The Perfect Roommate by Minka Kent

Read Dates: June 24, 2025 – June 25, 2025
Publication Date: January 19, 2018
Source: ebook via Netgalley

Goodreads — Amazon

All I needed was a cheap room to rent.
I didn’t plan this. I swear.

WHEW. Nothing like a good ol’ Minka Kent novel to pull me out of my reading slump.

I first discovered Minka Kent in 2019 with The Stillwater Girls, and I was absolutely blown away. The way the story flowed and the content was the perfect amount to keep you guessing, but not bore you to tears. The way the characters all had a role to play. No character was there for no reason. The way everything came together at the end.

This book was no different. It was a thrilling literary masterpiece, as every book I have read by her has been.

This was my fifth Kent novel, including a novel written under her pseudonym, and, per usual, I was not disappointed.

A young college senior is looking for a place to live after receiving an eviction notice and having to live out of her car. She sees an ad for someone subletting a room and hurries to get an interview. The person she meets on the other side of 47 Magpie Drive is just as desperate to have someone move in. Soon, against all odds, the two become friends. But how well do they really know each other? And how long before their different worlds cause them to turn on each other?

I loved this book so much. It typically only takes me a couple of sittings to finish one of Minka’s novels anyway, but I feel like I flew through this one even more so than the others I’ve read by her. Once again, that flow she is so excellent at creating and the characters that draw you in and make you think hooked me from the start and kept me going. I am such a thriller snob these days, and I feel like I am the most critical of mystery/thrillers. However, I’m never able to find much to say about Kent’s books when it comes to things I didn’t like. Reading her books is a real treat for me, and she has become one of my top favorite thriller authors.

The pacing of this novel was actually perfect. Right as I began to question what on Earth the big plot point was going to be, BOOM, it happened. From that point on, I was determined to see this book to the end, and I could think of nothing else. When I read a Kent novel, I’m IN it. She has a way of writing so that the content envelops your brain and makes you feel like you’re IN her world. Like I said, a real treat.

This book is everything I look for in a good thriller. It’s got the morally grey characters that you aren’t sure you can trust, it’s got an uncomfortable setting, it builds up suspense, and then it ties everything together in a pretty little bow.

The ending had me rolling my eyes, shaking my head, and giggling, and I honestly couldn’t ask for more. Ughh, it just ties together the entire premise of the book, and I appreciated it so much. Go read it. Go in blind. It’s the best way to go.

I would definitely recommend Minka Kent novels to anyone who enjoys Frieda McFadden or Shari Lapena. I’d say Colleen Hoover as well, but she is a league above Colleen if you ask me. Sorry, not sorry.

Go buy it! Go read it! Go discover your new favorite thriller author!

HUGE thank you to the publisher for an advance copy of the revised edition in exchange for an honest review.