The Spare Room follows Kelly who is jobless, friendless, and is going through a rough time with her fiancé. The only bright spot is her rekindled friendship with Sabrina. Sabrina offers Kelly to come stay with her and husband for a while. Kelly really loves living with them and ends up falling for both of them. At first everything in the new found relationship is going well. But Kelly starts noticing that things seem a little off. The last women that Sabrina and her husband were with went missing. Now Kelly fears that the same thing might happen to her. 

So I am a little confused why this book is marketed as a thriller. For the most part this book did not seem like a thriller. It took over 80% of the book for the thriller vibes to happen. This was more of an interesting romance book. I did like this book over all. I just felt like it could have been better. However, I am a little unsure if I would suggest this one. If you are looking for a thriller I would skip this one. But if you are looking for a romance book with a dash of thriller vibes I would suggest this one. I have never read anything by this author before and I do like her writing, and I will be reading more by her in the future. 

Thank you Andrea Bartz, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for this ARC.

Super steamy thriller that I didn’t know I needed! But seriously, I was pleasantly surprised by the twists and turns this one took, all the way until the very end! I do wish it was a little more suspenseful, that is the reason I gave it 4 stars. I kept waiting for the mystery aspect to kick up a notch, but it never did.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

ARC review for spare room by Andrea Bartz
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
I read We We’re Never Here by Andrea and loved it and I love this one also! Her writing style is one of my favorites in thrillers! We follow Kelly in this book and she is on the outs with her current relationship and moves in with her friend Sabrina and her husband Nathan, they spark your a relationship. Everything is fine until she finds out that their last girlfriend went missing and she has to decide is it a coincidence and stay or intentional and leave. This was a slow burn romantic thriller that featured a trouple and it had some spice to it! I loved this book and will be buying a physical copy when they come out!
💓 💓

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The twists and turns in this one! Kept me on turning the pages and on the edge of my seat. Highly recommend. Andrea Bartz does it again!

I cannot hold my e-reader! It's too hot! This book is incredibly steamy!

Poor Kelly, at 35, gets dumped by her long-time fiancé. Luckily, she reconnects with her old friend Sabrina from school, who writes scorching hot erotica and is married to a high-powered and sexy man. Sabrina invites Kelly to stay in the spare room of their beautiful Virginia mansion to nurse her unexpected breakup, leading to a steamy threesome with the gorgeous couple in the middle of a pandemic. Kelly finds her new normal in these life-altering circumstances.

But later, she discovers that she's not the only one sharing intimate moments with the couple. There's another woman, her predecessor, who is missing, and she was last seen at the same mansion where Kelly is now staying. Are you intrigued?

You'll find yourself drawn into this extremely stimulating, naughty, and hyperventilating story. You won't be able to put it down. Your smile will only widen as you keep flipping the pages.

It starts off slow-burning, but don't worry, the early chapters will lure you in, and your anticipation will only increase with each chapter. It gets hotter, and the tension builds. You may think you're reading an erotic thriller, but when you reach the second half, the slow-burn tension reaches a boiling point. The trapped-in-a-mansion theme, intense claustrophobia, and whodunit mystery will keep you on your toes. You'll want to know what's going to happen and who the culprit is.

I don't want to give too much away, but be warned, this is not your average popcorn thriller. The topics are scandalous, the events are derailed, and there are so many triggering subjects, jaw-dropping incidents, shocking, juicy, and mind-blowing twists. I had mixed feelings about some parts of the conclusion, but I still fully enjoyed the brilliant epilogue.

This book is the boldest, sexiest, and most riveting work by the author. I took off half a star after having second thoughts about some characters' situations, but I'm still rounding up to 4.5 stars and giving it a full 5-star rating. Wow, what I just read! Great work, Andrea Bartz!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine Books for providing this amazing digital review copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Where to begin with this one? For starters, a few chapters into the book, I was convinced I was reading the wrong genre. I'm not a romance reader, so some unexpected R-rated scenes took me by surprise in this one. Apparently, I don't read book descriptions very thoroughly either haha---as a mystery/thriller lover, I like to be surprised. If nothing else, this book definitely delivered on the shock value. I had to give this one two stars; not because it wasn't a quick, compulsive read; but because the genre crossover was much too stark. A little bit of romance in a thriller is okay, but this felt way out of my comfort zone. I also felt like the goal of this book was to be somewhat of a social commentary, which I don't generally appreciate in fiction.

I'm scared to give a description of this novel for fear of immediately spoiling the entire plot. Here's the TLDR of the story in case you're curious. Kelly thinks she has a perfect life planned out with fiancé, Mike. Surprise, surprise---there's a chink in their relationship armor and he suggests they slow things down. Kelly reconnects with an old friend from high school who invites her to stay with her and her husband at their mansion in the suburbs of Virginia. What could go wrong? Read (if you dare) to find out. Also worth noting, this book takes place during the pandemic--- it's an underlying theme, but not an overt part of the plot.

Overall, this wasn't what I was expecting from Bartz. I really liked We Were Never Here, but this one was way too risqué and out there for me. I would not recommend it to anyone I know. Friends, please "spare" yourselves from The Spare Room.

Thank you so much to Ballantine Books, Andrea Bartz, and NetGalley for the ARC of The Spare Room.

This book had a great twist at the end that i did not see coming. That was the best part of the book. The main character was not very likeable. She was too gullible and i only kept reading just to find out the ending.

I Liked It. There were a lot of interesting things in this story to keep you going. Different and unexpected. Not a huge fan of the ending which seemed to come out of no where by providing new information. A decent read.

One of the parts of this storyline I liked best is how it incorporated the pandemic as part of the plot. Kept me turning pages until the very end.

Kelly needs a place to stay while taking a break from her fiancée during the pandemic. An ideal situation arises when a former classmate and her husband have a room available for her to have in their house. How close is too close? How well does she really know her friend? Who can truly be trusted? This is the premise of this thriller. It did not disappoint.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book!

The character’s plot like was quite the journey - finding herself in love with a married couple after leaving her fiancé during the pandemic, then to have their ex return. It was a lot, but at the same time I couldn’t walk away! I felt suspicious of the main characters most of the time, what their intent was, where their relationship would head and how it would implode. This book definitely kept me on edge but I got to the end faster than I wanted to! Andrea Bartz spins quite the story and you won’t want to put it down!

Suuuuper chilling take on a domestic thriller. Might be one of the best I’ve read so far in 2023! The twist was A+ writing.

Fabulously sexy, delightfully creepy, while also being a story about growth brought on by the collective trauma we all experienced during the pandemic, THE SPARE ROOM is a great read, with elegant prose and an electrifying plot. I tore through it in a day. Well done, Andi Bartz. This is my favorite of her novels. Thanks to net galley, the publisher and the author for the eARC!

Book Title: The Spare Room
Author: Andrea Bartz
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine Books
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Pub Date: June 20, 2023
My Rating: 2 Stars ~ I really wanted to round up because of the great cover

Kelly Doyle and her boyfriend Mike decide they need a break. (Loved that Mike really hoped Kelly would leave their cat Virgo with him.)
Kelly’s childhood friend Sabrina invites her to spend her ”break” with her and her husband Nathan Lamont. They live in a mansion on Tanglewood Estates and have plenty of room.
Kelly moves in but soon finds secrets. There was another girl who was involved with them and she has disappeared. Plus finding a camera in the spare room’s closet is creepy.
In fact, I thought oops I didn’t do my homework on this story.
Have to admit the cover is great however it did lead down the wrong path as it gave me the wrong idea.
I love a story with twists and turns but it really didn’t work for me. However, doesn’t mean it is a bad book. I know it will find the right audience who will enjoy it.


Want to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine Books for granting me this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for June 20, 2023

This book was alright. I think Andrea Bartz’s writing just isn’t for me. I felt like there were some holes in the book and they never were resolved. I felt like there was a lot of potential though.

Okay, wow I didn't not expect.

Like wow, this was a roller coaster, I really thought he was guilty, although I found all the characters a little annoying.

The writing was easy to read, the plot was okay.

This is set during the pandemic, the FMC goes to live with her friend and her husband, she hasn't met long time, and soon they start a relationship and then she discovered their ex had disappeared before she come to live with her. The plot twist was wow, I didn't expect it at all, like I thought that person was not even important to the story.



Thank you to netgalley and the author for a eARC.

My thanks to Net Galley and Random House/Ballantine for allowing me to review this book. Unfortunately this was not what I expected this to be,could not connect to.the characters and could not finish this. I liked how the pandemic was written into it,and woman taking a break from fiancee to stay with friends, but it was more erotica then what i was expecting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for this pulse POUNDING thriller that I just could not put down!!! It was hot and sexy and Andrea Bartz surprised me with her writing in the BEST way!

The story follows Kelly whose fiancé decides they need a break mid 2020 in the thick of the Covid pandemic. Kelly has been following one of her old classmates in social media, reading her raunchy romance novels, and when she reaches out to her she gets invited to join them in quarantine (them meaning her husband too).

Their relationship is a roller coaster that will literally make your heart skip a beat - the sex, the twists, and what about that ex that she finds intimate photos of?! Oh.. she’s missing! I can’t spoil the rest but you won’t be disappointed! Incredible 5 star read!

This is my second novel by Andrea Bartz and while I know this book is not for everyone, from the perspective of the writing, character development and twists the Spare Room is a well-written novel and I preferred it to We Were Never Here. When 34 year-old Kelly finds herself at odds with her fiance (and unemployed during the pandemic), she takes her high school friend's offer to wait out the pandemic in her Mansion in the DC suburbs. Sabrina, a best-selling writer, has made quite a name for herself since their days in high-school. When Kelly arrives from Philly, broken-hearted and down-trodden, she's immediately charmed by both Sabrina...and her husband. Soon, they open their relationship to her and what begins is a bizarre version of cat-and-mouse. Kelly finds out she's not the first woman they've had as a partner and that that woman is missing. Things are not adding up and Kelly realizes she may be in the fight for her life. There are more than a few twists that will keep readers engaged. This book is part general fiction and part psychological mystery but altogether a fun ride.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

This book in 3 words: Cunning. Unreliable. Inventive. 

The Spare Room is a thriller that reinforces my confidence in the genre; "out" is the cliché storyline and "in" is a plot, spun on its head, with unexpected twists and turns. I don't want to spoil a single thing, so here's what you can expect from this deliciously dark book:

1. Slow burn and lots of tension
2. Character driven with quite the cast. I loved some of them right off the bat, was unsure of a few, and I knew of the duds the first time my eyes read their names. 
3. Things aren't what they seem but not in the way you think. Truly one of the most memorable twisty reads I've picked up in a while. 
4. Some spice and sexual awakening
5. A great lens on perception -- from face to face to online presence. 
6. The. Ending. I can't even believe it. 

A plot easy to devour with sharp writing, The Spare Room, is an exciting and haunting ride. 

I received an early copy in exchange for an honest review.