The Bluff by Wade Rouse ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

Succession meets The Family Stone in bestselling author Wade Rouse’s humorous and sharply observant look at a family teetering on the edge of merry mayhem.

 

October 2026; MIRA; 978-0778332343
audio, ebook, print (304 pages); Holiday humor

Mackinaw Island in Michigan is a popular tourist spot in the summer months, but the location between the Upper and Lower Peninsulas where Lakes Michigan and Huron join is cold and merciless in the winter.  The Bluff takes place at Christmas time in a mansion at Mackinaw where there is minimal joy and goodwill and lots of infighting and just plain dysfunction.  A huge blizzard makes travel impossible and shuts off the electricity.  Despite all of the anger and angst, there are moments of hilarity that made me laugh out loud.

The Chapman family owns a mansion on the island and spends Christmas there every year.  The parents, Charli and CS, are rich and want to make sure that everyone knows that they can have whatever they want because of their wealth.  Charli wants to preserve tradition and replicate everything about Christmas the way things were when she was a child – from where the Christmas tree is placed to the menu for dinner. 

Her husband is ruthless and cruel – especially to his wife and sons.  They have three sons – Chris (married to Kat – an island girl – and two teenage children; Cormac (married to Brie, who is a major gold digger); and Chase, the estranged son who is married to Gary and has been kicked out of the family for being gay. 

Charli gets upset as soon as she arrives and finds out that Kat – who is in charge of Christmas this year – has put the tree in a different place than it has traditionally been placed.  Then she finds out that Kat’s parents – definitely middle class and teachers – will also be part of the Christmas season.  Much to the horror of the Chapmans, whose rule that “We do not share Christmas with other people” is about to be broken. To top it all off, a massive storm hits the island, and electricity goes out.  When the estranged son and his husband show up, things go from bad to worse in Charli  and CS’s eyes

  

This story is messy but tender.  It’s a feisty festive family drama about money, marriage, power, and all the things we bring to the holiday table besides the turkey.  This book will probably never show up on the Hallmark Channel Christmas lineup, but in many ways it’s more realistic than the happily ever after movies that they show.

The author managed to write this novel from 11 points of view.  Every member of the family gets to tell their part of the story, including the island of Mackinaw.  It is well done and not confusing and helps present a cohesive look at each member of the family and their motivation to act the way they do.

I have enjoyed all of Viola Shipman’s (Wade Rouse’s pen name) books that look at the beauty of Michigan.  This is a totally different look at Michigan during the cold, dark winter months, full of characters who feel like they have reasons to act badly and like it!  I found it to be a delightful look at the Christmas that many of us with at least one strange and dysfunctional relative go through on a day that is supposed to be all about love.  Great job, Wade!

Buy The Bluff at Amazon

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina, where she is three hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.

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