The Family Upstairs By Lisa Jewell

Libby Jones. She's an ordinary young woman working the ordinary mundane job living in the typical ordinary apartment.

Libby knew she was adopted and had a decent life with her adoptive family. However, once she turned 25, her world was turned upside down when she began learning of her birth parents. The truth about her birth family is revealed to the reader over the course of the entire book, the writer only providing a few details at a time. Libby finds out about her family's past over the course of weeks as she inherits the family home and begins to meet relatives she never knew existed until the year of her twenty-fifth birthday.

The story jumps from character to character and eventually we, the readers, find out how their stories are woven together. Full of twists and turns, romance and deception, Lisa Jewell's "The Family Upstairs" unravels in a tale of betrayal between trusted friends and family members. Unexpected secrets are revealed as the story comes to a close and everything is given another good twist before the reader has a chance to suspect it's going to happen.

The book is interestingly written in a format in which the timelines switch back and forth from the present to the past, until they eventually meet up to reveal the truth about Libby, her true birth parents, and the real facts about the deaths that took place in her inherited home all those years ago when she was found as a baby in her crib, while three adults lay dead downstairs in the kitchen and all the other children had gone missing.

It's interesting to hear the different points of view from the characters as they take turns narrating their own individual stories. One deals with their abusive past. The only way to make a future for her and her children is to face the abusive husband she severed ties with years ago. Can the characters face their past to fix their present and better their future?

A thrilling mystery and can't-put-down page-turner that pleasingly keeps readers guessing until the bitter end.

The family she found certainly wasn't the picture-perfect dad and mom she imagined, but Libby was glad to finally know the truth, and in the end she gained more family to spend time with, to connect with, and to love.