I surprised even myself by finishing The Family by Louise Jensen in one day. I started reading it in the morning and picked it up several times throughout the day, finally sequestering myself away in the back room so I could get through the final chapters without interruption. It was that good!

The cult-like commune setting, combined with the suspicious death mystery, was irresistible.

Going in, let me admit that it doesn’t bother me when details in a story are unrealistic. I don’t expect fiction to be believable (at least, for the most part). So when the coincidences started piling up, it didn’t make me want to stop reading. Instead, I really liked how the author connected dots to pull the story together. I also liked that the mother-daughter viewpoints were often shared. These characters were each vulnerable in their own way, and it was interesting to see the story through their own eyes.

Big thanks to Grand Central Publishing for sending me a copy of this book. Opinions shared are mine.