What a ... strange? book. I feel pretty strongly that this is a love or hate book, and there's no in between. That said, I was pretty firmly in between, it's suspenseful, and keeps you guessing, but admittedly the ending lost me. 3.5 stars for me.

I really liked this book. The ever-increasing questions kept me hooked. It was hard to put down. And for all that I thought I knew how it would end, I was happily surprised by the ending.
I have to say, I also appreciated the epilogue. It gave a satisfying sense of closure.

Terrific book!

Pitched as a "gripping standalone thriller," A Good Family by Matt Goldman succeeded in what it sought to do!

Katie and Jack Kuhlmann, along with their two children, welcome old college friend, Adam "Bagman" Ross back into their lives and into their home when Jack suddenly starts acting suspiciously. Everything about Jack's behaviour changed when Bagman moved in, but is Bagman's unannounced appearance really to blame?

Right from the get go, I did not like Jack; he was shady, unreliable and did not put his family first. I also found that I couldn't bring myself to trust Bagman no matter how he came across. I continued to side with Katie, even though she was not always a saint. There's just something scandalous about watching the inner workings of a marriage as it falls apart, and I was riveted in learning Jack's explanation for his erratic behaviour!

The character development really continues to unfold the whole book and I enjoyed learning more and more (specifically about Katie) as the story continued. I truly loved how unpredictable this plot was, while never veering from what made sense for the characters or the story. There was a lot going on but it was never overwhelming; Goldman achieved this by explaining the outcome through different conversations, but the explanations never felt condescending to me as a reader.

This surely was an "explosive, twisty thriller!"

Thank you NetGalley, Tor Publishing Group and Forge Books for the complimentary copies to read and review.

This book is definitely different weirdly so. It didn't seem realistic at all. The characters were interesting but not relateable or likeable.

Book Review:
Title: A Good Family
Author: Matt Goldman
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/3 stars

This book was kinda weird, lol. It was a bit all over the place and felt at times to be completely unrealistic, but I do understand its fiction. It's definitely not a situation that I feel I'd ever find myself involved in, I guess.

Katie Kuhlmann, her husband Jack, and her two children live in Edina, Minnesota, and are thriving by all appearances. Members of the country club, a house remodeling, bonuses, life seems great! But inside the house, Katie and Jack's marriage is starting to fall apart. To make matters worse, one of Jack's buddies from the past, "Bagman," Adam, pops up out of nowhere and soon invited to live in their guest apartment over the garage. Katie isn't exactly keen on this idea as Adam isn't sending out trustworthy vibes. She herself starts to hang out more regularly with a fellow skier, Noah, without telling her husband. This is a blow-up in the making. Jack starts disappearing into the basement. Katie finds a gun in the apartment that Adam is staying in. A reporter shows up at the house asking for Jack and later ends up dead. What the heck is happening?

Eventually, the FBI becomes involved, and many secrets are revealed. This book definitely has many twists and turns and will have you asking, "Whaa?" throughout!

Published: May 30th, 2023

Thank you, @netgalley and #torpublishinggroup, for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I did not finish this one, it was not for me, I couldn't relate to the characters, and just did not care for the story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Tor/Forge Publishing for gifting me a digital ARC of this book by Matt Goldman - 4 stars!

From the outside, Katie's life seems perfect - she has a good job, two great kids, and a beautiful home in an exclusive area in Edina, Minnesota. But her marriage to Jack is falling apart. He is always on his phone, disappearing from the house, even gaslighting his own kids. But he won't talk to her about any of it. When a mutual friend from college, Adam "Bagman" Ross, shows up and moves into their extra space, the tension seems to increase. Katie is worried that he's hiding a big secret. When she starts investigating, things just get worse.

I love a good neighborhood/family drama - there's just something about pulling behind the curtains of seemingly perfect lives to uncover all the messiness. This book has lots of messiness! I thought the writing was good, with lots of tension and questionable characters. It kept me turning the pages until the satisfying epilogue. This was a new-to-me author, and I'd happily pick up his next book!

A Good Family is a suspenseful and twisty domestic thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end. The story follows Katie Kuhlmann, a woman whose seemingly perfect marriage begins to unravel when her husband, Jack, starts acting strangely. As Katie investigates Jack's behavior, she uncovers a web of secrets and lies that threatens to destroy her family.

The book is well-written and the characters are relatable. Goldman does a good job of creating suspense and keeping the reader guessing. However, the ending was a bit anticlimactic and predictable. Overall, A Good Family is an enjoyable read for fans of domestic thrillers.

Here are some pros and cons of the book:

Pros:

Suspenseful and twisty plot
Relatable characters
Well-written
Cons:

Ending was a bit anticlimactic
Some of the characters were underdeveloped
Overall, I would give A Good Family 3 out of 5 stars. It's a good book, but it's not a great one. If you're looking for a suspenseful domestic thriller, then you'll probably enjoy it. However, if you're looking for a book with a truly shocking ending, then you might be disappointed.

My inner devious child peeked out this week and I got a bit jealous ! Whoa! I would love to say that is unlike me but who am I kidding. I can be a jealous brat 🤗

So, I saw “A Good Family”, literally break bookstagram this week and of course I didn’t want to feel left out so I requested it on Netgalley .

Cue the little magic ding ding in my inbox and I see my big ole eyes get wide as I stare at my approval ! Yay ! I’m still a cool kid !

Now, who has a punching bag for me to borrow ? I want to kick someone’s tail!!! Someone was a bad bad boy and sure could use a spankin!

This is a book with character you love to hate! Filled with twists and turns at every corner the amount of suspense kept me on edge the entire time ! I flippin’ loved this book!

Matt Goldman is a firecracker of an author and sure does know how to write one hell of a domestic thriller .

Five Stars, duh ! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Teaser :

New York Times bestselling author and Emmy Award-winner Matt Goldman's A Good Family is a gripping, emotional thrill ride about the secrets hidden underneath a picture-perfect neighborhood.

Katie Kuhlmann's marriage is falling apart. But she has a secure job, her children are healthy, and her house, a new construction in the prestigious Country Club neighborhood of Edina, Minnesota, is beautiful. She can almost ignore the way her husband, Jack, has been acting--constantly checking his phone, not going to work, disappearing from the house only to show up again without explanation.

Tension in the Kuhlmann house only gets worse when Adam "Bagman" Ross, a mutual friend from college, happens to be in the neighborhood and in need of a place to stay. Jack is quick to welcome him into the sanctity of their home, but Jack's strange behavior only gets worse, and Katie fears their new guest is also harboring a dark secret. As she begins to uncover the truth, she realizes that something is terribly wrong--and she must race to protect her family as danger closes in.

"A Good Family" is. a propulsive, suspenseful family and neighborhood drama. It was the perfect vacation read!
Unfortunately, the plot line is a bit tired: the women who get together to drink a lot as a way of escaping their messy family lives, preteen/teen children who pick up on weirdness between the adults, suspicious relationships between the adults.... It makes suburban life look very unappealing!
Still, I enjoyed the read well enough-- until I got to the end. If this novel were a package, I'd say that the ending was the most garish bow imaginable. It felt slapped on and inauthentic.
This is a 3.5 star read, rounded up to 4 stars.

Many thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for a free copy for review!

This was an excellent, tense family drama with high stakes and lots of plot while still developing fascinating characters. The author's knowledge of the neighborhood he set this in was apparent, though the audiobook narrator unfortunately mispronounces "Edina" every time.

I could not put this book down. It grabbed me from the beginning. Katie is living what she thinks is the American dream; lovely house in a perfect neighborhood, two beautiful children, a loving husband and a wonderful job. But she soon realizes that it has all been a lie. Her husband starts acting strange. He "disappears" inside their house and the kids can't find him. He claims it is all stress from work. The more Katie digs the more she uncovers that things are not what they seem. Katie flashes back to a time when her life fell apart when she was younger and she begins to wonder if that is happening again. A friend of Jack's has moved into their guest apartment and he seems a little mysterious too. It all comes a a roaring conclusion with catastrophic results.

3.5 stars rounded up

It's been a minute since I've read a domestic thriller and turns out I'm as bad as ever at figuring anything out. I thought aliens or supernatural beings were going to be involved since the husband kept disappearing at specific times on the clock but no this was a regular alien-free domestic thriller. And I still did not see the ending coming.

I don't want to give away the twists and whatnot but I am pretty sure the moral of the story is family is more important than work or money and also don't live in a giant house because if your husband keeps disappearing there are way too many places to look.

Overall it was an enjoyable and engaging domestic thriller and everything was nicely wrapped up at the end. Sort of.

Took me a little while to get into this one. I wanted to know why Jack kept disappearing so I persevered but it just felt repetitive a bit slow paced. The twist was a bit predictable. I did appreciate the epilogue. Wish this one had just got to the action a little bit quicker.

I enjoyed this book, but I couldnt say that I loved it. It was confusing at times and also seemed to drag on. The ending was predictable and this affected my rating.

A Good Family was a very entertaining read. It's all about the secrets the family keeps hidden underneath the ideal picture perfect front. This was very much an emotional roller coaster and I soaked up every word. In an overly saturated market for this genre, the author really stands out and I highly recommend this book.

An engaging thriller with a totally unbelievable ending. The two main characters, Katie and Jack meet in college marry and have two children and seemingly have a good marriage. They live in an exclusive neighborhood and spend a great deal of time with their neighbors. Suddenly Jack withdraws from the family and seems to disappear from the basement of the gorgeous house he has done extensive renovations to. Katie suspects he is having an affair. I found Katie’s story and her reactions to Jack’s withdrawal and secretive behavior quite believable. I also found Jack’s business predicament quite believable. Many of the twists came as no surprise, especially the construction reveals. Katie’s perceptive ideas lead me to believe that she will work with Noah. I actually enjoyed their connection.
The addition of Bagman and his reveal was a total surprise. But honestly…the ending was such a stretch, too over the top and unbelievable. All in all a thriller that will keep you engaged.
Many thanks to Matt Goldman, Forge Books, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read an arc of this recently published domestic thriller. Looking for more books from Matt Goldman.

Title: A Good Family
Author: Matt Goldman
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group, Forge Books
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: Four
Review:
"A Good Family" by Matt Goldman

My Sentiments:

We find this story quite intriguing while being a dramatic domestic suspense-thriller that deals with Kate Kuhlmann, her husband, Jack, and their two children [Elin & Kaleb]. Everything seemed to be going ok for this Kuhlmann family that lived in Edina, Minneapolis [on the outside...perfect couple, house, and neighborhood] until her husband started acting strange and getting worse as the marriage continued. Was t his job, or was he having an affair? Yes, ate had formed a friendship with a guy that started because she loved skiing, and it seemed like her husband had no time for her being 'touchy, angry, and so secretive,' and this was even to the two children. This was funny because he had the nerve to be concerned about her relationship with her ski buddy. Then this family has a friend from college, Adam Bagman Ross, that came for an uninvited visit and ended up staying with them. As the story continues, something is quite strange about this marriage, her club friends, neighbors, the man not living with them in his particular place... all was strange. Finally, promo ng Kate to ask for a divorce because she knows that something is wrong. She couldn't get any answers that she believed from Jack. What was this big secret that Jack was hiding with their friend Adam that had moved in and lived over their garage in their guest house? This story will be long, but by the end, the reader can see why the reader will have to keep up due to so many twists and turns coming out of this story. I liked the flashback of Katte's life with her parents and twin brothers. I guess she thought that marrying Jack would solve all of her problems [due to the fact he had money], different from living with her grandparents after the death of her parents. I loved how Kate fooled her husband, naming the kids after...well, I will stop here and say you must pick up "A Good Family" and see how this author brings it out, giving us a wow of a good ending for the reader.


Thank you, NetGalley, for eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’d hand this to people who are loving the suburb suspense/thrillers genre right now because while it follows that sort of premise, there's also much more to it. It would be a great book for book clubs to discuss.

Katie thinks she had the perfect marriage, that is until her husband, Jack, started to distance himself, acting erratically, gaslighting her and their children. When confronted, he was rude and obnoxious, giving her no answers. Knowing something is very wrong, Katie hires a private eye to help find the answers she so desperately seeks, but is she ready for the answers? When an old college friend shows up and Katie meets up with a skiing buddy that she met last year, things really get interesting. This was an entertaining domestic thriller, but was quite predictable, repetitive and a bit over the top. That did not really take away from the fast paced read, it was still enjoyable if you are looking for a quick escape from everyday life 🙂Thank you to Forge and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.