A riveting read from start to finish. A tale of revenge, well told and the characters were very believable. I thoroughly recommend reading this book.

Well this was compelling reading albeit a tad bonkers at times. We follow a cast of four high-flying Wall Street financiers as they try and get out of a locked elevator. Originally thinking that it is a "team-building" exercise, it soon becomes apparent that it is anything but as they start to fear for their lives. Clues are given which hint as to why they have been brought together and the penny drops. It then becomes a who and why and how on earth do we get out of this, kinda romp. Humorous at times, eye-rolling at others but the backstory more than makes up for the limitations in the present, as we peel back the layers to get to the crux of why this is happening and the horrifying truth is exposed.
The four main "elevator" characters were all deliciously horrible. I've always said that I don't have to like an MC to get on with a book, as long as there is some connection; good or bad. Here, obviously it errs on the bad side, especially when some of their deep, dark secrets are exposed.
Sara Hall on the other hand, well, spoilers prevent me from really going into detail here but she was someone I really rooted for along the way.
Pacing was a bit hit and miss and not really consistent throughout the book giving it a bit of a disjointed feeling at times. At times it was a bit too slow but I never once contemplated putting it down as I really, really needed to know who was the evil genius behind the predicament our MCs were in.
It was however a bit of an eye opener into the world of Finance. How much of this was truth and how much exaggerated for the storyline, I have no idea. But I guess all fiction stems from truth so there must have been a certain level contained within. The majority of which was really rather shocking!
If you want your thrillers to be credible then this might not be the book for you. If, on the other hand, you want an edge of your seat, slightly bonkers, rollercoaster of a compellingly addictive ride that will suck you in, hold you hostage and spit you out when done, then you could do worse than give this a go. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I am surprised that more novels are not set in the workplace. Most of us spend a great deal of time at work and are all too aware of office politics. Not many of us, though, spend as much time at work as young Sara Hall, who has emerged with impeccable qualifications only to find herself unemployed. That is, until a chance encounter with Vincent de Vries, leads her to her dream job in Wall Street. Before long, Sara is spending every minute working, hoping to look after her elderly parents, but unable to spend time with them. As this novel points out, time is the one thing which most of us never have enough of.

We learn of Stanhope and Sons and of the team that Sara works with gradually. Vincent, the Senior Vice President, ex-model Sylvie, Sam, whose unhappy wife is spending him into debt, Jules, with his drink problems. One Friday night, the four find themselves called to an apartment building, for a team building exercise. What unfolds is, it soon becomes apparent, a trap.

This is a novel of loyalty, ambition, the seductive, addictive love of wealth and power and the ultimate cost of success. None of those who enter the escape room are likeable characters, but Sara adds a touch of innocence to the plot, which gives the storyline some humanity. If you enjoy psychological thrillers, you should enjoy this. It has a great cast of characters, some good plot twists and an interesting setting. A great, escapist read for the summer. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

After finally getting a readable copy of this book (I had the same problem as other reviewers; missing letters), I was beyond excited to get stuck in. It sounded like it was written for me; taut psychological thriller set partially in an elevator-cum-escape-room? Sign me up!
The story is told from alternative POVs, one first person and one third person: one from the people trapped in the escape room in the present and the other from Sara Hall, who's narrative leads us to the present day.
Whilst I enjoyed the development of Sara's character from meek and mild yet up and coming financial exec to vengeance personified, I found who she became unbelievable and there were some lazy stereotypes thrown inqx. The rest of the characters were intentionally loathsome but rather than enjoying reading as they each got their comeuppance, I was bored. They were blindsided by their greed and basically karma came around to bite them on the ass. Meanwhile, Sara goes from rags to riches and back again. And then back again. Per-lease!
Overall, it felt like a meeting that should've been an email in book form. Far too long for the message it conveyed and I don't think the details will stay with me long.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

A quick read, in that it’s not complicated and you don’t need a lot of focus. I didn’t find the story compelling, and the writing style was quite dry, with much more telling than showing.

The initial idea, that of four people trapped in a lift masquerading as an escape room, and forced to be together when in fact they’d probably much prefer to kill each other, was a good one. However, it was also difficult to execute—there isn’t much room in a lift, which limits action possibilities—and after the first couple of “lift chapters”, the thrill here dwindled down to our four bankers not doing much with the few clues they were given. I think there was an element of “things didn’t turn out exactly as the mastermind behind it had envisioned they would”, but it fell flat for me. It was also pretty obvious from the beginning who said mastermind was, and with this removed, the remaining “how” and “why” weren’t able to fully carry the story afterwards.

This said, I could’ve worked with the above under certain conditions: the twin narrative of Sara Hall and what happened within Stanhope a few years prior to the escape room scenes had interesting ideas, exploring the ruthless world of investment banking, colleagues smiling to each other but trying to undermine each other from behind, backstabbing, the women vs. the “old boys’ network”, and so on. I could’ve worked with this… if the characters had been compelling, only they weren’t. Almost all of them (except the one that dies mid-story) weren’t likeable people—and when I say likeable, I don’t mean that they necessarily have to be kind, positive, etc., but that they have to make me feel for them, and keep interested, in spite of their flaws. Here, though, they were just unlikeable, without many redeeming qualities; their more human aspects (struggling with their relationships, divorce, and so on) mostly make them look like what mattered to them wasn’t so much the relationship, but the standing that came with it; not so much saving one’s marriage, but avoiding losing alimony money; and so on. In other words, whether they got out of the lift or not, I didn’t care.

As for the plot behind the whole escape room, it felt more contrived, and a little ridiculous, than thrilling, and the few twists and turns didn’t awe me either.

(On the plus side, I did like the characters who died. Unfortunately. I mean, for them, because, well, they’re dead.)

Wow, this thriller was so good and original. It centers around the behind the scenes of cruel finance industry, cutthroat deals, etc.
It's very up to date, relatable, insightful and interesting.
I liked the writing which was really gripping from start to end. And I'd really recommend you not to read anything going into this book :)

Thanks a lot Netgalley and the publisher for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this amazing jaw dropping book

wow where to start with this one....i put off and put off reading this one...but once i started i was hooked...and couldnt put it down..

its about a big investment firm and the office staff...and its dog eat dog where no one is ever as they seem and they make a lot of money each that they put up with it all...some even working 100 hours a week but the perks and the money well that says it all...

but this is about some very successful business people who had to go to a meeting with no excuses for not attending..compulsary and they have to join in the escape room scenario...only things start to go wrong after they enter the lift and the fun doesnt stop there

stuck in a lift no phone signal or wifi...no electricals to call out in the lift nothing works...the heating just gets hotter and hotter and then they are told the escape room scenario has started and they cant seem to fathom where the clues are or what they mean...

as the storyline progresses your jaw just drops and drops when you find out what these big successful business people have been up to and the lengths they will go to to earn what they feel is rightfully theirs

its a compelling story of greed lust vindictiveness shallowness and bullying at its best, one of the best written stories i have read in quite a while...another author to keep an eye out for

So the Escape room revolves around the cutthroat world of finance and investment banking.
Four colleagues find themselves stuck in an elevator in an empty office building all participating in what seems to be a team bonding escape room challenge.
Vincent, Sam Jules and Sylvie all employees of the firm Stanhope ruthless go-getters whose greed corruption and killer instincts all worship their god the almighty dollar.
These savage individuals are all prepared to do whatever it takes to stay ahead in the game.
As this well-crafted thriller unfolds everything starts to fall apart as the suspicion paranoia and close quarters all start to feed into everybody's individual insecurities and things start to unravel at the very seams.
This is told in two time frames an ongoing story involving an old work colleague Sara Hall and the elevator itself.
Meanwhile, the unfolding story threads while seemingly unrelated start to form a picture of sorts.
This book exposes the dark underbelly of human nature on both sides.
This was a well written thrilling journey my only slight criticisms are that I did think the ending was slightly rushed and somethings things did get a tad far-fetched.
I still really enjoyed this and it was an entertaining thrilling read.
I voluntary reviewed a copy of The Escape Room.

Well, flipping heck. This book is a rollercoaster. Four people trapped in a lift, each with their own histories, stories, and motivations. They all have one thing in common – greed.

There are two narratives in this book. A third-person narrative of the four people trapped in the lift, and the first-person narrative of a woman called Sara Hall. Sara’s story reads almost like a memoir, looking back on her time as an investment banker.

Although the plot is amazingly well-conceived and executed, it was actually Sara’s story that fascinated me the most. Although the world of investment banking is no secret, through Sara Goldin gives an insight into how new graduates are indoctrinated into the world of finance to the point of being brainwashed with the feeling of a cult.

The Escape Room brings to the surface the worst of us as humans living in a capitalist world and just how far we will go to benefit ourselves to the detriment of others. There are horrendous practices taking place that become ‘normal’ as the perpetrators are untouchable.

This book is an addictive, fast-paced psychological thriller which I gladly inhaled. Highly recommended, particularly for fans of The Wolf of Wall Street and The Big Short.

Thanks to Trapeze and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Original, insightful and an utterly gripping read. Reviews are likely to spoil the absolute twist at the end. Even without this, it was a great read with a behind the scenes look at the finance industry and the cutthroat deals and pay that feed the financial addicts. It is a novel of our time. I shall buy this for all my contacts in the city!

‘Welcome to the escape room. Your goal is simple. Get out alive.’

This story focuses on a group of Wall Street investors who work for a prestigious firm, Stanhope and Sons.
They’re totally dedicated to their work, and the money, so much so that they attend a last minute ‘important meeting’ which turns out to be an escape room exercise in a lift. A lot is revealed in the lift and it’s much more intense than they thought it would be.

Chapters alternate between the goings on in the lift and another employee so it keeps it well paced.

The characters are well done and you get a sense of their ruthless nature and selfish desire to get as much money as possible. I did like a couple of them and others I wasn’t so keen on. However, I think this was deliberate and didn’t stop me enjoying the story.
At the beginning, a character is introduced and then never mentioned again so it seemed a bit pointless going in to so much detail about him.

The plot is definitely a different idea and I enjoyed the story overall. It was easy to read and kept me interested enough I wanted to know what was happening. It isn’t very realistic but entertaining enough.

A real slow-burner until about 2/3rds through and then it was gripping as secret after secret came out!

4 employees get told they are taking part in an escape game and trapped in an elevator. There are some confusing clues for them to try and interpret and it takes them a while to realise that they are in danger and this is no escape game.

The chapters alternated between the elevator escape and a back story leading up to why the 4 employees specifically have been sought out for this punishment. And what a hideous bunch of people they were with a smart back story that kept me guessing and a few nice twists thrown in. I thought they all got what they deserved! It was a really clever storyline, definitely a bit different and kept me hooked until the end.

My many thanks to Orion Publishing Group via NetGalley for providing me with this advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is another book I didn't expect to enjoy anything like as much as I did. OK, I could be picky about the male characters: I know that financial service businesses have a bad press, and this one is no exception, but the fact that the principle male roles are singularly corrupt, predatory, and all-round unpleasant seems a bit one-sided. I also found the denouement in the last chapter was rather like having magician explain his trick to you. But despite all that, I still enjoyed it! Well done.

A good beach read! Quite dramatic and not much substance, with underdeveloped characters - some of whom blended together - but this was a fun romp and perfect to read by the pool on holiday, which I did.

I was sent a Kindle copy of this which was basically unreadable. There were letters missing throughout and I started just guessing what the word was rather than reading the story. I got less than 10% through before I gave up - I just could not read it.

This is so disappointing to me because this is the exact kind of book I love to read. If there is an update, I would love to read it. But currently it is just not possible.

My star rating reflects the fact that I couldn’t read it, not the story.

This was fun but not brilliantly well-written. The characters are a bit cliched and behave slightly erratically every now and then to suit the plot. The main character, Sara, is at times clever, at times seriously (and pretty unbelievably) naive. But I enjoyed the premise of the story - who has put the characters in a lift? How will they get out? etc.

THE ESCAPE ROOM – MEGAN GOLDIN

In the interests of disclosure, I was sent by NetGalley two novels to read pre-publication in return for a frank review. They were chalk and cheese. Not just the stories, which obviously were different, but the abilities of the authors. One had strong, totally believable characters, and an unusual setting, and was expertly written. The other was the exact opposite. Unfortunately, ‘The Escape Room’, a title of great promise, is the latter.

For me, the characters were unbelievable, as was the plot, and, quite frankly it was so stuffed with clichés in both dialogue and prose and ideas that it became an example of how not to write.

“… he asked with a half smirk as he meaningfully lowered his eyes…”

I had expected an exciting book, something that would grab my attention and grip me all the way through. I stuck it out until I had read 25% of the book, hoping against hope that some aspect of the writing would improve, but sadly it didn’t. And life is too short.

The most surprising aspect for me was that the author apparently used to write for Reuters and covered war, peace and terrorism. I am sorry that I have had to give this book such a poor review, as any book takes time and commitment to complete. I’m sure that inside the author there is a great book wanting to burst out; in my opinion, sadly this is not it.

What would you do if you got trapped in a lift? I found it quite.hard work to read this book as k most "fi" at start of words were missing, and it stopped the flow of the book for me I had to give up half way through, but I will be certainly buying this book has I was enjoying it.

Escape Room is about how greed corrupts souls, the lengths people will go to one up their competitors and ultimately the consequences of forgoing one’s own conscience.
Four employees from a high-flying Wall Street investment bank are invited to participate in an escape room as a teambuilding exercise. However, as the game gets underway, the players soon realise that the game is more personal than your standard escape room, and the past has come back to haunt them.

Erm, well, this was peculiar. I was quite into this, until the book neared its end. By then I was extremely frustrated and blinking dumbfoundedly at how off-road and crazy the plot went from how consistent it had been.

The story unfolds through two narrations; from the perspective of Sara Hall prior to the escape room, and then the current events of the employees trapped in the elevator-styled escape room. This way of storytelling was both enjoyable and confusing – it was enjoyable because it was a slow burn of mounting curiosity, but also confusing as it wasn’t clear what was going on or what the mystery plot was aiming to reveal (which was the case until at least 62%).

I’m quite a stickler for repetition, which Escape Room is certainly guilty of. I literally winced when I read about how hot the elevator was, the need for the cold draft of air, and how Vincent was losing control of the group, for the sixth time. Plus, when chapters focused on the people in escape room, some of said chapters were really bland by going on and on about the characters’ life (which didn’t even relate to the main plot). These chapters felt like a way to stretch out the length of the book.

Ultimately, the characters make and break this story.
Sara and Lucy were likeable, and I was distressed when they were upset and in turmoil. The rest of the characters were the type that play a part in the story; they were boring to read about at length, but of course, they're relevant to the main plot.

The hardest part of this was digesting how Sara’s character was likeable and human, and then changed. Sara was down to earth, but ultimately became naive, dim and thoughtless at 60%. It was incredibly frustrating to see where this was going, and ultimately what it led to. I felt the character was made to be suddenly stupid to fit pulling off a plot turn, rather than Sara being an actual idiot – which was later proved “correct” with that barmy ending.
It was so infuriating I'd of DNF 'd this if I weren’t so close to the end at 80%ish - I owed it to myself, and to this review, to be completely thorough in my concluding thoughts.

The climax and conclusion were fun and totally farfetched. There's nothing about the twist, the ending and so on, that's well-reasoned or believable. But if anything, I will say it was slightly entertaining for who knows what reason, albeit I was disappointed there wasn't more justice.

Escape Room is one of those quick reads with a nuts story that undoubtedly frustrates readers, but ultimately is either appreciated for its entertainment value or criticised for its lack of credulity. I'm somewhere in between but I'd probably pick the latter if I'm pressed. But to be fair to a debut author, I'll round up my rating to 3 stars, but I was tempted to rate this lower. Read this if you love a fast and whacky fanciful ride, but if you are put off by plots that are not well plotted and have a tendency to be unrealistic, then I don’t think this is for you or for me.

Thank you kindly to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an e-copy of this book, in exchange for this honest review.

I think this book is going to strike fear and excitement into the heart of many people when it comes out. If your worst nightmare is getting trapped - in a lift, in a locked room, anywhere in fact, then this book is going to feel like that experience. Mix in an equally frighting work bonding session and dear me…you might need to lie down when reading.

Four hideous work colleagues who would rather stab each other in the back than help each other out go into one of those trendy escape rooms. Except they definately can’t get out…for this is no ordinary bonding day out…

This was fun, silly in places and down right scary in others, but I found it hard to care for the hard-nosed greedy characters so that helped me a bit. It’s very gripping, atmospheric and will ensure that I never go on one such experience (not that I was thinking of it)

I do think the ending let the book down for me - the latter part of the story building up to that seemed sillier and sillier but it was still a fun reading experience.