This was a fun locked room for those who enjoy the genre. Locked room isn't always my favorite but this one was good. THere were some slower parts, but overall I loved the twists.

This book was captivating enough to keep me interested, but ultimately was a bit lacking in parts. I felt as though the story could have been a bit more developed. I also found the plot twist to be really predictable, but maybe that is just me! Overall, it was a pretty good book and I would recommend it to someone looking for a quick thriller read.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the arc.

This is my first Jamie Day read and I enjoyed it.
This was a twist and turny story full of interesting and quirky characters. So many things going on that kept me guessing.

An entertaining read.

Charley is a 19 year old chambermaid at a historic hotel in Maine with a bad habit of pilfering from guests. The lecherous owner, George Bishop has passed away and his three daughters, estranged sisters Iris, Vicki, and Faith, come to the hotel for the funeral, but all their focus lies on the potential inheritance from their father and how it can positively affect their life circumstances.

However, an unexpected guest comes to the hotel, begging for shelter, and Charley, who all too well understands dire circumstances, agrees to let her stay for free as long as she remains undetected But as the hotel guests gather and brace for a hurricane, strange things start occurring and long-held secrets begin to be revealed. When someone is murdered, everyone becomes a suspect.

Jamie Day combines elements of family drama and thriller to create a tense locked room mystery. With surprising twists and turns and nuanced characterization, the novel held my interest and is definitely one I'd recommend.

Main Characters:
-- Charley – 19-year-old live-in housekeeper of the Precipice Hotel, preparing for the arrival of the Bishop sisters since the owner of the hotel just died, uses the money she earns to support her grandmother who is living in a care home and suffering from Alzheimer’s
-- Rodrigo – front desk manager of the Precipice Hotel and Charley’s closest friend
-- Bree – late 20s from Charley’s estimation, they crossed paths a few days earlier at a coffee shop, she shows up at the hotel asking Charley to help her escape an abusive boyfriend
-- Vicki – the oldest of the Bishop sisters, married to Todd, together they own a chain of jewelry stores in and around Boston
-- Iris – the middle of the Bishop sisters, has battled drug addiction since she was a teenager
-- Faith – the youngest of the Bishop sisters, married to Hope, made a living as a high-end model when she was younger
-- Quinn – Vicki and Todd’s son, a senior studying philosophy at Dartmouth with a minor in art history
-- Oliver – Faith and Hope’s 14-year-old son, didn’t talk until he was about five and mostly talks in rhymes, his doctors don’t know why but Hope thinks he’s “special”
-- Brenda – the attorney who will be executing George Bishop’s will and previously almost got Rodrigo’s family deported
-- Janice – runs Guiding Way where Charley’s grandmother lives, helped Charley when her grandmother could no longer be left alone, has power of attorney over Charley’s grandmother’s finances

Where to start? Like any good mystery, One Big Happy Family has a large list of main characters (aka suspects), and you expect some twists to add to the suspense. A classic locked-room mystery, the story traps the characters in the hotel with a hurricane looming, so one of the characters must be the killer when one of them ends up dead. This definitely has twists, but I would argue that there are too many, they’re a bit “out there” at times, and many of them are eyeroll-worthy.

The story here takes place over a matter of a few days, with a section in the middle of the book that flashes back to the Bishop sisters’ childhood into their 20s. Chapter 1 begins in the middle of a hurricane just as the lights in the hotel go out. Chapter 2 rolls back to three days prior while Charley prepares the hotel for the sisters’ arrival for their father’s funeral and the reading of the will.

To set the stage, Charley began working at the Precipice Hotel two years prior. Her grandmother needed full-time care, and Charley was desperate for money, so she didn’t realize or chose to ignore the fact that George Bishop was a bit of a lech with a thing for young girls. It never got to THAT point with Charley, but he definitely made advances.

During her time at the hotel, Charley started stealing from customers—a little here, a little there—to help pay the rent for her grandmother at Guiding Way. When Janice tells Charley that she’s going to raise the rent, Charley becomes even more desperate. When Bree approaches Charley about needing a place to hide out from her boyfriend and being able to pay a good sum of money in a few days, Charley agrees to let her stay hidden in the hotel.

Charley feels a lot of pressure because she isn’t sure what the sisters will do with the hotel, and she needs her live-in job. Despite the weather forecast, the Bishop sisters haven’t changed their plans to come to the hotel with their respective spouses and children for their father’s funeral and reading of the will. So in the midst of Charley’s personal financial crisis, with a hurricane bearing down on the coast, Charley still has to prepare the hotel. She also has to keep Bree well-hidden since she’s pocketing the money Bree has offered.

That’s the gist.

Before I get to the spoilers, this book challenged me in a bunch of other ways. The description calls Charley “older than her years.” I would argue she’s the exact opposite. Yes, she holds down a full-time job to take care of her grandmother, but she put herself into this horrible situation through her own naivete AND she’s a thief.

The attachment and loyalty she develops to Bree and Quinn is completely unrealistic in a couple of days. She literally met Bree because Bree asked for her recommendation on coffee. Granted, the money Bree offers for Charley to hide her out is a huge part of Charley’s feelings about Bree, but the fact that she trusts someone she doesn’t know at all is naive at best as well as ridiculously stupid.

In regard to the writing style in general, the point of view makes sense…for the most part. The majority of the book is in the first person from Charley’s perspective. The flashback to the Bishop sisters 40 years prior changes to third person, which is fine. It’s a flashback, and a lot of books use this—different timelines, different points of view. But at one point in the present day…randomly…the story shifts to the third person. Why? Because it’s focused on something Quinn is doing outside, and Charley isn’t there. The story can’t be told otherwise, and this is a huge flaw in the writing. I would have preferred Charley seeing him from a distance and running out to help.

On top of that, so many times, I just shook my head and thought to myself, “Really?!”

-- “Faith works hard to maintain her thin frame but learns soon enough that the good advice she gets about diet and exercise is empty words, as toothless as a newborn.”
-- “After the reading, Oliver appeared drained, as though the experience had depleted him of his lifeforce.”
-- “Vicki holds her ground. Tension rises. The air holds an electric charge. I’m thinking of the greatest standoffs in film history, movies I watched with my nana before her memory declined. Darth Vader versus Obi-Wan Kenobi. Harry Potter versus Voldemort. The Ghostbusters against the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.”

***SPOILERS*** SPOILERS***SPOILERS***

Now for the convoluted spoilers that come out during the hurricane when everyone is trapped in the hotel. Buckle up. In chronological order (versus plot order):

-- The Bishop sisters caused an accident when they were younger that resulted in a fatality. We (and they) assume it was a previous housekeeper Christine who their father took a liking to. The sisters vowed never to tell anyone what they had done.
-- Iris goes into a tailspin, presumably from the guilt, and becomes a drug addict, acting up in school. Her father kicks her out of the house at 18 and tells her not to come back. Two years later, Faith sneaks away on her own, promising never to return.
-- Iris becomes pregnant and decides to get clean because she wants to keep the baby. She goes to a home for unwed mothers, starts attending Narcotics Anonymous, and gets a job cleaning houses. At some point, exhausted from caring for her newborn son, she finds Vicodin in the medicine cabinet of a home she’s cleaning.
-- Faith meets someone who promises to help her with her modeling career. She starts a sort of quid pro quo relationship with him (but falls in love with him), and he secures her the cover of Vogue by ruining the career of another model. When she finds out she parts ways with him.
-- Vicki attends the Vogue cover launch, and before she can find Faith at the event, she meets a man off to the side and spends quite of bit of time talking and flirting with him. She introduces him to Faith as her “new friend.”
-- If you haven’t figured it out yet, Faith’s agent and Vicki’s new friend are both Todd. Faith never mentioned Todd’s name to Vicki because she didn’t want Vicki to dig up dirt on him. She lets Vicki marry Todd without ever telling her.
-- Back to Iris, the one-time Vicodin turned into a downward spiral. When her son is about two years old and she is about to lose him to foster care, she calls Vicki begging her for help. Vicki and Todd agree to adopt (you guessed it) Quinn as long as Iris never tells him who she really is.
-- Several years later after Faith and Hope are together and wanting a baby via IVF, Todd and Faith reconnect and start an affair. Faith gets pregnant and tells Hope that she went to a special clinic. Unbeknownst to everyone, Oliver overhears a conversation between Todd and Faith when he is about four years old and learns that Todd is his father (which he reveals in the middle of the hurricane).
-- Fast forward to the present day, George Bishop is dead and has divided his property. Vicki (and therefore Todd) gets one-third. Iris gets one-third, but it’s in trust, which is run by Todd. The final third goes to Todd because Faith left when George assumed she would be the one to take over the hotel. And if something were to happen to Todd, Brenda the attorney controls his portion.
-- And let’s not forget about Bree, who is not actually an abused girlfriend. She’s Christine the housekeeper’s daughter, and Christine was impregnated by (maybe you guessed this too) George. She didn’t die in the car accident because it was the cook’s son Samuel driving the car. Samuel and Christine were in love and planning to get married. Christine died years later from cervical cancer caused by HPV, which she presumably caught from George.
-- George willed to Bree a painting worth several million dollars. Brenda the attorney knows about it and doesn’t say anything to the sisters because she plans to find the painting and keep it for herself.

Oh…and the killers? Hope kills Todd because she knows about the affair, and Bree kills Brenda because Brenda wants the painting.

Through all of this, Charley thinks that Bree is her friend and the person she can trust the most in the house since Rodrigo is nowhere to be found. And she starts feeling romantic toward Quinn. Despite the fact that someone in the house is a murderer and there is a looming hurricane, she talks about how romantic it feels to be searching the house for him and how she loves the way he says her name.

WHAT?!?!

Talk about a crazy family! I could not believe all the secrets that they kept. This was such a good book. There were so many twists that I did not see coming. What a great book!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

After "The Block Party" by this author falling "flat" with me, I was wondering if I would enjoy the next book.

Glad to say I really enjoyed "One Big Happy Family". The Precipice is a family owned hotel in Maine - the owner has passed and his 3 daughters are traveling to the hotel to claim their stake in in.

Unfortunately, a hurricane is not too far behind, threatening to strand them there.

Charley works at the Precipice and is harboring a secret of her own, and with the sisters incoming, she is unsure of her future.

There are several twists and turns and I'd recommend to anyone that loves twists!

I was so excited to read this one when I saw it was a hurricane-based locked room thriller. But really this felt like more of a drama, and the slow pace was difficult for me. I wanted to love it more than I did. I paired the print with the audio, but it still just wasn’t my favorite read, I’m sorry to say.

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

One Big Happy Family is a locked room mystery narrated by Charley Kelley, a young woman who both works as a chambermaid and lives at The Precipice Hotel in Jonesport, Maine. The predatory George Bishop owned the hotel prior to his death, and his three daughters and his attorney are converging on the hotel for the reading of his will and funeral as Hurricane Larry is poised to hit the coast. Everybody has a secret, but the weather prevents anyone from leaving.

Although the novel has plenty of twists and turns — some more plausible than others — it does not really pick up steam until halfway through. The ending is also too pat and optimistic given everything that has gone before. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary advance reader’s copy of this book.

I read this novel courtesy of St. Martin’s Press, the author, and also Netgalley. I really did like the premise of this book however I found it fairly uneventful. This novel focuses on a hotel that is fairly vacant due to a pending hurricane. Three sisters plan to arrive to the hotel either way due to the reading of an inheritance.

This novel was more drama than thrill, which I was hoping was opposite but I did like the story line. I would recommend for those who like a story that is drama filled with a touch of thrill.

This was a fun read by Jaime Day. I also really enjoyed The Block Party so I was excited to get this ARC.
The family drama in this book is MESSY. But I loved the action and how wild it got. Just when I thought the family couldn’t get any messier.. I was wrong. Although I really liked all the drama, the story telling between the past and the present got a little confusing at parts but that could’ve been just me.
I highly suggest reading this book during a rainy weekend to add to the ambiance - you’ll understand once you start reading.
One Big Happy Family by Jamie Day hits the shelves on July 16, 2024. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great listen. I read and listened to this one. It really kept me on the edge of my seat trying to figure out who murdered who. This was a pretty fast paced book. The narrator did a great job. I was able to listen to it at 2x the speed easily. Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this one.

Nineteen year old Charley is a maid at the Precipice, a hotel that sits on a cliff in Maine (hence the name). She uses her salary to pay for grandmother's care and sometimes gets sticky fingers around the guests. When the owner of the hotel passes away, his three daughters arrive to sort out their inheritance just as a hurricane hits. Worried about her future, Charley is waiting to hear about the fate of the hotel. Meanwhile, the sisters and their families have their own baggage to sort out. Long-buried secrets start to bubble to the surface when everyone gets stuck in the isolated hotel during the storm. With so much so gain or lose, the stakes turn deadly.

I am a big fan of locked room thrillers and this was definitely a fun one. Other than the protagonist Charley, who I was rooting for, I didn't really like any other characters but I think that's what the author was aiming for. Families are brutal, and this family was no exception. There were lots of twists and turns and the hits just kept coming. An entertaining summer read. Thanks NetGalley and St Martins Press for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this one in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get into this book. I felt like it has such a slow start and it just wasn’t grabbing my attention.

I hope others love this one but it was a DNF for me.

Predictable family drama set in an almost deserted hotel during a hurricane.

Charley Kelley, age 19, works as the only maid at the Precipice, a hotel in Maine, set at the edge of a cliff. The old man owner dies, and his 3 daughters, Vicki, Iris, and Faith come to hear the reading of the will. The weekend turns dangerous as all the guests depart, Hurricane Larry bears down on them, and secrets the Bishop sisters are keeping might just be the deadliest of all.

I had a difficult time buying into this story and the whole plot was so unsurprising that I find it hard to believe that any reader could say there are any unexpected twists. Each chapter brought more anticipated revelations and it all played out to a conclusion that you can see a mile coming. The characters were mostly unlikeable and even though we are supposed to like Charley, I really didn't find her believable either. Halfway through it, I just wanted to be done with the book. Overall, this didn't deliver the promised suspense or thrills.

I listened to the audiobook while following along in the e-book (both provided by the publishers) but that combination didn't bring me the expected enjoyment as it usually does. The narrator's voice was OK, however there was little differentiation in tone or cadence to allow the listener to be able to identify which character was speaking. This type of novel with so many different people would have benefited from a larger speaking cast.

Jamie Day is one of my new fav authors. I fell in love with her writing with Block Party and this one was no different. The mystery, the secrets it had it all. Loved the vibes of most of it taking place at one location. Like clue or Agatha Christie. During a hurricane no less. It kept me sucked in, it kept me wanting more and to find out what was gonna happen. I didn’t guess the twists. Can’t wait for more from this author.

I love a reclusive location for thrillers & murder mysteries, especially when a storm prevents them from leaving. The seclusion always amps up the tension. And this unusual family that the main character Charley gets stuck with, they are already full of tension. They’ve all got enough secrets to keep readers very interested. It has that modern-Gothic vibe going for it, the locale, the family secrets, the storm. It even has a little bit of a Christie aura to it as the numbers start to lessen. Overall it’s a fairly satisfying book but I do feel that I enjoyed Day’s other book The Block Party better.

🏨

Read if you like:
* The Off Season by Amber Cowie
* The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins

Overall, the book had a pretty slow pace until about the last quarter of the book. I really wanted to stick out until the end though because once it picked up, it held my interest to the end.

I'd check out other books of this author.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for approving me for a copy of this book.

A great read! I would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a good, summer read! Not light and airy but keeps you invested until the end!

3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author for an ARC of this book.

One Big Happy Family is set at The Precipice Hotel, where the owner, George Bishop, has recently passed. His three daughters come back to the hotel to settle their father’s estate and hear the reading of his will. The story is focused on Charley, a maid at the hotel who works to pay for her Nana’s care in assisted living. She struggles to make ends meet and her future seems dismal. She gets caught in the middle of the drama with the Bishop sisters.

Sisters Vicki, Faith, and Iris converge on the hotel at the same time as Hurricane Larry. The sisters’ arrival and the storm both stir up old memories and wreak havoc on The Precipice. The story uncovers secrets and unknown connections between all the characters, and the will raises questions about how the estate is to be divided.

The novel is broken into sections with flashbacks to provide context for each character. While the loose ends are connected at the end of the story, there are parts in the middle that feel slow. I didn’t care for it as much as The Block Party.