
Member Reviews

Firstly, I thought the narration was excellent and suited the book well.
The story was good. Having lived through an abusive relationship, some parts were extremely hard to listen to, but extremely well written. I was enthralled until right near the end when I became completely confused. This confusion lasted till the last few lines when I had a sudden shift in mental processes and my brain went, oh, right, of course! I had thought I was going to have to go back to the beginning and re-listen.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author and boy am I confused 🤷🏼♀️! I must admit I did have to read some reviews on goodreads to understand what on earth was happening!! I found the main character Regi ‘s OCD quite frustrating as it got really repetitive which I suppose is the point ! The ending was the most confusing ending to a book that I’ve ever read !!
This was the audio version of this book and the narrator was excellent and made it an enjoyable listen

This one is a similar theme to my previous audiobook. It was an easy listen but could be very descriptive in places to the point of being repetitive. I found the plot to be all over the place and even seemed like there was a couple of storylines going on and it left you wondering what they really had to do with each other. But in another way I was intrigued to see how it all came together and really had high hopes but it was like the author just came up with a random outcome and hoped it stuck but I really felt cheated. Helen Keeley did a great job on the narration and I would like to listen to more books that she narrates.
Thanks to Netgalley and Boldwood Books UK Audio for the opportunity to read this ARC and review that was published on the 15th of Oct.

I really enjoyed the eARC of The House Mate and was so happy to be approved for the audiobook. The audiobook brings the characters and plot to life even more. Dark, mysterious and gripping!

Regi would like nothing more than to bury her past, forget all about it and start anew. As she attempts to do just that, moving into a new home with a new name, Regi becomes addicted to social media and the seemingly perfect lives of others online, but no one is perfect and Regi is about to find out that she’s not the only person living a lie. Keeley provides a fine narration to this tense and claustrophobic tale

I listened to the audiobook of this story. Thanks to Boldwood Books UK Audio and NetGalley for a copy for review.
The condition of OCD was extremely well covered and had me feeling great sympathy for any real sufferers. Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy the book and found it a little over the top and in parts quite contrived.
I didn’t enjoy the narrator either and that was possibly why the story just didn’t gel for me.

I listened to the audiobook of this story. Thanks to Boldwood Books UK Audio and NetGalley for a copy for review.
Regi wants to start afresh and has moved into a house share with younger girls. She clearly has issues and suffers from OCD, among other things. One of the younger girls introduces her to Instagram and she becomes unhealthily obsessed with ‘Mrs Clean’.
The story is told by alternating between ‘then’ and ‘now’ and is from the points of view of two characters. This wasn’t clear to me until about halfway through the book. I got confused as I thought the story was was only from Regi’s point of view.
I thought that the portrayal of the Instagrammer and the obsession with it was sadly accurate. I can think of an Instagram account that ‘Mrs Clean’ was based on.
The characters weren’t very likeable and I thought it was a bit naff that the grumpy housemate was called Karen.
The plot was confusing to follow and I found it a bit far fetched at times.
Despite getting confused about the characters, this book is an easy read and did hold my interest.
The ending was a bit cliche and predictable for me.
Narration was good but slightly OTT at times.
Overall, this book was OK but it wasn’t easy to follow and the ending let it down for me.

Narrator 5 stars
Book 3.5 stars
I finished this book in one sitting. When you read / listen to a lot of books it can be hard to find something original and this definitely hit the original mark for me. It held my attention from start to finish, and even got me a little emotional with the last 95%
This is the first book I've read/listen to by the author and will definitely be heading over to Amazon to see what others are for purchase

Heading toward 4.5 stars for me!
I was gripped from the start and compelled to get to the fast paced end in 4 audio sessions!
Definitely going to look for more by this author and narrators.
Thanks to Netgalley and Boldwood Books UK Audio

Well, I suppose it's a bit my fault here because I have already read a Nina Manning book before and absolutely detested it but forgot. Had I remember that I would never have requested this new one.
In any case I did, and now I have to honestly review it.
This is a mess. It's over the top in all senses and reads more like a telenovela than a thriller. It has some really laughable passages and characters. And to top it all, we have a supposed twist that is in reality nothing else than an author cheating on her readers by simply throwing random new info at the end and hoping it'll stick.
It doesn't. It just gets convoluted and frankly, ridiculous.
The narrator does a decent job with the terrible material she was given though.
I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an audiobook ARC of this novel.

This was a somewhat unusual book. The protagonist was a good character, hinting at prior psychological events and having a serious case of OCD to keep me wondering.
As the story progresses, however, I was confused by the timeline, and the ongoing obsession with Mrs Clean. The OCD detracted from the plot too much in my opinion, and I was increasingly frustrated by the references to it.

The House Mate by Nina Manning is an interesting story.
Regi moves into a new house with multiple housemates. She has a new identity and is trying to escape her past. There are flashbacks of the past throughout the book.
What is Regi running away from? Can she really escape her past?
The House Mate is a good concept; however, I couldn’t get into it. How it kept jumping between past and present was confusing to me and made it difficult to get invested in the story.
I enjoyed Regi’s interactions with her housemates and seeing how she reacted to certain situaitions.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Helen Keeley. Keeley did a good job narrating. However, since the story jumped back and forth between past and present, I think The House Mate would be more enjoyable as a physical book instead of an audiobook.
The ending was my favorite part of the book. Finding out what actually happened in the past really helped me understand the book better.
I recommend The House Mate to anyone that likes thrillers and can keep up with alternating time frames.
Thank you NetGalley and Boldwood Books UK Audio for The House Mate.