Charley works as a maid at the Precipe Hotel, stealing from guests to make enough money to keep her grandmother in the retirement home she lives in. When the hotel’s owner passes away, his daughters – the Bishop sisters of Iris, Vicky and Faith, arrive for the reading of the will as a hurricane forces everyone to stay indoors at the hotel.

Charley is unsure whether she will keep her job, or the secret of the friend Bree that she is hiding at the hotel while Bree is trying to escape from an abusive relationship.

Vicki the eldest, is greedy, arriving with husband Todd and son Quinn (who Charley is very attracted to). Iris is the ex-convict, drug addict, and Faith is the stylish model who arrives with wife Hope and son Oliver.

Once the murder occurs, we are in a classic locked-room mystery as the Hurricane roars outside the hotel, and Charley tries to survive. Family drama is the main theme as we try and figure out who is the murderer.

I quite liked Charley’s character, despite the thefts, but didn’t really like any of the others. The story is told from multiple points of view and felt quite confused to me at several points. Lots of backstory slowed the plot for a while in the middle.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of One Big Happy Family by Jamie Day, an entertaining thriller that will keep your interest from start to finish. If you think that your family is dysfunctional, just wait until you meet the Bishop sisters. When the three women gather to discuss their father’s will, all hell breaks loose and murder and mayhem ensue. With a missing lawyer, an unusual teenager who speaks in rhymes, and a maid who gets wrapped up in the drama unwittingly, this is a cast of characters that won’t be easy to forget.

This is a wild ride by an author who I will definitely be reading more from in the future.

This was good. I feel like one of the characters should have been brought in later in the book because I knew something was up with them right away. Since this book is told in parts we get more info on the characters in each part. The sisters all blended together and all had some type of issue. They all have secrets to hide and fear what would happen if they would get out. When people started dying and going missing I could not figure out who was behind all of this.

Some of the twists in the end didn't seem as shocking but there are a lot of suspenseful moments in this one. The letter at the end with the shocking news was kind of random but I did like it!

This book will leave you with a smile on your face, but the journey to get there is a wild ride!

This book gives you everything you expect in a thriller; dark secrets, morally gray and suspicious characters, drama, twists, and of course a murder or two to keep things interesting.

I recommend this book to fiction, mystery, and thriller readers.

I really enjoyed my first Jamie Day book and am so thankful to the publishers and NetGalley for granting me access to this ARC.

Thank you @netgalley for the copy!

🖤Locked Room/ Isolation
🖤Dysfunctional Family drama
🖤Whodunnit
🖤Secrets and Twists

An isolated hotel, bad storm, dysfunctional family and murder make up a dramatic thriller! I absolutely loved this one and couldn’t put it down. So many twists and secrets, you won’t know who is telling the truth. I highly recommend you add this one to your TBR!

A family owns a coastal hotel that is in the path of a hurricane. The maid, a college age girl, has let another woman stay in one of the rooms until the hurricane is over. The main characters are the Bishop sisters, their children and the two women. I am generally character and plot driven in my reading and I unfortunately did not particularly care for any of them. The plot was well done and easy to follow. There are murders, sociopaths and other unlikables spread throughout. I found it to be more directed to a young adult audience than an older one. Thanks to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC for an honest review.

A slow-burn, locked-room mystery loaded with family secrets. The story is set at The Precipice, a family-owned hotel near a rocky coastline during a hurricane. The Bishop family gathers to read the will and for the funeral of the owner George Bishop. After reading the will, bodies start to fall, and the mystery begins. Although the hurricane was happening, I didn't feel the angst or anxiety from it in the characters which would have added to the atmosphere. But I did enjoy the main character—a likeable maid named Charley who is trying to cling to her job to support her Nana. The cast around her is interesting and well-developed. The pace was a touch slow for me in spots, but that's to be expected with this type of book.

I received an ARC through "NetGalley" and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

This story begins with the death of a hotel owner and the arrival of his three daughters for the reading of the will. Unfortunately, the weather is not good with Hurrican Larry on their doorstep. The 1st night that they arrived, Todd, Vicki's husband dies after the reading of the will. The police arrive and advise all parties to remain while they look into the death. Mysterious things begin happening in which two individuals outside the family and their lawyer are drawn in. This story is told by Charlie, the maid, in the 1st person. She and the rest receive mysterious warnings about events that will soon happen.

To learn what the warnings related to, what secrets are revealed that present a different view than what everyone believed, who killed Todd and who was responsible for the warnings and what the events led to, then you need to read this book. The ending is well done and all questions get answered.

ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY
Thanks to Net Galley and St. Martin’s for providing me with an ARC of this novel. It is Jamie
Days second novel , the first being “The Block Party”. I highly rated that book and was looking
forward to reading this. I have to say the book fell short of my expectations.
.
It is set in old coastal Maine, in the family owned hotel , The Precipice, with hurricane Larry
bearing down on them. The father had died suddenly leaving ownership in limbo. The maid,
19 year old Charley has been keeping things going , hoping the hotel will stay open. She
needs the job in order to keep paying for her grandmothers care in a nursing home
The 3 daughters and the family lawyer arrive for the weekend for the reading of will.
Meanwhile there is hurricane Larry arriving as well What follows is lots of dredging up of old
wounds and perceived wrongs along with some family secrets
I found the novel to be a but much, too contrived. The storyline seemed to be forced in an
effort to build suspense It just didn’t hit the mark for me. I would give it 2 1/2 stars, not a 3
but more than a 2

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I read Jamie Day's debut novel so I was excited for this one and it did not disappoint!!

This book pulled me in from the beginning. Definitely had me guessing who did it. The ending was so good. I will read anything Jamie Day writes!!!

Enjoyed this one! Interesting from beginning to end. I loved Block Party by Jamie Day and I look forward to reading many more of hers!

Wow… the characters in this story are the absolute epitome of a dysfunctional family! Really well done! This isn’t just a story about a dysfunctional Rich family. It’s about murder, betrayal, love, it has all the things! It’s been a long time since I’ve read a story in this vein where the characters were so spot on. Even the characters I hated couldn’t have been written any other way. Without giving too much away, I did know who the big bad was the instant they were introduced into the story. Not because it was obvious by any means, it was more just a feeling. I also knew why, but watching the whole thing play out was absolute mayhem! Seriously, it was a wild ride and I loved every minute of it! Even knowing what was going to happen, the big reveal was a definite WTF moment. The ending tied things up nicely too, so I’m pretty happy with how it ended. This one is definitely worth a read if you like messy families who can’t get away from each other… and then the bodies start dropping!

Huge thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

Unfortunately, nothing worked for me in One Big Happy Family. Every character was unlikeable, and none of them were interesting. The main character is one of the dumbest characters I have ever read. The twists were very predictable. Also, the romance subplot was cringe considering what was going on.

If you love rich people being bad - you may love this.

Murder in a remote coastal Maine town with a hurricane bearing down?

SIGN ME UP!

This was addictive, totally "unputdownable" and all in a great story!

Loved this book! Lots of colorful, well-developed characters comprising an eccentric family made this an exciting mystery with some unexpected twists and turns along the way. Good writing, nice pacing, and a fun plotline make this book a success!

The Bishop sisters are coming together after their father has passed away to figure out who is going to take over the family-owned hotel on the coast that is full of potentially expensive antiques. There is a hurricane coming that will affect their weekend and even though there are no guests staying at the hotel, the whole family is there as well as some hotel staff and a stowaway. Charley Kelley, a young girl, is the maid at the hotel and she has also snuck in a girl on the run and she is worried that the family will find out and fire her.

This story was crazy, twisty, and fast-paced the entire time. I was not original suspicious of the stowaway, but as the story went on, she kept popping up and being more important. There was a small romance storyline between Charley and one of the grandsons of the original owner hotel, but this was mostly just family drama and mystery.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, for the free copy for review.

I’m all for mystery thrillers set on an isolated island with a group of suspects. Toss in the wrath of a storm, and I know we will have a wild ride.

This fast-paced read delved into family secrets, dysfunction, and mystery-solving. The actions of the Bishop sisters during their teen years provided a clever red herring. While the twist was unexpected, it didn't deliver the surprise I anticipated. Ultimately, the plot leads to a long-planned vendetta. Overall, it was an entertaining read.

🌬🌊Wow! What a family!😟

One Big Happy Family, not to be confused by the title, is a cauldron of secrets, deceit, back-biting, jealousy, greed: you name it, this family has all the negatives and they all spill when three sisters and their families gather for the reading of their father's will. The atmosphere in the rooms of the hotel their dad owned is as stormy as the hurricane outside!

A young hotel maid tells the story and gets stuck in the middle of the drama because they are all trapped at the hotel on a promontory on the Maine coast thanks to the hurricane. The "trapped with a murderer" trope worked well and the author did a great job keeping the tension high.

Cryptic messages foreshadowing death, communication line failure, power problems: all add to the atmosphere of impending tragedy. And there were so many twists that made reading it feel like a runaway train heading for a dramatic crash.

Yes, the scheming is OTT, but it was thoroughly entertaining.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for sharing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. Charley is a young chambermaid working at the Precipice Hotel trying to make enough money to keep her aging grandmother comfortable in her current living situation. The owner of the hotel, George Bishop, has just died and his estranged daughters and their families are coming to the hotel for the reading of the will during a hurricane. Over the course of the story, we learn more about George’s shady past and unravel old family secrets. Charley also decides that of course this is the best time to hide a stranger at the hotel who claims she needs a place to hide from her abusive boyfriend.
My main complaints with the story include the predictability of the plot twist, Charley’s naivety and a very strange romance thrown in while people in the hotel are turning up dead. When reading a thriller, I want to be completely surprised by plot twists and revealed secrets which I felt this book lacked. It was a quick read and I suggest checking it out.

Thank you St Martin's and also MacMillan Audio for review copies of One Big Happy Family. Jamie Day's book is filled with promise, a locked room plot, rich people behaving badly, a storm, and a dead body... I tend to love books with these settings and conflict over wills, hints of romance and past and present secrets coming to life ,and all things family dysfunction. In a few ways this book was a win, I felt Day was deft at weaving in different character's stories while focusing on the main character in a thoughtful way and she did a good job of generating Succession like vibes and characters.

Overall though the slow burn pace felt more slow without a truly rewarding to me payoff; the plot and pacing lagged in places and though I don't mind unlikable characters, I never felt like I was really cheering on an underdog or seeing self growth happen even for the main character. As a reader of a lot of suspense and thrillers, I also felt like the reveals weren't a surprise and while there are only so many ways to make a locked room mystery unique, what was missing was the joy of the plot to see how it all comes together.