Room 706 by Ellie Levenson review – An early Book of the Year contender
What would you do if you were trapped in a hotel under siege?
Room 706 by Ellie Levenson: The key details
- Publish date: 15 January 2026
- Genre: Drama/thriller
- Publisher: Headline
- Available formats: Hardback, ebook, audio
- Series/standalone: Standalone
- Length: 384 pages
Blurb: Kate stretches her legs and turns on the TV while James washes away the traces of their morning. She watches in horror at the unfolding news: the hotel they are staying in has been taken under siege.
She should be making her way home, working on appearing normal, getting ready to re-enter family life with her loving husband Vic and their two adored children. Instead, she is trapped somewhere she shouldn’t be, with a man she definitely doesn’t love.
How will she begin to tell Vic what she is doing here? If her body is found, will it give up the secret of what she’s been up to? She’s been so careful hiding the evidence of her affair: write nothing down, leave no trace. Will he begin to understand why?
For now, Kate can only hide, take a deep breath, and reflect on the series of choices she’s made that have brought her to this moment. What will her marriage and her life look like, if she makes it out?
Room 706 by Ellie Levenson: The review
What would you do if the hotel you were staying in was suddenly taken under siege? Would you panic? Barricade the door? Think about all the choices you’ve made in your life that have led up to that moment? That’s what Kate does. And it’s worse, because Kate isn’t in a hotel with her husband. She’s with her lover.
Right from the first page, the plot of Room 706 gets its claws into you and refuses to let go. It holds on like a high-octane thriller, but it’s not that: rather, Room 706 is an introspective tale about love, marriage, motherhood, friendship, grief. All the things that make up being a human. Life. But with the backdrop of such a knife-edge situation, Levenson has created a tale quite unlike anything else I’ve ever read. I could not put this down.
We know just from the blurb that Kate isn’t perfect. Adultery isn’t even morally grey; it’s abhorrent, inexcusable. Yet Kate knows that herself. Despite her indiscretions, I found myself empthasing with Kate, a complex and very real character whose story plays out in a graceful, delicate way over the course of Room 706. Chapters take us back to when Kate first meets her husband, to when she becomes pregnant, to when she first meets her lover. These key moments that Kate will be ruminating over now she’s trapped in a hotel room, fearing the worst.
Despite its plot, don’t go into Room 706 expecting an action thriller. There are moments of action, sure. And during present day sections, your heart will be in your mouth as you’re trapped in that hotel room along with Kate, panicking over every sound, wondering what will be. But for the most part, this is a drama, one filled with heart and humanity, one that genuinely made me smile and cry in equal measure.
The only disappointment (for me, at least)? The ending. You’re either going to love it or hate it. That’s all I’m going to say, lest I spoil it for you. It left me wanting more, but that’s only because I loved this novel and its characters so much. An instant early contender for my favourites of 2026 list, and an incredible debut from Ellie Levenson. I can’t wait to see what she does next.
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