Wow… the characters in this story are the absolute epitome of a dysfunctional family! Really well done! This isn’t just a story about a dysfunctional Rich family. It’s about murder, betrayal, love, it has all the things! It’s been a long time since I’ve read a story in this vein where the characters were so spot on. Even the characters I hated couldn’t have been written any other way. Without giving too much away, I did know who the big bad was the instant they were introduced into the story. Not because it was obvious by any means, it was more just a feeling. I also knew why, but watching the whole thing play out was absolute mayhem! Seriously, it was a wild ride and I loved every minute of it! Even knowing what was going to happen, the big reveal was a definite WTF moment. The ending tied things up nicely too, so I’m pretty happy with how it ended. This one is definitely worth a read if you like messy families who can’t get away from each other… and then the bodies start dropping!

Huge thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

Unfortunately, nothing worked for me in One Big Happy Family. Every character was unlikeable, and none of them were interesting. The main character is one of the dumbest characters I have ever read. The twists were very predictable. Also, the romance subplot was cringe considering what was going on.

If you love rich people being bad - you may love this.

Murder in a remote coastal Maine town with a hurricane bearing down?

SIGN ME UP!

This was addictive, totally "unputdownable" and all in a great story!

Loved this book! Lots of colorful, well-developed characters comprising an eccentric family made this an exciting mystery with some unexpected twists and turns along the way. Good writing, nice pacing, and a fun plotline make this book a success!

The Bishop sisters are coming together after their father has passed away to figure out who is going to take over the family-owned hotel on the coast that is full of potentially expensive antiques. There is a hurricane coming that will affect their weekend and even though there are no guests staying at the hotel, the whole family is there as well as some hotel staff and a stowaway. Charley Kelley, a young girl, is the maid at the hotel and she has also snuck in a girl on the run and she is worried that the family will find out and fire her.

This story was crazy, twisty, and fast-paced the entire time. I was not original suspicious of the stowaway, but as the story went on, she kept popping up and being more important. There was a small romance storyline between Charley and one of the grandsons of the original owner hotel, but this was mostly just family drama and mystery.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, for the free copy for review.

I’m all for mystery thrillers set on an isolated island with a group of suspects. Toss in the wrath of a storm, and I know we will have a wild ride.

This fast-paced read delved into family secrets, dysfunction, and mystery-solving. The actions of the Bishop sisters during their teen years provided a clever red herring. While the twist was unexpected, it didn't deliver the surprise I anticipated. Ultimately, the plot leads to a long-planned vendetta. Overall, it was an entertaining read.

🌬🌊Wow! What a family!😟

One Big Happy Family, not to be confused by the title, is a cauldron of secrets, deceit, back-biting, jealousy, greed: you name it, this family has all the negatives and they all spill when three sisters and their families gather for the reading of their father's will. The atmosphere in the rooms of the hotel their dad owned is as stormy as the hurricane outside!

A young hotel maid tells the story and gets stuck in the middle of the drama because they are all trapped at the hotel on a promontory on the Maine coast thanks to the hurricane. The "trapped with a murderer" trope worked well and the author did a great job keeping the tension high.

Cryptic messages foreshadowing death, communication line failure, power problems: all add to the atmosphere of impending tragedy. And there were so many twists that made reading it feel like a runaway train heading for a dramatic crash.

Yes, the scheming is OTT, but it was thoroughly entertaining.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for sharing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. Charley is a young chambermaid working at the Precipice Hotel trying to make enough money to keep her aging grandmother comfortable in her current living situation. The owner of the hotel, George Bishop, has just died and his estranged daughters and their families are coming to the hotel for the reading of the will during a hurricane. Over the course of the story, we learn more about George’s shady past and unravel old family secrets. Charley also decides that of course this is the best time to hide a stranger at the hotel who claims she needs a place to hide from her abusive boyfriend.
My main complaints with the story include the predictability of the plot twist, Charley’s naivety and a very strange romance thrown in while people in the hotel are turning up dead. When reading a thriller, I want to be completely surprised by plot twists and revealed secrets which I felt this book lacked. It was a quick read and I suggest checking it out.

Thank you St Martin's and also MacMillan Audio for review copies of One Big Happy Family. Jamie Day's book is filled with promise, a locked room plot, rich people behaving badly, a storm, and a dead body... I tend to love books with these settings and conflict over wills, hints of romance and past and present secrets coming to life ,and all things family dysfunction. In a few ways this book was a win, I felt Day was deft at weaving in different character's stories while focusing on the main character in a thoughtful way and she did a good job of generating Succession like vibes and characters.

Overall though the slow burn pace felt more slow without a truly rewarding to me payoff; the plot and pacing lagged in places and though I don't mind unlikable characters, I never felt like I was really cheering on an underdog or seeing self growth happen even for the main character. As a reader of a lot of suspense and thrillers, I also felt like the reveals weren't a surprise and while there are only so many ways to make a locked room mystery unique, what was missing was the joy of the plot to see how it all comes together.

One Big Happy Family
Jamie Day
Pub: 7/16/24
4☆

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.

My Thoughts:
Jamie Day has a way with drama filled, twisty stories and this was no different.

One Big Happy Family was an entertaining and twisty whodunnit. I love some messy family drama, and this dysfunctional family… had plenty to go around. I kept hearing Toxic by Britney Spears in my head. 😆

The story unfolds in four parts with alternating timelines and multiple points of view. So while there is a lot going on, Day does a great job of developing each character and bringing everything together. I was entertained and intrigued throughout. Mostly trying to figure out who did it, but also trying to decide which sister was the worst! 😆

What I enjoyed;
✨ Locked Room Mystery
✨ Domestic Suspense
✨ Twisty Thriller
✨ Family Dramaaaa

Thank you to St Martins Press and NetGalley for the advanced ditigial and physical copies in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Jamie Day for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for One Big Happy Family coming out July 16, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own. .

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I love psychological thrillers. It felt a little like the movie Knives Out. The family was definitely dysfunctional. I think Charley was the most interesting character and it was fun to see her reaction to how the different family members acted. There was definitely a lot going on. Of course a few of the characters weren’t likable at all. I think the second half got a little crazy. But I loved the ending.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves family dramas!

This book was a book that you just couldn't put down. If you did you would be anxiously waiting to see what happen ed next.

It is very well written and it has a little humor to it.

Great job and loved this book

This book wasn't for me.

I really liked the setting of this book - the isolation came through and the hurricane started off as a character (though that fell by the wayside). However, the rest of the book wasn't great. The characters were inadequately developed, but I appreciate that they weren't all introduced at the exact same time. The way they talked to each other felt cartoonishly cruel and unrealistic. The answer was entirely too obvious from early on in the book, which made it much harder to get through the rest of the story. The pacing was very slow.

Ultimately, not my favorite.

A huge thank you to the author and the publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Thank you Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for the arc of Jamie Day’s One Big Happy Family. This was a fun read for sure. A family stuck in an eclectic hotel in Maine during a hurricane. With this book anything they could possibly go wrong sure does. Some parts were slow which took away a little bit from the storyline and also lots of characters to get to know, but overall a fun read!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. I loved the Block Party and was so excited to get my hands on Jamie Day's new book. This is a family drama set in a family-owned hotel. The Bishop sisters return home to hear their father's will, with a murderer on the loose. I felt like it was lacking some of the thriller aspect.

Definitely the twisty turny book I was looking for.

At first, the characters were hard to keep straight (lots of girl characters right away) but once the story got going, I had no problems differentiating. I will say I figured out the ending about half way through but it didn’t make the book any less enjoyable.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press ad Netgalley for an advanced readers copy of Jamie Day's new book One Big Happy Family. This was a joy tread to from the very beginning until the end. No spoilers here, but the book captures everything good in a thriller mystery with a few twists that seem straight out of a game of clue. The story is about the Bishop sisters who have arrived at the Precipice Hotel for the reading of their father's will, but told through the lens of Charlie, the 19 year old "chamnbe rmaid" at a Maine hotel in the midst of a hurricane. The three Bishop sisters stories are intermixed and provide the basis for much of the mystery. We have murders, intrigue, kidnapping, and a romp of a good time. The book came to a conclusion that wasn't rushed, and throws more than one major twists at the reader.

Loved this one! Great and fun read. Highly recommend.
Many thanks to the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for my ARC.

WOW this one was crazy! Could you imagine being trapped in a hotel on the coast of Maine during a major hurricane and being stranded with family that you don't like and all have secrets? Then to survive you have to uncover the truth. Let me tell you those truths were some twists and turns I didn't see coming!!! This was such a crazy ride. There were some slow moments for me but I feel like that happens with most thrillers. But once things start picking up, you are on a ride. There are a lot of characters and I did get confused sometimes but they were well written. I felt like you got to know them well. I would definitely recommend this book. If you want some family drama, then this is the book for you!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read this ARC for my honest opinion.

Decent thriller/suspense liked the setting of the book in Maine. There were a lot of characters to keep track of at first which took some time but did start to become easier. While not all the twists were a surprise was still an entertaining story and would recommend. I want to thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the arc in exchange for an honest review.