A fun story about families and Christmas. Normal families are not normal and truly normal families are a bit complicated! A cute and fun Christmas read

This book was one rollicking big time family Christmas story. The action centers around Julie (driver and owner of a tow truck company - so cool!) and her family. Add to this her significant other Heath, the partners of her adult children, and various other folks (and a dog!), and there is quite a crowd at the family cabin for Christmas. This reminded me of trying to organize my adult children and partners for any kind of event; it's a major undertaking! Fortunately it's a really large cabin, with lots of open space (a certain amount of eavesdropping ensues...). Along with the requisite ton of luggage, winter gear, and everything else needed by a large family party, there is an equal or greater amount of emotional baggage carted in and revealed as the story develops. I felt like I was included in the crowd, and appreciated learning about the various characters' issues and seeing how they eventually worked out. I never felt like anyone's eventual HEA was a sure thing, and the story kept my interest until the end. I hope to revisit the novel in audiobook form, since I imagine it will be even more sensational!

Thank you to NetGalley for sharing this ARC, which I was happy to review.

Julie is looking forward to spending Christmas with her new boyfriend. Her grown children have other plans and she can't say no. So the family decides to spend Christmas at the cabin, which is really a large mountain home. Several other people who are alone join in the Christmas festivities.
Her daughter-in-laws mother, her daughter's boyfriend who won't commit, her boyfriend's children and ex-wife and her daughter-in-laws uncle are all there. This makes for interesting family dynamics. Accidents, misunderstandings, arguments and all the family drama you can think of. This is definitely a family Christmas story.
I love Christmas stories and read some every year. This one is definitely a roller coaster ride of emotions. Having Christmas with this group of characters would be challenging. Julie seems to take everything in stride. This story is both realistic and idealistic at the same time. If you like Christmas stories give this one a try.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #SusanMallery, and #CanaryStreetPress for a copy of this book
#OneBigHappyFamily

A book by Susan Mallery is guaranteed to be fantastic. One Big Happy Family does not disappoint. And what a family! Whether you relate to traditional families, combined families, or families that include what some might poetically call "misfits", all of these are here. All have life experiences that impact their reactions to situations and one another, and not always happily. For the matriarch of this family, Christmas is planned to be very quiet. Then, one by one, others change their plans so the gathering moves away from the quiet to the chaotic. Fortunately, the dining room table is built to accommodate one and all. Everyone of these family members is interesting, understandable, and someone I want to share Christmas with. Won't you join us?

ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY – Susan Mallery
Canary Street Press
ISBN:‎ 978-1-335-00630-1
October 1, 2024
Contemporary Romance

Mountains outside Seattle, Washington – Present Day

ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY has several characters, with the head of the family being Julie Parker. She is looking forward to spending Christmas alone with her younger (and secret) boyfriend instead of having her two adult children around after they decided to take off on trips of their own. But to Julie’s consternation, Nick (plus his wife, Blair) and Dana decide that since it’s the first Christmas without their father, they want to spend it with Julie up at the family cabin in the mountains. It snowballs from there as more people are added to the guest list. Unfortunately, Julie will now have to reveal that she’s dating Heath.

Nick and Blair are newly married and are adjusting to married life as she experiences some medical issues. Her mother recently moved to Seattle and has been nothing but a headache after a lifetime of ignoring her only child. Gwen is a pain in the rear, constantly complaining but there is no way they cannot tell her she can’t join them at the cabin.

Dana’s heart is still aching after being dumped by Axl, her mother’s employee, once again. Dana feels fat and unloved, though her family’s love is unconditional. When an unexpected accident happens to Axl and he ends up at the cabin also, how will Dana react? He is hard to ignore, especially since she is still attracted to him.

Heath is a divorced dad and his ex-wife, Tiffany, was scheduled to have their children for the holidays. Alas, some changes result in first the children coming to join them all at the cabin. Then Tiffany ends up being dumped by her boyfriend and no way will Julie let her spend Christmas alone. Add in a couple of older men, one who is Blair’s uncle and another who is another employee of Julie’s, then you can understand why there is a lot of action going on.

Amidst all the holiday preparations in ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY, there is a bit of family drama going on. Julie expects Nick to take over the family business once she retires but he has other ideas. The tension between Blair and Gwen heats up and spills over to other people as Gwen proves she isn’t the accommodating type. Julie’s kids weren’t sure about having all the extra people around, but it soon became (almost) one big happy family. There are a few bumps and flaring tempers along the way but by the end of this tale, everyone ends up happy. Readers will enjoy this fast-paced and emotional tale, as well as wanting to possibly pick sides when an argument arises. At the center is the fast-approaching day of Christmas. If you love a feel-good tale filled with families and romance, then you don’t want to miss ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY.

Patti Fischer
Romance Reviews Today

This is another good book. This is a story about a family, a mother and her two adult children. The adult children decide to go to their cabin at Christmas, to honor their deceased father. It is about family and understanding their love for one another. The mother, her adult children, all find love.

One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery is a heartwarming story of love, found family, cherished holiday traditions, and new beginnings.

Juliet, hoping for a quiet Christmas, decides to break away from her family’s usual holiday tradition at their cabin. However, her adult children have other plans. What starts as a low-key holiday quickly becomes a bustling household, complete with unexpected guests—and even a dog. As the house fills with warmth, will this Christmas bring new joys, or will it be tinged with unexpected sadness?

I’ve always loved Susan Mallery’s books, and this one is no different. She masterfully blends family drama and romance, creating a story that evokes warmth and emotion. The characters are beautifully flawed, each with their own strengths and vulnerabilities, making them all the more endearing. One Big Happy Family is the perfect read for the holiday season, filled with moments that will make you both laugh and maybe shed a tear.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing, Canary Street Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery shows what happens when Christmas plans go awry. Julie Parker was looking forward to a quiet Christmas with her new beau, Heath, but her adult kids had other ideas. The story has multiple characters, storylines, and points-of-view. It can be confusing as it switches from one character to the next. There is a lot of drama (of course, it would not be a holiday without family drama). Blair’s critical mother, Gwen who criticizes everything, Julie having a hangup about the twelve-year age difference between her and Heath (I got tired of hearing about it and I wanted to yell at Julie to get over it), Julie’s son, Nick not wanting to take over the family business, Dana trying to get over Axel, and so much more (I have barely scratched the surface). The storyline about irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) brought attention to a sensitive topic, but I did not feel it was needed in this story. The details were a little too graphic at times. All the drama got to be a bit much around the two-thirds point (I found myself rolling my eyes). It seemed like one thing after another happened (I would have run from that house screaming). The multiple POVs also leads to repetitive details and the story dawdled in places (which had me skimming). I did not feel that every character needed to have an issue which, of course, had to be resolved before the holidays (they need to have a Merry Christmas). There is some humor here and there. I do not feel that I was the right audience for One Big Happy Family (I wanted to push Gwen off the mountain). The story seemed to go one forever (I was beginning to wonder if Christmas day would ever arrive) and if one more issue arose, I was going to shriek. One Big Happy Family is a chaotic holiday tale with a complaining mother, a clandestine boyfriend, a commodious cabin, trimming the tree, unanticipated guests, a trouble or two, and a cheerful Christmas.

A solid holiday read. I loved how Mallery introduced an age gap relationship (especially with the female being older), and how that might create internal conflict for our FMC. Mallery did a great job of developing all of the different relationships, and I particularly enjoyed all of the different family dynamics involved. As someone who always looks for "strays" during any holiday, I appreciated how warm and accepting the family was overall. This book definitely has me ready for all of the holiday things!

While this was a fun holiday family drama/romance, there were some things I liked and some things I didn't.
I don't know what it was, but even with the things I didn't particularly love, this book was SO easy to read. There wasn't exactly an end goal besides "survive Christmas" which maybe just made it easy to fly through it.
I liked most of the characters, though they all had their flaws. They were all so easy to keep apart with both their characters and their storylines. Julie, the mom owns a towing company and has her entire life together. But she is dating someone 12 years younger than her and hasn't figured out how to tell her adult kids. Her daughter Dana has a great job, but is insecure about her body and keeps going back to the same guy who just wants to break her heart. Nick and Blair are a wonderful couple, but Nick doesn't want to own the towing company after his mom (and she doesn't know yet) and Blair hates her mother. What I enjoyed was how much each character grew over the Christmas week.
So the reason this book is called One Big Happy Family is that this is the first Christmas without Dana and Nick's dad. Although him and Julie had been divorced for 10 years, he always spent Christmas at the cabin with them. Even though everyone had their own plans, Dana and Nick decide they want to honor their dad and have Christmas at the cabin. Now Julie has to reveal her boyfriend, Heath. Blair's mother Gwen has recently moved close to Blair and Blair doesn't want to leave her by herself knowing no one even though she hates her. She goes to the cabin. Heath's ex-wife Tiffany last minute decides to go to the Bahamas with her new boyfriend, so Heath's 8 and 10 year old kids now are going to the cabin. And even more unexpected people need places to be over the holiday. So there's like 12 people that end up doing Christmas at the cabin.
A few of the things that weren't my favorite were the writing style, but only sometimes. I could get into it easily, but especially at the beginning, a lot of the dialogue just didn't seem like it was how people actually talk to each other. It just really slowed me down and took me out of the story. I got used to it, but it still was a little jarring. I also didn't like Blair at the beginning. It was obvious from the first page of her POV that she HATES her mom, but it wasn't immediately explained why, so she just seemed liked a mean person. I understand that you can't give that away immediately, but the hatred just went so hard right from the beginning that I was honestly routing for her mom a little bit. And some of the things other characters said were way out there like things I would never expect anyone to say to anyone else and they came out of nowhere a lot of the time.
So much of this book was straight drama which I wasn't expecting. I think I was expecting more of a mellow holiday book. I did end up enjoying the chaos though. It was something different and I did enjoy how all the character's stories ended up.
If you are looking for a little bit of a chaotic holiday book with good character arcs, definitely check this one out!

Family drama-and fun - at Christmas. Fans of Mallory know that she's invested in making you smile and if the plot feels a little like a Hallmark movie, well that's not a bad thing. Here, Julie is trying to keep her relationship with the much younger Heath a secret from Nick and Dana, her children who seem to be kind of oblivious to anything about her. What was meant to be a cozy retreat turns boisterous when these two, along with their spouses, a dog and others pile in. Nothing bad happens, no one has a dark secret, and everyone wins. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

Julie Parker was running Parker Towing that her grandfather had started years ago. She loved driving the trucks and the whole aspects of the business. She was in hopes that her son Nick would take it over someday soon. Even though it was in Julie’s blood to run this business from a very early age Nick not so much. It was getting dangerous repoing cars and Nick had other interests and was dragging his feet on telling his mom. Then we have Dana which is Julie’s daughter and she has it bad for an employee of her mother’s. They decide as a family to go to their cabin for the Christmas holiday. The kids had recently lost their dad and wanted to be there to have the memories. Julie had been divorced from him for quite awhile and she had been dating a younger guy and hadn’t introduced him to her kids. Take about a house full of people that had little secrets. Such a great book about acceptance and creating bonds.

I received this ARC from Netgalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade for this arc of one Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery.

What are the Holidays without family and the drama they package up and unwrap during gatherings. Julie is looking forward to the holidays with her new, handsome, secret and much younger boyfriend. Something low key at home while her children are living their lives independently. That is until Dana and Nick decide the first Christmas without their dad means the family should spend it like they always do with Julie at their family cabin. A small gathering turns into in-laws, ex boyfriends, ex-wives, and children meeting their dad’s girlfriend for the first time.

This book has so many points of few and plot lines of drama. Nick not wanting to take over tue family towing business, Dana and her ex Axel spending the holiday together, Blair (Nick’s wife) and her mother Gwen rebuilding their fractured history, and Julie letting go of the 12 year age gap in their otherwise perfect relationship. Also, oddly enough and not necessarily needed IBS is also a factor.

This novel was good in concept but I felt it dragged along a bit and a lot of the issues and drama could have been resolved much earlier. Also, while holidays and drama go hand and hand not everyone needed to have an issue the needed to be resolved within the 10 days before the holiday.

I’m generally a fan of Mallery and was excited to read this arc. I’m looking forward to her next novel.

Pub Date: October 1, 2024
❄️❄️.5

Love a good Christmas read and this is definitely one! Thank you so much to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read and review!

One of my favorite authors is Susan Mallery and her holiday romances are always so fun to read. One Big Happy Family which comes out on October 1st is a cozy yet chaotic Christmas book!

Julie is looking forward to a quiet Christmas at her family cabin with her new boyfriend since both of her grown kids have other plans for Christmas but when her kids decide they need a Christmas together, her quiet Christmas turns into chaos. When more people get added to celebrate at the cabin Julie takes the more the merrier to heart.

This book is a family Christmas drama in the best way. Family dynamics are always fun and throw in your new boyfriend's ex-wife, a grouchy mother-in-law, daughter's ex-boyfriend and more into this cute story. I had to laugh at the funny scenarios and loved that Julie's boyfriend was younger. This has your classic Susan Mallery characters that you love and her wonderful writing!

If you're looking for a great Christmas book check this out! One Big Happy Family comes out October 1st - thanks to Canary Street Press for my advanced copy.

I loved this heartwarming and funny read! There was a good mix of characters at the cabin which kept things interesting. There were parts which made me laugh out loud. This was a real page turner.

Susan Mallery writes the best family drama... and one set at Christmas, absolutely a yes from me!
She hits that sweet spot of not young adult romance but gives you the grit and the realness of actual adults!

I have enjoyed Susan Mallery's stories for decades. She always seems to come up with fresh perspectives. This one is a hit! I loved it. There are so many emotions and relationships at play in this novel and she blends them with such dexterity and seamlessness. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and all the characters. We all have a little of the characteristics of some of the characters. It was beautiful seeing how the relationships unfolded and developed; even long standing parent/child relationships.

The main female lead, Julia Parker, has a huge heart; but, she tends to keep it protected. During this holiday season, she has to learn to trust her heart to someone else. She doesn't like not having control in any given situation; that's a lot to handle and still maintain your sanity. Will Julia learn from her experiences and those of the people around her or will she choose the "safe" way and maybe lose her heart anyway?

What’s Christmas without family drama? If you love multigenerational women’s fiction romance with realistic conflicts, this book is for you.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

The h runs a towing business and is dating the H who is 12 years younger. They plan on spending the holidays together. Unfortunately her son and daughter want to celebrate Christmas to commemorate their father who died a year ago. They all end up at the family cabin (6000 sq feet), including the H’s two young children and his ex wife. Complications arise as family issues become an issue.