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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What a ride! A family drama dripping with secrets, lies and betrayal. I think youโll love to twisty machinations and piles of questions.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy. These opinions are my own.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy. These opinions are my own.
mysterious
fast-paced
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
mysterious
tense
Could not stand or care about the characters from the first page ๐คท๐ปโโ๏ธ Thanks to NetGalley & Tor Publishing Group for an advance copy.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
๐บ๐๐๐ ๐จ ๐ณ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ญ๐๐๐๐๐
๐ท๐: ๐๐๐๐พ๐ ๐ต๐๐๐ ๐ฏ๐ฝ๐๐๐
๐๐๐
๐๐ซ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ: The cherry blossoms are in full bloom in Washington, D.C., and the Calhouns are in the midst of hosting their annual party to celebrate the best of the spring season. With a house full of friends, neighbors, and their beloved three adult children, the Calhouns are expecting another picture-perfect event. But a brutal murder in the middle of the celebration transforms the yearly gathering into a homicide scene, and all the guests into suspects.
๐๐ช๐ฟ๐ธ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฎ ๐๐ฑ๐ช๐ป๐ช๐ฌ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป: Trey. I love his wittiness, and I feel so much sympathy for him.
๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ ๐ต๐ฒ๐ด๐ฎ๐ญ: The DRAMA! This book has so much of it, and I loved that part. Family secrets, affairs, death, deception! The banter between the siblings was great and the secrets really kept me going, I HAD to know what the heck was going on!
๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ ๐ญ๐ฒ๐ผ๐ต๐ฒ๐ด๐ฎ๐ญ: One of the characters truly annoyed the crap out of me the entire book. She at times took away from the terrible reality they were facing, and for me it gave a lot away.
Overall this book kept me very intrigued, and had quite a few twists I didnโt expect.
Thank you,
๐๐๐๐พ๐ ๐ต๐๐๐ ๐ฏ๐ฝ๐๐๐
๐๐๐, NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for this advanced copy
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
If you're looking for some rich people's family drama and murder go give this one a go!
The book had so many characters and different POVs that I had quite some trouble following. They all had some secrets from eachother, were very unlikeable and I wasn't really invested in them. I had moments I really liked the book and other parts just dragged on. The pacing was very off in my opinion and I'm a little sad I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have liked. As the secrets start to unravel and the big twist is about to be revealed I sadly was already mentally checked out from the story and I didn't really care about the outcome. It isn't a bad book per se but it simply wasn't my cup of tea.
Thank you to Aggie Blum Thompson, A Forgebooks and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for me honest opinion.
The book had so many characters and different POVs that I had quite some trouble following. They all had some secrets from eachother, were very unlikeable and I wasn't really invested in them. I had moments I really liked the book and other parts just dragged on. The pacing was very off in my opinion and I'm a little sad I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have liked. As the secrets start to unravel and the big twist is about to be revealed I sadly was already mentally checked out from the story and I didn't really care about the outcome. It isn't a bad book per se but it simply wasn't my cup of tea.
Thank you to Aggie Blum Thompson, A Forgebooks and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for me honest opinion.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Car accident, Murder
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Before I get into the review, a quick thank you to NetGalley and the publishers over at Tor for allowing me access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Such a Lovely Family follows the Calhouns on the night of their annual Cherry Blossom Party. The D.C. elite love to show up to the family's gorgeous house and view the cherry blossoms in full bloom. But what no one expected was for the night to end in murder. Now a police investigation is underway and this picture perfect family's dark secrets start to come out. When their money can no longer get rid of the Calhouns' problems and they find themselves backed into a corner, what will they do to make sure they come out on top? Such a Lovely Family comes out on March 12th and is available for preorder now.
I was surprised when I finished this book and found myself wanting to give it a 4 star rating. I usually don't give Adult Mystery novels that high of a rating. Usually there's a problem with pacing or something in the ending that ruins it for me. But, surprisingly, not this time. I love some rich people drama because it's so absolutely absurd. It was giving the Grayson family from Revenge which I ate up. We follow the Calhoun family on the day of the party as little secrets start to come out and all of the drama gets laid out. Why did the flowers never arrive? Why is Ellie Grace so focused on getting the perfect photos? Why won't Nate open up about his ex-wife? What is going on with Trey's sobriety? And why is Thom's grin just a little too forced? I loved this small community setting of the uber rich with all of its little daily dramas happening in the midst of the murder investigation. I also found the characters to be well rounded. My favorite character was Nate's fiancรฉe who is meeting the family for the first time and sucked into its vortex. I enjoyed the outsider's perspective. And I just have to say that the last couple of pages of the book were practically perfect for me. Specifically the final sentence. It leaves a sense of foreboding that punctuates the story so well. It also leans into the conversation that could be had about communities like this, neighborhoods like this.
The main problem I had with this one was how obvious some of these little secrets are while you're reading the book. Some of them were completely out of left field for me and were pretty good. But some of them I called pretty early on. The overarching mystery of who committed the murder and why and how was a pretty good surprise. I will also say that the ending is a little sloppy. It was sloppy in a way that can make sense, but made me feel like the author had to pull a few things together at the end to make it all work.
Overall, I had a surprisingly good time with this one. It had a lot of the things I was really looking for in an Adult Mystery. I was originally planning on taking five days to read this one so the fact that I read it in three really speaks to its readability.