Family drama abound!!!!!!!!!! I really enjoyed this story about how family members come together after an unexpected loss.

This is a good summer read. You need some time to absorb the characters and warm to their quirks. Families are messy and this one is no exception. The story deals with the aftermath of the family patriarchs death and how the younger generation will deal with their shared inheritance of the family compound in Vermont. I spend a good amount of time in Vermont and really enjoyed the well described setting. The reader can see the beauty of the area and appreciate the love/hate relationship the cousins have with the property. The characters are believable if not always likable and I really cared about their situation and struggled along with them as they tried to decide whether to sell or keep the family compound.

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union for the opportunity to read this digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and Net Galley for providing an ARC of this book.

This is a story of siblings and cousins, and their relationships as adults. They are forced to come together after their father/uncle passes away to manage their shared family land, and, of course, drama ensues and secrets are revealed. I had a hard time connecting to the characters, and many of their actions and their dialogue felt stilted and not very genuine to me. It wrapped up nicely at the end, but I still just felt blah about this one.

Family is huge for me, so when I saw this, I knew I wanted to read it. Boy oh boy was I glad I did! This was a great read & I can’t wait to read more from this author!

The Family Compound by Liz Parker
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Start date: June 16, 2022
Finish date: June 19, 2022
Release date: Aug 23, 2022

Thank you Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Family drama, big decisions, personality conflicts, individual drama, this book has a lot going on! I loved all of their individual storylines, dealing with and overcoming their problems. This book is extremely character-driven. I really wanted to know how it would end, and where our characters would end up - and this ending was a really satisfying conclusion. It was a relatively easy read but had some deeper moments and storylines, too.

I’m giving this 3.5 stars because it did flip back into the “past” a few times, without telling us it was doing so… it would take a few paragraphs into the chapter for me to have any idea what was going on. I think a timeline of some kind would’ve been helpful, even chapter titles such as “September 2022” or something.

I asked for this title because I love family dramas, but this one started off very slow and never really picked up the pace. I didn't really connect with any of the characters and found them very immature, and the storyline was a tad predictable. It was really hard trying to keep all the characters straight too. I did like how the cousins and siblings finally got their acts together and started to grow as human beings. The family dynamics part of the story felt very real and true to life and I enjoyed that. This was a great premise but I am sorry to say the execution was lacking.

Whoa! What a ride. It was very fast-paced. The writing style kept me hooked and I didn't find myself losing any interest. I enjoyed getting to know each of the characters and how real the story felt. The author did a great job painting the setting, so it was easy for me to visualize the scene played out before me. I recommend giving this one a chance!

THE FAMILY COMPOUND by Liz Parker is an easy read, very reminiscent of Emma Straub's familial novels. Whilst the character developments were limited and lacked scope or deviated much from convention, I found it an easy read and finished the book quickly. It does feel like a novel that was written about 20 years ago as the character twists were nothing surprising, but the dynamics between siblings and cousins was definitely interesting.

Thanks to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and Liz Parker for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting story. Enjoyed reading it. Pretty predictable, but still a fun read. Thanks to NetGalley for opportunity to read for honest review. Actually 3.5 stars. I hardly ever give 5’s, so it was good !

THE FAMILY COMPOUND is one of those delightfully meaty novels about family dynamics after the daeth of a parent. Each of the characters are flawed, but flawed in such relatable ways that they will remind you of your own siblings or friends you have had in the past. The characters are fully formed; they could step off the page and waltz into the real world without having to change a thing. Parker's language is also stirring - she makes the landscape and the family compound come alive as well as artfully describing emotions and situations in lyrical yet realistic ways. I just loved it!

When a family is faced with difficult choices following the death of a loved one, it can be daunting. When the 150-acre compound of the Nolan and Ridge families is willed to the cousins, it can be very complicated.

Parker carefully develops each family member (3 siblings, 2 siblings, all cousins) showing their personality vulnerability, and their place in the family. The characters grow together while trying to decide the fate of their beloved family property. The book shows how families can be challenged, disagree with one another, but still work together to make choices and decisions. The relationships are not sugar-coated but have a feel of a real family and the dynamics of an extended family.

A family thrown into conflict over the family compound they have inherited is the basis for the novel. The story is woven with the personal conflicts of the female cousins and with the arguments over whether to sell or not. The men in the book drift in and out but this is not their story. It is the story of the women and all the turmoil they are experiencing.
I really tried to enjoy the novel but felt there was a lack of cohesion and wearied of such immature adults.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher.

This was a delight to read! The beginning was a bit hard with all the characters showing up almost all at once but once I had theirs names straight, I finished it in two days. I love the family dynamics and dramas, especially Halsey!
The only thing is that I wish we had more of the guys perspectives and their personal lives.

Primero que todo gracias a Netgalley y a la editora por permitirme leer esta historia.

The Family Compound trata sobre dos familias, cinco primos quienes quedan como herederos de unos terrenos. Entre los cinco primos deben decidir que harán con estos terrenos y llegar a un acuerdo. A lo largo de esta historia podemos ver como los primos deben dejar sus diferencias a un lado y comenzar a trabajar juntos.

Con esta descripción me parece suficiente para atrapar al lector. Aunque al principio se me hizo un poco difícil continuar con esta historia porque me parecía un poco lenta, me di cuenta que mientras más avanzaba se ponía más interesante. El drama, el amor y lo desconocido hacen que esta historia sea única. Es asombroso ver como cinco personas pueden trabajar juntos para continuar con un legado familiar.

4/5 estrellas porque considero que por momentos se hace difícil de leer. Excelentes personajes y trama.

This book was sent to me electronically for review by Netgalley. Could not get into the story…others might like it.

thought this was a quick read re: a family drama re: a land inheritance. Sometimes this type of story takes a nasty turn, but that wasn’t true here. It skirted on the top without ever going too deep, but it was still enjoyable.

Nothing like putting five cousins together in a property that is a shared inheritance amongst them, a lot of skeletons are bound to fall out of the closets ..

The Family Compound by L. Parker, published by Lake Union Publishing is a book like no other.
It tells the story of two families, five cousins who have to decide the future of their inheritance.
Penny, Halsey, William, Laurie and Chris all have their own issues, have the scars to prove it. But can they really unite for the greater good of the family?
This book paints a beautiful picture. Beautifully thought out, beautifully written and told was this a read in one sitting book for me, 5 stars.

This book snuck up on me. I had read about 25% and put it down for awhile, wondering if it was going to hold my interest. I went looking for something else, but found that I couldn’t stop thinking about the two families that shared the family compound. The parents had died and the property was left in a trust. I really didn’t think the terms of the trust were fair. I won’t spoil it for the reader but I absolutely did not feel that two of the cousins would be underwriting most of the expenses just because the others weren’t interested in working as much or as hard. The cousins had to decide whether to keep or sell the place. Of course, family memories mean more to some than others, everyone has their own problems, etc. and I picked the book back up and did not stop reading until the book was over. This may be a slow start but it hooks you. I think this could be a finalist in family sagas this year. Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was sadly an underwhelming read for me. I loved the premise - a family inheriting a farm and having to come together to make things work. Family novels are usually right up my alley. However, the execution didn't live up to my expectations. The story didn't pull me in from the get go. I found the cast of characters a little tricky to follow, and I wasn't invested in any of them. For me, their development felt somewhat cliched and hollow. Several chapters of this book are written as flashback scenes, which at first I found jarring and difficult to follow as there is no indication at the start of the chapter that these are occurring at a different time. Putting a date stamp on these would really help the logical flow of the story. I also found much of the writing in this to be clumsy, and as a result, I found it hard to get through. I absolutely can see why so many people have raved about this book, so I'm disappointed that it wasn't everything that I'd hoped for.