Not a Happy Family

Author: Shari Lapena
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 198488056X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Book Description
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! Another thrilling domestic suspense novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door “Lapena is a master of manipulation. With her latest page-turning thriller… she is once again at the top of her game.” —USA Today “In this fast-paced, twisted family saga, Shari Lapena keeps you guessing until the very last page...” —Paula Hawkins In this family, everyone is keeping secrets—even the dead. Brecken Hill in upstate New York is an expensive place to live. You have to be rich to have a house there, and Fred and Sheila Merton certainly are rich. But even all their money can't protect them when a killer comes to call. The Mertons are brutally murdered after a fraught Easter dinner with their three adult kids. Who, of course, are devastated. Or are they? They each stand to inherit millions. They were never a happy family, thanks to their vindictive father and neglectful mother, but perhaps one of the siblings is more disturbed than anyone knew. Did someone snap after that dreadful evening? Or did another person appear later that night with the worst of intentions? That must be what happened. After all, if one of the family were capable of something as gruesome as this, you'd know. Wouldn't you?

The End of Her

Author: Shari Lapena
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0385700342
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BESTSELLER * SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER * AN INDIGO BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR The End of Her is a gripping domestic suspense novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door and Someone We Know. In upstate New York, Stephanie and Patrick are adjusting to life with their colicky twin babies. The girls are a handful, but Stephanie doesn't mind being a stay-at-home mom while Patrick does the 9-5 to pay the bills. And when a woman from Patrick's past drops in on them unexpectedly, raising questions about his late first wife, Stephanie supports her husband wholeheartedly. She knows the car accident all those many years ago was just that—an accident. But when the police start digging, Stephanie's trust in her husband begins to falter, and Patrick is primed to lose everything. As their marriage crumbles, Stephanie feels herself coming unglued, and soon she isn't sure what—or who—to believe. Now, the most important thing is to protect her girls, but at what cost?

Happy Family

Author: Tracy Barone
Publisher: Lee Boudreaux Books
ISBN: 0316342580
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Book Description
One of these things is not like the other. That's how Cheri Matzner felt growing up in her adoptive family, and it's what continues to define her as she tries to start a family of her own. Funny and fierce, desperate for connection yet pushing it away with both hands, she needs to jump-start a marriage in danger of flatlining and save her career from scandal. But Cheri is still contending with a complicated relationship with her parents -- her aging Italian bombshell of a mother and a distant father who looms large, even in death -- unaware of the sacrifices they made to be together or of the difficult truths and lies in their marriage. When tragedy unravels Cheri's well-designed defenses, she is thrust into an odyssey of acceptance that brings her full circle back to her dramatic origins. Sometimes it takes half a lifetime to come of age. To be able to glimpse our parents beyond their roles as our parents. To uncover the many versions of truth within our family stories and within our own. And to laugh at it all just a little bit sooner.

The Happy Family

Author: Jackie Kabler
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0008433976
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 356

Book Description
The brand new thriller from the No.1 Kindle bestselling author of The Perfect Couple and Am I Guilty? “Filled with suspense, intrigue and a cast of engaging characters. Fabulous!” Lucy Clarke, author of The Castaways “Suspicion, secrets and shocking reveals!” Sarah Linley, author of The Trip

An Occasionally Happy Family

Author: Cliff Burke
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0358469511
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Book Description
Gordon Korman meets The Great Outdoors in this funny and moving debut about a boy who goes on a disastrous family vacation (sweltering heat! bear chases!) that ends with a terrible surprise: his dad's new girlfriend. There are zero reasons for Theo Ripley to look forward to his family vacation. Not only are he, sister Laura, and nature-obsessed Dad going to Big Bend, the least popular National Park, but once there, the family will be camping. And Theo is an indoor animal. It doesn’t help that this will be the first vacation they’re taking since Mom passed away. Once there, the family contends with 110 degree days, wild bears, and an annoying amateur ornithologist and his awful teenage vlogger son. Then, Theo’s dad hits him with a whopper of a surprise: the whole trip is just a trick to introduce his secret new girlfriend. Theo tries to squash down the pain in his chest. But when it becomes clear that this is an auditioning-to-be-his-stepmom girlfriend, Theo must find a way to face his grief and talk to his dad before his family is forever changed.

Real Happy Family

Author: Caeli Wolfson Widger
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0544263618
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 383

Book Description
Fans of Vanessa Diffenbaugh and Adriana Trigiani will savor this edgy yet moving debut novel about a dysfunctional family joining forces in an unconventional way to bring a missing daughter back to their fold.

Ivy and Bean One Big Happy Family

Author: Annie Barrows
Publisher: Chronicle Books
ISBN: 1452169276
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 123

Book Description
Annie Barrows' bestselling chapter book series, Ivy & Bean, is a classroom favorite and has been keeping kids laughing–—and reading—for more than a decade! With more than 5 million copies in print, Ivy & Bean return with a brand-new book for a new generation! Ivy & Bean are back . . . and they are funnier than ever! Ivy's worried. She's read a lot of books about only children, so she knows that they are sometimes spoiled rotten. They don't share their toys. They never do any work. They scream and cry when they don't get their way. Spoiler alert! Ivy doesn't have any brothers or sisters. That's why she's worried. How can she keep from getting spoiled? She could give away all her clothes, but she'd probably get in trouble. She could give away all her toys, but she likes her toys. There's really only one solution: she needs a baby sister, on the double! Luckily, Ivy and Bean know just where to get one.

Someone We Know

Author: Shari Lapena
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
ISBN: 0385690835
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Book Description
AN INSTANT #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "No one does suburban paranoia like Shari Lapena." —Ruth Ware, internationally bestselling author of The Woman in Cabin 10 Maybe you don't know your neighbours as well as you thought you did . . . In a quiet, leafy suburb in upstate New York, a teenager has been sneaking into houses—and into the owners' computers as well—learning their secrets, and maybe sharing some of them, too. Who is he, and what might he have uncovered? After two anonymous letters are received, whispers start to circulate, and suspicion mounts. And when a woman down the street is found murdered, the tension reaches the breaking point. Who killed her? Who knows more than they're telling? And how far will all these very nice people go to protect their own secrets? In this neighbourhood, it's not just the husbands and wives who play games. Here, everyone in the family has something to hide. You never really know what people are capable of . . .

The Secrets of Happy Families

Author: Bruce Feiler
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062199501
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Book Description
In The Secrets of Happy Families, New York Times bestselling author Bruce Feiler has drawn up a blueprint for modern families — a new approach to family dynamics, inspired by cutting-edge techniques gathered from experts in the disciplines of science, business, sports, and the military. Don't worry about family dinner. Let your kids pick their punishments. Ditch the sex talk. Cancel date night. These are just a few of the surprising innovations in this bold first-of-its-kind playbook for today's families. Bestselling author and New York Times family columnist Bruce Feiler found himself squeezed between caring for aging parents and raising his children. So he set out on a three-year journey to find the smartest solutions and the most cutting-edge research about families. Instead of the usual family "experts," he sought out the most creative minds—from Silicon Valley to the set of Modern Family, from the country's top negotiators to the Green Berets—and asked them what team-building exercises and problem-solving techniques they use with their families. Feiler then tested these ideas with his wife and kids. The result is a fun, original look at how families can draw closer together, complete with 200 never-before-seen best practices. Feiler's life-changing discoveries include a radical plan to reshape your family in twenty minutes a week, Warren Buffett's guide for setting an allowance, and the Harvard handbook for resolving conflict. The Secrets of Happy Families is a timely, counterintuitive book that answers the questions countless parents are asking: How do we manage the chaos of our lives? How do we teach our kids values? How do we make our family happier? Written in a charming, accessible style, The Secrets of Happy Families is smart, funny, and fresh, and will forever change how your family lives every day.

A Good Family

Author: Erik Fassnacht
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1466878258
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 431

Book Description
Named a Best Book of 2015 by Chicago Book Review! Meet the Brunsons of Downers Grove, Illinois. Henry is the once-magical father, whose fear of aging and endangered career lead him to the nightclubs of Chicago's Viagra Triangle. His wife Julie struggles to reclaim her life with a bottle of Zoloft and dreams of her youthful independence. Charlie, the golden-boy son, leaves the lucrative job his father arranged to serve in Afghanistan—and returns angry, damaged and uncertain of his place in the world. And Barkley, the bumbling youngest, is an aspiring writer of geeky science fiction stories now interviewing for his first job at a forbidding Catholic high school. When Henry's health abruptly declines, he tries to return to the home and the life he had dominated. But his family, once totally dependent on his love, physical strength, and income, no longer needs him. As Julie, Charlie, and Barkley begin to find their ways forward, Henry tries desperately to bring them back together. In the end, each one will arrive at a new understanding of what family can—and cannot—be. Unusually assured and perceptive, combining narrative drive with humor, insight, and powerful family dynamics, A Good Family is a memorable debut by former high school teacher Erik Fassnacht.