Such a Beautiful Family

A Thriller

By: T.R. Ragan

Narrated by: Siiri Scott

Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

A riveting novel of psychological suspense about perfect lives and hidden secrets by New York Times bestselling author T.R. Ragan.

Nora Harmon has a lot to be thankful for: two great kids, a stable marriage, and now, a dream career. Software consultant Jane Bell wants Nora on her team. She’s offering a fantastic salary, flexible hours, and a chance to travel the world. It sounds too good to be true, but Jane won’t take no for an answer.

Jane acts more like a friend than a boss, and Nora’s personal and professional boundaries begin to blur. Jane is smitten with Nora’s perfect family—particularly her daughter—and far too attentive to Nora’s husband. Nora can’t help but feel insecure and unsettled.

Maybe Jane is everything she says she is: a lonely woman in need of feeling the love of a kind and decent family. Maybe Nora is just being paranoid.

Maybe not.

©2022 Theresa Ragan. (P)2022 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Readers will keep turning the pages to see what happens next. Ragan consistently delivers the goods.” —Publishers Weekly

Good and fun and kind of predictable!

This book starts out with a scene that makes you want to step in a save the girl! When a young woman gets a call from a friend for help she runs out of the house, jumps in her car and off she goes. It’s an out of control frat party. She can’t find her friend that called but runs into an acquaintance she knows and thinks she can trust. Her it gets predictable when he keeps insisting she takes a nonalcoholic drink so she will fit into the crowd. Of course the drink had been drugged. She begins feeling woozy and in danger and runs out of the house. She jumps in her car and within minutes gets into a horrible accident.
Skip ahead 24 years. Nora is married with two children. She’s in a comfortable job going nowhere when Jane offers her a dream job. Twice her current salary, travel and more. Too good to be true? It’s not long before the red flags begin to fly and as you would expect, they are ignored.
This is a fast paced book that reads like a good Lifetime movie.
If you have Kindle Unlimited this book will only cost $1.99!!
Recommended Light Listening!
Siri Scott does an excellent job narrating.
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Entertaining but extremely predictable

The narration was great. Story was promising but easily predictable. I was confused on whether or not the author wanted it to be so obvious? The husband’s character seemed like an afterthought. Thought more could have developed there. Overall, it was a great way to pass the time during the holiday wknd.

Good but slow

Well written but found the story a little slow and predictable. Performance was great and well read.

Overall entertaining

The story was entertaining, even if the protagonist annoyingly kept letting the villain manipulate her after so many red flags. The narrator really stank, though. She forced her words out and emphasized the wrong syllables, changing the true intended feeling of much of the dialogue.

Great Story!

Great story! Highly recommend! Looking forward to reading more by T.R. Ragan. If they’re all as good as this, I’m hooked!

Friendship and business relationships

When Nora was in high school a friend needed rescuing from a party. When Nora arrived she couldn’t find her friend. A guy she knew helped her look for her friend. As they walked the house he offered her some punch. She didn’t know at the time it was spiked. After finishing the punch she felt flushed. She got spooked and ran back to her car. As she started driving back home her head was fuzzy and she closed her eyes for a minute. When she opened them she saw headlights.
…
After the accident her parents moved. Nora went to college where she met and married David. Twenty-four years later we meet there son and daughter who both are in high school. Nora works full time but is looking to cut back to spend more time with the family. Nora meets Jane who offers her a position at her company. Jane quickly bonds with Nora and rights herself into her family.
…
Everywhere Nora turns Jane is there helping cook, picking up her daughter, buying new clothes. Nora is feeling threatened by Jane’s breach of boundaries.
…
This was my first introduction to T.R. Ragan. Her writing styles good. Nothing she wrote set herself apart from the rest. I’m looking for that writing voice that calls to me and empowers me. I’m looking for compelling writing that resonates on a deeper level.
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I was disappointed with Nora’s husband’s actions and no resolution. I kept waiting for the reprimand or an apology. Something to acknowledge wrongdoing because without it I feel like he will continue to believe he did nothing wrong. He was a schmuck.
Same thing with the daughter. She bought into the friendship with Jane so easily then all of a sudden she flipped a switch and was back on board supporting her mother. I needed something more substantial from the daughter to convince me that it was that easy to sway her.
…
This book was an okay thriller. It was an easy read. With the opening scene it became clear where Nora’s character was headed. As soon as Jane’s char was introduced it was predictable what was about to take place. I wasn’t surprised by the outcome. Although, I was surprised by how long it took Jane to find her way into Nora’s life.
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I felt the business venture wasn’t completely flushed out. Jane mentioned having a plan in place for Nora but that never happened. I was curious what Jane meant by finding Nora to finish out a job.
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Narrator:
What would I do without a performer? Having someone else read to me is the greatest treasure. Siiri Scott was the solo female performer. She did a stunning performance. I listened using the audible app at 2X speed.

Ugh, Jane.

Can’t make it more than an hour into the audiobook because Jane is so unbearably awful. And Nora is just letting Jane insert herself into the family. So is David! He’s just watching Jane begin to try to edge Nora out of the family and he doesn’t seem to care. I’m out. Gotta find a book with less annoying characters. Everyone here is awful so far

Page turner

I liked that the book had good flow and kept the listener engaged. This book enables the reader to imagine themself in the position of the main character…

Predictable

Well written but very predictable. An old story line with new names. Well read, easy read.

Be ware of ‘too good to be true’!

Nora made a mistake as a teenager…one that she has kept secret for a long time. Now she has a good life with a beautiful family…then she gets an unsolicited job offer that seems too good to be true…she takes it anyway. Then her boss seems to be honing in on her family but she brushes it off. Sometimes you need to pay attention to those gut feelings. Nora ignored hers and it just may cost her dearly.