The House Guest by Mark Edwards #bookreview #TheHouseGuest @mredwards #NetGalley

A perfect summer. A perfect stranger. A perfect nightmare.
When British twenty-somethings Ruth and Adam are offered the chance to spend the summer housesitting in New York, they can’t say no. Young, in love and on the cusp of professional success, they feel as if luck is finally on their side.
So the moment that Eden turns up on the doorstep, drenched from a summer storm, it seems only right to share a bit of that good fortune. Beautiful and charismatic, Eden claims to be a friend of the homeowners, who told her she could stay whenever she was in New York.
They know you’re not supposed to talk to strangers—let alone invite them into your home—but after all, Eden’s only a stranger until they get to know her.
As suspicions creep in that Eden may not be who she claims to be, they begin to wonder if they’ve made a terrible mistake…

💛💛💛💛.5

Hi and welcome to my review of The House Guest!

There I was, a Tuesday night after a horrid day at work, feeling drained, wanting to read to take my mind off things but the book I’d planned on reading suddenly didn’t interest me anymore, and the one I picked instead couldn’t hold my attention for longer than a page or two. Peering at my physical TBR shelf, scrolling through my e-reader, no title jumped out, and I felt more drained by the minute. And then I remembered: I had just been approved on NetGalley to read Mark Edward’s latest novel, and I thought: if Mark can’t snap me out of it, no one can!

So I started reading The House Guest and it did exactly what I’d hoped it would: it drew me in and made me forget about everything and everyone, until I looked up and noticed that I had devoured a third of the book in what felt like one single breath. And I was feeling a lot less drained and a lot less sad to boot. Such is the magic of books, especially those written by your favourite authors, your auto-buy authors, the ones whose minds might work in scary ways, but who know how to glue you to their pages regardless of your state of mind at the time, and Mark Edwards is definitely one of those authors for me.

The House Guest is set in New York City, one of my favourite cities in the world and one I have very fond memories of, and Mark’s vivid writing transported me right back there. I’m hesitant to tell you more about the story than what’s in the blurb, as I feel it’s been deliberately kept vague, and I loved the journey The House Guest took me on, finding out what was going on, which turned out to be a plot that I hadn’t expected at all and that I enjoyed tremendously, probably to a greater extent because it caught me by surprise as much as it did. So I won’t ruin that experience for you, I’m just going to tell you that if your interest is piqued, you should go ahead and pick up a copy of The House Guest!

The House Guest is a solid psychological thriller with a highly original and intriguing plot, thrilling action scenes and interesting and well-rounded characters (some likeable, some a lot less likeable). Highly recommended to all thriller fans!

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC! All opinions are my own.