I enjoyed this book hugely for the first half. Professional woman with "happy" family finds herself caught out when the hotel of her illicit assignation comes under siege.

Moving between the past and the present gives the narrative true "backbone". Whilst I understand that the hostage situation was written to be slow and endless, for this reader it felt overlong and repetitive. How many times does Kate, our protagonist, worry about the password for the supermarket shopping. I realise that when big stuff happens it is the small stuff you sweat but it became tedious rather than tense for me. The amount that her phone was being used would make me more anxious about not having a charger!

Being stuck in a hotel room with your lover, who you do not love whilst yearning for your loving, thoughtful husband and children is the crux. It is a fascinating examination of morality of our lives but the, far too late introspection, did seem like a very first world problem.

With thanks to #NetGalley and #Headline for the opportunity to read and review

Kate appears to have everything: a good marriage to Vic; two children, Lenny and Annie; and a job she enjoys, and is good at, which fits in with family life.

But Kate has a secret. Three or four times a year she travels to a hotel in London (a different one each time) to meet up with James for a couple of hours of sex.

However, their latest tryst is about to take an unexpected turn. The hotel they are in has been taken over by terrorists, they are trapped in room 706 and nobody knows they are there.

Loved this book - an interesting premise and a really good read. Will recommend to all my friends.

Thanks to Netgalley, Headline and Ellie Levenson for an eARC of this book in return for an honest review.

Not for me. Didn't click with any of the characters. Dialogue was unbelievably clunky. Frankly it was boring. Too much minute detail. The book really dragged. Interesting premise for a book which is why I went for it but Kate's "I love my husband so much I'm having sex with another man" didn't cut it for me. The writing style just irritated me. The ending, well, very disappointing

Ellie Levenson’s debut is the kind of novel that slips under your skin and lingers there. Room 706 begins with a deceptively simple set-up: Kate, in a London hotel room with her lover, turns on the TV to discover the building is under siege. From that moment, the clock is ticking — but instead of racing through gunfire and explosions, the story moves inward, into Kate’s mind, her memories, and the tangled web of choices that led her here.

It’s a thriller, yes, but one that beats with a deeply human heart. The siege is the frame; the real story is Kate’s marriage to Vic, her love for her children, and the quiet ache of wanting more than the life she’s built. Levenson balances tension and tenderness beautifully — one moment you’re holding your breath, the next you’re caught in the intimacy of a remembered conversation or a letter Kate writes in case she doesn’t make it out.

The prose is clean and unshowy, yet charged with emotion. The shifting timelines keep the suspense taut, and the moral questions — about loyalty, desire, and the stories we tell ourselves — give the novel a weight that lasts beyond the final page. The ending doesn’t tie everything up neatly, and that’s part of its power; it leaves you thinking, replaying scenes, wondering what you would have done.

Room 706 is both a page-turner and a quiet character study — a rare combination that makes it hard to put down and harder to forget.

With thanks to Ellie Levenson, the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

An original idea and a unique story. Trapped by terrorists in a luxury London hotel, Kate and James have t9 face up to a terrifying future and reflect on their lives up to this point. Less of a thriller and more of a love story and realisation on Kate’s part that what she has left behind at home is the most important thing. The tension builds as time passes and Kate and James are hostages to fortune and a very uncertain outcome. A very clever book. .

We first meet Kate in her Hotel, Room 706, where she is with her lover and looking forward to having a relaxing bath before picking up her children from school in an hour. She turns on the television and sees the very hotel she is in on the screen with a breaking news banner, the hotel is on lockdown, it has been taken over by gunmen. All she can do is hide, pray and reflect on the choices she has made that have left her in this situation. While there is definitely some intense and suspenseful moments it is not so much a thriller as it is a story of reflection and introspection for Kate as she awaits her fate. I thank Netgalley and Headline for the opportunity to read and review this book.

What a fantastic debut novel, really emotional and thought provoking. Imaging being caught in a situation somewhere you shouldn't be...,.This happens to Kate and makes her reevaluate her marriage, her relationships and the things that are important to her. Really different to anything else ive read, can't wait for more from this author.

A great premise, people meeting over several years for sex, besieged in a hotel in a terror attack. The siege is by no means the main story, and there could be much more tension in the scenes set in the hotel room. The interesting thing is the two parallel stories of Kate's relationship with her husband, and with her lover.

Characters are well developed. We learn a lot about Kate, her bereavements, her loneliness, and about Vic, his breakdown and his stifling love for Kate. James is less well delineated as he only meets Kate for sex, so they hardly know each other until they are trapped together.

The story is well-paced and the ending is inconclusive but entirely satisfying.

My main reservation is the stilted dialogue, largely due to lack of contraction.

I found the three different timelines showing different points in Kate’s life very interesting as they really helped you to get into her head. Seeing how they dealt with being in the siege was very thought provoking and made me think about what I’d do in that situation. I did want a little more from the ending of the book though, I feel like it left a lot unanswered.

5 Stars from me ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Literally sublime. I loved it. And that ending 'chef's kiss'.

Hard to know what more to say, so I won't. No further words needed.

Go read it.

My thanks to the author, NetGalley, and Headline publishing for an ARC in return for an honest review #Room706 #NetGalley.

I enjoyed this book and was very impressed by it being a debut novel. Kate the protagonist is trapped in a hotel room when it comes under siege. Kate has then to reason what she is doing there, with someone she has been secretly meeting up with for sex. This book is sensitively written, it is riveting as Kate relives her life and her choices.
I couldn't stop reading, it was addictive. How was it going to end? There were so many possible scenarios. I was with Kate throughout the book.
I didn't have to approve of her affair, it was presented in such a way many of us would know exactly why it happened. The siege cause a roller coaster of emotions, as Kate grappled with the thought of will she ever survive this?

I am really looking forward to other books by this author.

Wow! I have just finished Room 706 and I feel like I need a little lie down. What a roller coaster. I want to talk about that ending RIGHT NOW! (Reading an early copy before my book club can get their hands on it is definitely a disadvantage here.)
I feel like I know Kate and despite the excellent drama of the book, getting to know her and understand her was the best part of the book for me. My heart broke for her - with so many losses. I will think about her and Vic (her lovely husband) for a very long time.
I 100% recommend this as a book club read and I think it will be a big hit. I want to go back to the start and read it all over again.

I really enjoyed this - a completely unique idea and one that has you thinking about what you would do in the same circumstances - your concern for your own personal safety in the circumstances, but ‘if’ you survive, what happens next? As much as I loved the story I did finish the book feeling frustrated that everything wasn’t tied up nicely. It’s almost certainly intentional but I wanted a resolution and to see what happened!

Kate isn't the most likeable character - married with two young children, yet she has been having a years-long affair with James (also married). However, when she finds herself trapped in an unthinkable situation, I found myself questioning whether she was unlikeable or whether it was just some of her actions which I didn't like, particularly her justification for them.

I enjoyed the story and found myself hoping for the best outcome for Kate. I particularly enjoyed the reflective nature of the story - lots of Kate's history was revealed by the narrative jumping throughout her past, and without many other characters to interact with in her present the story was moved on with brief conversation and many introspective moments.

This has a relatively ambiguous ending, which usually I'm not so keen on, however I'd become so invested in the outcome that I found myself believing it was the better of the two options! A compelling and well-told story.

This debut novel was not at all what I expected but delivered everything its glowing reviews promised. The main character, Kate, is introduced to us in a compromising situation – just about to leave the hotel where she met her secret lover – when her plans are derailed by a terrorist event. Forced to stay inside and increasingly unsure whether she will survive the day, Kate reflects on her complicated life that includes a husband, an extended family, friends and work colleagues and that lays bare many of the essential questions all females must surely be asking themselves. A thought-provoking, incredibly well-written debut – read it while you can! I am grateful to NetGalley and the publishers for the free ARC that allowed me to do so.

An addictive read but I didn’t like the ending. I like closure! Would be good to get a sequel but I don’t think there will be one. Apart from that minor blip, I really enjoyed the storyline and the characters. I loved the dual timeline being able to dig a little deeper into the character’s history. I’m sure this will be a success.

Kate & James are trapped in a hotel room when their hotel is taken over by terrorists. Both Kate & James are married, but not to each other, and Kate worries about her liaison being discovered by her husband Vic when the news about the hostage situation hits the media channels.
The book is mostly about the thoughts that run through Kate's head when she realises that this is the day that she could die.
She is texting Vic, and sending emails to tell her kids just how much she loves them. She thinks about her life, and her love for her husband and children.
I loved this book, although I think that the ending let it down somewhat. I feel that the story is unfinished, and would have loved to know who was behind their hotel room door. For this reason, I'm giving it 4 stars.

I’m sorry to say I felt quite let down by this book. It’s not the thriller we are promised in the blurb. I felt it really dragged on, I I couldn’t particularly take to Kate, James or Vic. And for someone who constantly goes on about how much she loves her husband, how she worries about, and is constantly protecting his mental health, to then go on and do what she’s doing does not make sense. I found myself skipping parts that I found repetitive and kept waiting for something…….anything, to actually happen. As for the ending, I’m not even going there. Disappointed in a book that sounded so promising. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early copy.

Ellie Levenson’s Room 706 is a bold and emotionally intelligent debut, blending the claustrophobic tension of a hostage thriller with the quiet complexities of love, marriage, and identity. Its strength lies less in explosive action than in its sharp psychological insight, asking readers to sit with the uncomfortable “grey areas” of human behaviour.

While the ambiguity of the ending will divide opinion, and the reflective pacing won’t suit everyone, this is a thought-provoking and beautifully written novel that lingers well beyond its final page.

Rating: ★★★★☆ — a compelling debut for readers who enjoy character-driven fiction with depth and moral complexity.

Not quite a thriller, more an exploration of a woman's life and the decisions she has made, decisions which take her to a place she could never have anticipated.
Kate is happily married, with a job she enjoys, a husband she loves, children she adores. She has a nice house, no money worries, her life is comfortable. And every few months she meets James, her older married lover, in an anonymous hotel room for sex. Only today, as she is contemplating her post-tryst bath, much valued time alone once James has left, she glances at the TV and sees there is a hostage situation breaking in central London. Terrorists have taken over a hotel. Her hotel.
During the tense, fearful hours that follow as James and Kate hide in room 706, Kate messages her husband, sends practical lists to her brother in law, writes letters to her children and she thinks. She thinks about meeting her husband Vic in a cinema in Rome and the life they have built, about her childhood, only child to an impoverished single mum, her few friends, about meeting James and the compartmentalised place he has in her life, an occasional bit of me time, a man who she barely knows and may now be the man she dies next to.
Tense, poignant, beautifully written and paced, this book is hard to put down. Recommended.