The Spare Room by Andrea Bartz is a twisty thriller about Kelly, who has just called off her wedding and has no job. Her childhood friend offers her a place to stay--with her and her husband in their fancy remote Virginia mansion. Kelly agrees to enter into a relationship with them, but she is extremely unsure if she can actually trust them. This story was very fast-paced, but parts of it felt a little off to me. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

I wanted to love this book but it was just not for me. There is a heavy sexual tone to the book, which may not be for everyone. This was not even the part that bothered me. The story just fell flat. Nothing really happened for the first half of the book. The characters were all so unlikeable. The story went off the rails in the last 25% of the book - but at least then something happened.

This is a story about a woman during the pandemic that realizes something is missing from her current relationship. She reconnects with an old friend from childhood and moves in with her and her husband. Almost immediately they start to have sexual relations (all three) and decide they want to be in a relationship. Kelly starts to find suspicious things around their house involving a prior relationship and starts to be unsure if she can trust them. The ending was so over the top, i found myself rolling my eyes.

It took me a while to get through this one which was disappointing considering I have enjoyed this authors other books.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was immediately drawn to this book because I loved the plot. It is very different than the average mystery or thriller book. I was pleasantly surprised by how good this book was. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone that loves mystery or thriller books with a little spice.

Kelly and her fiance are on a break at his insistence. She reaches out to a high school friend who offers up a spare room in her house. I was hoping for some suspense thriller vibes, but unfortunately it was more movie of the week. They end up as a threesome...what?

This just wasn't the book for me, I guess I was expecting it to be something more involved than it was.

This story was difficult for me to follow.

I wasn’t able to completely get into the flow of it and ended up DNF it around 35%. After putting a concerted effort in.

Stuck in lockdown with a fiance that has just put a pause on their wedding, Kelly is in desperate need of an escape hatch. A rekindled friendship with a childhood friend provides a place to go and a chance to reflect. Sabrina and her husband have a mansion in a remote Virginia location and generously offer Kelly and her cat an openended stay. When weeks of getting to know each other turns intimate, will Kelly take a leap into the unknown?

The Spare Room is like an overstuffed suitcase, one which has clothing for every season. With too much to unpack and with clothes that seem to be thrown together haphazardly, the jumbled mess is better left for someone else to untangle. There really is not a likable character in the bunch and the plot just goes on and on. There are plot holes that seem to exist only to move the story along and the conclusion is lackluster at best. Overall, I would not recommend The Spare Room to other readers.

Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy by NetGalley and the publisher. The decision to read and review this book was entirely my own.

This was a great book! The twists and turns made it so I could not put the book down! I would definitely recommend this book to a friend! Thank you NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an arc in exchange for my honest review of this book!

The Spare Room unfortunately just didn't do it for me. I found the characters flat, the story unengaging. Up until the last quarter, I felt like I could put down the book at any point, not find out what happens, and not really care. thought the tension build towards the end was well done I'll say that. If you're in the market for a simple thriller, you might like this one but it was just not for me.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my gifted copy.

It took me a while to get through this one. It is very slow almost though 50% of the book, and I honestly just was kina bored. This one was just a miss for me, but I definitely look forward to the author’s next book.

I tried a couple of times to get in to this title and unfortunately it just wasn’t for me. I’ve read the authors other title, but ultimately was left disappointed. I think that some readers will really enjoy this, I just found it a little predictable.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing my with an eARC of this title.

Ever want to read a book about horny adults during quarantine, where everything is described as "sexy"? If so, this is the book for you. If not, steer clear. The plot was full of holes, the pace was confusing, and the mystery didn't make sense. It was like reading two books. One mediocre erotica, and one suspense novel that felt like the author was making it up as she went along. I would have DNF'ed this book if I weren't reading it for a book club discussion. But I have nothing nice to say about this book, so I think I will say nothing else at all about it.

this is another book that shouldn’t technically be on my beach books list because I started it before vacation but I finished it on vacation so I’m going to count it. this just didn’t work for me.

A twisty and well written psychological thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat. I love Andrea Bartz!

Set during the pandemic, Andrea Bartz’s The Spare Room centers on a woman who moves in with a friend after the end of her engagement, only to become entangled with the couple in a way that could be deadly…

My Thoughts

After really enjoying The Herd and We Were Never Here—previous books by Andrea Bartz—I was thrilled to get my hands on this one. The premise sounded interesting—a woman becomes involved in an affair and relationship with a married couple, only to learn that the woman in their marriage before has gone missing. This sounded too good to pass up! For me, this book didn’t deliver what it needed to. I think this may have been cathartic for the author (and certainly many readers enjoyed it), but the story didn’t fully work for me.

What I liked

The premise of the book was fantastic and I really enjoyed Sabrina as a character. She was alluring, mysterious, caring, charismatic—everything she needed to be for the story to work. The reader needs to understand the magnetism Sabina has in order to make Kelly’s bizarre decisions make sense, and Bartz delivered.

I will note, while the teaser for the book mentions Sabrina as an old friend, Kelly and Sabrina weren’t really former friends. More like acquaintances. This actually made the dynamic between them better, because Kelly was sort of this naïve character at the beginning who just wanted to try someone else’s life. I think if Sabrina had been too close of a friend, their relationship wouldn’t have worked as well. It needed to be largely one-sided to start.

The story got right to the meat of it. We didn’t spend really any time on the set up of the end of Kelly’s relationship, her connection with Sabrina, and her move. It was touched on sufficiently to get things moving, and then the story quickly moved to the main events at Sabrina and Nathan’s house.

There were lots of twists and turns and the ending will certainly surprise most readers (though this is in part because it really wasn’t set up at all by anything we saw in the book). The ending was drawn out enough to feel like we got closure, if that’s what readers are looking for.

What didn’t work for me

The first half sort of read like steamy romance fan fiction, and not in a good way. I saw some readers that loved the way the throuple developed, but I thought it was a tad on the cringey side for me. I thought that the way it unfolded made Sabrina and Nathan not really seem like a real couple. Though I presume this was intentional because we are supposed to be suspicious of their motives, it detracted from the way the relationship unfolded.

Kelly is a completely unlikable main character, but not in the fun way. I think the reader is supposed to like Kelly and root for her, but I didn’t. This makes some of the later twists less impactful than if she had been a character whom I wanted to see things work out for. I didn’t and I honestly felt that she lucked into her circumstances rather than growing or developing.

As the book got towards the middle, Sabrina and Nathan felt sort of predatory. That ruined the throuple for me because it felt like they were just luring insecure women to their house to use them. This made some of the events unpleasant to read about, and made one of the twists completely not work for me. The back half of the book is wild and didn’t totally make sense because a lot of the character development stalled for the sake of the twists and turns.

Final thoughts (TLDR)

For fans of steamy thrillers, this one is a book to check out. Also for those who love a wild jaw-dropping ending you definitely won’t guess, this book delivers. I definitely wanted to finish this and see what was happening, and that is credit to Bartz. However, for readers who like character development, this likely won’t be for you. Also take note of where your headspace is about reading a book set during the main part of the COVID-19 pandemic before beginning. I buddy read this with Berit and Carrie and they found the COVID-19 element more effective (and less bothersome) than I did.

Kelly has had a hard time navigating the national quarantine, she has lost both her job and her dream wedding. She receives a lifeline when she reconnects with an old school friend who offers Kelly the use of the spare room in her Virginia mansion. Kelly jumps at the opportunity to escape, but cannot see that the year ahead would end in lies, deceit and death. This domestic thriller is a twisty, twisted tale of manipulation and murder.

A decent thriller, albeit a little drawn out. If you do not like reading about COVID times, this may not be for you. (that didn't bother me at all, in fact, the concept of the lockdown/quarantine was part of what prompted me to request this book).

Kelly is taking needed space from a damaged relationship with fiancée Mike. She tumbles into a relationship with a past school friend Sabrina and her husband, Nathan. A threesome becomes her new love. But Kelly is super insecure and always has to feel that she is being denied info, both in her previous relationship and now.
The couples missing ex has her searching for info. Lots of twists and unexpected drama. A recommended read!

Kelly has just broken up with her fiancé and is coming to stay with an old high school classmate and her husband. It’s during the height of the pandemic, so being sequestered in their big, fancy house could turn into a lot of fun, or a huge nightmare. But when Kelly keeps coming up with questions that her hosts either can’t or won’t answer, something has to give. This book definitely had me wondering where it was heading and kept me guessing all the way until the very end, which isn’t always easy give all of the suspense fiction I read! Some mild spice is included in this one, so consider yourself warned!
Special Note: Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wouldn't say the book was eroctic but it leaned heavily into the sexual part of the storyline. It was a slow burn that didn't actually become a thriller until I was 70% into the book and then the it was twist after twist and the paced picked up. For me the last 30% saved the book. Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for the ARC in exchange for my review.

Umm, what a WILD ride! It’s a binge-worthy book (read in less than 24 hours) that will have your jaw dropping. The chapters are super short (big fan) and most are left on a cliffhanger so it’s hard to stop reading! The overall premise is risqué and not everyone will be onboard with it! In that aspect I commend the author for stepping outside of the box!

I’m not fan of the setting (pandemic lock-down). It didn’t make me dislike the book but thought it wasn’t a pivotal part of the book and the suspense could have been the same without it. The ending was a bit too far fetched for me and I thought there were a few loose ends, but overall it’s entertaining!