This slow burn, locked room thriller had all the right elements for a good thriller- multiple characters with motive, a storm blowing in to keep them all in one place, and a setting where there were plenty of places to hide.

Charley works at the Precipice hotel, whose owner recently passed away. Now, the owner’s three daughters are coming to stay and hear the reading of the will. Each wants her piece of the pie, and may not be satisfied with what she ultimately receives.

The characters are flawed and messy, with intertwining backstories that made me gasp when they were revealed. I liked that this story was mostly told via Charley’s POV, as she was a good and sympathetic protagonist who was on the sidelines of the central fight. She, too, is a flawed character who makes morally gray choices from time to time, but she feels more relatable than the Bishop sisters.

With plenty of twists and turns, the story comes to a satisfying close. I loved the atmosphere, the tension, and the cattiness between the sisters, all of which added up to an entertaining read.
Thank you to NetGalley and SMP for the ARC. All opinions are my own,

Hurricane Larry is just about to hit Maine and guests have started canceling their stay at the Precipice. A hotel that sits along the rocky coast of Maine. Everyone that is except the Bishop Sisters who must be there as the lawyer will read their father's will. Each sister has a sense of entitlement, secrets, and won't let anything get in the way. Including Charley, the hotel's chambermaid. Not everyone will live to check out of the hotel at the end of the weekend.

One Big Happy Family is a suspenseful, quick paced, whodunit separated in four parts: The Precipice, The Bishop Sisters, The Eye of the Storm, and the Sister's Secret. I enjoyed the setting, it added to the overall eeriness of the story along with the author's descriptiveness. The family drama was juicy, however, the secrets were a bit predictable.

I did find it a bit confusing keeping track of the sister's backstories for a bit/ when the action kicked off it was hard to keep track of.

Overall, I enjoyed the story. 3.5

Thank you St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Charley Kelley is nineteen and struggling to make ends meet. She is a maid at the Precipice Hotel where she sometimes supplements her income by pilfering money from the guests’ rooms. She needs the money to support her Nana, who is suffering from dementia. She has spent the last two years fending off the advances of George Bishop, the hotel’s owner. George recently passed away and his three daughters will soon be arriving for the reading of the will. Their arrival coincides with the arrival of Larry, a powerful hurricane. Life gets more complicated when Bree, a young woman running from an abusive boyfriend and with no money, asks Charley for asylum. She hides her in one of the rooms so that the sisters will not find her, but secrets have a way of coming out.

The three Bishop sisters have secrets of their own. Vicki and her husband Todd own several jewelry stores. Theirs is a rocky marriage. Faith is a former model. Married to Hope, they have a son Oliver, who speaks in rhymes. Iris arrives with Quinn, Vicki’s son. She has been involved with drugs in the past and has served time in jail. When their lawyer arrives and reads the will, tempers flare. Todd’s influence on George’s will is evident. Then the first murder occurs. It is followed by the discovery of a poem warning that more will come if secrets are not revealed. Because the note is a poem, Oliver is blamed. The anger escalates until secrets finally begin to come out, destroying relationships and ending in gunfire.

Having quit school to support her Nana, Charley sees herself as just a maid, but Quinn sees something more in her. She is a reader and cares for the people around her. She tries to be the voice of reason and scale back the tension even as the situation gets out of control. She is a well developed character and her relationship with her Nana is both tender and heartbreaking. With a hidden treasure, a violent storm and an abundance of secrets and lies, Jamie Day’s story kept me glued to the pages. I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing this book.

First , a special thank you to St, Martin’s Press via Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for the complimentary e-book and audio copies in exchange of my honest review.
I really enjoyed the book The Block Party by Jamie Day. That was like sitting on a front seat watching a controversial soap opera about the neighbors that you want to be acting so nosey about.
This book is similar yet a different take on the flavor. The story evolves about Charley Kelly, the stay-in hotel maid of Precipice Hotel who is living a tight paycheck to paycheck budget all the while supporting a grandma in an Alzheimer’s Assisted Living facility. Charley met a lady who was running away from an abusive partner and was asking her for help in a form of a hiding place at the hotel or at least letting the upcoming storm that will land in Maine to pass or her partner to move on. This would have been okay and can easily get worked out but the hotel will have important people coming in for the weekend. When previous owner of The Precipice hotel died, his three daughters – Vicki, Faith, and Iris – and their families will come to the hotel for the reading of the will. Charley Kelley fears about what this will have in turn for her. She has no place to go and it was difficult enough to look for job and stay closer to her grandma. The reading of the will bring qualms not just to the family and the secrets it will uncover but more so for Charley whose very life depends on the existence of this hotel.
To be honest, I found the story development a little slow to my liking. The suspense and thrill is decent, and the twist can be predictable because I happen to already guess what the outcome was. Over all it was a solid read, deserving the for the time I dedicated to it. The vibe of family jealousy and betrayal is evident and the characters are perfect for how they were to be in the story, and there is quite a number of them too. Between Charley, her co-workers in the hotel, the family members, the attorney, the known hotel guest and of course, let’s not forget the one mysterious guest- it was enough to create the dimension and build up of the plot.
I read and listen at the same time. Saskia Maarleveld is a phenomenal and talented narrator and does a great job with the narration as always! She is one of my top favorite voices. Over all, I this book was just fine for me.

One big happy family is the follow-up to last summers block party. Day sets this one at an up scale hotel where the owner has just died. His three daughters come calling to collect their inheritance and find an obstacle by the way of a young chambermaid who finds herself at the center of a dangerous family drama. All of the sisters have secrets they are hidin, but how far are they willing to go to hold onto these secrets? Bodies start to turn up and the past slowly unravels into the present as it becomes evident someone is willing to kill to keep the secrets buried.

I’ give day props for the variety-choosing a different setting and a different overall sub genre of thriller than the block party. The block party reads more domestic suspense and this reads slightly more whodunit and traditional
Thriller. I did struggle at times to stay connected to the plot, as the pacing felt inconsistent to me/however, I was slightly distracted at times so this could be a me issue and not an issue with the actual book itself.

Thanks to the publisher for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review.

An isolated hotel in Maine, a huge storm, and an extremely dysfunctional family all come together to create this thrilling adventure! First there’s a dead body, and then the family’s deepest and darkest secrets start to come to light, and these aren’t little secrets either. I love stories like this where there are huge revelations and shocking twists! I was so into it that I finished this in just 2 days!

Murder, a hotel in Maine, cut off by a hurricane. Lots of twists and turns. A real page turner. I will be looking for other books by this author!

This book was exciting, suspenseful and full of twists. The story and a varied cast of characters kept my eyes glued to the page. An excellent read.

The owner of a family hotel passes away and hs 3 daughters are on the way for the reading of the will. He was not a nice person and there is a few mysteries that are uncovered along the way. The Bishop sisters are not nice people either. A storm is brewing with a hurricane on the way and no one wants to be stranded at the hotel.
Charley is the chambermaid who has been working at the hotel for a while now and gets caught up in the family drama and she is trying to solve some of the mysteries that are showing up.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's for the book to review.

loved this romance and her mom wants her to date this guy she has these amazing friends who are all dealing with different relationship issues . loved that she found her way in the job and found love

I enjoy these one location, can’t leave, kind of scenarios. Though I couldn’t connect to the narrator at all or the choices she made.

Kind of thought most of it was pretty obvious, including the conclusion of a small subplot at the end. But I’m glad it wrapped up neatly and it kept me interested while I was reading it.

📚: One Big Happy Family by Jamie Day
⭐️: 3/5

The gist: The Precipice — a family-owned, infamous (if not also quirky) hotel on the coast of Maine. When its patriarch owner, George Bishop, passes away, his three daughters and their families come to hear his will, claim what’s theirs, while keeping their secrets airtight. As the Bishop sisters arrive, chambermaid Charley has a few secrets of her own.

The good: I love a locked door thriller in a New England setting. This read flew by with a fairly quick pace - and part 2 that’s set in the past was particularly well written and gripping. (And oh-so much family dysfunction.)

The eh: Overall, I found this book to be a solid 3 star read. With a bit of predictability, and characters that fell flat (why didn’t I root for Charley more?), and an ending that didn’t completely stick, I enjoyed this read enough but not enough to love.

Thanks to @stmartinspress via @netgalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. One Big Happy Family is out this week!

Big thanks to both NetGalley, St. Martin's Press & Macmillan audio for the advanced copies!
This one is out now and ready for you!!!

I absolutely ate up Jamie Day's first novel, The Block Party. Unfortunately, this one fell just a little flat for me. Part One was quite slow, making it difficult to get sucked into this story. Once we moved into part two, I was starting to feel like I was in a completely different book and had to stop to make sure I was still in the same one.

While the drama, secrets & mysteries were all fun, I found them to ber very predicatble. I knew which character was the culprit and it was easy to see how this would play out for the most part.

As far as the audio portion goes, it was done well. My only downside was that the narrator seemed to be quite nasally, which I found to be distracting. That is absolutely a personal thing though and nothing against the book itself!

I do think I'd give Jamie Day another go, being as I loved her first novel. This one just didn't work for me as well as I hoped!

One big happy family? Nope. Too many secrets, resentments, bad memories. Too much fear and greed and suspicion. Were they ever one big happy family? Maybe when their mother was still alive, but none of the Bishop sisters wanted to spend time with their father. They are only back at The Precipice, the family-owned hotel, because he has died and they want to know who gets what from the will. They are a very unpleasant group when the descend on The Precipice: sisters, spouses, partners, children, all unique and a little off-putting in their own way and they never do become endearing.

Charley Kelley is the nineteen-year-old chambermaid who greets them. Life has dropped some hard knocks on Charley, so she’s had to be smart and resilient, but because she’s also in desperate straits financially she regularly steals from the guests. Her Nana is the only family she has left and Charley has promised herself that Nana will be able to stay at the nursing home, no matter Charley she has to sacrifice.

One Big Happy Family makes you uneasy from the start. There’s the sniping among the sisters, Bree, the young woman hiding from an abusive boyfriend that Charley has agreed to hide in the hotel resulting in a game of musical rooms to ensure she doesn’t get caught, the cook’s angry blow up and departure, and the odd comings and goings of the Bishops. The big storm brewing adds to the electric atmosphere and isolation, and when desk clerk Rodrigo goes home for the weekend Charley is left alone with the weird Bishop family and their weird behavior. Author Jamie Day ramps up the excitement and menace until you can’t stop turning pages to find out what happens next, but at the same time you are afraid to turn them because what’s next might be terrifying.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Publishing Group for providing an advance copy of One Big Happy Family via NetGalley. It is a book you can’t put down, with so many surprises and twists and turns that you are on edge until the final page. I am happy to recommend it. I voluntarily leave this review; all opinions are my own.

This was a great thriller that had me spinning trying to figure out who to blame. If you like Alice Fenney’s Daisy Darker or anything by Lucy Foley, this is a must read for you! I definitely recommend adding to you list!

What a family! The book was a little slow getting me interested, but oooh boy did it have a few twists. I felt lucky to not be part of the Bishop family. The book had lots of secrets and each one left me feeling a bit shocked. The storm set the story up for a perfect location for the reading of the will. I did turn pages more quickly as I got deeper into the story. It was definitely full of surprises. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would by the time I got to the end. I look forward to more from this author. I received an advance copy from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Does a book describing an old family hotel filled with all sorts of curiosities on top of a high hill in Maine overlooking the ocean set in the depths of a terrible windy rainstorm fill you with trepidation? Let’s add the element that three sisters and families have gathered for the reading of the will of their recently deceased father/owner of the hotel. Factor in that everyone involved are harboring deep secrets from the past. Left to keep the hotel working is the maid who has some secrets of her own the least of which is hiding a gal who has befriended her because she is trying to hide from her boyfriend. Let the fun begin with hints of an Agatha Christie murder as one tries to untangle the mystery of murder, deceit. Thanks to #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for an ARC of this book; this is my honest opinion.

Charley Kelley is only 19, but she’s already been through some tough years. The only family she has left is her grandmother, and she’s struggling with memory issues. She’s in a local nursing home, so Charly works very hard to afford her room and care. They live in a small town in Maine, but there is a high end hotel named Precipice. Charley works as the maid there, and with that job, she gets to live onsite, in a small room, rent-free. She doesn’t love the job, or how the owner hits on her from time to time, but she doesn’t know of another job in town where she can live and still afford her grandmother’s care.

But when the owner of the Precipice dies suddenly, his three daughters are planning on returning to the hotel for the reading of the will. Iris, Vicki, and Faith will be there soon, along with the attorney who is the executor of the will, so Charley is in charge of getting the rooms cleaned before they show up. But she has a problem. She had recently met a woman named Bree in town, and Bree was trying to get away from her abusive boyfriend. Bree shows up at the hotel, desperate and asking Charley to hide her for a few days. Charley is reluctant, but she doesn’t feel like she can leave this woman in danger, so she agrees to hide her in one of the hotel rooms for a few days.

Then there’s the problem of Larry. Larry is the hurricane heading for them. While some of the locals are writing off the storm, thinking the bark will be worse than the bite, several of the coming tourists have canceled their reservations at the hotel. Soon it becomes clear that the sisters and the lawyer will be the only guests, hurricane be damned.

This is the first chance Charley has had to meet the sisters. There is Iris, the recovering addict. Vicki and her husband own a jewelry store in Boston, and their son is in college studying philosophy. Faith and her wife Hope have a teenaged son also, a quiet boy who speaks in rhyme when he does talk. Vicki immediately starts making demands of Charley, but the more things go wrong at the Precipice, the less that matters.

Olga, the longtime cook, quits suddenly. Larry hits with a vengeance, bringing down a tree on the drive, so no one can leave. Cell service goes out. And inside the hotel, strange threats add a sense of foreboding to the gathering. The will is read, and with all their father’s rules and stipulations, none of the sisters are happy with the outcome. They thought they were getting the hotel outright, and that is not how their father set up the inheritance.

And then the first person is killed.

As the storm rages outside and the wi-fi goes down, those stranded at the Precipice have to figure out a way to survive the storm, and each other. It turns out that each of the sisters has a secret to keep, and some of those secrets are worth killing to keep.

Charley isn’t a part of the family, and she got nothing in the will. In fact, Vicki fires her, so she also has no job, no home, no way to take care of her grandmother. She has literally nothing left to lose. Except her life. Will she be able to stay alive until the storm passes and they can get help to the hotel, or is this the end for the young maid?

One Big Happy Family is a secret-fueled thriller that asks what it is that makes a family. As the long-held lies are exposed and the truths come out, the danger amps up, until everyone is fighting for their own survival. This novel is a series of dangerous events, escalating and escalating, to a nail-biting conclusion.

I listened to One Big Happy Family on audio, and narrator Saskia Maarleveld, who brought this twisted tale to life. There was a lot of tension, which I thought she handled beautifully. However, there are also a lot of characters who all show up about the same time, so I did have some trouble keeping everyone straight in my head for a bit, especially the sisters. But it was a fun book to listen to, and anyone who loves a story filled with danger, tension, and family secrets should consider adding this one to their shelf.

A copy of the audio book for One Big Happy Family was provided by Macmillan Audio, and egalleys were provided by St. Martin’s Press, both through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Wow, this story is quite a ride! I was hooked from the start. Chapter one starts things off as quite a page-turner, & it gets better from there.
I like the author’s writing style, & think the pace, character development, & setting are all perfect for the story. The twists & turns, family histories, & each character’s recollections of the past come to light @ just the right times. There’s a lot of wit & humor, especially considering the subject matter.
I enjoy it when almost everyone is a suspect @ one time or another during the story.
I’m glad Charley wasn’t drawn as a perfect angel, but just a sweet kid that’s been through way too much in an unfair world. It was easy to root for her to figure things out.
I found myself working on the puzzles of this story, even when I was doing things other than reading. That always seems to be a good test of how much I’m invested while reading a mystery or a thriller. The surprises & secrets just kept coming, as did the dirty deeds & possible motives. You can’t choose your family…
Thanks to the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy via NetGalley. I’ve already added another book by the author to my kindle.

“One Big Happy Family” by Jamie Day
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Release Date: 7/16
Genre: thriller

If you like the “locked room” thriller you’ll love this! The book is set instead a seaside hotel in a small town in Maine. I found the premise really interesting and the book kept my interest the entire time. There was a whodunnit aspect along with multiple twists!

Charley is the maid at the Precipe Hotel. She is trying to stay afloat paying for her Nana’s care, so she lives on site and works hard. When the owner George passed his three daughters Vicki, Iris, and Faith come to the hotel to read the will. Everything quickly escalates when one family member turns up dead and they are all pointing fingers. The one thing the killer wants is for all three of their secrets to come out. How does it all connect?
The crazy thing is this all happens during a hurricane. You never known when you’ll have a blackout and who you can trust.