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A review by thephdivabooks
The Spare Room by Andrea Bartz
2.0
I really wanted to love this, but it just didn't work for me...
Full Review with more detail on my blog
I liked the premise of it, where a woman is heartbroken after her engagement falls apart and moves in with another couple and the three eventually become intertwined romantically. Add to that a former partner of the couple who is missing, and it was a good set up. I also liked that it got moving quickly (we didn't spend a long time on set up).
Unfortunately, that also meant that we were missing most of the relevant back story to make the ending work for the reader. As written, we are really blindsided by an entirely different set of facts about the time leading up to the events of the novel. The main character Kelly is so unlikable, but not in an intentional way. I think we are supposed to root for her but I didn't. I found her self-absorbed, naive, not very intuitive to what is going on, and selfish. She also became weirdly sex-obsessed which is fine but we dwelled on that too long.
I also didn't think the COVID lockdown worked as the technique it was intended to, since the events of the novel went on for a long time and it was set in the US. Those of us here know that most cities lifted the worst restrictions on and off during this time and people weren't completely isolated (particularly people like this who were healthy and had no preexisting conditions). Kelly absolutely could have left to stay elsewhere. I think a better tactic would have just been to lean into Nathan's job and security concerns. The COVID message at the end drove me bonkers. This might be a me-thing, but I'm just not at a place where I'm ready to dive into the worst of how people felt during the pandemic, nor have a happy "isn't it great the lockdown ended and we are free and life is good" when the pandemic took the lives of so many and ruined the lives of countless more.
Anyways... I loved her first book! I don't think this one was for me.
Full Review with more detail on my blog
I liked the premise of it, where a woman is heartbroken after her engagement falls apart and moves in with another couple and the three eventually become intertwined romantically. Add to that a former partner of the couple who is missing, and it was a good set up. I also liked that it got moving quickly (we didn't spend a long time on set up).
Unfortunately, that also meant that we were missing most of the relevant back story to make the ending work for the reader. As written, we are really blindsided by an entirely different set of facts about the time leading up to the events of the novel. The main character Kelly is so unlikable, but not in an intentional way. I think we are supposed to root for her but I didn't. I found her self-absorbed, naive, not very intuitive to what is going on, and selfish. She also became weirdly sex-obsessed which is fine but we dwelled on that too long.
I also didn't think the COVID lockdown worked as the technique it was intended to, since the events of the novel went on for a long time and it was set in the US. Those of us here know that most cities lifted the worst restrictions on and off during this time and people weren't completely isolated (particularly people like this who were healthy and had no preexisting conditions). Kelly absolutely could have left to stay elsewhere. I think a better tactic would have just been to lean into Nathan's job and security concerns. The COVID message at the end drove me bonkers. This might be a me-thing, but I'm just not at a place where I'm ready to dive into the worst of how people felt during the pandemic, nor have a happy "isn't it great the lockdown ended and we are free and life is good" when the pandemic took the lives of so many and ruined the lives of countless more.
Anyways... I loved her first book! I don't think this one was for me.