Told in present day and with flashbacks to the past, this is an interesting take on being held hostage, and the possibility of an illicit affair being exposed. Highly dramatic, stressful and with romantic flashbacks.
Thought provoking
Thanks to #NetGalley for the opportunity to have read this ahead of publication and exchange for an honest review.

This novel was an emotional one, that came with a great premise. It gave me mysterious, dark and thriller vibes. It made me feel sad and had a lot of psychological suspense. This book is more character driven than plot driven, as it focuses on the flaws of the characters as the main focus. The female protagonist named Kate in this story was extremely unlikable. I could not connect with her or any of the characters in this story. One character that I did like was Kate’s Husband, named Vic. Out of all the characters in the book, James was the least likable. This book involves infidelity, which is what ultimately made it lose stars. This book came with dual timelines, a first person point of view and a terrorist attack. The ending was unfortunately not satisfying, as it ended abruptly.

What I did enjoy about the book was the suspense, how the power of choices leads to consequences and the emotional depth that this book came with. I also enjoyed the slow pacing, as this goes back and forth between the present and flashbacks of the past. It did feel like the characters were realistic, even though I could not connect with them. I did find the themes in this book thought provoking. It also encourages people to discuss human ethics and the emotional contemplation surrounding them. Overall, I give this book 2.5 (rounding up to 3 stars) out of 5. Be sure to read the content warnings and who I think would love reading this book below! Even though this book was really not for me, there are a lot of people that would absolutely love this book!

Content warnings are subjective and include infidelity, grief, a terrorist attack, violence and death of a parent. I think readers of “The People Next Door” by Kate Braithwaite and the movie “Unfaithful” would really enjoy this book!

This book “Room 706” is in the Literary Fiction, Mystery, Thriller and Women's Fiction genres!

Thank you to NetGalley, author Ellie Levenson and Zando | SJP Lit for this digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This book is expected to be published on January 20, 2026! (publishing dates can change at any time.)

Intimate, tense, reflective.

Kate turns on the television, and finds the hotel she’s in with her lover is under siege. Told from Kate’s perspective we spend around 18 hours with her in the room, with flashback scenes of how she met her husband, her friendships her life up until now.

Her mind has her question what led her to this choice, what she wants for her life, what’s truly important to her.

A great, claustrophobic thriller.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Zando for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I knew going in that this book was about infidelity... but I was hoping it would be handled in a different way, I guess?

Honestly, this book wasn't very memorable to me. I thought it was fine. But I wouldn't recommend it to a friend.

A couple of months ago I bumped into a friend's review of Room 706 and I was immediately hooked. I wanted to read it. NOW. So I immediately put in a request through Netgalley and, strangely enough, I was quickly granted a digital copy for review. I started reading immediately and I quite liked it, the writing style was ok, characters were well drawn, the idea of the story was engaging.
I was expecting a bit more action but it was still ok for me, there a lot of backtory, which is the best part in my opinion. The problem for me was James (the lover). I hated him! I hated that Kate could betray such a wonderful husband with a useless piece of ****. I'm not a prude, I usually don't judge, every person is different, but really, I was upset. And that's a shame because I loved so much Kate and Vic's story!
I was in between three and four stars, and I wanted to see how it would end.. I guess it had just the right ending. The one that made clear what was the point of the story and what was not. I get it. But I didn't really like it. That's just me, it's not at all a bad ending, but at the same time it didn't conjure the miracle of make me forget about dreadful James, sorry.

3 stars – Decent read, didn’t totally land for me I liked the setup of Room 706—it had potential and the premise was intriguing. There were moments that pulled me in, and I appreciated some of the themes it tried to tackle. But overall, it felt a bit uneven. The pacing was off in places, and I didn’t fully connect with the characters.

Towards the end my heart and head was racing, but then I actually felt very empty after reading the end (maybe that is the purpose of why it ended like that), and initially didn't like it.
Maybe I felt empty because in my mind she did not have a good ending. Maybe it ended with her last message to Vic because it was the end of her story.

The book is excellent though, the final thoughts of Kate, a mother, a wife , and also a woman who is cheating. I enjoyed jumping into her past and how it has reflected her present. I was drawn to the romantic story of her and her husband.
The writing was very good, very easy to follow and very engaging. I could feel all of her emotions.
I would recommend this for book clubs because there are lots of topics for discussion. About her infidelity, about her relationship with her husband, about her being a mother, about her losses of loved ones and definitely about the ending to the book. Many readers will create infinite ending outcomes for Kate.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Zando for the opportunity to read and review the advanced copy of Room 706 .

This book surprised me. did. I went in thinking I was getting a tense, fast-paced hostage thriller, and while Room 706 does delivers on the tension, what really caught me off guard was how emotionally layered and introspective it was. This is one of those books that quietly unsettles you, not with action, but with questions that linger long after the final page.

Picture this: You’re in a hotel room with a man who isn’t your husband. It’s not love, not really. It’s more of an escape. A release from the relentless demands of family life, of motherhood, of the invisible weight you carry every single day. And then, in an instant, everything changes. You flick on the TV and see that the hotel you’re in is under terrorist siege and now you’re trapped. In Room 706. With him.

That’s the premise of Room 706, but what unfolds is far more than a tense hostage situation. It’s a raw, thoughtful exploration of a woman reckoning with her life choices, her identity, and what truly matters when the illusion of safety is stripped away. Kate isn’t some cold hearted adulteress. She’s a mother who loves her children, a wife who cares about her marriage. But she’s also human. Flawed.

The story moves back and forth in time, weaving together how Kate met her husband, how James came into the picture, and how she ended up here, in this moment.

One thing I absolutely loved is that Ellie Levenson doesn’t judge Kate. And she doesn’t let us judge her easily either. Instead, she invites us into the grey areas, where choices aren’t always right or wrong, but complicated and deeply human.

This isn’t a thriller in the traditional sense. It’s more character driven wrapped in a crisis. A story that doesn’t offer tidy resolutions, but instead asks you to reflect: If I were Kate, would I feel guilt? Or regret?

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

I so want to discuss this one right now. An overwhelmed mother has been having an affair for the last six years. She meets a man every three months in a hotel. Except this time a hotel is taken over by terrorists.

I was on the edge of my seat the entire time! I kept picturing myself in the same situation. What would you do if terrorists took over hotel you were at???

This was a beautiful and quirky representation of marriage, the beautiful mundanity of it, and the dark corners people are willing to go to to escape domesticity. If you're looking for a thriller (which I did misinterpret this to be at the start) then this might not be for you, but if you enjoy nuanced explorations of human beings and their interpersonal relationships - and the concept of eroticism being the antithesis of domesticity, then you'll love this!

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC of Room 706 by Ellie Levenson. This is a story about a couple having an affair. Kate and James, both married to other people meet up in a hotel every so often, however on this day terrorists have attacked and they cannot leave their room for fear of being killed. This story goes back and forth between the present and the story of how they began their affair. I find these types of stories so interesting. Kate is more or less happily married, James not much, but not exactly unhappy either-if that even makes sense. The development of the affair, while also learning about how Kate met her husband was something I thought was well written. There’s always sadness and moments of happiness mixed in to stories about affairs, but I guess that describes stories about marriages that aren’t mixed up with affairs as well. I do recommend this book if you have an interest in the human backstory of how things/events come to be.

It was an interesting take for a thriller book flipping between current time and two past time periods.

I like how it was written with a good flow and it was easy to follow along even though there are numerous time jumps throughout the whole story.

oh....the premise, the suspense, the delightful and perfectly suspenseful ending. a love story with a relatable, flawed and rather human protagonist. loved this book.

Review: Introspective, Honest, and Surprisingly Moving — 4.5 Stars

I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy this one because of the cheating element, but I was surprised by how much I connected with it. As the story unfolded, the main character offered such a thoughtful and vulnerable perspective that it moved beyond judgment—it became about understanding. It didn’t excuse her choices, but it gave them context, and I appreciated that depth.

The writing was sharp and reflective, and the tension of being trapped in the hotel during a crisis added real urgency to her emotional unraveling. It’s not just about infidelity—it’s about identity, motherhood, desire, and the pieces of ourselves we quietly set aside.

The only thing keeping it from a full 5 stars for me was the ending. I get why the author chose to leave things a bit open—it fits the tone—but I always love a clear resolution. Still, this one stuck with me in the best way.

Room 706 is a tight, pacy read that surprised me with its depth and emotional resonance. It has the set-up of a thriller—married woman meets her illicit lover in a hotel which is seized by terrorists—but its concerns are quieter, and far more familiar: how we balance who we are with what we’ve become, and whether the different versions of ourselves can ever really be reconciled.
The close third-person narration follows Kate, clear-eyed, and at times horrible honest with herself—even when it doesn’t cast her in the best light—and the depiction of a long-term relationship quietly wearing itself down on the sharp edges of childcare, bin duty, and domestic scorekeeping feels horribly, recognisably accurate. Kate’s affair, far from being a swooning love story is something more mundane, more interesting. She frames it as “me time,” a scheduled escape from the weight of her family’s constant need and the petty domestic resentments which cloud her mind during sex with her husband. And as much as it might make us wince, I think many of us will recognise that sense of thrilling solitude—of slipping the leash, of becoming again the version of yourself that isn’t just someone else’s support act.
The book doesn't ask us to approve of the affair, or even sympathise—it simply presents it, and lets us sit with the discomfort of knowing we understand exactly why it happened.
When the hotel is locked down and James, her lover—a near-stranger, really—is her only companion, she finds herself flooded by memories: of her mother, her friends, her children, her husband, and the path that brought her here. The threat outside forces a reckoning within, as she starts to imagine the possibility of not surviving the day, and how the version of her revealed in that hotel room will stand in for all the others.
I found this quietly powerful. Thought-provoking, discomfiting, and entirely human. A very welcome surprise.

Room 706 is a story about a woman coming to terms with the choices she's made in her life, while she is trapped in a hotel room with her lover during a terrorist attack. There were things I liked and disliked about this book, but ultimately, I'm glad I gave it a go.

The things I liked were the past and present POVs of Kate, the FMC, and how they thoroughly explored her past relationship with her husband, Vic, and her secret lover, James. Seeing the world through Kate's eyes as she struggles to come to terms with her best friend's death and all of the highs and lows of motherhood and wifehood will probably be relatable to most readers. The book's strength lies in its self-honesty in terms of human life and how messy it can be.

What I didn't care for was how unlikeable (though realistic) Kate's character was. I was also looking for more of a catharsis than I experienced. I think the point was to go on an inner journey with Kate and put yourself into the shoes of someone whose life hangs in the balance. Coping with the uncertainty of what could happen is where the book's sense of suspense comes from, but I wish it had been sourced from a more memorable wellspring in the end.

Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC of Room 706. This will probably be a book that means a lot to other people, but it just wasn't quite my cup of tea. This book leans more in a literary direction, so readers should go in expecting more of an internal look at human life than a big plot.

An interesting exploration of motherhood, sexuality, and guilt. The first third of this book gripped me, but then it started to drag as the threat of the external terrorist attack dwindled. The ending was also the least satisfying ending I've read in a long time. So much so that I thought I received an unfinished copy. I enjoyed Levenson's voice though so I'll definitely read more of her in the future, but this one didn't quite live up to expectations.

Given the author's note about being interested in exploring the last messages people sent to each other when they were facing death, this novel did exactly that, while placing the protagonist in an increasingly pressured situation that allows her the space to reflect on her life and her future. Interesting and moving, I did find myself skimming quickly through some of the memories to get back to the present day as the past sometimes read as too sentimental.

This book, a solid 4-star read for me, defied my expectations as a locked-door mystery.

It begins with Kate, the main character, being locked in a London hotel room with her lover (NOT husband) during a terrorist attack. What unfolds is a complex narrative that delves into Kate’s life, her loss of her mother and best friend, and her seemingly idyllic life as a wife and mother.

I was captivated by Levenson’s sharp writing, which effortlessly brought all the characters to life. Despite Kate’s questionable actions, I found myself genuinely empathizing with her. The ending was particularly intense and cleverly crafted.

While I’ve had mixed experiences with the books SJP has chosen for publication, this one stands out as a true winner for me.

A special thank you to Zando and SJPLit for providing me with an ARC of this novel, which will be released in January 2026.

4⭐️

LOVED. The way this book invoked every single emotion on the spectrum was insane. I absolutely have a love / hate relationship with the ending (as i'm sure a lot of people can say). I love that it was left unsaid and unexplained and there's multiple different scenarios that could occur and as a reader, it's our own imagination/interpretation as to which route the characters end up on. I hate it because dammit i need to know what happened !!!

Absolutely villainous at the way this book was written because what do you mean Vic and Kate's relationship was flawless??? Their relationship was textbook definition of everything right on paper...but i guess that's not always enough? A lot of emotion reading Kate's inner monologue and how she got to where she was feeling - i think the author did this brilliantly.

Vic was one of the sweetest characters i've read about in a very, very, VERY long time. I mean this quote - "Kate, i will love you forever, or until the world ends. Whichever comes first." I mean wowowowow!!! His pure love and adoration for her (albeit, i guess unrequited to a point?) was so amazing to read about that i had a stupid smile on my face for a lot of his dialogue.

I did feel a sense and tones of feminine rage as this book covered what it means to be a working wife in a relationship with children. It explored the different standards to which women are held compared to their male counterparts. This was extremely interesting (and infuriating) to read about - especially the parallel scenes that described what a night home when Kate got home from work looked like v. what a night home from work looked like for Vic. Powerful commentary.

Overall, an incredibly fast paced read which genuinely had me on the edge of my seat. Much more deep than i was expecting and a lot of heavy under tones and truth about marriages and society.