A fun Christmas read from Ms. Mallery. I enjoyed all the characters in this book and the relationships between the couples and watching them change. Take Julie and Heath, Nick and Blair, Dana and Axel and their relationships, throw in Blair's mother Gwen (who's a bit of a curmudgeon in the beginning), Heath's ex, their two kids and dog and several other characters all gathering in a cabin for Christmas and sit back and enjoy the ride as you read through this one. It all adds up to a wonderful Christmas for everyone, at least in the end. Pick this one up asap, you won't be sorry.

Wow,, this boom has it all. I wondered how it could have so much going on and fit it into one book but she did and she didn't leave a single thing out.
I highly recommend this book.

One Big Happy Family was the latest and cutest rom-com by Susan Mallery! In it, we find Julie Parker getting ready to enjoy a quiet low-key holiday season with the younger man that she was dating in secret. Her plans got upended at the last minute when her two adult children sprang their plans of a family Christmas at their family cabin on her, assuming that she would love to be with them as they all grieved the passing of her ex-husband, their father that year.

What was assumed to be a gathering of only 4-5 people quickly grows and grows, as Julie brings her date, Heath, and his two kids and their dog Rufus. And then, circumstances change, and suddenly, there are 11 set to stay for the holiday week together.

Life got out of control, in the best way, and a lot of healing, loving, bonding, and great memories were made for all of them, even for the grinch, Gwen.

But can Julie ever get over Heath’s age? Will she be pushed over the edge and break up with him, like she has done with her past relationships?

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this wonderful ARC!!

One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery gives giggles on family drama and Christmas time fun. The characters and story pull you in and make you feel being right there and involved. Thank you Net Galley for my advance read! Highly recommend this during the holidays. #OneBigHappyFamily #SusanMallery #NetGalley

This is a wonderful holiday read about family, friendships & letting go. This reminds me of a Hallmark Christmas movie! Full of fun, chaos (I will never think of a fresh Christmas tree the same way again!!), food, family & "talking it out", One Big Happy Family made me laugh, cry & cringe!

I love this author and I love the way she tells a story. Just enough juiciness to keep it interesting, without going down a rabbit hole.

Julie’s attempt to have a simple, quiet Christmas with her boyfriend quickly spirals out of control in this heartwarming tale about the power of family and friendship.

Not to sound cliche, but I laughed, teared up a little, and then laughed some more. Seriously, it’s a rare thing for me to laugh out loud while reading a book, but I did multiple times while reading this one.

Sometimes, in books with so large a collection of characters, some characters can seem extraneous. No so, in this case - they all seemed well defined and purposeful. I’d also like to commend the author for ratcheting up the tension of each plot line without making the book feel stressful and maintaining a lighter tone. If I have any complaints at all, it’s that the ending felt somewhat abrupt. It’s always sad when a good book comes to an end, but especially so when the end feels sudden.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin for the advanced reader copy of this book, provided in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery This heartwarming holiday story is filled with humor, family drama, chaos, romance, Christmas traditions, and surprises. The characters are wonderful and the story highlights the complexity of families, how they handle their personal issues and the joy and love they bring to the holiday season. Highly recommended.

Thank you to the author, NetGalley and Harlequin Publishing- Canary Street Press for the opportunity to preview the book.

"One Big Happy Family" by Susan Mallery is such a wonderful story of family. Julie is an amazing organizer and loves to be in control. Julie wanted a smaller more intimate Christmas with her younger boyfriend. However, what she gets is totally different and she opens her home and heart to many. Julie also has to give up her control due some circumstances and she has a hard time relinquishing the control. I loved this story and the characters. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC>

Has Susan Mallory ever written a book you didn’t love? Well this is another well written story that brings you right in. You won’t be disappointed when you choose this one!

Such an interesting and challenging title for a book, but as usual Susan Mallery delivers an amazing tale of a family that is exponentially increasing right before our eyes. People are popping out of the proverbial woodwork right into the midst of a Christmas gathering of an amazing family. The mother Julie and her adult children Dana and Nick are the core characters of the Parker family. All have hearts of gold and as would be considered usual a habit of bickering amongst themselves. This would be their first holiday season without their father. Hence the need to be together at the family cabin, and I use that term very loosely. Of course Nicks new bride Blair is also there. As is Julie’s new boyfriend Heath.

But the fun really starts when characters with connection to various members of this family start popping up, or should I say in. I guarantee that you will have random moments when you laugh aloud, after all it is a work of literary art by one of the best. And of course there will be tender moments that will reach out to your heart making each character so real.

ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY is built around a smorgasbord of characters. Each is an essential element of the story. As with any family tale there is angst, regret, tempered with sass, humor, devotion and love. Some of the absolute best conversations. I especially love Julie and just about any object of her attention going at it. I would include an example of any one of a slew of exchanges but that would spoil your fun. Suffice it to say, ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY is a joyous romp by the prolific, imaginative, enormously talented Susan Mallery. Definitely add this to your must-read list. It’s a gift from Susan Mallery, her way of saying have a happy holiday - whatever that might be for you.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to read One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery, an author I can count on. This was a perfect book for me.

I always enjoy reading Susan Mallery's Christmas novels, and her latest, One Big Happy Family, did not disappoint! This heartwarming story revolves around Julie Parker and her family, both immediate and extended, as they come together unexpectedly for a big Christmas gathering. With so many different personalities mixing, I found myself laughing out loud and cringing in equal measure. As someone who grew up in a large blended family, I found this novel hilariously relatable. I finished reading this book in one sitting, and I highly recommend it to everyone during the holiday season. One Big Happy Family is a 5-star book that I will be rereading in December!

Holy Mackerel, this story had me thinking of Tinker Toys as I read it. For those of us who remember Tinker Toys, you know what I mean. For you youngsters who never played with them, well, you’ll just have to Google it. It’s a hub and spoke kind of toy, where you put sticks of various sizes into a round center piece that has holes all around it (like a bicycle wheel). You then add more round pieces on the other ends of the sticks and expand the design! You can’t always know what your final structure will look like but you keep adding sticks and circles as you go along.

I think Julie was the first center piece, and she was just looking forward to a quiet Christmas with her boyfriend. But she learned that plans could change with family so she added more “sticks”to her center because, in her words, “no one should be alone at Christmas”.

The more I read, the more I kept thinking this couldn’t get more complicated, but somehow, like the crazy design of the Tinker Toys, everything ended up connecting in the end, and it really was One Big Happy Family!

I am grateful to NetGalley for a sneak peek at this great Christmas story by Susan Mallery and hope everyone enjoys it as much as I did!

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher, Harlequin Trade Publishing, for the Earc in exchange for an honest review.
My rating
3.5 Stars rounded up
My Opinion
I thought my family was a mess, this made me feel way better. Julie's family are handling all of their issues during Christmas time. Her adult children, Nick and Dana, are struggling with the loss of their father. Family dynamics are shifting. Nick is cancelling his honeymoon, and plans are coming and going. The book goes through multiple POV's and has an age gap romance. I will be picking this back up during the Christmas season.

Susan Mallery is one of my favorite authors, and she has delivered another lovely book of family dynamics.

Ohhhh this one was so much fun! I enjoyed this read and thought it was equal parts entertaining, sentimental, and holiday cheer worthy. It’ll have you wishing you could whisk everyone you love away to a cabin for Christmas and let all of the merry chaos ensue!

Multiple scenes in the book had me laughing out loud, and these parts read so perfectly I could see them playing out like a comedy in my head. The characters had great interactions with one another and it was so fun to have all the side characters chime in at different points of the story. No character felt unused or without depth, which made this read even better.

The POV is split between Julie, Blair, and Dana, and I’ll say I did think splitting it up added great layers to the story given that everyone was in the same cabin for most of the book. I did have some trouble telling whose POV I was reading from at times, but it didn’t make the story any less enjoyable.

I loved all of the craziness! There was drama, laughter, injuries, Christmas traditions, fights, and MANY surprise guests! It was thrilling every time a new person showed up to spend time at the cabin. Give me all the chaos!

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Publishing- Canary Street Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Read if you love..
Christmas chaos
Multiple POVs
Age gap romance
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation vibes
A coyote pee tree

Isn't this what Christmas is all about? One big happy family, that isn't really happy to be all together. HA! I enjoyed this book so much. It was a great Christmas read! Families are dysfunctional. That is reality. It is time to face it. Just as well do it while you are all together for the holidays!

Your new boyfriend, your children, boyfriend’s ex-wife and their children, your daughter-in-law’s grumping mom on and old fashioned Christmas holiday…what could possibly go wrong. This is a humorous cozy holiday story.

Thank you NetGalley, and Harlequin Trade Publishing, and Susan Mallery for the ARC of “One Big Happy Family”

This book was a Hallmark Christmas movie in the best way! It was so much fun, had a lot of heart, and was a perfect chaotic family Christmas. I loved Julie the matriarch of the family and her boyfriend Heath’s relationship with her. The found family and real family in this was also sweet and it had some laugh out loud moments with crazy Christmas scenarios. The only thing missing for me was a little more depth to the characters. But overall, I found this little Christmas story to be a lot of fun and I would definitely recommend it around the Holiday season.