Well, I think that this one kind of disappointedly me. The blurb came across like this was a thriller which made me so excited to read but in all honesty that was only a few chapters in the book. The real story here is about domestic relationships. The writing about the pandemic actually went too far and was really overdone by the author and the protagonist was a mess this time. I have read another of Bartz’s books and thoroughly enjoyed it. But this one was lacking something. Maybe it was how the protagonist was whiny or the relationships with other characters was too over emotional. Either way I really wanted to love this one but sadly, did not.

2 out of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley as well as the author and publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.
The Spare Room is a very hard read for me to review. I had a solid time reading it, I really enjoyed the twists and turns of the thriller portion, but a lot of the characters fell flat for me. I also didn't love the setting of the earlier stages of the pandemic. The first half of the book fell more in the domestic half of domestic thriller, verging more on a romance/women's fiction type story following Kelly trying to find herself and figure out her relationships. I enjoyed the writing and I enjoyed the overall story.

2.5 stars. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The story takes place during the COVID lockdown. Kelly and her live-in fiancé are having relationship issues and Kelly shares her story with a former high school friend who is now bestselling romance novelist. When Sabrina offers Kelly a spare room with her and her husband, Kelly moves on in and stays although they are extremely creepy things going on, including a missing woman (who last inhabited the guest room and looks just like Kelly)

I was disappointed in this book, especially because I did enjoy Bartz's previous books. Kelly, as a protagonist was so exceedingly dumb and whiny. I can't imagine anyone I know behaving in the manner described in the book - and not just because they were in a throuple.

This is a review of an Advanced Readers Copy of The Spare Room! This is my first read of this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

The Spare Room is set during the pandemic, when everyone is quarantining and wearing masks. The main character Kelly has moved to Philadelphia with her fiancé Mike, where she is jobless and friendless. Her fiancé wants to pump the breaks on the wedding, and so the book begins with Kelly on her way to stay with a high school friend, Sabrina, whom she recently reconnected with online, along with her husband Nathan. They graciously offer Kelly their spare room in the beautiful Tanglewood estates, where they are kept safe and sound inside a locked gate.

This novel is a slow building suspense story that takes readers through Kelly adjusting to pandemic life in a new setting, while self-reflecting on her wants and needs in life. As she slowly starts to figure out what she wants moving forward, some twists and turns are thrown her way when Sabrina and Nathan’s very recent past comes knocking.

While this book has a slow build up, it takes a turn about a third of the way in that may or may not surprise readers. Without revealing any major plot twists, the last chunk of the book will make readers guess and question who to trust and believe, and that includes questioning the main character herself!

I kept trying to guess what would happen in the last part of the book, and didn’t come close to guessing! I think this book is more of a romance suspense book, and turns a little thriller-ish about 70% of the way through. I wouldn’t say it was a fast-paced thriller, more a slow-burn with a romance story and some twists and turns.

It’s a few months into the pandemic, and Kelly’s life is upended when her fiancé decides he wants to postpone their wedding. Kelly’s old high school classmate-turned-author and influencer Sabrina and her husband Nathan invite Kelly to stay at their luxurious mansion and become the third member of their little quarantine pod. Soon, Kelly finds herself attracted to the sexy couple, and the feeling is mutual. But it turns out that this isn’t the first time Sabrina and Nathan have opened their marriage to another woman, and the woman before her has disappeared without a trace.

The Spare Room is an entertaining read that’s more romantic suspense than thriller, although the last quarter or so of the novel gets pretty twisty! A significant portion of the story is focused on the “throuple” and their interactions both in and out of the bedroom, with some steamy but not over-the-top spicy scenes. There’s an atmospheric and creepy undercurrent running throughout this locked-room plot, and the twists and turns later in the story are totally unpredictable and really pop!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine Books for providing me an advance copy of this book.

If you liked The Last Mrs. Parrish or The Last Housewife, I think you'll LOVE THIS ONE.

I'm pretty critical of domestic thrillers, I usually like them but definitely don't love them - this one I loved! It blew so many other domestic thrillers out of the water because of all of the interesting twists that the author gave us. It definitely isn't your typical domestic thriller, it has much more depth and challenging topics (pandemic living, poly-relationships, missing persons, etc.).

The only critique I had was that the beginning was a little slow (but still engaging), and when we got to the meat of the story it seemed pretty repetitive (MC in a new situation, not sure the "rules", makes a mistake, cries, friends comfort her and tell her everything is fine... about 6 times) haha!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would tell people they should read it this summer!

(will post a review on my instagram closer to pub date! @libslittlelibrary)

So this certainly had an interesting premise--Kelly's fiance calls off their wedding during the early pandemic, so she goes to stay with a high school friend, and ends up getting romantically and sexually involved with both of them. But then Kelly learns their last partner went missing, and it seems that they're both keeping secrets from her.
*
This was completely new to me -- I have no experience with throuples, either in real life or in fiction, so it was certainly interesting to see how this played out. But unfortunately the story didn't really do it for me. Everything about the relationship felt rushed--she sleeps with a married couple once and all of a sudden expects to be an equal partner?--which the book does acknowledge eventually, but it made it hard to root for Kelly.
*
It also felt like it wasn't quite sure what it wanted the main conflict to be. Red herrings were thrown out but it seemed somewhat clumsy, so they never felt like true issues.
*
There were a couple twists I enjoyed, and I think this does a great job of exploring different elements of sexuality and relationships (eventually), but overall this didn't really land for me.

Thank you Netgalley and Ballantine Books for the advanced readers copy of The Spare Room by Andrew Bartz. Kelly, after a breakup with her fiancé, moves in to live with an old school friend and her husband. I think the story was ok, it did remind me of her sister’s book The Writing Retreat, living in a big scary house with double fencing and an author as the host. While it was a different story, it was a similar premise.

It’s Covid times and Kelly’s new life is falling to pieces. Luckily, she has recently reconnected with an old friend, Sabrina, who is now a famous author and is married to a gorgeous powerful man. Kelly is nervous but elated when Sabrina offers up a spare room in their gorgeous mansion to stay in while she gets things sorted out. Once there, Kelly feels herself falling for both Sabrina and her husband and after a magical night she becomes part of their relationship. But what happened to the last woman they opened up their marriage for? Kelly just might die trying to figure that out.

While the weather is turning hot it is no where near how hot this book is, wow! This is definitely your summer must read book, you just might need a cool drink after reading this and maybe a cigarette. The tension between all the characters is so high and that ending, bravo!

If this domestic thriller were a cocktail it would be heavy on the domestic with a hint of thriller as an aftertaste you almost miss entirely. There was SO much going for it: great isolated setting with a realistic reason for the isolation (pandemic), non-monogamous/non-heteronormative relationship (not the healthiest or most well written but love the representation), and a plot that gives strong thriller vibes (what the hell happened to their last partner?!). Unfortunately, it really fell flat for me. The characters are infuriating, no one communicates and quite frankly Kelly was a bit stupid. Nathan and Sabrina were too if they honestly didn’t pick up on how their words and actions were being interpreted. The plot was very predictable and the one “twist” that wasn’t felt so far out of left field that it didn’t feel like it fit with the rest of the story. And lastly, the pacing was off, it felt slow until roughly 200-250 pages in and by that point even though the story began to pick up there wasn’t enough momentum to make the last third of the book a page turner.

I haven't read Bartz' previous novels but heard good things about them, which is why I was excited to read her newest novel. The blurb sounded very interesting, too. In the end, I think this book mostly fell flat for me because I was expecting something else.
While this is marketed as a thriller, it only really becomes in the last few chapters, basically. More than that it's an exploration of our protagonists needs, relationships, sexuality. Which is all good and well, and the author herself tells us how important and personal of a subject that is for her. I adore stories that focus the often forgotten fact that exploration of oneself, of one's sexuality, does not stop after your teenage years. It's an important conversation to have, it just didn't really work for me in this book. The polyamorous relationship at the center of it never felt organic and at times problematic, though the characters do acknowledge that themselves. While there was sexual chemistry, I didn't feel any romance blossoming there. And then there's the mystery of the missing woman that was the couple's lover just before our protagonist, Kelly, starts her relationship with them. There is very little actually going on with that mystery, and Kelly acts completely moronic most of the time, actively ignoring reveals that would make any person with a brain just leave. Instead, she just shares her discoveries with the clearly lying couple over and over again and lets them tell her whatever they want in order to make her stay. Suspension of disbelief to the max..
When this finally does turn into a thriller, I didn't really care about the big mystery, or this story as a whole, that much anymore. The twists and turns and reveals are okay and exciting enough, though I didn't like the final twist and the solution after the reveal.

So in conclusion, this book is too long and barely a thriller, and because I didn't care about the protagonist I wasn't invested in her personal journey nor her fate. 2,5 stars, rounding up to 3.

This book did keep me entertained as I was able to finish it in just a couple of days. It was full of suspense with many twists and turns. I was definitely not expecting the ending.

I was looking forward to this one because I liked her previous book: We Were Never There. The Spare Room was just a little bit too weird for me. Unfortunately, I stopped reading at chapter 25. I found all characters involved to be unrealistic and boring. I basically didn't really care what happened next. I do like the idea of a story set during the pandemic when everyone was sort of hiding out...this has the potential of being a very atmospheric -creepy setting but this story wasn't it.

Wellllll this book was kind of all over the place! It started a little slow and sad. It started to pick up toward the middle. Everything I thought was going on was wrong! I don’t think I’ve ever had so many wrong theories! There was plenty of mystery and revelations to keep the story going at a decent pace toward the end of the book. This book is definitely one of the strangest books I’ve read. I really enjoyed it and the messages it conveyed. I would recommend giving it a try though, it was definitely a maze of a story!

This is a book that took me by surprise. Trigger warning- very sexual.

Kelly is distraught after things are cutoff with her fiancee. Kelly, recently struck up a relationship with an old childhood friend who invites her to stay with her and her husband Nathan. Kelly happy for the getaway accepts as this occurs during Covid. Kelly, trying to figure things out strikes up an unusual friendship with Nathan AND Sabrina. Kelly starts to become suspicious when she finds out their last partner went missing.

This was not my favorite book by the other, but it had its moments.

DNF'd at 32% due to the content - I was interested in a domestic suspense, not an overly sexualized couples' drama. Disappointing as I loved Bartz's last book!

Kelly’s life is turned upside down when, during the pandemic, her fiancé asks to call off their wedding. Devastated, the only bright spot in her life is the friendship she recently struck up with her former childhood friend Sabrina. When Sabrina and her husband Nathan offer Kelly their spare room in their remote mansion, she jumps at the opportunity to leave her life behind. At their home, Kelly finds herself attracted to both Sabrina and Nathan and their enchanting life. When one night ends in a threesome, the couple asks her to be their partner and she is excited by this new life. At least, until she finds out their last partner went missing - mere days before Kelly moved in. What has she really gotten herself into with these people?

I was not expecting this story at ALL! Lol locked room thrillers are my favorite and on the occasion that I do read romance, forced proximity is my favorite trope. This sort of threw all those things together for a unique read. I found Kelly to be way too trusting with people she hardly knew, yet I was wrapped up in the story wondering just what happened to the girl who lived there before her. Without giving spoilers, the story took a direction entirely different from what I was expecting, which I loved. I definitely did not predict the twists that happened and the fast pacing made this an easy read.

Thank you to Netgalley, Andrea Bartz and Ballantine Books for the ARC! “The Spare Room” releases June 20th! This review will be shared to my instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly :)

Pandemic read about a woman who goes to stay with a high school friend and her husband during the lockdown. Kelly isn’t getting along with her fiancé during the lockdown, the stress of having to postpone their upcoming wedding, and Kelly’s suspicion of her fiancés cheating isn’t helping matters. When Kelly moves in with Sabrina and her husband Nathan, she can’t believe her luck. The house is beautiful and inviting, and she feels incredibly welcome and comfortable with the couple. But as the threesome gets close, extremely close, strange things begin to happen. Kelly learns of a previous friend who came to stay and other mysterious events. Fast paced read.

Wow this was a wild one. At first I wasn’t sure if I was ready to read a pandemic based book. While this wasn’t my first, it started out with the pandemic more front and center than the others. As I read though, it was clear that this was the perfect setting for this thrilling novel. The twists got me good, I have to admit. I did not see them coming. In hindsight, when the characters are so admit no one could get in…someone got in 😂. It is a great summer thriller I look forward to sharing with my followers.

Kelly gave up everything to relocate to a new city for her fiancee and now she's found herself jobless and friendless in the middle of the pandemic and after bizarre behaviors, her fiancee has now "pumped the breaks" on their wedding plans.

The only bright spot for Kelly is her newly rekindled friendship with a former classmate, Sabrina, who has become a successful author. When Sabrina offers for Kelly to come stay in their spare room, Kelly jumps at the opportunity and initially thinks she has made the right decision. Sabrina lives in a beautiful home with her husband with all the luxuries that anyone could want! But, things aren't what they seem! Who was the person living in the spare room before Kelly and what happened to her? When Sabrina and her husband, Nathan, start exhibiting weird behavior, Kelly questions if her life is in danger and how she will escape!!

This is my first book by this author and I hate to say that I didn't enjoy it. The characters were so unlikeable and unbelievable. The whole story was just bizarre and poorly developed. I will likely try another story by Bartz to see if this was just a dud for me.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for this E-arc in exchange for an honest review.