Thank you HTP Hive and Harlequin Audio for the complimentary DRC + ALC

1.5 stars

Unfortunately, this did not work for me at all. The main character consistently overlooks obvious red flags and makes the worst decisions, which made it hard for me to care or root for her. Disaster seemed to follow her relentlessly in a very short space of time, so everything felt sudden and overly dramatic. While there were several twists in the plot, only one felt well-executed and took me by surprise, while the others, particularly the final twist, seemed extremely far-fetched.

That said, the narrators, Emily Lawrence and Ashley Klanac, did a great job with their performances. Unfortunately, despite that, I just couldn’t fully get into this story.

"People can be the scariest things on earth."

Widow and mom Iris Blodgett believes she's found love again with a mysterious man named Hugh Smoll. When Iris loses her home and job, Hugh invites her and her teenage daughter to come live with him in his family's sprawling home in the country. But they'll have housemates -- Hugh's mother and siblings. There's something off about them, and the house too. And then, Iris' daughter disappears. Did she run away (again), or was she kidnapped?

Wow, what a rollercoaster ride this book was, with hints of horror thrown in along with all the mystery and suspense. Lots of jump-scare moments, and Hugh's family definitely gave me the creeps -- especially his mom. Alas, I felt like this book dragged a bit and could have ended several times. The very ending of the book was a stretch, but I guess it made certain events feel less coincidental and more calculated. Just suspend all reality when you read this one, because it's pretty out there.

I did love the house setting. It felt almost unreal in a magical realism type of way and was a bit inspirational for some of the writing that I want to do.

The audio narration was great and evoked a lot of emotion and dread.

3.5 stars.

I wanted to like this a lot more than I did, but it just kept getting crazier and crazier. There were some good twists I suppose, but overall it was just very exaggerated and out there.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #HarlequinAudio for the book #TheFamilyInside by #KateGarner. This book was filled with of suspense, secrets and murder inside more secrets. Iris has had a pretty rough go of it lately. Her husband was killed and left her raiding her daughter alone, and now she has lost her job and house. The one good thing going for her is her new boyfriend, Hugh, who has just asked her to move in with him. She has no clue what she is in for as she moves in with him and his “family”.

Thank you Netgalley for this advanced audio edition of The Family Inside by Katie Garner.

I'm honestly tiring of books like this. They're just SO overcooked, so out there that it makes it hard to care, it's that unbelievable. I also have to offer feedback for one of the narrators. Like, could you be any less emotional. People are straight up getting murdered, and you're reading it with about as much inflection as if you were reading a menu.

This was a story about a widowed woman, who is so freaking broke that she's about to lose her house. But as fortune would have it, she also has a handsome and super rich boyfriend who offers to take her in to his family's home. Turns out, it's crazy there, and so is literally everything that happens there.

The one thing I liked about this book was how cleverly one of the twists was done. I was pleasantly surprised at that. The rest was straight up annoying.

Wow, I don't know where to start with this one. I picked this up because I was obsessed with Katie Garner's debut novel. I went in completely blind and was hoping for the dark academia type setting similar to the first, but this was WAY different. It was very slow for a good chunk of the book and it felt very predictable. Only it didn't end up being very predictable at all.

The first major twist was a bit jolting, but once I was able to put together that we were looking at 2 different timelines, it all made sense. There were a lot of twists and turns after that based on lots of coincidences and .the story lines started to become difficult to follow. Also, there were a couple of events that occurred that relied on people not seeing each other (Ainsley and Hugh for example) in order to not be recognized and it seemed to be a bit of a stretch.

Overall, there were a lot of twist and turns and a story that turned out to be completely unpredictable, but I think if you aren't able to suspend disbelief, this won't be a winner. I can also see why a lot of people would enjoy it! It was a good listen!

This cover is fantastic! I love all the colors and the Erie vibe! The story jumps right in with Iris, a stressed, widowed mother that’s about to lose her house.… a young daughter, full of attitude and already knowing everything but she has her own troubles that she she’s battling alone. Iris‘s night and shining armor, Hugh comes to their rescue, but there is something definitely strange going on with his family! So many twists and turns and they were all delicious !This book is out now and it was such a blast from page one right to the end!

It’s been three years since Iris’s husband, Jake, was murdered. Three long years. Iris is down and out, losing her home and her job simultaneously, she’s not sure what to do next. Her teenaged daughter, Ellory, isn’t too happy with her either. Iris has just begun a new relationship with Hugh. When Hugh suggests they move in with his family, Iris jumps, but Ellory isn’t onboard. Iris had no idea his mother’s home is a dilapidated old mansion in the woods. The family has secrets, so many secrets, but Iris has a few of her own. When Ellory goes missing, Iris dives deep to find out just what is going on in the house all while trying to find her daughter. No one is safe, and things really heat up when Iris decides to leave. This was a page turner, but had too many coincidences. It had a great plot twist, but the there were a few holes and overall story left me in a state of disbelief. As a dual read:listen, I enjoyed the voices of the narrators, but they didn’t have the plot. Thank you to Harlequin Audio and NetGalley for an ALC of this book.

Iris Blodgett's life feels like it's falling apart. After her husband's unsolved murder three years ago, she's struggling with grief and debt and is facing eviction. She has no idea how to provide for her unruly teenager, Ellory. With nowhere else to turn, she goes to her new boyfriend, prominent architect Hugh Smoll, who invites Iris and her daughter to move into his mother's centuries-old mansion. It seems like a great solution, but Iris quickly finds out that the family living in the mansion she's just moved into is not what she expected. The mansion and its inhabitants soon start revealing dark and chilling secrets.

This one was a slow burn for me. Normally I enjoy a slow burn mystery, but this one felt like it was really dragging at times. I didn't really feel much of a connection to the characters and I felt their dialogue was stiff and unnatural, especially the teen daughter's. There were some twists and turns that were fun and surprising, but I feel like they didn't really happen until the later half of the book. I also had a difficult time keeping the characters and timelines straight, but I was listening to the audiobook. Perhaps a written format would be easier to follow. The second half of this book was full of suspense and craziness which definitely made up for the slow start. Overall, not a bad book, just wasn't my favorite. But this would probably be a good choice for fans of Jeneva Rose or Frieda McFadden since it has a good domestic thriller/mystery vibe.

Thank you Harlequin Audio for providing this audiobook for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Lots of conflicting feelings about this book. Initially, my first challenge was pushing through because the narrator was not my cup of tea. She was nasally and annoying. I'm pretty sure I've heard her narrate some other books I've listened to bc I thought, "Oh no. Not her!" But after a while the story picked up enough that it did not matter as much.

This story really took off about 1/4 of the way in. Prepare to suspend disbelief. If you can do that then you are going for a fun ride. I don't like summarizing plots because you can get that on the back of the book and really, who wants to know too much going in?

It was a fun listen. I listened with my partner and multiple times I turned it off so we could ask each other what the heck is going on and how is this going to tie all together. There are lots of easter eggs and we recognized them as such and yet still could not figure it out. It is highly unpredictable. Full of twists. And definitely kept us on our toes. Yes, it was a little too neat in how everything came together but sometimes you have to forgive that in exchange for a great ride. If I have any criticism it's maybe just one too many twists. Spoiler alert. Just when I felt like it was done (the audio said it was 99% done with 5 minutes left and there was almost an hour left in actuality) it went on about the kidnapping. It might have been fatigue but I felt like the story had wrapped up and it was just one too many things asking me to suspend my disbelief.

Oh my goodness, there was so much going on in this story - it really did keep me on the edge of my seat. I felt like Katie Garner did a great job of capturing my attention from the start, and the story just kept bringing more and more crazy twists! It was a really fun, really engaging book with absolutely excellent pacing. I felt like I was watching a car crash and couldn't look away!

It’s a thriller - why not move in with the suave architect you’ve been seeing for 3mo when you lose your job and your house? 🤍

Things I loved:
🥨 twists
🏚️ spooky manor vibes
⏰ the POVs

I listened to this whole story in a day (super rare for me). The pacing was great, everyone was a terrible person, and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment. 📖

The Family Inside by Katie Garner
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Since her husband’s death Iris and her daughter have been struggling. Now she has lost her job and is losing their home. Her new boyfriend offers for her to come stay with him….in his family’s home…..where they are ALL currently living.
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What I liked:
-Holy secrets, Batman!
-I was on edge throughout this entire book.
-The twists at the end were good and I didn’t connect all of them.
-The end was good.
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4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A solid twisty thriller. A bit off the rails but don’t we all kind of like when thrillers go off the rails? The audio was excellent, the narrators really brought the characters to life.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this book!

Wow!! I could not stop listening to this audio! It had me hooked from the very first chapter! The narrator did great! Such great writing style!

This book starts and does not stop until the end. It is a no holds bar thrill ride, and I honestly did not know what was going to happen.

Often I believe there need to be almost two categories of mysteries/thrillers: believable and unbelievable. This would fall into the highly entertaining, but unbelievable category. But it was a super fun read, and I think if you want a page turner, this is the one for you.

I often struggle with predictability, tedious done before tropes, or paranormal (which isn't necessarily my thing *it depends*), and this book definitely goes above the norm and done before story lines.

I know some will struggle with the timeline in this book, along with the believability, but it is a quick "fun" read that will keep you engaged the entire time.

Big thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin Audio for the advanced audio copy of this book. I don't know if I would have given it a chance otherwise. And as always, all my opinions are my own.

This book was FULL of twists. At times it was almost confusing, but overall I enjoyed the narrative. For a while I couldn't tell if the narrator was reliable, and although I normally like that trope, this time I was looking for a bit more in terms of payoff. There were a few red herrings that were just tied up with someone reappearing (Camille). The book kept me invested, but overall I wasn't as satisfied with the end as I expected.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was the STUPIDEST (yes that bad) thing I have ever read. Every single character sucked, I liked no one, and kind of just wanted everyone to spontaneously combust at the end. It would have been more satisfying.

I’m about to spoil this so if you don’t want to know, look away (like I should have with this book).

Everyone in the book has killed someone, except no one has killed whoever killed the dead husband (which maybe I overreacted, Jack didn’t suck he was chill, mostly because he was already dead and couldn’t piss me off). We have a widowed mother (Iris) of an 18-year-old (Everley) who is so broke she has to move into her 2 month long situationships (Hugh) mothers (Birdie) house (honestly here we go, buckle up) where his like 75 other “siblings” who are living with their mother in her house with blood stained walls(red flag girl). They get engaged a day later (flags galore at this point) and then her adult daughter “goes missing”. Not kidding.

We have a dual timeline that abruptly runs into the current timeline and while I think it was supposed to be a shock (it was, I didn’t figure this out or see it coming) it was lost on me because of how STUPID the rest of the book was. Turns out Hugh’s mom is 1) not his birth mom and 2) is actually the mom of Everley’s biological mom, Paige. Who she took because she watched Paige be buried alive by her bf.
 What are the odds? Well, Lemme tell you, high. Because Birdie went a little nutso and started picking off people from grief groups and convinced them all to seek revenge on who brought their grief upon them, and they wanted to recruit our mc into seeking revenge after whoever killed her precious Jack.

But Iris has a secret of her own. She somehow found her adopted daughter’s bio dad on a dating app and her daughter and her friend plan his murder as well. She was never missing but happily hanging out with her mom’s business partner eating pastries and staging her biologicals dad’s apartment to look like she was kidnapped.

There is honestly more but it’s so pointless to keep going. I honestly don’t even want to rate this a 1.

2.5 stars.

Sometimes, when a book is a total mindf*ck, it is awesome and you want to talk to your friends about it immediately. Other times, you just feel jerked around by the author who tried to do too many tricks. This story struck me as the latter.

First of all, I got really frustrated with the horrible decisions made by the female characters. They were damaged and had a lot of inner turmoil, but they had very little sense of self-preservation. It was like watching a horror movie and the story goes down classic trap tropes that have you wanting to yell at them for being stupid.

Second, the sheer number of twists that you get hit with in the end will leave you with whiplash, trying to refigure out everything in the story. There was barely enough time to process all the shifting before another hit you. And the first big twist is there just to confuse you. There was absolutely no reason for all that extra drama and it had no payoff.

Third, the secondary characters were awful. No one in "the family" was likable, and one of Iris' friends was decent, but her role is sparse.

I listened to this on audiobook at 2x speed to get through it faster. It's 90% "wtf is going to happen now that's going to piss me off about these people?" and 10% just "wtf?!!" Not fun. Not something I'll recommend to friends, but I can see how it will appeal to people who try to figure things out before the big reveal at the end, because I don't think they'll see this coming and they'll enjoy the shocks.

I found this story to be unbelievable; there were too many plot points going on at once and a lot of incredible things happen to one person. Ellory's plotline was unnecessary and could have been cut from the story. All of the twists were ridiculous. It wasn't badly written, it just had too many ideas. I would have DNFed this one if it wasn't an ALC.

While I didn't enjoy this book, I think this would be a great read for someone who likes fantastical tales. If you don't get caught up by details and enjoy a wild ride, this book may be for you.

Thank you for the review copy to the publishing team and Harlequin audio, this is a bingeworthy thriller with solid twists and turns, perfect for readers who really like stories that rev up into that roller coaster ride feeling as the plot unfolds more and more later in the book (you know that kind of oh here we go now moment? those are in this one). I found the start a little slow, unsure I could get into the decisions being made (kind of a don't go in the basement, don't trust this person feeling) but I also knew that this was going to go dark and twisty and when it did, my suspense loving self was all in for Garner's storytelling. This beat was more a win for me on audio, I thought the story was easier to get into and engage with through the audio performance!