The House Guest
Hank Phillippi Ryan
336 pages
Forge Books
Published February 7, 2023
Amazon | Goodreads
While I thought Alyssa was an idiot, I was all in from the start of this one. I must’ve screamed at her more than once at what I thought were poor choices. Who invites someone to stay at their home when they’ve only known them for a few hours? Ah, but then I guess we don’t have a book without the invite. I spent the entire book trying to figure out who was trustworthy and who was scamming whom and for what reason. And while I had many correct guesses, I had even more incorrect ones, so not sure I can claim a win there.
I am quite the fan of cat and mouse games and this one is a doozy. I wasn’t exactly sure who I liked and if I didn’t why, including Alyssa. Page after page and twist after twist, I flipped and flopped over what was happening and who was on the up and up. The story and the characters were layered and every time I figured something out, another layer changed the narrative. While I waffled on trusting Alyssa, I did feel for and could relate to her angst with her current situation. Of course, instead of bringing home strangers, I brought home pets. They can be a little shady too.
There was a slight need to explain things at the end, which isn’t my favorite way for a book to end and the situation might be a little much for some to believe, but I did not want to put this one down and that outweighs everything else.
I went back and forth between the book and the audio and found both equally entertaining. Stephanie Willing did a great job with the voices to help me keep track of whose mind we were in and let me concentrate on the plot.
If you want to sit back and be swept away by the story, you should pick this one up.
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