Third Wheel involves Jake and his best friend Sy - who live together and have created a website where they record 'new experiences.' All is going well and the channel is popular until they introduce a third person - Helena.
Helena and Sy end up together and Jake feels pushed out and uninvolved in the experiences they record and also in his home.
The amusing events that unfold make the reader smile and laugh out loud - the catwalk and escape room in particular.

Spaldings writing is witty and the book is a quick read - loved it.

Definitely more YA than adult, but still a super enjoyable, quick read. I loved the relationship dynamics throughout the book.

I’d like to thank Amazon Publishing UK and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Third Wheel’ by Nick Spalding in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Symon Redcar and Jake Carlisle have been friends since primary school and for the past four years they’ve run a successful business ‘Do It Or Don’t’ where they participate in experience days and show their recording on YouTube. Sy decides they need to increase their audience by adding a female and after interviewing hundreds of would-be presenters Helena joins them. But Sy falls in love with her and the dynamics change as she becomes an integral part of ‘Do It Or Don’t’ and Jake finds himself the hated ‘third wheel’. Jake wants things to go back to how they were before Helena arrived and will do anything to sabotage his best friend’s relationship with her.

I haven’t read a novel that’s made me laugh as much as ‘Third Wheel’ has for a very long time and I’ve spent the last 24 hours chucking at the absurd situations Sy and Jake get themselves into. The most hilarious has to be the Romanian translations that will keep me giggling for a long time to come, not to mention the tartan speedos! My thanks go to the author for giving us an uproarious laugh-a-minute novel that’s been thoroughly enjoyable and a pleasure to read. I can wholeheartedly recommend it and am looking forward to the next one.

Love this author and read almost all his books….in this one Jake Carlisle is living his best life, thanks to the crazily successful influencer channel he created with his best friend Sy. Reviewing whacky hobbies and adrenaline-fuelled adventures, Sy has pushed Jake into doing more exciting stuff than either ever thought possible. Then disaster strikes.

When newbie Helena joins the team, Sy quickly falls head over heels for her…All of a sudden, with romance blossoming and the business dynamic shifting, Jake is horrified to find himself becoming the dreaded third wheel.

Being the odd one out was not what he signed up for. And he’ll do anything to get his best friend back—even if that involves a little light sabotage, an unhealthy amount of jealousy…and one very unfortunate pair of tartan Speedos.

Will Jake be relegated to the background from now on? Or will he finally learn to stand on his own two feet and succeed at getting his life—along with his friendship—back on track?
Enjoyable read giving it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I always read Nick Spalding’s books, and this is his best in ages. Jake and Sy have been best friends since Sy rescued Jake from a bully at school. They now live together and have a thriving internet business called Do It Or Don’t, where they try out and review experiences, usually chosen by Sy. When Sy suggests they get a lady to join them, in order to widen their predominantly male audience, Helena is the only choice - dynamic and full of ideas for how to progress the company, but as she and Sy become a couple, Jake begins to feel more and more like a third wheel, until things finally come to a head.
I really enjoyed this book. It made me snigger a lot and I really felt for Jake as he got pushed more and more out of his own company. A good ending and a great read. Highly recommended.

Who hasn't felt like a Third Wheel? Jake has unknowingly been living in the shadow of Symon, his best friend and business partner, for years. In a effort to expand their YouTube channel, the two add a third, when Helena joins the team. As Sy and Helena fall in love, Jake quickly sees he has always been at the bottom of the ladder.

I love Nick Spalding's books, he is one of very few authors who make me literally spit out my wine and laugh out loud! His characters get into such ridiculous situations, it is hilarious. This one is a tale of a friendship and business partnership threatened by a new romantic interest and I love how it plays out.
I would recommend any of Nick's books they always cheer me up!

Jake and Symon, best friends from childhood, live together and work together producing social media videos reviewing various experiences -- horror-themed escape rooms, riding the Batmobile with Batman, spelunking in Wales, hot air balloon flight, runway modeling, and the like. Their videos are popular and lucrative, but to get to the next level, they need to add one key ingredient -- a female presence.

Jake, our first person narrator, has several traits that drive his narrative: 1) he is snarky, cynical, sarcastic; 2) he always ends up deeply embarrassed (or worse) during their experiences (which probably explain their popularity); and 3) he really doesn't like working with Helena, the woman he and Sy hire as their third presenter, especially once she and Sy start dating, threatening his lifelong friendship with Sy and their business partnership (not to mention his ego).

That narrative exists for one main reason: humor. Nick Spalding has previously written a dozen comedic rom-com novels since he first self-published in 2012. This, his 13th, appearing ten years later, is the fourth I've read (the others in audio), and though I've liked all of them, this is by far the best (and if properly narrated will make for a cracking audiobook).

That's no doubt because of the central subject matter, the social media video reviews. The Spalding books I've read have a central theme -- Bricking It was about rehabbing a house, Fat Chance was about a weight loss contest, Dumped Actually was about break-up experiences. His stories and characters may sometimes be straight off the generic rom-com shelf, but these settings make them more interesting, at least for me.

In this case, the best parts are without question the experiences Jake and Sy videotape for review. Spalding goes into great detail on each and every one. That's the source of most of the humor, especially when things inevitably go sideways for Jake. I figured early on that we'd get a long long at an experience or two, to set the stage, and then focus on the characters' relationships with each other. But no, we kept getting one experience after another -- and that's what makes this so good.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Honestly, this is good. Fun and funny.

Nick Spalding is always one of those authors I turn to for a bit of light relief, and this is no different.

Well written and good characters, some really funny moments but at the same time profound. A really strong novel.

This was funny and a heartwarming story about bromance I guess and realising that sometimes one needs to stand up for oneself! In all honesty it was probably a bit too silly for me. Jake and Sy found themselves in farcical situations, the relationship with Helena developed unrealistically quickly too. I can see that if you like this sort of humour though that it would be enjoyable.

Jake and Sy have been friends for 25 years and have a business together as influencers ... they do activities and then social media and YouTube posts about it. It sounds like a fun gig. Sy feels they need a female host to draw in more viewers so hire Helena. Sy falls in love with Helena and suddenly it's Sy and Helena hanging out all the time and Jake has become the third wheel. Because of his friendship with Sy, Jake tries to go along with the new relationships but ends up feeling left out and resentful.

I've read many books by this author and thought this one was okay, though I found it wasn't as light and fun as previous ones. It is written in first person perspective in Jake's voice and it's as if he is speaking to me, the reader. I wasn't crazy about the main characters. Jake is a bit of a wimp and lets Sy and Helena walk over him (though he gets better towards the end). Sy lets his new relationship with Helena take precedence over his lifelong friendship with Jake. The author is English as are the characters so there were some references to I didn't know like an airing cupboard, a muggins, etc. As a head's up, there is a swearing (lots of F-bombs).

Nick Spalding’s Third Wheel will have you laughing out loud the entire time!

Finally, a love story for male friendship. Sy and Jake, are my new favorite bromance. I loved watching their friendship struggle, but ultimately overcome the addition of Sy’s girlfriend. They were super relatable characters that kept you rooting for them the entire time.

My favorite part of this book is for far too long the narrative has been that women alone get jealous and cannot handle there being a third wheel. As a result, they are labeled the “crazy girlfriend” or “overbearing best-friend”. Spalding debunks this myth by showing that men too struggle with changes to relationship dynamics. After all, we are all humans!

Special thanks to NetGalley.com and Amazon Publishing UK for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest feedback!

I loved all of Nicks books but I just could not get into this one. The start for me was pretty boring, I tried 3 times to get further into it but gave up. Will look forward to the next one.

You can always depend on Nick Spalding for laugh out loud moments and high jinx. Often his books contain many perfect vignettes of the ridiculous, but somehow you can just imagine them happening, and this book offered more of the same. (My husband was deeply annoyed whilst I was reading about the Romanian speaking lessons as apparently I was pig snorting and made the bed shake…)

It’s a fun, summer read, perfect for the beach. You can’t delve too deeply, at times the central character really got on my nerves but as you would want it’s a neatly wrapped happy ever after in this summer bromance.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and Amazon Publishing for this ARC.

I've read quite a few of Nick Spalding's books and have really enjoyed them. They are often laugh out loud funny, with portions of cringe thrown in for good measure.

However, I struggled to get into this one. I didn't warm to any of the characters and felt it was a little basic and underdeveloped, more like a young adult book. I appreciate from the authors note that this was written during the dreaded Lockdowns of Covid-19 and therefore must have been so much more of a challenge to get inspiration.

Hoping that Nick's next offering is back to the usual high standard.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4861435660

I usually look forward to Nick Spalding's annual dose of fun, but this one didn't appeal to me - too blokey, which is a shame because he often writes really well from a woman's perspective. The book gets off to a good start, with two mates shooting a YouTube video with an out-of-control Cortina and a drunk, projectile-vomiting Batman, but it goes downhill from there, if such a thing is possible! I thought there was going to be a twist, like the hero being in love with Helena, the girl who gets in between him and his best mate, or one of the boys realising they were gay, Chasing Amy-style. I kept wanting to hear more about what Helena thought of it all but the book doesn't supply that information, then in the middle of the book nothing happened for so long that I stopped caring whether anyone was gay or not and DNF'd it. I skipped to the end and it didn't seem like anything particularly life-changing happened to the boys either.

A very quick and enjoyable read! Third Wheel is about Jake and his best friend Sy (Symon) who make videos on Youtube. However, when Sy decides to recruit Helena to help with their business and ends up falling for her, making Jake feel like a third wheel. This story is an easy read and is funny. Definitely recommend!

This book was the light finding yourself story I needed.
Third Wheel is a story of friendship, change of life, being the odd man out, and fun plotting to get it life all figured out.

Following Jake on his journey to reclaim his life, his friendship. Unless her ruins it first.

This was a quick read with characters who were very modern. It was a classic Nick Spalding book but I feel like the characters were slightly undeveloped and ultimately lacking in sympathy. I don’t think the film version of this book would pass the Bechdel test! O

Overall a fast easy read. The writing reminded me of a YA book more than an adult book. All the characters were annoying though. They seem a bit stuck in their life and there was no depth in their development. This is a simple story of two best guy best friends living and owning a business together. They add a girl to the mix where one guy is the third wheel hence the title.