I went into this book not knowing much and I think this helped my reading experience.

Quick synopsis: a woman has tragically lost her husband, but recently found the new love of her life. Unfortunately, she ends up losing the house that she and her daughter live in and her boyfriend invites them to come live with his family.

The structure of this novel was so well done. and the atmosphere and vibes were top notch! I enjoyed the twists and turns and the WTF moment I had, The whole family house was just weird and you knew something was going on but it’s not till close to the end that you see it all play out.
If you like a good mystery where you really didn’t see that coming this might be a book for you.

Thank you @htp_hive, @htpbooks and @netgalley for this eARC! 🫶🏻

There was something about this book that made it almost impossible for me to put down! I don’t know if it was the alternating POV or how each chapter left me scratching my head, but I inhaled it! The pacing was a bit on the slower side for the first half of the book, but I had so many questions that I just had to keep reading.

I honestly disliked the characters for most of the books, until some of the reveals, which there were A TON of towards the end! The twists just kept coming! I thought Iris made some stupid decisions, but I could look past that. If you can suspend belief a little bit and love a thriller with some big twists definitely add this one to your TBR!

Read if you like:
✌🏻Dual POV
🤫Family secrets
🏚️Creepy house setting
🤯Twists

I've officially nicknamed author Katie Garner "The Queen of the Twists."  After reading last year's The Night It Ended, I should have been prepared for the fact that The Family Inside would be another amazing book. Set in a small town where single mother Iris Blodgett's life has been turned upside down once again after the death of her husband three years ago, she's lost her job and her home, so when her new beau offers Iris and her daughter Ellory a place to stay at his families crumbling mansion, she readily accepts. It's only once she arrives at Ravencliff that she begins to uncover years of family secrets.

Thank you Harlequin Trade Publishing for the copy of The Family Inside by Katie Garner. This was not what I expected, but it was weirdly compelling at first. While I kept it expecting to veer into horror, it didn’t, but the writing was creepy. The premise of the story was great, but the execution didn’t really work. The timelines were confusing, and the relationships weren’t plausible because I never got to know the characters very well. I enjoyed the first part of the book, but the rest wasn’t for me. If you like a surprising conclusion, you will love this! 3 stars

I picked up The Family Inside when I was in the mood for a quick, popcorn thriller. The publisher's description states that “this ending will leave even the most seasoned genre readers pleasantly hoodwinked.” While it was a quick read and I was hoodwinked, I’m not sure I would call it pleasant.

In this debut we meet Iris, a single mother, who loses her house. She is relieved when her boyfriend offers to let her stay with him as he renovates his mother’s mansion. Iris certainly did not expect his whole family to be there and this family is….weird.

This book was all plot with very minimal character development. I didn’t feel connected to Iris and the story had way too many implausibilities to keep me engaged. The author was asking me to suspend way too much disbelief with this one.

Many early reviews rave about the ending they didn’t see coming. I also didn’t see the ending coming but I felt that it was because the ending was completely out of left field and felt too random to me.

Overall, I’d try Katie Garner again but would hope for a bit more balance between plot and character development.

RATING: 3/5
PUB DATE: January 28, 2025

Many thanks to Mira for an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.5
The author had an idea, I'll give her that, but the plotting here genuinely only works if you have either an infant's sense of object permanence or a canine's sense of the passage of time.

Things are not going well for Iris. Ever since her husband was killed, her life has been spiraling out of control. Now the bank has foreclosed on her home, she loses her job and she must tell her daughter Ellory, that the two of them will be living in her car in a matter of days.
The one bright spot is her boyfriend, Hugh. When Iris tells him how dreadful things are, he invites her and Ellory to move in with him. Not that he has his own house anymore, since he is staying with his mother and siblings. Why when he has a decent job? Well, his mother will not let any contractors in the house and the decrepit roof is flooding their home. Iris is dubious, but what choice besides being homeless does she have?
Told mostly by Iris, with chapters by Ellory, I had absolutely no idea what was going on. Until one revelation made me think I was finally putting the pieces together. Nope, there was still so much more to come. I am going to avoid spoiler filled woods and just say, this was a clever, clever page turner.

Three years after her husband's murder, Iris finds herself in a dire situation. She turns to her new boyfriend, Hugh who offers to take her and her daughter in. Only, they won't be along. Hugh's mother, brother, sister-in-law, and sister will also be living with them in the under renovation family home.

This was such a twisty one. Here's what I liked:

Iris: I connected with her right away. She has such a tragic past that keeps coming back to haunt her. I was rooting for her and her daughter as they navigated this new low in life. She had me in a panic at times as she gets wrapped up in the mystery of what is really going on with Hugh and his family.

The house: I loved the setting of this. The house, especially since it was under construction, has this super creepy feeling to it. There are noises and things being moved around. It has this locked door feel to it that I loved.

The structure: there is a dual POV in this with Iris and runaway Ellory. Both stories keep you wanting to know what is going on and what is going to happen to both women. This book is really well laid out and I applaud Garner for how she organized this layered story.

All in all, this was a creepy and twisty thriller!

Thank you to the author and publisher for the gifted copy!

This was a great twisty thriller with a bunch of unreliable characters.

I wasn’t a fan of Iris at all or her relationship with Ellory. The family was just super odd and I knew something weird was going on!

I loved all the twists even though I got a little confused with the timelines.

Overall I really enjoyed this and I would definitely read more from this author!

Iris Blodgett and her daughter, Ellory, are mourning the death of Iris’s husband three years ago after he was murdered on a lonely stretch of road. Now they learn the bank is preparing to foreclose on their home. Iris’s new boyfriend, Hugh, suggests they move into his family estate. It would be him, his mother, sister, brother, and sister-in-law. She’s only been with Hugh two months, but with little alternative, Iris agrees. That’s a tough situation especially for a teen. After only one night at The Ravencliff manor, Ellory vanishes. Iris upset and nearly hysterical, hires a sleazy private investigator to find Ellory. Then Hugh’s sister-in-law disappears as well, and Iris starts to be suspicious of her new boyfriend who was eager to gather everyone under one roof.

There’s a lot going on here involving mysterious heirlooms, signed murder confessions, and midnight hallucinations. Garner does little to prepare readers for the daring final twist that reshapes everything that came before it in a new light.
Personally, I felt tricked by the ending.

Even though, this is a fast paced book of suspense.

🏚️ T O X I C T U E S D A Y review 🏚️ featuring “The Family Inside” by Katie Garner!

BOOK REVIEW: 🖤🖤🖤🖤/5

Three years ago, Iris’ husband was murdered and his killer was never found. Since then, Iris has been drowning in the debts left behind by her husband. She is trying to keep a roof over her 18 year old daughter’s head … but instead the house is going up to auction since Iris cannot afford to pay the mortgage.

Iris loses her job and her house and confides her struggles to the man she has recently started dating. Much to her surprise, Hugh offers Iris and Ellory to move in with him at his mother’s house. With no other options, Iris accepts and they soon find out that it’s a full house of family members living together.

When strange incidents start to happen around the house, the secrets of the family start to unravel. It’s wild what happens behind closed doors and there is something “off” about this family’s dynamic. Was their invitation to help them out OR does this family have a much more sinister agenda in mind??

This book is CHAOTIC and TWISTED and each can of worms that gets opened is dark and disturbing. The house is in shambles (much like the family), and the characters are beyond SUS!

Thank you kindly to @katiewritesmystery @_mira_books_ @harpercollinsca @netgalley for my advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review! This book releases on January 28, 2025!

The Family Inside is a nice and decent domestic thriller, sometimes psychological too, about a dysfunctional family and the secrets they keep.
The characters are realistic - flawed, unlikable - enough so the reader can relate or even care for some of them. The plot is entertaining and the twists even though can be predictable for more 'hardcore' thriller readers, I'd say they work within what the author wants to achieve with this story.
Personally, the only thing I really disliked about this book was the second timeline, or POV, the story has a little before te halfway through. We, the readers, star to follow the POV of an isolated character and that one just didn't please me at all. But that's a personal opinion, really.
I'd recommend this book to any thriller readers.
Thank you, NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing | MIRA, for provoding me with a free eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

How did Iris get herself into this situation?

No job, no home - she had to move in with Hugh.

What a strange house and family Iris finds at Ravencliff.

She didn't have a recourse, but the house Hugh moved her and her daughter Ellory into was in disrepair and had many family members - not just Hugh's mother.

Odd things start happening, and then Hugh’s sister and Ellory disappear

Are they together? Did Hugh's family orchestrate this?

What will happen next to add to what appears to be a bad move on Iris's part.

Just who is this family?

Lots of creepy things happening along with odd, mean, violent characters with two storylines going - for readers who like twists and unexpected things.

And…what an ending….a bit bizarre, but all wrapped up. 4/5

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

just wasn't for me and was not a book I personally enjoyed. I know there will be other readers out there that this will fit their style a lot better.

I really have mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed the twists and turns and the WTF moment I had with it as I was reading going did I miss something. But I also felt it to be slightly different! The whole family house was just weird to me. You knew something was going on but it’s not till close to the end you go WTF.
If you like a good mystery where you really didn’t see that coming this might be a book for you. It’s not really fast paced but it’s not exactly a slow burn either. It’s just a bit strange. But I would recommend it.

One of the most dark and twisted thrillers I've read this year! This story has a lot of moving parts and at first I couldn't understand how things were related, but as the story unravels everything comes together perfectly. This one will give you whiplash from all the twists. I absolutely loved it!

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing | MIRA for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I heard about this book on the Thoughts From a Page podcast and I heard the magic words. “A good twist that readers didn’t see coming.” Say no more! I’m always on the lookout for a thriller that has a twist that I don’t see coming!

Rarely does a twist in a book actually surprise me, but holy cow author Katie Gardner you did it!

I went into this book completely blind, and I think I would recommend doing the same, but in a very brief synopsis: this is a book about a woman who has tragically lost her husband, but recently found the new love of her life. Unfortunately, she ends up losing the house that she and her daughter live in and her boyfriend invites them to come live with his family… DUN DUN DUN.

The structure of this novel was so well done. It wasn’t the most propulsive at the beginning, but once I got into the story, I was fully in. Also great atmosphere and vibes.

Some of the writing did feel a little bit clunky to me in places but honestly, it might’ve just been a me issue because I was reading so fast so so take that with a grain of salt!

I love when I can find a new thriller to recommend that actually tricks me and I can’t wait to recommend this one!

Whew! The Family Inside absolutely blew me away. I could not put this book down! It's full of family lies and secrets which I love! Thank you NetGalley and HTP for this advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.

The family inside was so intriguing ! When I saw this book recommended for people who enjoyed “knives out” and “ready or not” (both of which I LOVED!) I just knew this book would be filled to the brim with creepy dysfunctional family dynamics, some sort of large estate inheritance and a suspicious murderous plot and this book delivered on all accounts!

The plot follows Iris and her teenage daughter Ellory. Three years since the unfortunate passing of their husband / father they are in the terrible predicament of losing their house and becoming homeless.

That is when Iris dashingly handsome new boyfriend swoops in and offers them a place in his family home which he is renovated for his old aged mother. Only when she accepts Iris doesn’t realize the entire family siblings and spouses included are all living there, and there’s something just .. off .. about them all.

I could not keep from turning the pages I absolutely ate this book up! I love these kind of tropes and the suspension and mystery had me on the edge of my seat.

I would definitely recommend this read!

Thank you to HTP Publishing and Katie Garner for the EARC!

Publish date: feb 11th 2025

This was one of the best thrillers I have read in awhile! The characters were complex, the dialogue, believable, and the twists and turns were just perfect!