The Spare Room by Andrea Bartz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars rounded up**
Kelly loves Mike. Kelly thought Mike loved her. Kelly has sacrificed a lot for their relationship, recently moving from Chicago to Philadelphia for his job, leaving her job, friends and family behind.
As the Covid-19 pandemic puts the world in lock-down, Kelly and Mike’s relationship takes a turn for the worse. Mike suddenly requests that they pump the breaks on their upcoming nuptials.
Kelly is devastated and confused. She doesn’t know where she stands with Mike now. It’s uncomfortable and stressful being trapped in their tiny apartment together.
The only bright spot of this period of time is the friendship Kelly has rekindled with a girl she used to know in high school, Sabrina, who is now a successful Romance author.
Kelly confides to Sabrina about her current relationship issues and Sabrina comes up with a plan; a perfect escape for Kelly to clear her mind and reassess everything.
Sabrina offers Kelly the chance to go live with her and her husband, Nathan, at their palatial mansion in Virginia. They have a spare room, might as well put it to good use.
Kelly graciously accepts. She’s heartbroken to be leaving Mike behind, as it is still unclear about where they stand, but nevertheless, he doesn’t try to stop her. In a way, she feels she doesn’t have a choice.
Not knowing how long she will ultimately stay with the couple, Kelly packs just the necessities, including her cat, Virgo, and heads to VA.
Initially, things are awkward, but a few glasses of wine help and Kelly finds herself truly relaxing and settling in.
Both Nathan and Sabrina are gracious hosts, who seem truly happy that she is there. So happy in fact, that after a night of bonding over a great meal, drinks and some time by the pool, they end up opening up their relationship to her and a steamy threesome ensues.
Kelly can hardly believe her luck. She has never felt this way. She’s happy and falling hard. Mike, who?
There are some red flags though. The most disturbing is the fact that the couple’s previous partner disappeared under mysterious circumstances. When Kelly presses for information, she’s not satisfied with the answers she is getting from Sabrina and Nathan. What are they hiding?
As the tension mounts, Kelly starts to think she’s in over her head. Could she be the next one to disappear?
Y’all, this was such a tricky one to rate. It took me days and I’m still not sure I got it right. I waffled between a 2-star and 4-star rating.
Honestly, there were quite a few things about this story that drove me nuts. On the flip-side though, there was also great intrigue, tension and food for thought.
I did enjoy how quickly Bartz got us to the meat of the story. Within the first 10% of the story, Kelly is already getting herself to VA and settled in.
I like that the author didn’t waste a bunch of time with filler in the beginning. We’re all here to see what happens when Kelly moves into the spare room, after all.
I also enjoyed the sexual chemistry between the trio. That was a fun dynamic to watch play out.
It did take a long time to get anywhere though after the initial set-up. I was just hoping for someone to get murdered or something by the halfway point.
I was getting miffed at Kelly because she was making so many dumb choices and I started to dislike both Sabrina and Nathan. It was weird though because even through those negative emotions, I was addicted to this story.
I couldn’t stop reading. It had the suspense and messy drama I needed to keep me furiously turning the pages.
The second half was all over the place for me. There were some fun reveals and the tension definitely continued to grow, but it felt chaotic at times and not in a good way.
It got wilder and wilder as the story progresses, almost to the point where, I won’t say I was rolling my eyes, but I was close. Either way, I couldn’t stop thinking about it after.
If I were to describe The Spare Room with one word it would be, twisted.
Overall, I walk away from this happy with my reading experience. It was far from perfect, but there’s no doubt that I was entertained and compelled to keep reading.
Thank you so much to the publisher, Ballantine Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. This was a memorable one!