A sweet rom com with a cute but somewhat predictable plot line! I found Rosie quite endearing and her journey of development was a nice touch, I wish we would have had more of Aled’s POV or just more info about him. Nevertheless I did root for them in the end and this book was a great palate cleanser due to its lighthearted easy style. Tropes included:
Forced proximity, friends to lovers, he fell first, slow burn.

Overall 3.5 stars 🌟 probably won’t stick with me but an enjoyable read nonetheless

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I have the biggest smile on my face having just finished this book.

It has all the usual elements but is written with just enough wit and heart to fully win you over.

Rosie and Aled are good as flatmates. Even better as friends. Ultimately wonderful as more.

I would recommend this book.

DNF @ 35%

Honestly the writing style is not my cup of tea for starters. There’s a lot of going nowhere dialogue. The FMC is very body negative towards herself and that is not it for me.

I love a great roommates to romance book and The Spare Room did not disappoint. It was very well written and I highly enjoyed the storyline as well as watching these supposed “roommates” build a will they or won’t they relationship with each other. Will be sharing a full review expanding in these initial thoughts soon. Laura Starkey is a great author. I look forward to her future titles.

A great romcom with a supercute cover. Though this plot has been portrayed in a lot in other books, this one was just as good. Funny commentary, great characters, the usual 'misunderstandings'.....a great feel good book.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Great romcom, with the usual misunderstandings, loyal friends, but ultimately feelgood.
I needed a break from the ubiquitous thrillers, and this was perfect.

I LOVED THIS BOOK! I struggled to put it down. It was absolutely addictive and just an enjoyable read. Loved the characters and everything about it.

It was okay... It was a typical rom-com - nothing new really happened from any other book out now. The main character Rosie is often taken for granted and run over by people in her life. This includes her current boyfriend, employer, and family. The boyfriend decides to break up with her and somehow after one conversation with her stereotypical best friend, she decides she deserves better and starts to stand up for herself with her family and quits her job. Enter the roommate who needs a spare room, Aled. He is so weird and doesn't even talk in the beginning of the book. He's supposedly really shy which leads to a huge miscommunication at the end of the book that has Rosie running after him after she was supposed to be more empowered now. Ugh. Also, somehow her family just decided that they were going to stop treating her like crap out of nowhere and her ex decided he did really love her but I do not get how he even got there. I did find the book entertaining and I kept reading but it was sadly very predictable. I have purchased this authors other books before I finished this one so I hope they are not as generic. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I loved reading this, I loved seeing the development of relationships which were both positive and negative. I found it very easy to read.

This was a really lovely story where you could see the personal growth of the main character, and a slow burn romance. The story has an obvious ending, but it was also nice having the additional characters of our heroine’s best friend, and the hero’s cousin, who added a nice extra touch. I was a bit confused by the epilogue, and wished that had gone a different way, but overall I found it an enjoyable read

From the very start of this delightful novel, I fell in love with Rosie. Her character is so well drawn and she's just so relatable. The minute I had a spare minute over Christmas, I wanted to get back to it and then when it was finished I had a book hangover because I was so engrossed by the characters and didn't want to leave them.

Well written, funny and heart warming, with the most delightful, gentle hero. It was one of those books with some real heart melting moments that will stay with me for a while. I thought it was an original telling of a familiar plot and really well done. I absolutely loved it and will be looking out for more from this author.

I really enjoyed reading this. I was rooting for the characters from the very start, a fantastic read!

The Spare Room by Laura Starkey is a quirky, funny, romance, The MMC is divine and will be loved by all. All the characters are richly developed and the author skillfully pulls you into their world.

This sounded great, I love forced proximity books. But it just took so long to get that part. And I get it, you had to get to know the characters and the background first, but unfortunately I kind of lost interest.
Maybe it’s me, bad timing or wrong expectations, I just didn’t love it as much I hoped I would.

i was so excited to read this arc because the book premise sounded so good and right up my alley, but i honestly struggled to finish this book because it didn’t live up to my expectations. maybe it’s a me problem, but i couldn’t stand rosie and there was barely any chemistry between her and aled.
it wasn’t entirely bad - i didn’t hate it, but i definitely didn’t love it either. the writing itself was good but to live up to the premise i feel like it could have been executed so much better.
for the sake of not being able to do half stars - i’ve rounded this up to 3.

loved this romance and that they started out as friends. Rosie is with james for 10 years and ends up leaving her by a note. She needs help to pay the rent and her neighbor ends up in the spare room. She starts to find her place and figure out her life and a new job. She also starts having boundaries with her mom. Loved the friends and rhi . Loved the romance between rosie and aled.

This book had so much promise but it fell flat for me. Sadly I ended up DNF'ing it.

And lastly, there was absolutely no chemistry between Alad and Rosie. There was so much potential to build their story, but the author fell flat.

I loved this book and was hooked from the first chapter. It’s all about Rosie and how she deals with life after being dumped by her idiot of an ex boyfriend . I loved the setting and the characters, especially Aled.

The ending was absolutely perfect and I shed a few tears. I would love a sequel to this to find out how Rosie’s life turns out.

Thanks to Netgalley, Laura Starkey and Embla books for an advanced copy on exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

I've read some other reviews of this book after I read it and was really surprised that so many were less than favourable! I think I must have been reading a different book to everyone else as I absolutely loved it and thought it was a wonderful romantic comedy! We meet Rosie who has just been dumped after 10 years. She wants to stay in her flat, but needs to find someone to split the rent with. Here we meet A.Thomas or Aled to call him by his first name! I thought their blossoming friendship was well written and found myself hooked into Rosie's storyline very early in the book.

There were some parts which I didn't quite connect with however - I didn't like Rosie's family or James (but I think that was the point) and felt really sorry for Rosie throughout the story. Her 'plus-size' was mentioned quite a lot, but I don't think it really needed to be as the storyline didn't really need it. But apart from that I really enjoyed the book and well before the half way mark I was well and truly caught into Rosie and Aled's stories and couldn't put the book down! I liked Rosie's character and loved Aled! (Where can I find a man as lovely as him!?) The storyline was fun, romantic and light-hearted with a little bit of 'will they-won't they'!

I thought it was a fabulous read, which I was really sorry to finish! My first by this author, but definitely not my last! Would recommend!

I liked it ok, but I didn’t love it. However, that is because I expected a romance and this felt more like women’s fiction with a HEA to me due to the very little interaction between our two love interests. To the point, I don’t know if I like Aled as a character or not because we see so little of him. We literally know his cousin better than him.

However, that being said, the characters are extremely well written, as is the story!! I absolutely loved Rosie and watching her grow as a character. My favorite character may have to be Rhianne, though. She was the glue that held a lot of the plot together. I hope she gets her own story!

Thank you NetGalley and Embla Books for the eARC!