One Big Happy Family by Jamie Day ~ a Review

by Donna Huber

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.

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

July 2024; St. Martin's; 978-1250283207
audio, ebook, print (368 pages); mystery

I read Jamie Day's The Block Party last year and loved it. So I had high expectations for her new book One Big Happy Family.

I immediately liked Charley - I love an underdog. The setting was a promising one. It is almost a locked door mystery as a hurricane is moving in and the storm eventually leaves the characters stranded at the hotel.

Some of the plot points were predictable. As soon as we were introduced to the Bishop family, it was obvious what one of the secrets was. 

It didn't keep me from really enjoying the first half of the book as there were plenty of other questions to be answered. I was curious how Bree fit into the story. I'm always suspicious of people who are overly friendly and instantly act like your BFF and it carries over to fictional characters.

However, somewhere near the middle of the story, I started losing interest. Some of it I think is we get more details about the secrets so it was easy to put the pieces together and though the reader has figured it out, it is chapters and chapters later (almost the end) before the characters do and then it basically had to be spelled out for them.

There were also some other issues. I found it strange for one character to think "the fetus is not even out of utero" while seeing the baby on an ultrasound. I understand that it was the 1980s so the technology was still kind of new, but the words used just didn't sound like the character. Then there was the whole thing about the flashlights and the lights going out - I kept thinking they have their phones don't they all have flashlights on them. A final example of some of the wording that irked me came towards the end of the novel when it felt more like I was reading a melodramatic romance novel: "[He] ... eager to return to his beloved [sic]" (I removed the names so not to spoil the story. In this section, there were also references to "one true love". 

This book started out pretty strong so I'm disappointed that the middle and end often felt like it was spiraling into the ridiculous. With that being said, I never considered not finishing it and it wasn't a chore to finish it. It is mainly because I liked Charley and I wanted to find out how it all worked out for her.

Buy One Big Happy Family at Amazon

Donna Huber is an avid reader and natural encourager. She is the founder of Girl Who Reads and the author of how-to marketing book Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour.

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