📚 E-ARC BOOK REVIEW 📚

The Perfect Roommate By Minka Kent
Publication Date: June 10, 2025
[Originally Published January 19, 2018]
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer| Amazon Publishing

📚MY RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer, Amazon Publishing, and NetGalley for this #gifted e-ARC in exchange for my honest review!

📚MY REVIEW:

The Perfect Roommate is a fun psychological thriller full of unreliable characters who all seem completely unreliable and suspicious. This was a popcorn thriller that was a fast and unputdownable read, and I loved every minute of trying to guess how this one was going to end!

Meadow is a quiet and meek college student who is living out of her car after being evicted from her apartment. When she replies to an ad for a roommate and meets Lauren, who quickly invites her to move on, Meadow can't believe her luck. She and Lauren become fast friends and Meadow is thrilled to finally have a close female friend for the first time in her life. Everything feels perfect, but how well can you ever really know someone you've just met? And can anything really ever be perfect?

Oh, I loved the twists and turns that this story took! From moment to moment, I had no idea what to expect next. Meadow seemed to be such a mess, going around making accusations and assuming the worst of everyone. But everybody around her seemed shady in their own ways too. Gossip? ✅ Betrayals? ✅ Obsession? ✅

Minka Kent has quickly become a must-read author for me! Her books are fast-paced dives into the lives of unreliable and unhinged characters, and each book is a one-sitting, sit-down-and-buckle-up kinda thrill ride. If you haven't yet discovered this author, don't wait any longer! The re-release of The Perfect Roommate is available June 10th!

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Check your shelf first because this is a reissue of a book originally published in 2019. You know that the title telegraphs the issue- there is no perfect roommate but these two well, they are snakes in a bottle. Meadow is the poor one, Lauren the rich one. It seems like a good arrangement but it's not. And they both have secrets. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Not sure why this was reissued but it's a fast read;

Who doesn't recall the days of college where the temptation for cheap housing always wins. The author not only kept my attention but the attention of the hairs on the back of my neck also. Great read!

3.5 stars

This book started off slow then it picked up. None of the characters seemed reliable except the one character who turns out to not be. The twists at the end I did not guess. I do feel the ending was the perfect chance to add another twist or two but overall a good thriller

I thought this was a good, quick, palate cleansing thriller (?not really), mystery (?not until the end), drama (we're getting closer).
Whatever we classify the genre as it was a good read. I blew through this book super fast as it is a quick read with lots of short, tense chapters. Great for a bingeable summer read.

The characters seem okay for the first little bit then quickly fall into unlikable territory. It's okay it propelled the story along. Then things got kind of wild and by the end, this went a little off the rails. It added to the drama but I didn't feel like the ending matched what was presented of the characters throughout the story.

Overall, I like the Author's writing style, I read through it super quick and it kept me invested in the storyline.

The epilogue for this was super weird. Like, why??? LOL

I really like Minka Kent's books. I consider them domestic thrillers since they involve close relationships. Meadow is a broke college studet who is evicted from her apartment. She finds an ad that a fellow student has posted looking for a roommate starting right away. Lauren has it all. A nice house, rich parents, a boyfriend who loves her....maybe too much. Lauren starts to groom Meadow, giving her clothes, influencing her new hairstyle and even what she eats. Meadow has a job outside of school cleaning houses and has become close to the pregnant wife of a professor.

Ms. Kent does a good job of tying threads together. The plot went a direction that I wasn't expecting and it was good.

The Perfect Roommate was twisty and so addictive! Minka Kent's writing style is fast-paced and this book kept me hooked. Her character development makes the main characters likable and you always want to see them come up on top even if they maybe don't always deserve it. So many twists keep you turning the pages well into the night. Definitely an entertaining read!

I believe this isn’t a brand new book by Minka Kent, it’s just getting re-published, but somehow I had never read it before. It was a gripping, fun, twisty, and the most addictive read I read this month.
The ending made me snort my tea though. WHO is the perfect roommate, please? And now, in a Slim Shady voice, repeat after me: will the real perfect roommate please stand up, please stand up, please stand up…
With this book, I’m officially a superfan of Minka Kent. I used to love her books before, but I wasn’t sure if I’m going to love them all. Turns out, I do.

This was a quick thriller to get through. It was ok. Not horrible but not overly exciting. It kept me engaged, but I found it to be predictable.

"I think people who seem perfect are the ones with the most flaws. They just do a better job at hiding them."

@minkakentauthor has done it again.

I read this book in under 24 hours—and if you know me, you know that’s basically unheard of. I’m usually a slow, deliberate reader, but this one? I physically could not put it down.

This twisty, tension-filled story had me hooked from page one. Every time I thought I had something figured out, it shifted again. The ending? Completely blindsided me in the best way.

The newly revised edition of The Perfect Roommate is set to release on June 10, 2025—and trust me, you’re going to want this one on your radar.

4/5 Stars

Okay, The Perfect Roommate was such a sneaky little thriller. It started out so chill—quiet girl looking for a cheap place to live, meets a super-friendly, effortlessly cool girl with a spare room and no strings attached. Sounds too good to be true, right? Yeah. It is.

Meadow, the main character, is shy and polite on the outside, but you can tell something's off from the beginning. And Lauren, the roommate? Instantly likable in that “red flag but make it charming” kind of way. She gives Meadow a makeover, introduces her to her friends, and basically transforms her entire life overnight. But both girls are clearly hiding something, and you’re just waiting for the moment it all explodes.

It’s one of those books where you keep thinking, “Wait… what’s really going on here?” The tension builds slowly, but once it picks up, it really gets going. I didn’t trust a single person by the end (and I loved that).

It’s not the twistiest thriller I’ve read, but it had enough suspense and shady secrets to keep me hooked. If you like roommate drama, unreliable narrators, and stories where everyone’s a little bit sketchy, this one’s worth checking out.

Minka Kent is an author I recently discovered and I enjoy her books. This book is a revised edition of an earlier book. Two friends with secrets, one is envious of the other's life. It's an enjoyable psychological suspense novel and it kept me interested. I wanted to know all the secrets!

Stunner of a book. I struggled to put this one down and the ending was unnerving, I mean, didn't you learn your lesson the first time? It shows how fragile our self-worth can be and also how toxic environments can lead to a need for acceptance and potentially more toxic environments. Well done to Lauren at the end though for kind or coming through.

Meadow Cupples is a young woman who finds herself I dire circumstances and desperately needs somewhere to live. She can’t believe her luck when she sees that Lauren Whiendendfeld is looking for a roommate. Meadow packs her meagre belongings and knocks on Lauren’s door, she can’t believe her luck when she finds herself in what feels to her as a new home of luxury.

These two girls could not be more different, Meadow quiet and unassuming in contrast to Lauren who comes from a wealthy family and is the local IT girl. Soon Meadow becomes more like Lauren copying her clothes hair and makeup and is soon hanging out with Lauren’s crowd.

There are numerous twists and surprises along the way as the girl’s friendship develop but sometimes, we see what we want to see and assumptions we make about people can be way off.

I felt the characters were well developed and the plot moved along at a fast pace, it is a fast read that kept me engaged throughout and the ending was not what I expected, always leaves you feeling satisfied.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the book, all opinions expressed are my own.

Fun quick read! I thought the storyline was going somewhere else but it went in a different direction. It wasn't the usual twisty thrillers I'm used to from Minka Kent but I still liked it.

This book has a good pace and a really good plot twist. Throughout you notice little clues that have you guessing what’s going to happen next. I enjoyed the ending and highly recommend for anyone who enjoys being a detective and figuring out who is lying and who is telling the truth.

I really wanted to like this book, and I kept trying to pick it up and give it another shot but it really wasn’t for me. I found it ironic that the main character doesn’t like books or authors that write “fluffy meaningless books” without substance, and will only like books that “don’t use cheap tricks or plot twists and they’re not formulaic mindless entertainment meant for the masses” when this very book uses cheap tricks aimed for the masses but which doesn’t have any substance at all. The characters have no depth and are unlikeable and the comments about how putting children in a daycare of a local gym is bad parenting just put a bad taste in my mouth. I wouldn’t recommend, sorry, but thank you for the ARC.

Anything Minka writes is a must grab although nothing will compete with The Still Water Girls this one was good. The chance to step out of your mundane, everyday life and become someone new. Autumn likes to troll social media. Find interesting people and revamp herself to...well become that person. When she ultimately grows bored of that persona, a new one is just a couple clicks away on her computer. This is a very clever and engaging psychological thriller that I just flew through! Kept me on my toes! And the ending...a complete shocker!

Fun psych thriller that kept my attention throughout and could be read in one sitting! Looks like a re-release from 2018.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book was actually insane!!! I honestly didn’t expect it to be as captivating as it was(I know that sounds bad but I mean it as a compliment) i was gripped from the first few pages and I honestly thought I had everything figured out but I soon found out I was wrong. The characters were written well and the story flowed easily. It was a very fast paced book that took a few hours to read and was incredibly hard to put down. To say the plot twists shocked me was an understatement. And the last sentence of the book shocked me. If you love a thriller with good plot twist that’s isn’t predictable or boring you will love this book!!