4.5 stars for this ARC. Thanks to NetGalley for this early copy of a great read. The Escape Room is about four investment bankers stuck in an elevator in what they believe is a team building activity. I really enjoyed this book, loved the ending, which I hadn’t figured out. This book releases on July 30th. Be sure to get a copy!

You don't earn a lot of money on Wall Street without making some enemies. Or without keeping a lot of secrets. Sylvie, Vincent, Jules, and Sam know that better than anyone. The four have been working as a team for a lucrative financial firm. Well, formerly lucrative. Layoffs are happening and anyone could be cut. But these four all know each others secrets. All of them. Which is why none of them are any too happy to be instructed that they have to attend a team building exercise using one of the building's elevators as an escape room. But the longer these four are locked in together, the more likely it is that secrets will be spilled. And perhaps some blood as well.
I thought the prologue actually took away from the book a little bit, told a little too much of the end of the book. I also didn't love all of the interspersed chapters, those of Sara Hall. It might have built up more of the story to start those in the latter half of the book. I think most of the same information could have been conveyed. Still, an interesting book from a genre I rarely read.

Four stars
This book comes out July 30th
ARC kindly provided by St. Martin's Press and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

I read the prologue, and was immediately hooked on this story. What an interesting concept, and although I have not been in Investment Banking, I currently work for a bank and have done consulting / private equity work in the past, so this lifestyle is not that foreign to me. The book alternates from present day in the escape room to Sara Hall’s POV, who is a young analyst that obviously has some tie-in to Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam, but we don’t know right away. What is great about this story is that as the clues are revealed / solved, you start to understand the bigger picture, and at the same time, Sara’s POV is also slowly building to this picture as well. That part of it was very well done, and as with any cat and mouse game, there are moves that are not anticipated, and it was those moves had me on the edge of my seat until this was over.

Whew. This was a tense, greedy, vengeful, horrifying, and probably a little unbelievable, ride. However, if you had lost a couple of big deals lately and therefore thought your job was on the line, maybe you would do anything, even join an escape room challenge. That being said, I enjoyed this ride, and I am not going to lie, this is exactly why I don’t do escape rooms myself!! Ha!

I highly recommend this one, but note TW for bullying, sexual abuse, and claustrophobia (obvi).

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the free copy to review. All opinions above are my own. Pub Date is 7/30/19, you want to get this when it comes out, I promise.

That was some ride! There was all kinds of intrigue and backstabbing going on in this one. Very clever way the author set up the story.

The Escape Room by Megan Goldin is so much more than what the title suggests. I have done many an escape room with my family and had an absolutely fantastic time. However, the characters in this book did not enjoy their time in The Escape Room. This is the first book that I have read by Megan Goldin, and I did like her writing style. It took me a little time to get into this book, but once I did, I couldn't put it down, and it moved quickly.

The book is told alternating between the main character, Sara Hall's point of view, and the third person point of view which details what happens in The Elevator. This style took a bit to get used to, but I do believe that it was the best way to tell the story.

Sara Hall has recently completed her MBA and is looking for a job in investment banking on Wall Street. She is a very likable, generally admirable person. As luck would have it, she meets Vincent, who works at Stanhope, a hedge fund company, in an elevator after a failed interview. Vincent takes an interest in Sara and later hires her to work on his team as an analyst. Vincent's team consists of Jules, Sylvie, and Sam. These four people are greed-driven and vile. I think that Goldin took all the negative, despicable attributes that pertain to Wall Street types and superbly applied them to these four characters. They will do anything they need to do to get ahead, their sole purpose in life is to make money. I loved hating them!

This book loosely reminded me of The Firm. With the idea that the investment banking firm that these characters were working for dictated their entire lives. But the similarity ends there. Goldin throws us a curveball and puts these four people in The Escape Room- The Elevator. The real fun begins when the four are summoned to participate in a team-building exercise, that turns the tables on them in the best way possible. There were some sad parts in this book, but that's all that I am will to say. But don't worry, you 'won't feel sorry for the detestable four.

This is a book that should not be missed. Don't expect a lot of reality, but you will definitely be entertained. I look forward to reading more of Megan 'Goldin's books.

***I kindly received this galley by way of NetGalley/publisher/author. I was not contacted, asked, or required to leave a review. I received no compensation, financial or otherwise. I have voluntarily read this book, and this review is my honest opinion .***

3.75 stars
This was such an entertaining read! It was the perfect book to pick up on a warm relaxing day in July and just lose myself in the action and suspense. It was refreshing to read a thriller that focuses on type A Wall Street bankers rather than psychopathic husbands. I also love escape rooms so enjoyed this clever plot element. Imagine four of the nastiest, most selfish and despicable characters ever, locked in an elevator with no escape. It’s a stack of dynamite waiting to explode!! But who is the master orchestrator of this deadly event??? You’ll have to read The Escape Room to find out...

A gracious thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

5 out of 5 stars

I would like to thank Netgalley and St.Martin's Press for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this wonderful thriller.

When I saw the title of this novel I knew I would want to read it even before I read the blurb about the book. The book weaves a story between the past told to us by Sarah Hall, a recent graduate who is desperate to get a well paying job in the world of finance so that she can take care of her ailing parents and the present with four coworkers trapped in an elevator escape room.

As the story goes on we find begin to find the breadcrumbs that tell us what exactly Vincent, Sylvie,Sam and Jules did to bring them all here together. As they try to figure out the clues to be freed they begin to figure out that there is something insidious about the escape room.

I really enjoyed reading this and often couldn't wait to get back to the novel to find out what would happen next.

As a person who loves escape rooms, I really had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately the only thing exciting about this book was the title. I went in expecting major twists and turns, but was left hanging. The story was just boring. I couldn’t connect to any of the characters. I felt I was being tortured while trying to read this. Overtime “The Escape Room” made me want to escape, but not in a good way. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Welcome to the escape room. Your goal is simple. Get out alive.

In the lucrative world of finance, Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam are at the top of their game. They’ve mastered the art of the deal and celebrate their success in style—but a life of extreme luxury always comes at a cost.

Invited to participate in an escape room as a team-building exercise, the ferociously competitive co-workers crowd into the elevator of a high rise building, eager to prove themselves. But when the lights go off and the doors stay shut, it quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary competition: they’re caught in a dangerous game of survival.

Trapped in the dark, the colleagues must put aside their bitter rivalries and work together to solve cryptic clues to break free. But as the game begins to reveal the team’s darkest secrets, they realize there’s a price to be paid for the terrible deeds they committed in their ruthless climb up the corporate ladder. As tempers fray, and the clues turn deadly, they must solve one final chilling puzzle: which one of them will kill in order to survive?



My Thoughts: Something strange has been going on at Stanhope, and the players in a suspenseful conspiracy are about to find out the price of their secrets and heinous games.

In alternating chapters, we meet the players in a team building game called The Escape Room, but as the players try to figure out the clues, we soon learn that there is much more at stake.

Sara Hall is an alternating character whose story gripped me from the beginning. She had tried hard to get the job at Stanhope, but she never quite fit into the circle, and another character, Lucy, who was brilliant but not one to interact socially, would soon find out what could happen to someone who knows too many secrets.

Rapidly turning pages, it took a while to figure out the layers of the game or the master controlling them all, but when I finally did, I was elated by the beauty of it. 5 stars.

***My e-ARC came from the publisher via NetGalley.

This novel was a pure entertainment read for me, I love a good thriller! Once I started reading, I did not want to put this down. Nicely done with just the right amount of twists and turns. Megan Goldin has created a novel with a unique storyline and great characters to love or hate. What a fun read! Definitely a book to add to your bookshelves!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Megan Goldin for the opportunity and pleasure of reading an advance reader copy of this novel!

The Escape Room by Megan Goldin is one of those thrillers that opens with a prologue completely exposing the ending of the book. We know as readers right away that an elevator is going to open and reveal a complete bloodbath so the question becomes how things got to that point. Now I don’t know about anyone else but I’ve heard of folks that peek at the endings of books before they even begin and I think to myself are you nuts, why spoil the whole book?? Then I pick up a story like The Escape Room and somehow that peeking doesn’t seem as strange as it once did. Instead of completely losing interest now that I know the end I found myself even more curious.

The Escape Room has two very different stories being told simultaneously once you get past the prologue that both take the reader back to two different points in time. One story is of those that walked into that elevator shortly before showing who those characters are and how they got to that point. The other story line takes readers back several years and is told from the point of view of a past co-worker to our doomed elevator crew. Each of these prospectives lead readers to the facts that led to that horrific discovery in their own ways.

Something in the way this story is penned really says something about human nature and the obvious curiosity that comes to the surface when it comes to horrible events. I challenge anyone out there to truly and honestly admit if they’ve come across an accident that they didn’t look and wonder about what happened, we all do it. With the growing popularity of escape rooms and the creepiness of an out of commission elevator the author came up with just the scenario that I couldn’t look away from and found myself flying through this one looking for those hows and whys. Definitely one I’d recommend checking out!

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

I 100% picked up this book because it was pitched as a thriller set in an escape room. What I got was an over-the-top office drama with a side of suspenseful "help, we're trapped in an elevator" shenanigans ... and I'm not even a little angry. Alternating between multiple POVs, as well as jumps between the past and present, The Escape Room is a tense thriller full of backstabbing and revenge set in the slick, high-powered world of Wall Street. Oh yeah, and there's some escape room stuff too.

I just finished The Escape Room & I really enjoyed it. It’s a fast-paced page turner, alternating between a narrative from the past & the current situation, which is 4 people trapped in an elevator “escape room.”
You learn about the crazy life of a top investment banker through the eyes of Sara, from her job search as a poor recent college graduate through her hiring, training, and work at Stanhope & Sons. You also learn about her less-than-admirable colleagues & the length they all go to to close a deal.
The book was an easy read & I had a hard time putting it down. I figured out who was behind it all before it was revealed, but it was still a fun ride. I give it 4.5 stars.

This book was a tough one for me. While I really liked the premise, the writing was at times a miss for me. It read like a first draft that could have benefited from some heavy editing. That being said, I loved the actual story. A bit unbelievable, but sometimes it's fun to suspend belief with a satisfying storyline like this one.

This wasn't my favorite book, but I did have fun reading it! I will definitely check out any future books by Megan Goldin.

Sara Hall finishes her MBA and lands a lucrative job at a Wall Street firm. Jules, Sylvie, Same and Vincent are members of the same firm. and they are sent to a warehouse for a team-building elevator escape room exercise. The story alternates between the two fates until secrets are revealed and justice is meted out.
I can't really tell you anymore about the story without letting more details slip, and this is an elevator ride you are going to want to read about. Full of suspense, characters that you really want to see getting what they deserve, and a fresh storyline make this the perfect book. I cannot recommend this book enough!

Four Wall Street executives enter an elevator on a Friday evening, heading to a meeting that Vincent, Sam, Sylvie and Jules were all called to. The four of them are displeased they’ll be taking part in an escape room activity, considering it’s their weekend.

At first it seems to be going well, but things take a turn for the peculiar. And before long, they can’t stand to be trapped in this small space together. What started out as a plan of revenge quickly turns murderous. Only one of them will make it out alive—the question is who?

The Escape Room by Megan Goldin is a closed room mystery meets revenge thriller. We follow two different perspectives—the four executives in the elevator and Sara Hall, one of their ex-employees. The story becomes increasingly improbable, but I don’t think it’s meant to be realistic. It’s full of unlikable characters and you’re not particularly rooting for anyone in that elevator. This is thrilling with the shock factor, but I didn’t find any of the twists surprising. I enjoy revenge thrillers, but I was left wanting more here. 3/5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Megan Goldin for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This is an amazingly thrilling book! I could not put it down. This is full of twists and intertwining storylines.

What a great book!! I don’t even want to review this because I don’t want to give away any spoilers. I loved the way it was written, each chapter covers two different scenarios, one is happening as the book progresses, the other is the history behind why the current scenario is happening.
In the very beginning I quickly realized I am certainly in the wrong line of career; I should have gone into financial money management. But on the other hand, I’m not sure I could have kept up with their lifestyle. And when my boss recommends an escape room team challenge, I think I will decline or call in sick.
This is an awesome psychological thriller with a strong storyline and well thought out characters. I highly recommend. I could compare this book to two of my favorite movies, but in doing so, I would give something away. Just read it, Sara and Lucy will fully entertain you.
This one comes in with 5*****’s. I thank St. Martin’s Press and Net Galley for allowing me the privilege of reading this book for my honest review.

Not what I was expecting, which isn't a bad thing. Less thriller, more searing commentary on the back-biting and materialism of corporate America. A tale of revenge with a satisfying ending.

This is an excellent thriller through and through. We go back and forth in time between those trapped in the elevator escape room and Sarah Hall. We know the fates of each story line, but as it moves through each, we find ourselves compelled to find out how we're going to get there. In addition to this, solving the puzzles in the escape room along with the characters proves to be an added bonus.