I enjoyed this Christmas read about Julie, her younger boyfriend Heath and her hosting an unexpected family Christmas at the family cabin.

Her daughter Blair and brother Nick want a family Christmas the year after their Dad passed away and Julie scrabbles to make it happen, all the time worried about introducing her younger boyfriend whom she was planning to spend a cosy Christmas with. As the numbers begin to pile up, Heath's ex-wife and children, her daughter in law Dana's mum, it all gets a bit chaotic.

Can the family pull together to make it a magical time of year? Of course they can. A heartwarming festive tale, well narrated which I enjoyed.

Thanks for the opportunity to listen to the audiobook.

I really didn’t enjoy this book. It was painful to get through. The author introduced far too many characters in the early chapters, none of whom I could care about and they all just merged into one. Couple this with a very boring narrator (I had the audio book version), who was flat and monotone and gave no life to any of the characters and you have a very very dull read. Do not recommend.

This book was god awful. It's cringey as hell, and I rolled my eyes, grimaced, and groaned out loud throughout. I wish I DNFed but here we are. There's a myriad of interpersonal conflict and none of the relationships (familial or romantic) are good.

*spoilers*
We have: a perfectionist matriarch who's ashamed to be dating a younger man, but invites his kids and ex along anyway; a woman with body issues and a man that keeps leaving her but he gets shot so hey! let's get married bc that will solve everything; DIL with IBS and an abusive mother, who also gets invited along to be a bitch and dote on someone else's kids; and a dog who didn't really do anything. *end*

I didn't like a single character, though it took me until about half way through the book to actually tell them apart - the audiobook narrator does a very poor job at distinguishing characters (and narration in general), and there is no signposting to clearly denote a change in POV. Everyone just sort of blurred into 'women' and 'men' (cis het and white, of course). We're essentially info dumped about 20 characters in the first few chapters, none of which I have cause to care about. Even those that are described positive were littered with flaws.

The book starts with Julie, the perfectionist matriarch, whose children ask to spend Christmas at their cabin as it's the first Christmas since their Dad died. She unilaterally invites every other person remotely tied to her family and boyfriend including: exes, children, employees, and abusers.

Let's start with the abuser, shall we? A woman who neglected her young daughter for the rest of her life when her infant son died, and everything she says is at best negative. She has no respect for boundaries or feelings, and dotes on a strangers children the entire trip. We're treated to many interactions, only one of which is really positive, and the lovely phrase: "She's your mum. You need to make peace with her". ABSOLUTELY NOT. Can we not force children to do the emotional work and forgive their abuser? She's throwing a paddy about wanting to be in her daughter's life PURELY because she was jealous she had a better familial relationship with her in laws. God, I hated her.

Unfortunately, the book is rife with other similar problematic points, such as apologising to partners for not being able to have sex due to injury, blaming others for things that are not their fault, and solving issues with grand gestures instead of conversations or therapy.

Additionally, it's acknowledged in book that they’re all at the cabin to grieve and remember their Dad, but he is barely mentioned outside of stating this fact a couple of times and maybe one conversation. I'm coming up to my second Christmas without my Dad, and I'm still devastated. I talk about him all the time because I miss him so much, things remind me of him, and I don't want to forget and ignore him. There was no emotion or weight behind the story or his brief mentions, and served only as a catalyst to change Christmas plans to be at the cabin. This plot point was done so poorly, it could've been entirely removed and nothing would change.

Another thing I relate to is chronic illness and IBS. I have literally shat my pants multiple times but I don't bring up my poo, diet, or anything related anywhere near as often. This felt like poor inclusion, and I wonder if the author has experience with IBS themselves or with someone they know? It definitely could've been handled better.

There's also a lot of cringey sex?? Why did I need to read that?? It added nothing and of course everyone is a sex god. Cringey sex scenes do not equate to romance.

I could go on, but overall whilst it's technically an easy read, it wasn't cosy or funny or really even that Christmassy. I feel that the author realised they need to wrap it up and the last 5-10% is a rushed convenient bow after a slow, draining, slog of martyrdom, interpersonal conflict, and little else. I need to force myself to DNF books more. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

I have been a Susan Mallery fan for years and read many of her books. This one was an audiobook, and I enjoyed the narrator Tanya Eby a lot. She made the book come alive for me.
This book was fun to listen to, but it had me a bit too much happening that did not bring the holiday joy of a family even with the family being a bit too dysfunctional for me in a book set around the holidays.
Thank you NetGallery, Susan Mallery and HarperCollins UK Audio for the audiobook of One Big Happy Family.
This is my personal review.

𝟑 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 .𐦍༘⋆

i genuinely enjoy a good book with just slice of life themes as the plot, i also really love to read about flawed characters & flawed relationships. this book had all of that for me and it was executed well (although some things did feel a bit too plot convenient).

i really really loved the fact that each character had something they were dealing with and that didn’t feel super convenient to the plot or just so happen stance. genuinely the characters were the main reason i liked the book. there wasn’t a whole lot going on plot wise to really really grab your attention but it was nice to read.

i received the arc as an audiobook and i think that that is the main reason why i liked it, i genuinely feel like if i had the e-book or physical copy i wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much.

there was something i didn’t really like about the book and that was the sudden resolution of everything at the end, like realistically all these big great things are not happening all at the same time be for real. also i feel like the daughter getting engaged to her ex was just so random i genuinely had to make sure that i heard correctly, like why not just make them reconnect and date first to make sure.

Oooooo this is just what i needed. Was sick in bed and this arrived. Such a fun lovely quick xmas read. Thank you so much netgalley

This was a fun, easy, Christmas book! Full of the ups and downs of a normal family, at Christmas!
I listened to the audiobook version - I didn't entirely connect with the narrator but it wasn't a problem.
A nice festive escape, whilst driving! Getting me in the Christmas spirit.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I downloaded my audio copy of One Big Happy Family when I was feeling quite unwell and felt total dismay when I heard the introduction being delivered by what I considerd to be an overly cheerful American voice and thought I just couldn't face that and switched it off immediately. A couple of hours later I'd given myself a talking to and started to listen again and I am so glad that I did. This is the best of Christmas family dramas with something for everyone. It wa so good I had to ration my listening because I didn't want it to end. I loved the characters and their stories and of course the description of the Christmas traditions they all enjoyed. This is a real feel good, heartwaming story.
Although we all speak English there are often words in the American vocabulary that I have never come across and this can jar but it wasn't the case here, I am however intrigued by the idea of a 'breakfast casserole'!
I could maybe have done with a trigger warning regarding the SIDS having sadly experienced that myself but it was dealt with in a sympathic and honest way.