Reading Between the Wines book review #72/115 for 2023:
Rating: 4 🍷 🍷 🍷 🍷
Book: The Spare Room
Author: Andrea Bartz
Available now! Released on June 20, 2023!!!

Sipping thoughts: Wow this book took me on a ride and I was not buckled in so I definitely was thrown around. There are parts that are slow but even within those moments, there is so much suspense and unease. I really liked that even post-pandemic (we are right?) I could picture what it would have felt like to be Kelly, staying with a “friend” and her husband on locked down. Reading this you will not know who or what to believe and you will probably guess and guess again, incorrectly, like I did. I am happy I was given the opportunity to read this book early and I can foresee it being a read of the summer.

Cheers and thank you to @NetGalley and @RandomHousePublishingGroup for an advanced copy of @TheSpareRoom. Another thank you to @Goodreads for my giveaway win!
#TheSpareRoom #AndreaBartz #RandomHousePublishingGroup #GoodReadsGiveaway #NetGalley #advancedreadercopy #ARC #Kindle #Booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #bookstagram #nicoles_bookcellar #bookworm #bookdragon #booknerd #booklover #bookstagrammer #bookaholic #bookreview #bookreviewer #IHaveNoShelfControl #ReadingBetweenTheWines #fiction #thriller #suspense #mystery #MysteryAndThrillers #GeneralFictionAdult

This book was interesting and did hold my attention throughout the whole story. Some of the twists and turns were a little hard to follow and I found myself saying "wait, what?" a number of times. Overall the story was good as long as you are ok reading about some degree of deviant behavior.

Andrea Bartz writes amazing thrillers that I will read every time! This one had my attention from the beginning with a plot twist that I couldn't have guessed. I loved it!

Many thanks to Random House Ballantine Books for gifting me a digital ARC of the new book by Andrea Bartz - 4 stars!

Kelly is feeling trapped - it's during the pandemic and she uprooted her life to move from Chicago to Philadelphia with her fiancé, Mike. She has no friends there, no job, and now there's trouble between her and Mike. She reconnects with a high school acquaintance, Sabrina, over social media. Sabrina is now a successful romance author and her husband, Nathan, is a high-powered executive with the government. Sabrina invites Kelly to come to stay in their gated mansion in Virginia for a break. But Kelly wasn't prepared for the threesome relationship that unfolded, especially when she discovers that their last partner is now missing.

I'm a big fan of Andrea Bartz's thrillers but don't go into it expecting a constant thrill ride. This is mostly a slow burn, relationship/character heavy book, with drips of mystery folded in. I wasn't completely enamored with the throuple relationship aspect, but I loved the way I couldn't trust anyone in this book and the end twist was a complete surprise. I liked the pandemic setting and especially the thought that it caused us to be afraid of others, when we need each other so much. Bartz's writing steals the show as always and I enjoyed this one!

What a crazy ride! Sexy, scary, edge of your seat reading. The twists are unexpected and ending you won’t see coming! When Kelly stays with her friend and her husband during the pandemic, what starts out as a casual visit turns into something much more… and when people turn up dead there’s no one she can trust. I loved this one and stayed up late to finish it! Thank you to NetGalley for an electronic copy. 4 1/2 stars

what a fun, unique story! the plot is super creative. the writing is suspenseful enough, and i was surprised there was some spice. idk why but i was semi annoyed that it took place during the pandemic lol. i loved the short chapters.

kelly was infuriating for some reason. i just found her hard to follow. i’m not gonna lie i found myself skimming at times. i did love the ending it definitely caught me super off guard!!

I made it about 40% in to this novel and then I just couldn’t handle the relationship any longer. I don’t want to spoil anything but it just was too much for me and I didn’t enjoy it at all. Thank you netgalley for my free review copy but I will not be recommending this novel.

First, the positives. I absolutely love the premise, and I am so glad to see a thriller with a unique plot. There are so many thrillers with the same general story, so seeing something totally original got me very excited about this one. I loved the first third of this book, there is a lot of tension and mystery, and the atmosphere is very unsettling. I was really sucked into the story for the first bit.

I was sure this was going to be a top read of the year until about a third of the way through. There is a shift, and the plot loses all of the tension. Then, the middle third is so boring, very little is happening. Then things pick up towards the end, but the ending is so out of left field, it doesn't make sense with the character development or the other information in the book. I felt like the author wanted to shock the reader more than anything else, which I like, but it just doesn't make sense.

Ugh. Mystery-lite. Author revels in writing the protagonist’s every little thought and feeling at the expense of actually having to write smart dialogue. Plot was so so. A few twists in the end doesn’t make it worth the slog to get there. Thanks to NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

I don't often not finish a book but I could not get into this story. I put it down and picked it up twice. Just didn't work for me.

𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: 4.25⭐️
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: Mystery/thriller📚

𝙼𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:
I didn’t read the synopsis for this one before starting it so I was truly blindsided by this one (in the best way)

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
Slow burns
Crazy twists
Who dunnit mysteries
Thrillers that are also “sexy”
Books that take place during the pandemic
Lots of secrets
Unique plots

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍:
The epilogue
I was hooked from the start

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛:
It was OTT which I usually love but this one was a little too OTT at times

Woah… this one was one heck of a wild ride and unlike anything I’ve read before. I was hooked from the beginning and just had to see it all unfold. I highly recommend going in blind. I’m purposely being evasive because I want you to experience this for yourself. It makes it even more fun and you’ll appreciate it in the end.

𝙉𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙝𝙮:
😷 Pandemic setting, not a full quarantine
🏃‍♀️ Fast paced read with short chapters
🤷🏻‍♀️ Lots of possibilities & no one is trustworthy
🏡 Remote mansion in the hills of VA
🌈 Unique relationships 💃🕺💃

This is my first book by @andibartz but it certainly won’t be my last.

Wow on this book! It had me so tense and uncomfortable from the very beginning. Right from the start, you know something is not quite right, and it keeps you pleasantly entertained.

The book takes place at the height of covid. Kelly and her fiancé are having difficulties, so they decide to take a breather. Kelly had recently connected with Sabrina on Instagram, who was an old high school acquaintance. Sabrina is now a fairly prominent romance/smut writer. When Sabrina invited Kelly to come spend a few weeks, or an indefinite amount of time with her and her husband, Kelly jumps at the chance.

You can't put your finger on it, but something feels off. Kelly arrives, and the whole thing is just a little too seductive. Eventually, Sabrina and her husband, Nathan bring Kelly into their relationship (cue the threesomes). Kelly soon finds out that Sabrina and Nathan had a lover before her that has since disappeared. Everything starts to turn a little more sinister, and she begins questioning everything she has come to believe about the couple. Things turn murderous.

Kelly spends the entire book walking casually through a forest of red flags, swatting them out of the way left and right, and not really acknowledging a single one. It was almost humorous how she took every explanation that was fed to her.

The book was such a fun ride, and the end turns into a whodunnit with everyone suspecting each other. The plot twist got me.

Overall - if you are looking for a solid popcorn thriller with some spicier than normal scenes, I suggest this one.

The Spare Room is a hauntingly, juicy story which makes for the best kind of beach read! Its incredibly creative premise and shocking twists and turns will have you enthralled from beginning to end.

Set during the pandemic, Kelly and her fiancée Mike have been in lockdown together in Philadelphia. But when Mike suddenly decides he thinks they should postpone their wedding which they have been planning, Kelly not only doesn’t understand, but feels trapped having to stay with this man she thought she knew so well and wanted to spend her life with.

So, when a famous writer, Sabrina, a friend of Kelly’s from high school who she had reconnected with during lockdown offers the spare room at her and her husband Nathan’s secluded mansion in Virginia she jumps at the chance to get away from Mike. She and her cat Virgo hop on the next train.

On arriving, Sabrina can’t believe her luck! The grounds are lavish, the rooms gorgeous and Sabrina and Nathan are so helpful, understanding and kind. She and Virgo settle in nicely. Then, one night after a bit of too much drinking something happens to them Kelly never in her wildest dreams could ever imagine.

Kelly falls hard for this new type of relationship. This is just what she needs to take her mind of her Mike problems. But when she discovers she has not been the first woman to have been invited into their relationship and worse, the woman before her is missing, she begins to become nervous and confused.

She tries to rationalize the reason the woman is missing but keeps finding clues that not everything was as it seemed in the prior relationship with Sabrina and Nathan. But when a neighbor warns her about the couple, she realizes she has to find a way out. Something had to have happened that they are not telling her.

As things go from bad to worse, Kelly begins to think she will be the next person to disappear. How could she have left the only good relationship she has ever had for something this sinister? How does she leave without them catching on as to why. She must figure out a plan to get away!

The Spare Room grabs you from the first page and is an exciting and sensational read with shocking pivots in the story which will keep the reader captivated much like Kelly seems to be, with a jaw dropping ending you never would expect!

Thank you #NetGalley #BallentineBooks #AndreaBartz #TheSpareRoom for the advanced copy.

This was a slow burn for me, and took me a little bit to get into. However, once the story picked up it was still hard to follow. Kelly was an irritating narrator to follow and her emotionally driven actions would really get under my skin at times. I loved her first book, but this one was not my favorite.

Thank you to NetGalley for my free copy in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

The Spare Room by Andrea Bartz

Thank you to @netgalley, @ballantinebooks, and the author,
@andibartz for the opportunity to read this #eARC in exchange for my #honestbookreview! The Spare Room is now available for purchase.

Kelly needs an escape. She’s reeling from her fiancé putting their wedding on hold but not ending their relationship as well as his possible indiscretion, and it’s the beginning of lockdown to boot. Enter her high school friend and now author best know for writing sensational smut, Sabrina and her DOD husband with a top-secret job, Nathan. The pair invites Kelly to come visit for as long as she’d like. Things take an interesting and complicated twist when Kelly begins falling for both hosts and they invite her into their relationship. Kelly is swept up in the romance (and the sex) of it all until she discovers that the last woman they invited into their marriage turned up missing. Will

This book was incredible. The first book I read by Bartz was “We Were Never Here” and the whole time I had this nervous energy because (small spoiler) at least one of the characters is completely unhinged, unpredictable, and feels untrustworthy. This book also delivers that same frenetic energy that can only be tamed by a well laid out plot wrap up. I loved the way Bartz captured both the mysticism of lockdown - “anything is possible, this isn’t real life” that some experienced after finally achieving some introspection, alongside the mass hysteria that the lockdown evoked in others. This was well done! I highly recommend.

TW: che@ting, animal @buse, gaslighting, manipulation, theft, stalking

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ - 4.75/5

THE SPARE ROOM 🕯️ hit shelves last week, this thriller will bring you back to the peak pandemic when people were in “pods” and wore masks to walk outside. Kelly moves in with her old friend Sabrina and her husband Nathan after a bad breakup.
But, she soon develops a relationship with them both AND learns the fate of their last live-in house guest was not so happily-ever-after 👀

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - really fun thriller, could not put it down!!

Andrea Bartz grabs me from page 1 and doesn't let me go!

Kelly’s life in Philly is a mess. Her perfect plan of a husband, 2.5 kids, and a white picket fence might be over. Her relationship with Mike is at a standstill and in the middle of COVID times, what can she do?

Enter Sabrina and Nathan. The opposite of Kelly (happy marriage / imploding relationship) (bestselling author / jobless) they give her the ultimate proposition: come stay with them. Offering her the spare room of their beautiful yet secluded Virginia mansion, Kelly books a ticket, stat.

The couple introduces Kelly to a daringrisqué new world. While at first, this may seem like a wonderful arrangement, the more she learns about them, the wearier she is. When she finds that their last house guest is missing she starts to wonder what's behind their beautiful, yet private facade.

Will Kelly stay or go? Can she escape the spare room? An erotic thriller- this one definitely had me turning the pages!

As far as domestic thrillers go, this one was pretty interesting. A woman gets involved with a couple during an issue with her own partner, and finds out that a former roommate of the couple is missing.

A pandemic domestic suspense.

I first read We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz last summer and loved it. I was so glad to receive a galley of her newest release.

During the early days of the pandemic, Kelly loses her job and her fiance. She decides to move to DC/Northern VA to live with an old friend and her husband. She quickly realizes she is in for more than she bargained for, as her relationship with her new roommates turns sexual. She learns that the last woman they entertained is missing.

I appreciated that this story was a bit unconventional. I enjoyed that this book was set during the Pandemic. It makes for an interesting background element to the story. Lots of twists and turns. A light, easy reading, thriller.