Amazing thriller, I couldn't put it down!

Every book by this author is even better than the last!

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.

This book was spooking and thrilling at the same time. I loved it. It was creepy and intense and I could not stop turning the pages.

I have very mixed feelings about this one! It didn’t really seem like a thriller til more than halfway through and I didn’t love the sexually charged story lines. But once twists started happening I was enthralled and ended up liking the ending! I didn’t guess “who did it” or the final twisted chapters. So overall, a solid read.

Potential spoilers might be ahead.

A genre bending romantic/mystery. So I know this is supposed to be a thriller but I would say it is more towards the lines of a whodunnit story. Looking at other peoples thoughts I know some people are sick of hearing about the pandemic and the RONA, but Bartz’s idea of the concept of someone going missing when everyone is on lockdown. I will say that this does shed light on the larger cities that most likely had stricter policies regarding the pandemic. So go into this know the pandemic does a play a part in this story and honestly I enjoyed it because the pandemic went on for years, it’s part of history now and I think that Bartz did well including that into her story.

Another note because I think people were eating this book poorly due to the romantic themes in this….. Kelly reaches out to an old friend from school after a huge event in Kelly’s life left her needing a new start, with the pandemic there’s limited options. So therein comes Sabrina and Nathan. On that note I loved how Bartz included this love interest as it is LGBTQ+ representative. I really enjoyed her take on polyamory, although this book does show you that relationships no matter what they look like should still have boundaries and discussions throughout. I really enjoyed getting to see Kelly explore herself and that’s where I think this story does well, because not only is Kelly trying to figure herself out after she’s no longer getting married and on the course of what she had always thought she wanted. She is now given the chance to explore and test the boundaries of who she thought she had to be.

Kelly- I’d say she could be an unreliable character, maybe even a not always likeable character, and personally I think that’s why I liked the story more because it seemed more realistic. There are themes of Kelly having deeply ridden anxiety, and I think Bartz did a good job showing us that and showing us some of the consequences and actions anxiety can lead us to.

Ugh, I really think that you should go in with an open mind with this book and you just might love it. I definitely loved this and would totally read it again. I really don’t want to spoil too much, and I wouldn’t say this is your typical thriller, but I loved the twists and turns this story takes you on made it so worth it to me. I was constantly trying to solve the mystery. I also feel like you’re right there with Kelly going through what she is.

If you’re not used to sex in thrillers this might take you by surprise. On a spice level I’d say it’s still pretty closed doors but fairly steamy. 2/5 in my opinion on the spice level. So if you don’t like sex in books you probably won’t like this.

Also Virgo…. The cat, LOVE. And for those wondering Virgo will be okay. PROMISE!

I reallly hope people take the chance to read this and love it! I cannot wait to see what Andrea will write next. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House for the advanced copy of this.

2 stars out of 5.

I really could not get into this book at all. After reading the synopsis, I was impressed and excited to read the book. Boy was I disappointed. This is not a thriller but more of a romance novel. The ending of the book is the only "thriller" part of the book and it felt like an afterthought. The characters were really unlikable and I almost DNF this book a few times. Also, this book takes place during the Pandemic and references that quite a bit.

In The Spare Room, Kelly and her fiancé Mike had a blow out so Kelly goes and visits with an acquaintance of hers from high school named Sabrina. Sabrina, her husband Nathan, and Kelly end up hitting it off and start a relationship. Eventually Kelly learns of their previous partner disappearing and she begins to question who these people really are.

Overall, I think I might have been the wrong audience for the book. I hate ratings book poorly but this book was just not for me.

A big thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was fun and so unique from the other thrillers on The market right now. Also a little creepy if you really think about the plot in real world scenarios. I loved this so much!

Spare Room is a Quarantine claustrophobia "I'm letting my imagination get the best of me" sort of book. When our protagonist's wedding keeps getting pushed back by her fiance, she decides to go stay with a couple she sort of knows off of Instagram. Acquaintances. They're sweet to her and make her feel welcomed to their Covid bubble and give her a space to walk around their large house and neighborhood. The friend is a writer that she's a fan of, the husband works for the feds. Seems like a perfect set up. Our girl feels safe and comfortable and decides to start getting hot and heavy with our hosts, and break apart her life, It's one of those books, It's not really a thriller, yes there's a missing person, but it's really more about the *drama* of it all. Can you trust people? It's well written, finely paced. The smutty parts aren't smutty at all, it's like Bartz attempted to dip her toe into the idea of writing out some locked house couple swap fantasy and didn't go all the way with it, or didn't want to lose focus on it being a thriller either. Overall, it was a miss for me personally. I feel like some book club is going to make it the summer read though.

I just couldn't get into this one. I've read and loved Andrea Bartz other work and will certainly continue to seek out books of here's in the future. I was expecting a more thrilling read. I'm giving it 2.5 stars not because I thought it was a bad book or poorly written. It was a very well done book on sexual triangles. The characters were very well drawn though not always likable. This book will be enjoyed by those who like a lot of romance and sexual intrigue

I read the author's "We Were Never Here" and enjoyed it, leading me to request "The Spare Room." I read about 30 % before giving up.

The good:
*I like Bartz's writing style. It's easy to read and it makes me want to keep reading to know what will happen.
* I liked this quote: "A feeling I get on vacation sometimes, looking out over a new landscape, tears pricking my eyes. This is perfect, and I can't soak it in enough." I've had that feeling; she describes it well.

The not-so:
* The book is set during covid. I'm over that and don't want to return to talk of masks, vaccines, lockdown, "believing in science," etc.
* The book morphed into a situation where the main character was being sexually intimate with both a friend and her husband -- something I find immoral and just ewwww. I felt kind of dirty when I'd open the book, and I don't like that. Others may enjoy.

The Spare Room is set in early 2020 at the start of the corona pandemic and focuses on 35-year-old Kelly Doyle. Kelly recently moved to Philadelphia with her longtime boyfriend, and since the foreclosure, Kelly has been stuck in their new apartment in a new city, jobless, friendless, and now her relationship with her boyfriend is strained.

Kelly's childhood friend Sabrina Lamont and her husband Nathan temporarily invite Kelly to a spare room in their fancy mansion in Virginia. Kelly takes the opportunity, hoping that this time away from her boyfriend will help mend their relationship. Shortly after Kelly's arrival, she begins to develop romantic feelings for both the Lamonts, and much to Sabrina's surprise, the feelings between Sabrina and Nathan are mutual. As their threesome begins to deepen, Kelly learns that Lamomt has done it before with another woman. And to my great surprise, the woman is gone.

I'm always looking for a unique story, especially when it comes to thrillers. So the unique synopsis immediately piqued my interest in The Spare Room. The book made me take some unexpected turns. At several points I expected the story to go in a certain direction, but then the twist was taken away and I was completely wrong.

Although this story contains a plot twist, I'm not sure if The Spare Room should be classified as a thriller, but more of a romantic mystery. I was really surprised by the spice factor in it. Much of the story focuses on Kelly's sexual relationship with Lamont.

Overall, I found The Spare Room to be a fun read. While I didn't enjoy The Spare Room as much as Were Were Never Here, I look forward to reading anything Andrea writes in the future. I think it will appeal to many readers, especially romantic thriller readers.

What in the world did I just read? The Spare Room by Andrea Bartz gave me some major whiplash and definitely was not what I was expecting. During the height of COVID-19, Kelly and her fiance Mike have decided to pump the brakes on their relationship. To give themselves some space, Kelly moves out of their apartment and into a sprawling McMansion in the D.C. suburbs with her long lost high school friend, Sabrina. Kelly randomly connected on Instagram with "Rina," who is now a successful erotica author married to a dreamy federal government employee, Nathan. The steamy kind of tension starts rising with the new living arrangement and Kelly finds herself in....well, a throuple. The drama continues to unfold with a missing ex, a mysterious stranger, neighborhood bullies, and violence in the bedroom. The Spare Room just sort of spirals in the final third and gets pretty bizarre. Normally I'm a fan of weird, but the writing was honestly a little difficult for me to follow. If you decide to read The Spare Room, just know that you're in for a wild, and weird, and just okay ride.

This was a fun and twisty thriller that kept me turning the pages well into the night! The story is set during the pandemic and focuses on Kelly, who reconnects with a woman she was friendly with in elementary school who invites her to come stay in her mansion in VA after Kelly ends things with her fiancé. Kelly is lonely and decides to take the risk by staying with Sabrina and her husband. Between the creepy neighborhood, suspicious neighbors, and the couple who seemed to be hiding something this book had a lot going on! This book will keep you on your toes and trying to guess what is going on until the very last page. Thank you to Random House - Ballantine, Andrea Bartz, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on June 20, 2023.

This one just wasn’t for me. I got about 20% of the way into it but it didn’t grab my attention the way I wanted it to. I set it aside for a few days and never wanted to come back to it. DNF.

I went into this book expecting more thriller than relational. I would see glimpses of mystery and think the book was going to pick up but, then it fell flat. I found myself not wanting to pick it up and just not so sure it was worth the time. I did stick it out and it eventually got going but, definitely not one I’ll recommend.

Kelly is having a hard time in her relationship, so she leaves her Pennsylvania apartment with her cat to her friend in Virginia, sabrina and her husband Nate. They’re in the middle of the pandemic so their house is top notch secure with nates job. A secret that Sabrina and Nate have been keeping come out, there loved Elizabeth went missing and Nate and Sabrina were clear of any wrong doing however Kelly isn’t so sure. One night she gets a surprised guess and her world falls even more out of control!

I really like this book it kept me guessing!

Thanks NetGalley for the arc!

This book was not quite for me, I started it thinking it was more of a thriller, but I found it was more romance then thriller. I am not one who enjoys romance books whatsoever, but if you are someone who enjoys it, I would give this book a try.

I was ready for another dynamic thriller by Andrea Bartz, but was surprised to find The Spare Room to be more relationship than mystery driven. There was a big emphasis on the “throuple” dynamic, which I didn’t enjoy. I wanted more suspense and less relationship drama. It wasn't until the last quarter or so that the focus switched to the mystery and the tension ramped up. After that point, the plot unfolded in a way I wasn't expecting, and the final twist was a nice touch.

Another thing to not is that those with pandemic overload might want to skip this one, as there are a lot of pandemic references. I understand using it as a plot device to explain why Kelly moved in, but it was brought up way more than it needed to be.

This was an intriguing read to say the least. I honestly struggled to finished. The whole premise of the book really just not relatable or believable in my opinion.

Firstly, thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'll admit that I was very intrigued by the premise of this book. At this point in 2023, I'm not sure the world is really wanting to read books that take place during the COVID shutdown in 2020, but I liked the idea of this locked room mystery. It sounded like a sexy thriller.

However, I'm not sure that this book was terribly thrilling. There is some mystery building throughout but it is a slow build. There is more concentration on the relationships forming between the main character and the couple in the house. I was expecting it to be a bit more smutty than it was, but I found the scenes to be quite tame.

The reveals at the end seemed to come out of nowhere and didn't make a lot of sense to me. A lot of red flags were thrown that seemed to be either shoved under the rug or chalked up to "Oh Well". It seemed to be more of a book about the main character trying to find herself. I'm not sure.

I do love Andrea's writing style and will continue to read books by her. This was not a favorite, however. 3 stars

Talk about a twisted yet sexy pandemic experience! Not like mine at all. Not like most of ours', I'd wager, which is probably for the best.

(Hence what makes this such a propulsive, escapist, grabs-you-by-the-hair in more ways than one read. )

All of us were in lockdown in 2020, and Kelly is, too, only she has decided to relocate to Virginia to quarantine in the spare room of a mansion with a couple she barely knows after her fiancé pumps the brakes on their wedding. She needs a change of scenery, a change of pace, to figure out the next direction her life should take. To figure out what it is she wants. And what she wants, as it turns out, is her hosts - Sabrina and Nathan - who open up their marriage for her.

Kelly finds her new life as part of a throuple. It's wonderful at first, blissful. She falls "hard and fast," (a bit recklessly and naively, with a touch of desperation, if I'm being honest) only to discover that she is not Sabrina and Nathan's first partner. There was another woman before her. And she's gone missing...she's gone missing recently.

As their stories keep changing and new secrets are revealed, Kelly must follow the cracks to find out the truth. For instance, who is she living with? What does she really know about Sabrina and Nathan, her new lovers? Do they play a part in the other woman's disappearance or is she safe enough to remain where she is, in the spare room?

This is part locked room (quarantine) mystery, part domestic thriller, and part erotica. It's more character-driven than anything, with every single one of them being unreliable or sketchy to some degree, even Kelly, whose "please love me" infatuation and naïveté had me wanting to eat my own hair. She's the type of character you scream at in a movie to stop being so stupid, so willfully desperate or trusting because she's about to walk into something unmistakenly nefarious, but it's those qualities of her's which help usher the plot along.

And call me crazy, but there's something fun and also frustrating about that. Sometimes you're compelled by a character who makes you want to yell with frustration, you know? You simply can't help yourself!

I do have mixed feelings about the ending, which stretched the limits of belief. The killer took me by surprise, I admit, but I do wish the mystery/thriller portion of the story had gotten off the ground quicker because overall I liked the steamy close quarters chaoticness of it. The pandemic did crazy things to all of us, had us searching for who we are or who we could be in ways we never had before, and I liked how the realness of that was reflected in Kelly. She explored new parts of herself, she was changed immeasurably. Just as we all were.

If you're looking for something naughty, cloistered, or different, then you might want to slide this one under your nose. It takes readers on quite the journey!

Special thanks to NetGalley, Random House, and Ballantine Books for the ARC in exchange for my review.

3.5 stars