The Family Upstairs: The #1 bestseller. ‘I read it all in one sitting’ – Colleen Hoover (The Family Upstairs, 1)

Product Information

As she reaches her 25th-birthday, Libby gets to open a letter that has been held in trust for her since she was a baby. I’d like to thank Netgalley UK, Random House UK – Cornerstone, Century, and Lisa Jewell for the e-ARC.

Lisa Jewell has written a spellbinding conclusion to her family drama that is surprisingly tense in places, leaving me holding my breath, heart pounding. The characters are complex, as we expect them to be; the plot twisty and compelling; the denouement just perfect. She hears a silence at the other end of the line. She pictures her mum in her own kitchen, a thousand miles away in Dénia: pristine white units, lime-green color-coordinated kitchen accessories, sliding glass doors onto a small terrace with a distant view to the Mediterranean, her phone held to her ear in the crystal-studded case that she refers to as her bling.

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I had lukewarm feelings going into book just because the plot didn’t particularly appeal to me. Cults, hippies, growing drugs, living on the streets, stuff like that is not really up my alley. The Past: Houseguests. They are never pleasant. Unless they are temporary. For a family living in a mansion in Chelsea, a ringing of the doorbell signals a whole host of changes that influences their entire lives, forever. Call it dark, eerie and downright strange. The story is told from three points of view, the first we are introduced to is Libby. Libby has just turned 25, she is single and working at a company that sells kitchens to mostly wealthy clients who need her expert advice. She makes a living wage but not much more. She always knew that she had been an orphan, adopted when she was a young baby, and has been waiting for a letter to come from the solicitors in England to tell her what her family name is and a little bit about them. What she finds out instead is that she has now inherited a mansion in an upscale part of Chelsea, England, and need only come to the law offices to claim the house. Even in a run down condition she knows the house will be worth many thousands of pounds.

Henry. Oh Henry. What was he supposed to be? A protagonist? An antagonist? An antagonistic hero? He was wilding to the max and then his lil redemption was connecting Finn with his daughter. Okay???? And what about his full-fledged stalking with the initial intent to make luv in da club to him (without consent most likely)? We just gonna blow right past that?? I’m just so disappointed because I wanted to love this book because Lisa Jewell is my thriller queen, but this book just didn’t do it at all for me.

Synopsis

I read The Family Upstairs more than three years ago, and unfortunately too much time has gone by. This is the reason why I don’t love reading series…I always forget the previous book by the time that the new one comes out. I did not have time to read the first book again before I got to the sequel, so please keep that in mind when reading my review. Meanwhile, Lucy is musician who is living on the streets in France. She was busking for money until her fiddle was damaged. She has two kids ( Stella, 5, and Marco, 12) from separate fathers, and a dog ( Fitz). Stella’s father disappeared three years ago. Lucy goes to his mother Samia (Stella’s grandmother who they call Mémé) to ask for help. Samia agrees to takes in Stella for the night. Marco reveals to Libby that he’s been in touch with his father and knows where to find him. Lucy gets an alert on her phone that “ the baby is 25“.