Always love a good psychological thriller that keeps ,e guessing until the very end, and The Guest does just that!
When Iris and Gabriel arrive home to find their friend, Laure in their house they never expect she moves in for weeks with the visit ending with multiple deaths.
Great read. Highly recommended.

* I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for my honest review

When Iris and Gabriel come back home in England from vacation, the find their close friend, Laure, has moved in to their home after having a huge fight with her husband, Pierre. Pierre has confessed to having had an affair and fathering a secret child and while Iris and Gabriel want to support them both, they're finding it challenging. Pierre is still in Paris, where the couple is from, and Laure is increasingly underfoot and causing stress in their relationship.

When Iris and Gabriel make friends with a new couple down the street, they're excited to connect and have a new outlet outside of Laure and Pierre. But their troubled gardener has a lot of unknowns in his past, which seem to be adding to the stress and danger.

This is probably my favorite of B.A. Paris's stories since "Behind Closed Doors". As the body count rose, I kept trying to guess which of the character(s) may be behind it all and I honestly didn't see the reveal coming. I loved how the epilogue at the end explained it all in a "Clue" like fashion so the reader has all their loose ends tied up!

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with access to read this book!

3 stars for me. I found myself wanting to like this as I have enjoyed numerous titles from the author. I did love the ending and I was surprised. Still a fun quick read.

B.A. Paris quickly became one of my favorite authors when I read Behind Closed Doors and The Breakdown. For a lot of this book, I didn’t know if it was going to live up to those, but it was still entertaining to keep reading. But the twist got me! Definitely pushed this one up with the ending. 3.5⭐️ rounded up.

Oh how I love this author! Anytime I see a new book by them, I know I'm going to devour it!

Great twists, an engaging plot. I was up until the wee hours reading to just see what would happen next!

✦ The Guest by B.A. Paris ✦
★★★ 3/5 stars
Pub Date : Feb 20

✦ Synopsis
Iris & Gabriel return home from vacation, they're surprised to find their old friend Laure staying in their home, sleeping in their bed, wearing Iris’ pajamas. She is distraught, confessing that she has left her husband Pierre.
Things begin to get a bit odd as Laure extends her stay, making herself completely at home, even rearranging their cabinets, with no end in sight. With a house guest overstaying her welcome, tensions are high - soon secrets, lies, & drama begin to surface.


✦ My Thoughts
My worst nightmare - a guest that just. won’t. leave. 🙈

I’m so glad I was able to read & listen to the audiobook, because the first half was super slow, but instead of building suspense it felt dull. I couldn’t connect to any of the characters. It didn’t pick up until about halfway, then things FINALLY started to unravel with some action. I enjoyed the last few chapters, until the very dramatic & bizarre epilogue that really made me feel like 90% of the book was a lie. You definitely have to be willing to suspend belief for that ending. But it was neatly tied with every question answered even if it was a bit unbelievable.

The audiobook was read by Emily Joyce, I really enjoyed listening to her! She did a great job, even using different (and well done) accents!

✦ Read if you like :
•slow burn domestic drama
•whodunnit vibes
•unlikeable characters
•lots of lies & deceit
•unexpected twists
•neatly wrapped up endings

Thanks to Netgalley, St. Martins Press + Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to review this ARC ◡̈

I am a huge BA Pairs fan and was excited to get my hands on this one, I love the way she tells a story! But this one fell a little flat for me, it felt like we got a whole book where not a lot happened, and even tho people kept on dying it still kinda felt like nothing was happening. Intill we got to the epilogue and we learn the truth, that was good but not good enough to make the book work for me. I just wasn’t invested in any of the characters really, and it felt like a lot of story lines going on it. I will read more of this author and do recommend you try this one out of your self and see how you feel about it! But for me it just missed the mark, i did listen to the audiobook and through the narrator did a good job telling the story and why I didn’t Iove the book as a whole I did enjoy listing to it and the narrator!

3.5 stars rounded up
This was a slow paced, light read. It was a little difficult at first to keep up with all the characters and the different directions of storyline. I did not see that ending coming! Overall another BA Paris book that I enjoyed.

Let me just start by saying B. A. Paris is one of my favorite authors. I have been in love with her books since I first found “Behind Closed Doors”. This is mainly because her books always leave me thinking wth just happened? So when NetGalley and her publisher approved me to read an arc of her newest book as you can imagine I was thrilled!


This book will have you wondering what would you do to make sure a secret never comes into light? Well if you’re one of these characters the answer is quite a lot. I was immediately engrossed in this book, like can’t put down, don’t disturb me engrossed. I will say I thought this book was going a different direction when I began reading it. However once again B. A. Paris surprised with the ending. I would definitely recommend this book to those that enjoy thrillers and spend their time reading trying to figure who has done what and where the story is going. Amazing!

I love B.A Paris writing! It is crisp and precise. Sometimes the plots of thrillers feel driven to create unaccounted drama to incite emotions in readers…and even though I appreciate the effort..it doesn’t always align with characters. Not with B.A Paris books! I love her plots.

The epilogue was great, however I wish I could say the same about the rest of the book. I was left feeling bored and wondering if the story was ever going to pick up.

To be honest, I’m always game for a B.A. Paris story. This one is no different. I’m not always a fan of psychological thrillers, but I gravitate toward Paris because it is an easy read with a fast pace, just gotta finish right away mood.

The Guest is a twisty domestic drama that follows 3 couples through the highs and lows of each of their lives. I appreciated the pacing of this thriller as it spanned across years but didn’t feel dragged out as many books do. There is a lot of death in this book, which I didn’t expect but I believe it added to the twisty vibes that Paris was going for. Something about this book felt…I don’t know…immature? Some of the dialog between characters felt more YA for me and occasionally made me cringe. Overall, I didn’t expect the final twists of the book and enjoyed how everything was wrapped up! I recommend this read especially if you enjoyed Shari Lapena’s Just the Nicest Couple - similar vibes!

I have read all of B.A. Paris's works, and I have enjoyed most. Unfortunately, this will be one of the few on the list of books that missed the mark.
The Guest starts with Iris and Gabriel returning home from a vacation and finding their friend Laure has moved in while separating from her husband Pierre. Laure left in a hurry, so she has already helped herself to Iris's clothes, bedding, and just about everything else in her life. The first half of the book does a great job capturing the tension of having an omnipresent house guest that nobody wants to ask to leave. I was captivated and couldn't wait for the inciting action that would bring some resolution. Sadly, for me, that's where this book failed. I will avoid spoilers and will just say that everyone has something they're hiding, the characters have interwoven back stories that are hard to fathom, and the final exposition and resolution is contrived and not satisfying.
The skill of the writing in the first half of the book earns the three star review, in spite of the weak second half.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Gabriel and Iris returned home one night to find that their friend Laure was staying in their house. They find out that Laure and her husband Pierre are in a huge fight because he told her that he had a daughter with someone else.

Laure stays there for a while, to the point where they are growing tired of her. Gabriel had been through a lot over the past few weeks, from his dad passing away, to stumbling upon Charlie, a kid he knew that passed away before his eyes. He had a hard time coping so he put his effort into fixing his walled garden at his house.

During this time they become very close with their new neighbors Hugh and Esme. So much so that they hire their landscaper to help out with the garden.

A lot of different storylines open up that keep you wanting to know more and I love that everything gets tied up in the end.

This had me at the edge of my seat throughout the entire book. I was so intrigued and couldn’t wait to see what had happened.

I did find the ending a bit underwhelming but overall this was a great suspenseful book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is B.A. Paris' best book since the Dilemma and Behind Closed Doors. I did not mind the slow-pace because it maintained the creepy atmosphere of the new neighbors. I do not want to spoil anything. I thought this was going to be a very predictable because I figured out one thing, the rest was not!

Very suspenseful and recommended. Her best book by far!

Thanks to BA Paris, Netgalley and St Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 2/20/2024

Once again B A Paris has created an amazing psychological thriller!! This book immediately grabbed my attention and i could not stop reading!!! The relationships, the secrets, the little snippets telling you that there is way more to the story..

I thought i had some of it figured out and i ended up being so very wrong. This book definitely kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I loved how it all played out and how everything finally got revealed and left me totally speechless!

Such an amazing story!! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher! This book was amazing!!

Thank you to NetGalley, BA Paris and St Martin’s Press for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This one felt a bit slow to build up, but once it did, I didn’t want to put it down because I couldn’t figure out exactly what was happening. I didn’t like most of the characters so I suspected them all. It’s what I’ve started to expect of Paris - I enjoyed it overall!

The Guest will draw you in slowly to the story of the uninvited house guest Laure who facing a personal crisis with her husband moves in with Gabriel and Iris.

Something is not quite right with her story and she does not seem to have any thoughts of moving home.

There are a lot of characters ( its easy to keep track of who is who) and they all seem to be hiding something.

The Guest had a compelling element to it as I wanted to know where the story was going and I sure did not trust quite of few of the characters.

Twists and turns and a surprise ending( I did not see coming) made for an entertaining read.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the privilege of reading and reviewing The Guest.

The Guest is a psychological thriller full of secrecy, uncertainty, and death. Iris and Gabriel are trying to regain their footing, because Gabriel hasn’t been the same since he was plagued with the guilty burden of a young man’s final message. However, things are far from returning to normal, as they receive an unexpected houseguest - their friend, Laure, who claims her husband, Pierre, has fathered another woman’s child. As Laure overstays her welcome and Pierre becomes increasingly distant, Iris and Gabriel are forced to come together to do some sleuthing of their own. It appears that everyone is keeping secrets from one another, and you have to read until the very end to find out who is willing to do the most to keep theirs hidden.

I am a big B.A. Paris fan; her books are always jam-packed with twists and turns that I never see coming, but that is only mostly true for this story. It did take me a while to catch on to what was happening, but ultimately, nothing really surprised me. The story starts with a prologue, which is actually one of the last chapters in the book, and it really drew me in. I knew this big, dramatic scene was going to occur, and I just kept waiting for it to happen. The only downfall with knowing ahead of time, is that I started to piece together when it was going to occur, and so it lost some shock factor. The book ends with a lengthy epilogue which thoroughly explains all the secrets and clarifies any questions left unanswered, which I really appreciated. There were many different sub-plots intertwined throughout this novel, and I was glad that they were all seen through to the very end. I don’t know what the future holds for these characters, and it is a bit unbelievable that one could successfully get away from all that occurred, but at least until the end of this book, I knew exactly what became of all aforementioned characters.