The Family Inside
What a wild ride this one was! I couldn’t conceive this plot on my own by any stretch of the imagination.

Iris is just having a hard time. Her husband was murdered, and she and her daughter Ellory are struggling terribly, and the most immediate concern is that Iris lost her job and she can’t pay the mortgage. Where will she and Ellory live?

Enter a new man, Hugh, handsome and charming, and he invites them to live with him at his mother’s house. Oh, and there are a few other family members there too. Shortly after Iris and Ellory arrive there, Hugh proposes to Iris and Ellory leaves the house with her boyfriend. It is beside herself with worry.

There are a couple of subplots pertaining to Iris’s best friend Sloane and another one of their friends, Ainsley. But things get *really* weird really quick!

Once the surprises start, they just keep coming, and direction kept shifting from one character to another. I’m not going to spoil the suspense—-it’s worth reading!

As mentioned previously, I couldn’t have predicted this one, but I enjoyed it, and it was an enjoyable read.

4 stars!⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I received a copy of the digital ARC via NetGalley. My review is voluntary.

Okay! You’ll be fully invested after reading only the first page. YEP! The very first page hooks you and doesn’t let up until the very end. But even then you didn’t want it to end. The writing style was hilarious while also staying true to the thriller genre of also being suspenseful.

Couldn’t love this book more and I highly recommend it. It’s engaging, entertaining, unputdownable, and you’ll never forget this one!

You know those books that make you say WTF? That was The Family Inside by Katie Garner for me in a nutshell. For the longest time I didn't even know what was going on and now that I'm done, I feel like that was the whole point. The timeline was what confused me the most, so if that happens to you, I urge you to stick with it and it will all be worth it in the end. The twists in this book shook me to my core, and the family drama and creepy house against the backdrop of Iris’ dead husband and new love interest Hugh was nonstop action and head scratches. The number of secrets in the story were enough to fill up an ocean and I LOVED IT.

The audiobook for The Family Inside was nothing but pure perfection, and you will love Emily Lawrence & Ashley Klanac’s narration. They actually sounded pretty similar, so I did have times where it was a bit hard for me to tell them apart, but this honestly heightened my experience if anything. For the longest time I didn’t even know if I would LIKE this book, but once the big twist hit, I was thinking how on earth did I miss this?! Garner is a tricky one, and I definitely need to go back and read her debut now. My advice is to go in as blindly as possible, and don’t stop!

Read this if you are looking for gothic vibes, dysfunctional families, and unreliable narrators!

Book Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
Audiobook Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Netgalley, Katie Garner, and Harlequin Trade Publishing for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This book has so much going on. It caught my attention from the beginning and kept me hooked nearly the entire book. I honestly thought this was going to go down a supernatural/monster route because of the atmospheric vibe of the writing and characters.

Iris is a single mother after the murder of her husband a few years prior. She works a dead-end job that barely pays the bills, is about to lose her house, and has a strained relationship with her teenage daughter, Ellory. Thankfully she has a best friend she can rely on and her boyfriend Hugh, who is also successful, attractive, and does not know the details of how stressful Iris's current situation is. Until the day she loses her job and her house. Hugh comes to her rescue and happily invites Iris and her daughter to move into his mother's mansion, which is currently being renovated.

Iris didn't know what to expect, but what comes next is a complicated family situation, mysterious deaths and disappearances, and family secrets.

Overall, 3.5 stars. Though, the story does get slightly convoluted with all of the side "stories"/secrets that come to light. I wish I would have taken notes or wrote out a family tree/character tree.

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this one in exchange for an honest review!

This book follows a woman who moves in with her new boyfriend in a creepy house because hers got foreclosed on. Things quickly turn weird and her daughter goes missing.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I feel like we had such annoying characters. I really couldn’t get into the story at all because I disliked the characters so much. There were also a lot of cliches and tropes that i see in a lot of mystery/thriller books.

I listened to the audiobook and i did like the narrator.

Overall, I was not a fan of this one but I did like the audiobook.

The Family Inside is a wild ride. This book really kept me guessing about what was going on. I had so many theories throughout the book and only one ended up being right. I really enjoyed the two different narrators for Iris and Ellory. It really added to the story and helped from getting the two characters confused.

I thought that the beginning of the book started off a little bit slow but once I started to see the twists unfolding I was hooked. This book really kept me guessing as to what was real and what people wanted you to think was real.

I'm a sucker for an unreliable narrator and this book delivered. At points, I wondered if everything that was happening was just in Iris's mind. This book also had some great villains. I could see why they were the way they were and the motives behind their actions.

The one thing that I didn't enjoy about the story is there was no resolution to her first husband's murder. I thought that was going to be an aspect of the story.

If you like books filled with dark family secrets that keep you guessing you're going to love The Family Inside.

The Family Inside
Katie Garner
4⭐️

Pub Date: 1/28/2025
Genre: thriller

Murder from the get go! This was a great read and I finished it in 2 sittings. Intriguing from the start and really easy to just slip into binging it.

It revolves around Iris who had to move into her new boyfriend's house with her daughter. Having just lost her job and her home, in addition addition meeting her boyfriend's family, she's in a lot of stress. It seemed like a normal thriller for me and I made some guesses. I was very suspicious and also frustrated with some of the characters, which indicates good writing. But this is not normal at all. There were so many twists and revelations that I didn't expect at all. There were parts where I got completely lost on because of all the reveals- someone's alive, someone's dead, someone's "changed"! And those are only on Iris' side of the story. There were things from Hugh's family and that's even crazier. It gets a little dialogue-ey and slow in certain parts but it all comes together well. Very much an enjoyable read.

Thank you HTP and Netgalley for a gifted e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an okay read. Not very memorable or stand-out-ish but I got through it fairly quickly. If an author is going to attempt an unreliable narrator, especially in first person, it has to be done very well. I'm not a fan of the twists that turn out to be tricks or lies. I prefer a thriller or mystery to be on the page, so that I had a chance of figuring out the ending. Call me traditional, but otherwise I feel like I'm being tricked. When a first person narrator completely blatantly lies to the reader throughout the book and then at the end suddenly retells the entire story with "the truth" - what was the point of the beginning of the book? Why lie to the reader in the first place if you're just going to admit the truth at the end anyway? To me, this is a bit lazy from a plot stand point. This book also had my other annoying new trope - dual timelines that aren't labeled as dual timelines - again to trick the reader. And again, the entire book is basically retold in the last few chapters.
Overall, this was a fast read and I did get through the entire thing. The house was creepy, the family equally so. I didn't find the relationship between the main character and her fiance all that believable. And I didn't really care all that much about any of the characters.
Readers who aren't annoyed by the two trends mentioned above will probably enjoy this story as they read it even if it isn't super memorable in the long run.
2.5 rounded up.

Fairly generic unfortunately. A pretty trope-y domestic thriller, and I feel like I've read way too many to care anymore. I need something unique.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for my copy and to Katie Garner making my head spin.

Talk about family secrets! The Family Inside is definitely not your ordinary family. The lies, the ties between characters, the what did I just read moments are non-stop. What a great book full of twists and moments you just don't see coming. I can't tell you how many times I gasped - there were a lot.
Starts out simple, Iris whose husband was murdered and her daughter Ellory are about to become homeless and then Hugh, Iris's boyfriend invites them to come live with him and his family in this really old creepy house full of secrets. Iris agrees because well, where else are they going to go? Ellory, not so much on board with it but she's 18 and you know doesn't have a job and depends on mom so she goes along with it but then decides to runaway and oh my gosh the pages from then on are filled with shocking surprises. There are moments when I thought Iris was a little naïve and too trusting but she's keeping a secret too and oh my gosh, it's a big one. When all the secrets start to reveal themselves pay close attention because you're going to ask, What? And then, you'll go back and read it again to make sure you read it right.
If you love twists and jaw dropping secrets, then you have to read this.

4.5 stars rounded up. Thank you HTP for an ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.
This book blew my socks off. Absolutely loved it.

Very complicated domestic thriller concerns a young woman, down on her luck, who, with her 18-year-old daughter, agrees to stay at the spooky old house occupied by her boyfriend’s family, while they are all in residence. Many characters to keep track of, and many twists and turns fill out the action, though it’s easy to become bogged down with the overloaded plot.

The Family Inside by Katie Garner was crazy in the best way. I was reading so fast, turning those pages eager to see WTF was going on because there is no one you can trust in this story.

When Iris loses her job and gets evicted, her new boyfriend Hugh immediately offers her and her daughter a place to stay at his family's old gothic crumbling mansion. Even though the place (and his family) creeps Iris and her daughter out, they agree to move in. Iris's 18-year-old daughter quickly goes missing, so Iris is trying to figure out what happened to her while attempting to get along with Hugh's family.

Its just bonkers from there. The first half was slower than the second half, which took off and had me reading as quickly as my little eyes could move.

It was a solid read and I look forward to more from this author!

The Family Inside by Katie Garner follows Iris and her daughter Ellory. After Jack, Ellory's dad, gets murdered Iris works hard at her job but has a hard time making ends meet. Their house is being foreclosed and when Iris loses her job she thinks her and her daughter will be homeless. The one good thing in Iris' life is her new boyfriend Hugh, or so she thinks. Hugh, who owned his own architectural firm sweeps in and saves the day, saying that Iris and of course Ellory too can come live with him and his mom while he helps renovate her house. Once Iris arrives at her new home, she quickly begins to see that things aren't what she thought.

I found the main character Iris, to be annoying. Her husband was murdered and she seemed to quickly jump into another relationship with very little care for her daughter. When she moves in and begins to see huge red flags, she just goes with my it and seems to ignore them. Overall the book was an easy read, was just a bit far fetched for my liking.

Thank you Katie Garner and Harlequin Trade Publishing for partnering with NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

Far-fetched plot lines, contrived characters and derivative storytelling. Oh, and the main character is pathetic. But other than that...
Thanks to #netgalley and #MIRA for this #arc of #thefamilyinside in exchange for an honest review.

Well... if you like twisty thrillers, then you won't find many with as many twists as this one!

I have to admit that I was absolutely engrossed in this story, though truth be told, I can see that for many readers it might have been 'a twist too far'. The writing had me gripped despite the fact that suspension of disbelief was required on more than one occasion.

Iris Blodgett's life has had several devastating turns of events in recent years. First, her husband was murdered. Then she lost her job. She was unable to make the mortgage payments so she lost her family home as well. Tragic for both her and her teenage daughter, Ellory.

Recently she has met Hugh Smoll, a man who she is quite attracted to. He is handsome, seems kind to her and her daughter, and he works as an architect, so seems financially secure. When she tells him that she now has nowhere to live, he insists that she and Ellory move in to his mother's house as he is living there now to supervise some much needed renovations. With the alternative of living in her car, Iris accepts his generous offer.

Without spoiling the story for you, all I can say is that this decision was a calamitous mistake! Hugh's family, especially his mother, are an odd bunch to be sure. The house itself is dilapidated and creepy. Ellory doesn't like it there and runs away.

With themes of revenge and vigilantism this novel was a real page turner. Though, as I said earlier, some of the twists were over the top. Secrets and lies abound. Coincidences permeate the plot.

If you're up for a suspense-filled thriller with serpentine twists, then you'll likely enjoy this one. Be prepared to suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride.

I loved everything about this book!! It was twisty and mysterious while remaining entertaining throughout. I was intrigued by Iris' story from the beginning and had to keep reading. I couldn't stop! I love multiple POVs and this one takes the cake! This is my first Katie Garner book so I can't wait to check out her other books.It has the perfect thriller elements
-unsolved murder
-unraveled life experiences
-unhinged family
and an addictive story line. I listened to the audiobook as well. The narrators nailed the performance!

Thank you @htpbooks @htphive for the free digital arc!

Iris and her daughter move in with her fiancée and his family, but everyone has secrets and nothing is as it seems…

This was an entertaining thriller with twists that had my head spinning! The beginning is a slow build but once that first plot twist hit, I could not put it down! The dual timelines were so cleverly written and the creepy house added so much atmosphere.

Rating 4⭐️

OMG another fantastic book by Mrs Garner, I don't think I have read a book by her that I dislike. I could not have guessed the ending. This book will draw you in and not let you put it down. I just absolutely loved it.

Book Review: The Family Inside
Rating: ⭐⭐ (2 out of 5 stars)

I picked up The Family Inside hoping for an engaging mystery, but unfortunately, the plot left me more confused than captivated. The storyline felt disjointed, and by the end, the initial mystery that hooked me was left unanswered, which was pretty disappointing. It seemed like there were too many loose ends and not enough explanation to tie everything together.

That being said, if you’re looking for a quick read that doesn’t require much thought, this book might fit the bill. The pacing is fast, and it’s easy to get through in one sitting. However, if you’re craving a well-developed mystery with satisfying conclusions, this one might leave you wanting more.