The House Guest by Hank Phillippi Ryan took me a bit to get into. There are a lot of moving pieces with each character having their own secrets. What I enjoyed most was the ending was not predictable. The author does a great job with lots of red herrings and distractions. This is likely an unpopular opinion, but I found Alyssa to be. very likable. I enjoyed watching her growth across the book and felt her experiences were authentic to her character. Her transformation upon meeting Bree felt believable. She was being harassed by her soon to be ex-husband, she's slowly being cut off from all her comforts her marriage has afforded her and she's kicking herself for how "on hold" she's allowed her life to be for her husband. Bree seems down on her luck and Alyssa is at best empathetic, but under the surface, I think her initial interaction with Bree stems from her deep loneliness.

The way the story unfolds mixes in mystery, light-hearted fun, and a good bit of paranoia that drives these characters. I found the narrator for the audiobook was great and helped me stay focused on the plot, which by the way, is absolutely necessary. There is a lot going on this book and if you aren't paying attention, you will get lost as the plot twists and turns. I had to rewind a few times, because I was extra focused on driving in the car (I definitely put my attention where it was crucial!).

I want to thank Macmillan Audio for granting me access to the audiobook to review. I highly recommend trying the audiobook fo this cat and mouse novel! I look forward to reading other books by Hank Phillippi Ryan!

The House Guest is a suspenseful story of friends or cons, FBI or actors, a rich soon to be ex-husband or thief and Alyssa an innocent victim or master mind. There are so many twist and turns in this book, you’ll need to take notes to figure out who is telling the truth and who is being used by whom.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for this eARC. #Netgalley #thehouseguest

A great ride! Ms. Ryan kept me guessing for the entire novel. Alyssa's life is in the dumps after her husband's abrupt change of character and desertion. She encounters a woman who's also down on her luck and invites her into her home. What could go wrong? So very many things, obviously, or else there'd be no novel! Throughout it all, Alyssa fights to follow her own moral compass and be a kind and loving friend. Naturally, she wants not to be duped in the process, but just who is being duped and by whom remain a constant mystery. I was both surprised and very satisfied with the ending. I thought it would end differently and had been prepared to be less satisfied overall. This was my first experience with Hank Phillippi Ryan, but I was sufficiently impressed in the end to want to seek out more of her work.

I’m always a little nervous to read domestic thrillers/mystery novels like these because a lot of them seem to run together. While this book did feel like many others I’ve read before, it was still enjoyable and worth the read.

The beginning is slow and pretty repetitive until it really picks up over halfway through, but when it does it DOES and it’s good! It was fairly predictable to pick out certain things that were going to happen and who to trust or not to trust, but even still I enjoyed my listen and would recommend it to lovers of domestic thrillers.

The House Guest follows Alyssa as she is newly separated from her husband Bill. Alyssa meets a new friend Bree in a bar by happenstance. Bree is currently running from her past and living in a hotel. Alyssa invites Bree to stay in her guest house. She does and the two form an instant friendship. Alyssa soon discovers that the FBI is after Bill for laundering money from his fundraising business. This was marketed as a thriller but it was not thrilling to me. It talked a lot about the friendship between Bree and Alyssa but I was not thrilled. Overall, 3 stars. Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

Tipping my sun hat to Hank for this twisty cat-and-mouse thriller! 🖤 One of my favorite reads so far this year!

There is so much to love about this one (including the excuse to reach for my sassiest sunnies).

THE HOUSE GUEST delivers:
• Rich people behaving badly
• Fascinating female friendship
• A twist you won’t see coming
• Really immersive scenes (definitely had me taking notes)

And much more. Also—the audiobook narration was ON point.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the ARC. It is a pleasure to share my honest review.

A slow burn thriller that had a great premise Alyssa the discarded trophy wife looses not just status and access through her imminent divorce but also all her old friends and her sense of purpose - there are no more committee meetings, no galas or balls. She left law school without a degree when marrying and now in her recent harder times she doesn’t have much to fall back on. One night out incognito at a nondescript hotel bar she meets a new friend who turns into a bit of a makeover project for her - but should she actually be trusting this new friend ? Is she who she says she is ? Is Alyssa herself a reliable narrator? What happened to her husband who more or less completely disappeared under the suspicion of a possible FBI investigation … Were there shady business dealings ? Is he sneaking into the house at odd hours ?
Who is friend and who is foe ? This intriguing domestic thriller full of red herrings and potential suspects is just too fun to pass up !

This book was amazing. Without giving any hints you should just read it. The twist and turned will make you rethink things.

A cat-and-mouse chase slow burn thriller that kept me guessing until the end. The main character seemed naive which drove me a little crazy. However, I did not come close to guessing the end of this one. Perfect for BA Paris fans. The House Guest is available now so check it out. I’ll definitely be grabbing some more HPR books.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Macmillan audio, and Forge Books for my early copies!

When her wealthy husband files for divorce, cutting her off financially, Alyssa is in a quandary. She takes in a house guest with a friend who offer to “make her troubles go away.” Now who can she trust? This is a twisty thriller that will keep you guessing.

The narration was well done and I thoroughly enjoyed listening. The twist at the end really made this book.

While I found the first 75% of this book almost painfully slow, the last 25% really picked up and it was great to see a rich man behaving badly get his at the hands at his poorly treated wife. Good on audio and definitely recommended for fans of domestic suspense stories. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

. This was an overall entertaining audiobook, easy to follow with a couple interesting twists- it did have a couple issues and ended with a 3.25 rating.

It was a major slow burn and felt a little long. However, it was easy to follow along and the narrator was really great, so there were some good things about it!

I liked that I kept going back and forth on which characters were telling the truth- I always love when things aren’t obvious

The characters (specifically the MC) drove me nuts. It was bad decision after bad decision. She had no common sense, was way too trusting and I was shocked how easily it was for so the crazy things she was doing and it made the story too unrealistic at times.

I thought the plot was interesting and some of the surprises got me, the timing was just off.
I definitely think the audiobook for this one was the right way to go and the narrator was really what made this book for me!

I read the book and listened to the audio. Both were good and this is a book where it really doesn’t matter if you do audio or a physical copy.

This book was full of shady characters and gaslighting. You’ve gotta suspend your belief in reality a bit and not overthink this one too much. If you can do that you’re gonna have a good time with this one.

The pacing was slower than I usually enjoy. Most of the time with a “slow burn” type of book I give up on it. I never once felt that way about this one. It kept my attention the whole time.

This book was great! I very much enjoyed it. There were numerous twists and it held my interest the entire time. I won't forget this one anytime soon.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for opportunity to read and review this arc honestly.

I’m not sure if I was just not in the right mindset for this book, but a lot of parts felt really repetitive and the main character irked me randomly. I liked the overall storyline and progression but it dragged on for me. I’d be willing to give another book a try by this author, but maybe I was expecting more “thriller” with this one.

This was such an entertaining and different read! I thought I knew up front how this was going to go and I was most certainly wrong, as you really cannot trust anyone in this one which made it fun! It was a bit of a slow build to get to the end, just fyi, but once we got there the ending was quite suspenseful, and it was one I did not see coming. I always enjoy Ryan’s books and this was another one that did not disappoint.

The audio for this one was fantastic, Stephanie Willing narrates and I really enjoyed her, I thought she did a great job with this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forge Books for the digital galley and to Macmillan Audio for the ALC to review. This one is available now!

“Everyone has a way of hurting someone else…Especially someone they’ve known for a long time. Some fear, or secret, or thing in their past they don’t want anyone to know. Secrets are power…Every story had a secret, and every storyteller had a motive…Life is full of unexpected connections…People who are in a group together, but they don’t know it.” “We use the truth to tell lies.” Once you speak them, “You’re complicit. You’re a conspirator. You’re a criminal.”

“Alyssa had bought into it, the comfortable life that emotional con artist Bill had sold her…because it provided exactly what she needed and longed for–someone who loved her, and made her feel safe. But it was all to get what he needed. Until he didn’t. And then he erased her.”

Bree has never “done anything but max out [her] credit card, slog through a menial job fighting off a hideous boss, and go home at night to ramen and bad TV” until at her lowest point, she meets Alyssa, she offers Bree the guest house, “and my life completely changes…I quit my stupid job at the bank. Because of you. I jettisoned Frankie. Because of you. I’m free. Because of you. Don’t you think that’s reason enough to–I don't know, ‘Pay you back’?”

“Rule number one and rule number two, deny everything…A loyalty test…three words…used to camouflage what was, in truth…power and manipulation and influence…to make her miserable and terrified and doubting her very worth. She’d passed his insane loyalty test...She’d proved she was loyal to herself…we didn’t give up. In fact, you might say that’s our rule number one.”

In a way, it’s a mystery/meet-cute story. “Boy arrests girl, boy makes girl informant, boy falls in love. Girl falls in love. Boy and girl live happily ever after.” But “You can’t really love someone else until you can love yourself.” Hank Phillippi Ryan’s The House Guest is an invitation to put on your black tank suit, a black floppy hat, and Jackie O sunglasses and raise a glass in toast “To freedom…Someday, maybe, have a husband, a child, a real dog. Or not. But either way, be happy.”

“It’s not the money that is bad, it’s how people use it.” The House Guest, by Hank Phillippi Ryan, is a story of love, mystery, betrayal and fresh beginnings. The narrator did an excellent job of keeping the reader engaged through all the twists and turns. It is the mystery that keeps you hanging on to the end and the main character, Alyssa, was likable, most of the time. Although I believe the author could have done a little less mental commentary for Alyssa. I found myself thinking- this is extensive, more times than none. Yet not bore-some enough that I wouldn’t recommend this read! Definitely a good listen for a long drive.

Alyssa and her husband Bill are going through a separation when she meets a woman named Bree in a bar going through her own relationship issues. So naturally Alyssa ends up inviting Bree to come stay at her guest house while she sorts some things out. The two becomes insta-besties and offer to help solve each other's problems.

I picked this up because it was billed as a "diabolical cat-and-mouse thriller" but that wasn't an accurate description. The plot was slow moving for a good portion of the book. The premise of inviting someone you just met to stay in your guest house didn't ring very true to me. The characters were not very likeable. The gaslighting was played out, I didn't know if the MC was unreliable, just dumb or something else, but ultimately, I didn't really care because I wasn't invested. It took a lot of exposition at the end of the book to bring it all together and it was too little too late for me personally by then. The best part of the book was the great narration by Stephanie Willing.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC of The House Guest for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

With the upcoming divorce, her scheming husband manages to take everything away from her: friends, respect, and her beloved home. And he manages to get himself on the FBI's wanted list. As a cherry on top Alyssa decides to befriend Bree, a young girl she meets at the hotel bar who shows signs of domestic abuse.

Great thriller. Loved Alyssa's storyline and her ability to keep it cool at the most stressful time. Bree's story from the very start smells fishy. And her unnatural attachment to Alyssa tells the reader that she has some hidden motives. Overall, the book is very entertaining. There is not a dull moment in Alyssa's life. Loved all the characters and fun plot twists. Definitely recommend this novel to my fellow thriller lovers.