Thriller Thursday Reviews: Not A Happy Family & The Perfect Family
Happy Thriller Thursday! Sharon here, and this week’s theme is dysfunctional families LOL. Today I am reviewing Shari Lapena’s new book Not a Happy Family and Robyn Harding’s new book The Perfect Family and let me just say, I thought my family had some issues but compared to the families in these books, my family looks like The Brady Bunch 🙂
Not a Happy Family Goodreads Author: Shari Lapena
Publication Date: July 27, 2021
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Shari Lapena’s newest novel Not a Happy Family follows the dysfunctional wealthy Merton family. Fred and Sheila Merton were brutally murdered in their home the night after a disastrous Easter dinner with their adult children, Catherine, Dan and Jenna. As the police begin their investigation, they obviously start with their children, who stand to inherit millions and who each had a motive for wanting their parents dead.
Catherine is the oldest and knew that she would be inheriting the family home one day, that is until their father announced at Easter dinner that he was selling the house.
Dan has never had a good relationship with his father. Dan expected to take over the family business one day, that is until Fred sold it because he didn’t think Dan would be able to handle running it. So now after a few bad investments Dan needs money and asks his father for a loan on the night of Easter only to have his father tell him in no uncertain terms No!
Jenna is an artist; she likes to sculpt images of women’s anatomy, much to her parents’ dismay. She gets a monthly allowance from her parents. But they have decided it is time to cut her off.
Fred was not the best father. He got great joy in causing emotional pain to his children. And Sheila was not a very comforting mother; she left that job to their housekeeper Irene. So, it was not very surprising that the children were not overly devastated by their parents’ death. They all have alibis for the night their parents died, well according to each of their spouses they did. But those alibis are soon unraveled.
The siblings are not extremely close, but when the police start narrowing their suspicions onto them, they do rally around each other. Even though they figured one of them was the killer and they could have easily thrown each other under the bus, they stuck together. They figured which ever one of them was the killer did them a favor by getting rid of their toxic parents and made them all rich at the same time. Okay it was a bit of a twisted way of thinking, but hey they are family and are sticking together.
I liked the perspectives we got from each of them and watching them sweat when the investigation got to close to one of them.
As the police keep hitting walls as they try and figure out which of the siblings is the killer, they get some help from Fred’s sister Audrey. She has never really liked Catherine, Dan and Jenna, so she is more than happy to spill all the family secrets. And the Merton’s have a lot of secrets.
I really cannot say much more because I don’t want to spoil anything, I will say this book was full of twists and turns that had me all over the place on who I thought did it. Every time I thought I had it figured out, a twist would happen to point me in a different direction. I was completely clueless when the killer was finally revealed. And without giving anything away, I love how Shari Lapena ended this book.
If you like stories that center around dysfunctional families and that keep you guessing throughout, I recommend Shari Lapena’s Not a Happy Family. 4 stars
The Perfect Family Goodreads Author: Robyn Harding
Publication Date: August 10, 2021
Publisher: Gallery Books
Robyn Harding’s newest novel The Perfect Family, is full of unlikeable characters and a train wreck of a family, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
The Perfect Family follows the Adler family, Thomas, a real estate agent; his wife Viv, an interior designer; their twenty year old Son, Eli; and seventeen year old daughter, Tarryn. Thomas and Viv have tried to create the image of a perfect family, from their jobs, their cars, their home, and their children. But their perfect world is about to come crashing down. One morning when they wake up, they find their house has been egged. Thomas insists that it is just teenagers. But then a smoke bomb is thrown at their house, their car tires are slashed, and someone has set fire to their hedges. The police cannot help them since they don’t know who is doing this and even the surveillance cameras they installed only show a shadowy figure in a hoodie. Why is someone targeting the Adlers? Well, the answer to that question lies in the secrets they each have.
I don’t want to give much away about what secrets they each have. Even though they are not real spoilers, I think it is still best to figure them out on your own because as each family member’s secret is revealed to the reader it adds more to the mystery to who is behind the attacks on the Adler family. As each secret was revealed, I would switch my thinking on what I thought was going on and why.
The Adlers are such a dysfunctional family and none of them came across as sympathetic, even after their secrets were revealed. They are all so sure that their secret cannot be the reason the attacks are happening, that they are all quick to point the finger at each other. Tarryn had the finger pointed at her the most. Her parents were so sure that these pranks were the act of teenagers, so it had to be someone that she made mad at some point. When I learned each of their secrets all I could think of was “You are blaming Tarryn when you are hiding that?” They were all such hypocrites.
I love how Robin Harding slowly revealed bits of information, it wasn’t all just a big data dump. She had my attention fully as I couldn’t wait to find out more about each of the Adler’s secrets and what else was going to happen to them. And even though I don’t think any of the characters were very likeable, I love how Harding gave them each a voice. The book is told from each of their POV’s and I really liked getting into their thoughts and couldn’t wait to find out what they were hiding.
The Perfect Family was a suspenseful read, with many twists that will keep you guessing until the end. If you are a fan of Robin Harding, I think you will enjoy this as much as I did. 3 ½ stars
Top Ten Tuesday – My Current Top Ten Fictional Crushes
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is Fictional Crushes. My list is pretty much ever-changing, depending on what I’m reading, but I do have a couple of crushes that seem to always make my list. Here’s my list, as of today:
My Current Top Ten Fictional Crushes
1. VERY SINCERELY YOURS by Kerry Winfrey – Everett St. James, the man who has a children’s show. He’s kind and respectful to all of the kids and he’s also very easy on the eyes. Who can resist a sexy Mr. Rogers type?
2. A COURT OF MIST AND FURY by Sarah J. Maas – Rhysand, High Lord of the Night Court, and by far, the sexiest character from the entire series. He has been on my list for almost 5 years now, haha!
3. SIX OF CROWS by Leigh Bardugo – Matthias. At first, I absolutely hated him but by the end, he was one of my favorites. I don’t know if it was that fierce hate-to-love chemistry between him and Nina or what, but I found him pretty irresistible and cried when we lost him.
4. MUCH ADO ABOUT YOU by Samantha Young – Roane Robson, the charismatic and sexy farmer who sweeps the main character Evie off her feet even though she tries her hardest to ignore his flirting. He’s not a player though and is heart-set on finding that special someone to share his life with. Roane is kind, soft, and total book boyfriend material.
5. ACT YOUR AGE, EVE BROWN by Talia Hibbert – Jacob Wayne, the sexy owner of a B&B. He’s a total grump but I crushed on him anyway, lol.
6. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen – Mr. Darcy has had my heart ever since I first read this book in high school and he’s still hanging tough on my list.
7. THE SOULMATE EQUATION by Christina Lauren – Dr. River Pena, a sexy scientist, who is also adorably shy and awkward. So good with kids though. Loved him!
8. WAIT FOR IT by Jenn McKinlay – Nick Daire, the sexy landlord from this story who initially comes across as an obnoxious “Get off my lawn!” kind of guy, but who turns about to be quite the softie. I hated him at the beginning but had major heart eyes for him by the end.
9. ISN’T IT BROMANTIC? by Lyssa Kay Adams – If you had asked me early on in this series if I would ever crush on Vlad the Russian, I would have laughed in your face, lol. In the early books, he’s quite literally the butt of all of his bro’s fart jokes. However, once we finally got to know him better in the most recent book, I crushed on him hard because he is pretty much the biggest romantic on the planet.
10. A COURT OF SILVER FLAMES by Sarah J. Maas – Cassian, the battle-scarred warrior, has typically taken a back seat to Rhys when it comes to my fictional crushes, but his sexiness and passion really came shining through in this novel as he grew close to Nesta. He went from pretty okay to positively swoonworthy for me in this book.
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Question: Who are some of your fictional crushes? Do we share any?
Review: MOM JEANS AND OTHER MISTAKES
Mom Jeans and Other Mistakes by Alexa Martin 
Published by Berkley Books on September 7, 2021
Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Fiction, Women's Fiction
Pages: 384
Source: Netgalley
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
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FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
I was honestly not prepared for how much I would fall in love with Alexa Martin’s new novel Mom Jeans and Other Mistakes. I requested it for review because of the fun title, cute cover, and because I enjoyed my last read from this author, but I’m going to tell you all right now before I break it down any further, this is my new favorite book about female friendships!
The story follows two women, Jude Andrews and Lauren Turner, who have been best friends since the third grade. Jude is a popular social media influencer whose online brand is healthy eating, pilates, and a positive attitude. Her online life, however, doesn’t even remotely resemble her real life, where she has a toxic relationship with her out-of-work celebrity mother and where a bad decision involving the guy she was dating left her with an empty bank account. Lauren isn’t faring much better unfortunately. She had to abandon her dream of becoming a doctor when she unexpectedly got pregnant and even more unexpectedly, when her fiancé decided to dump her and leave her to raise her daughter all alone. Jude and Lauren turn to each other, as they have all their lives, and decide that the solution to their troubles is to move in together and be, as they like to call themselves, “Sister Wives”!
The relationship between Jude and Lauren just really spoke to me. Sure, the book is filled with plenty of laughs and good times, particularly surrounding a fun podcast that Lauren and Jude decide to do together, but at the heart of the story is this truly beautiful friendship. They are each other’s ride-or-die and it shows in everything they do for each other. I especially adored how much their love for each other spilled over to Lauren’s adorable daughter, Addy. Jude would seriously lay down her life for that little girl and it just made me smile from ear to ear every time the two of them interacted.
Although the podcast provides plenty of laughs, Mom Jeans and Other Mistakes still has its fair share of more dramatic moments. Jude and Lauren both have personal drama that weighs on them, Lauren in the form of her ex deciding, out of the blue, that he wants full custody of Addy, and Jude in the form of a mom who is little more than a parasite, constantly coming to Jude to beg for money to finance her career comeback. Jude is so used to putting on this happy mask for her social media followers that she tries to do it to Lauren as well, but Lauren sees through her act and forces Jude to stop keeping everything all bottled up.
I really just loved everything about their friendship and about the book as a whole. The book, like Jude and Lauren’s podcast, very realistically explores the ups and downs women, whether they’re moms or not, go through every day and sends the message that we should all support each other. If you’re looking for a book that explores and celebrates the bonds of female friendship and sisterhood, I highly recommend Alexa Martin’s Mom Jeans and Other Mistakes.
About Alexa Martin
Alexa Martin is a writer and stay at home mom. A Nashville transplant, she’s intent on instilling a deep love and respect for the great Dolly Parton in her four children and husband. The Playbook Series was inspired by the eight years she spent as a NFL wife and her deep love of all things pop culture, sparkles, leggings, and wine. When she’s not repeating herself to her kids, you can find her catching up on whatever Real Housewives franchise is currently airing or filling up her Etsy cart with items she doesn’t need.