I found this book quite hard work unfortunately. 75% of it seemed to drag. The last quarter was good when you finally find out what actually happened.

The Lodger by Valerie Keogh.
She’s in your home…
Leigh Simon can’t say for sure what made her do it. A moment of madness, perhaps, but when the young, loud and gorgeous waitress at her favorite coffee shop reveals she is homeless, Leigh offers her the empty room in her house. n your head… Gina is the perfect lodger; Leigh, lonely and frustrated with her life, becomes infatuated with the woman – her boldness, her zeal. If only Leigh could be more like Gina… And missing without trace. So when Leigh returns from a work trip she’s shocked to find Gina missing. Where could the young woman have gone…and why? Leigh fears that something terrible has happened - why else would Gina leave her? But as she sets out to find her missing lodger, what Leigh discovers changes everything she knows about Gina….and her own life, too.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I love this author. Brilliant read. 5*.

A heart racing physcological thriller. My favourite character was Gina and this was a real page turner. It did tend to drag out a bit but it was still very intriguing and well written. I am looking forward to reading more from this author. Thank you netgalley and boldwood for this ARC, all opinions are solely my own.

She’s in your home…
Leigh Simon can’t say for sure what made her do it. A moment of madness, perhaps, but when the young, loud and gorgeous waitress at her favorite coffee shop reveals she is homeless, Leigh offers her the empty room in her house.
In your head…
Gina is the perfect lodger; Leigh, lonely and frustrated with her life, becomes infatuated with the woman – her boldness, her zeal. If only Leigh could be more like Gina…
And missing without trace.
So when Leigh returns from a work trip she’s shocked to find Gina missing. Where could the young woman have gone…and why?
Leigh fears that something terrible has happened - why else would Gina leave her?
But as she sets out to find her missing lodger, what Leigh discovers changes everything she knows about Gina….and her own life, too.

An interesting story about a woman being haunted by her stalker. I related to the main character and the general chaos of not having life together at 30+. The book did drag in places and could have done with snappier editing.

Great plot to get yourself lost in. This book has everything. A real fast paced thriller. Will get your heart racing on more than one occasion. Very well written. Highly recommend this book

WoW! Very clever The Lodger by Valerie Keogh was. I was hooked from the very first few pages and just didn't want to put this latest book down. It is full of great twists and turns throughout with a great storyline. I highly recommend this latest book by Valerie I loved it.

Big Thank you NetGalley, Boldwood Books and Valerie Keogh for my copy of “The Lodger” in exchange for an honest review.

Leigh has a spare room and her local barista, Gina mentions that she urgently needs to find somewhere to live so Leigh impulsively offers her the room. However, following a disagreement between the pair, Gina mysterious disappears leaving Leigh to worry about her whereabouts. Leigh is determined to find out where Gina is, but she notices that things start to feel off in her house and it feels like she is being watched.

This was the first book I have read by this author. I really liked the premise of this book. There are quite a few plot twists that keep you guessing about what is happening and i didn't see that ending coming. It is a bit slower paced than thrillers I usually read. I didn't like the main character Leigh that much and would have liked her to have had more character development than she did. It is an overall good thriller.

Thank you NetGalley and Boldwood books for my ARC in exchange the review.

This was my first book by Valerie Keogh, and this will not be my last!
A gripping book that has a twisty and sometimes dark plot that keeps those readers guessing!
It took me a while to decide if I liked Leah, her decisions sometimes irked me a little, but gradually I came to appreciate her actions.
And Gina? What an intriguing character! Loved her.
The ending was great too, a little complex but well executed.

This is a real spine-tingler of a book, it’s a slow and chilling tale.

I wasn’t too sure about Leigh as a character. She seemed to be someone who acts first and thinks later and her behaviour was a bit erratic and paranoid. But as it turns out, she does have reason to be worried.

It’s very hard to know who to trust in this book, and there are quite a few twists and revelations along the way.

There is something about this book that just drew me in, and crept up on me, and I soon found myself addicted. A series of seemingly small events all add up to really increase the tension and it’s very hard to put down once you get into it.

A very intriguing and compelling book, I would recommend this to anyone who loves a good mysterious and suspenseful story.

I liked this book but didn’t love it.

Leigh had a spare room going and impulsively offers it to her local barista, Gina. However, following a slight disagreement between the pair, Gina mysterious disappears leaving Leigh to worry about her safety. As Leigh embarks upon her quest to find out where Gina is, she notices that things start to feel somewhat off in her house, as if Gina never really left…

I liked the premise of the book, and I didn’t quite see the twist coming, but I personally felt as though the book dragged a little. I personally would’ve preferred the pace to be faster. However, it was an interesting book!

Thank you to Net Galley for this ARC.

Finished this book in one day - was an absolute page turner, and I honestly couldn’t guess what was going to happen until it did. Such a good read!

Leigh Simons impulsively offers her neighborhood barista, Gina, a spare room when she discovers that Gina needs a place to stay. Leigh's icky boyfriend lives in Salisbury but is due to come stay with her in London for a week. Instead, Leigh takes a swing at a leering male colleague and is required to go away to attend a week-long anger management course. When Leigh returns home, Gina has disappeared with a terse note. Leigh is worried and can't just leave it alone. Strange, unsettling events occur. What is going on? This is a suspenseful, well-written tale.

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to the book launch of Valerie Keogh's latest novel, THE LODGER at my local Waterstones in Bath. It was so a lovely evening, and although it was rather on the toasty side, everyone was in high spirits, and it was such a delight to meet Valerie and her fellow Boldwood Books authors as well as catch up her editor, Emily, who I work with on a number of Boldwood authors.

Although I had started the book before the launch following the deeply ironic fact that as a book editor, I am in fact an incredibly slow reader, I have just finished the novel. And it's a corker! Twisty, dark and edge-of-your-seat gripping, it's a brilliant psychological thriller to pick up this summer. Valerie's writing is lively and entertaining, and the cast of characters are people that the reader wants to engage with, but more importantly the mystery keeps you guessing as you race to turn over the next page.

If you're a pyschological thriller fan, I've just found your next read! (And if you're not a psych thriller fan, it's going to be stupid hot this weekend, so you might as well curl up in the shade with a good book!)

Congratulations, Valerie!

This was a fast-paced thriller that kept me guessing!
I liked Leigh's character, though she'd obviously got herself caught up in a job and people around her who were quite toxic. The whole situation with the lodger started out innocently but just got stranger and stranger. Gina was a fascinating character, I thought I knew what was going to happen with her, changed my mind constantly, suspected everyone but I had no idea that the twist at the end was coming!
Valerie Keogh has written so many books I don't know where to start next but I think I might have found another favourite

I’m not sure if it was the heat or this book that kept me up but I read over 60% of The Lodger in just one sitting. It has an interesting concept with a bunch of possible suspects, you just know which one will be the culprit. Gotta love a book that keeps you guessing.

My favourite part of the book was Leigh. Not necessarily because of her story, but what she represented. A vulnerable person punished for her kindness. A woman deemed “hysterical” by people unwilling to believe what was happening. An unhappy person living an unauthentic life. All of us have had similar experiences to Leigh at least once in our lives.

The story of The Lodger wasn’t predictable but wasn’t mind blowing either. But that’s ok. I got lost in it and forgot about the world for a while. That’s good enough for me.

This is a novel that will almost certainly make you think twice about offering your spare room to a stranger!

Little does main character Leigh know just much a simple gesture will impact on her life.

This was an interesting premise for a book, although the synopsis I felt was slightly misleading in terms of the relationship between Leigh and Gina.

There were plenty of plot twists and turns along the way to keep the reader second guessing and I admit to being shocked by Gina's eventual confession towards the end.

Probably the most intriguing part of the story came at the very end however, and I'm sure I'm not the only reader who finished the book wondering what they would have done in the same situation. The simple one line ending was particularly well executed!

With thanks to the author, Rachel at Random Resources and Boldwood Books for the opportunity to participate in the tour.

Thank you #netgalley, #boldwoodbooks and #rachelsrandomresources for allowing me to read this ARC.

Wow, what a book!!! I didn't put it down, I just had to know how it ended without skipping to the end.
We follow Leigh on her journey as she realises her life could be more than it is. Quite randomly she invites the fairylike Gina to be her lodger, much to her boyfriend Matts disapproval. Matt is a teacher who lives in Salisbury and stays with Leigh in London over the weekends.

She is relatively new at her fast paced job and her boss Ledbetter is a letch, her actions land Leigh in Anger Management. This is where the story picks up pace with so many twists and turns, even if you think you know what happened. you wont

It's at Anger Management she meets the handsome and mysterious Philip. You will have to read the book to find out who can be trusted alone the twists and turns.

I received an arc copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion of it. Leigh is in a stressful job that she just started when she meets Gina who works at a coffee shop Leigh goes to in the morning before work. Gina tells Leigh that she has no place to go because her roommate tells her that she has to move out. Leigh invites Gina to live with her as she has an extra room in her house. Gina gladly accepts and moves in that evening.
Leigh's boyfriend, Matt, is not happy when the this new living arrangement even though he only comes to stay with Leigh on the weekends.
Leigh is required to attend an anger management course for a week after having problems with someone at her work. When she returns, Gina is gone from her house along with all of her things. Strange things begin to go on and Leigh starts to wonder things about her boyfriend. It was a good read with some twists throughout. I almost felt like there were too many things happening to Leigh that it became a little far fetched.

Wow, what a ride this one took us on! It was my first book by Keogh and it definitely won't be my last.

The plot was intriguing and I thought it was going to turn out to be along the lines of the film Single White Female, how wrong was I?!

A well paced and cleverly written psychological thriller that had me turning the pages late into the night.

Full of twists, turns and strange happenings.

A highly enjoyable read that I would recommend.

Many thanks to Rachel's Random Resources for my tour spot.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Lodger by Valerie Keogh is a suspense filled psychological thriller with plenty of twists and turns to keep you on your toes throughout.

An atmospheric and chilling tale, I found myself drawn into the story from the very first page as we’re introduced to Leigh several years after the events of the book have unfolded. It’s obvious that something awful must have happened, but what that is we are yet to find out…

We’re then taken back to the very beginning as, in a moment of madness, Leigh invites young, loud and gorgeous waitress Gina to move into the empty spare room of her home after she finds herself homeless. Soon becoming infatuated with her perfect lodger, Leigh wishes she was more like the outgoing Gina. And then Gina goes missing.

What follows is a dark and at times shocking psychological thriller that builds the tension slowly. As Leigh sets out to find the missing Gina, she begins to uncover far more than she could ever have expected to, leading to a chilling discovery that is about to change her life forever…

I loved The Lodger. A book that keeps you guessing, Valerie Keogh’s writing is exceptional as she brings this dark and chilling tale to life, with some genuinely shocking moments that I did not see coming.

An excellent and twisty psychological thriller that I thoroughly enjoyed from beginning to end, The Lodger is a book I would highly recommend.