"One Big Happy Family" by Jamie Day is a gripping novel about a 19 year old girl named Charley Kelley who works as a “chambermaid” at the Precipice Hotel in a touristy part of Maine. Charley, with a tough exterior, navigates her challenging life as she supports her grandmother with dementia by using her measly hotel earnings. Charley's financial struggles force her to occasionally steal small amounts of money from hotel guests, despite her guilt.

The hotel, owned by the now-deceased George Bishop, is set to be inherited by his children. Bishop's character is revealed as predatory, having taken advantage of his young maids in the past, including Charley.

As the story unfolds, Charley and her coworker prepare the hotel for the arrival of Bishop's children and an impending storm. During this time, Charley meets Bree, a girl escaping an abusive boyfriend named Jake, and reluctantly offers her refuge.

The arrival of the Bishop children, Iris, Faith, and Vicki, along with Bree’s presence and the approaching storm, set the stage for intense drama. Secrets come to light, and danger looms as the characters are confined together in the hotel. This locked-room type of thriller keeps readers on edge with its suspenseful plot twists and revelations.

"One Big Happy Family" is a compelling read that combines elements of mystery, drama, and survival. The dynamics between the characters and the high-stakes situations they face make this book an engaging page-turner. 3.5 stars rounded up! Thank you NetGalley and publishers for the advanced copy!

One Big Happy Family is the recent book from Jamie Day that evaluates how the sins of the past can impact the future , and how family is sometimes forged by those least expected. The story is set at the family owned hotel in Maine, the Precipice. The Bishop family is brought together after the death of their father during a hurricane to overview the will.

Like any thriller there are secrets that come to be revealed and not many of the family are happy with the results of the will. What happens next is the murders, mayhem, and of course the hurricane.

Charley is a maid that has been living and working in the Precipice and as the family starts to gather she begins to question a lot about what she knew about the Bishop family. It doesn't help that she is keeping a stranger at the hotel to hide out from an abusive boyfriend, or that Charley is suddenly drawn into the family affairs.

The story focuses primarily on Charley and her interactions with the Bishop family yet as the story develops the reader learns more about Vicki, Faith, and Iris. None of the family is perfect and all of them have their secrets and burdens. The family is downright toxic and many of them are insane. However, one major secret is what binds the sisters together to this day. Still there are other secrets that could easily break the family apart even more.

I can say that One Big Happy Family does drag a bit and some of the twists came somewhat expected... at least for me. By the build up of the storm I had pretty much figured out many of the plot twists.

Still it wasn't a horrible read and for a summer suspense I enjoyed it. If you are a fan of lock in thrillers with family toxicity then you may want to pick this one up. Until next time, happy reading!

One Big Happy Family by Jamie Day

Thank you to @stmartinspress for the opportunity to read this #advancedreadercopy in exchange for my #honestbookreview! All thoughts are my own and One Big Happy Family is available now.

We love a book with a main character named Bree/Brie! This took me a couple of tries to get into but once I did I really enjoyed it. This was a thrill a minute and very twisty. There was enough POV and timeline shift to give background without being chaotic. If you like investigative maids, dysfunctional families, and locked door thrillers, this is for you!

TWs: infidelity, g*slighting, pois*ning, fr*ming, loss of a loved one, more

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 4/5

Unfortunately this was just not entertaining to me. Around 68% I just knew this was not going to get better for me. The only interesting part of this story was part 2 when we got a chance to know the back story of the sisters. I could have read a story about them and their scandals. I did not like our main pov/mc, nor any of the characters. No one was likeable or relatable.

I love big families - I come from a big family and have a big family but the Bishops, the family at the center of this book are something else. Three sisters bound not by a sisterly bond but by a horrendous shared secret that they have sworn to keep while still fighting each other wherever they can. The three of them come together with their respective families and their late father’s attorney to their family’s Precipice hotel on the Maine coastline for the reading of their father’s will. Right from the get go nothing is as it seems and everybody is keeping secrets, the maid is stealing, the cook is harboring major grievances, there is a stowaway whom nobody is supposed to know about and a major storm approaching the coastline. Soon there is a body and a locked room mystery since communication and access to the outside world is cut off. There is tension, twists and turns, there’s drama and heartache and I enjoyed this juicy dysfunctional family. As one of the sisters states in the book this family put the fun in dysfunction.

It wasn’t bad but I didn’t love it. It was a lot of characters and it felt like a game of clue mixed with Agatha Christie. It lost my attention at some point

I wanted to get sucked into this book, I really did. I liked the premise, I was rooting for the main character, but the rest of the characters were so over the top that I just couldn't sink in. Sorry to say, this was just not the book for me. I do think it would work for those who love a wealthy family dysfunction, close quarters / locked-in, mystery read.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy of One Big Happy Family by Jamie Day.

I loved the coastal Maine setting of this family drama/thriller. This was such an atmospheric book which made for a fun setting for this locked-room thriller. I listened to the audio and overall it was an okay book - it wasn't super memorable to me.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book was published July 16, 2024.

This is my second book by this author. It started off a bit slow and it felt too long at times but the last quarter was full of twists and turns. The three Bishop sisters gather at their father’s remote hotel to hear his will read. A solid thriller about a very dysfunctional family who all have secrets…

What a crazy, over-the-top, mystery-infused soap opera! There are plenty of complicated and interesting characters who are likable at some times and then detestable at others. And their backgrounds are all intertwined and secretly related more than most of them realize. It takes place at the Precipice Hotel in Jonesport, Maine and centers around the Bishop Family who owns the hotel. The patriarch, George Bishop, has just died. There is a lot of money to be inherited which brings out some wild antics as most everyone wants a piece of the estate. And as the story progresses, more and more truths come out. Despite some of the outrageous happenings, I really enjoyed this book with its shocking twists, abhorrent behaviors and quirky and immoral characters. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital ARC.

I really enjoyed this story

The precipice is a legendary family owned hotel on the Rocky coast of Maine

With the recent passing of their father, the three bishop sisters, Iris, Vicky and Faith had come for the weekend to claim it

But with a hurricane looming and everyone having dangerous secrets, there’s murder in the air and not everyone who checks into the hotel will be checking out

This was a great and fun read.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins press for the eBook

This is a great summer read.

One Big Happy Family, The Bishop sisters come home with a closet full of skeletons. The scheming husband of one. the all natural wife of another, the teenage sons are all dragged along too. The setting and weather were well described and became their own characters.

I enjoyed this book. A old hotel on the Maine coast where a young maid lives and works to support her Nana who is in a facility. The old owner dies and his 3 daughters come to the hotel to bury him and attend the reading of the will. At the same time a hurricane is bearing down on them and they are all trapped in the hotel.. As the bodies start to pile up old family secrets come to light. The mystery is solved in the end. Does Charley get her happy ending? You will need to read to find out.

Jamie Day is a new to me author! I have heard so many positive things about this and the Block Party. I was so excited to read this book! I chose to listen on audio and the narrator was well spoken and kept my attention for the duration of the book.

This book has a lot of characters and they are very intricately woven. Charley is a housekeeper at the Precipice Hotel in Maine. Her employer for a very long time passes away and his daughters return to the hotel. Charley is barely making ends meet trying to pay for her grandmothers retirement, she is afraid that she will lose her job. In the middle of a hurricane, the family has arrived and the cook has quit. They are all locked in with each other to ride out the storm. The Bishop sisters are quirky and their family is too, they also all have secrets. I enjoyed slowly learning about their past and present stories. This family takes dysfunction to the next level!

The book is told from Charlie, the Bishop Sister’s and others perspectives alternating between the past and present. I really enjoyed untangling this web of deception, lies, tragedies and secrets! Some parts of the story seemed irrelevant and drug on. This was a perfect summer audio book to enjoy by the beach and after a long vacation day!

I struggled to think where I wanted to rate this one. On one hand it is twisty and kept my attention (mostly), on the other hand sometimes I just found myself shaking my head so hard. Who would do or say these things? BUT that said, it is fiction and if you can suspend your disbelief it could be really enjoyable!

The characters are mostly so unlikable. Even our narrator, Charley, has her faults. This is all about each character's secrets and there are definitely enough secrets to go around! So many twists! Some were easier to figure out early on than others. A couple times my jaw dropped.

Overall, this was a quick and entertaining read.

<b>TW/CW:Language, drug addiction, sexual abuse, domestic abuse, drug overdose, death of parent, dementia, classism, eating disorder, bullying, family drama, toxic family relationships, abusive relationships, drinking, smoking, cheating, depression, anxiety, infertility, death by suicide, cancer, physical abuse </b>

<b><big>*****SPOILERS*****</b></big>
<b>About the book:</b>
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.
<b>Release Date:</b> July 16th, 2024
<b>Genre:</b> Thriller
<b>Pages:</b> 368
<b>Rating:</b> ⭐

<b>What I Liked:</b>
1. Writing was good
2. Love the plot of a cut off hotel from society during a storm

<b>What I Didn't Like:</b>
1. Felt slow
2. Predictable
3. Boring boring boring
4. Basic thriller
5. Unnecessary romance
6. The rhyming 14 year old

<b>Overall Thoughts:</b>
<b><i><small>{{Disclaimer: I write my review as I read}}</small></i></b>

Seriously I would not trust Janice. Why wouldn't she tell Charley about Medicare. Or get her on Medicaid some kind of financial aid so that she isn't paying this rent on her own and they could help. Maybe it doesn't exist in this world.

I don't know how the guests wouldn't know it was the maid stealing from them. No one has complained in the years she's worked there about missing money?

Honestly I'm just really annoyed at how much she complains about being a maid. She acts like it's the hardest job and yes there are hard days (I was also a maid at a hotel so I know that some days are hard), but she makes out like she never gets days off and she never gets time to herself. We are in the middle of the storm and she's even complaining about no guests so you go from her complaining about too much work to not enough.

Her stealing from guests and I'm over here wondering why she doesn't get a second job at night. She could pick up a second part time job and that would help a lot rather than banking on people having cash and losing her job. Maids usually work 8am to 4/5pm, so she could get another job.

This random woman that she met at a location I can't remember and don't care to look up shows up at the hotel promising the she'll give her $1,000 if she will hide her for the week at the hotel. And I'm just like no that makes zero sense and you might get screwed over in this deal. You have no proof that this person is really even going to give you the money once the week is over. You have no idea how dangerous this boyfriend is of hers and you're putting yourself in the crosshairs of their fight. Charley asks her why doesn't she just call the police and she shows the text messages that Jake has sent her that are on the edge of threatening but not really and says that that's not enough for the place. And I mean that is true. But how does she have no one else to call to get home to even help her? Why wouldn't she go to the police sit with the police and call somebody to come and get her or someone to send her the money to go home. I don't know... Thrillers just make me even more suspicious but I just don't feel like I want to help people when they have this weird scenario happening.

Charley mentions a photo that's in the hallway of some of Georgia's favorite workers and she mentions that she was just very nicely next to a nice car but didn't know how she managed to have that much money on a maids pay. 100% says that this girl that showed up is George's daughter and she's here to contend the will. That the woman in the photo is her more that was;
• Paid to leave town when he assaulted her and she was pregnant

There were sometimes when George was described as an okay guy to he was sexually assaulting women. It was always switching by Charley

They act like this hotel is so tiny that they have no where to put Bree. It's 3 stories. I'd be putting this woman in the basement/attic if my job was at risk.

Of course Quinn is hot and Charley is all about that so hoping this doesn't turn into a romance.

Oh no I am so shocked that Todd was killed. Who could have seen that happening!?

Seriously now we are saying the kid is a psychic.

I don't like jumping back into the past. It feels like it slowed down the momentum of the book and the mystery. Now we are reading about the sisters as they have went their own ways. I loved the isolation but now it's just in the background of this story.

Todd sleeping with Faith before going out with Vicki. Ewww. Not sure how they never knew that Faith and Todd were living together.

I had a laugh because in this flashback of Todd they just paint him like this typical villain. Vicky is adopting Iris' son because she's went back to using drugs and is incapable of taking care of him. The whole time during the court thing Todd is mad because they're losing out on money for being foster parents.
<i><b>"So we lose the money from the state for being foster parents and get all the burden of Quinn’s ongoing expenses . Great deal, Vic! You really crushed this one.”</b></i>
Not happy about Vicki adopting Quinn when she says to Iris that she's now his mother and Iris will only be known as his aunt. Heartless.

Can't forget that Todd had competition removed from Faith's modeling career. And when Faith approaches him about it, that she had ended her life he says good riddance. But even Faith was questioning whether he had sexually assaulted that girl when he had drugged her so she'd miss her modeling appointment.

It's just crazy how many conversations Charley is privy to with this family. It seems like she's always just right where everything is happening. Whenever they're having heated conversations that pertain to family affairs there's Charley hanging out in the wings. I'm really trying to understand what Charley does if the whole time she's just standing with the family. Why would she have to sit here while they do a three card spread? It's just crazy. There's zero reason to have the maid there.

It also doesn't make any sense why would this family that Todd died hang around the house? I get that it's a hurricane but what is the point of hanging out the house? Just because the detective said to wait around which is silly it makes zero sense. Because one of them is still a murderer why would the police have them all still in the house in case someone else ends up getting killed?

Love that Charley is jealous of Bree and she's questioning whether Quinn is more attracted to her than Charley? There is a murderer on the loose someone was killed in this house and you're worried about Bree looking more attractive to another man. What are you doing?? Who would react like this? Does no one care about the safety of themselves?

I still think that it's Bree. She keeps planting people that they are the ones that would be guilty. Plus she had the motive to kill this person. Plus she's the witness who said she heard arguing and shuffle outside her room.

Cool cool we habe so much time in this book to stop what we are doing to look for a painting that was rumored to be worth thousands of dollars. But don't worry because Charley doesn't care that she might be hanging out with a murderer because he's hot. When you're hot you can't be the killer. Duh!

Oliver's stupid rhyming is interesting at first and then gets pretty annoying after a few pages. Oliver might be one of my top most annoying characters.

I skipped a little bit through the book I was so bored.

Oh look at that George is Bree's father//<b>shocked</b>//

So Bree managed to gain George's trust and hang out with him this whole time for like a month and no one saw them together? I just don't understand how that's possible no one in the hotel saw them. Bree also killed George. Christina got pregnant with George. And she knows that the sisters killed Samuel, who was going to be the best stepfather that Bree had. Not sure how she knew that just from her mother's words.

Are you kidding me? Quinn runs out there to go and get the painting from Bree. As though he did not just inherit $220,000. But he needs this painting he needs it back so badly. A painting he didn't even know about till a few days ago.

Omg Bree left the painting to Charley in the event that she didn't come out of this alive. She knew her like 3 days but she wrote this whole note to let Charley know how great she was.

I knew knew knew Janice was ripping off Charley. Seriously though how the hell wouldn't Charley know this fact. It's not like they just out you on Medicaid because you need it. You have to apply for it. Was Janice the one who put her grandma on medicaid? But then I feel like you have to prove who you are to that person you can't just say that they're living in your facility. She's not even the legal guardian of her. This just seems insane.

<b>Final Thoughts:</b>
Basic thriller with nothing thrilling that happens. Predictable with a capital P.

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<b><small>Thanks to Netgalley, St Martin's Press, and Macmillan Audio for this advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC.

Give me all the domestic thrillers/family dramas please. Jamie Day has put together a twisty novel that I could not fully predict. Fun and bingeworthy.

If you're a locked-room mystery/thriller lover, run run run to grab Jamie Day's latest - One Big Happy Family.

Charlie works as a maid at a Maine hotel. The owners of the hotel are converging on the area for one weekend to discuss the will and testament of their father - George Bishop. George Bishop was a horrific human being and his three daughters - the Bishop sisters - aren't all that much better. To make the weekend just that much more entertaining, Hurricane Larry is rolling through and he's predicted to be a doozy.

Cue all your best elements of a locked-room thriller: trapped in a creepy hotel with a murderer, eerie clues about who might be next, countless secrets and terrible people, tons and tons of red herrings and layers of drama.

I listened to this novel on audio and enjoyed the narrator though I didn't think she was the best choice for Charlie. Her voice was more mature than I typically associate for a 19 year old so I often forgot how young Charlie was. She did add great elements of theater and drama to the tale though so I appreciated the entertainment value.

Overall, this was an entertaining read. Thank you to St. Martin's Press and MacMillan Audio for the copy.

Full disclosure: After reading The Block Party, I was convinced Jamie Day could write the phone book and it would still be enthralling, so I was incredibly excited to be able to read One Big Happy Family. Unsurprisingly, it was just as excellent as Day’s first book.

Charley is a chambermaid working and living at a New England hotel to try and scrape together the money to keep her beloved grandmother in a memory care home. After the death of the owner, his daughters and their families come to the hotel for the reading of the will. As it so happens, there is a hurricane that weekend, and not everybody gets out alive.

This book was so delightfully twisty and the characters were so nuanced and complex. I found the protagonist, Charley, especially well written. She acts her age (nineteen) and makes decisions based on the hand she is dealt. A lot of the decisions she makes would not be ones I would make now, but I could see myself making at nineteen. She has vulnerabilities and struggles with who she should trust. The other family members are equally fleshed out. Their motives, actions and decisions are all consistent with their characters.

The hotel itself is central to the story. Old, full of character, and nestled on a precipice, where it is exposed to the elements.

I completely recommend this book to anyone who likes family drama, suspense, and a good mystery.

This is the first book from this author that I have read. This book was a fast read mystery. The book was filled with enough suspense to keep the reader turning pages. This is a book which I would recommend to anyone who likes a good mystery.