The Perfect Guest by Emma Rous was my first blog tour and NetGalley read of 2021 and also my first Emma Rous book. I want to start with a thank you to Penguin Random House and the publicity team there for letting me join.
Within the first chapter I had major Companion vibes…the orphan coming to live with a family that has a little girl in need of a friend. But then oh man did it take a different turn. Readers are bounced between 1988 and 2019, between Beth Soames and Sadie Langton and told the story of a teenager and women that are both not sure where they belong in the world and what to do next when things don’t work out the way they imagined. They are both brought to Raven Hall and both discovered they had a story to tell about the mansion, but what do these two ladies have in common other than a visit to Raven Hall?
I did struggle with keeping the characters straight, especially in Beth’s point of view because the characters were involved in a murder mystery through the length of the book so I got lost on what “character” in the mystery lined up with the real characters. Although 75% of the book was a back story which bugged me while reading it, the way the author brought it all together in the end was so beautifully written. I LOVE when there is a big aha moment in book and I have to think “oh now it all makes since.”
I rated this a 3 on Goodreads but that was mostly because of the confusion and maybe another reader would not have that issue at all. However, I really enjoyed The Perfect Guest and will definitely read The Au Pair also by Emma Rous.
Thank you again to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
Army of Readers 