🏰📼 The Family Game by Catherine Steadman 🔥🎧

H’s Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5

👉🏼 Publishes 10/18

Genre: Mystery/Thriller
⚠️ TW: Death of parents, murder, mentioning of abortion, mentioning of several weapons

📖 Read if you like…
✍🏼 Unreliable future in-laws
🤫 Family secrets
♟️ Weird family holiday games
❄️ Winter thrillers
💵 Wealthy characters
📺 Dynasty tv series

💭 H’s Thoughts:
This thriller was more of a 🔥 slow burn 🔥, but once it picked up, I could. not. put. it. down!!!! I couldn’t trust anyone, and I had no idea how it would end. This thriller was original and different from others that I have read! I really enjoyed it, and I would definitely recommend it!

Thank you to Random House - Ballantine and NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

*I will be posting my review on pub day, 10/18/22. I will update this review with the links to my Instagram and GoodReads reviews once they are posted.

Would you marry into a old money incredibly wealthy family if you had to put up with bizarre mind games and sinister secrets? “Sure!” That’s what our odd main character Harriet says.

The Family Game revolves around a young couple and the dude’s ultra rich, connected, & dangerously crazy family. They are like a totally new level of looney…and they just wanna play with Harriet, that’s all!

Catherine Steadman, you tease! 😜 The author hints at the main character’s dark past SO much, and as a reader, I couldn’t help but wonder… WTF happened?! What are the skeletons in Harry’s closet?! I just had to know about the MCs troubled past. Also, what is up with this family?!

My hang ups with this book that keep it from being 5 stars are that the dialogue felt unnatural at times, or maybe I just didn’t mesh with the main character’s way of conversing? Idk. It felt weird, though. I also did not like how Harriet went about things & her choices really irritated me. I was not rooting for her as much as I was rolling my eyes at her decisions. I also didn’t feel any chemistry between Harriet and her fiancé, Edward, at all. 🫠 I tried to find it, it wasn’t there. If there had been more if a connection in her part I think it would have been impactful in the end.

However, the suspense and wackiness of this thriller kept me engaged and I overall enjoyed the story for what it was: entertainment. There is little to no depth here, but it doesn’t really matter because the mystery element kept me wanting to keep turning the pages. I love a book that can make me yearn for answers!

Wow! This was one heck of a wild ride. Although I have never been on a roller coaster, I imagine I would feel like I did while reading this book - on the edge of my seat, heart in my throat, dizzy and waiting for the final drop.

First and foremost, I must commend Catherine Steadman for the incredible job she did narrating her own work. I have listened to professional narrators not do as great a job as she did. Kudos to her in helping to bring her own story to life. It easily took what was a 3.5 read for me, into a 4 star story.

The authors prose was phenomenal and really set the tone and the atpmosphere in such a way that I was able to feel as though I was a part of it, espcially during the Krampusnacht celebration and Christmas Eve scavenger hunt. I felt all of the fear our MC did as she struggled to figure out what was happening. The character development was good, at least in relation to Harry’s character and what motivates her. I would have liked a little more from some of the supporting characters, though I think the author did this intentionaly to not take away from the whodunnit aspect.

My primary criticsms with this this story are the disappearance of a potentially major plot point and leaving other elements unexplained which caused the ending to fizzle out a bit for me. There was a major element to the story presented to us towads the beginning of the book, that would have significantly changed the conclusion; however, Steadman drops it without expaining why. In addition, there is a pivotal piece of information that is discovered by several characters, however, how this information was obtained was never fully examined which left me frustrated.

This was still an enjoyable thriller, made even more enjoyable via the author narrated audiobook, and perfect for this time of year.

Read if you like:
•psychological thrillers
•domestic suspense
•atmospheric reads
•cat and mouse plots
•single pov

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine for an ARC of this book, and PRH Audio for the ALC of it in exchange for my honest review.

4.25 stars!

Harry lives a perfect life. Her novel is a best seller so she is on the brink of stardom. Her fiancé, Edward is exactly what you'd want a partner to be. After getting engaged, she realizes she has to meet Edward's family-the Holbecks. As the firstborn, Edward will inherit everything. Harry is intrigued by the glamour of the Holbecks, and especially interested in the patriarch Robert. Robert gives Harry a tape, which sets off a wild domino of mystery, intrigue, and most of all games.

I thought that this was such a fun novel! Like other reviewers, I thought this novel was very reminiscent of "Ready or Not," and I liked the addition of the different games that the family game. The third act is just a rush of action, and it made me fly through because I had to know what was going to happen. I will definitely go back and read previous works by this author because I love how she constructed this story.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing/Ballantine Books for the ARC!

The Family Game is a gripping novel about a young woman marrying into a wealthy, powerful family with secrets where she has to play a deadly game to learn the truth (swipe to see the full description). I loved the characters in this story, even the ones you’re supposed to hate. Steadman writes each of them so well, and because of the characters and their decisions, the plot unfolds seamlessly. The plot is incredibly creative, and I really enjoyed the uniqueness in the storyline - there are so many twists!

What held me back from rating this book 5 stars was the pacing. The action picked up at around 40% of the book, and the ending felt incredibly rushed. I was left with many unanswered questions in the last chapter and epilogue, so I wish the beginning was cut down a bit and the ending was elaborated on. BUT, once I hit 40%, I could not put this book down. I have long been a huge fan of Steadman’s work, and this book is no exception! Nothing has yet beat Something in the Water for me, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this and highly recommend it.

Thank you @netgalley and @randomhouse for graciously giving me an eArc in exchange for my honest review.

While I found myself skimming a lot of the beginning, the story soon sucked me in. A mystery centered around a writer with her own mysterious background, her handsome, rich boyfriend, his very rich and very powerful family and their dark and explosive secrets.
There weren't a lot of twists and turns in this one. It was more like an impressive layering of secrets and clues that builds and builds until you finally get the whole truth and all of the evil it contains.
I would definitely read more of this author's work. 4.5⭐️
Thank you to Netgalley for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

R E V I E W
“There are times in your life when you really do question where it all went wrong; and if scrambling into a pitch-black well at night, in a snow flurry, wearing a Balmain blazer dress, just shy of three months pregnant, with a torch rammed into your mouth, isn’t one of those times then I don’t know what is”
Wow, loved this one! This was a very intriguing thriller. I loved the main character, the writing style and the inner dialog felt authentic. I felt like all aspects of the thriller and themes were well articulated. I really had no idea where the story was going the entire time and was really surprised by the ending. I love the way author chose to uncover some of the plot by using a cassette recording (won’t say more to prevent spoilers) but so confused why it took her so damn long to listen to the whole thing!!! Like I would be listening to the whole audio, call off work, quit my job, etc. lol. For some reason I am just willing to overlook it for this one because it really kept me guessing till the very end.
Star ratings are just a vibe anyways?

The Family Game is one of my favorite suspense books that I have read so far this year! I absolutely loved the premise of a young orphan with something to hide coming into a large well to do family. The ending had a twist that I never saw coming. With an ending that was very rewarding and heart warming for a suspense.

I loved this book! It was the perfect pacing for me to keep me interested and entertained. After reading the synopsis I thought the plot would be a bit tired but luckily I was wrong. Harry was a likeable protagonist. Harry is haunted by her past and a specific moment of losing her parents which plays into why she reacts and moves as she does throughout the book. After she meets Edward and becomes engaged, they finally meet the family he's been keeping her from. This is where it gets juicy, as she experiences all their unique family gatherings and dynamics. The very first time she meets Edward's father, he slips her a tape. With life getting in the way she isn't able to listen to it, but when she does she knows she needs to play the game well to survive this family. No spoilers from me but by the time I got to the reveal it all made complete sense but I really enjoyed the clues dropped throughout the book and it wrapped up really well.

Something about this just didn't work for me -- I have read two other books by this author and I really liked one of them and didn't much care for the other... but the description of this one caught my eye. I was intrigued at first but then it got more and more ridiculous in its plot. It also just did not fit the setting it was supposed to be in. Hope you have better luck!

The Family Game comes out next week on October 18, 2022, and you can purchase HERE.

It's funny having your worst fear realized and the world still spinning.

This book is not like any other book I have read! The Holbeck family is disfuction with a capital DIS! This book gripped me and I could not stop reading!

It starts off at the end with our main character coming to on the floor in an entryway. And then we go back to the "beginning" to learn how she got there.

At first the book seems sweet. We meet Harriet AKA "Harry", a British author who has moved to New York to be with her boyfriend, Edward Holbeck - eldest son of a rich and prominent NY family. When he proposes, she is shocked at first then happy. It's what she's always dreamed of. Or is it?

She meets his family and they are bizarre! Especially his dad, Robert, who Edward does not always see eye to eye with. Robert slips Harry a tape supposedly of a thriller he's writing. But once she begins to listen, she thinks rather than being fiction it may be a confession. And she starts to investigate.

The Holbecks engage in odd traditions of games at the holidays, including one very bizaare Christmas game called "Krampusnacht" that really has to be read to be believed. (This part of the book was incredibly weird, but still had me riveted.)

Harry digs deeper and learns more Holbeck family secrets reveal themselves. But ... Harry has a secret of her own! The more she unravels, the deeper she gets and she has to decide if she's willing for her own secret to come out if she reveals theirs.

One more crazy Christmas Eve game takes some crazy turns, there are some intense scenes and twists, and things I never saw coming. And that ending had me like WHAT?!?!

I was totally sucked into this out there family and bizarre thriller. It was like nothing I've ever read before!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

DAMN. That was a helluva thriller — someone needs to make it into a movie ASAP. Hands down, one of the best thrillers I’ve read in a long time. I mean, it’s literally 1am because once I (finally, given I haven’t had much time recently to read) hit the halfway point in this book earlier in the night, I literally could NOT stop reading. That ending! The twist! I was truly at a loss the entire book because most of my theories just kept not making sense — I had a feeling every so often and then I’d shake it off because it didn’t seem right. Only little portions of my theories were correct, but I never saw that twist coming. And man, the last 25% of the book was just purely great storytelling and writing. So intricate, descriptive, and REALLY dark. I could vividly imagine everything I was reading and I’m not gonna lie, I was definitely freaked out. Especially during the well scene (IYKYK, but it’s not a spoiler otherwise)!! Big “Gone Girl” vibes with this book for sure! All of it — so good!!! One of my favorite books of 2022, definitely.

Thank you to Random House-Ballantine and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. So glad I was able to get this one early! Can’t wait to read more from Catherine Steadman!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for advance copy. This book really did not do it for me. Unlikable characters and way too many plot holes. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this one.

This book was very entertaining! I have to say that I did enjoy reading it. At the end, I did feel that it was a little too unrealistic and over the top. Nonetheless, enjoyed it!

I listened to The Family Game on a recent short road trip with my family. It was certainly a fun one to listen with a group, with all its bizarre twists! I also LOVE when audiobooks are read by the author. It adds such a layer to the story that ensures I'm hearing it exactly as the author intended, and it makes it all the more special. Catherine Steadman is well suited to this task, too, with her background as an actress.

This tale of an eccentric wealthy family was unlike anything else I've read recently, and I was hooked by this family's bizarre traditions. At first I didn't understand why Harriet was so put off by Krampusnacht--it's a well-known German tradition, so her reaction before attending seemed rather over the top to me. However, it all made sense when she arrived! That scene set the atmosphere perfectly for me, and drove home how eccentric this family was.

And the family games just got more bizarre from there, ending in an extremely grisly Christmas Eve!

I really enjoyed this unique story, and after being disappointed by The Disappearing Act, it has renewed my love for Catherine Steadman's thrillers. This is the perfect Christmas thriller, for when you get sick of back-to-back Christmas romances!

"From the New York Times bestselling author of Something in the Water, Mr. Nobody, and The Disappearing Act....

THE RULES
1. Listen carefully
2. Do your research
3. Trust no one
4. Run for your life

Harriet Reed, a novelist on the brink of literary stardom, is newly engaged to Edward Holbeck, the heir of an extremely powerful family. And even though Edward has long tried to severe ties with them, news of the couple's marital bliss has the Holbecks inching back into their lives.

As Harriet is drawn into their lavish world, the family seems perfectly welcoming. So when Edward's father, Robert, hands Harriet a tape of a book he's been working on, she is desperate to listen.

But as she presses play, it's clear that this isn’t just a novel. It’s a confession.

A confession to a grisly crime. A murder. And, suddenly, the game is in motion.

Feeling isolated and confused, Harriet must work out if this is part of a plan to test her loyalty. Or something far darker. What is it that Robert sees in her? Why give her the power to destroy everything?

This might be a game to the Holbeck family - but losing might still prove deadly.

READY OR NOT, HERE THEY COME..."

A dangerous new family is a delicious trope I will never get enough of.

I had a fun time with this! I thought that the characters were really well realized, and the pacing of the story was equally as engaging. I don't often find myself super engaged with new thrillers that come out, because a lot of them recycle the same tropes and emotions over and over, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this! I highly recommend to all my thriller lovers!

The family game is being promoted on a couple of the blogs that I follow. Harry is about to get married to Edward. In comes Edward's family who he had been shielding her from. Harry gets a cassette and down the rabbit hole we go.

Harry was so darn naïve at times that it became frustrating!!! I love the cat and mouse game and the twist, while expected was still satisfying.

Family Games are a timeless tradition for the wealthy Holbeck family. Now engaged to Edward Holbeck, Harriet wants to be welcomed into the glamorous world of her future family…BUT she wasn’t expecting a game of survival. Then again, she’s been hiding a detrimental secret of her own. At their first meeting, Robert (the patriarch of the eminent family) slips Harriet a cassette tape, revealing a shocking confession that sets the inevitable game in motion.

I’m just going to call this a SAVAGE THRILLER 👏🏽 that had me on the edge of my seat. The Holbecks are NOT the family to F with! Their sinister holiday games were downright frightening but Harriet proved she came to PLAY. I can’t say I’d pass their tests. I definitely googled images of Krampusnacht and HOLY HELL, it’s creepy! Little Billy, I’d pee my pants too. 😳🫣

The cassette tapes were shocking and I was trying to connect the dots along with Harriet like her life depended on it, because IT DID. Towards the end, I started to predict the twist but it didn’t take away from the plot; I was fully invested! It was fresh and unique and I highly recommend it!

Read if you loved the movie Ready or Not.

Rating: 4.5 ⭐️

Thank you @netgalley @ballantinebooks for my #gifted advanced copy!

Catherine Steadman has done it again! I loved her last book The Disappearing Act, so I was excited to get the advance copy of The Family Game. She writes in such a compelling way which makes me want to keep reading. This novel is about a British mystery author (Harry) who is newly engaged to a thirty-something American man (Edward) who is part of a storied, wealthy family akin to the Carnegies or Rockefellers. Though they have been together for about a year, Harry has never met her fiance's family. She is introduced to them along with ominous games put forth by the family and the patriarch, Edward's father. He gives her a tape filled with terrifying confessions. I found the story so intriguing and I wanted to know what would happen. I started to put the pieces together, but some parts left me dumbfounded. It starts off a little slow, but the ending is action-packed. I listened to the audiobook, which was perfectly narrated by the author.

Thank you Random House / Ballantine Books /PRH Audio and NetGalley for providing this ARC. All thoughts are my own.