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.

really enjoyed this book and found me a new author to read more of her books. This was a win win for me and will read more.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

What a wild ride!! After reading Andrea Bartz’s “We Were Never Here” i KNEW this one would be just as good! It was surprising and kept me guessing until the very end!!

Okay.... first of all, the ending- never in a million years did I see the big reveal coming. A problem I sometimes have when reading current mystery or thrillers is that I can tell who the killer/antagonist is from a mile away, and it takes out so much of the fun in reading. This one, though, completely threw me for a loop. That said, I had an extremely hard time connecting to Kelly, the narrator. She was kinda whiny, paranoid, and seemed awfully presumptuous, especially when it came to her part in the marriage of another couple. She annoyed me.... A LOT. by the end of the story, she had kind of grown up and come into herself, but at times it was too little, too late. The book, overall, was SO good when I was able to set my dislike for Kelly aside. WHEN .... so that's that. I will recommend this title, and will actively seek this author out in the future.... but can only rate this at a 4 for the purpose of this review.

I wasn't familiar with Andrea Bartz prior to this and now I have to go back and read her other novels!

The premise of this one was fun. Kelly leaves a bad situation to live in the spare room of a childhood friend. From there we learn things aren't quite as they seem.

While everything that happened was pretty predictable, it didn't stop me from devouring the book. I wish that we could get the POV on some of the other characters because Kelly wasn't the most likable character.

I loved this book! I will definitely recommend it. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Andrea Bartz does it again! This thriller, set during lockdown, is such a ride. I had no idea where it was going at any given time, and I honestly did not guess the big twist at the end. Bartz is so good at writing contemporary stories, and knows how to reel a reader in with the promise of weird and sinister things lying just beneath surfaces you would never guess.

Kelly, our heroine, gets dumped in summer of 2020 and so she heads to stay with a friend from high school who she recently reconnected with on Instagram. This friend, Sabrina, is rich and a famous romance writer, living in DC (far from Kelly's home in Philly). In the house, Kelly forms a pod with just Sabrina and her husband Nathan, but as her visit turns into a longer temporary stay, things start to get weird and questions begin to arise in Kelly's mind.

Bartz is so good at writing a page-turner, and I read this in one day over the weekend while in bed with a cold. I HAD to know what was going to happen next and unlike other novels set during lockdown, I didn't mind going back to that time because it helps the story in such fun and unexpected ways. The second book from a Bartz sister that I loved this year, I just want them to keep coming!

As a huge fan of We Were Never Here I squealed when I got an early review copy of The Spare Room. I have struggled with some anxiety lately and have made a more conscious effort to read less thrillers that cause it to spike- especially around bedtime. This one was a slow burn and just what I needed. I thought the character development was extremely well done and as a 34-year-old while on different paths from the main character I felt very attached and connected to her. This started off as a bit of a romance at first, but I thought the setting and atmosphere worked well for me that it didn't bother me at all. I thought the author did an excellent job of using her platform to incorporate an LGBTQ theme in this genre that you do not find often enough. The ending of this cleaned up a bit nicely but I also felt like it left a few things open ended which I appreciated. I've quickly jumped onto her sisters' debut arc The Writing Retreat, so I think it's safe to say I am team anything the Bartz sisters write.
4.5 stars

Kelly gets dumped by her long time fiance. She is able to find a connection with her old friend Sabrina who is a x rated romance novelist and who is married to a sexy man. There is a threesome and all of the craziness ensues- who knew?? The woman they dallied with previously is now missing and that woman was staying at the same mansion that kelly is now staying at. The book was delicious- a bit slow at the end as it wound up the real juiciness. Really enjoyed how it revved up and especially how it ended.

DNF at 28%
This is not the book for me. I was expecting more thriller and less 50 Shades. I’m not interested in that kind of story. The main character was insufferable. So whiny. So desperate to win over everyone.
The writing style was very difficult to read. There were so many metaphors and similes that it distracted me from the plot. The dialogue was cringy. I’ve read this author’s work before (and really enjoyed it!) so I was surprised by how cheesy and unreadable I found this book.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher of this book for the advanced copy.

Man this book takes you on a wild ride. I went into this book blind and loved how the story unfolded completely clueless what was about to happen. I was so captivated on the story and couldn’t put it down. I was constantly asking myself — who do you trust? Who do you believe? It seems like everyone was lying. I didn’t know where the story was going to lead to next or what little bit of information would be revealed that seemed to change the story line. I really loved the main characters and how their personalities fit their role in the story. Kelly, Nathan, and Sabrina were so vividly described and detailed for their personalities it was hard to know which one to trust. There’s a sweet loveable cat named Virgo that everyone will love! Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group, Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.