3⭐
Publication date ~ June 20, 2023
Page Count ~ 341
Audio length ~ 11 hours 39 minutes
Narrator ~ Brittany Pressley
POV ~ single 1st
Featuring ~ cheating (maybe, since they're in an open marriage I guess it's not considered cheating and she was on a break, but wanted to add it just in case), murder, locked mansion atmosphere, pandemic talk

Kelly and fiance, Mike, are taking a break, so she goes to stay with a school friend, Sabrina and her husband, Nathan. They have an attraction and become a trouple. It's not Sabrina and Nathan's first time with this dynamic, but their previous lady is now missing....hmm.

Well I'm not too sure about this one, so I'm plopping it in the middle. To each their own with their marriage and what they do in it, but I'm not super big on romance in my thrillers, however it was a slow burn and not really a thriller, but there were some exciting moments after quite a while, though. Kelly made some questionable choices after she makes revelation after revelation after revelation that had me rolling my eyes. I was surprised about the zinger at the end, though.

I absolutely hate pandemic talk in my books and there are many references to it, blah.

I was able to listen to a copy as well.
Narration notes ~ I've listened to Brittany many times and she did a lovely job as usual. She was properly frantic when necessary.

I was actually so excited about this one. I’d just gotten done with We We’re Never Here and ready to jump into a new story by this author. However, threesomes just aren’t enjoyable for me to read. It’s one of the themes I just refuse to so unfortunately I had to DNF.

I really don’t want to say too much with this one because it’s best to go in blind but this is a spicy psychological thriller that kept me guessing. The pandemic definitely provided an interesting backdrop to this too. I’m still a bit unsure how I feel about reading about the pandemic but I think it really works for this one!

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Thank you #randomhouse and #NetGalley for and advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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I have a lot of mixed feelings about this one - on one hand, it was intriguing, sexy, spicy, and very unique, but on the other hand, it just felt like TOO much at times. It felt too unrealistic and just far fetched. I tried to suspend my disbelief but even the dialogue didn't feel genuine or relatable. I did find the final 2 twists to be pretty juicy and surprising. I also thought the epilogue was fitting and really enjoyed that. Overall, this wasn't quite my cup of tea but I can definitely see why it would resonate with other readers. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

📚 #BOOKREVIEW 📚
The Spare Room by Andrea Bartz
⭐️⭐️ / Pages: 341 / Genre: Domestic Thriller
Narrator: Brittany Pressley

Ahhh. I was not a fan of this one. Kelly, the main character is exactly the kind that I can’t stand. She gets inside her head way too much and you’re stuck listening to her inner ramblings until she convinces herself to make one bad decision after another. And then what kind of story about a three-way couple has ZERO spice in it?? It was also a murder mystery, which gave me the one hope that Kelly would get whacked next. I would have DNFed this one but I received it as a NetGalley ARC so I waited for the audiobook to come out on my Libby app, set it on 1.5 speed, and powered through. NEXT!

Thank you @netgalley for this advanced copy but why oh why couldn’t you have given me Zero Days by Ruth Ware instead?

TL;DR: VERITY fans: pay attention!! This is the closest thing I’ve read to that twisty, sexy thriller and I was completely hooked on this provocative and deliciously creepy book about a woman who gets caught up in a relationship with the wealthy (and mysterious) couple she’s chosen to live with during the pandemic. It’s steamy and atmospheric and I found myself eagerly turning pages to see where this one went. There. That's where it went.

Another great thriller by Andrea Bartz! Stayed up late to devour this page-turner that had me guessing until the end. I love Bartz's writing and didn't see any of the twists coming.

Kelly takes a chance on an old friend and moves into their guest bedroom during the lockdown to take a break from her fiancé, who has recently decided he doesn't want to reschedule the wedding. What seems too good to be true suddenly becomes even more exciting than she ever planned. As she uncovers another side of herself she never knew existed, she also begins to learn more and more things about her hosts, including their previous lover is now missing. As things getting heated in more ways than one, can she really trust them?

Sometimes, unlikable characters work quite well in a thriller ! The story unfolds slowly but drags you in and doesn’t let you go - it definitely has some unique aspect and a lot more hot 🌶️ than one normally sees on a thriller ! There were definitely a few twists I didn’t see coming - the first one I quite enjoyed and went “wow” and the last one I was a bit more like “please don’t” 🤣 The epilogue was interesting and unexpected …. overall I did enjoy the story

Love the authors previous book so I was very excited to get my hands on this one! Good twists and turns that I didn't see coming. Plot was unique which can be hard to come by if you read a lot of thrillers. The only thing I didn't appreciate was references to the pandemic, too soon for me to have that be part of a book. Overall an enjoyable read!

I really wanted to enjoy this book but it just wasn't for me. I read it over a period of several days and just didn't feel drawn in to it. I will try other works from this author as I'll freely admit that it may have been my mindset at the time I was reading this novel.

I’m an avid thriller reader, but this book gave me anxiety hahaha So much happened that I could’ve never predicted. While I really liked the plot twists, the main character was extremely annoying and I couldn’t stand some of the choices she made towards the end. This was a quick and super enticing read but some parts just started to feel too crazy and far fetched? I also didn’t realize this was going to take place during the pandemic (which I don’t love reading about) but it started to bother me less as the book went on.

Kelly’s new life in Philadelphia is not what she thought it would be. The man she gave up everything for has just called off the wedding and they’re on lockdown due to the pandemic. The only silver lining is that she’s just rekindled her friendship with her childhood friend Sabrina — now a bestselling author with a handsome, high powered husband. When the two offer Kelly an escape and offer their spare room of their remote mansion, Kelly doesn’t hesitate. She finds herself falling for her hosts and a steamy and unexpected ménage a trois ensues, leading the couple to open their marriage for her. New and exciting for Kelly, she loves this new endeavor until she finds out their past lover is missing.

I enjoyed the slow burn of this book. At first I wasn’t quite sure where it was going but once it started happening, it was happening! Kelly wasn’t likable to me, her inner monologue felt childish however, I can also understand that a polyamorous relationship is new to her and a contributing factor to her already existing insecurities. Obviously my dislike for her didn’t take away from the book because it was GOOD. I didn’t expect the twists! It had me looking one way while beautifully crafting the end the other way. If you like a slow burn and a smoke show, this is it.

Thank you NetGalley for my ARC

Happy reading 📚

This was not for me. I guess it’s considered a suspense romance, but I was expecting a thriller and this one just didn’t deliver what I was hoping for.

Maybe it was a wrong book, wrong time kind of thing, but it just missed the mark. It felt like reading multiple books in one - and not in a good way. It’s a miss for me.

Kelly and her boyfriend Mike are planning to be married but they are in the midst of the pandemic and starting to go stir crazy from being together almost twenty-four hours a day. Kelly then makes a huge mistake in their relationship so they decide to take a break for a week or two with Kelly moving in with an old high school friend and her husband that she's recently reconnected with over the internet.

Unprepared for the lavish life in a magnificent mansion in a severely, secured gated community in rural Virginia, Kelly experiences many mixed feelings plus she really doesn't know Sabrina very well, who was a wallflower in high school and now she is one of the most gorgeous women Kelly has ever seen and her husband Nathan is equally charming and attractive. Before long Kelly is seduced into the lifestyle and wasn't quite prepared to fall for both of her generous hosts. Soon after they begin a threesome, but what about Mike? Everything is wonderful until Kelly finds out that there was another roommate who mysteriously disappeared and that she has been surrounded by many ugly lies and deceit which will drag her down more dark roads that lead to murder and more!

This book was certainly entertaining and I wasn't prepared for the storyline since I went into it blind. The premise of the story was very good although the threesome caught me a little off guard. I must say that the author "Andrea Bartz" handled all the sexuality taking place in a more sensitive way so I wouldn't quite call this erotica yet to be forewarned there was plenty of sexual affections being shared throughout. The book was pretty much a slow-burn for sixty percent and then it got exciting with mysteries and deceit and maybe even murder.

At first I liked Kelly but as I kept reading I didn't care for her at all. I found her unpredictable, needy, demanding and always blaming others for her choices and insecurities. I think this book will have a great appeal to many readers although I did find there was too much repetition and jumping around in the second half off the story. I wish the book had been much shorter. The story taking place during the vivid lockdown was another enjoyable element which offered some realism to the story. With all that said, the novel was very unique, entertaining with several twists and I would definitely read another book from this writer.

A big A+ shoutout to Kelly's cat "Virgo". An adorable addition to the entire story!


I want to thank the publisher "Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this novel and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 3 KILLER AND DISTURBING 🌟🌟🌟 STARS!!

What a ride! This one started off so weird to me. Why would a woman who is having trouble in her relationship just go away during Covid times and stay with this couple who she doesn’t know well. It was an odd setup. And a lot of red flags throughout once she got there. There were definitely some steamy scenes in this one! I enjoyed that aspect of a little spice in my thriller! The ending was different.. I did not see it coming and felt like it was a weird reveal! Overall it was an enjoyable read, I liked the writing style.

This book started out SO good for me. It was mysterious and sexy and even a little spooky. A graveyard right next to the massive house?? Yes please! I was getting the romance/thriller vibes that I loved in The Writing Retreat and You Shouldn’t Have Come Here.

A little more than half way in, I started to not enjoy the story as much. The love between the characters felt very surface level and we were told more than shown the so called deep connection between them so I wasn’t buying into it like the story needed me too and it started to feel cheesy and cringey.

There was one decent twist that got me, but all of the other reveals didn’t slap like I would have liked. The fact that this book took place during the pandemic didn’t seem necessary. Yes it played a part, but with a couple tweaks it could have been completely possible to exclude that all together.

Though I enjoyed the first part of The Spare Room, the ending fell flat and overall I didn’t get what I needed out of this thriller. Final rating: 3.5 stars!

I loved the romance aspect to the book. It’s not my go to genre, and I do think if this more as a thriller, but it added a unique element that cut through the typical thriller formula.

Well plotted twists throughout the novel. Great character growth. Overall, a great read I would recommend to friends.

A fun read that is fast past. While I thought I knew what was happening by the end of the book I definitely didn’t expect the outcane that happened.

I don't have a whole lot of words to say about this one. I made the mistake of not reading the description before going into this book= prior to reading this, Andrea Bartz was an automatic must-read for me. This one was so out there that I may think twice about picking up her next one. With that said, it did keep me guessing and turning the pages, and I didn't guess the ending.