I was hoping to get to more reads this month, but with all of the holiday hustle it was hard to get a moment to slow down. While I didn’t get to read as much as I would’ve wanted to I might’ve read one of my favorite books of the year this month!
THE FAMILY GAME by Catherine Steadman 4 / 5 stars
I wasn’t expecting to pick this book up and be absolutely OBSESSED. This psychological thriller is a great mix between Knives Out and Ready or Not -two movies that I enjoyed. This novel is centered around the holiday season following our main character, Harriet, as she just got engaged to her boyfriend Edward- who is apart of a very wealthy and powerful family with a lot of secrets. Meeting her soon to be in-laws, Harry discovers their love to play all kinds of family unfriendly games. It’s safe to say that I didn’t see the twist in this one coming at all. As I slowly began figuring out the ending I just got more and more engrossed in the book. But that wasn’t even my favorite part of the novel- Steadman’s writing style in this is absolute perfection. The pacing with the plot worked well as the shorter chapters constantly had me saying to myself “Just one more chapter”, till about 2am every night. The only reason I did not give this 5 stars was because I felt like the actual game aspect of the novel was too short; I wanted more creative, thrilling chapters where they are playing games.
THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MERRY by Codi Hall 2.5 / 5 stars
Keeping this short because I don’t like to hate on books even when I don’t enjoy them. I so badly want to love the holiday rom com genre but I just don’t think it’s for me. Honestly this story just go on my nerves. Very boring and I could see the ending coming from a mile away (which I don’t mind if the story along the way is worthwhile, but unfortunately this one was not). A Hallmark movie in a book that isn’t worth the watch.
