I want to start off by saying I have read Jamie Day's previous book The Block Party so much that I was excited to get my hands on a copy of her second book. I found this one to be a bit less thrilling that her first, however. While I did think the premise for the book had a lot of promise- with the locked door murder mystery of it all, it fell very flat for me. I kept coming back because I wanted to see how it ended, but I felt like the story telling wasn't as suspenseful or entertaining as I wish it would be. There were times in the book I actually rolled my eyes because of the actions of our main protagonist Charley. The pacing felt slightly off, with some of the book dragging on and other parts passing at light speed, and I just left wanting a bit more. That being said, it was an entertaining way to spend the day reading. Therefore, while it felt a bit mid-tier for me, if you're a reader who enjoys locked door situations and a little bit of whodunnit, this might just be the book for you.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced reader copy of this book. All opinions within this review are my own.

I've now unsuccessfully tried both books from this author. I think it's safe to say that Day's writing and my reading tastes just don't mesh. I couldn't get myself to read the whole book. The writing just couldn't hook me.

🪣 This was a fine audio to listen to while getting some chores done around the house, but overall I found it to be pretty predictable and I was ready for it to be over.

🪣 Thanks to @stmartinspress for sending me the ARC of this one— it’s out now.

🪣 Read this if you LOVE:
- locked door murder mysteries
- family drama (inheritance battles)

🪣 What I didn’t like:
- super predictable twists
- a weird romance plot line that felt out of place

🪣 I don’t have a ton to say about this one. It was fine.

Drama, family, danger and lies makes for a most enjoyable mystery. A legendary hotel.with an incoming hurricane. Sisters gathering to hear the will read from their father. But more death and destruction awaits. Recommended read for mystery and thriller fans. A great who dun it.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this eARC!

This engaging story hooked me from the start. Charley, a 19-year-old maid at the quirky Precipice Hotel in Maine, is worried about her job security after the recent death of the hotel’s owner. With the owner’s three daughters arriving for the funeral and an impending hurricane, Charley fears losing her job—and her home—since she needs every penny to cover her grandmother’s care home expenses. Eager to impress the dysfunctional sisters and keep her job, Charley is unprepared for the chaos that ensues.

The family gathering is anything but ordinary. The sisters and their families clash, and dark secrets and lies are hinted at throughout. Even the lawyer reading the will isn’t as impartial as she seems. As the story unfolds, surprises abound and the murders begin. While I sympathized with Charley, her habit of stealing from guests was problematic. Despite this, the book is a gripping page-turner with a cast of quirky characters, and the satisfying resolution wrapped everything up nicely.

I know that I shouldn't judge one book based on another, but I truly enjoyed the twists and turns in Day's last book and was looking forward to more of the same in One Big Happy Family. Day did a great job again with the atmosphere in this book - a remote hotel in Maine with a hurricane heading toward it that is also hosting the reading of a will from the recently deceased owner for his dysfunctional family and the staff of the hotel. Charley, the maid and main character, was likable enough, but for a hard-scrabble girl was way too trusting and made some ridiculous choices. The sisters were all completely unlikable, though that isn't always a bad thing in a locked-room mystery, so the neatly wrapped up, sunshine and flowers epilogue felt completely wrong. Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for the early access in exchange for my honest opinion.

3.5 stars.
The Precipice is a family-owned hotel on the cost of Maine. The owner has recently died, and his three daughters, Vicki, Faith and Iris, return to take stock of the place and determine what to do with the hotel.

Charley has worked for some time at the Precipice as a chambermaid for the smarmy owner, and needs this job badly. Her grandmother is in a care facility, suffering from dementia, and Charley is her sole source of financial support. Charley dreads the sisters' arrival, and worries she'll be turned out, or that they'll discover she's stolen some of the guests' items when cleaning the rooms, or that they'll discover the desperate woman, Bree, that Charley is hiding in one of the rooms.

The Bishop sisters are a toxic, angry mess, hurling insults at each other, resentful, selfish and self-centred. Vicki's husband Todd wants only to take whatever he can from the hotel and never come back. Vicki's mild-mannered and gorgeous son Quinn arrives with Iris, ex-con and ex-drug addict, who hates Todd and resents Vicki. Faith, a model, is there with her wife Hope and son Oliver. A lawyer with questionable ethics also arrives to read the patriarch's will to the family.

Then Todd ends up dying, and pretty soon the family's already high tension dynamics escalate, and people begin accusing one another. Charley must find a way to navigate the acrimony, while keeping her job. Meanwhile, a hurricane has trapped everyone in the hotel.

So nice setup, horrible family, desperate heroine, isolated location….enjoyable, tense, interesting whodunnit, until the melodrama just became a bit too much for me. I also didn't quite buy the romance between Charley and Quinn. I did like Oliver, whose rhyming phrases were both a little odd and funny. He and Quinn actually proved to be much more level-headed than the sisters, and Charley, whom we already know is determined, manages to find her way through all the lies and resentments surrounding her.

Thank you to Netgalley and to St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my review.

I really enjoyed this book. It was suspenseful, dark, and twisty - just my style! Thank you for the opportunity to review this book!

It felt like I'd read this book before, so none of it felt new or novel to me. I wanted to like it, but unfortunately there wasn't anything unique that kept me hooked.

I’ve read a lot of locked door thrillers, but this one through so many variables and the equation that it was such a fun and unique ride.

A hurricane is ravaging a hotel, just as the sisters arrive for the Will reading, but let’s throw in the maid and a stowaway for this “hold onto your hats” ride!! And if you think the families big, just wait till you finish the story 🫢 #mylipsaresealed

Just when I thought I had my top suspects tagged for the murder, Jamie threw me for a loop. This was such a fun ride and I enjoyed every twisty turn and could not read fast enough.

And I absolutely loved the epilogue. Honestly, most epilogues seem like an extra added tidbit because the author couldn’t tie all the loose strings, but this put all the right closure and all the right places. Absolutely would recommend One Big Happy Family — 4.5/5!

Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC for review

I had both the eARC and ALC and I found the audio called to me most.

Charley is a maid, working hard to try to keep her grandmother housed in the adult home for the care she needs. The family that owns the hotel where she works rivals Dynasty or Dallas with the DRAMA.

This one was intense, full of unlikeable characters. Murder. Oh yea, there's also a hurricane looming.

I loved this author's prior book and this one was also a fun twisty drama filled one!

Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and MacMillan Audio for an eARC and ALC in exchange for my honest review.

One Big Happy Family
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: Jamie Day

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: The Precipice is a legendary, family-owned hotel on the rocky coast of Maine. With the recent passing of their father, the Bishop sisters—Iris, Vicki, and Faith—have come for the weekend to claim it. But with a hurricane looming and each of the Bishop sisters harboring dangerous secrets, there's murder in the air—and not everyone who checks into the Precipice will be checking out.

Each sister wants what is rightfully hers, and in the mix is the Precipe's nineteen-year-old chambermaid Charley Kelley: smart, resilient, older than her years, and in desperate straits.

The arrival of the Bishop sisters could spell disaster for Charley. Will they close the hotel? Fire her? Discover her habit of pilfering from guests? Or even worse, learn that she's using a guest room to hide a woman on the run.

My Thoughts: I loved the author’s debut novel, The Block Party, so I knew when I saw this one, I was onboard without too much reading of the blurb. I am not always a fan of locked door mysteries, however, I did enjoy this one. You have a locked door mystery mixed with an element of domestic sister aka evil incarnation sisters. The Precipice is a legendary family hotel on the coast of Maine, on the rocky coast specifically. Three sisters, Iris, Vicki, and Faith, come to visit to stake their claim on the hotel after their father’s passing, and each sister brings secrets that they would rather keep buried. And to make things more exciting, the chambermaid Charley Kelley, has her own secret, she is young, smart, resilient, and loyal to a fault. The arrival of the Bishop Sisters can erupt Charlie’s secret to the top, or will the reading of the will go beyond any misdeed that Charlie has committed? Let’s not forget the hurricane that is on the horizon threatening the hotel and surrounding properties.

The story is a multiple character narration, each providing their own perspective POVs. Our main protagonist Charlie really does still the show and her biggest sin of pilfering from the guests can be forgiven, at least in my eyes. Charley is a young girl who would do anything to take care of her nana, even pilfer a little from the guests. Charley stays onsite and her nana is in a retirement home. When Hurricane Larry threatens the hotel at the same time as the Bishop Sisters hurricane comes through, it is a race against time. The eldest sister, Vicki is married to Todd. Todd is also portrayed as a villain. Vicki is bad-tempered and has a vicious streak, while Todd is a manipulative greedy man who will step on others. Middle sister, Iris, former drug addict and ex-convict, who has a new spiritual life. The youngest sister, Faith, is the model and is married to Hope, a very zen person with a spiritual outlook on life. Quinn, who steals Charlie’s heart almost immediately is the son to Vicki and Todd. Lastly, let’s not forget the attorney who has been called in to do the reading of the will, Brenda Black. Throw all of these characters together in a locked room, we get characters developed with depth, betrayal, secretive, and well-portrayed. The author’s writing style was complex, multifaceted, twisty, suspenseful, and engaging (once you get through Part I).

There were three parts to this story. Part I was really slow but it built up our characters and some of their backstory. Part II really starts to delve into the plot and the sister’s backstories and even some of their harbored secrets. The last two parts (Part III and Part IV) really is where the action occurs with tension, compelling, and just grips you. The last two parts really fires up the plot in twisty layers. While some parts were a little over the top, and some belief suspension was required, I still loved it and it still gripped me, even if some parts were predicable. The plot has twisty suspenseful layers and the ending ties up things nicely, even if a little over the top.

I had both the digital and audio version of the ARC and preferred the audiobook. This was a well written book that I really enjoyed. It was compelling, gripping, and suspenseful. I highly recommend this to other readers, especially if you enjoyed locked door mysteries.

I really enjoyed this one. I love a story setting where the characters are stuck somewhere while there’s a murderer on the loose. Plus, set in Maine, where I live. The main character’s voice and story are compelling. (I also have a soft spot for housekeepers having worked as one at a bed & breakfast back in the day.) Charley works reluctantly at a hotel Down East. She works to pay for her beloved Nana’s nursing home care. When her lecherous boss dies, his three daughters arrive to decide what to do with the place but this quickly devolves into who killed who with Charley and a stowaway guest in the middle of the family chaos and the worst Maine hurricane since 1969.
The POV shifts to the sisters, to the Then and Now, fitting together like a puzzle. A compelling read, highly recommended contemporary mystery/thriller.

I can't say enough for this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Looking forward to more from this author!!

The Precipice is a historic family hotel on the cliffs of Maine and it is stunning. After the passing of their father the Bishop sisters decide to come back the weekend of his funeral to read the will and clean up his affairs. But all of a sudden a horrible hurricane and storm is heading right for their location. Charley has agreed to stay at the hotel to make sure it is okay since she lives there while everyone else goes to take care of their homes. With the arrival of the Bishop sisters things start to go haywire between the storm, the will reading and even a murder. But will Charley make it out alive?

This was such a twisty, thrilling and fun book. There were many moments where I didn't know what the steps were going to be. It kept me on the edge of my seat and I didn't want to put down. I thought I knew exactly what was going to happen but man I was wrong. Jamie Day does it again and hit it out of the park.

Thank you @macmillan.audio and @stmartinspress for my complimentary copies. My thoughts are my own.

This atmospheric novel is set in an old hotel in Maine during a hurricane. The three Bishop sisters return to their childhood home after the death of their father, the hotel’s owner. But the three sisters share an old secret that comes back to haunt them as startling new revelations are revealed. The chambermaid, Charley greets them, but Charley also has secrets, including rifling through guests’ belongings, and even hiding a visitor.

MY THOUGHTS: The hurricane in Maine provides the perfect locked room setting, forcing the sisters and other family members to remain in the hotel. None of the characters are particularly likable, though they are each very interesting. The murder doesn’t happen until 30% in and the build up seems a bit slow. There is a lot of bickering and family drama among the characters, as well as a switch in timelines as some dark family history is revealed. All in all, this is a very satisfactory mystery but with no real surprises.

Read this if you enjoy:
*Locked Room Settings
*Maine Settings
*Hurricane Settings
*A Murderer on the Loose
*Bickering Characters
*Family Drama

I also checked out the audio version. Saskia Maarleveld does an excellent job with the voices and drama.

I was unfortunately not a big fan of this book. The family was so unlikable and it just didn’t hold my attention

I enjoyed last years The Block party but this one fell flat for me. The beginning is really slow on the setup. I guessed some of the plot twists early on so nothing that surprised or shocked me. Overall I gave it 3 stars and will give her next one a shot.

This book was another fail! I am sad about this one as I was looking forward to a good thriller. Don't get me wrong, the twists and turns were there , but everything else was just flat. The characters were 2 dimensional and unrelatable, I couldn't really get into the book as I kept putting it down and not wanting to pick it back up.....I do not recommend this one at all.

While arguably not as fast pasted as his first novel, the newest book from Jamie Day still has something to offer fans of his work. If you like to read books that make you want to crawl under the sheets (if you're a late night reader like I am) then this is definitely one check out.