Book Review: The House Guest by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Characters to root for, twists

Cons: Pacing of the plot could have been evened out

The Bottom Line:

Taking in house guest

Does she have an agenda?

Overall, good book

Will Helping a House Guest Hurt Alyssa?

For years, I had roommates, and quite often, they moved in before I knew too much about them.  I was fortunate because I got along with most of them, but what if the new person you invited into your life had some other agenda?  That’s the premise of The House Guest, and author Hank Phillippi Ryan weaves another good tale with this premise.

Alyssa Macallan is going through a nasty divorce after her husband shocks her by walking out the door one day.  All of her so-called friends won’t have anything to do with her either.  She’s lonely and depressed, which is why she is in a bar on a Friday night drinking.

A casual conversation with the woman next to her brings a spark of friendship with a woman named Bree Lorrance.  Bree has her own troubles with a bad boss and an almost ex-boyfriend.  Alyssa invites Bree to stay in her guest house, and she finds that the company and focusing on Bree’s problems makes her feel better.  But Alyssa’s problems are about to step up a notch.  Will she be able to trust Bree as things get much more complicated?

The book took a little while to set everything in motion, but there was plenty to keep my interest even before that last piece of the plot kicked in.  And once it did, I was very invested in exactly what was going to happen next to Alyssa and Bree.  I do think the book had one too many twists, leaving me with a feeling of whiplash at the end, not to mention a question on why some of the characters did what they did at the end.

With the last of the author’s standalone thrillers, I’d noticed a trend of at least one character who was really whiney and manipulative in trying to get her way.  (Yes, it was always a woman.)  I’m happy to say that this wasn’t the case in this book.  Yes, there are lots of conversations about what the characters should do next (a few could have been cut out to help the pacing), and the characters push for their point of view, but I feel like they were being reasonable instead of whining.

Of course, much of this goes to Stephanie Willing, who does the narration of the audio book I listened to.  It really is true that a narrator can make or break an audio book, and in this case, she did a great job of reading life into the words without getting in the way of the story.  It’s a fine balancing act.

As the book went along, I really did grow to like the characters.  Of course, I knew better than to let my guard down completely because in a story like this, you never quite know who is doing what to whom, but I wanted everyone to reach a happy ending.

The book is told completely from Alyssa’s third person point of view, the first time that this author has used a single point of view in years.  It helped build the suspense since we never knew what anyone else was thinking.  I also appreciated the fact that we just had one timeline instead of jumping back and forth in time.

Overall, I enjoyed The House Guest.  If you are looking for a thriller for what’s left of the summer, pick this one up.