⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️¼ — 4.25/5
Wade Rouse had me at rich people behaving badly at Christmas on Mackinac Island. 🎄❄️
After having so much fun with That’s What Friends Are For, I was thrilled to receive an advance listening copy of The Bluffs—and this was such a fun, messy, surprisingly tender family drama.
The Chapman family built their fortune through a wildly successful multilevel-marketing cosmetics company, and their sprawling Mackinac Island home, Brigadoon, has long been the setting for their elaborate family Christmases. But this year, things are changing. The younger generation is taking over the holiday, new family members are joining the celebration, and decades of secrets, resentments, expectations, and very strong opinions are all arriving for Christmas too.
Think ** Succession meets The Family Stone**—with fudge, snow, family secrets, and a whole lot of money. Rouse mentions The Family Stone as an inspiration in his lovely author’s note, and truly, I cannot think of a better comparison. The beginning especially is incredibly funny, and somehow even the snobbiest, most elitist characters became people I wanted to keep reading about.
This is an ambitious novel, with 12 different points of view, and that was probably my biggest hesitation. In roughly 300 pages, that’s a lot of people to keep straight, and occasionally I wished we could spend more time with fewer characters. But this is also where the audiobook absolutely shines. 🎧 The multicast narration gives each character such a distinct voice and personality, and the performances helped enormously in keeping everyone straight.
What surprised me most was how tender the story becomes underneath all the family chaos. There are thoughtful themes about loving your children unconditionally, accepting that the people we love may disappoint us, and recognizing that complicated people don’t suddenly transform into entirely different human beings just because it’s Christmas. Some of these characters grow; some reveal softer sides; and some remain frustratingly themselves. That felt refreshingly real.
And I loved seeing Mackinac Island in winter. So many stories focus on the island as a summer tourist destination, while The Bluffs gives us snow, Christmas, fudge shops, island families, and a glimpse of what life there might feel like after the tourists leave.
Funny, messy, Christmasy, heartfelt, and just the right amount of dysfunctional. If you love complicated family dramas, The Family Stone, wealthy families with secrets, or simply want to spend Christmas on Mackinac Island without actually freezing, put this one on your holiday reading list. 🎄🏠❄️
The Bluffs publishes October 13.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for gifting me the advance listening copy! 🎧
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