This had potential, but the characters were just too unlikeable and the story started dragging very quickly. Jess, the main character, constantly lies and judges the other characters for their life choices. Maybe this could have been better with younger characters, maybe in the new adult category. Jess was definitely immature enough that it wouldn't have been outrageously difficult to just make her younger. But for a story revolving around actual adults it was fairly ridiculous and far-fetched. I consider it somewhat of a miracle that I finished this book, although I started skim-reading after ten or so chapters.

The Spare Bedroom is a fun, easy read which centres around Jess who has moved from the UK to Sydney in hopes to start fresh. However, she happens to bump into her ex-boyfriend (Sam) who invites her to stay with him while she gets things sorted, yet Sam lives with his new Sydney girlfriend who seems to be everything Jess couldn't be.
Jess was often making decisions that as a reader we knew were wrong, however, I felt that Elizabeth's writing meant I felt connected to Jess and completely understood why she kept doing what she was doing, even if I did want to tell Jess to stop. Throughout the book I was constantly rooting for Jess and really wanted everything to work out for her in her new life away from the UK. Furthermore, I also really liked the smaller characters in this book and felt connected to them, they really added a nice element seeing Jess' friendships develop with these people. The only person I wasn't a great fan of was Zoe, Jess' friend from home who did not seem to bother with Jess as much now she had moved away.
The book also centred around art and paintings, I really enjoyed reading about jobs in the art world, something I am not so familiar with myself!
Elizabeth ended the book perfectly and it is also worth reading her authors note at the end, which was a really nice touch to see why she had the idea for the book!

I really wanted to read this book but have to sat read first 3 chapters and was very disappointed. Unfortunately I could not read any more as I found the book too slow and dull.
I was expecting the book to be an easy read for a lazy sunday,afternoon, however this was.Not what,I was looking for in the book. Something was missing right at the beginning

I think it's one of those book you love or hate and I don't love.
Even if there's a lot of potential I couldn't connect to the main characters that I found unlikeable and the story didn't keep my attention.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Neep’s debut novel holds a lot of promise, with a truly intriguing premise: 27-year-old Jess bumps into her ex-boyfriend Sam (her first and only love) whilst on an unsuccessful adventure in Sydney having not seen him for three years. With nowhere to stay, he offers her to stay in his spare room…though it turns out he is living with a new partner. The book follows Jess on her journey to save Sam from making a seemingly huge mistake, and attempt to put her own life in order.
The Spare Bedroom has all the ingredients of a great book – a protagonist you want to root for, a story which navigates between the past and present, and a colourful cast of supporting characters. However, it’s hard to get on board with the book when the main character is unlikable. While other lead characters who make mistakes and assumptions are fun to be around and forgivable, Jess’ actions are almost cringe-worthy and I feel a huge sense of ‘The Cringe’ when reading what she decides to do. Of course, these downs are what help to create her eventual growth, but they are really inexcusable and laughably predictable.
The story includes several Christian characters, and I can’t work out if they are well-written or stereotypical. I am not a Christian myself so wouldn’t want to say anything out of place, but the way they interact with their religion feels base-level, though maybe that is because we are seeing them through the eyes of Jess.

Overall, an easy read, though not as gripping or contemporary as others from the same genre.

Thanks to Net Galley/ Bookouture for the advance digital copy in return for an honest review.

This book was a quick easy read. Although there were a few twists in it the story overall was quite predictable and did not keep me interested. Very convuluted.

Readers will identify with main character Jess – because who can’t help liking the authenticity of a protagonist who just doesn’t quite manage to achieve the dream that so many books will have you believe is the reality we’re meant to be striving for!

Jess is an aspiring (sounds better than struggling) artist. She’s never managed to get over a break-up that happened three years ago and has decided that a fresh start is just what she needs. So she heads off to Australia and a new life – where she’s expecting sunshine and better prospects. Only she arrives to torrential rain and discovers that the accommodations she’s organised has fallen through. Not quite sure what to do at this unexpected turn of events, Jess heads to the nearest shops and who should she bump into but Mr-Ex-from-three-years-ago – Sam – the one she never got over!

Now … at this point, I thought, ‘hang on a sec, isn’t this highly (like extremely highly) unlikely?’ And then … ‘surely she had an inkling, seeing as she never got over him, so obviously was keeping up with his whereabouts, that there was a possible chance that she knew that Sam had moved to Australia?’ But I persevered! I’m pleased that I did.

One thing leads to another (no, not like that!!), and they chat and sort of catch up which then leads to Sam offering Jess a place to stay, which she reluctantly accepts. He happens to leave out the fact that his current girlfriend also lives with him!! Oh. Dear!

Just when Jess thought things couldn’t get any worse! But she picks herself up and realises she needs to make the most of the situation she’s in. She’s not always successful at making the best of things, and I found myself cringing at the knots she tied herself into. But I also smiled in recognition of the attempts Jess made to right the wrongs she absolutely knew she was heading straight into, almost as soon as she careened into them, unable to stop herself!

She’s a good soul though and she so desperately wants to get her life on the right track. With the help of the right friends, and in essence, herself and her inner strength, which she just needed a little help and encouragement in finding, Jess eventually starts to sort her life out and sets herself on the journey she was always meant to be on.

Ultimately, although this book might sound like a light rom-com, it’s all about finding yourself and becoming the person who you’re meant to be: someone who you can be proud of and who can stand on her own two feet.

Another highly recommended 4-star read for these hectic times we currently find ourselves in.

I don't know quite how I feel about this but it's not all good news.

I really didn't warm to Jess at all. She's judgemental, for one, but she's also a big liar. She white lies her way out of situations for the majority of this book, which I didn't appreciate at all. I would have loved to see Jess take some responsibility, but alas.

I also found it odd she ended up in Australia with no plan and no money – it's something not really heard of these days. Do some damn research, gurl.

I DNF'd this at about 30%. It just wasn't for me. But thank you to the publisher for giving me the chance to try it out.

An entertaining rom-com with a difference…

Looking at the cover for The Spare Bedroom,you’d automatically expect a fun and uplifting, will they won’t they rom-com, and whilst it is that, there’s also a hidden layer to it that’s not quite as light-hearted – as our leading lady, jess, goes on a rather touching, sometimes sad journey of self-discovery.

Moving from London to Sydney to get over her ex and live a little more independently doesn’t quite go as according to plan for Jess when she finds herself homeless, jobless and absolutely drenched by Sydney’s rain – oh, and just to add one last cruel twist of fate – bumps into that so called ex, Sam!

Is this your typical run-of-the-mill love story, with the happily-ever-after ending? Well, I’ll let you find out for yourself. What I can say is that Neep has not only created quite the love triangle, but also a tale of two faces. One side of this book is a joyously fun and witty romantic comedy, yet on the other side is a heartrending tale of the struggles that go alongside crippling heartbreak.

I really enjoyed watching how Jess and Sam’s story played out, as well as discovering their past history. Jess is a strong and brave character – frustrating from time to time – who many of us will be able to relate to in terms of character and situation, which I really think draws a reader in, being able to sympathise with her. She’s rather a complex character, but one you come to care for and root for rather deeply as the story progresses and the more you understand of her.

The Spare Bedroom is split into three parts; the first part of the story I found to have a slower pace, the building up of characters and their relationships which was perfectly understandable, but I soon settled in – the writing style came across as rather ‘chatty’ which I liked as it almost felt I was among friends and, as for the ending, well it’s a certainly not clear cut or predictable for this genre. In fact, bittersweet is the word I’d use to best sum up this novel. I also enjoyed reading the letter to the reader at the end of the novel about how the story-line came about for Neep.

The Spare Bedroom is an enjoyable, uplifting and motivational tale to whisk away with for a few hours. There’s many life lessons and moments of truth that speak out to the reader and which ultimately leave you with that feeling of contentment.

I really wanted to enjoy this book but I just couldn’t, the main character stays in the house of her ex-boyfriend and his current girlfriend but is still lusting after him which for me was just wrong on so many levels. The character was a whiny, spoilt and selfish brat!

I really hope others can find enjoyment in this but it definitely wasn’t for me

It was beginning to feel like another lifetime ago. But it wasn’t another life, it was a chapter of mine, and a good one. Now I was beginning to allow the pages to turn on.

I LOVED this book.
During this pandemic crazy time, the quick, flirty & fun romance novels have been giving me life and I was overly impressed by this debut title by Elizabeth Neep.

Jess is a heart broken twenty something just trying to find her place in the world, literally. As everyone around her seems to have it all together, she just seems to step all over herself and fail... until Sydney. Jess runs into her ex boyfriend, Sam after moving to a new country with no job, no home and nowhere to go next. So naturally, she moves in with him into his spare bedroom, in the house she shared with his now fiancé.

Is it fate? Or will Jess mess this up for herself too? Will her newfound life turn into what should've been? Will she finally find her place in the world, giving her everything she ever dreamed of?

Elizabeth Neep nailed it with this one, with a great plot and characters who kept it interesting and incredibly relatable for me. I FELT for Jess, every step of the way & she had me cheering her on through the very end!

I highly recommend this title - as Elizabeth herself says in the letter to to the reader - it's a book for who anyone who feels like they're trying, and FAILING - the book may not have the answers, but it's a feel good story worth reading for a fabulous pick me up!

If you've ever been stuck in a rut, making wrong choices all the time - then this is the novel for you!

Jess set off for the other side of the world hoping for a fresh start; with her career having stuttered to a halt and a seeming inability to move on from her last relationship which ended three years ago, a new beginning sounds like the ideal motivation. However, when her promised accommodation falls through and she finds herself roaming the streets of Sydney jobless, homeless and - let's face it - not exactly looking her best in the pouring rain, the last person she expects to meet is the aforementioned ex . . .

This is very different to other rom-coms I've read of late, and it took me a bit of time to get into it. I dithered between getting frustrated at Jess's decisions and understanding them. However, this is a book well worth sticking with as the story must apply to so many and isn't all hearts and roses but an extremely well thought out tale. With some ups and a lot more downs, the author keeps the story flowing well and moving on without glossing over the more difficult times and it's not only an enjoyable read but a very thoughtful one too. It's definitely worth carrying on to find out why Elizabeth Neep wrote the novel; I felt everything clicked into place when I read that! Touching, funny and enjoyable this is one I'm very happy to give four stars.

Thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

This book was a lot deeper than I expected it to be but I really enjoyed it. I was expecting a light a fluffy rom-com, and while it still had humour to it, it wasn't as romance heavy as I assumed.

The Spare Bedroom follows Jess as she moves from London to Sydney in the hopes of getting her life back on track after a rough breakup. She doesn't expect to run into her ex Sam, especially not while having a mini crisis. When he offers her his spare bedroom, she starts to think maybe their break-up wasn't as permanent as she thought...

I often felt frustrated with Jess, as she only saw what she wanted to see rather than what was actually in front of her, but I felt for her as a character. I could understand why she was feeling the way she was and was rooting for her to get a happy ending.

The side characters in this book were fantastic - I loved Josh and Alice! it was lovely to see Jess grow as a person throughout this book and finally make her dreams come true as she made peace with the past.

The ending made me tear up - it was the perfect conclusion to the story.

I would have loved an epilogue though, but I guess the ending let you make your own assumptions which is fine.

I would recommend this if you like chick-lit with a bit of depth and reading about characters growing.

Huge thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

If there's one thing that this Ginger Book Geek likes, it's discovering new authors. I especially love discovering new authors, who write escapist, light hearted, funny stories, with more than a dash of humour. I read the synopsis for 'The Spare Bedroom' and it certainly sounded as though it ticked all the boxes. Oh boy, 'The Spare Bedroom' was one hell of a read, which I thoroughly enjoyed but more about that in a bit.
I picked 'The Spare Bedroom' up at the perfect time. I was feeling a little low for various reasons and in need of a distraction. 'The Spare Bedroom' was certainly a distraction, which took me away from the stress and made me chuckle several times. It was just the tonic that I needed. I fell under this book's spell from the moment I picked the book up and stayed there under that spell until the moment I read the last word on the last page. It totally immersed myself into the story and I found it impossible to put the book down. It wasn't exactly glued to my hand but it might as well have been because it travelled everywhere with me. I couldn't bear to miss a single second of the story. I had a distinct 'fear of missing' something. I really took to the character of Jess and it didn't take me long to feel as though she had become a friend of mine. I just had to know what fate had in store for her and so I turned over the page with increasing urgency. At one point the pages were turning that quickly that the page numbers seemed to blur. All too quickly I reached the end of the story and I had to bid farewell to Jess.
'The Spare Bedroom' is brilliantly written. The author has one of those writing styles that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with. In fact reading this book felt more like a chat between friends. I hope that makes sense. The story is told using two different timelines. The first timeline features what is happening in Jess' life in the present day and the second timeline details what happened in the run up to her relationship breaking down. The different timelines interlink really well and the story flows seamlessly as a result. I haven't chuckled as much whilst reading a book as I did reading this one. I loved it!
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading 'The Spare Bedroom' and I would definitely recommend this book to other readers. I will be reading more of Elizabeth's work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

Searching for a new start, Jess finds herself on the other side of the world with no place to stay, no job and a broken heart she just can't shake.

So who does she find herself face to face with? Sam, that's right, the ex boyfriend who she hasn't quite gotten over.

However, Sam fails to mention the fact he lives with Jamie, his seemly perfect fiancèe! Awkward!! Jess's "I'll only stay for one week" turns into longer and Sam seems happy to have her around again, but are they "just friends" or could this be her chance to win him back?

Jess's life in Sydney may not turn out the way she had hoped in the end. But she still manages to come out on top.

I think we can all relate to Jess a little bit, which makes this book that bit more enjoyable to read. She's a character you just can't help but root for!

A heart warming and feel good read! Elizabeth Neep has written a lovely debut novel.

SO much fun! Elizabeth Neep’s debut is uplifting and charming. An engaging romcom with a wonderful life lesson. Jess needed a fresh start so she packed her bags and headed to Australia. But her accommodations weren’t exactly what she was expecting. So when by some crazy coincidence she runs into her ex-boyfriend in a grocery store in Sydney she takes him up on his offer to stay in his spare bedroom. Jess is thinking perhaps they are destined to get back together, that is until she finds out he is living with his fiancé. Not wanting her life to look quite as tragic as it is Jess starts to spin some tales and tell some lies, that keep digging her into a deeper hole. Not to mention she is still kind of convinced that she and Sam will eventually get back together. What follows is a lighthearted fun story with some moments of truth.

This story was just tons of fun. Just what I needed a book to whisk me away to Australia and to deal with someone else’s Hot mess. Jess was likable and relatable, but boy did the girl make some big mistakes. There was so many times I wanted to reach through the pages and talk some sense to her. But I really think Jess had to live through all of this to come out of it with a good understanding. That’s what I liked most about this book, we really got to see what happened after everything hit the fan. A fun storyline, a beautiful setting, and engaging real characters. I am super excited to see what is up next from this debut author.

This book in emojis 🏖 🏄 💍 🎨 ☕️

*** Big thank you to Bookouture for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

I don’t know that I would label this as a RomCom, but I’m not sure what other genres it would fit into either. There’s a love triangle, and there are some truly comedic moments. However, it ultimately is more about the growth of the main character, Jess, who finds out the hard way that you have to hit rock bottom to build yourself back up. Once I wrapped my head around that, and read the rest of the book from that perspective, I enjoyed it much more. For a full review, please see my blog at Fireflies and Free Kicks. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for a digital ARC of the book.

This book isn't horrible, it just isn't my cup of tea. I really wish I could give this book a higher rating, but when looking at this book as a whole, I just can't. I love reading women's fiction books especially ones that have some humor thrown in the mix, too. So when I read the description of this book, I couldn't wait to start reading it. Especially since the book is recommended for fans of one of my favorite rom-com movies, "My Best Friend's Wedding", but I felt like the book was way too similar to the movie with the exception of changing the character's names, the setting, and the very end of the book.
"The Spare Bedroom" is about Jess, an aspiring artist from London who has recently moved to Sydney, Australia in search of sun, the beach, and a fresh-start at life. Only things don't start off the way she was hoping. The job offerings are dismal, the friend-of-a-friend she was supposed to stay with doesn't work out, which leaves her jobless, homeless, and feeling defeated. The last thing she expects is running into her "maybe one day" ex, Sam, who seems to be just as excited to see Jess. He offers her his spare bedroom to stay in while she's "waiting for her non-existent place to be renovated and her non-existent job to start in a week or two." While Jess may have stretched the truth, Sam forgets to mention the fiancé that he lives with, and their wedding that is just a little over 2 months away.
As the past and all it's baggage come flooding back, Jess can't help but feel that her dreams of "maybe one day" with Sam might be possible.
I really wanted to love the main character, Jess, and I was rooting for her in the beginning, but didn't like how she kept pursuing Sam, even after it was clearly apparent that he loved his new fiancé, Jamie. Yes, Sam may have sent mixed signals to Jess, and possibly led her on a little bit but there's still girl-code, plus Jamie, the new fiance was being so warm and welcoming to Jess, her soon-to-be husband.
The one character I really loved was Alice, a friend/next door neighbor of Sam and Jamie's. She showed Jess that all humans make mistakes but that's doesn't automatically make them horrible people. It just meant that no one's perfect, mistakes happen, but there's no need to keep dwelling on past mistakes.
"The Spare Bedroom" isn't a bad book, it's just not a favorite of mine, but that's my opinion. So I'm not going to say don't read it because the book does have some key lessons about life in it. I would recommend this book if you or someone you know needs the lesson of "humans make mistakes, that no one is and that's ok, but there's no need to keep dwelling on it and the past".

I received a free digital galley from Bookouture via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately I really couldn’t connect with the main characters of this one, I loved the side characters but if I don’t care about how the main characters are, then it’s hard to remain interested. The story and it’s main premise were interesting, but I just found them unlikeable, I’m sure others will enjoy this but just not me.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I can honestly say that this book was a nice chick lit story! It was an easy read that I read in a few days which was nice during these stressful times (COVID-19).

I enjoyed this book even though the main character was a bit annoying at times! I also enjoyed that the book went from year to year. The authors writing style was interesting and I would probably read another book written by her!

I would recommend this book to someone looking for a new chick lit story!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced digital copy of this book!