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

The world is in the middle of a global pandemic and the country is on lockdown, when Kelly and her fiancé Mike decide to pump the breaks on their engagement. Mike suggests they put things on hold after Kelly accuses (to put it lightly) him of cheating. The timing is perfect when an old high school acquaintance (Sabrina) and her husband Nathan open up their lavish home to Kelly, suggesting she stay in their spare bedroom, while she and Mike sort through their feelings.

Kelly falls in love with their beautiful home and quickly finds herself also having feelings for both Sabrina and Nathan. She is even more surprised when they reciprocate and open up their marriage to her. Things are going along smoothly until Kelly learns the couple has a secret, a former lover who has gone missing...now she must uncover the truth before she meets a similar fate.

This book had me glued to my kindle. As I was reading I waffled between 3 and 4 stars, but the ending is is truly what pushed this book to a 4 star read!

If you enjoy a thrilling mystery this book is definitely one to add to your TBR! Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the ARC.

This book kept me wanting more and more. I liked the plot and the writing. The characters were very interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing, and Ballantine Books for this ARC of The Spare Room by Andrea Bartz.

I requested this book from my favorite thriller genre as I was intrigued by the “throuple” (a sexual relationship of three). I also have a voyeuristic hunger for all things pandemic-lockdown stories.

I found the main character Kelly ridiculous in her juvenile emotional headspace in which I was trapped for much of this story. She falls “hard and fast” for the wealthy, glamorous, and cool couple who live in an exclusive and gated neighborhood mansion.

I did not get a sense of substance feeding this love that Kelly possessed. Instead, Kelly’s adoration seemed more of that of a dog to indifferent owners: a kind word or gesture would be enough to send her emotions into rapture after a moment of questioning, “Christ, do I know these people?” No you do not, I wanted to scream many times.

Kelly thought and acted as if she were an adolescent over her sexual and romantic head and the story was quite repetitive with it.
There was lots of her self-dialogue and subsequent tedious dialogue with the couple, the latter of which felt scripted. Evidently not to naive Kelly.

However, the unique and twisty narrative was propulsive - I wanted to know what was really going on and the chapters flew by. I felt a dark undercurrent beneath the superficiality of the interactions between the threesome.
I too wanted to get to know Sabrina and Nathan and learn what motivated this weird poly-relationship.

The twist at around the 70% mark made things even more riveting. I cheered on Kelly’s newfound logic as she began to understand that her lovers might be dangerous.
She becomes book-educated about “ethical polyamory,” gaining further retrospective self-reflection, but ruining all with conclusive flowery drivel about the beauty and forever romantic “learnings.”
I actually loved the POV chapter from “darker, smarter” Elizabeth. Much more my cynical style.

So in summary, interesting and confusing premise, twisty narrative development, but with an unsympathetic protagonist.

Three stars.

This book kept me hooked from the beginning. I couldn’t put it down and finished within 2 days which I haven’t done in a while. The Spare Room is unputdownable. There was no smut but a few vague mentions of it , so if that’s something that might keep you from reading, then give it a chance. The last 25% blew my mind. I will definitely recommend this one. Thanks NetGalley ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This would be fine for most older students, It discusses bisexuality and three way relationships. The storyline is both a mystery and a story of personal growth, setting boundaries. knowing who you can trust and what kind of life you want. A woman, at a crossroads in her life, gets infatuated with this couple and moves in with them and then discovers their connection to a missing woman. Did they hurt/murder her? Interesting story for older readers

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
The story had good bones but like the proverb goes....too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the broth. I did not care for Kelly and her wishy washy personality. Did not care for the whole triangle relationship either. The only saving grace was the ending.

Thanks to NetGalley for this one! I picked it up and didn’t put it down until I had finished. Was it perfect? No - there were a few parts that felt a bit dragged out, but overall, it kept me guessing. A bit thriller, a bit sexy and a bit about a woman finding her way — would absolutely recommend picking this one up on pub day!

A woman, with a fractured relationship to her fiance and to herself, goes to stay with an acquantance and her husband and gets involved in a three way relationship. As she is forced to look at herself and look at them to see who can she trust, esp made more so by pandemic paranoia. While this becomes more of a thriller two thirds of the way through, I did enjoy it. But it is mostly a coming to terms with yourself story

I had complicated feelings- the relationships all were so weird. They felt so sadistic and strange so I really didn’t see the twist coming. I hated the main character so that made it a little hard. It does take like 60% of the book before the real mystery starts but once it gets going it really takes you on a ride. I enjoyed it, it’s worth reading for something different.

Thank you Netgalley and Ballantine Books for a chance to read this ARC. When I was approved, I was immediately excited as I loved her previous book, We Were Never Here. While the premise of the book being set during the Pandemic and the cover looked thrilling, to me it sorta lacked and at times felt drawn out. It wasn’t a suspenseful thriller I was hoping for until the very end, but it was very well written. The author does a great job story telling and character depth, but the throuple part wasn’t my cup of tea. It went for a turn that I wasn’t expecting, so I will be giving this 4 stars.

Thank you Netgalley & Ballantine Books for an eARC of The Spare Room by Andrea Bartz. This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2023, so as soon as I got approved I knew I needed to dive in. The cover was calling my name - It is beautiful, right?!

Kelly's living with her fiance during lockdown, and he just called off their wedding. She's rekindled a friendship with a childhood friend Sabrina and decides to stay with her and her husband in Virginia for a bit. What's the worst that could happen? What starts as a fun arrangement quickly takes a sinister turn.

I really enjoyed this book! The first half had me like - OOH, whoa, we are getting some steamy open marriage scenes with an atmospheric creepiness that is clearly lurking. I had a lull in the middle that had me utterly confused about the direction the book was taking - And then again loved the ending when it swerved and hit with a final BOOM. This is a unique novel that is, like Bartz's others, extremely well written and will have you guessing throughout. I don't want to give anything away, but if you're looking for some steam and a bunch of WTF-IS-GOING-ON moments, look no further!