I couldn't stop reading. I really felt for Mary, the main character of the book a she tried to cope with all the was happening in her life.
Until the end, this book had me!

This is my first Karen King book & it definitely won't be my last! I devoured this book in a day!! Thank Karen King for the opportunity to read this for an honest review!!!

The Family Reunion by Karen King is a highly recommended domestic drama.

Mary's husband Paul passed away after 38 years of marriage and she misses him every day, but she also never told him her guilty, shameful secret. When she was barely 16 she gave birth to a daughter she named Hope. Knowing her father would never permit her to keep the baby, she gave birth alone and then abandoned Hope wrapped in a yellow blanket with a note. She hid nearby to make sure Hope was quickly found, but has regretted her decision for 45 years. Now she has decided to find Hope and introduce her to her two children with Paul, Joanne and Jason.

When she actually finds Hope, the two confirm they are related through a DNA test. Mary learns her first born daughter's name is Cathy and the two immediately begin to form a relationship. Mary is thrilled to share time with her oldest daughter and hopes Joanne and Jason will accept her. When they all meet, however, the tension is palpable. It seems that Joanne and Jason are concerned that Cathy's motives for the relationship may be to take advantage of Mary financially. And then strange things begin to happen...

After a very intriguing opening which foreshadows problems to come, the pace of The Family Reunion slows down while setting all the pieces of the plot into place. The direction the plot takes will increasingly hold your attention after every chapter. The narrative is told through the points-of-view of Mary, Cathy, and Alison, Jason's wife. Joanne and Jason are truly disagreeable characters. At time you will fear that Mary is too trusting and naive. Cathy seems sincere and helpful, but we also know that she has a few secrets of her own.

King does a commendable job placing suspicion on everyone as well as throwing a few red herrings into the plot to keep you guessing. There is a whole lot of secrets, deception, gaslighting going on in the plot, which does make the story compelling. And then, of course, the foreshadowing in the opening of a dark turn in the plot will keep you reading to see who this man is and why he was after Mary. There are several shocking twists and turns in the narrative, but the twist at the ending is totally unpredictable and surprising.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Bookouture via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, and Amazon.