I am a HUGE fan of Andrea Bartz, so I was thrilled to get my hands on an ARC of her latest and greatest!

Kelly upended her life to move to Philadelphia with her fiancé; however, when he calls off the wedding, Kelly finds herself jobless and alone -- and stuck in their apartment. Kelly's childhood friend Sabrina swoops in and saves the day, inviting Kelly to quarantine with her and her husband in their mansion.

Life in the mansion starts out as a dram, but slowly cracks in the relationship begin to show and Kelly cannot help but wonder what she got herself in to.

First off, The Spare Room is set during the initial summer of the COVID lockdown, and it was definitely a trip (to say the least) to relive those early days of uncertainty through the eyes of Kelly. Andrea Bartz has SUCH a way of writing that subtly makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. I could not put this book down!

Why did I read this one? Such a disappointing read. I honestly wished I had DNFed it. I didn't enjoy her last book, so I'm not sure what made me pick up this one. Either way, Bartz is just not for me. The story was predictable and the characters were so unlikeable. Oh, and the story was chock full of the protagonist just whinging about everything.

Thank you so much for this ARC!

This books definitely took a direction that I didn't see coming! Heavy on the sexual stuff and less on the thriller but it worked. Totally unlikeable characters all around but as we all know the pandemic changed us and made us think about our lives much differently than before.

I enjoyed this book but felt at times it was a bit drawn out. Maybe 75 less pages would have kept the pace more engaging with less repetitiveness,

Perfect twisty ending!

This book was not what I expected, but it was still an enjoyable read. From the description, I was anticipating more of a thriller/ psychological suspense. There were some aspects of that, but I felt like it was more interested in a sexual drama with some thriller mixed in. Not my usual genre of choice. I would not recommend if you are sensitive to that content. I did find it easy to read, but the main character (Kelly) could be incredibly frustrating in her choices and decisions.
Thanks to NetGalley for the book to review.

I did not care for this book. The ending was a surprise. However, the plot was not my thing. It took me a while to read.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Kelly and her fiancé take a break in the middle of lockdown which takes her to a high school friend' now turned erotica author's spare bedroom within a mansion in the DC area. After reconnecting with Sabrina, a bit more and getting to know her husband Nate, Kelly becomes intimate with the couple. Kelly feels really special by the couple's actions but soon uncovers that they have been in a throuple before, and their prior girlfriend has gone missing. Queue the suspense.

This story starts off as an erotica thriller that keeps getting steamier as the plot thickens. Beware that this book is a slow burner, in case you do not like those. The book does speed up towards the end and throws in so many twists and turns, that as soon as you feel you have figured it out, you will need to guess again. I really liked the mix of genres in this book and would even say this story is better than We Were Never Here. The spooky and spicy aspects make me want more.

The Spare room
by Andrea Bartz
Pub Date: June 20, 2023
Thanks to the author, publisher, and Net Galley for the aRC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
This book is hot!
Staying with a friend and her husband in more intimate and dangerous than anyone could ever imagine in this provocative new thriller by Bartz!
This book is incredibly steamy.
You'll find yourself drawn into this naughty book. Tension builds, you won't be able to put it down.
The trapped in a mansion theme is intense.
Great book! Plan to read this in the privacy of your own home.
4 stars

Before I start my actual review, I have to say that this cover is everything. I love, love, love it. Please judge this book by its cover because I love, love, loved the book too. I had to process my thoughts before writing this review and I'm still (weeks later, mind you) randomly chuckling, like "WHAT the-- did I read?!" You guys, this book was wild and weird (Andrea Bartz said so herself <3) and just so much fun. I initially thought I would rate this 4/5 stars, but it's been living rent-free in my head for the better part of a month, so it really deserves all the praise.

To my relief, the story had just the right amount of pandemic talk that contributed to the story without BEING the story (thank you, amen). And to my surprise, there was romance- like a lot romance. That's not usually my jam, but hey, I guess that weird and wild stuff really works for me. Knowing this was marketed as a thriller, the romance part kind of took on a suspenseful role and I was just anxiously anticipating what was going to go down. I thought I knew too, but nope! What a twist! There were honestly quite a few unexpected twists and turns (including that spice) making this quite the quick page-turning read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for this ARC!

I really enjoyed this thriller. I was always questioning what was really happening, who to believe, and how everything was going to end. The twist at the end was completely unexpected and threw me through a loop. It was fast paced, had a little bit of spice, and was full of unreliable characters. I enjoy reading both romance and thrillers, so this was the perfect book for me. I could see if you don't enjoy romance in your thrillers, then you might not like this one. This is my second book by the author and she is quickly becoming an auto-read author.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thrilling romantic thriller! Kelly flees her wedding plans and fiance to live in the spare room of an author from high school that she reconnected with on instagram. The two bonded quickly and she feels right at home in her new friend's mansion. As she adjusts to her new life and choices, Kelly continues to field calls from her fiances and anxiously second guess herself. When her hosts invite her to do more than just live in the spare room she is not sure just how far she is willing to go. When clues from the last guess in the spare room turn up, Kelly isn't sure if she should stay or flee again!
#randomhouse #TheSpareRoom #AndreaBartz

You'll find yourself drawn into this extremely stimulating, naughty, and hyperventilating story. You won't be able to put it down. It starts off slow burning, but don't worry, the early chapters will lure you in, and your anticipation will only increase with each chapter. It gets hotter, and the tension builds. You may think you're reading an erotic thriller, but when you reach the second half, the slow-burn tension reaches a boiling point. I always looking for a unique story, especially when it comes to thrillers. So, the unique plot synopsis immediately drew my interest to The Spare Room. The book took me on a couple of unexpected turns. At several points, I expected the story was going to go a certain way but then a twist was dropped, and I was completely wrong. It was worth it, will it be a re-read for me, I don't think so. But that's just me.

This book is described as an exotic thriller and the premise did intrigue me. In the midst of the COVID pandemic shutdown, Kelly separates from her boyfriend and is invited to quarantine with a woman she knew from high school and her husband. All three enter into a relationship together with a lot of secrets and mystery, a missing ex, mysterious neighbors, a couple murders, and a lot of unanswered questions.

The story built slowly and at times was a little unbelievable and I found myself skimming through some of it. I didn't really connect with any of the characters personally either. It wasn't really the thriller/mystery I was looking for, I'd say more of an erotic drama.

The twist at the end! That’s what saved this book for me.

It was truly one of the weirdest, juiciest, strangest stories, albeit sometimes eye rolling, I’ve ever read.

Kelly is 35, dumped and jobless. She has no where to go, a high school friend offers up a place to go during the pandemic. And what ensues after is truly jaw dropping.

Thanks so much to NetGalley for an ARC!

Bartz has a knack for incorporating urban millennial malaise into her very modern lady thrillers. I wouldn’t want to meet these girls in real life but I always read always get a kick out of reading her books, and this one was no exception. Nice to read a book set in Philly instead of. Brooklyn for a change.

Great read filled with friendship twists and turns- felt timely as we are starting to see self+help gurus become more human, which is at times a shock to some.

wow!! this was my first book by andrea bartz and so happy i got this book early! thank you so much netgalley :) this book was incredible! i could not put it down and the ending really threw me for a loop. this book really had me feeling all the feelings and the tension and i felt scared for the characters too. i didnt know what to believe or who to believe or what was going to happen next. very great book!

Andrea Bartz continues to explore complicated female relationships in her works, laced with suspense and sinister overtones, which expand the usual range of emotions women generally have in fiction. I always enjoy seeing what she's cooked up between her female characters. The Spare Room differs from Bartz’s other works in that it incorporates the pandemic and its sequestering of people which throws folks together—and keeps them in close proximity—under usual circumstances. Those social challenges, combined with a failed relationship cause Kelly, the protagonist, to leave her boyfriend (Mike) in Philadelphia and move to the suburbs of Washington, DC, to live with a former schoolmate (Sabrina) and her husband (Nathan).

None of these main characters are particularly appealing: all are unreliable, no one is fully whom they seem to be, and the relationships in which they engage are toxic. Kelly, at 34, is annoying, primarily because she has all the emotional maturity of a twelve-year-old. Her thoughts yo-yo between sorrow at breaking up with Mike (though she admits to his emotional immaturity and temper issues) and joy at discovering a new relationship with Sabrina and Nathan (again, her thoughts yo-yo between seeing the couple as fabulous new love interests and fears that they aren’t as fully invested in her as she is with them, nor are they telling her the truth about incidents in their past.)

Bartz moves into more sexual arenas in The Spare Room, including a threesome, which some readers might find offensive, but I didn't find that outrageous. The final chapters reveal a totally unexpected twist, one for which the foundation wasn’t laid quite well enough. An epilogue fills in a bunch of blanks the reader may have had. It seems as if Bartz was trying to hard to tie up all the loose ends in her novel. Personally, I would have preferred these left open-ended. However, the writing is smart with some lovely one-liners, and the tension well ramped-up.

The Spare Room didn’t rock my world as much as We Were Never Here but I still found it to be intriguing with a level of unease. It was an interest concept and a quick read that hooked me instantly but I didn’t like any of the characters except for Virgo!

Andrea Bartz—this book is KILLER!

LOVE a good slow-burn, and I extra loved that this book was set during lockdown. Captured the loneliness and uncertainty of that time perfectly. Time and place contributed masterfully to the plot.

From the jump, our MC, Kelly, is relatable. She is flawed, but nuanced. Sabrina and Nathan are bizarre and spicy from almost the first time we meet them.

I sensed something was off Kelly's stay with Nathan & Sabrina, but the story unfolded in such a surprising and satisfying way.

LOVED this book—every page and every twist delivered exactly what it needed to. Thank you to Andrea, NetGalley, and PRH for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review! Can't wait to read more Bartz novels!!!

This romance/thriller/mystery seemed so different from her other work, but not in the best way. I devoured We Were Never Here, but maybe because this book had some added *spice* I couldn’t get in to it as much. I also didn’t realize there’s be as much pandemic talk as there was, and as someone who works in healthcare I just can’t do it at the moment. Reading is my escape, and this book just wasn’t the escape.