Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"What you don't know... can hurt you."

OOF THAT GIVES ME SHIVERS EVERY TIME I READ IT.

This book was actually really enjoyable to read. It's quite short - I think it's just over 250 pages - so everything moves at a quick pace. I enjoyed the characters and the mystery and the author did a really good job at keeping me on the edge of my seat. I'm eager to see what else is released by this author in the future!

A great twisty, edge of your seat and full of suspense read. I enjoyed the Characters and found them very relatable. A bit slow at points but overall a great read.

This is a high intensity, easy to read psychological novel. It has plenty of heart pounding moments and wonderful characters. I almost missed reading this due to a formatting issue but was finally able to read it. I am fortunate to have been able to do so. A great read. Don’t let yourself miss out on it.

I received an ARC from Pathways Publishing. This in no way affects my opinion or rating of this book. I am voluntarily submitting this review and am under no obligation to do so.

Really enjoyed the characters in this book! Laura was really relatable as were the kids. Full of suspense and twists and turns! Highly recommend If you are into a psychological thriller this is one of the best!

The Stepfamily was a twisty book but, at times was a little bit too false to be real. I enjoyed it, mostly but, at times found myself wanting to skip pages to just move it along. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

I almost didn’t read this book because of formatting issues, but the author (or her team) reached out and let me know to read it via PDF instead and that resolved everything. I’m glad they did because I would have missed out on a solid, entertaining story. This was my first novel by Bonnie Traymore, and I especially liked how she had utilized changing perspectives with each character. I also really appreciated that she only wrote from a first person perspective from Laura’s point of view, as she’s the main character and the woman we’re trying to figure out why someone is trying to murder. I thought that added a thoughtful dynamic to the story and helped the reader focus.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to reading more by this author! Many thanks to Pathways Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Heart pounding thriller that left me on the edge of my seat. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. Definitely one of the best books this year.

The Stepfamily by Bonnie Traymore is sure to please many readers that enjoy a good psychological thriller. Laura has been an integral part of the Foster family for over 10 years, but at times, she still feels like an interloper, not truly belonging to the family unit. She married Peter Foster and helped to raise his two young children after their mother died in a terrible incident. Was this incident truly an accidental fall or suicide? While Laura has never asked too many questions about this incident, it does rear its ugly head as dangerous incidents begin to plague the family. Laura’s safety is in peril after a dangerous malfunction occurs to her car. Peter begins to receive ominous messages about past business deals that could threaten his financial future. Someone is clearly out to punish this family, but who, and why? You will be completely surprised at the ending. I enjoyed the characters, but didn’t feel that the son was developed enough. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance review copy in exchange for my honest review.

Secrets of the past are coming back to bite you. The family dynamic is shattered when there are multiple attemps to murder Laura. The author does her best to make everyone suspicious and there are some surprising twists. The story kept me engaged while I read it, but after one week I've almost forgotten the story and there's nothing that will keep you thinking about it.

There were miss characters and was told it was a bad document so unable to read and will not rate on Goodreads. It is nothing against the author these things do happen and they are aware

Big formatting problems with this arc. But once adjusted I enjoyed this book. My first Bonnie Traymore book but won’t be my last! Great characters and lots of secrets, twists and turns.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book

I read The Stepfamily by Bonnie Traymore in a day and a half; only much-needed sleep had me putting this book down. It was a good story, with good pacing, and I liked the Bay Area references and locale. I also liked the author's writing style; it was crisp and engaging.

The story details were laid out well. Some jaw-dropping moments took me by surprise, and Peter would dispense information slowly to the PI and to Laura, which built up to a somewhat satisfying reveal.

I will read more by this author. I give this a 5 out of 5 stars.

#TheStepfamily #NetGalley

A really quick and easy read. The characters were well written with realistic problems and reactions. The plot was a bit slow but I did like the way tye author created the stepfanily dynamic and surrounding issues. It felt very authentic and genuine. Its written from multiple povs but it was a bit confusing when the povs seemed to randomly switch mid paragraph without warning so that was a bit annoying. The various perspectives were also written in different narratives at some points which also made it feel a bit off. I loved the short chapters and it did make me need to keep reading just one more which is why I ended up finishing it in a sitting! There were also some good twists and turns and it all came together well at the end without feeling rushed or leaving any plot holes

Murder/ Mystery
Age range: 16+
Content Warnings: Suicide

Quotes:
- Thee corners of my mouth lift a bit, relieved that my husband is only a cheater and not a serial spouse killer.

Review:
This is a must read if you’re a fan of mystery. It’s a story that isn’t like others I’ve read and the twists and turns are great throughout. I love how strong our main character becomes at the end and how the love between her and her husband even through the ups and downs, which there were a lot!

OK story about Laura and her husband Peter who are living a rather uneventful, innocuous life together with his 2 grown children from his first marriage, which she helped raise. As strange incidents, directly affecting Laura, start occurring, she wonders if she is being targeted, and if so, by whom? And why?
When Peter hires a PI to investigate, the story starts ratcheting up. Never reaches full thriller status but it does get a little intriguing, from time to time, as various characters are considered possible suspects.
Never engaged 100% with characters who were a bit too wishy washy, for me, at times.
Plot was a goid surmise but slow revving up.

Book: The Stepfamily
Author: Bonnie Traymore
Publisher: Pathways Publishing
Pub Date: May 2, 2023

Meh. It’s not that great but it’s not the worst either. It’s a very quick and easy read. Easily can be finished in one sitting. I didn’t love the way she switched between POV’s at all. It switched within the same chapter and could easily be confused. There is no character development and I’m guessing there are suppose to be underlying issues since it’s called stepfamily. But honestly there really wasn’t. Laura and Peter didn’t seem to have a close marriage at all. It almost felt like they were strangers who had just met. The e-mail was not menacing at all “I know what you did. I won’t tell anyone.” I would have just emailed back and said thanks! Smiley face. The dialogue is terrible and robotic. It felt like she was throwing darts at a board and seeing what would stick as far as twists. This book just wasn’t for me. I seen where this book is Silicon Valley Series #1. I’m not sure why or how this will be a series but it needs to move in another direction with book #2.

Thank you Pathways Publishing and NetGalley for this sneak peak! Publication date is May 2, 2023.

I read this novel in almost one sitting! It’s a good psychological thriller with some unexpected twists and turns. The two main characters are both likable yet flawed. I feel like the ending was a little bit rushed and some of the characters thoughts were narrow minded to fit the plot but it was a very enjoyable read.

A fast paced thrilling read, with short chapters to make an easy read. There is loads of twists that keep you on your toes guessing the truth behind Laura's questions. The constant changes in POV did get confusing and hard to follow but overall an entertaining thriller.

Thank you NetGalley for sending this book for me to review. From the description of the book I was already interested and it turned out to be a good read, the plot was very nice with lots of twists, however there were some typos and the structure of the chapters could be modified too to give the book a better consistency,

The Stepfamily by Bonnie Traymore is a typical who did it story. You spend the whole book trying to figure out who is trying to murder the main character, Laura, and why. The story revolves around Laura and her husband Peter and his children who are her stepchildren. Laura has always felt like an outsider due to Peter’s first wife dying in a mysterious way and the children taking a hard time with it. One day Laura walks out to her car and finds her brakes are cut on her car. The police don’t take it seriously but Laura and Peter do. Peter is very concerned about her as he has flashbacks to his first wife’s death. However you find out that Peter has his own secrets involving his past that he doesn’t share with his wife of seven years prior to the attempt on Laura’s life. The story continues on where there are multiple attempts on her life and she is forced to delve more into her friends, coworkers and her husband’s past. Eventually the attempted murder is found and the story resolves for the most part. There is a cliffhanger at the end leading to the next book in the series.
One thing I really liked about this book was the visualization into a stepfamily’s dynamic. Coming from a stepfamily, it’s a hard thing to understand if you aren’t a part of it. Bonnie describes how the children had a hard time accepting Laura due to the loss of their mom. The dynamic of the daughter wanting to be the “woman of the family” and then having to “fight” for her dad’s affections when Laura comes into the picture was well described. I also enjoyed the character growth of Lydia to want to be closer to Laura and have a mother-daughter relationship. I also enjoyed the brother-sister dynamic where it had the sister always in the spotlight and the brother in the shadows. I liked that it showed that Laura recognized that Carson was always left behind or forgotten and that she is trying to change that.
I gave this book 2 stars out of 5 stars and there’s several reasons. I gave it two instead of one because I was engaged in the plot to find out who was attempting the murder. It had enough twists that kept me interested in finding out who it was.
It seemed like Bonnie wanted to make this story a multiple POV between Laura, Peter, and the PI detective, Shep. I love multiple POV stories but I didn’t think book wasn’t done well. Only Laura was ever written in first person. Peter and Shep are written in third person and like the reader is supposed to be omnipotent. If it’s a changed perspective I would expect it to be all in the first person. There was also no indication when it changed perspectives except page breaks. However, you wouldn’t know which person it was until you read part of the passage and figured it out. Plus Bonnie would also use page breaks to indicate a change in time so it made it difficult to know if it was a change in time or a change in perspective.
I also found that Laura was a very meek woman. She develops some of a backbone but by the end of the book it was gone again. She states that “she wouldn’t pry” into her husband’s past even though it had 7 years of their relationship together. I personally don’t understand how you would rather have all of these secrets and unknowns with your husband. Especially regarding his past wife that died mysteriously and she doesn’t believe it was an accident.
I also disliked that every time we read from Peter’s POV it was another secret. He was portrayed as this loving amazing husband and yet he intentionally kept all of these secrets and manipulated everyone. Whether it was for their safety or his own, it’s still shady. He even manipulated the PI so that Shep couldn’t say anything to the authorities about Peter under the law.