Unfortunately I don’t think Jamie Day is for me. This was my second book by her. The story was slow, the characters were horrible and the plot twist was very predictable, the best thing about this book was the narration- great narrator, one of my favorites.

This upcoming thriller by Jamie Day was the perfect read for my vacation,and I found myself sneaking in reading time at every opportunity!

Set at a family-owned hotel on the Maine coast, the tension between the Bishop sisters is obvious as each one returns for the reading of their fathers will. Charley, the hotel maid finds herself in the middle of all the family drama, especially after the young woman she is helping hide from an abusive boyfriend is discovered! With secrets, a looming hurricane, and nonstop twists, this book is perfect for fans of gripping family dramas and suspense.

Huge thank you to #netgalley and @macmillianaudio for the advanced audiobook copy!

I was so excited to get an advanced copy of this audio book though NetGalley, because I adored The Block Party.

I would give One Big Happy Family 3.5/5 stars, overall it was a good storyline and kept me guessing, but there was a lot of information and connections so I kept having to rewind and play chapters because I would get lost. I did enjoy the strange family dynamic throughout the story and Jamie Day did a great job of keeping me guessing.

The book definitely felt a little long for my liking, which may have contributed to me having to replay to parts.

Though it was broken down into 4 parts, I felt there could have been some trimming in the plot to streamline the story and keep my attention better. The backstories were loooooong and to a point they seemed a bit unnecessary.

Overall I did enjoy the book and will definitely be keeping an eye out for future release by Jamie Day!

This book is a really slow moving thriller. While I enjoyed the atmospheric writing, at times it became superfluous. There was so much showing and not enough telling, in my opinion. I was not very invested in this story.

Charley works as a maid at the Precipe Hotel, stealing from guests to make enough money to keep her grandmother in the retirement home she lives in. When the hotel’s owner passes away, his daughters – the Bishop sisters of Iris, Vicky and Faith, arrive for the reading of the will as a hurricane forces everyone to stay indoors at the hotel.

Charley is unsure whether she will keep her job, or the secret of the friend Bree that she is hiding at the hotel while Bree is trying to escape from an abusive relationship.

Vicki the eldest, is greedy, arriving with husband Todd and son Quinn (who Charley is very attracted to). Iris is the ex-convict, drug addict, and Faith is the stylish model who arrives with wife Hope and son Oliver.

Once the murder occurs, we are in a classic locked-room mystery as the Hurricane roars outside the hotel, and Charley tries to survive. Family drama is the main theme as we try and figure out who is the murderer.

I quite liked Charley’s character, despite the thefts, but didn’t really like any of the others. The story is told from multiple points of view and felt quite confused to me at several points. Lots of backstory slowed the plot for a while in the middle.

I listened to the audiobook, and I don’t think that helped with my confusion at some points in the plot. Maybe this was a book that was better to read rather than listen to. The narrator certainly tried to keep the ‘voices’ separate, but it didn’t always work for me.

This was good. I feel like one of the characters should have been brought in later in the book because I knew something was up with them right away. Since this book is told in parts we get more info on the characters in each part. The sisters all blended together and all had some type of issue. They all have secrets to hide and fear what would happen if they would get out. When people started dying and going missing I could not figure out who was behind all of this.

Some of the twists in the end didn't seem as shocking but there are a lot of suspenseful moments in this one. The letter at the end with the shocking news was kind of random but I did like it!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this ARC. To begin, I want to say the narrator in this book was phenomenal. I loved the different voices she used for each of the sisters in the story. This made the audio so much more entertaining and enjoyable for me. This was a great thriller book with lots of twist and turns. The characters were very relatable, and I was intrigued by their stories from the very beginning until the end of the book. Each sister had their own personality and secret which made the story flow and the ending was perfect!! This is a new author for me, but I will definitely be reading her other books in the upcoming future. I highly recommend this book.!

One Big Happy Family by Jamie Day was a great book to listen to thanks to the talented narrator who took on the characters in exciting and captivating alternate voices.

The Bishop sisters have a long history of dysfunction and things only escalate when their philandering father dies. The reading of the will brings up some horrible memories of past mistakes and leaves the family battling over who deserves what - and why. Trapped in their hotel with the threat of a storm looming, violence and threats lead way to murder. This is an excellent whodunit that will keep you entertained from beginning to end.

I rated this book a 3.5/4 stars rounded up to 4.

The Precipice is an eclectic hotel located on the cliffs of Maine. After the patriarch and hotel owner dies the family swarms to see who gets what. Charley is the young "chambermaid" that lives at hotel and cleans to try and take care of her grandma. Of course, she is dragged into the family drama that unfolds at the family reunion that takes place at the hotel during a hurricane.

The synopsis for this book describes Charley as "smart, resilient, older than her years, and in desperate straits" The only part of this description I felt to be true is "in desperate straits". She makes multiple terrible decisions even with her life and her grandma's care on the line. She is ridiculous horny even though George Bishop's horniness is the reason she hates him. I found it annoying to be in her head because she was so dumb.

The romance that formed took away from the story and was 1000% awkward and unnecessary.

I found all the sisters interesting and while not likable I cared what happened to them. Their story together is what was truly interesting about the book.

The narrator did a good job.

Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan audio, and Jamie Day for the ALC.

This book will leave you with a smile on your face, but the journey to get there is a wild ride!

This book gives you everything you expect in a thriller; dark secrets, morally gray and suspicious characters, drama, twists, and of course a murder or two to keep things interesting.

I recommend this book to fiction, mystery, and thriller readers.

I really enjoyed my first Jamie Day book and am so thankful to the publishers and NetGalley for granting me access to this ARC.

This really didn't work for me even as a sorbet. After a promising beginning in which the narrator shows evidence of being a complicated character, she devolved into damsel in distress without much color to keep her interesting. And there's a storm, and a purported treasure, and wicked sisters, and oh my, SECRETS. And revelations that shock everyone. I guess I'm just getting cranky and need more to my thrillers than just the cliched elements.

If you’re looking for a locked room mystery.. this is a great option to read!

However, for me, I think I have read so many of them that I am just kind of not impressed anymore.

This one is from the POV of a maid, Charley, of the Precipice Hotel. After the owner dies, his children come to the hotel to settle the estate. There is a hurricane closing in, and due to the weather everyone is trapped in, and after a suspicious death, it seems that everyone was harboring secrets and now turns on another.

Part one was slowww. And we had to go back and get the whole back story of all three sisters. I didn’t like a single character which made it hard to want to keep going.


The narrator did a great job, and I would definitely listen to other books from her.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for my ALC!

#MacAudio2024

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.

Audio notes: The narrator did a great job.

One Big Happy Family is anything but! In this dark atmospheric thriller, main character, Charlie, is barely an adult and working at a hotel as a maid to pay for her grandmothers care. With a major hurricane/storm on the way, the hotel has been vacated- aside from the family of the owner who recently died. Gathering for a reading of the will turns into absolute chaos in the ultimate who-dun-it!

I really enjoyed how the book was from Charlie’s perspective for the majority, but switched to the daughter’s POV to clarify things from the past. There were many twists at the end that were unexpected, but not impractical. It was definitely an enjoyable summer read that makes me happy to have a mostly functional family!!!! The narrator was an 8/10- mostly enjoyable but a little irritating at times.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this advanced listening copy!!

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.

This was okay. I guess I am starting to realize that I am not really a fan of locked room mysteries after all-unless they are REALLY well done.

There was a lot of good in the book just not enough for me to love it. .

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.

audiobook notes: Even if the book was not a big win, I want to review the audiobook overall in terms of excellent voice acting and performance from Saskia Maarleveld who is becoming one of my favorite narrators. She has a talent with pacing, intonation, and style that resonates even if a plot falls flat for me.

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.

Jamie Day's newest novel is set at a family-owned hotel where the family gathers to hear the will of their recently deceased patriarch as a hurricane bears down on the coast. This was a classic who-dunit storyline - the main character (the maid) stuck in the hotel with varying degrees of weirdness from the members of her former boss's family. As the storm nears and the will is read aloud by the family lawyer, secrets are brought to light and the results are deadly. With a murderer on the loose, and everyone a suspect, will they find out who the killer is before there is another death?

The audio of this book was very good, I enjoyed listening to the narrator and they definitely held my interest.

As far as the story goes, I found it to unravel about halfway through and become a bit too slow-moving. While the backstories of each character were important, they weren't presented in a way that flowed well to me. I will also admit that sometimes with these types of stories, I am better off reading in word format versus audio to keep things straight and really grasp the flow of the story. With that in mind, I would give this book a solid 3, teetering on the edge of a 4.

Overall, it was enjoyable, and I think readers looking for a good mystery to solve will want to read this book!

Thank you to MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for the advanced e-audio of One Big Happy Family!

Overall an enjoyable listen. The narrator was good, the pacing was good and so was the setting development.

I will say that I figured out pretty early on who was behind the mayhem and the possible motive. There were a handful of details that were revealed that I didn’t predict and that added to the story.

Overall it was an enjoyable book, even if it wasn’t thrilling or surprising. The characters felt a bit stereotypical but their various roles fit together for this particular plot.

Advance listener copy provided by Macmillan Audio and NetGalley but all opinions are my own.

I was really torn between three or four stars with this one. Ultimately, I went with three because there were several times I was a little bored. The last third of the book kept me interested until the end. The narrator was good and I would definitely read another book by this author.