Books On Tour (Review): The Spare Bedroom by Elizabeth Neep

Let’s get one thing straight right away: this is not your typical romantic comedy. All of the usual elements are there, but most of them are stood on their ear. It made for a unique and entertaining read.

I thought the set-up was great. Jess and her ex, Sam, meet cute (or should I say, reunite cute) in Australia, half a world away from where they last saw each other. He is in a good space. She is not. Through a few misunderstandings and unfinished comments, she ends up in the guest room (the spare bedroom) in his apartment.

But there are many surprises to come. (You won’t find spoilers here though).

It’s difficult to put my finger on this one. I came into it expecting a romantic comedy, and as I mentioned, the aspects were there, but it wasn’t a typical one, which left me puzzled for a bit. As I thought about it, however, I realized it was much deeper than a RomCom. It was more about the journey that Jess had to take to growing up.

Let’s be honest, she spends a lot of the book being fairly unlikable. She only thinks of herself and how other things affect her. She’s immature, and frankly sometimes annoying. She misreads situations, lies, and takes people for granted. Not exactly somebody to root for.

Until she hits rock bottom. And she does it in pretty spectacular fashion. (Again, no spoilers).

She at first seemed spoiled and self-centered.  She doesn’t know when enough is enough when it comes to Sam. After her biggest mistake, she slowly starts to realize how wrong she was about so much, and that is where her growth truly begins. She actually reminded me of Rachel from the television show “Friends.”

Once I realized that this was Jess’ trajectory, I was able to look back at the rest of the book and cut her a little bit of slack. To me, that’s the mark of a good author; it’s not easy to change a reader’s mind about a main character like that.

I also liked that the author was unapologetic about Sam and Jamie. It was nice to see faith treated in a respectful way instead of as a disease.

I went into this book thinking one thing, thought something else throughout most of the book, and then ended thinking something completely different. That’s quite a journey for a “light” read.

Author Bio

Elizabeth Neep was born in 1990 in Derbyshire and now lives in London Bridge. After studying Law at the University of Nottingham and the University of New South Wales, she worked in magazine journalism, most noticeably writing for Dazed and Confused and PETRIe. Elizabeth now works as a non-fiction Senior Commissioning Editor and writes and paints in her spare time.