I don’t really know what to say about this book except that it’s brilliant. Very dark, very sad, so romantic. Books with a unique premise, sometimes work, but often fail. This one ticks all the boxes.
An emotional ride!

I would definitely have enjoyed this book more if I'd known it was a thoughtful treatise on marriage but I was expecting a thriller. I found the constant switching between the present and the past quite irritating although to be fair nothing was happening in the present so it wouldn't have been much of a story. It's well written and if I hadn't been expecting a different genre entirely I would have given it a higher rating; sadly I just wasn't in the mood for this plus I really disliked Kate and James and felt that Vic was portrayed as both needy and fairly pathetic.

Gripping premise and set up - one of those ‘why didn’t I think of this?’ novels. Dialogue a little clunky (why does no-one use contractions?) but otherwise tightly done.

Heart pounding, not able to put down! I was over the flashbacks but 4.75 stars as I knew why they were there. I don’t want to say much about this book but it was impeccably written! Thank you NetGalley for letting me read and review.

Room 706 Ellie Levenson

Kate and Vic have been married for a few years after meeting when she was studying in Rome. After a normal morning rush at home she travels into London, on the pretext of doing an interview. However, she has a different destination in mind. This is an appointment she’s been keeping for several years like clockwork. Now she’s caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. She should be travelling home later this afternoon - picking up the kids from school and collecting the rabbit from the vets. Instead she’s trapped in room 706, in a luxury hotel that’s under siege by a terrorist group. How can she explain why she’s here? Even if her body is discovered in the aftermath, everyone will wonder what she is doing here? She has always been very careful, leaving no trace. Now she wonders whether her husband Vic will understand why? As she tries to summon the words that convey just how much Vic and her children mean to her, Kate reflects on all the choices that brought her here.

I’ve read so many great reports of this book so I couldn’t wait to read it. It’s such a clever premise and.even as a woman without children, I can honestly say that I have fantasied about holidaying alone for a fortnight, never mind an afternoon in a hotel. Although I couldn’t be bothered by a lover either. This is one of those books that makes the reader go back and forth on what they think of the characters and I can imagine book clubs having long conversations about Kate particularly. After all, society judges women far more harshly than men, especially those who express dislike or even ambivalence about motherhood. I didn’t just focus on Kate, because I felt if I was to understand I needed to look at the whole of her life and the people who’d had the most influence on her. The author takes us beyond those Instagram selfies with the new baby and the false idea it can give of other people’s perfect lives. Here we look at the reality of family life for Kate and how the way we parent is often based on the example of our parents or grandparents. Our ability to parent is also dependent on our work situation as well as the personality or parenting style of the other parent. The author cleverly tells Kate’s story in her own words and then shows through memories, alerts and messages on her phone, as well as mental conversation with people she’s lost, who Kate is and what happened to bring her here.

We know she loves her husband Vic, while studying in Rome she lived in his Nonna’s apartment, while she had her own place with her grandson Vic who has suffered a nervous breakdown. Despite being ten years older than Kate, Vic is treated as the vulnerable one who needs protection. His brother Tom pleads with her not to hurt his brother and I felt the weight of that placed upon her. Yet Kate has just lost her mother, will she ever get to be the vulnerable one? They are happy and Kate relives so many beautiful memories that show us how much she loves him and their children. Yet there isn’t anyone apart from Vic’s brother to be their support network. Kate and her mum were a duo, no dad around and no siblings either. I loved one moment where Kate asked her mother what it’s like being a single mum. Her mum replies honestly that it’s hard work, but she can choose how they live and the values they have. There’s no one else to negotiate with, no clashing parenting styles or being let down by someone not doing their bit. If you contrast this with the evidence of Kate’s own phone it’s telling. She has an app that divides her ‘to do’ list into things that need to be done now, in the next couple of months, or sometime in the future. She sets reminders to coordinate her life, so ‘to d’ reminders join the reminder to check her breasts, to do her kegel exercises, to do the weekly food order. Meanwhile she places family photos into folders, makes lists of bank passwords, Christmas gift lists and house maintenance jobs. If she dies here, Vic will need to know this stuff. Her male lover simply sleeps. She reminisces about a family holiday they took to Italy and reassesses the hours spent on research, price comparing, insurance, bite and sunburn cream, swimwear for the kids and so on. Vic would have simply bought a couple of T-shirts and booked the second or third package deal they saw and it would still have been a good holiday. Vic’s laidback parenting style and his vulnerability mean she’s he person who carries that mental load. Of course some of this is on Kate, as she’s clearly risk averse and overthinks decisions but she also has no significant female support. Since she lost her mum and then best friend Eve, all her relationships outside the home are superficial.

Do these things excuse adultery? It will still hurt the ones they love, never mind the psychological reasons for the decision. However, all of that juggling made me understand a little. She has a need for something - rather like an old-fashioned pressure cooker needs to blow off steam. In this time, in an anonymous hotel room what she needs is no strings, no judgement and no backstory. It’s just completely selfish pleasure. Her sex life at home is tender and loving, they consider each other and everything they’ve built together as a couple is part of their sex life. From that unexpected first time with her lover it’s been about taking her pleasure and asking for exactly what she wants. This afternoon, that happens once very few weeks, enables her to be the wife and mum the family need her to be. She’s trying to recapture that carefree young woman who went off to study in Italy, who has clearly been totally changed by everything that’s happened since. It seems ironic that someone who plans everything so carefully, finds herself in a situation that’s absolutely out of her control.

The author carefully lets the tension mount so slowly that while reminiscing we almost forget where Kate is in the here and now. A prisoner in this room, she has to be silent so they can’t put the television on and they can’t flush a toilet. When the lights and electricity go they’re almost totally cut off from the outside world. It’s a quiet that is sometimes broken by heavy footsteps or other hotel guests meeting their fate. You’ll almost hold your breath at times. The forced intimacy means she asks questions of her lover that she’s never asked before. She knows nothing about his life, only that he’s married and has been sleeping with her in this way for several years. We know the terrorists are stalking the corridors, one floor at a time, but we don’t know whether they have a master key or a bomb. I realised that despite her family unit, Kate is lonely. What she wants is for someone to see and appreciate her as Kate the woman, not the mum, wife or journalist. You will be compelled to read this as I did, long into the night. It has the pitch perfect pacing and tension of a thriller, but so many psychological layers. Women will identify with Kate, at least some part of her. She very simply wants to be seen, desired and receive pleasure. As the terrorists come close enough to hear in the room next door, we know Room 706 will be next. Kate has had an opportunity to assess and understand her life, to possibly make changes and live more. You’ll have to read to the end to find out whether she gets that chance.

I had heard amazing things about Room 706 before I read it and I was not disappointed. As Kate sits and waits with her lover, in a London hotel that’s under siege we hear the story of her marriage to her husband Vic and their life with their two children. The author takes us back to when Kate and Vic meet in Italy and as Kate waits she reflects on their relationship. This is a beautiful love story, told with such warmth and honesty and I loved the characters of Kate and Vic. Kate wonders what she will tell Vic if she escapes, or what Vic will think if she doesn’t. She writes letters to Vic and her children and emails reminders of daily chores. This is all set against the tension of being in a hotel that is under siege by gunmen, with no updates apart from what’s available on social media and the author captures Kate’s fear and the realisation that she knows so little about the man she is with.
Without doubt this is the best book I’ve read so far this year, I was completely immersed in both Kate’s present and past and loved how the author so cleverly combines a thriller with a beautiful love story.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

Kate is with her lover James in a hotel room, and switches on the TV after their rendezvous, as they are both preparing to leave shortly. She to return to her devoted husband and her two adored children, Lenny and Annie, and James presumably to his wife.

But to her horror, the news headlines inform Kate that the hotel she is in is under siege from a well known terrorist group. Which means that she and James are trapped...

Levenson's debut story is not what I expected. I was thinking along the lines of an adventure thriller, but this turned out to be more of a rumination on life, relationships, marriage and parenthood. Despite that, it was an absorbing read, and a thought provoking one also - and I am grateful to the publisher for granting me access to this book which was on my wish list.

Room 706 is the story of a marriage, seen through a woman’s eyes. Kate is happily married with two children and a satisfying career. But every few months, she meets James in a hotel room to spend a few hours together. She tells herself it’s because she wants something just for herself. While she dresses for her return to everyday life, planning to pick up her children at school, she glimpses “breaking news” on tv. There has been a terrorist attack on a hotel. There are casualties. Special forces are in place, no demands have yet been made. She and James are in that hotel. Now they wait in the dark, in silence, as the hours pass. In flashbacks, Kate remembers her marriage. She remembers how she fell in love with Vic, when their children were born, things ordinary and things special.

Room 706 reads like a play. Two characters, now forced to stay to together, exchange only a few words as the siege drags on. In the silence, the tension slowly builds as Kate faces the terrifying possibility of death at any moment and begins to try to understand the choices brought her to this moment. I loved this incredibly suspenseful, character driven novel! It defies definition. Is it a thriller? Yes? A love story? That too. It’s almost impossible to believe that this is Ellie Levenson’s debut! 5 stars. It deserves more!

Thank you to NetGalley, Headline and Ellie Levenson for this ARC.

Kate stretches her legs and turns on the TV while James washes away the traces of their morning. She watches in horror at the unfolding news: the hotel they are staying in has been taken under siege. She should be making her way home, working on appearing normal, getting ready to re-enter family life with her loving husband Vic and their two adored children. Instead, she is trapped somewhere she shouldn't be, with a man she definitely doesn't love! This book was definitely a bit different?! I’m still a little iffy about it?! I didn’t really like the ending and it mostly takes place in a hotel room! It was a good read and worth reading but not really my type of book! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

A thriller or a love story? This is definitely both. It starts with a tension-fuelled set-up that is carefully drip-fed throughout the novel, while the main character, Kate, reflects on what brought her to be in this situation. I loved the dynamic between Kate and Vic, and her love for her family, and also her clever justification for finding herself in the throes of an affair. The ticking clock siege situation is a clever frame for an emotional portrait of a woman who is just trying to do her best. There were a few loose ends that I had hoped would be tied up but actually the fact that they weren’t left me thinking about this book more. In short, an emotionally wrought slow-burn suspense novel that I absolutely could not put down.

Room 706, the quiet anonymity of a hotel room becomes the stage for a tense, emotionally charged exploration of fate, choice, and womanhood. Kate, finds herself in a place she was never meant to be, at a moment that changes everything. What unfolds is a taut, real-time narrative that fuses suspense with a deeply human core.

The brilliance of this debut lies in its immediacy. The action unravels with relentless pacing, pulling the reader into Kate’s spiraling reality as she confronts moral dilemmas, buried truths, and her own vulnerability. The stakes are high — not just for her safety, but for her sense of self. What begins as a wrong-place-wrong-time scenario evolves into something far more intimate and profound.

Kate is both everywoman and entirely unique — flawed, frightened, courageous. This novel dares to ask bold questions about autonomy, guilt, and what it means to be seen.

The ending? Raw, haunting, and guaranteed to spark conversation.

I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to read this ARC and look forward to future reads. Fans of literary thrillers and character-driven dramas will find Room 706 unputdownable.