Thank you Netgalley and the author for this copy of The Guest House. Such a great read. So glad I'm not renting anymore for fear of this landlord.

So I just want to say, I do plan on reading the first book in the series because I think that may help me better understand things. I didn't realize this was the second in the series until I actually went to review it and saw that on GoodReads it's listed as Book 2. I am going to start with what I did like about the story. I love anything with a dual POV especially when it comes to thrillers. I think the representation of Allie in the deaf community was well done and I loved to read that she was an entrepreneur with technology to help others who also were deaf. As for the cons, I am not sure what it was, but I struggled a bit with the thriller aspect of it. I look for thrillers who keep me on the edge of my seats and this one seemed to fall flat for me. I also felt the book ended abruptly without some of the loose ends being tied together, but I am wondering if thats because there will be a third book? I also found it slightly hard to follow, but I also blame that on me and not the author now that I know this is the second in the series. Overall I would say that it was a good book and I appreciate the ARC from Netgalley and the publisher!

2.75/5 - Not a bad read, but not very original for me. I have read a lot in the genre, and there is not much to make this stand out from the rest. It's still a decent read. Take this review with a grain of salt, though. I had no idea when I started reading that this was a sequel in a series. You do not need to read the first book, but maybe it would have given me more character development? Like I said - grain of salt.

The Guest House: A Psychological Thriller – 3.7 stars (rounded to 4 stars)
(Silicon Valley Series Book 2)

#TheGuestHouseAPsychologicalThriller is a stand-alone sequel with an intrigue blurb.
The main character Allie is a deaf, smart girl. When she gets a welcome email inviting her to join the team at the Silicone Valley, she is full of joy and hope. This is her chance to develop and launch a new product. But when Allie got there, she realizes that everything is not as simple as she thought. Under pressure to rent at least something, she accepts an offer for a house. She soon begins to suspect something about her landlord and people around. And now Allie needs to figure out who she can trust to.
#TheGuestHouseAPsychologicalThriller has a few twists and turns. But I found it a little slow on my like and it wasn’t easy to get hooked into, I guess its just not my cup of tea.

Autor: Bonnie Traymore
Publisher: BooksGoSocial
Pages:275

Thank you NetGalley for providing ARC in exchange for my honest review.

#TheGuestHouseAPsychologicalThriller #NetGalley

I loved this book. I was hooked from the beginning and didn’t want it to end, I was enjoying it so much. The dual pov made it even more fast paced. Both Allie and Laura were well developed and likable characters.

Allie is deaf, and represented really well and I loved reading from her perspective. Allie is launching a product where a screen can be inserted into any eyeglasses and can translate in multiple languages that appear as captions through that screen. She’s really inspiring the way she never gives up no matter what obstacle she is facing.

There were twists and turns, suspense and everything I want in a thriller. I wish I knew about book one before reading, but it didn’t take away from the book at all. I will be reading more from Bonnie Traymore starting with the book I missed.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Bonnie Traymore for this ARC

Allie Dawson has been offered an amazing opportunity by Laura Foster and is keen on bringing her entrepreneurial concept to life. Allie lost her hearing at a young age, and together with her brother and a partner, has created a screen that clips onto eyeglasses and captions speech in real-time.

But life in Silicon Valley is expensive and Allie is struggling to find a place to stay. When a gentleman named Mike, claiming to be in real estate, approaches her at Starbucks and offers her a rental in his guest house, she is initially sceptical. But beggars can’t be choosers so Allie takes a chance. Initially, Allie is happy, but when she sees him dragging something across the lawn in the middle of the night, she has questions.

And, adding to her questions is the mysterious Hungarian Barnat, who also has a place at the guest house. After meeting a potential investor, Allie is over the moon about the future. But things take an odd turn when she realises that some people will do anything to get their hands on the newest idea.

I read the previous book in the series, which helped to understand some of the characters’ choices in this one as it continues where the previous one ended. However, there were directions some plot lines went in that didn’t seem necessary. For example: why the secret/angry looks from Susan and Willa?

I loved Allie’s concept and her portrayal as D/deaf and to be let into how she experiences the world was very interesting. Lots of things hearing people take for granted are highlighted here.

Laura has grown in this one and I liked the fact that she decided to take care of herself. But did Peter’s story have to go in that direction in order to get the closure she needed on her decision?

Shep was my favourite in the last book and I’m glad his story took a good turn in this one.

I think there were too many leaps to just “accept” in this. For Mike to invite Allie to stay and make her pay for three months meant he knew of the viability of her concept, otherwise what he was up to versus the timeframe is a waste. Barnat’s end story almost felt like a plaster on a plot hole. I also found Lydia’s fantasy oddly disturbing and hinted at something more maybe?

Again, I wouldn’t call this a psychological thriller but more of a suspense. However, the editing was great and the story kept me going. It does end with questions and seems to have been left open somewhat again. Is there another planned in the series? It is an enjoyable read but leaves you with questions and a feeling like it wasn’t quite finished off. I don’t mean things tied up with a bow, I mean loose tangents.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for a chance to review the book.

He holds out his business card, and she plucks it from his fingers without touching them. “Hope to see you around, Allie Dawson,” he says. That was over a month ago. It seemed too good to be true, but Allie told herself to ignore the nagging feeling in her gut. That was her first mistake.

When she saw Laura Foster’s email welcoming her into a cohort of grant recipients, Allie literally jumped for joy. She was headed to Silicon Valley with a chance to bring her innovative product to market. She’s deaf with a cochlear implant, and she’s developed a screen that can clip onto eyeglasses and caption speech in real time.

But she had no idea how tight the rental market would be, or how cutthroat the competition is for everything from housing to venture capital. So, after a futile search to find a short-term apartment she could afford, she rented a guest house from a chummy real estate agent who approached her at a coffee shop.

But it’s clear now that she should have trusted her instincts. Because there’s something off about her landlord. And his moody wife. And the cryptic Hungarian guy renting his master suite.

Are they after her technology? She knows what it feels like to see her life flash before her eyes, and she doesn't need that kind of stress right now.

So why is she still living there?
And has she already seen too much?


Shades of Daniel Hurst and his thrillers. Could not put this down until I had finished it. I thought it was fantastical. Cannot wait to read more from this author.

I didn’t enjoy this book. The points of view were a little confusing at times and I felt that the plot sort of resolved a bit too neatly for my taste. I won’t be continuing this series. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my review.

I enjoyed this book from the get go, the characters and storyline were both fabulous! face paced but not to the detriment of the story, this oculd make a very good netflix series!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This is a thriller novel, told in a dual pov. It’s second in the series but can be read as a standalone! (I have not read the first book.)

Laura wants to help women entrepreneurs and to do so she gave out grants to different women. In addition to working, she is also a new mom- who has suffered traumatically over the last year. While trying to figure out her own life, she also is very supportive of Allie.

Allie, on of the grant recipients, is deaf, and working to create a device for the D/deaf community. She randomly meets a man who offers to rent out his guest house to her and although Allie is weary of him, she doesn’t have many housing options. She accepts the house and learns that he has another entrepreneur renting from him. Strange things start happening and Allie begins questioning those she lives with. Are they after her technology?

The story was good and fast paced. I also really enjoyed the characters! I loved the representation of the deaf community.

The reason I gave 3 stars is because I like my thrillers to keep me on the edge of my seat. Although the story was good, the thrilling aspect wasn’t there for me.

This is a standard thriller book that that follows the plot progression of a all other thrillers. However, there are several plot twists that make it less formulaic than your run of the mill thrillers. The story starts off slowly, it gradually builds momentum and then slows back down at the end. Despite this the character development of Allie, was phenomenal and i truly felt like i got to know her. She's a very authentic and relatable character. This book is the second in a series; however, it functions very well as a standalone novel.

Thank you to the author and Net Galley for providing me with an e-arc of book #2 in the Silicon Valley series.

Innovation, greed, and danger collide in 'The Guest House', a standalone sequel to Bonnie Traymore's 'The Stepfamily'.

When Allie moves to Silicon Valley to pursue funding for a device she's created to help the D/deaf community, she quickly realizes that Silicon Valley is a cut-throat place to be, especially when you're new in town. With a little help from a familiar face, Laura Foster - our FMC from book #1 in the Silicon Valley series, Allie seems to be on her way to making her device a reality. That is, until she moves into the guest house on a property owned by the Silicon Valley real estate agent she met at Starbucks. Once she's settled into the guest house, Allie quickly realizes that something is off with her new landlords. Is it Mike, the real estate agent? His wife Susan? Or is it Barnat, the other young entrepreneur that's living on the property?

'The Guest House' is a multi-POV psychological thriller with twists, turns, and a little bit of romance. Like the first book, I like that the author doesn't shy away from complicated family dynamics. Unlike book #1, 'The Stepfamily', all POV's in this book are first-person, which I love! Switching back and forth between first-person POV and third-person POV was a huge turn-off for me while reading book #1.

If you're not looking to get into a series, please note that while this book is technically book #2 in the Silicon Valley series, it can be read as a standalone. However, if you struggle with multi-storyline plots that include a variety of characters, reading 'The Stepfamily' first may help.

In conclusion, I enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading more from the author. I would recommend 'The Guest House' to anyone looking for a fast-paced psychological thriller set in the tech world.

Man I really truly wanted to like this book but I couldn’t. The best thing about this book is Allies idea about her tech startup which is written in the blurb and that’s about it. Someone should REALLY make this live captioning clip on device, it really would be a game changer.

The mystery angle of the book is so flat that by the time the climax came I was just grateful it was over. The worst part is that it didn’t even make any sense.
Laura’s perspective seems to be about some previous book. Even though the author goes to narrate the highlights of that storyline, it just did not land in a way that was hoped.
It’s a shame because it had the bare bones of being a great read.

Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for this copy for my honest review.

I enjoyed the stepfamily so much that I couldn’t wait to read the sequel! A brilliant physiological thriller full of twists and turns! I am now a big fan of this author and can’t wait to read more.

<b>3.5/5</b>⭐
<b>Spice Rating</b> - NIL/5🌶️

I started this book with such high hopes. But the ending, unfortunately, let me down .

It starts with Allie who moves into a rented home in Silicon Valley for R&D as well as finding Venture Capitalists to take on her project. Allie is <i>"deaf with cochlear implant"</i> and the book follows her experiences as she moves into a rental guest house.

First up, this book was easy to read and keep up with. Surprisingly, this is one of the few thrillers in which the protagonist is cautious, careful and does not make rash and foolish decisions. This book provided a good insight into Silicon Valley, Venture Capital, cutthroat competition and technology, corporate and criminal espionage. I loved the author's writing style as well. I enjoyed the book up to the 45% mark, things were moving along albeit slowly.

After that though, the story gets stagnant and draggy for a bit. <spoiler>I was very bummed to find that other than a couple of things, nothing creepy even happens to Allie in the house! What I also found to be a bit odd were that the transition between scenes and time skips seem to have a little hitch, they were not smooth. At 42%, Allie and Laura make a calculated guess as to what could be the reason Mike and Susan were behaving very oddly and that was exactly the reason revealed in the end. The first twist that came at 75% was very hurried, rushed and lacklustre. They did not even give us a concrete motive or reason for whatever happened, rather threw around more speculations. That was very frustrating. Also, there is no closure on Mike, Susan and Bernat?!</spoiler> The characters all seemed very 2D. They were written well but sounded mechanical. Yet, the story, premise were all very interesting.
The second twist was surprising and came out of left field.

All that being said, I find the author's writing style perfect for the kind of thrillers I enjoy and will definitely be reading more by Bonnie Traymore.

Overall, a good thriller that will have you up all night reading another chapter.
Pick it up if you want something quick, involving crime, espionage and smart Silicon Valley folks battling it out for their lives.

<i>I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Thank you to Netgalley, the Author and the Publisher for providing a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Thank you NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this book ahead of time in exchange for a review. You should read it!

I really have to give an honest review, this book just didn’t have the affect of other thrillers I have read, it wasn’t gripping and suspenseful enough for me, maybe it’s because I never read the first book in the series but it just didn’t grab my attention like I wish it would have, it really left me wanting more and then being let down. I really wanted to like it but felt it left a lot to be desired.
Thank you NetGalley for for the ARC and a opportunity to read from this author.

I hate doing reviews because everyone likes different things. However I will give my thoughts. This is my very first thriller, with that being said this book had no thrill, no mystery no twists…honestly I spent most of the time wondering what was going on. It definitely had some good parts and I was hoping it would pick up and then it would fall flat…again. I loved her writing, that was not the issue. I possibly have a twisted view of what a thriller is supposed to be. I plan to give her other books a try. But I just could not get into this book.

I really wanted to love this book! While it had plenty of twists and kept me guessing all the way through it, I really wouldn't call it a thriller. The writing just lacked "excitement" and I felt a little bored even though I was interested in how it was going to end. Overall I decided to rate it 3 stars, because it held my attention enough to want to know how it ended. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you for the advanced reader copy from Netgalley.

This was a quick read that had me second guessing multiple characters. I felt the ending was a little lack luster but maybe there will be a sequel.