In The Blood by Lisa Unger
My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars

Title:  In The Blood
Author:  Lisa Unger
Series:  Stand Alone
Narrators:  Gretchen Mol & Candace Thaxton
Length:  Unabridged; 10 hours, 4 minutes
Publisher:  Simon & Schuster (Touchstone)
Published:  January 7, 2014
Source:  Publisher via Audiobook Jukebox
Format:  Audio CD
Genres:  Fiction; Suspense Fiction; Psychological Fiction
Subjects:  Murder; Missing Persons; Mental Illness

In the Blood  is the Lisa Unger novel we've all been waiting for - and a return to the dark psychological suspense that made Beautiful Lies a bestseller around the world.
     Lana Granger lives a life of lies. She has told so many lies about where she comes from and who she is that the truth is like a cloudy nightmare she can’t quite recall. About to graduate from college and with her trust fund almost tapped out, she takes a job babysitting a troubled boy named Luke. Expelled from schools all over the country, the manipulative young Luke is accustomed to controlling the people in his life. But, in Lana, he may have met his match. Or has Lana met hers?
     When Lana’s closest friend, Beck, mysteriously disappears, Lana resumes her lying ways—to friends, to the police, to herself. The police have a lot of questions for Lana when the story about her whereabouts the night Beck disappeared doesn't jibe with eyewitness accounts. Lana will do anything to hide the truth, but it might not be enough to keep her ominous secrets buried: Someone else knows about Lana’s lies. And he’s dying to tell.
     Lisa Unger's writing has been hailed as “sensational” (Publishers Weekly) and “sophisticated” (New York Daily News), with “gripping narrative and evocative, muscular prose” (Associated Press). Masterfully suspenseful, finely crafted, and written with a no-holds-barred raw power, In the Blood is Unger at her best.
     ©2014 Lisa Unger (P)2014 Simon & Schuster

My Review:
I wasn't sure what I was going to think of this book, going into it, but I was pleasantly surprised, especially by the ending.  The only other book that I've read by Lisa Unger was Fragile, and I wasn't too thrilled with at least the audio version of it.  I had a lot of friends that liked it, so maybe it was the narrator that did it in for me, but let's just say it wasn't my favorite book of the year, month, week or even day!

For those of you that enjoy psychological fiction, then this is the book for your!  What are you waiting for?  Why haven't you reserved it from your library yet?  Oh, that's right, because you are still waiting to see what I have to say, right?  So lets get to it!

The two narrator's definitely do this book justice.  I have learned from my time of listening to audiobooks that the narrator can either make or break a book, and these narrator's help make this book!  They are clever and witty and are easy to listen to and follow.  They definitely make it a good book to listen to!

Lisa Unger fills In The Blood with so many different plot twists and turns that it's unbelievably awesome to read and try to figure out what is going to happen.  Just when you think you've got it all figured out, Unger puts your blinders up again, taking you into the land of the unknown.  She truly shows the best of all of her writing talents in the book!!

Sure, some things about the plot are your standard, ordinary plot, like the missing best friend, but this plot and story are anything but ordinary.  It is probably one of the most unique stories that I have ever read, and probably one of the hardest stories to figure out!  This certainly renewed my faith in the fact that I should continue to read books by Lisa Unger.

Her characters are probably the most complex characters that I've ever met in a book and I loved that!  They were flawed and imperfect...humans.  They had issues, more than most normal people, and that's what made the book that much more interesting.

This book shows you that life and your friends and family, aren't always what they seem.  Life's obstacles can certainly take you on the ride of your life with more than your normal loops and up-side-down turns, but it also shows that you can survive those loops and the ride.  You might be slightly damaged, but you'll survive!  It also goes to show you just how poisonous secrets can be on a family and your relationships!

I absolutely would recommend that, now that you have finished listening to all of my most inner, deepest, darkest thoughts, that you run out to your library, or open your browser and either loan this book or buy it because chances are it may be one of the best books that you read this year!!  If you haven't picked this title up, you are missing out, especially if you like suspense and thrilling plot twists and turns!  Thank you Simon & Schuster and Lisa Unger for very well one of the best books that I am likely to read in 2014!

Disclaimer:  This book was provided to me by the Publisher, Simon & Schuster (Touchstone), via Audiobook Jukebox, in return for an honest, unbiased review.