This twisty story alternates between 1988 and 2019. We have Sadie in 2019 a down on her luck actress hired to be a character in a murder mystery party at Raven hall. Beth in 1988 goes to temporary live at raven hall as a companion to the family’s teen daughter at Raven hall . Multi generational secrets and lies abound in this compulsive read

A mansion, rich people, an orphan, and a game gone wrong. This modern gothic is atmospheric, twisty, and full of thought-provoking characters. I loved it.

The Perfect Guests is a steadily paced, twisty story. Unfortunately, I found the twists predictable and I think that impacted how enjoyable I found the overall story.

The story is told in two timelines, one following Beth as she arrives at Raven Hall as a young teenager in the 80s, the other following Sadie in 2019 as she arrives at Raven Hall to play a role in a murder mystery party. There was also a third, anonymous POV that speaks up every few chapters. I thought the multiple POVs and timelines were well done. Though I did think Beth’s chapters were a little more interesting, I was never that upset when it was time to shift over to Sadie.

There are many twists and turns revealed throughout the story. I thought they were placed effectively, but there was exactly only one twist that I didn’t guess far before it was revealed. I thought they were all really predictable to anyone paying attention and so I never really felt any tension or suspense. It made this feel more like a Women’s Fiction story to me than a Mystery/Thriller.

Overall, The Perfect Guests was just ok for me. I thought the multiple POVs and timelines were well done, but was a little disappointed in how predictable I found the mystery. If you’re able to just enjoy a story as it goes without trying to predict anything about the mystery, you will probably enjoy this one a little bit more than I did.

Overall Rating (out of 5): 3 Stars

This was an enjoyable and very quick read. It hits all the right thriller themes but I feel like it was way over the top. The book doesn't reveal it's secrets until the very end so the beginning is a little confusing as you seem to be missing some of the story. I did like the element of the combination of the murder dinner party guests and the old history of the house but then it convolved into a very messy but dramatic ending.

Beth comes to Raven Hall as a companion for The Averell's daughter Nina in 1988. She is greeted with open arms and made part of the family. After a little while there, Beth starts to notice that things aren't what they seem. The grand house holds so many secrets and when the truth comes out everything could come crashing down.
Sadie is a struggling actress and she is invited to Raven Hall for a mystery theatre performance. When she gets there and meets the other characters, she realizes things are off. She was hoping to make some friends and be greeted openly and warmly, and what she got was a cast of characters that have many secrets.
The story toggles between three POV, Beth, Sadie and Leonora, but at the beginning of the book you don't realize how these people are interconnected. As the story starts to unfold, the reader starts to understand that everything is related.
I really enjoyed this thriller because I had no idea what was going to happen. I went in thinking I would read a little bit and ended up finishing the book because I really wanted to know all the answers to the questions reeling through my mind. Thank you to Berkley,Netgalley and the author for an early copy of this book.

From the start I was very intrigued. This is my first book from author, Emma Rous, and she does a phenomenal job setting the scene and building characters. Each chapter alternated between Beth, a teenager living in the house as a guest in the late 80s and Sadie, an aspiring actress in 2019 who is invited to play a part in the grand reopening of the mansion.

Beth's chapters are filled with backstories about the odd behavior of the inhabitants of Raven Hall she experienced when she lived there. Sadie's chapters are filled with more odd characters who somehow have a connection to the house's past. How do they all fit together?

I was wholly sucked into this mystery. I can't say enough how the duel timelines really made this fun. Each page turn lead me deeper into the mystery and I could not for the life of me connect the dots. Then came the climax and ending and I was left with a feeling of emptiness.

The ending came fast and felt rushed. It seemed quite far-fetched and unbelievable. It was so unexpected, but I felt completely let down.

Despite the ending, I did enjoy this book as a whole. It was a wild journey that I would absolutely read again and recommend to everyone. A solid 4 1/2 star read!

The Perfect Guests by Emma Rous is due to be released here in the United States on January 12, 2021 so pre-order now!

Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for allowing me an advanced copy to read and give my honest review.

Happy Reading!

Tense, atmospheric and twisty-turny as fuck. Some twists I saw coming, and some took me by surprise. That last twist though. Whew.

Moral of the story: never accept a mysterious invitation to a murder mystery dinner party (or, let's be real, any dinner party) at an isolated mansion. Even if you are getting paid out of the blue to do it. Maybe especially not if you are getting paid out of the blue to do it.

I'm not going to go into details, but let's just say that the tense atmosphere of the dual timelines ever lets up, and while the actual show-down is anti-climatic, the dramatic reveals and familial twists are deliciously wild.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review

A solid 4-star mystery thriller set in a Gothic house in the dark of England's fens where a family mystery is waiting for its unveiling to be discovered. Inside this novel, 3 points of view are shared that give clues to the mystery contained within its pages that you must unravel to reveal Raven Hall's truth.

Nina lives at Raven Hall with her mom and dad; Beth is an orphan who recently lost her brother and parents in a car crash. Her aunt caroline is very busy with work, so Beth has been living in an orphanage until her aunt collects to live at Raven Hall with strangers. We are led to believe that the family wanted a companion for their daughter, who suffers from some severe illness. Then Beth meets Jonas, Nina's best friend, instantly connects and soon falls in love with him. Then the grandfather comes to visit, but Nina is too sick to meet him, so the parents kindly ask Nina to dress up and pretend to be their daughter. Beth, not wanting to be sent back to the orphanage, is wholly willing to do whatever it takes to stay at Raven Hall.

In 2019, we met Sadie, who is struggling to keep a job and gladly excepts the position of trying out a murder mystery party at Raven Hall for a weekend. She discovers that 30 yrs ago there was a terrible accident and the house has been abandoned ever since. Soon the past and the future collide in a wildly unexpected way.

The novel ended up being a four for me as the mystery of how the past and present connected began to get convoluted. I almost had to get out paper to keep track of all the information that was being revealed. The twists and turns of how everything is connected are quite cleverly done, and some of it I did not see coming at all. I like the history piece that talks about how the book comes around, and I felt the discussion questions at the back help me write this review and process the whole story. This author is a brilliant writer, and I would like to read more by her.

I really loved this book in a new to me author. The characters and location really and to the story. I can't wait to read the next one. This book keeps you guessing until the end.

I'm not going to tell you how the stories of Beth and Sadie come together because that would spoil the fun of this twisty tale of an orphan and an actress both set at the somewhat creepy Raven Hall in Norfolk. In 1988, Beth, then 14, was brought to the hall to serve as a companion to Nina which is great, sort of until it's not. In 2019, Sadie, an actress desperate for work, is hired to play a part in a murder mystery weekend. Oh and there's a third young woman. Sssh. Sadie quickly discovers that not all is well at Raven Hall- there's strange stuff and it's not quite right. Rous has done a nice job of creating the atmospherics for both time frames. There's a link here and maybe you will figure out why the guests were invited to the 2019 party before I did but if you do- don't tell anyone. The ending of this is a bit out there but I had a very good time reading it. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's a page turner.

Huge thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this novel in return for an honest review.

This is the best mystery/thriller I've read in a very very long time and it has definitely renewed my faith in the genre.

The story follows 3 different perspectives over time -- one in the 1980s of Beth, an orphan invited to be a live-in companion for a girl residing in a grand mansion in the countryside; one in 2019 of Sadie, an actress who is invited to play a murder mystery game at the very same grand mansion; and one unlabeled perspective of a woman trying to regain ownership of -- you guessed it -- the same mansion, Raven Hall.

As the story unfolds, we're treated to a romp that is part domestic drama, part locked-room mystery, and part soap-opera kitsch, resulting in a delightful amalgam of secrets, heartbreak, and betrayal that left me thoroughly sated by the end.

While rotating perspectives is a common thriller trope that often leaves me bored of one storyline or another, Rous does a wonderful job of balancing the perspectives to keep each of them interesting in their own way, gradually mixing in revelations that start to weave a larger web to show us how everything connects in the end. And while I wish the motives and stakes were a little more extreme than they ended up being, I actually felt refreshed that this wasn't one of those typical thrillers nowadays that rely solely on one massive twist to create some semblance of an entertaining plot. I appreciated the gradual buildup, the final image coming together like a satisfying puzzle you put together piece by piece.

It's definitely not revolutionary, but it was entertaining and well worth the read. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys classic Agatha Christie-esque mysteries and remote manor-type settings. I look forward to reading other books by this author and definitely won't be giving up on thrillers/mysteries any time soon!

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and Netgalley for providing me with an advance review copy in exchange for my honest review.

After the tragic death of her parents and brother and subsequent move into an orphanage, Beth finds herself at Raven Hall, the family manor of the Averells who accept Beth as a foster child and companion to their similarly-aged daughter, Nina. Beth feels like she's finally found some semblance of family when Nina's mother asks her for a favor that involves deception.

The reader is also introduced to Sadie, a struggling actress, who has just landed a dream gig: she is to be paid handsomely to play the role of a young woman looking for employment at a murder mystery dinner at the newly refurbished Raven Hall. At first she is awed by the glamour of the house, but quickly becomes suspicious of her surroundings when odd things start to happen.

This is the first book I've read by Rous, and I really enjoyed her writing style. I especially liked the flashback scenes revolving around Beth's time at Raven Hall and was particularly interested in her storyline. The description of this book drew me in, and I loved the mystery aspect.

I found the alternating viewpoints/timelines (of which there are three) to have a bit of an awkward flow, however, and I felt that the transitions were clumsy. Beth's storyline had a great flow and was easy to follow. Sadie's storyline, however, read more like a locked room mystery, and it was much more difficult to focus on its progression given the constant switching back and forth between viewpoints.

I really enjoyed this one up until the last quarter of the novel. There was steady rising action, and I was very curious as to how it would all wrap up and come together (as the reader can only anticipate from the start that Sadie and Beth's storylines somehow become intertwined). The last quarter of the book, however, was full of abrupt transitions and several absurd reveals that bordered on the melodramatic. I felt like I got whiplash from the constant changes, and it was frustrating that such good rising energy fell flat in the end. Additionally, I felt that I never really connected to or became invested in any of the characters- no one was particularly likeable or unlikeable in this one.

Though this book wasn't for me, I think those who enjoy nonlinear timelines and dramatic reveals after a steady slow burn may enjoy this one.

Note to publisher: I will not be posting this review on my Instagram (@shelfshocked) given my rating, however will post a feature with synopsis on pub day.

Secrets and lots of them solid 4 stars for sure.

A woman so obsessed with a house she'll do anything for it.
This has so many turns, twists and surprises I didn't see half of them coming.

I recommend to all who like the twisty Gothic stories.

My thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In 1988, 14 year old. Beth Soames was taken to Raven Hall to live temporarily, after her parents died. Her aunt Caroline traveled for business and the family that lived at Raven Hall had a daughter Nina who was Beth's age. What started out as a temporary situation turned permanent, and Nina and Beth became the best of friends. She truly felt like a part of their family, and in return they just asked her to play a part in an innocent little game.

In 2019, struggling actress. Sadie Langton gets a well-paying gig to pretend to be a guest at a weekend party. All she has to do is put on fancy clothes, eat a lot of delicious foods, and get photographed doing so. They are to promote a new murder mystery tour at Raven Hall. But when she gets there, she gets the feeling she is being watched, and things start happening that make it apparent the game is real after all.

This book was SO good. I love this author's books and this may be her best one yet. It kept me guessing until the very end, and just when you thought you had uncovered all of the secrets, she throws in a surprise in the very last chapter. I highly recommend this for all the mystery lovers out there!

The Perfect Guests by Emma Rous is a mystery thriller. The story line revolves around two POV’s (there is a third but only few without identification); and switches back and forth between two years; 1988 and 2019.

In 1988, Beth Soames, who is 14 years old, arrives at Raven Hall as a companion to the Averell family’s daughter Nina, as her aunt makes an agreement for her to stay there. Beth will become close friends with Nina, and the family (Lenora & Markus) treats her like one of their own. Beth also meets the local boy, Jonas, and with Nina the three of them spend a lot of time together. After a bit, Beth is surprised when the family asks her to pretend to be Nina (who is under the weather), when the grandfather comes to visit. Beth does not understand when the same thing happens a few times when there are more visits over time. Beth wonders why is Nina getting sick when company comes? Is someone poisoning her?
In 2019, we meet Sadie Langton, a struggling actress, who out of the blue is offered to be a guest at a weekend party, with everyone playing different parts in a murder mystery. Though it is a strange request, Sadie does need money, and accepts the invitation; for which she receives instructions and fancy clothes to play the part, as well as a chauffeured car to the mansion. She arrives at Raven Hall, which has been restored to its old glory, from a fire, decades ago, and slowly meet the other 7 guests who have been invited to Raven Hall and playing the expected part.
After the first evening, Sadie begins to suspect that something is off, and when one person disappears, the story becomes more chilling, as someone is playing games with them. All the other guests start sensing something wrong, with the suspense escalating, especially with many of them beginning to feel ill.
The third POV was somewhat confusing, as it was a woman’s thoughts in present time, and until we get closer to the end, we begin to realize how the two main POV’s tied together. To tell too much more would be spoilers, and ruin the mystery.
What follows is an intense, exciting mystery that has a guessing as we reach the wild conclusion. The Perfect Guests was filled with twists throughout, tying all three POV’s together, as well as the guests, with many secrets, lies and revenge. I will say I was a bit confused at times nearer to the end, but this was a very intriguing story. The Perfect Guests was very well written by Emma Rous.

Told in duel timelines, this old-school mystery tells the tale of Beth, an orphaned teenage girl in the late 1980s who is taken to live with the Avernell family in a grand old mansion known as Raven Hall, and Sadie, a strugglng actress who gets a gig to participate in a murder-mystery party at Raven Hall thirty years later. Lots of creepy things happen in both timelines, until slowly the bigger picture--and the connections between Sadie and Beth--start to come into focus. I couldn't put this book down! If you're looking for a solid, gripping mystery that will keep you guessing (and keep surprising you) until the end, this is it!

Part gothic domestic thriller, part locked room mystery, there’s plenty for fans of either to find in this book. Beth is taken from a children’s home in the eighties to be the companion of a girl her her age. However, once she gets to Raven Hall, the things asked of her are a little suspect. In the present day, several guests have been invited to Raven Hall to play a game, but under false pretenses. There are a few twists that keep the reader guessing.

The Perfect Guests is the perfect winter read. It's a twisty, turning murder mystery within a murder mystery. It's definitely one that you can't put down, and it kept me guessing until the end. Even when I thought I knew exactly what was going to happen, there were still some surprises for me. Even the most seasoned thriller reader will be pleasantly surprised. Highly recommended for fans of Ruth Ware and Paula Hawkins.

Twist-filled, Gothic sort of mystery, set at a great British estate-style home. Two timelines set decades apart tell the tale of Raven Hall, with a soap opera’s worth of family secrets. There were way too many characters and I really wanted to get into the murder mystery weekend game set in the present, but as with this entire book, the weekend party goes off the rails. Back and forth with a weird nameless narrator in between, this book should have sucked the reader right in, but it was a mishmash of plot twists and odd motives.

The Perfect Guests was not perfect but it was a nice break from what I normally read. The alternating perspectives between characters and time periods nicely built into a culminating reveal in which all the answers to the mysteries of Beth and Sadie and their relationship to Raven Hall and the Averells were explained. And while nothing was SHOCKING! I did find the way all of the pieces fit together very interesting. I think what was lacking for me was a true exploration of why this place was *the thing* that motivated some decisions--I just didn't feel that connection between house and person as a deep and abiding reason for many actions and therefore while I thought it was an interesting idea, it just didn't hit me like the slap in the face that I like when I'm reading psychological fiction. Instead, I found myself feeling sorrow for some characters and head-tilting, I don't get it, with others. Overall, though, it was something different for me and I'm always up for that.