Read and Reviewed: Blog tour: One Big Happy Family by Sam Vickery

Friday, 30 May 2025

Blog tour: One Big Happy Family by Sam Vickery

✦ BLURB ✦

Watching my beautiful rosy-cheeked baby Ava play in the sand, I can’t believe how much joy she’s brought me. I look at the gentle waves of the ocean sparkling in the sun. But when I turn back, Ava is gone…

Everyone rushes to the beach to help search for Ava, but there’s no trace of her anywhere nearby. My ex-husband Jimmy is just as terrified as I am. But I get an odd feeling from his new girlfriend, Leah. As she cradles my other two children, she doesn’t seem as panicked as Jimmy and me. How can she be so calm?

Then they show me footage of Ava on a bus, held tightly by an elderly woman who looks just like Leah’s mother. Leah couldn’t have anything to do with Ava’s disappearance, could she?

I’ve seen the way Leah clings tightly to Jimmy, how she has moulded herself into the perfect housewife, never letting him lift a finger and cooking my children’s favourite meals every day.

Then the police officer in charge fixes me with a cold stare as he asks me why I wasn’t paying attention to my daughter. Suggesting it’s my fault she’s gone… That my older two would be safer in Leah’s care.

Should I share my suspicions? What if the police are looking in the wrong place? Time is running out to find Ava, and I’ll do whatever it takes to get her back, but are my accusations about to tear my whole family apart?

✶ PRE-READING ✶

Sam Vickery is known for emotionally intense domestic dramas with an undercurrent of suspense, so I expected a tense, gut-wrenching read filled with maternal anxiety, fractured family dynamics, and at least one major twist. The premise immediately hinted at themes of control and misdirection, especially with a seemingly perfect stepmother figure whose calm demeanor doesn’t match the panic of a missing child. I haven't read any books by Sam before so I'm looking forward to this introduction.

✶ POST-READING ✶

As I thought... The emotional tension is relentless. The story is tightly plotted around Ava’s disappearance, and it delivers on the expected psychological unraveling of the protagonist. Vickery plays expertly with ambiguity - who is trustworthy, who is manipulating whom, and how far will a mother go when she believes something is terribly wrong? The shifting POVs are amazing and really help to show how things can be misinterpreted by other people.

It surprised me by... How much it also became a story about identity and motherhood beyond the thriller plot. The emotional toll of being a mother under scrutiny - by the law, by society, by other parents - is deeply affecting. Leah is more than a stock villain; she’s a complicated figure who raises questions about perfection, performance, and possessiveness. The resolution surprised me in ways I won’t spoil, but it left me both satisfied and shaken.

✦ RECOMMENDATIONS ✦

Book Recommendation: Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan. The story centers on Liz, a paediatrician, who is called to the ER when her friend Jess brings in her baby with a suspicious head injury. Jess’s explanation doesn’t quite add up, and Liz is torn between loyalty to her friend and her professional duty to report potential child abuse.

TV or Movie Recommendation: The Secrets She Keeps. Set in Sydney, the show follows two women - Agatha and Meghan - who come from very different worlds but are both pregnant and harbouring dark secrets. When one woman’s obsession with the other escalates, it leads to kidnapping and identity deception.

✧ VIBE CHECK ✧

🎨 Colour Palette: Muted teals and warm beiges, like sea glass and sun-drenched sand

🎵 Soundtrack: “Runaway” by Aurora – haunting, urgent, emotionally raw

🍂 Season: Late summer – beautiful on the surface, but something’s decaying underneath

🌀 Mood: Claustrophobic even in the open air; the kind of dread that builds in broad daylight

🌸 Scent: Salty sea air mixed with baby lotion and burnt toast—a juxtaposition of comfort and fear

★ TAROT CARD PULLED ★

The Moon - Santa Muerte Tarot. A woman gazes into a dark lake beneath a new moon, but her reflection reveals a skeleton - an unsettling duality between surface and hidden truth. This card embodies the heart of One Big Happy Family: maternal instinct clashing with external doubt, illusions that mask danger, and the eerie sense that something essential is being overlooked. It’s a perfect mirror of a protagonist forced to question everything - especially herself.