The Guest is the newest psychological thriller by B.A. Paris. Iris and Gabriel seem to have it all. A beautiful home, a successful daughter and good friends with Laure and Pierre from Paris. It all starts to come tumbling down with one tragic accident when a young man dies in a nearby quarry. Gabriel found him and called for help and heard the young man’s final words, leaving Gabriel with a heavy burden. Soon after, their friend, Laure, becomes their guest. Laure seems to make herself a little too comfortable as she begins to wear Iris’s clothes, following her every movie and asking questions. Then a new couple moves into the neighborhood with their gardener with a checkered past.
Psychological thrillers by B.A. Paris are intense. However, The Guest had so much going on that it was confusing and boring. The story just dragged from the opening prologue. I failed to see the connections, despite the epilogue that wrapped everything up, I was confused and had no sympathy for any of the characters especially after finishing the epilogue. Like what?!?!?. The new neighbors didn’t seem to fit into the story and their gardener? Confusing. I also did not like that the story told what happened. Overall, I usually love B.A. Paris and her psychological thrillers, unfortunately, The Guest did not live up to its premise.

The Guest is available in hardcover, eBook and audiobook

Gabriel and Iris Pelley are married with a daughter, Beth, who is taking a gap year in Greece. Gabriel is a doctor whose workload has become so heavy and demanding that the other doctors in the practice insisted that he take two months off. He also recently came upon a young man who had had a bad accident and Gabriel was with him as he said his last words before he died. These last words have traumatized Gabriel. As they have a large garden, Iris suggests that he redo the walled garden and make it really nice. Gabriel jumps at the chance. Iris is an interior decorator and enjoys her work.

Then, Laure, a friend from Paris pops in to stay with them. She has left her husband Pierre as he has revealed a secret that has her very angry. She asks to stay with Gabriel and Iris. They agree but as she continues to remain with them, wearing Iris’ clothes and changing things around in the house, they are getting tired of it and hope he will return home to Paris.

Iris meets a new neighbor, Esme, and her husband, Hugh. Esme is due to deliver her baby soon. They have an old family friend staying with them as they do some landscaping. Joseph has a problem with alcohol and they are hoping to keep him busy and away from the alcohol. Joseph is enlisted to help Gabriel with some of the gardening work.

For me, this book was all over the place. Other than the shocking ending, I found the characters to be rather wooden, and the dialogue repetitive which is a pet peeve of mine. Gabriel comes across as a big wimp and Iris as cold. Had the characters had more life to them, perhaps this book would have been better.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Oh what a tangled web! B.A. Paris is back with another twisty domestic thriller. This one is a slow burning buildup to the jaw dropping conclusion! The bodies keep piling up and you’re left wondering if we’ll ever really know the truth of why they needed to die and who might have killed them. Thank goodness those answers are revealed in spectacular fashion! B.A. Paris never disappoints!

Can you imagine coming home from a trip and finding someone in your home wearing your clothes ? This is how Author B.A. Paris starts this psychological thriller, “The Guest” …, but is she ?

An anticipatory read about the lives of friends filled with secrets, lies and suspense as truths are in danger of divulgence.
Gabriel & Iris, Pierre & Laure, Hugh & Esme, friends with an intertwined relationship are challenged by finding out the truths hidden so deeply that it could destroy them all.

Gabriel & Iris come home from a trip to find their dear friend, Laure in their home and staying a little longer than welcome. Laure is desperately trying to accept devastating news from Pierre, and finds solace in the arms of her friends. Gabriel, who is dealing with his own anxiety from dealing with a trauma that has left him bereft, seeks healing in restoring a walled garden with Joseph, the neighbors landscaper and houseguest. But as these families engage and friendships evolve, they are faced with assumptions, jealousy and fate.

A fascinating plot kept me captivated by the challenges and conflicts these friends and families experienced. Characters well developed and sequentially introduced including Beth (Gabriel & Iris’s daughter) and Hamish, Hugh & Esme’s new baby.

A nail biting psychological thriller which will keep you guessing until the very end. I highly recommend this read for anyone who wants a book they can’t put down!

Thank you @stmartinspress and @netgalley for this eARC

BA Paris never misses. I thoroughly and completely enjoyed this book. I read this in one sitting trying to figure out why this woman was in this house and refusing to leave. This author is an auto-buy for me and this book further solidified this.

If you’ve never read a B.A. Paris book then you’re really missing out. Her latest psychological thriller, The Guest, really took me by surprise. It’s a story that slowly builds up giving you subtle clues but you have to be extremely cunning to even acknowledge or pick up on them. It’s not until the climatic epilogue that you say to yourself, “Wow, why didn’t I see that coming!” It’s a story about a married couple whose life is based on secrets. And sometimes secrets are worth killing for. I’d like to thank Austin Adams, Marketing Assistant at St. Martin’s Publishing Group for the invite to read and NetGalley for the arc. Not only did this storyline have me totally blindsided but it kept me turning the pages in anticipation. It’s an entertaining read and a book I’ll be recommending to others. I’m giving it a 4 star rating and I look forward to reading more by B.A. Paris in the future.

The Guest is another of Paris’s psychological thriller that drew me in and kept me reading. There were many twists, which a great thriller always needs. The ending was definitely a shock! I didn’t guess it before the ending, which makes me love the book even more.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC. I would love to read anything else that B.A. Paris writes! This is entirely my opinion, I loved it!

If you are a fan of domestic drama then this might be for you. It’s suspenseful in the sense that multiple plots and storylines are evolving, characters are complex and it grips you right from the opening pages. While this is typically enough to make a book worth 5 stars, I can’t give this book more than 3. I found many of the characters to be completely insufferable, like Laure and Gabriel.

The book takes several twists and chapters are short to make it feel overall like a quick, fast paced read after the halfway mark.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the opportunity to review and happy publication day to BA Paris.

The Guest
by B.A. Paris
Pub Date: 20 Feb 2024

I definitely recommend "The Guest" by B.A. Paris. The story has a lot of twists, turns and positive attributes up until the ending. And talk about that ending, what a shocker!

Short Synopsis:

Iris and Gabriel have just arrived home from a make-or-break holiday. But a shock awaits them. One of their closest friends, Laure, is in their house. The atmosphere quickly becomes tense as she oversteps again and again: sleeping in their bed, wearing Iris' clothes, even rearranging the furniture.

My thanks to the the author B.A. Paris, the publisher #StMartinPress and #NetGalley for an E-ARC of this novel.

A Roller-Coaster of Deceit and Suspense!"


I just finished devouring "The Guest" by B.A. Paris, and let me tell you, it's taken me a day to gather my thoughts because I'm still reeling from the twists and turns. This book left me speechless, and I couldn't predict the ending if my life depended on it. It's not often that I halt everything to finish a book, but yesterday, life took a backseat until I uncovered every last detail. I've already sung its praises to my colleagues, and I'm eager for a Macedonian translation so my mother can join in on the thrill. I might even replay her reading it aloud once more, despite having just finished it myself.

Let me kick things off by declaring my unwavering admiration for B.A. Paris. Ever since "Behind Closed Doors," she's been a favorite of mine, and "The Guest" only solidifies her brilliance. This psychological thriller is like an irresistible vortex, sucking you in from the get-go.

We're thrust into the lives of Iris and Gabriel as they return from vacation to find an unexpected intruder in their midst. As the summer unfolds, the collision of diverse characters sets off a chain reaction of strained relationships, unveiled secrets, and simmering jealousy and tension.

Paris's character development is superb, evoking a whirlwind of emotions. The rage and frustration practically leap off the pages, making for a gripping roller-coaster ride of feelings. I found myself entangled in a complex web of deceit that only grew more intricate as the story progressed. "The Guest" held me captive until the very last page, refusing to release its grip. Put simply, I couldn't put it down.
Thank you Negalley for this wonderful eArc.

The Guest was quite clever. These characters have so many secrets that there's something new around every turn. I certainly was kept guessing!

Laure, the houseguest who overstayed her welcome, had me anxious for Iris and Gabriel. There's nothing quite so uncomfortable as wanting your space back to yourself when someone just won't leave! The storyline did get a bit bogged down with the day-to-day of these characters' lives, but from the prologue the reader knows something fascinating is coming. It's worth it to stick out the slow parts!

While not my all-time favorite from this author, I enjoyed the read and will certainly pick up her next novel.

Iris and Gabriel’s perfect life is turned upside down when Gabriel finds a young man dying and is tasked with delivering his last words. As Iris tries to help her husband heal from this trauma their friend Laurie unexpectedly shows up, distraught after discovering her husband fathered a child with another woman. Iris and Gabriel, wanting to help their friend, insists she stay as long as she needs but that turns out to be longer than either expected. Their only reprieve comes from a couple new to town whom they’ve recently befriended. But with them comes their gardner with a checkered past.

BA Paris is one of those authors for me that if she writes it, I’m going to read it. She is the queen of domestic thrillers, however I did struggle with this one a bit.

In the first half Laure was driving me crazy and although I understand this was probably intentional it was borderline too much. Even ignoring Laure, I wasn’t overly fond of or invested in any of the characters. Then throw in the slower pace and it was headed for a 3 star average read for me.

Then came the last few chapters and the story really started to pick up. And when the twists started coming in it was great. I thought I had it figured out but was only partially correct. And although it was a bit long the epilogue really bumped this up to a 4 star read.

Don’t let the domestic suspense vibes fool you into thinking this story won’t deliver one stunner of a twist—the ending is so well-crafted and surprising, I can’t stop thinking about it!

About the Book | The Guest

Married couple Iris and Gabriel return home to their house in the English countryside to find their friend Laure in their house. Laure and her husband Pierre have been close friends with Iris and Gabriel for two decades, ever since they met on vacation in the Bahamas. But Pierre has done something that caused a fight, and Laure has fled to their home unannounced.

Recently, Gabriel happened upon a local teen named Charlie who had a tragic accident in the quarry near their home. Gabriel was with Charlie for his final words, and is haunted by what he saw and heard. Iris is doing her best to support him, but Gabriel hasn’t shared the whole story with her—or with anyone. So when the couple arrive home to find Laure unexpectedly in their home, the timing isn’t great for a guest. Especially one who has no clear timeline to leave.

Iris feels too guilty to turn Laure away when she learns that Laure discovered her husband Pierre had an affair that resulted in a child. Laure is cagey on the details at first, prompting Gabriel to reach out to Pierre and try to talk through what happened. Laure and Pierre are such a wonderful couple—Iris and Gabriel can hardly believe this isn’t something they can work through.

But their good intentions wear thin as Laure continues to involve herself in every aspect of their lives. Iris’s only break from Laure seems to be when she goes in to take a bath. Her other respite seems to be with a newer friend, Esme, who is expecting her first child. The only troubling thing seems to be their gardener, Joseph, who they refer to do some work with Gabriel. It appears Joseph has a checkered past, and there is more than one skeleton in his closet that is yet to be revealed.

Review | The Guest

The three storylines—Pierre’s affair and Laure’s unwelcome visit, Charlie’s death and what Gabriel is holding back, and Joseph’s shady past—are just the beginning of what will unfold in this book. The story moves quickly in my opinion, and before long the mysteries evolve and combine into a twisted web of lies, secrets, and deception. Iris finds herself at the center of it all, trying to repair Laure and Pierre’s marriage, help Gabriel work through his trauma, and find out what is going on with Joseph.

As the story progresses, twists and turns make the storyline even more complicated, and it’s clear that there are secrets being kept on all sides. Iris is a sympathetic character. She’s rational and level-headed, doing her best not to show her frustration with Laure or Gabriel to them. After several weeks of Laure’s stay, Iris and Gabriel set out to nudge her and Pierre towards a resolution. But there are more twists in store that may change everything… The narratives intertwine and become tangled as the story proceeds. The ending ties everything together into a beautiful final chapter.

There is a good amount of character-development which is almost always a pre-requisite for me to give a psychological thriller my top rating. The characters are all intriguing in their own way. Pierre is the least present in the story of the four central characters, but his figure also looms over the story. Laure absolutely fascinated me, and she was the character I most wanted to learn more about. Characters like Esme, Hugh, and Joseph start more in the background, but become more present as the story progresses. Esme was a good foil to Laure as a close friendship for Iris, especially since her relationship with Iris is still relatively new.

Sometimes the husbands in these stories can be throwaway characters, but that is not the case with Gabriel. The secret that’s eating him up regarding the death of Charlie and what happened in those final moments is the hook, but he also is a support to Iris and a close friend to Pierre who wants to resolve things.

The relationships are complicated and intertwined. Some relationships seem so strong to start out and eventually reveal how fragile they were all along. Others move in the reverse direction, growing stronger as the secrets, lies, and betrayals unfold across the pages. They are also filled with moments that lend authenticity—sometimes they are grateful for their friend or partner, and other times exasperated by them.

I wish I could spoil this book because this is a twisted, dark, character-driven psychological suspense novel with an absolutely jaw-dropping ending! I re-read it twice to make sure I captured all of the delicious details that Paris dropped in. The suspense was high by that point in the book, with tension mounting from the very first chapter. The last line (which I won’t reveal here) is absolute perfection. I savored it! I thought about it again and again…

A tense, gripping psychological thriller about secrets, lies, and betrayal, and how no one escapes unscathed by them.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my copy. Opinions are my own.

B.A. Paris delivers again with this twisty domestic thriller. It was so perfectly plotted that I was engrossed in the story. Iris and Gabriel are a happy couple, and daughter Beth is in Greece doing humanitarian work when they meet Esme and Hugh who've just had baby Hamish. Gabriel is hiding a secret about Charlie, a young boy he discovered at the bottom of a quarry who died in his arms and is petulant at home which worries Iris. But their new friendship with Esme and Hugh brings them joy, as does friend Laure who has come to stay with them after her husband, Pierre admits he fathered a child with someone else. And from here the secrets begin to pile up...as do the lies and convoluted tales that each tells himself "may" be true! Highly recommend this jaw-dropping read. Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Although I have historically really enjoyed B.A. Paris' novels, this was not my favorite. I enjoyed the psychological mystery aspect, but it was hard to get past the fact that the majority of the novel was a "backstory" of what happened and the twist reveals weren't until the epilogue of the book. I found myself guessing the main twist about halfway through the novel. I did appreciate the short chapters and the unreliable narrator. I would definitely still give this author another chance with future novels.

3.75 star

The Guest is SUCH a bingeable thriller that really captivated me. One of those thrillers that makes you not want to do anything else but sit and read it lol

There is SO MUCH going on in this one at all times. Laurie is an insufferable character but not in a way that turned me off from the story at all. It was really interesting to see how her story played out.

There ended up being so many layers to this story as it was concluding, which I really appreciated. There were some pacing issues for me, with some major lulls in the story.

I think fans of Lucy Foley would like this one!!

Thank you to St. Martins Press for my copy of this!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book!! All thoughts and opinions are my own.


Going into this book, I was expecting it to be a thriller that would keep me on the edge of my seat. Instead it was more about characters who just did odd things that made you question them and their character. I think the story was entertaining and it had just the right amount of characters, but I did find myself losing interest because it didn’t keep me captivated and on the edge of my seat. I will say it was fun coming up my own theories and trying to figure out what the mystery element actually was, but I wasn’t a fan of how we didn’t get the mystery element really until the epilogue. Throughout the book I was trying to figure out the plot line and what it was that the reader was supposed to be finding out and we didnt get that aspect until 85%. With that said, it was an entertaining, short book if you want a pallet cleanser from the books you are currently reading but it’s not what I expected it to be

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press & B.A. Paris for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

B.A. Paris is one of my all time favorite thriller authors and once again she didn't disappoint! This one kept me engaged the entire way through and I couldn't put it down. I love how she throws in lots of twists and turns, but the story is still easy to follow along with! I loved this one and cannot wait until her next one! Solid 4 stars for me!

A houseguest that just won't leave, a new gardener with a sordid past, and new neighbors that may be hiding secrets. But then again, don't we all have secrets of our own?

All of it sounds like it makes for a good domestic thriller! And it did! Most of the time. There were a few places that I felt dragged on a bit, or I found myself a teeny bit bored.

The way each story line came to a close, I just felt like it was so obviously not the case, everything felt so off to me. I had so many questions. When I turned the page for the next chapter and the story suddenly jumped to the epilogue, I was like "holy shit, that's it? What a let down."

BUT the epilogue is where it all comes together. The REAL twist is revealed, and maybe I'm just blind, but I did not see it coming at all. The epilogue is where it ramped it up from 3 stars to 4 stars for me.

Overall, if you enjoy a good domestic thriller and some juicy tea, you will like this one. And it was published today so go check it out!

Thank you to @netgalley for this ARC

Long married Iris and Gabriel are struggling at the moment in their marriage. Gabriel suffered a traumatic event and is having a hard time letting it go. When they return from a vacation, they find long time friend, Laure in their house. The biggest problem with that is Laure is in no hurry to leave. The couple is in a tough spot as they are friends with both Laure and her husband Pierre.

The hits just kept coming to this group of people. More and more strange things happen. Just when you think you have it all figured out you realize you are wrong.

The characters are equal amounts interesting and annoying. I liked them at times and other times not. While I found it a little over the top at some points, it did all make sense why it was written that way in the end.

While it wasn't my favorite Paris novel, I did enjoy it greatly.

Thanks to netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the arc.