Thank you Netgalley for the ARC

Ellie and Seth alongwith their children Brandon and Simone, seem like a normal family with its little hiccups. Enter a house guest Ace, who is a friend of Seth's cousin.

The book starts off good and there seems to be a premise of a thriller, but somewhere towards the middle, I lost interest in the story but completed it nonetheless.The title is a litle misleading and the end is a damp squib.

Firstly a big thank you to the publishers for approving my request to read on netgalley. This is another new author to me , one of the joys of lockdown and netgalley. This is a completely unpredictable book with twists and turns galore. Secrets are revealed and people show their true colours.What starts with a regulsr family living in a nice house…somehow loses that and their lives are turned upside down.Compelling and exciting this is a great thrilling read.Mothers know best …right?Published 31st May and i look forward to reading more from this author.

What a great book :) Had me hooked....avsokute corker of a story! Great characters, great plot and a great ending

A wow ending indeed!

Ellie is a successful gallery owner, who has two children and a husband. Life is good. Recently Seth, Ellie’s husband, has begun acting strangely and she can’t figure out why. Surprisingly, Seth introduces Ace into the family and that is when the trouble really starts.

Ellie is fighting her thoughts the whole time. She wonders what is going on with her son and the recent muder of a classmate, why is her husband being so distant and what should she do about her attraction she has for their new house guest?

While reading this book I had trouble with a few things. One, the husband, he’s not very nice and that didn’t sit well with me. Two, how the girl’s murder played out (at first). I was led to believe that the story would focus on it but it didn’t and I was a bit confused. Lastly, Ellie’s mental dialogue seemed to dominate a good portion of the book and I found this a bit boring.
I considered putting the book down, but I persevered. I am so glad I did.

This book took, not one, but several unexpected turns that left me completely flabbergasted.
I was blindsided at the end and was thoroughly satisfied that I had persevered and completed this book. It definitely has a WOW factor.

Overall, the characters were interesting. I didn’t like Seth at all and I believe I wasn’t supposed to. I’ll admit that I too was attracted to Ace. I even felt a bit sorry for him as well. The children were also written well. Especially Brandon, he seemed like a nice boy. Ellie was an interesting character, but I felt that she thought about things a little too much. I enjoyed her nonetheless, especially at the end. The way the story unfolds is interesting and I was forced to make assumptions that weren’t entirely accurate and therefore I was completely surprised at the end.

Thanks to Cathryn Grant, NetGalley and Inkubator Books for this ARC.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 stars/ REVIEW
The Guest is another fast paced thriller that makes everyone look like a suspect. Ellie is a very successful gallery owner with a loving husband and two kids. Their lives turn upside down when her husband brings a man he hardly knows into their home to stay as a guest. Something is off about him, but Eille just can’t put her finger on it. When a classmate of her son’s is murdered the police question him, but she knows that even though her son has been having a tough time lately, he would never commit murder. As she tries to keep her family together, secrets are uncovered and life will never be the same.
I breezed through this book quite quickly and found it to be a nice escape with a twist I did not see coming until the very end!
Thanks to @netgalley for the #arc!
#netgalley #theguest

Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This is an interesting twist to a mystery that initially portrays a rather normal family that hold it together until a stranger comes to town and exposes their under belly. Told from the perspective of a mother juggling two kids, a successful art gallery and a distant husband we get to know a family falling a part at the seams. You don't expect the ending but are sympathetic to the killer.
Overall, a disturbing parody of a modern family.

I received a free e-ARC for an honest review.

Ellie is a loving mother of two, a wife and an owner of an art gallery. When her husband Seth brings a "friend of his cousins" to live with them, everything goes down hill from there.

I thought this was a good thrilling read. There were a few things I thought didn't belong or were a little ridiculous. One, I don't think the neighbor should have been in the story at all. Her presence seemed out of place. Second, what mother and father let their teenage son cuss the way Brandon did? They never really said anything about it, almost like it was a normal part of life, but oddly, the parents never curses. Other than that, I thought is was a good story. I was surprised by the ending of who killed Jasmine.

Amazing and riveting novel with an ending that blew me away. This author can really write and I highly recommend this book. Ten stars!

Thank you to #netgalley for the ARC of this book.

I was in two minds about this novel! I felt like the first chapter was good, the last three chapters were good but the rest of the novel just lagged. Things were said repetitively, there wasn't much of a flow and it was a bit so so.

Saying this, the last three chapters were good and the twist was great!

I feel it's best to go into this book blind and not know too much about it.

I did not expect greatness and I wasn’t disappointed. That’s really the trick for life in general and here it worked out perfectly on a microscale. The goal was to find a quick and easy thriller read, something mindless to pass the afternoon of not wanting to make choices or invest too much time. This book was on Read Now of Netgalley and checked all the boxes, there are so many books like this out there right now, so many authors are taking advantages of this obscenely popular avalanche of female driven suspense thrillers. This author, especially, seems to produce these books like pancakes, all very similar sounding, similarly titled and probably fairly uniform in quality…which is to say just ok. This book was very much just ok. It fact, mostly it read below that ok line, like some flat Lifetime movie of the week…a woman, wife, mother, business owner, accomplished in every respect, has to put up with her sad sack of a spouse who in fact did get sacked and has been lying to her about it. And on top of it he brings a guest to stay, a good looking, good with kids, good in the kitchen kind of guest who seems to have no intentions of leaving. And for some reason our protagonist, this woman who now pays the bills, works and comes home to cook every night and tries to be a cheerleader for her waste of space man just totally goes along with all this. Presumably because the guest is so dreamy. And so then there’s this vicious triangle dynamic to play around with, which the author does her best with. Oh yeah, there’s also a murder sublot just to muddy the waters some. It’s one of those books where you just plow through the thorough mediocrity hoping the genre prerequisite plot twists in the end will save the entire production. Which is exactly the case here. Only toward the end does it get remotely interesting and mildly original. And we all learn that there’s no greater driver, no more potent motivator than mother’s love. Cue in a sappy pop country song and roll the credits. But seriously, this wasn’t by any means terrible if you go in with sufficiently low expectations, it had the decency to be brief in length and it read as quickly as this sort of thing ought to, easy one sitting read, with afternoon still left to spare. Thanks Netgalley.

O....M....G!!!! This book was so good! I couldn't put it down! It just kept getting better and better. I was at 90% and I still couldn't figure out the twist, then bam! Towards the end things got so intense I found myself reading at lightening speed because that's how fast my heart was beating! Thank you #NetGalley for the chance to read this book for my honest opinion. Great Read! #TheGuest

I was given this title to read by Inkubator Books, in exchange for my personal review and for the first time in a long time I did not finish the book. I had a really hard time connecting with the characters and I got halfway through before I called it quits.

For a psychological thriller, I was bored, and didn't think I would end up loving it if I kept going. The first chapter started out great, but then the title lost me as Ellie and Seth has marital problems, mixed with an unrealistic to me houseguest, and trouble with their teenage son - just didn't mesh for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book. I really enjoyed this book. At first it did not seem to be in the thriller genre, but it seemed more like a family drama. The more I read, each character became more suspicious. The first half of the book was good, but I could not put it down during the last half. This is the first book that I have read by Cathryn Grant and I am looking forward to reading more by this author.

The first chapter led me to believe the plot of the book was going to go one direction. The further I read, I realized the first chapter seemed to be part of another book completely. I understand why the author included the first and last chapters, but they really did not seem relevant to the rest of the book. Yes, there was some aspects of psychological thriller, but the author could have easily developed this into two books.

The book was okay compared to other psychological thrillers, but it will not be at the top of my list of must reads.

Many Thanks to the author and Netgalley for allowing me to read this book before being published in exchange for an honest review.

When your husband brings a distant cousin´s friend to have dinner first and to live in your house later, and you realised that he has also have lost his job long time ago but he keeps leaving the house at the same early hours and coming back in the evening like any normal day, you realise something is going on.

So there is Ellie who runs a successful art gallery and has a daughter and a teen son. Her husband is not getting along with her son from another marriage and that´s frustrating. Then this estranger comes into the house and he gets on really well with everybody and Ellie is so attracted to him. From the moment he starts living in the same house you know something is going to happen. Even more, when Ellie´s son is questioned for the murder of a girl in his school. And what is Ellie´s husband doing with all his free time, researching for a job? Going into seminars???

I did enjoy this book, as it was a quick and engaging read, filled with suspense and questions that keep you thinking and wanting to turn the pages with eager anticipation while reading so that you may reach the conclusion that much faster.

But I did not see the last twist until the very end! Good psychological book. I will be looking for the rest of books by Cathryn Grant

Seth & Ellie are a successful couple living in a beautiful home with their beautiful child Simone and Brandon who is Ellie's son from her previous marriage. Brandon is having problems at school. He is being bullied (by girls). All starts to go wrong for the seemingly perfect family when an older girl from Brandon's school who h has a crush on is murdered. At about the same time Ellie's husband Seth invite's Ace to stay. Ace is a friend of Seth's cousin and needs somewhere safe to stay for a week or two. He immediately has a rapport with Brandon whose relationship with his stepfather is troubled. He learns to play pool from Ace.. Who is Ace? Is he who he says he is? Who killed Jasmine? Is Brandon involved? I thoroughly enjoyed this book and actually couldn't put it down.

Thank you for allowing me to review this book. Unfortunately it didn't hit the mark for me and I gave up on it.

I just couldn't connect with any of the characters or the story and found the writing style not to my liking. I am sure others loved it so it's just a personal opinion but it wasn't for me.

Thank you

I really enjoyed this book!! The building suspense, the unexplained but undeniable odd actions of the various characters built together to form a heart-stopping crescendo and a brilliant twist in the final chapters. This is a clever thriller that is enjoyable and engaging, well worth the read!

I enjoyed this one a lot. The writing kept the suspense coming and I had to keep changing what I thought was going to happen as I read further. This is what a good suspense novel should be!

This review will be published on the below-mentioned blog and other social media on June 5.

Book Title: The Guest

Author: Cathryn Grant

Genre: Thriller

Publishing Date: 24 May 2020

My Review :

It’s a good thriller but not the excellent one! If you haven’t read a lot of thrillers it would be a good one to start! But after reading some Mind-blowing thrillers it seems lacking in so many ways! The plot is interesting but the way it got executed is not impressive! The initial chapters were fast-paced! The story picked up in the very first chapter! But after 20% it seems we are reading the same explanations, feelings again & again and it’s boring! The characters were not practical! The story again picked up only after 80% of the book! We couldn’t conclude anything solid but when we came to know a person behind all things it didn’t surprise us! The climax is easily guessable but not too bad!

Thoughts While Reading :

This section has some subtle spoilers,

The initial chapters were straight to the point and make us curious!
At this age and time is it really believable, that someone would accommodate an unknown stranger to stay even though the husband insists? Not even a quick social media checkup? Which she has done too late! I felt there weren't strong enough reasons to believe it!
And that weak unbelievable baseline makes the entire story weak!
The mention of egoistic male domination strips the society’s obsession over women’s place in the home! I admire the author brought up this very subtle but crucial issue!
Another important issue spoken in this book is bullying! The story captures the real struggle of a mom with her bullied teenage kid! It is heartbreaking!
The guest character is very shallow, and didn't have any impact at all!
The one thing that bothered me much was the over descriptive repetition of the same doubts, emotions which makes the wonderful plot executed poorly!

Thanks to #netgalley and the publisher #inkubatorbooks for this ARC. This review is straight from my heart, not biased in any way.