Happy Pub Day

Welcome to the Family by Cathryn Grant is a wonderfully written suspenseful story.
This was a very good read it’s has plenty of twists and throughout that make you not want to put the book down.
The story itself was suspenseful and enjoyable, The characters were great and the style of writing was perfect.
Cathryn Grant masterfully creates an atmosphere of tension and unease.

Thank You NetGalley and Bookouture for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Claudia is meeting her fiancé Daniel's family for the first time. It should be a step forward, but his family's cold and tightly controlled behavior sends alarm bells ringing. At an eerie dinner, the mother's watchful days, the brother's unsettling charm, and the sister's icy silence raised way more questions than answers. Claudia suspects something is deeply wrong, and she's right. Previous partners have vanished after visiting the family... and Claudia intends to survive and uncover what they are hiding.

Cathryn Grant delivers a slow burn psychological thriller that creeps underneath your skin and settles there. Welcome to the Family is not a typical full speed ahead thriller, it's quieter, more insidious, and deeply unsettling. From the very first dinner scene there is a sense that something is off. The family dynamics are sharp, cold, and claustrophobic. Grant really excels at atmosphere. The dread builds slowly, layer by layer as Claudia starts to question the version of reality that is being presented. The first half might feel a bit slow as Claudia's inner doubts and observations repeat a bit, but the second half is where all the action is. Once the reveals start they come fast and hit hard, ending in a finale that's equal parts shocking and plausible. Some parts of the ending I would have liked to be more resolved but that ambiguity only adds to the discomfort. Overall, Welcome to the Family is a domestic thriller full of atmosphere and dread. Definitely worth a read!

Thank you to NetGalley, Cathryn Grant, and Bookouture for this eArc! Publication day is August 29th 2025.

"𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐬, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐈 𝐝𝐨 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫."

I don't think I've ever had an internal monologue quite like the one I had while reading this book. I went from "Claudia, you in danger, girl" to "Claudia, wtf is WRONG with you?" within the span of just a few pages. Have you ever met anyone who thought all the red flags were waving hello? Then you've met Claudia.

Claudia is meeting her fiancé Daniel’s family for the first time. They own a winery and live on an estate, so she's understandably nervous. The 'welcome' she receives had my jaw dropping as her future mother-in-law is blatantly rude and the suggestive behavior of Daniel's brother is alarming. Even more so, Daniel refuses to hear a bad word about any of them, no matter how egregious their behavior. The entire first part of the book is one incident of manipulation and gaslighting after the other, and when part two begins, things abruptly shift.

It's nearly impossible to talk about the plot shift without including spoilers, but the tension and atmosphere were perfectly done as the race for answers regarding Daniel's odd family continues. Another winner from this author, who creates some of the most memorable characters in today's thrillers. Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this early copy. This book will publish August 29, 2025.

Cathryn Grant, you have outdone yourself!

Daniel seems to be the perfect catch, but when Claudia finally gets to meet his family, she starts to second guess everything. Janice, the mother, is cruel. She is dismissive and mean to Claudia. Abigail, the sister, is mean-spirited and knows how to play the game. Elliot, the brother, is the biggest mess of them all and is allowed to get away with it. How can Claudia compete with his family, get engaged, and plan a wedding? But three months later, Daniel brings a new fiancé to their Napa Valley vineyard to meet his horrible family. But how can that be? And where did Claudia go?

Loved the story, the gaslighting, the awful family, and most importantly, the twists!

Thank you, Netgalley and Bookouture, for this amazing eArc. All opinions are entirely my own.

My thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Welcome To The Family’ written by Cathryn Grant in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Now that Claudia and Daniel are engaged he invites her to spend five weeks at the winery in Napa Valley getting to know his family. From when she arrives at the estate his mother Janice is rude and coldly distant to Claudia saying she isn’t welcome and refusing to let her in, whereas his brother Elliot is enjoying her discomfort by openly flirting with her. Claudia is about to find out what Daniel’s family are really like.

‘Welcome To The Family’ is a story of a dysfunctional family who are hiding secrets. The initial description interested me but unfortunately I didn’t like any of the characters, especially Daniel who should be supporting Claudia but instead tells her she’s being dramatic and his mother Janice, who’s aggressively rude towards her, doesn’t like drama. His brother is enjoying Claudia’s discomfort by openly flirting with her, his girlfriend Faith is passively ignoring her, while the sister Abigail is cold and dismissive. I so hated the family I found it impossible to get involved with them and after reading halfway I struggled to read any further. Although I didn’t enjoy this novel I’m quite sure I’m in the minority as it has a lot of positive reviews and I can only apologise for being so negative but this is purely my own opinion.

What happens when you plan to marry into a family that takes “close-knit” to a whole new level…

Really enjoyed this one, quite a few twists I didn’t see coming and I really enjoyed Cathryn’s writing style. I would definitely recommend to anyone looking for an unnerving and suspenseful thriller.

A very compelling thriller! A family who will do anything to keep their secrets, even if it means people have to “disappear”! Will Riley be able to solve the mystery of the past, or will she disappear too? Loved the twists!

Release date August 29, 2025

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 Stars!!!!!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This isn't the first Cathryn Grant book that I have read, and I promise, it will not be the last. Talk about a dysfunctional family! Manipulation, secrets, and even murderous, this family has it all. Unfortunately, Claudia is about to find out just how dysfunctional her fiancée' Daniel's family truly is. From the very beginning this book had me hooked. Twists and turns I did not see coming.

Do not sleep on this one. You will not regret! One of the best reads of my summer!

Thank you, NetGalley, Cathryn Grant, and Bookouture for the eARC.

I think I read a different book from everyone else because there’s no way this book deserves higher than 2 stars. The characters in this story are absolutely insufferable! Not one person made a decision that made any kind of sense. They were all walking red flags, annoying, and as a reader, you couldn’t connect with any of them. The book drug for the first 70%, then finally picked up toward the end, but even the twists were completely predictable. Not to mention, the author tells me everything I need to know, rather than show me or let me come to my own conclusions.

Welcome to the Family is a gripping psychological thriller with plenty of twists and an unsettling atmosphere that kept me turning the pages. This was my first book by Cathryn Grant, and I was impressed by how she built suspense and layered tension within the family dynamic. I wasn’t sure where this book was headed and I kept guessing wrong. I’ll definitely be checking out more from this author. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release in exchange for my honest review.

I can’t quite pinpoint how I felt about this book. The story was excellent, with a gripping plot, but the writing was choppy and unrealistic. I persevered because the plot was truly engaging. The gaslighting and manipulation among the characters were infuriating—something I know was intentional—but it felt hard to believe, and there was a lack of depth in the characters. Everything seemed very one-dimensional, which made it difficult to become fully immersed in the story.

I would like to thank @Netgalley, @Bookouture and @CathrynGrant for providing me with the advanced copy of “Welcome to the Family” in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC to review!
The narrators did a great job differentiating between characters however I felt that Claudias voice did not match the rest, especially her sister's. Everyone was clear and easy to understand.
I had no problem visualizing from the descriptions I was given. Character build up was good. There was some repetition with Daniel in the first half of the book but it did settle down. The plot was good and there were some good twists near the end. But that epilogue....

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

This book was very engaging with a plot that I couldn’t quite figure out right till the end. The twists were soft but impactful and made for a really believable and interesting mystery.

I enjoyed the depth of each of the characters but I wish there had been more on Janice as I feel she had a lot to her that wasn’t explored.

Overall a strong 3.5/5

Creepy, twisty, and totally addictive. From the moment the narrator meets Daniel’s unsettling family, you know something’s off and it only gets darker from there.

This was incredible! The fact that Claudia had a similar overactive mind to me was somewhat enjoyable to read. In read this in 12 hours and I could not put it down! It was gripping and to have a major twist at the 50% mark was really enjoyable. This author explain character personalities and scenes so so well.. The concepts and storyline of this book was brilliant and I will definitely continue to read more by this author moving forward, WOW!! I want to give this book 6 stars cause this was incredible. Cannot recommend enough. Thank you to Cathryn and Bookouture for allowing me to read this before publication day.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC to review!

3.5 Stars

Welcome to the Family was an interesting read with a really unique premise. I liked the dark humor and the messy family dynamics—it definitely kept me curious about where things were going. Some parts dragged a little and a few of the twists didn’t land as strongly as I’d hoped, but overall it was still an entertaining, solid read. If you like family drama with a darker, twisty edge, this one’s worth checking out.

[ARC] Thank you NetGalley. This was my first read by Cathryn Grant, I read this in one sitting with some breaks, but I was so into it and kept asking myself questions because the handful of twists. I can't wait till this is published for everyone else to read!

Wow, just wow! Just when I thought I had things figured out, another twist happened. My tip: make sure to read the epilogue for yet another unexpected twist!

WELCOME TO THE FAMILY BY CATHRYN GRANT.
Release date set for the 29th of August 2025.
5 ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨s.
I devoured this book in one sitting. Bloody heck there was red flag after red flag and I absolutely loved it.
I would say this is a MUST READ book and you'll love every second of it.
Brilliant

3.5 ⭐️ enjoyed the concept but was craving more suspense, a bit slower paced. The ending had some good twists however.