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.

I really enjoyed this author’s debut with The Block Party and was looking forward to another domestic thriller. One Big Happy Family started with a bunch of promise. Charley is literally working herself ragged at family-owned resort to help her Grandmother keep her place at the local care facility. Even living on the premise is not enough and she skims from the rude entitled guests to make ends meet. This has the makings of a maid that maybe learns too much etc. and becomes embroiled in a scandal. Unfortunately nothing like that comes to fruition.

This book is LONG! I listened to the audio production, which was performed extremely well, but at over 11 hours it could have been easily six. Once the Bishop sisters arrive at the hotel the events become a bit surreal. Nothing took me by surprise and by the first quarter I had already discovered who Charley was really harboring and the entire twist.

There were good and redeeming parts to this story, but nothing like the author’s debut. I’ll hold out hope that her next work will be a return of her first.

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.

Thank you MacMillan Audio for the ALC of One Big Happy Family in exchange for my honest review! I read The Block Party last year and enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to this one. One Big Happy Family is set in a small coastal town in Maine, in a somewhat creepy old hotel with our MC surrounded by... rich jerks behaving badly. What could possibly go wrong? None of the side characters in this book were reliable in the slightest, and even our MC was a little shady at times. Some reveals and twists could be spotted miles away, but there were more than enough wacky turns of events to keep me engaged as a listener. The audio performance was good. This won't make it to my best of 2024 list, but I had a good time reading it and generally recommend it.

I had high hopes of this book being a cozy little whodunnit. Perfect atmosphere - a locked-in family+ stuck in place by a hurricane? I wanted Clue vibes so badly. Unfortunately, this one played out a little less cozy and a lot more boring. I liked The Block Party much more. The narrator sounded like she had a cold which was also distracting.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advanced Copy!

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.

Really not sure what to make of this one. Listened to the audio and did not care for the narrator which may be impacting my overall feelings. I did experience three separate “gasp out loud” moments that were unexpected yet made so much sense, so that made me lean toward a higher rating.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced audio copy!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press ad Netgalley for an advanced audio copy of Jamie Day's new book One Big Happy Family. This was a joy to listen 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 "chamnbermaid" 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. A great audiobook, very well narrated, and an enjoyable novel.

I didn’t see the twist coming. I do think that the bishop sisters chapter decreased the suspense and unknown.