Cover Image: A Good Family

A Good Family

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Member Reviews

This is a good suspense/whodunnit story. I enjoyed the family drama and it was fun trying to figure out who was responsible for putting Beth in prison. The ending was a little disappointing though. I had hoped I would like this more than what I did but it was still an entertaining book.

Thank you to NetGallery and to Harlequin Trade Publishing for giving me a copy for.a honest review.

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Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC digital copy. I have not been compensated for my opinion and this is an honest review.

Unfortunately, I was unable to finish reading this ARC digital copy before needing to switch to other books that were being archived. The book is no longer on my Goodreads "want to read" list, but I will update my review to reflect an updated opinion if I decide to finish at a later date.

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I didn’t know what I suspected going into this, but I was very entertained. The plot moved quickly and the characters were interesting.

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Looking for a fast page-turner? This family drama is juicy, twisty, and delivers on great plot twists.
ADHD medication sure would be a lot easier to give if it was created into gummies, wouldn’t it? What if the messaging of the drug could allow for a wider range of customers with a better (and more deceptive) marketing message too?

One successful pharmaceutical agent moves up the corporate ladder with these “savvy” marketing ideas and ends up behind bars, thanks to a whistleblower. Who would want to see her behind bars so badly and what was to gain? This mystery, told in alternating perspectives, made this into one fantastic novel that was just as good as any Netflix drama.

Fans of, “Orange is the New Black,” will also appreciate all the details of this prison scene and how she makes the most of every minute behind bars.

This novel kept me up way past my bedtime, perfect for pulling you out of any reading slump.

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This book was hard to rate and took me forever to get through. Liked the Asian rep and the crazy family drama. The characters were hard to connect with and I kind of disliked them but might have been the object here. I liked how it wrapped up in the end but took a while to get there

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Every family has its core supporters, the ones that hold the family together when things go bad. Hannah is that support. She has always been there for her brother Sam, and continues to help when his wife is out of the picture.
Constantly offering financial bail outs and childcare for Sam, Hannah is trying to piece together a family that is falling apart. All she wants is to give her nieces a good life with the perfect family.

A Good Family focuses on Hannahs good nature and the fact that she is constantly being taken advantage of by her brother. I kept wondering when she would smarten up and walk away from being a door mat. I found her a little infuriating.
The narrative shifts from Hannah to her sister in law, Beth. Beth is a selfish, entitled woman who wants everything to be perfectly wrapped up in a bow. Even in prison her life is cushy. Some of her prison experience was like Orange Is The New Black, and could have been left out. I think maybe I would have enjoyed it more if it wasn't so stereotypical.
With both women being polar opposites, I never expected the outcome and ending of the story. I was shocked at Hannah's actions, and at Beth's. The ending tied things up nicely for the two of them and worked well with the story.
I did find the book a little boring, taking a while to get to the peak of the story. It didn't grip me from the beginning. I had to fight the urge to walk away several times.
I am glad I chose to finish the book, because I didn't predict the ending at all.

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Actual Star Rating - 3.5

I am going to preface a few things before I list what I enjoyed/not enjoyed about this book because I am having a hard time rating it.

Was this book terrible? No.

Is this the best debut book of 2020? Definitely not.

Did I enjoy it? It was OK ... but it probably wont be a book I'll be recommending socially for a few reasons.

Noting that I listened to this via Hoopla and was completely confused the entire time at the transition between characters and past/present, so I think that is part of the reason I just didnt love this one.

Things I enjoyed:
-This book has some CRAZY family drama and it felt like I was looking at a trainwreck the entire time, but I couldn't stop (mostly due to confusion, but also curiosity!)
-I like that it focused on an Asian-American family and culture - I would probably have been bored if this was a traditional white family drama ... the cultural elements/aspect added a nice touch to the plot and characters
-The chapters from Beth's point of view in prison were interesting ... it made me feel like I was watching Orange Is The New Black again and was an interesting addition to the book

Things I didn't enjoy:
-Hands down, the characters. Sometimes, I really like when I hate characters in a book because we're meant to hate them (or be scared of them), but I couldn't stand Sam or Hannah by the end of this book. Beth was just ok ... but probably my favorite of the bunch. I mostly felt bad for the little girls in this story ... as a parent, I really struggled with their dysfunctional parents.
-The book dragged in certain spots and the switch between past/present was difficult to keep up with
-I wasn't really fighting for anyone by the end of the story ... and was relieved in some cases that the audiobook was over.

This was hard for me to rate, and know that a lot of people will really enjoy this, but it just didnt hit the mark for me.

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A very absorbing read -- hard to put down! Readers will like the combination of family drama, legal intrigue, and non-stop suspense.

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A Good Family is a solid family drama with a nice mystery throughout. There are plenty of unexpected twists and turns set in this privileged world of wealth. The story follows multiple POVs. The characters are well-developed. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys family dramas.

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I finished reading this a few days ago, but hesitated to write my review because I wasn't sure how I felt. I'm still not entirely sure, but I'll try to organize my thoughts and see where I end up.

I couldn't put this book down. This family is a train wreck of secrets, lies, and misunderstandings and I could not look away. The plot centers around Beth, headed to prison after her au pair filed a whistleblower lawsuit against her, and her sister-in-law Hannah, enlisted to figure out who could have helped the au pair who certainly couldn't have done it alone. The story unfolds through Beth and Hannah's perspectives, peppered throughout with flashbacks that slowly reveal just how complicated this family situation has become.

I really loved getting to know these characters and putting the pieces of the mystery together. Everything was flipped upside down by the end: people I hated became more nuanced and sympathetic over time, apparently simple ones revealed sides that I didn't see right away. This change happened gradually over time; Kim did a masterful job of leaving details for the reader to find, helping me come to my own conclusions rather than forcing an opinion about any of the characters. Unfortunately, I had a very hard time following the present-day narrative: I realized near the end that events that appeared to take place over a few weeks had actually taken over a year. My galley copy was missing many of the spacing cues to indicate scene changes and the like, but I wonder how much those would have actually helped. A Good Family had me hooked until the very end, but it unraveled into a too-quick ending and epilogue that didn't seem to match the rest of the narrative. That said, it was an entertaining family drama that grabbed my attention unlike anything else I've read recently, and I think that will stay with me more than the ending itself.

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Wow! I really didn’t know what to expect when I started this book. I like the multiple POV—it was never boring. I do think it would be interesting to know a bit more about the other characters in a spin-off. Sam was surprisingly less than likable despite all that had happened. Nevertheless, the ending still surprised me. Definitely would recommend and would love to read more from this author. I received an ARC from NetGalley.

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Just ok. I felt the characters were developed well but the plot seemed to drag a bit. Not recommending for purchase.

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To be honest, I wanted/was expecting more. I felt it was odd we didn't really meet Lise, Hannah was too much of a faux martyr, and I almost wish the entire story had been from Beth's point of view, bouncing between the past and present. However, I still really enjoyed this book, and thought it was especially good for a debut author. This could have been another rich white dysfunctional family with a secret, but I enjoyed that this book benefitted from the Asian-American characters' perspective and was written by an Asian-American author.

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This is one of the most solid family dramas I've read in a bit, with a combination of plot points that were occasionally a bit predictable and others that didn't go anywhere near where I'd expect. The high drama of Hannah trying to help her sister-in-law figure out which family member was involved in putting her in prison (and as a law librarian, being particularly suited to doing the research) made for a great story. This is a definite pageturner, and I'd be happy to read more books by this author!

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I read a review that said this novel would make great television and I couldn’t agree more. It’s an engaging read, with a big cast of characters, that thrusts you into a super privileged world, and also provides interesting sneak-peek insights into prison life.

I believe anyone who enjoys a good mystery, family drama, along with lovers of Crazy Rich Asians will truly enjoy this one!

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Ms. Kim's debut novel, A Good Family, is a compelling family drama that I enjoyed very much. Deeply devoted to her family, Hannah steps in and becomes the person the Min-Lindstroms depend on when her sister-in-law, Beth, is sent to jail for insider trading. Beth also enlists Hannah to uncover the identity of the whistle-blower in her case. I found this to be a fun read with intriguing characters and twists that kept me invested in the story until the end! I'll definitely be on the look out for more from this author.

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This story was not what I expected. It was a family story - a family of very different people - with a little mystery thrown in.

The characters are not your normal folk - but are still believable, lovable and hateable! The descriptions of people, homes, jobs, prison and holidays are vivid and enable the reader to visualize and feel them.

The story moves quickly (I got lost a time or two) and though there's lots of loss and hardships - it was a good read. A good book for book clubs - it could lead to some great discussion.

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Sometimes I open a book and find a great surprise. This was a totally interesting story about a family Involved in a twisted web of lies. The story is narrated by Hannah and Beth. It is Hannah who is certainly the heroine of the novel, or not? Their lives revolve around Sam, Hannah’s brother, married to Beth.

There are twists and turns but this is not a traditional mystery, nor is it easily explained as a family saga. I was engrossed in the plot. I have had trouble reading during these weeks in quarantine, but I couldn’t put this down, quite a compliment. There are references to the concept of Big Pharma, prison life and unusual sexual exploits.

It’s meaty and easy to read. The writer has the ability to make each setting come alive, filled with details that draw the reader into the fascinating plot.

Thank you Netgalley for, for providing me with this totally enjoyable novel.

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I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lots of unexpected twists in this novel about greed and pretences. I loved Hannah and grew to love Beth.

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Not a fan of this one. I was a fan of Beth. I liked her character (she was a gorgeous bitch and she knew it, but she wasn’t mean or evil!). I really didn’t care for the other characters, specially Hannah.
I liked the prison life; I found it to be realistic (not that I’d know), and no Orange is the New Black” at all (which I thought it would turn into).

I suspect that I didn’t like this book because of the family narrative; I am not a fan of reading how Thanksgiving or Christmas is spent; what the children are painting and such.
The story goes back and forth (the past - how Beth got to her position and jail; and the present- Beth in jail).

So who betrayed Beth and send her to jail?

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this title.

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