All I Want by Darcey Bell is a domestic thriller about a pregnant wife, a gaslighting husband, his terrible mistress., and a kindhearted handyman. This was probably one of the most frustrating books I've read in a while, And throw in the last chapter with the twist that made this book even more frustrating,,, I do not recommend this book, sorry. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

This book has a lot going on and yet somehow manages to be pretty slow. I was not at all feeling the beginning and honestly thought about DNFing. Right around 60% of the way through it started to pick up and I found myself wondering why we wasted all that time with the build up at the beginning. Why not just get right into it and then have the second half of the book to sort everything out? But then this book did something that I absolutely hate. I won't say what because it is a major spoiler, but honestly if you want to read this book, just skip the last chapter. I would have been much happier with the ending (although not even close to perfect) if that last chapter just didn't exist. I'm not sure if author's think they are being super creative by throwing this particular twist in there. All it is is frustrating. The icing on the cake for this book though is that she throws this twist at you and then it just ends. There is not time at all spent with how this revelation effects the characters at all. This book was not for me.

A gaslighting thriller that hooks you with an interesting premise and great setting only to throw it away at the end.

Another psychological thriller by Darcey Bell - great concept but the book didn’t have a lot of action going on. Infers her first two books were much better.

This book was so good! I want to see more from this author in the future!! I couldn't put this book down. What a page turner!!!

A classic Darcey Bell novel. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time and she once again, did not disappoint! This may be my new favorite by her!

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I almost didn't finish this one. I just had a really hard time. I didn't identify with or especially like any of the characters. The plot was so so and dragged on. I just couldn't get into it.

Thank you to the publisher for my review copy.

Wow. Wow. Wow. That is all I can say. I mean. Woooo, what a ride.

I am not going to go into this book too much as it would be super easy to spoil it. All I'm going to say is....read it. It is a ride.

All I want is a room somewhere...

When Emma's doting husband, Ben, falls in love with a mansion in need of serious renovations, she is hesitant to take the plunge. Pregnant with their first child, Emma feels it may be too much work, but is ultimately won over by the charming old house. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to raise their child away from the hustle and bustle of New York City, where they currently reside. Emma and Ben learn of the mansion's dark history but they are committed to making it a bright and wonderful home. Soon after moving in, Emma begins experiencing strange and unsettling things. When Ben starts acting weird and distant towards her, she is forced to question the safety of herself and the baby.
This novel started out slow for me, but once I got into it, I couldn't put it down! I was sickened by some of the happenings in the book and couldn't wait to see how everything would turn out. I listened to the audiobook and read the eARC. The narrators made it very easy to follow along and portrayed all of the characters perfectly. My mouth hung open many times throughout the novel, as I was extremely shocked and on edge. I was so affected emotionally that I was actually queasy by the end of the book. I definitely recommend this novel to anyone who likes a slow-burn, domestic suspense novel.

This book is definitely a cliffhanger. I was riveted by this story and shocked by how it turned out. Definitely a good read even though a little strange towards the end.

This book was slow-moving. I skimmed a lot because I was bored. The cover looks like something I would love. The inspiration seems to be drawn from Shirley Jackson's Haunting of Hill House, and it also had Riley Sager's Home Before Dark vibes, but the quality just wasn't there. I did like how there was a bit of spin at the end, but it was just so weird at that point.

Thank you to @netgalley for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest, personal review. This was a tough one because I enjoyed "A Simple Favor" so much and think the author is very talented. This story however did not draw me in even after reading a few chapters. Emma and Ben are a married couple who move into an o
D Victorian home in New York. The house has a dark history and soon Emma feels like she is losing her mind. The ending was a letdown for me, the story itself felt too chaotic.

This book was such a wild ride and once I was sucked in, I didn't want to put it down. The setting was fantastic, and I can only imagine that this would make an incredible movie. Darcey Bell knows how to set a scene that really paints a picture for readers. This reminds me of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, but was honestly much creepier to me.
There are so many twists and turns in this book. It left me wondering what was real and what was a dream? Lindsay's initial chapter really shook me, and I was so glad that we also got insight into Ben and JD's stories after that. The use of the horror movies that Ben and Lindsay watched were great details to include and added another creepy, foreshadowing layer to the story.
And the final chapter! What a way to leave readers wondering....

This had a lot of potential but ended up just being super sloppy. I was really hooked in the beginning. About 10% in, I realized I forgot to add it to my currently reading on Goodreads and saw that it had a decent amount of low reviews. I decided to stick with it but I should have heeded the warning. I really enjoyed A Simple Favor but this didn't live up. I didn't like a single character other than JD and truly didn't care what happened to them. I will say it was a quick read so I do not feel like I wasted my time reading it.

I was really hoping for a suspenseful domestic thriller, but instead got a messy, drawn out story. The gaslighting throughout was no joke, and very frustrating. As others have said, that last chapter was ROUGH, and left me with a bad taste.

3.5/5 for me.

So I loved A Simple Favor, giving me really high hopes for this one. Something about the creepy fixer upper, miles away from the closest neighbors had me really intrigued.

I found myself sucked into Emma’s world as she found more things about the house, as she couldn’t stop herself from feeling like things around her weren’t as they seemed. By the end I believed in what she believed, saw everything through her eyes. I wanted desperately to feel like everything was going to turn out okay.

Then the last chapter came and tore that all away from me. I had to come to Goodreads and read other reviews so I could make sure I wasn’t the only person who was blindsided.

This would have been a solid 4 for me without the last chapter. But all in all it was a really quick read that was worth the while.

When Emma and Ben get pregnant with their first child, they decide it’s time to move out of New York City to somewhere safer and more peaceful. And when Ben, a Broadway producer, finds a big country house that has an actual theater inside it, he knows he’s found the place for them.

Emma isn’t quite as sure at first. The house is nice, but it needs a lot of work. It’s pretty remote. And it has a storied history. It used to be owned by a doctor and his wife who ran a home for alcoholic Broadway actors to dry out. They had the theater so that their patients could still put on shows. The heirs to the doctor and his wife let the place fall to disrepair, and now Ben wants to buy it and fix it up.

When Emma finally sees the house, she is pleasantly surprised. It does need a lot of work, but it also has a lot of potential. It’s beautiful, it has good bones, and Emma really likes the idea of raising children there. And in the kitchen is a beautiful antique stove like she’s always wanted. They sign the papers and hire a contractor, JD.

Ben has to go back to the city to work on a new project, but he promises that he will always have his phone ready to take her call, if she needs anything at all. And JD makes sure that she has several rooms that she can live in, and he’s especially thoughtful towards her pregnancy whenever he’s working with something dangerous or toxic. But the more time Emma spends there, the more she finds things that she’s not entirely comfortable with.

She finds a young woman’s journal in the attic and starts reading it. The woman had been pregnant, the lover of a married A-list actor, and she had been sent out there to have the baby. The doctor and his wife were supposed to help her have the baby and find a good couple to adopt it, but the way the journal ends, Emma worries that the woman’s story doesn’t end well. As she looks out at the fields, she sees a young woman with a baby. But with the house as remote as it is, it’s unlikely that there is anyone out in the fields around the house. So what did she see? Was is a ghost? A hallucination? And when Emma walks out back to try to find the place where she saw the woman, she realizes that she’s in a graveyard. What could it all mean?

As the weeks go by, Ben spends more time in the city on his new Broadway project, Peter Pan and the Lost Girls, and Emma has more trouble getting ahold of him. But JD is around. He’s handsome and thoughtful, and Emma finds herself attracted to him. But she would never cheat on Ben. Even though she is starting to suspect that he’s cheating on her. At least, it feels like something is off. Maybe Emma is just feeling lonely, but things aren’t the same with Ben. Maybe it will be better when the baby is born.

They do have a lovely Thanksgiving dinner at the house, with a few couples they know from the city. And Ben agrees to let the town put on their annual Christmas pageant in their theater. He even agrees to direct it for them. But despite the good memories, Emma can’t help but feel like something strange is going on. She can’t find any friends in this new town. There are odd coincidences all around her. She feels like Ben is gaslighting her, but she doesn’t have any proof. And while the baby seems healthy, Emma wonders if she’s losing her mind. Is there something going on with the house, or is she just slowly losing it?

All I Want is the latest thriller from author Darcey Bell, whose A Simple Favor went on to be a popular movie. This novel is a head-spinning tangle of suspicions and confusions, of lies and secrets, that keep the story moving in many directions at once.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I was not a fan of Bell’s writing style, as it seemed to be a little heavy-handed. One of the first piece of writing advice I heard back in the day was to show, not tell, and this has a lot of telling. Maybe she thought that it fit well with the story, but for me, it took me out of the story and kept me at arm’s length from the characters. I could empathize with them some, but I couldn’t get any closer than that. And I won’t say much about the ending except that I was disappointed. There are a lot of good things about All I Want, especially the creepy house where so much of the story takes place, so I won’t say to skip it. But realize that this is a complicated novel with some lows as well as some highs.

Egalleys for All I Want were provided by Atria Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.

I'm so sorry to say this was the actual worst book I've ever read. I read every page, and frankly, found nothing redeemable in it. Many reviews are (rightly) pointing out the letdown of the absurd final chapter, but everything leading up to that nonsense is terrible, too. A fun premise, dumpster fire execution.

I received an advance copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

So if you've read the other reviews for this book, you'll see that nobody likes the ending. At all. The book starts off good - a couple buys a creepy mansion in upstate New York that has an dark history, but they don't mind because they are going to renovate and fix it all up and ignore the house's creepy past!. Ben and Emma seem like a happy couple at first, but you can pick up pretty quickly that Ben seems like a bit of a jerk. Emma seems oblivious to this and the fact that Ben spends an awful lot of time in their NYC apartment away from his new home which is being renovated and his pregnant wife. He also seems to never answer his phone when Emma calls. Huh. I was willing to forgive Emma for being so oblivious as the story moves along quickly and is engaging. Towards the end, it slows down a bit and becomes a bit unrealistic, but still, kept my interest because I wanted to see how everything would end and the author would wrap it up. And it seems all wrapped up - a tad unbelievable, but wrapped up nicely. And then an ending chapter is thrown in and your like what's happening? The last chapter just messed everything up and went too far. All in all though I still enjoyed the book and like Darcey Bell's books, even though this isn't her best. Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I adored A Simple Favor so was excited to read this one! It's got a creepy gothic vibe; an old country home with rumored strange events in its history comes on the market and Ben and pregnant wife, Emma buy it and begin to renovate. But if you know Bell's books, you know that nothing is as simple as it seems. Because it has a theater in it, Ben is delighted as he is a director and they begin to plan a Nativity play during Christmas. But you know things will go haywire as Ben and Emma seem to disconnect as he stays in town often and she remains at the country house. Don't even attempt to figure it out as there are twists throughout with the biggest at the end! Not all the characters are likable but that doesn't bother me; the plot is creepy good!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!