I really enjoyed the author's previous book The Block Party, but One Big Happy Family dragged for me. I felt like it was to long and things weren't really progressing much throughout the story. I stuck with it find out how it ended, which was a bit corny but some people would probably like it.

Jamie day is becoming one of my favorite authors. This book has a great mystery, filled with drama and danger. I highly recommend.

Jamie Day always writes amazing thrillers! At first, I thought "One Big Happy Family" was going to follow a typical pattern - death of rich loved one, siblings fighting, desolate during a big storm, murder... And to some extent, it was. Just like we continue watching Hallmark movies even though we know the outcomes, I still read this book. There is always a catch at the end that I didn't see coming and this book delivered! I love a good ending!

This is a book you will stay up late reading, but won't be too afraid to fall asleep!

A will reading during a hurricane at an old, iconic hotel where everything is at stake and everyone present could lose everything... even their life.

The first thing that really drew me in was Charley's relationship with her Nana with Dementia. I was very close to my Nana as well, who also had Dementia, so this allowed me to really connect with her.

This is a locked door, "And Then There Were None" mystery.

There were red herrings all along the way, and so many characters with motive.

I loved the way this kept me hooked and needing to know what happened next and what secret will come out next. I did suspect the right person, but the why and how and backstory I didn't see coming. I loved the ending and how it wrapped up.

This author is now an auto buy for me as this is the second book I have devoured and loved all the twists and turns!!!!

On a creepy day in Maine, on a deserted coastline, with a hurricane threatening to strike, a family gathers at the old homestead. What was once the family home is now a prosperous resort, and the
estranged sisters are all gathered together once more after the death of the patriarch. No one really wants to be there. Resentments run high, secrets run deep and even the staff, small as it is, isn’t to be spared. But the will needs to be read and all are hoping for a piece of the pie.

Oh if only things were that simple.

The front desk manager , Rodrigo, recognizes the lawyer who is in charge of the estate and who is on hand to read the will as a nemesis from his past. He bails before the storm hits. That leaves Charley the chambermaid without a comrade in arms until a woman, Bree, running from an abusive boyfriend shows up looking for temporary asylum. Charley, who desperately needs to keep her job in order to support her grandmother is trying her best to please here but her job is being threatened.

Lights go out. WiFi and phone service go down and the scene is set for whatever mischief will play itself out.

The sisters all have baggage and are pretty unlikable in general as is the husband of the oldest sister, Vicki. Her son on the other hand is a sympathetic character and Charley is smitten. But who can be trusted? Every minute there is another twist to the story.

This kept me guessing and I do love a good mystery. This was very atmospheric and had me on the edge of my seat. I really liked the story and did not figure it out until close to the end.

Colorful Adirondack chairs will always catch my eye so I admit I would have probably selected this book regardless of the premise or author. After loving Jamie Day’s last book, The Block Party, and these pastel beachside chairs (empty because of course that storm is rapidly rolling in) on the cover, I knew I wanted to read One Big Happy Family. A great setting, a locked room format, and a complicated ending make this an engaging read.

The teaser doesn’t fully capture the essence of the book, which to me is the main character, Charley. Everyone else can be messy, horrible, mysterious, or pretentious—but Charley is the driving force of this book. I immediately liked Charley, who works as a maid at the Precipice Hotel. The hotel is old, charming, and legendary. Her job allows Charley to scrape by helping to pay for her grandmother’s care while Charley lives in a converted storage closet at the Precipice. When she was offered room and board by the now-deceased owner George Bishop, she felt lucky. Now she realizes that she is trapped.

Charley’s backstory is heartbreaking—a father who she’s never met and who abused her mother, prompting her to move back home. A mother who wanted to escape life and eventually became addicted to drugs. An overdose. A nana who is in the early stages of alzheimers with no one to care for her costs but Charley—a nineteen year-old chambermaid. You can’t not feel for Charley!

As the book opens, hurricane Larry is bearing down on the hotel, and guests are cancelling right and left. The hotel isn’t empty, though. It’s about to be so full of drama your head will spin. And that drama comes from the children of the late George Bishop, who are gathered to hear the reading of his will. Which of the Bishop sisters is the worst? I’d probably choose Vicki or Faith, but they are all awful. Vicki is the eldest and owns a jewelry story. She’s married to a greedy, pompous man named Todd. Iris is the middle sister and a recovering drug addict and ex-con. She’s now found religion. The youngest, Faith, is a former model who loves being in the spotlight, and her wife Hope is an earth-mother type. Vicki’s adult son Quinn attracts Charley’s attention. Meanwhile Faith’s son Oliver seems withdrawn.

A woman Charley met a week earlier arrives seeking shelter. She’s fleeing an abusive relationship and needs a place to stay where he can’t track her credit card. She offers Charley cash, which she is in desperate need of after her Nana’s rent went up. Charley agrees to hide Bree in one of the rooms, but she knows if Vicki and Todd catch her, she will be out of a job. Surely they’ll be too self-absorbed to notice, right?

As you can guess with a book describing a happy family in a sarcastic tone, the gathering and the will reading do not go as planned. The attorney Brenda Black is slimy and apparently has a troubling past with perpetuating racial bias in the courtroom. Rodrigo refuses to work the weekend, and with the cook Olga quitting, Charley is going to be left with the drama of the Bishop family (and her stowaway Bree). Vicki comes out the best with the will. Iris and Faith are not happy with their father’s last wishes.

It's the beginning of a weekend filled with secrets and murder. Cell reception is spotty, the hurricane has trapped them inside, and someone (or more than one) is out for blood. The number of hidden tidbits from the Bishop’s past had my head spinning. Charley has a front row seat to the meltdown of the sisters. Can she survive the weekend? It seems someone wants to quiet her for good.

I loved the setting and I thought Charley was a fantastic leading character. The Bishop family was so toxic, but well-written. The sisters have their own troubling pasts that make them somewhat sympathetic, despite their current behavior. The short chapters kept the book moving. I didn’t like this as much as The Block Party, but I thought it was solid and it kept me entertained. The second half dragged on a bit, but the ending made up for that.

The audiobook is great and helped with the pacing. I will definitely read whatever Jamie Day writes next!

Thank you to St Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for my copy. Opinions are my own.

One Big Happy Family is anything but. When their father dies, three sisters and their families are called to The Precipice hotel for the reading of the will. What follows includes: murder, car accidents, sexual harassment, elder care scandals, drug abuse, a stolen painting, an adoption story, affairs, just to name a few of the plot lines.

Positives:
I liked the story being told from the perspective of Charley Kelley, the "maid" as she was really one of the only likeable characters
This book had a little of everything for the reader
Loved the setting of the historic hotel in Maine, especially once the storm came and they were cut off from others
I always enjoy stories about family dynamics, especially sisters

Negatives:
This book was a bit all over the place.
There were 4 parts, and in my opinion it was just way too long and included too many storylines. It was a bit chaotic.

I want to start off by saying I have read Jamie Day's previous book The Block Party so much that I was excited to get my hands on a copy of her second book. I found this one to be a bit less thrilling that her first, however. While I did think the premise for the book had a lot of promise- with the locked door murder mystery of it all, it fell very flat for me. I kept coming back because I wanted to see how it ended, but I felt like the story telling wasn't as suspenseful or entertaining as I wish it would be. There were times in the book I actually rolled my eyes because of the actions of our main protagonist Charley. The pacing felt slightly off, with some of the book dragging on and other parts passing at light speed, and I just left wanting a bit more. That being said, it was an entertaining way to spend the day reading. Therefore, while it felt a bit mid-tier for me, if you're a reader who enjoys locked door situations and a little bit of whodunnit, this might just be the book for you.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced reader copy of this book. All opinions within this review are my own.

I've now unsuccessfully tried both books from this author. I think it's safe to say that Day's writing and my reading tastes just don't mesh. I couldn't get myself to read the whole book. The writing just couldn't hook me.

🪣 This was a fine audio to listen to while getting some chores done around the house, but overall I found it to be pretty predictable and I was ready for it to be over.

🪣 Thanks to @stmartinspress for sending me the ARC of this one— it’s out now.

🪣 Read this if you LOVE:
- locked door murder mysteries
- family drama (inheritance battles)

🪣 What I didn’t like:
- super predictable twists
- a weird romance plot line that felt out of place

🪣 I don’t have a ton to say about this one. It was fine.

Drama, family, danger and lies makes for a most enjoyable mystery. A legendary hotel.with an incoming hurricane. Sisters gathering to hear the will read from their father. But more death and destruction awaits. Recommended read for mystery and thriller fans. A great who dun it.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this eARC!

This engaging story hooked me from the start. Charley, a 19-year-old maid at the quirky Precipice Hotel in Maine, is worried about her job security after the recent death of the hotel’s owner. With the owner’s three daughters arriving for the funeral and an impending hurricane, Charley fears losing her job—and her home—since she needs every penny to cover her grandmother’s care home expenses. Eager to impress the dysfunctional sisters and keep her job, Charley is unprepared for the chaos that ensues.

The family gathering is anything but ordinary. The sisters and their families clash, and dark secrets and lies are hinted at throughout. Even the lawyer reading the will isn’t as impartial as she seems. As the story unfolds, surprises abound and the murders begin. While I sympathized with Charley, her habit of stealing from guests was problematic. Despite this, the book is a gripping page-turner with a cast of quirky characters, and the satisfying resolution wrapped everything up nicely.

I know that I shouldn't judge one book based on another, but I truly enjoyed the twists and turns in Day's last book and was looking forward to more of the same in One Big Happy Family. Day did a great job again with the atmosphere in this book - a remote hotel in Maine with a hurricane heading toward it that is also hosting the reading of a will from the recently deceased owner for his dysfunctional family and the staff of the hotel. Charley, the maid and main character, was likable enough, but for a hard-scrabble girl was way too trusting and made some ridiculous choices. The sisters were all completely unlikable, though that isn't always a bad thing in a locked-room mystery, so the neatly wrapped up, sunshine and flowers epilogue felt completely wrong. Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for the early access in exchange for my honest opinion.

3.5 stars.
The Precipice is a family-owned hotel on the cost of Maine. The owner has recently died, and his three daughters, Vicki, Faith and Iris, return to take stock of the place and determine what to do with the hotel.

Charley has worked for some time at the Precipice as a chambermaid for the smarmy owner, and needs this job badly. Her grandmother is in a care facility, suffering from dementia, and Charley is her sole source of financial support. Charley dreads the sisters' arrival, and worries she'll be turned out, or that they'll discover she's stolen some of the guests' items when cleaning the rooms, or that they'll discover the desperate woman, Bree, that Charley is hiding in one of the rooms.

The Bishop sisters are a toxic, angry mess, hurling insults at each other, resentful, selfish and self-centred. Vicki's husband Todd wants only to take whatever he can from the hotel and never come back. Vicki's mild-mannered and gorgeous son Quinn arrives with Iris, ex-con and ex-drug addict, who hates Todd and resents Vicki. Faith, a model, is there with her wife Hope and son Oliver. A lawyer with questionable ethics also arrives to read the patriarch's will to the family.

Then Todd ends up dying, and pretty soon the family's already high tension dynamics escalate, and people begin accusing one another. Charley must find a way to navigate the acrimony, while keeping her job. Meanwhile, a hurricane has trapped everyone in the hotel.

So nice setup, horrible family, desperate heroine, isolated location….enjoyable, tense, interesting whodunnit, until the melodrama just became a bit too much for me. I also didn't quite buy the romance between Charley and Quinn. I did like Oliver, whose rhyming phrases were both a little odd and funny. He and Quinn actually proved to be much more level-headed than the sisters, and Charley, whom we already know is determined, manages to find her way through all the lies and resentments surrounding her.

Thank you to Netgalley and to St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my review.

I really enjoyed this book. It was suspenseful, dark, and twisty - just my style! Thank you for the opportunity to review this book!

It felt like I'd read this book before, so none of it felt new or novel to me. I wanted to like it, but unfortunately there wasn't anything unique that kept me hooked.

I’ve read a lot of locked door thrillers, but this one through so many variables and the equation that it was such a fun and unique ride.

A hurricane is ravaging a hotel, just as the sisters arrive for the Will reading, but let’s throw in the maid and a stowaway for this “hold onto your hats” ride!! And if you think the families big, just wait till you finish the story 🫢 #mylipsaresealed

Just when I thought I had my top suspects tagged for the murder, Jamie threw me for a loop. This was such a fun ride and I enjoyed every twisty turn and could not read fast enough.

And I absolutely loved the epilogue. Honestly, most epilogues seem like an extra added tidbit because the author couldn’t tie all the loose strings, but this put all the right closure and all the right places. Absolutely would recommend One Big Happy Family — 4.5/5!

Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC for review

I had both the eARC and ALC and I found the audio called to me most.

Charley is a maid, working hard to try to keep her grandmother housed in the adult home for the care she needs. The family that owns the hotel where she works rivals Dynasty or Dallas with the DRAMA.

This one was intense, full of unlikeable characters. Murder. Oh yea, there's also a hurricane looming.

I loved this author's prior book and this one was also a fun twisty drama filled one!

Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and MacMillan Audio for an eARC and ALC in exchange for my honest review.

One Big Happy Family
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: Jamie Day

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: The Precipice is a legendary, family-owned hotel on the rocky coast of Maine. With the recent passing of their father, the Bishop sisters—Iris, Vicki, and Faith—have come for the weekend to claim it. But with a hurricane looming and each of the Bishop sisters harboring dangerous secrets, there's murder in the air—and not everyone who checks into the Precipice will be checking out.

Each sister wants what is rightfully hers, and in the mix is the Precipe's nineteen-year-old chambermaid Charley Kelley: smart, resilient, older than her years, and in desperate straits.

The arrival of the Bishop sisters could spell disaster for Charley. Will they close the hotel? Fire her? Discover her habit of pilfering from guests? Or even worse, learn that she's using a guest room to hide a woman on the run.

My Thoughts: I loved the author’s debut novel, The Block Party, so I knew when I saw this one, I was onboard without too much reading of the blurb. I am not always a fan of locked door mysteries, however, I did enjoy this one. You have a locked door mystery mixed with an element of domestic sister aka evil incarnation sisters. The Precipice is a legendary family hotel on the coast of Maine, on the rocky coast specifically. Three sisters, Iris, Vicki, and Faith, come to visit to stake their claim on the hotel after their father’s passing, and each sister brings secrets that they would rather keep buried. And to make things more exciting, the chambermaid Charley Kelley, has her own secret, she is young, smart, resilient, and loyal to a fault. The arrival of the Bishop Sisters can erupt Charlie’s secret to the top, or will the reading of the will go beyond any misdeed that Charlie has committed? Let’s not forget the hurricane that is on the horizon threatening the hotel and surrounding properties.

The story is a multiple character narration, each providing their own perspective POVs. Our main protagonist Charlie really does still the show and her biggest sin of pilfering from the guests can be forgiven, at least in my eyes. Charley is a young girl who would do anything to take care of her nana, even pilfer a little from the guests. Charley stays onsite and her nana is in a retirement home. When Hurricane Larry threatens the hotel at the same time as the Bishop Sisters hurricane comes through, it is a race against time. The eldest sister, Vicki is married to Todd. Todd is also portrayed as a villain. Vicki is bad-tempered and has a vicious streak, while Todd is a manipulative greedy man who will step on others. Middle sister, Iris, former drug addict and ex-convict, who has a new spiritual life. The youngest sister, Faith, is the model and is married to Hope, a very zen person with a spiritual outlook on life. Quinn, who steals Charlie’s heart almost immediately is the son to Vicki and Todd. Lastly, let’s not forget the attorney who has been called in to do the reading of the will, Brenda Black. Throw all of these characters together in a locked room, we get characters developed with depth, betrayal, secretive, and well-portrayed. The author’s writing style was complex, multifaceted, twisty, suspenseful, and engaging (once you get through Part I).

There were three parts to this story. Part I was really slow but it built up our characters and some of their backstory. Part II really starts to delve into the plot and the sister’s backstories and even some of their harbored secrets. The last two parts (Part III and Part IV) really is where the action occurs with tension, compelling, and just grips you. The last two parts really fires up the plot in twisty layers. While some parts were a little over the top, and some belief suspension was required, I still loved it and it still gripped me, even if some parts were predicable. The plot has twisty suspenseful layers and the ending ties up things nicely, even if a little over the top.

I had both the digital and audio version of the ARC and preferred the audiobook. This was a well written book that I really enjoyed. It was compelling, gripping, and suspenseful. I highly recommend this to other readers, especially if you enjoyed locked door mysteries.

I really enjoyed this one. I love a story setting where the characters are stuck somewhere while there’s a murderer on the loose. Plus, set in Maine, where I live. The main character’s voice and story are compelling. (I also have a soft spot for housekeepers having worked as one at a bed & breakfast back in the day.) Charley works reluctantly at a hotel Down East. She works to pay for her beloved Nana’s nursing home care. When her lecherous boss dies, his three daughters arrive to decide what to do with the place but this quickly devolves into who killed who with Charley and a stowaway guest in the middle of the family chaos and the worst Maine hurricane since 1969.
The POV shifts to the sisters, to the Then and Now, fitting together like a puzzle. A compelling read, highly recommended contemporary mystery/thriller.