This one was a frustrating read. The main character was annoying and ignored so many red flags it's amazing she ever made it to adulthood.
Set during the pandemic, Kelly and her fiancee are trapped in an apartment in a city they're new to and where Kelly has nothing to do and no friends to call her own. When Mike calls off the wedding they've been planning, she decides she needs a break and takes up an offer from an old high school friend she's recently re-connected with online to go and stay.
Sabrina is a best-selling romance author with a glamorous, if mysterious, husband. They have a spare room at their place in a gated community near DC and are happy to open their bubble to include Kelly and her cat, Virgo.
Kelly is enchanted by her hosts who are fun and sophisticated, if a little secretive. The house is beautiful and the grounds give plenty of space to wander and exercise. So what if the neighbors act a little weird toward them?
One night, things get a little crazy and Kelly winds up as part of a threesome with her hosts. It's exciting and risqué and offers Kelly something new that she never thought she'd do. She finds herself falling for these two people who open their marriage to include her.
But things start to become weird when she discovers she's not the first person they've opened their marriage to and the first woman is now missing. She starts to wonder if the people she's with are who they say they are and if, in fact, she's safe in this place she's never felt more at home in.
Kelly is a very frustrating character. Throughout the story both Natan and Sabrina do things that throw up huge red flags about whether they are who they say they are, whether they're being honest or whether their intentions are what they say. And every time Kelly ignores them, or brushes them away with some excuse. She loves them, she claims after about three days in the threesome. And apparently that is enough to excuse even the most suspicious behavior.
I didn't buy it. I doubt many people would buy it. I understand that the pandemic made it more difficult to get out of a situation like that, but when it was convenient for Kelly to be out of the house, she had no problem finding a hotel to stay in. Plus, she go out of her home bubble with her fiancé in the first place. Not a good enough excuse.
Not to mention, Kelly isn't as good a person as she claims to be. She snoops through peoples' things and makes judgements on them without all the facts in place.
So, yeah. I didn't like this one much. I think it's supposed to be a sexy, provocative thriller, but it didn't;t work on any of those levels. It wasn't sexy or nearly as provocative as the author probably thinks it is, and the thriller part wasn't very thrilling.
But don't just listen to me; here's the blurb:
Staying with a friend and her husband is sexier—and deadlier—than anyone could have imagined, in this provocative domestic suspense novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club pick We Were Never Here.
Kelly’s new life in Philadelphia has turned into a nightmare: She’s friendless and jobless, and the lockdown has her trapped in a tiny apartment with the man she gave up everything for, who’s just called off their wedding. The only bright spot is her newly rekindled friendship with her childhood friend Sabrina—now a glamorous bestselling author with a handsome, high-powered husband.
When Sabrina and Nathan offer Kelly an escape hatch, volunteering the spare room of their remote Virginia mansion, she jumps at the chance to run away from her old life. There, Kelly secretly finds herself falling for both her enchanting hosts—until one night, a wild and unexpected threesome leads the couple to open their marriage for her.
At first, Kelly loves being part of this risqué new world. But when she discovers that the last woman they invited into their marriage is missing, she starts to wonder if they could be dangerous . . . and if she might be next.
Packed with Andrea Bartz’s signature tension, twists, and toxic relationships, The Spare Room marks an edgy, boundary-pushing new direction from the “master of the ‘feminist thriller’” (Los Angeles Times).
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