Definitely hooked from the beginning! Can’t wait to get the physical copy. Amazing read. Definitely will be reading more from this author..

The Guest by B. A. Paris is a slow burn mystery that is set in beautiful England! I struggled to get into this book and felt like it did not pick up until the last 25%. I will say I did not expect the twist and was surprised how things turned out!

When Gabriel finds a young man suffering from a tragic accident and stays with him until his last breath, he is left with a guilty burden and steps away from practicing as a doctor. His beloved wife Iris tries to help him cope and get back to his old self. They unexpectedly have a visit from their long time friend Laure. They open their arms and doors for her but things begin to seem suspicious with Laure’s actions and words. Iris and Gabriel become quick friends with a magnetic couple down the street who are expecting their first child. Iris and Gabriel hire their gardener to help with Gabriel’s project but have they made a mistake in hiring this stranger and bringing him into their home? While Laure’s marriage is on the rocks, can Gabriel and Iris’ marriage survive as well?

Thank you NetGalley for the pleasure of reading this ARC of The Guest! Publish date is February 20, 2024 🖤

Another great book by B. A. Paris! I have read many books by this author and I can say this one does not disappoint. The idea of having your best friend staying with you for weeks and not being able to get ahold of her husband kept me guessing what in the world was going on? The beginning captured my attention immediately and the ending was a surprise I didn’t see coming. A great book by a great author!

Iris and Gabriel have been married for 20 years. They have a grown daughter who is enjoying her gap year. Things are great until Gabriel experiences a traumatic event that he has a hard time sharing details of with anyone and it begins to eat at him. To add to the stress, their best friends Laure and Pierre are having issues and Laure shows up to stay with them while they sort through their mess. Enter Esme and Hugh, new neighbors with a hot gardener and you have the perfect storm for some drama as secrets start to emerge and destroy.

I was on the verge of really being disappointed with one of BA Paris’ books, but then near the end there came total redemption. Things all came together to make perfect sense and I had no clue how that would be possible. Well done!

The Guest-family, friend and neighbor drama. This ended up coming together in the epilogue. Lots of build up that still left questions in the “Esme, Hugh’s and Joesph’s “ relationship. The charter development was a miss for me. A quick struggle of a read.

I want to start off by saying B.A. Paris is an auto buy author for me. That said this wasn’t one of my favorites. I love a domestic thriller but this just didn’t hit the mark for me. It was a slow start for me and took me awhile to become invested and all the drama with Laure was a bit much. I found all the characters unlikable and while that’s sometimes a plus in a thriller, it just left me a little annoyed. It was also somewhat hard to keep track of all the subplots which left me struggling to try to piece together how they could all be connected. I did love the ending and didn’t see it coming. Thankfully the epilogue brought everything together and tied up all the loose ends.

This book was for sure a quick read/listen! I did become so tired of Laure, and I wanted her to go back home! She was annoying me, lol. However, the end of the book SHOCKED me! This wasn't my favorite work by BA Paris, but I still really enjoyed it. I kept wanting to listen to find out how everything actually played out. Thank you, Netgalley for this audio-book ARC!

Iris and Gabriel return home from a vacation to find that their close friend, Laure, has moved in unannounced after discovering that her partner, Pierre, was keeping a big secret. Iris and Gabriel feel too guilty to ask her to leave at such a difficult time in her life, and what was supposed to be a few weeks of living with them turns into several months. It doesn't take long for things to get uncomfortable between the group as more drama and secrets unfold, and Laure long overstays her welcome.

The pacing of this book was really slow. It wasn't until halfway through that things started to pick up and the plot became more interesting. The short chapters helped me stick with it. I had a harder time connecting with the characters and grew tired of them having the same conversations over and over again. I was able to predict parts of the ending, but I could see it catching others off guard. B.A. Paris is always an automatic read for me, but I felt like this one missed the mark. It was still a good read, and I recommend it to others; it just differed from the thriller I expected. Overall, I give it 3.5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

Gabriel and Iris are doing well in their life and marriage. They have a daughter currently working in Greece. However, there is something greatly bothering Gabriel. Arriving home from the trip, they discover that their good friend Laure is staying in their home. As they are good friends with Laure and her husband Pierre, the couple each has keys to one another's homes.

Laure tells Iris that she will be there for an indefinite period of time, and that she has found out something about her husband that makes her unsure if she wants to stay married to Pierre. Laure soon becomes the guest who never leaves.

Meanwhile, Iris wants Gabriel to get back to his jovial self. She knows what is bothering him, but not to the full extent. As Iris and Gabriel are navigating their lives, Laure's life is topsy turvy and what happens to her affects Iris and Gabriel.

While I have enjoyed many of B. A. Paris's books, this one didn't Wow me. I was interested in the drama, but that is what it was, drama. Iris and Gabriel's relationship. Lore and Pierre's fractured relationship. Other relationships. Nonetheless, Paris is a must-read for me and I look forward to her next book.

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Parish has yet again left my jaw on the floor! I love the writing style, the "who done it" suspense and those twists keep coming. Faced paced page turner I could NOT put down! Well done!

The Guest is a riveting domestic thriller where marriages and friendships are intertwined with toxicity, secrets and lies. The story revolves around the shaky marriage of Iris and Gabriel, who return from a trip to find an unexpected guest, close friend Laure. Laure has left her husband Pierre back home in Paris because he has revealed a past affair that resulted in a child. The longer Laure overstays her welcome, the more tension filled the household becomes, and her motives quickly become questionable when Pierre is no where to be found and won’t answer his calls. The only saving grace is the newly formed friendship of Esme and Hugh, a new couple in town and their gardener Joseph who has a troubling past. This is a slow burn that takes the reader in many directions, and is a great exploration of trauma, and fractured relationships. I loved the English countryside setting, and the affluent lives of the characters. B.A Paris did an excellent job creating complex, unlikeable characters whose choices result in dire consequences. I enjoyed the various twists in the book especially the satisfying ending.

My rating 4 out of 5

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this eARC that will be released February 20 2024.

I’ve seen B.A. Paris books around quite a bit but this is the first I’ve read, so I was excited to dive into a new author (for me)!

The story kept me guessing throughout and I did not figure out the ending until I was reading it, which I LOVE because I’m constantly trying to figure out what’s going on the entire time. It was a little slow at times, but I still flew through the book.

Laure’s character made me physically angry which is always a testament to how well a character is written. I enjoyed the writing style a lot, it was easy to read and the chapters were short (hallelujah!!).

Though I enjoyed the story and it kept me guessing, it just seemed like we read a semi-slow story and then the explanation was at the end in a large clump. Still, I was NOT expecting that ending which is hard for me because I’m constantly trying to figure things out before they happen and I pretty much guessed everyone and everything except for what actually happened! Kudos!

I definitely plan to read more BA Paris books in the future because I flew through this one!

B.A. Paris is one of my favorite authors. I love the complexity of the characters. The storyline was multilayered and kept me guessing until the end.

This is the first book from B.A. Paris and I can tell you right now that I am a fan for life. I was intrigued from the first chapter.

I enjoyed getting to know the characters and sympathized with Iris throughout the book. I was just as annoyed and frustrated with Laure.

I was lost with the ending of the book. Then came the Epilogue... I never saw that coming. Say what? The conclusion of the story was great!

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy.

I really wanted to love this one, but the thrilling premises stalled for me in the middle of the plot and I lost investment in the outcome of the story. I adore domestic thrillers, so when Iris and Gabriel returned home from a holiday to find their uninvited friend living in their home, tension develops. While they want to support her in her split from her husband (due to an alleged affair), having a live-in house guest with no exit plan leads to conflict for everyone in the house and with nearby neighbors. Add in a recent neighborhood death, a mysterious new gardener with a secret past, and tensions overflow into murder. The lack of connection for me was that there were too many subplots to keep track of, and their interconnectedness felt like a stretch. Also, rather than have some twists or reveals throughout the story, I felt the novel ended abruptly and then relied on an epilogue to reveal all of the twists.

B.A. Paris is THE writer of domestic dramas. While the air was not thick with suspense on this one, the character relationships are masterfully crafted. I craved more intensity from the plot, but I enjoyed the ride.

Thank you Netgalley for the e-ARC. 👏🏻

Richly written with a complicated story that the author easily lays out. Such a fabulous read with an unimaginable ending! Beware those best friends!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC!

Believe it or not, this is my first B.A. Paris book and was so thrilled when I got accepted for this arc! I thought this story overall was pretty good. It sucked me in right away and I was so invested in all the drama that was going on between Iris, Gabriel, Laure and Pierre's friendship/lies and then things finally started to unravel.

I thought it was a little bit of a slow burn and felt like it didn't pick up until the later part of the book. But even with it being a little slow until the middle, it was still bingeable, and I needed to know what was going on. I loved the short chapters, alternative Pov's and unexpected twists! All and all it was a good read and I'd still recommend.

Thank you Net Galley and St Martin's Press for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I saved this one to read on a long flight thinking that a good thriller would keep me entertained. The premise of this book is solid and it started off pretty strong. Unfortunately, it was bogged down with endless mundane details of the characters' lives. These irrelevant pieces slowed down the pacing and by the time we got to the big reveals, I wasn't that interested anymore. It didn't help that the characters felt one dimensional and I was in no way invested in what happened to them. I'm rounding down to 2 stars from 2.5, because the epilogue simply rewrote everything to create a "gotcha" reveal that didn't seem to align with the rest of the book. This was an underwhelming and disappointing slog.

A huge thank you to the author and the publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

The Guest is marketed as a thriller but I'd argue it's more along the lines of a domestic drama, heavy on the domestic light on the drama. I am typically a huge fan of B.A. Paris' writing, but I felt this one was lacking in the addictive quality I was looking for.

Iris and Gabriel's world is turned upside down when their friend Laure shows up on their doorstep. Laure has just discovered that her husband Piere has a child she didn't know about, and she is rightfully distraught. She heads to the home of her lifelong friends to seek refuge, but her lingering presence in their home begins to cause tensions. Gabriel is already suffering mentally after finding a young boy who suffered from a fatal biking accident, so having an additional guest in their home is troubling.

Iris builds a bond with a new neighbor and finds comfort in her and her husband while her home life suffers. But when the young recovering alcoholic who lives with the neighbors begins embedding himself into her life, even further chaos ensues.

As I was reading, I was consistently asking myself, "So what? Why does any of this matter?" which is not exactly a thought you want to have. I was struggling to connect the different elements of the plot and understand what any of it meant to the bigger picture of the story for at least the first 75% of the book.

There wasn't necessarily anything suspenseful, so I found myself reaching for other books before I would turn back to finishing this one. When I read a thriller, I want to be absolutely hooked in from the start, so when one doesn't grab my attention from the jump I feel disappointed all around.

The saving grace here is the fact that it DOES eventually come together in the end, and all of the seeming plot holes are filled in. It took a while to get to that point, but the ending was satisfying, so this wasn't a total loss!

If you are a fan of domestic dramas where the plot stays relatively flat until the end, then you will enjoy this more than me, but I feel very strongly that not every book with an ounce of tension needs to be marketed as a thriller.