WHO KILLED THE MERTONS AND WHY? Was it one of the couple's unlikeable adult children? All of the adult children would have inherited millions from their parent's death. Or was it the housekeeper/nanny, a friend/colleague......or someone else? I did not expect the final third of the book to play out the way it did, and while I did guess some aspects of how it would pan out, there others that completely blindsided me and left me sitting with my mouth hanging open. There is no padding, no faffy repetition and no added words to make it longer and the adrenaline and almost fainting with palps whilst there is kept to a minimum and it whizzes on getting more and more exciting as it goes Weirdly, almost instantly strange things start to happen. Beth loses her keys a lot, the heating system goes bezerk, “accidents” happen and tempers start to fray as Beth seems to be losing her grip on everything, alienating loved ones … and drinking too much. When everything seems to be going wrong, Beth is glad to have her mum around for support.

With her life crumbling around her, Beth looks in danger of losing everything and everyone close to her until someone totally unexpected comes to her rescue – a fabulous twist I admittedly guessed early on. But it was still a brilliant twist. So who is Beth's saviour? Within a couple of months, her life has gone from happy contentment to a complete humiliating mess. And the only one who remains in her corner is her mum. Thank goodness she is there to support her. Or is she? Several big reveals, several big twists; one I guessed about half-way through, one I guessed shortly thereafter – but there was still one that did surprise me. At first, everything seems wonderful. But then Beth’s friends begin to drift away, strange things start to happen at home, and rumours begin to circle about her past. As the mysterious events around Beth become darker and more dangerous, she is forced to question everything. Is somebody in her life trying to destroy her happiness? And how far will they go?Perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty, C. L. Taylor and Lisa Jewell Watching Beth’s life come tumbling down, I felt really sorry for her. As I have seen with many characters in similar stories, Beth turns to excessive amounts of alcohol, in the attempt to numb the pain of what is happening. However, this just leads to distorted memories and that Beth no longer trusts what she believes. It’s a terrible cycle and I was desperate for Beth to find the answers to why she thought someone is watching her.

A well developed cast of characters were delightfully malcontent and rotten to the core which meant that I was on board with any one of them being held culpable for the misdeeds happening here. Having read her previous thriller "The Perfect Couple", I had high hopes for this book...and I wasn't disappointed. Addicted pretty much from the beginning, THE HAPPY FAMILY is anything but a happy family. But oh how it's dysfunctionality worked! On the upside? Lapena always keeps her character list short, which I honestly appreciate. Too many thrillers and suspense novels get cluttered with a bunch of people who either don't matter, aren't interesting, or seem to exist only to serve as potential suspects. This tightly-knit family provided just enough options without a bunch of filler.

After divorcing her husband, Beth not only has a good relationship with him but also with his new wife. Her dad is in a fabulous care home and enjoys being there, and Beth visits him often. She works hard, but has help from Robin to do the school run and keep the house clean. Everything is peachy. The not-so-happy-family here are the Mertons. Fred was a total jerk to everyone, but mostly to his children. Sheila, his wife, is a cold and distant mother, and failed to protect the children from their father. The blurb tells you everything you need to know about the plot, anything I would add would definitely be counted as spoilers which I avoid, and it really does cover the key points and had me intrigued to read at any rate.Janet and Allan Ahlberg's Happy Families series is full of wonderful and funny books, perfect for children learning to read. This new, bigger, edition means that even younger children can enjoy the stories. Look out for Mr Biff the Boxer, too! The chapters are short and sweet, making it easy to pause if you need to...but propelling you to continue. stars. For the first half this book is familiar, a multi-perspective look at a modern family where the parents are immigrants who have built a successful life but the children are starting to flounder. What makes this book really different is that it has a very specific idea of how this dynamic is unhealthy but also how it can be repaired.

My favourite part was the show of how a thing as murder can shake and change relationships that seemed strong before. How one can stop trusting a person and question their intentions, even though prior the big event they would swear on their life for them.

Happy Families is your definitive guide to understanding your child's mental health, so they can survive and thrive. Whether you're afraid that anxiety is controlling your child's life, struggling with getting your child out of a low mood cycle, or you just want support on how to communicate with them, this book is here to help. However, I am also sad to say that the big revelation didn't come with a bang and it felt like it was just mentioned and done. The patriarch of the Merton family, Fred, seems to take great pleasure in making his three adult children, Catherine, Dan and Jenna, miserable. It's like he is actively trying to make their lives more difficult. Over the story, we gradually find out about Beth’s past, informing us of why she is so paranoid in the present. To be honest, I was not that surprised by the revelations, having guessed, to a degree, what had happened. With this in mind, I thought the story just took far longer than necessary. Elements of the story were too obvious for my liking and I felt frustrated by Beth’s acceptance of everything around her. It slowed the pace of the plot and I found there were many moments where I thought the narrative was tedious and predictable. This was reinforced by the fact that I had sadly guessed how the story would conclude and I thought it took too many chapters to get to this point. There are so many hints dropped throughout the story that lead the reader trying to figure our exactly what is going on, tying some in knots in the process. There were always going to be questions behind Alice's sudden reappearance...even if Beth failed to ask them. But should we be suspicious? Should Beth? Nothing was ever going to be straightforward, that's for sure, but is it too good to be true? Or are we just set up to be cynical about the obvious? Kabler has certainly played upon the more conspicuous to leave us all scratching our heads wondering what to believe. Is it Beth being gas-lighted? Or is it the reader?

It’s been said there are four motives for murder: Lust, Love, Loathing, or Loot. There’s no shortage of the latter two here. There are no tears shed for Fred and Sheila, but plenty of anticipation and elation at the thought of the inheritance. I loved how the author dropped little secrets/bombshells throughout the book about the characters, that made me see each of them with new eyes. To be honest, in a way this reminded me of a romance novel. In a romance novel part of the joy comes from watching people not only get into a relationship but solve whatever barriers they run into along the way. At the end you know they are happy together. In a lot of books about family, you see the dynamic and then the dynamic either doesn't change, or it changes only in small ways. But in this book, you get to not only see what the dynamic is, you get to be there as the family works on taking significant steps to resolve it. You get to *go through family therapy* with them. It can be a wild kind of wish fulfillment read, getting to see all the both loving and harmful things everyone does, having them confront what they've done wrong, appreciate what they've done right, and move forward together. I am trying to think of the last time I read a novel that did that and... I am coming up blank. The storyline also focuses on a fundamental serious issue. I think it was a great thing to add to the book to bring to light the true seriousness of our actions and the consequences of those actions- not only how they can stay with us forever, but the consequences they can make to others lives past or present.This book was not for me. First, it had body shaming in it. That is a big no-no, and I really, really wish the character involved would have said, "I'm a real woman. I've had children. This is what a real body looks like." Instead, the character just felt guilty and self conscious. Second, the portrayal of the MC was nauseating. She was acting entirely silly and non-sensical, ignoring perfectly obvious signs and things that were wrong. She also let her ex run all over her, allowing him to take the kids, yell at her, burst into her home when he felt like it. That's not how things work these days. One parent cannot just unilaterally terminate a parent's rights. The MC talks about how she and her ex get along great. If that is the case, he should respect some boundaries. Third, the book was so entirely predictable. I guessed the ending very early on. Fourth, the pacing was really off. Typically, I tend to enjoy slower paced books, but this was just too slow even for me. The storytelling just was not there. The Happy Family did not seem to build in anticipation, and there was far too much foreshadowing. The must-have family handbook - accessible, equipping and game-changing' – Anna Mathur, author of Mind Over Mother You can forgive the few believability snaggles in your mind as it’s too good to waste time thinking about them, they are there but it’s a good enough read to forgive them