Review: The Spare Bedroom

Review at a Glance

• Title: The Spare Bedroom
• My Rating: 4.5
• Genre: Contemporary Romance
• Format: eARC*
• Publication Date: May 1, 2020
• Author: Elizabeth Neep

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Book Blurb

Fun and friendly professional just arrived from London seeks flat share in central location, double bed preferred, ex-boyfriend optional extra.

Armed with a super-sized backpack full of optimism, Jess sets off in search of sun, sea and a much-needed new beginning.

Things don’t get off to a good start.

Instead of sunshine, she’s met with torrential rain. Her job prospects are as dismal as the weather and that friend-of-a-friend she was meant to stay with has fallen through. Just as Jess is homeless, jobless and wishing she’d gone for the waterproof mascara, she runs into the last person she expected to see. Sam. The ex she never got over. Jess always believed that one day fate would bring them back together. Now he’s here, more gorgeous than ever.

Before she knows it, Jess is accepting Sam’s offer to stay in his spare room. But while she may have been less than truthful about the mess she’s in, there is also one rather important thing Sam has neglected to mention.

Suddenly Jess isn’t just living with her ex, but with his new girlfriend too. All of that baggage she thought she left behind may have caught up with her…

A touching, funny and uplifting look at how finding and losing love can lead you to discover yourself along the way. Fans of The Flatshare, Sophie Kinsella and classic rom coms like My Best Friend’s Wedding will love Elizabeth Neep’s wit and warmth.

My Thoughts

Finally, finally, FINALLY.

The Spare Bedroom does something that many books have failed to do, write Christian characters realistically. Not all Christians are Fox News loving crazy people who act like living angels. Christians curse, and as in this book, call our friends dickheads. Some drink alcohol, have sex, and make terrible mistakes. Some pretend to be living angels and they frustrate everyone else to no end. So, thank you Elizabeth Neep for seeing the real people under all of the fake stuff.

As for the story, I freaking loved it and let me explain why.

In The Spare Bedroom, our heroine, Jess, is a freaking mess when she runs into her ex, and then proceeds to become and even bigger freaking mess. At times, I wanted to shake her, because she was obviously making mistakes, but honestly, that’s how people change. We make mistakes, acknowledge them, and learn from them.

She was an unreliable narrator, but Jess did what we all do, which is see what we want to see and not what actually is. Then trying to get what she thinks she wants in life, she get desperate, lies, and pretty much misses every clue thrown her way.

Sam is a great guy, but with the flashbacks, we can see pretty clearly that he doesn’t belong with Jess and Jess doesn’t belong with him. He’s not perfect but who wants perfect?

The absolute best thing about Spare Bedroom is that it defies its genre expectations. Usually in this type of book, everything explodes close to the end and there’s a quick wrap up where everyone gets that Happily Ever after. In Spare Bedroom, the climax happens at 80% giving the reader a lot of time and pages to find out what happens to Jess.

Jess breaks down and has actual growth that we get to watch. She finds herself and it isn’t easy, it’s incredibly hard, difficult work that takes time and a lot of self reflection. Jess does that work and finally we get to read it. It’s not glossed over, or skipped entirely in a time jump. Spare Bedroom shows how tough it is to be a young woman trying to make it without actually knowing what “it” is.

I also loved how she decides to find her own life, in her own way, in her own town. It’s hard letting go of relationships, especially when they’ve been a part of your life for so long, and helped shape the person you are. But, learning that you need to move on and actually doing it is a process like grieving. You have to acknowledge the loss and mourn the changes as you reimagine your life as it is now.

I can’t say enough good things about Spare Bedroom. It’s a standout book in a genre overfilled with predictable, but pleasing reads.

*Special thanks to Elizabeth Neep, Bookouture, and Netgalley for providing a copy of The Spare Bedroom in exchange for an honest review.