I received this as an ARC from Netgalley for my honest opinions.

This book was extremely fast-paced and easy to read. I was sucked in to the story from the very first paragraph. I chose this book because I LOVED Paris' other book "Behind Closed Doors". And true to this author's style, this book was a THRILLER.

Cass is a young newly married teacher who's mother had early onset dementia. She is an extremely unreliable narrator at times, which some people love in a thriller. I usually don't care for them, but in this case it just worked. Cass happens to drive down a forbidden lane and sees a woman in a car on the side of the road during a storm. She wrestles with whether to stop or not, and decides it wouldn't be safe. The next day it is reported that this woman is found murdered in her car. Cass can't believe it. Why didn't she stop to help?

This one moment sets forth a storm of events that aid Cass in her downward spiral into dementia. Or does it? That's the fun part. Enjoy this thrilling ride into THE BREAKDOWN!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31450633-the-breakdown

4.5 Stars
This is the first book I’ve read by B.A. Paris, and I know it won’t be my last.
The beginning of the story really sucked me in. It was such a spooky setting… a stormy night, driving on a dark deserted road… Cass the main character getting herself all worked up as she drives home, taking a shortcut she knows she shouldn’t take, and sees a car parked off to the side of the road… It’s the kind of opening you can just imagine in a horror movie.
The story was cleverly written - just the kind of suspenseful thriller I love to read. About 30 percent into the book I got a little annoyed with the main character Cass and her memory loss, and of all her fears and insecurity. But by 50-60 percent the author finally starts giving us more and more insight to what’s really starting to happen, and the story gets rolling faster. By 75 percent I couldn’t put the book down until I finished it to the end. This book was filled with many twists and turns, which had me guessing right up to until the end. It was an entertaining and captivating read and I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a really good suspenseful/psychological thriller.
*A special thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Publishing, for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.*

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book but I ended up finding it really enjoyable. The moment I started this book I was extremely hooked. I didn't want to put it down. I really liked how it started. You find out about the murder right away and then you have an unreliable narrator. I thought this was a refreshing way to do an unreliable narrator. It's usually because of the character drinking or something along those lines. Here the character has memory loss and is always questioning everything. It was sad to read about at some points. I did end up feeling really bad for the main character.

I do have to say I loved the ending of this book. I loved how the author took the time to explain everything. It wasn't rushed at all. It was a very shocking ending that I felt made the book a lot more enjoyable. I ended up staying up last night until 2am because I needed to know everything. I couldn't wait any longer.

I really enjoyed this a lot. It was very shocking and really surprised me in the end. I will be checking out B.A. Paris's other book. I have not read that one yet but I really look forward to it after this one.

This book is another page turning thriller like her previous book, Behind Closed Doors. A woman drives past a car on a rainy night. She feels incredibly guilty, but she's scared and decides it isn't worth the risk. The next day, she discovers their was a woman in the car at the time, and she turned up murdered by the next morning. The character starts to think the killer is after her too. As she tries to keep her facts straight in a mind that seems to be turning against her, the book keeps you guessing from the beginning and becomes truly chilling as the plot is revealed. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone for a day of great reading. Because, yes, I read the whole thing in one day because I couldn't put it down.

My Rating:

4.5

Favorite Quote:

It used to happen to Mum all the time. She’d be there, nodding away at things I was saying, offering her opinion, even making suggestions, but a few minutes later she couldn’t remember anything that we’d said at all. “I must have been away with the fairies,” she’d say. “Periodic amnesia” the nurse who came to check on her called it. Was that where I’d been, away with the fairies? For the first time in my life, fairies seem like evil creatures.


My Review:

I alternated between captivated and exasperated by the main character of Cass and tantalizing storyline of The Breakdown. It was maddeningly paced and kept me intrigued and on edge. There were two different types of “breakdowns” in the story. One involved a situation with an automobile and the other the mental health of the main character of Cass. I decided early on that poor Cass was either 1) suffering from a marked degeneration of her mental health and quickly descending into madness, 2) being Gaslighted, 3) being harassed, or 4) a combination of the first three. Turns out I was correct, but I won’t tell which of my hypothesis were proven. No spoilers here…

Watching her mother rapidly deteriorate with early dementia while in her forties, Cass was highly anxious when she was starting to have memory issues, although my first thought was she may have a dissociative identity disorder and was losing time to an alter personality. I grew skeptical of the Gaslighting, as it would have had to involve too many people to pull it off. Cass was being increasingly anxious, fretful, paranoid, forgetful, losing or misplacing items, completing complex tasks and conversations without recall, and was also possibly delusional and or hallucinating as she swore she saw things no one else did. I felt so bad for her but she wasn’t speaking up or being honest about her concerns and was also lying without reason. She started receiving multiple silent phone calls - which exacerbated her anxiety and kicked all her symptoms into hyper-drive. She was soon overreacting and thrown into panic mode every time the phone rang and was easily startled and terrified by any noise. The storyline was taut with tension, my shoulders were practically in my ears as I read, and B.A. Paris certainly knows how to weave that complex web while stringing us readers along, plucking at our curiosity, and heightening and maintaining the suspense and intrigue. I reveled in the outcome and nearly jumped from my chair to cheer for Cass when she finally snapped to attention. What a clever tale. This author could well be an evil genius, her family members should be on constant alert to ensure her good spirits or risk dire consequences.

B.A. Paris is quickly rising up on my top 10 fav author's list!

I can't remember when the last time the first chapter of a book got such a reaction out of me. I was instantly sucked in and wanted to shut myself away from the world until I had all the answers.

While there was some predictability here, I thought the author did a great job of creating tension and keeping the reader off-kilter by having to rely on an unreliable character for information.

Some other aspects of the book came across a bit far-fetched, but all was forgiven with the big reveal and the brilliant uncovering of how it all came to be.

I think this is one of those great weekend reads when you want nothing more than to get lost in a book. I look forward to the next adventure from Ms Paris!

ARC provided by NetGalley

Could NOT put this book down!!!! It was just as good as her first one!!! I could really feel the hurt and emotion in Cass. Like Behind Closed Doors, there are many twists and turns in this book and it kept me sitting on the edge of my seat!!!! Way to go!!!!

Ever wonder about the road not taken? What about the road you did take? Cass was warned by her husband not to take a shortcut through the woods on a dark and stormy night. Cass disregards his warning and goes that way instead. After being privy to a horrible crime, Cass starts to have more and more issues. Very suspenseful, with lots of gasp or loud moments and an ending not to be missed!

Brilliant in every way, I was hooked from the first paragraph.

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

I was late to the game of Behind Closed Doors– a book that I found to be good, but the sinisterness of the book just dripped off many of the pages. The Breakdown is not like that. You won’t feel the mounting terror that you did in Behind Closed Doors.



The Breakdown is more subtle, like a cat and mouse game……..



What I liked:

How B.A. Paris wrote and examined the relationships between some of the characters.

The red herrings.

How it all came together- when things were revealed.



What I didn’t love:

Cass is dealing with guilt- guilt about her role in that night, guilt and worry about her mother and inheriting her mother’s dementia. While this part of the book was necessary to the whole plot, I felt that it was a bit draggy at times.



Bottom line: Is it as good as Behind Closed Doors? Yes, but in a different way. Not as sinister and disturbing- more of a good plot with characters that you are not sure you can trust.



*This book was sent to me by St. Martin’s Press for review consideration. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.*

I was a huge fan of B.A. Paris’ “Behind Closed Doors” and was anxious to read her next release.
THE BREAKDOWN was a letdown for me. I did finish reading it and was pleasantly surprised by a tiny plot twist in the ending, but the main character’s overall responses and reactions to what was happening to her were repetitive and wore very thin by halfway through the book. I believe I would have enjoyed it more if it had been a tighter plot and novella length.
The story is told by Cass, who returns home on stormy night via a road through the woods. She almost wrecks avoiding a car pulled to the side. She stops, but when the driver doesn’t come to her car, she continues home and forgets about it. She is later horrified to realize the woman in the car was a new friend that was murdered sometime later that night in her car. She is wracked with guilt and tells no one, not her husband or best friend, who worked with the murdered woman.
The reader also learns that Cass has been forgetting small things and is worried that she may be experiencing early onset dementia like her mother. This makes Cass a possible unreliable narrator. As she becomes more afraid and paranoid some of her reactions are just not believable. This is when I would have liked less Cass and fewer pages.
I finished to see if my assumptions were correct and they were. There are not that many characters in the story, so it is not hard to figure out, especially if you read a lot of this type of book. As stated earlier, there is a small plot twist at the end that did surprise me, but there is a lot of emotional drama to get through for the surprise. This was just an average thriller for me.
Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Net Galley for allowing me to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I started out really hating this book, the beginning was annoying and repetitive. For instance why would you beat yourself up for not stopping to help someone on an isolated road, that's just common sense. I wouldn't have thought twice about that the next day. Then Cass is a liar, lying about little things, and that's a character flaw I hate. It mostly felt like a weakness, for example she was literally scared to tell her husband she drove down the isolated road on her way home.. Get out of here with these weak ass women. The novel stayed repetitive but it got more interesting for the last 25%. I gave Paris an extra star for her creativity, but honestly this sophomore attempt was a let down and I don't recommend it

I was so excited to read this book as I thoroughly enjoyed Behind Closed Doors. This book was just okay. Felt the author spent so much time on how the main character (Cass) was feeling than the actual story itself. If you've read once that the main character is feeling bad and oh so sad, how many more times does the author feel we need to read that. So I unfortunately cannot recommend this book. If you haven't read "Behind Closed Doors" you should give that one a try.

Before heading home on the stormy night Cass calls her husband and lets him know she will be home soon. He warns her not to take the back road home because of the storm, but despite her husband’s warnings, she takes it anyway. What she sees is a woman sitting in a car

After Cass sees the woman in the car and decides to do nothing, the guilt seems to be too much for her to handle. She can’t tell her husband, or else he will be furious with her, so she keeps this information to herself. As the guilt takes a toll on her, she starts slowly forgetting and misplacing things. Eventually, her husband suggest she sees a doctor, who subscribes her some pills to help her cope. With these pills she becomes much more relaxed. The author does an excellent job flipping back and forth between the times when Cass is on the pills and is not. The chapters are not marked separately, but through the author’s writing, you can tell just how chaotic and confused Cass is when on the pills, and how relaxed she is when not on them.

Eventually, Cass starts to piece everything together. As she does, the writing becomes more fast paced, but you can also tell Cass is starting to think more clearly.

The big twist comes towards the end. I was definitely shocked! Throughout the entire book, I really had no clear idea what was going on with Cass or who killed the woman, but when the pieces started coming together and everything was revealed, I couldn’t put this book down!

This is definitely a must read for all!

The Breakdown is yet another excellent read from B A Paris.Although i guessed early on in the book who the guilty parties would be i still found this a great page turning psychological thriller.Cass's world is thrown upsidedown one night when driving home in a storm she fails to stop when she see's a woman sitting in her car at the side of the road.She learns later the woman in question was a friend who had been murdered and.Cass starts to spiral out off control. Matthew her husband and best friend Rachael try their best to reassure her that all is ok and that the killer is not after her. As more and more strange things happen Cass is forced to seek answers for her behaviour but what she uncovers leaves her shellshocked.I After reading a few negative reviews about this book i was interested to read it for myself and i have to say for me it is another 5 star read from B A Paris,an excellent page turner of a thriller, buy it you won't be disappointed.

OOOOOOOOOO!!!!! So freaking good! I finished this book a few days ago and I am still thinking about it. It is difficult to put into words. I truly do not want to give anything away with my comments. Just know..this is a must read if you like psychological thrillers.

Cass has come upon what she thinks is a car broken down on the side of the road. She stops but does not get out her car. It is pouring down rain after all. She decides to head on home. Later she finds out the owner of the car was murdered in that very spot. Plus, the victim is someone she knew. This is the beginning of Cass' own breakdown.

"What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!" A great quote for this book. It is amazing the illusions the mind can play on you, as Cass is finding out. Did she really buy that?? Did she really sign this?? Is she really going crazy?? I love how the author tangles so much within this tale. It is brilliantly contrived.

I did have part of it figured out, just didn't have the whole picture. I am trying very hard not to give anything away. Twists and turns and figments of the imagination!!! This is a read not to be missed!


I received this novel from Netgalley for a honest review.
I did meet B.A. Paris at Book Expo. Her accent is fabulous. Sadly, I did not get a picture but, I did get a signed ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley for reading an advance copy in exchange for honest feedback.

Too predictable, not enough tension and plot, but kept me reading until the last page. Then, I actually wanted more; what happens next? It was a strange feeling after reading a book that I thought was only good and not great.

Main character Cass witnesses a woman in her car on the side of the road in the wood on a stormy night. Later the woman is found murdered so her guilt is off the charts. When she starts getting silent phone calls, she is convinced the murderer must have seen her pull over; is he now after her?

Add a family history of early onset dementia and mysterious purchases arriving with her signature and she feels she is losing her mind. A supremely patient and caring husband is not quite believable and add a best friend who drops everything to help her and you'd think she'd be reassured, but the paranoia just grows.

I thought I figured out the murderer very early on and felt the story was a bit under done as I expected more. Not a bad read if you are not looking for something that really makes your brain work. It kept me reading, but not enough to tell others to go buy it.

I will never claim to be a detective and solve crimes. I am a reader that follows the clues the author lays out for me. With that being said there were so many trails that I could follow and I followed each and every one of them. With each twist and turn there was a new guess, that I was sure was absolutely correct, as to who had killed the woman in the car. The not knowing would bother some readers, for me I love to follow the path and see where it ends without really knowing the ending ahead of time.

B.A. Paris is amazing. The talent shared while weaving a complex, twisted, and wonderful story is phenomenal. The characters were twisted, complex, and real. I kept thinking what kind of horrible person could be making Cass come unhinged…were they truly enjoying watching her lose her mind… I just couldn’t imagine what kind of person enjoys this. When the who-dun-it is told it all comes together and makes the twists and turns make sense in a twisted sort of way.

The quick pace, the anticipation, and the twists and turns made this a cannot stop reading book for me. I recommend picking up your own copy ASAP.


Thank you Jordan Hanley at St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Since I loved the debut novel, “Behind closed doors”, I was really excited to read the new book, “The Breakdown”, by B. A. Paris. And I was not disappointed. The suspense builds slowly and after a few chapters in I wasn’t sure whom to believe. With a medical history Cass has it brings out the question if she really is losing her mind, getting dementia early in life. After all, she has a loving husband and a good friend she knows since her childhood years. But after the murder of her new friend Jane life seems to unravel for Cass. While I enjoyed the book a great deal I got suspicious and had a theory before getting to the middle of the story. And yes, I had gotten it right. BUT, I hadn’t seen the twist in the end. This was a total surprise and made me like the solution to all the mysteries more than I thought it would. Overall, a great story, maybe a little predictable, but with an ending that makes it worth reading. I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press!