This…..feels like a novel that didn’t even need to be written. The suspense was completely made up and you get a random “twist” at the end to yucky try to wrap things up. Also, why the unnecessary mentions of mask wearing and “because I believe in science”? I get this was supposed to take place during the pandemic but the entire premise of going to stay with friends from high school (who you were never even friends with in the first place!) doesn’t make sense. But then again, that’s about what I expected given the logic. This is my third novel by this author and I have not liked all three. I will call it quits at this one.

I’d give this 2.5-3 stars. It’s very average in every way. I was excited to read this novel because I loved the author’s previous novel, We Were Never Here. However, this one falls far short of expectations.

It’s the story of Kelly, who’s taking some space from her fiancé during Covid. She moves in with an old high school friend and her husband (Sabrina and Nathan). As these three grow closer, Kelly learns that someone close to the couple has gone missing. The book does a good job with the isolated feeling of the pandemic but otherwise it falls flat.

1 star.

"The Spare Room" by Andrea Bartz starts out intriguing enough, but quickly devolves into just the most puzzlingly ridiculous book. It is so absolutely frustrating it's not even funny. This is one of the most annoying books I have ever read. It's a reeeeal stinker. It is disappointing and silly beyond measure. Kelly is such a wretched, desperate, infuriating, horrible character! She ignores every single red flag wave right in her face. She is petulant, absurd, and nothing, not a single thing she does make any freaking sense whatsoever! She is ultra-jealous and suspicious of literally everything while simultaneously being insanely trusting and easy to capitulate! I got whiplash reading this character (actually, this entire book)! The plot isn't even plausible! The relationship Kelly has with Sabrina and Nathan is not convincing in the slightest! Maybe it's because they were all literal freaking strangers with each other!!! The smut and relationship stuff doesn't bother me in the slightest, but it's only added for shock value and isn't ever taken seriously. This is NOT the way to use polyamory in fiction, this is the wrong way to do it. Instead of using a feather-light hand, Bartz is content to pound us over the head with a hammer to make her point. And what, pray tell, IS the point of this book? I have yet to figure that out. This book is terrible and way too slow and way too silly. The twists are dumb, the characters are abysmal, I didn't like this at all.

Thank you to NetGalley, Andrea Bartz, and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the complimentary ARC of this book. I was not compensated for me review. All opinions are my own.

Andrea Bartz’ newest suspenseful pandemic pod drama is pure entertainment. When Kelly’s relationship turns sour during lockdown, her high school friend, Sabrina, and Sabrina’s husband, Nathan, offer Kelly a chance to ride out the COVID wave. While the relationships are a little more than Kelly initially bargained for, she embraces her new lifestyle, and that’s when things start to get twisty, weird, and so all-around amusing. When Kelly finds herself in over her head, and things start to get more sinister than she originally thought, that’s when it really gets fun, and the ending has a twist I didn’t see coming. I loved it!

After her fiancé tells her he needs a break, after months of pandemic lockdown, Kelly needs some where to go and she finds an open invitation from an old classmate that she has recently started talking to over social media. Kelly ends up living with Sabrina and Nathan in a gated community and the sexual tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Our protagonist, who starts out as a weak, please everyone person, really grows in her new surroundings and starts to become a strong woman who can think for herself.

The story really takes some big turns and the twists keep coming. Secrets are revealed and there are a lot of surprises.

Definitely a good mystery thriller read, with a slow build. If you don't mind some erotica thrown in with a domestic thriller that keeps you guessing.

This book is not going to be for everyone. Plain and simple. But if you can appreciate that life and relationships are messy as hell, and certainly never black and white- then this book is definitely for you. It's going to delve into aspects of relationships that a good portion of people find uncomfortable, and to that I say, good, because when you're uncomfortable it means you're learning. At the heart of this, though, is a HELL of a thriller.

Just when you think Bartz has hit you with the plot twist and you think you've figured it out...pull up your panties because you haven't, she hasn't and the hits just keep on coming. You're going to want this book in your bag when you go on your beach vaca this year, I promise.

This was such a mysterious and seductive read. Once you settle in to the story, it doesn’t let go. I had to keep reading to try to figure out what was going on! It’s so bingeable! I did not predict a single thing that happened especially when every character was suspicious. I was also intrigued by how isolation influenced the events that unfolded and thought that brought a unique perspective. I alternated between the audiobook and e-book and enjoyed both formats!

This book was wild but I dug it. It was chaos, claustrophobic and hot. I had no idea where this was going. The characters were unreliable. It was a unique thriller.

Kelly and her fiancé get into an argument during the pandemic and she decides to go stay with a woman she knew from high school and her husband. Her friend is a writer. Kelly loves her writing and sometimes strives to be the character.

There’s an unexpected twist I didn’t see coming, but I was here for. I truly had no idea who to believe and felt like Kelly was a bit dramatic but also easily manipulated and always living in her head.

Definitely go into this one blind.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

i went into THE SPARE ROOM pretty hesitantly. i read WE WERE NEVER HERE back in 2021 and it unfortunately was a miss for me. i am happy to report i LOVED this book!

THE SPARE ROOM is a little less thriller, a little more steamy, domestic thriller. and y’all, it is MESSY. (if there’s one thing i love, there’s other people’s mess.)

the book starts off a little slow burn, but i thought the writing and plot were enticing and easily kept my attention. readers are in for a salacious love triangle, jaw dropping twists, and a backstory that is more sinister than you’ll be able to predict.

i read this one a couple months ago (thanks to my friends at @randomhouse and @netgalley for the digital arc!) but had to get this on y’all’s radar for summer. if you like locked room thrillers, other people’s mess, and a dark and salacious setting, you will enjoy THE SPARE ROOM!

and can we get a little commotion for the cover?!

Oh my sweet Goddess! This book has my attention from the get go. I read it all night. I had to know what happen. Such a delicious escape.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

This book was not at all what I was expecting! It’s about a woman who’s reevaluating her life and upcoming marriage to her fiancé and decides to go stay with an old friend from high school and her husband in their spare room. It takes so many different twists and was really difficult at time to figure out who to believe. I did fine it very entertaining and even sexy at times. If you’re into psychological thrillers, you might consider checking it out!

Quite the page turner. So much is a slow reveal, that it kept me guessing. What is Sabrina's angle? What did Kelly do back in Philly to make Mike want to postpone the wedding? Nathan is skethcy, right? Who is that in the polaroids? What is really going on here? Well, it all gets answered with one twist after another. It's a fun, fast read. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy.

Kelly is devastated when she tells Mike she may go spend time with the friend in Virginia and he says that sounds like a good idea. So she leaves and goes stays with Sabrina and Nathan. It seems her and Mike have had some type of falling out one because she’s done something to upset him and to because he didn’t want to set the date for the wedding. So all she goes to Virginia and Sabrina and Nathan‘s home they’re quite welcoming and seem so super excited to have her there. Kelly and Sabrina were high school friends and Sabrina has turned out to be a great romance writer who Kelly is a big fan of. As time goes by Kelly starts getting creepy feelings and finds dead animals at the gate thinks she hears footsteps in the words but ultimately balls all of this off. She soon starts a relationship with Sabrina and Nathan and they soon become a throttle either being all together or Kelly being with one or the other. When Michael tells her he regrets everything that happened and wants her back Sabrina convinces her that is a bad idea and Kelly goes along with it. She soon finds out there was another girl before her and she went missing… Something else Kelly blows off but soon to find things that she cannot blow off but will it be too late for Kelly? They were many things I didn’t like about the book for one how do I know there was a throuple situation I wouldn’t of read the book number two the way Kelly treated Michael after being so desperate to get back with him made me think even less of her. Number three it seems every time she got a fine she just blew it off and kept going and almost made me feel she deserved whatever happened to her. Usually at the end of the book I am rooting for someone and hope another character gets they are comeuppance the best book I thought I had no one to root for it so the ending Aldo surprising wasn’t as satisfying as I hoped it would be. I’m sure there are many people who would love this book and I really enjoyed her first book whose name I forget but this one not so much. Not only because Kelly wasn’t that bright but also because of all of the sexual escapades I was just not into that but I digress. I received this book from NetGalley in the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review

Oh my gosh I loved this one! I despised the main character, but I think that was intended. This book is full of twists and will keep you guessing until the end!

This was fine.

My first pandemic novel and while the premise sounded fun, it missed the mark for me. The ending seemed thrown together and felt rushed and then the epilogue didn’t really make much sense to me?

It was good in parts, but I couldn’t find myself keeping engaged.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for the digital ARC of “The Spare Room.” The plot was all over the place in this book and Kelly was an unlikeable protagonist. I was confused about the use of Covid in the story because it seemed to be there so that these characters could be quarantined together, however they went out to coffee shops, dinner, and hotels where it didn’t seem to be an issue. Several chapters were devoted to Kelly’s doubts about everything in her life so that by page 200 I was about to give up. The plot twist was unexpected and I did enjoy how this thriller was completely different from others I have read.

I fast paced story to keep you on your toes! Kelly's fiance Mike wants to postpone their wedding date so Kelly decides to take her high school acquaintance Sabrina's invitation to come stay a while with her and her husband Nate in Washington, DC. They have a huge house that is the perfect thing for isolating during lockdown. Kelly gets swept up in Sabrina and Nate's life. She likes the allure of it all. Sabrina is an author of erotic books and Nate works for the DOD. Their lives make Kelly feel electrically charged, but there are secrets in every corner. They invite Kelly into their lives and start a relationship between the three. But soon Kelly starts to wonder who is this mysterious girlfriend Sabrina and Nate had, who has disappeared? Kelly finds dead animals outside of the mansion's locked gate and she doesn't know where they are coming from. Kelly's new friend Megan is also so insistent on getting inside the mansion for unknown reasons. And why are Sabrina and Nate so insist on keeping everything so secret? A great beach read to keep you guessing to the very end! Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the advance ecopy.

This was a sexy little number!

So, this book was a BIT opposite of what’s typical when I read a thriller. I couldn’t put it down for the first 70% or so, and then the last 30% was just ok. I feel like anymore, thrillers feel like they have to have soooo many twists at the end they start early and then just keep going, and going, and going— anyone else feel that way? It really drags out the ending sometimes.

That said, overall I really did enjoy this read and I think it’s a great pick if you enjoy summer thrillers. I like that more COVID books are coming out that are more focused on ‘what if this was your crazy quarantine experience’ more than just everything bad that happening during that time.

This isn’t for everyone. It’s pretty sex-centered so if that isn’t up your alley I’d say skip it. But if that sounds fun to you, then buckle up!

And can we talk about this cover?! It screams summer thriller, right?

This story wasn’t that thrilling. Had more romance in it than thrills. I guessed whodunnit before the twist and the epilogue fell flat as well. Wouldn’t recommend to others.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I knew I had to read this book after reading we were never here by the same author last year. I was excited to be approved to read it on NetGalley, and I also had an advanced listening copy from @PRHaudio. This one did not disappoint. This author knows how to grab your attention and keep it throughout the book. Her topics and style are so unique I cannot really compare it to other works. This one does have a mystery in it and it’s a thriller, but overall it’s more of a drama, coming of age, somewhat shocking story about a young woman who is going through a lot of changes in her life. On another note I loved the setting of northern Virginia/Washington DC as that is my old stomping grounds.

Synopsis:

Kelly’s new life in Philadelphia has turned into a nightmare: She’s friendless and jobless, and the lockdown has her trapped in a tiny apartment with the man she gave up everything for, who’s just called off their wedding. The only bright spot is her newly rekindled friendship with her childhood friend Sabrina—now a glamorous bestselling author with a handsome, high-powered husband.

When Sabrina and Nathan offer Kelly an escape hatch, volunteering the spare room of their remote Virginia mansion, she jumps at the chance to run away from her old life. There, Kelly secretly finds herself falling for both her enchanting hosts—until one night, a wild and unexpected threesome leads the couple to open their marriage for her.

At first, Kelly loves being part of this risqué new world. But when she discovers that the last woman they invited into their marriage is missing, she starts to wonder if they could be dangerous . . . and if she might be next.