In upcoming novel THE GUEST by B.A. Paris, Iris and Gabriel come home from vacation to find their longtime friend Laure sleeping in their bed and basically taking over their home. Laure is despondent that her husband Pierre has confessed to her that he had a child with another woman during their marriage. Iris and Gabriel reluctantly let Laure stay with him but push for her to reconcile with Pierre. Meanwhile, new friends Esme and Hugo are about to have a baby, and they have a mysterious gardener named Joseph who has a connection to Gabriel's past.

This novel moves slowly, ploddingly so. I also struggled to differentiate the characters from one another. They didn't have unique voices, and it was hard to care about them. We don't hear from two of the men much at all (Pierre and Hugo). We hear from Joseph only when he has dialogue. Even without hearing from many of the men, it was tough to keep everyone straight.

I did like the epilogue. But it felt like a little too late to redeem the novel. In many ways, it felt like you could have taken 10 key chapters of the book plus the epilogue and had a rather good novella.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Guest is a fast-paced thriller that follows a household through a houseguest that overstays their welcome. I have read and greatly enjoyed other B.A. Paris books, but this one wasn't on the same level as past reads. I felt that the twists were not as 'twisty' and were more predictable than I would have liked. Overall the characters were likeable and I enjoyed reading the story, but I was left wanting more of an exciting aspect to the tale.

I have read many books by B.A Paris, and The Guest did not disappoint. From when their best friend shows up at their house until the surprise ending that I did not see coming. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy.

The Guest is a story about friendships, secrets and suspicions. The tension becomes more and more palpable as the reader gets drawn into the complexities of different relationships - between friends and between spouses. When people start showing up dead, secrets are revealed and revelations surface.

Laure showed up on the doorstep of her closest friends, Iris and Gabriel, after finding out that her husband fathered a child years ago and only now told her. Iris and Gabriel are happy to have her as their guest until she overstays her welcome and becomes a nuisance. Gabriel is on leave from his job as a physician while he deals with a recent traumatic experience and his marriage is suffering as his mental health crumbles. Iris tries to placate Laure while trying to hold her marriage together, but circumstances spiral and tragedy strikes again and again.

I thought I had everything figured out, but boy was I wrong. B. A. Paris certainly knows how to keep readers on the edge of their seats. Don’t let the slow start deter you from finishing this one. I promise you, it’s worth it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this thrilling 5-star read. Opinions expressed are mine alone. Publication date is February 20, 2024.

terrific book I loved this story, I couldn’t put it down, it’s full of twists you won’t see coming, you’ll keep reading into the night.

The first thing I would do is retitle the book: The Guest’s Secrets would be MY title if this was my book!

I am a huge B A Paris fan, and this book did not disappoint! The main cast of characters sure did seem
like such lovely people, really just people we’d all want to visit us in our home, Turns out, by the time
I finished the epilogue, I was simply stunned…and still being surprised by what took place.
In order to walk back a single choice of decades past, and try to keep a huge secret forever, Iris must
be very careful, and she’s kept her big secret successfully~ unbeknownst to her, her husband, Gabriel,
also, has a big secret, but he’s not as good with secrets.
While they are out of town, a good friend …. Of theirs, Laure pops in to stay after she and her husband,
Pierre, have a serious problem. A few more important characters will be along, but the big problem is
that Laure, their good friend, arrived while they are gone. With no luggage. Evidently with no plans to
leave. And with a very big secret suspicion.
There are more characters and this book is an absolute stunner around each corner. Last night I just
would not stop reading after reading a review that had me dying to get the answer to one question:
WHY?
I recommend this book to absolutely everyone! My thanks to St Martins Press via NetGalley for the
opportunity ,to read the download copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I had the pleasure and priviledge of reading an ARC of THE GUEST by BA Paris!

Iris & Gabriel return home from a vacation to find their friend Laure staying at their house. Turns out, Laure left her husband Pierre in Paris after finding out he fathered an illegitimate child at some point during their 20 year marriage.

Meanwhile, Gabriel is dealing with his own inner turmoil and Iris is struggling with the distance it is putting between them.

As Laure begins to overstay her welcome and no one can get a hold of Pierre, Iros and Gabriel start to wonder if their friend will ever leave and if their marriage will survive.

In classic BA fashion, these characters' lives and their secrets unravel until we don't know who we can trust, if anyone at all. That eilogue though 👌 I literally felt like I got punched in the face at the end of this book. Holy shit 🤯

Make sure to grab your copy of #TheGuest releasing in February 2024!!

Thank you #netgalley & #baparis

3.5 stars

The Guest by B. A. Paris is a twisty thriller that leaves the reader guessing, and wondering where the story is going to go next. This psychological thriller definitely gets the mind spinning with all the loose threads and uncertainties that keep popping up, and it had me wanting to know the answers and to find out what was really going on with all of the characters and the various mysteries they seemed to bring to the story. Just went it seemed like the answers were clear some new information would pop up which made for all new questions and kept the story from getting stale.

I will say it was very much a slow burn plot. At points I felt like it was dragging on for no clear reason, seeming to take a while to get to the meat of the story and for anything real to happen. However, the unanswered questions and the suspicious characters did keep me coming back for more, intriguing me enough to keep going to find out what was going on and what secrets people were hiding.

I felt no real connection to any of the characters, so I wasn’t invested enough to feel as if their problems were mine or to overly be attached to anyone to be nervous about what might happen to them. Not to say they were unbearable, just that I could take or leave any of them and not be affected. Luckily the plot was enough to keep me going, and I often find thrillers don’t always need that connection to characters as they tend to be short and to the point anyways.

The twist ending all felt worth it in the end though. At first I thought it was ending with no clear conclusion to what had been going on, but an epilogue follows that breaks down everything that happened step by step and how it was accomplished which I really enjoyed. And finding out everything behind the scenes was both a worthwhile revelation, and a pleasant end to the story. I was glad I stuck with it in the end, and it did end up being a surprisingly intriguing story to me that kept me coming back for me and not wishing to put it down until I had all the answers I felt I needed.

Do you ever really know what goes on other people’s lives? Do you know what goes on in your own relationships with spouses, family or friends? Would you risk those relationships to get what you want, get what you need, put yourself out of harms way? Even if that harm is something you created? Iris & Gabriel, Pierre & Laure, have their secrets…some more than others. Will anyone be spared? Full of twists and turns, The Guest will leave you guessing….just when you think you have it figured out, guess again. Iris thinks her marriage is slipping away from her. Is it her husband and his secrets? When their friend Laure comes to stay, after finding out her husband has a child with another woman, what will it take to get lives back to normal? Could Pierre now be missing? Is Laure sharing everything or does she have her own secrets? Is the new couple down the street innocent or do they have their own secrets/story to tell? What about the young, handsome gardener with a drinking problem that supposedly got him fired from his last position? Where does the truth lie? What lengths will we go to, to keep our secrets? Another success from BA Paris. Twisty and curvy, in true BA Paris style, you won’t want to put this one down. A must read!

I would like to express my gratitude to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a copy of "The Guest" in exchange for my honest review.

Once again, Ms. Paris has delivered an absolutely brilliant book that kept me enthralled from start to finish. The intricate plot twists and turns culminate in an explosive final chapter that is nothing short of sensational. In this tale, Ms. Paris skillfully introduces us to the world's most infuriating houseguest, Laure, who invades her friends' home while they are away. Laure's audacious behavior includes sleeping in their master bedroom instead of using one of the guestrooms, donning Iris' clothes, rearranging their kitchen drawers to her liking, parading around in the nude, incessantly shadowing Iris, and even answering calls on her mobile phone without passing along the messages.

The story commences at baby Hamish's christening, where two couples, Iris and Gabriel, and Esme and Hugh (Hamish's parents), are joyously celebrating. However, a sudden and jarring explosion shatters the tranquility of the moment. The narrative then transports us six months into the past, where we uncover that Gabriel, a doctor, discovered a young man named Charlie Ingram at the bottom of a quarry, barely alive, but tragically, he passed away before help could arrive. Gabriel is tormented by guilt because he fabricated Charlie's last words. As Iris and Gabriel return home from Scotland, they are greeted with the unsettling presence of an unexpected houseguest—Laure. She has fled her husband Pierre, who claims to have fathered a child with another woman. Laure's conduct becomes increasingly erratic and invasive.

We are also introduced to Esme and Hugh, a couple who have recently moved to the village and now reside in the house that Iris had always coveted. Joseph, a young man in recovery from alcoholism, works as a gardener for Hugh and Esme. Pierre's uncharacteristic lack of response to Gabriel's attempts to reach him raises concerns.

Laure eventually returns to Paris in search of Pierre but fails to locate him at home. Instead of waiting for him, she hastily returns to England. Laure's sudden disappearance leaves everyone wondering about her whereabouts. Meanwhile, we learn that the Paris police have located Pierre. The story is replete with cleverly placed clues that consistently mislead the reader. Just when you are convinced you have it all figured out, another clue surfaces, leading you in an entirely different direction.

The narrative returns to the explosive moment from the beginning of the book, where another body is discovered. With a body count of three in just three months, the reader is finally poised to unravel the true intricacies of this captivating story. The conclusion is nothing short of brilliantly executed, catching the reader off guard with its sheer brilliance. Personally, I did not see it coming, and it left me utterly impressed.

The premise sounded so amazing! But sadly, I was not a fan of this one. It was, I’ll just say it: boring. The chapters went on and on with no real movement in the story. The epilogue wrapped it up very quickly and I was left feeling shocked and not in a good way. I did like the characters and how they were written. I just wish they were given more plot lines. Overall 2/5 ⭐️. Thank you St Martin’s Press, and netgalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve been a fan of BA Paris since Behind Closed Doors (which happens to be my favorite book of hers), but sadly this one didn’t do it for me! I usually appreciate the domestic suspense plots, but I found myself bored through a majority of this story. While I didn’t guess the twist, it was hard being bored for a majority of the book then getting a huge information dump at the end (like, the entire epilogue?) It just didn’t keep me on the edge of my seat or looking forward to picking it up! Such a shame because I always look forward to her books!

3.5 stars rounded up

Lies, murder, deceit, infidelity! This book had all the tropes and I enjoyed it. Imagine meeting another couple on your honeymoon and renaming friends for the last 20 years. Never in your wildest dreams would you guess the secrets these 4 people are keeping. Man! That last secret was impressive, I did not see that at all, I am very rarely stumped. I actually thought Beth would be pregnant with Joseph’s child. This author does not disappoint, pick this book up if you love thrillers.

Book releases feb 20/24

Thanks to NetGalley, St Martins Press, and the author for the arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Once I got the characters straight in my head, the book felt easier. I did feel like a few of the plot points were unnecessary and not worth the real estate in the book. It was slightly illogical just how engrossed the new gardner was in all of this, however I was pleasantly pleased with the ending.

I am an avid reader of BA Paris and once again I was hooked from the start. I found the book started off a little bit slow in the beginning but picked up in the middle with some twists. It had me guessing “who did it?” all the way to the end. I was unable to figure out the huge twist at the end and I absolutely loved the ending. I thought it explained everything in detail and didn’t leave anything open ended. Great job once again BA Paris! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC in return for my honest review.

B.A. Paris books are a hit or miss with me and this one was entertaining but a bit slow. There were many unlikeable characters. Iris and Gabriel a married couple with one daughter Beth. Their friends Pierre and Laure and Hugh and Esme and Joseph all have secrets to hide.
None of the characters were very happy or content with their lives.
Overall I would rate this 3.5 stars. Many thanks to NetGalley and McMillan Publishing for the ARC. Publishing date is February 20, 2024

If you like lotsss of drama this book is for you. I thought the twist at the end was good and unexpected but the plot felt almost outlandish. I still enjoyed it though. Thanks for the ARC!

What a truly mind blowing book. You’d never guess the ending and when would one have time to since I couldn’t put the book down. The incredible plot leads one to believe the story to be of a couple with bad times in the midst when it’s a completely different way. B. A. Paris really know how to keep a reader intrigued only to blow them away at the end.

This was pretty good. I really bought into the story, and along with the primary characters, I felt so frustrated that Laure wouldn’t leave. But I was disappointed in the ending. Although everything got wrapped up neatly, to me it felt like an arbitrary choice as to “whodunnit.” So this is 3 stars from me, rounded down from 4 because of the ending. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

WOW!!
Fantastic! Kept me intrigued all the way through and I couldn't have ever guessed the ending!! Absolutely loved it!