BA Paris has a way of telling you a story and making you believe what he wants you to believe before giving you a small glimpse of the twist to come. This book had me hooked until the very end.

This was one of the most emotional suspense books I have read since Gone Girl. At the beginning of the book I felt like the twist that I knew would be coming was easily predicted, however Paris had me second guessing myself throughout the entire novel.

Cass, a newlywed who recently lost her mother, was driving home one rainy night and passed a car sitting on the pull off of the road. While she stopped she never got out of the car to try to help the driver. The next morning she learns that the driver was brutally murdered and the guilt of not helping this woman consumes her. The novel follows Cass' life over the next three months as she begins to question her sanity and lets her fear consume her.

Paris' style of writing had me questioning Cass, her husband, her best friends, and not knowing who I could trust.

I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

For three years, Cass Anderson had been taking care of her mother who had dementia. It has taken its toll on her, and has also made her worry that she too may have dementia some day.

The worry actually seemed to be coming true since Cass has been forgetting everything including appointments, where she left money given to her to buy a gift, and lunch dates.

On her way home from a work party, Cass passed by a car on a deserted road and didn't stop because the driver gave no indication that any help was needed. The next morning the news announced that a woman had been murdered on that same road.

The guilt Cass felt from not stopping to help caused her memory to get worse and her fears that the murderer saw her that night and was after her escalated. She did get phone calls that had no one on the other end of the line as well as many other instances that made her think she was heading the path of her mother. Was it dementia or stress? Or could it be someone making her think her memory was declining.

THE BREAKDOWN was very tense, and did have me thinking someone was purposely doing all of these things to stress her to the point of losing her memory and deciding to not go back to work.

THE BREAKDOWN had me turning the pages as well as being nervous for Cass, but it was nothing like the tension and terror of her first book.

As the ending neared, the suspense was very high as the truth came out.

I sort of figured out toward the end what was going on, but the plot and revelation were carefully and cleverly carried out by Ms. Paris.

ENJOY!! 4/5

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher and NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This was a really good thriller. While I enjoyed the author"s first novel, I felt this book was really superior. The plot was interesting and the tension really ratchets up throughout - this one is hard to put down. I appreciated that there were several good red herrings thrown in too, as it kept me guessing all the way to the end. I will be looking forward to the author's next thriller to see if she can top this one.

The Breakdown
By:B.A. Paris
Thriller
Five stars

What's it's about:
If you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust?

Cass is having a hard time since the night she saw the car in the woods, on the winding rural road, in the middle of a downpour, with the woman sitting inside―the woman who was killed. She’s been trying to put the crime out of her mind; what could she have done, really? It’s a dangerous road to be on in the middle of a storm. Her husband would be furious if he knew she’d broken her promise not to take that shortcut home. And she probably would only have been hurt herself if she’d stopped.

But since then, she’s been forgetting every little thing: where she left the car, if she took her pills, the alarm code, why she ordered a pram when she doesn’t have a baby.

The only thing she can’t forget is that woman, the woman she might have saved, and the terrible nagging guilt.

Or the silent calls she’s receiving, or the feeling that someone’s watching her…

My thoughts:
OMG this is a must read, I can see why in some cases it's a hyped book, it plays with your mind as your reading , in the story you meet Cass who's driving home on a darked and lonely back road to get home in a storm , when she comes up on a parked car with a woman inside of it, at first she stops because she thinks the woman might have a breakdown,but after a short time Cass start getting a bad fell and decides to leave ,it's not until the next morning that she finds out that the lady in the car was killed, and so after that things start to go wrong, as your reading the story you get pulled in to it, and you start to think is Cass going crazy, is the killer after her or is it someone else who's after her , there was times I actually thought she was going crazy ,then the more I read I thought ok so it's the killer ,he or she knows where Cass lives and after her , but then after awhile I went back to she nuts, it was a back and forth thing with me, is Cass nuts, is the killer the one doing all the strange stuff that's happening,or is it someone else, like I said it's a must read , so glad that NetGalley give me a chance at reading what turned out to be a really good book.going to have to pick up a copy when I can.

As the reader, be prepared to be flipped on your head and surprised. This book is a more twisted “Girl on a Train.” Whether you liked “Girl on a Train” or not, this is a must read!

Review: 3.6 Stars – rounded up to 4 Stars

Publication Date: July 18, 2017.

Have you ever had that feeling like you left your stove on, or can’t remember whether you turned off the facet or flipped the laundry? This book takes that feeling and ratchets it up tenfold! Cass, the main character, is devastated by a murder on a road she wasn’t supposed to be on (per her husband), she receiving calls with silence on the other end and forgetting monumental things. Is the murder taking a toll on her or is it something more? The author drags you along, gaining momentum just as you start feeling for Cass. As the reader, be prepared to be flipped on your head and surprised. This book is a more twisted “Girl on a Train.” Whether you liked “Girl on a Train” or not, this is a must read!

Why I didn’t rate this higher: Majority of the book is spent building up Cass’ backstory. The last 25% of the book is where the ultimate action begins, and YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO PUT IT DOWN!

This book was for sure compulsively readable. I really didn't want to stop reading it the first night I picked it up. If I'd started earlier in the day, it may have been one of those I read all at once. The details just kept stacking up in the beginning and it just kept getting more and more intriguing.

Fairly early on in the book we learn that Cass, the narrator, lost her mother recently but spent many years caring for her after early onset dementia. And fairly early on we also realize that Cass is terrified that at the age of 37, she is beginning to suffer from a similar fate. So as she is dealing with the murder that took place close to her house and the fear and anguish she feels having left the woman out in the woods by herself, she is also worried she is slowly losing her mind.

The story was compelling and I really did wonder if she was losing her mind. Because she is the narrator, the story hops around a bit and I found myself feeling a little disoriented from the holes in her story. I also found myself getting annoyed with Cass, as her husband seemed to be. I wanted her to remember things and was frustrated when she would forget yet another event or plan.

The details did come together in the end, and I didn't see it coming a mile away, which I appreciate. And Cass redeemed herself with me in the end, so all was well.

This one is another book set across the pond but I'm starting to get used to a lot of these types of books taking place in charming little countries I've never visited. I like the colloquial language and I can just picture Cass's house as a charming English cottage.

I definitely recommend this one to suspense readers as one of the top suspense novels I've read this year. And great news--The Breakdown came out last Tuesday, July 18, so you can run right out and pick up your copy.

I received this book as a part of the book club in SheSpeaksUp. This book was written amazingly. I felt as though I was the main character and following every thought, every action and wondering in every situation what I would do. I didn't expect some of the turns and then guessed some of them too. I was on my toes wanting to finish it in one setting but could not do so due to time constraints. I highly recommend this book. Ages 15 and under should seek parental advice first.

3.5 stars

The Breakdown
B. A. Paris
St. Martin’s Press, July 2017
ISBN 978-1-250-12246-9
Hardcover

From the publisher—

If you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust?

Cass is having a hard time since the night she saw the car in the woods, on the winding rural road, in the middle of a downpour, with the woman sitting inside―the woman who was killed. She’s been trying to put the crime out of her mind; what could she have done, really? It’s a dangerous road to be on in the middle of a storm. Her husband would be furious if he knew she’d broken her promise not to take that shortcut home. And she probably would only have been hurt herself if she’d stopped.

But since then, she’s been forgetting every little thing: where she left the car, if she took her pills, the alarm code, why she ordered a pram when she doesn’t have a baby.

The only thing she can’t forget is that woman, the woman she might have saved, and the terrible nagging guilt.

Or the silent calls she’s receiving, or the feeling that someone’s watching her…

It used to be that when a book was labeled as a thriller, I knew exactly what I was about to read, a pulse-pounding story full of action and with danger chomping at the heels of the good guys at every turn but without a lot of introspection. Short chapters and a frenetic pace would keep me flipping the pages as fast as I could. Nowadays, though, the term has become so loosey-goosey that it means almost nothing and I have to wonder what I’m going to get.

The Breakdown is not a thriller but it can fairly be called suspense. Yes, there is a sense of danger but we also spend a lot of time in the protagonist’s head (amplified by the first person present tense narration) trying to figure out what’s going on, stressing out over every little thing, suffering guilt over whether she might have been able to prevent the murder and obsessing over the possibility she has started early onset dementia. That last is frightening all by itself and made me feel very uneasy for Cass but it was hard to relate it to the core mystery of the story until certain things started to become pretty obvious.

I have mixed feelings about this book because, while I found it too predictable and I really don’t like first person present tense in crime fiction, I still enjoyed it enough to keep reading. I was relatively sure early in the story what was happening but I wanted to see how Ms. Paris would get me there because she has such a command of words, a nice turn of phrase, if you will, that the simple act of reading her work is a pleasure.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, July 2017.

#WhoCanYouTrust

I absolutely loved B.A. Paris's debut novel, Behind Closed Doors, and I was anxiously awaiting the release of The Breakdown. I found myself immediately drawn into the story and read nearly half the first night I started it. I took 2 days to read it because I was enjoying the story so much...I didn't want it to end!

Cass feels like she's losing her mind. She's becoming forgetful and worries because her mother had early onset dementia. Add to that the recent murder of a new friend, and she can't cope with the stress of it all. The Breakdown is a fast-paced thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat. I wasn't entirely sure of everyone's role or what the outcome of the story would be, and that's the mark of a good thriller for me.

I wish I could give this more than 5 stars. B.A. Paris has firmly cemented her place on my must-buy list.

I received a copy of this book from St. Martin's Press and SheSpeaks and I am voluntarily sharing my honest review.

Since reading "Behind Closed Doors," I have been a fan of B.A. Paris, and "The Breakdown" serves to reinforce that feeling. The plot centers around a theme that most of us can relate to--the guilt that results from not providing help to someone who might have needed it.
Cass is on her way home during a severe thunderstorm and is taking a route her husband specifically tells her not to due to safety precautions. While taking the dangerous route, she comes across a car on the side of the road and must make that split-second decision as to stop or not to stop. She doesn't stop and when that driver is found dead in that spot the next morning, the havoc begins.
The tension builds throughout the book and it truly is one of those books you can't put down. Great read!

Paris’s first novel was “Behind Closed Doors”. This is her second novel. I didn’t read her first so I wasn’t sure what to expect. But, as any avid book reader knows, there’s a certain excitement when we have a new story in our hands.

The storyline is about a woman named Cass who on a dark and stormy night (predictable clue #1) drives down a back country road to save time (predictable clue #2) and sees a car pulled aside. She slows down long enough to see a lone woman inside the car (predictable clue #3) Cass figures since the woman didn’t try to motion her over, or flash the headlights that the stranger was okay and kept going to her home where her fiancé was waiting. The next day, the news reports of a woman murdered along that road and right away Cass knows its the stranger she had seen. She is embarrassed for not stopping to see if the woman needed help. After all, gasp, what would her friends think? Really? This is what you worry about? Weak weak weak woman. I’m not sorry for disliking the whole damsel in distress routine. I like my female protagonists to be butt-kicking, strong, capable and sturdy. Cass gets very worried and freaked out because someone keeps calling their home phone and oh my god, there’s no one on the other end! Clutch the pearls darling! Swoon! ok, that was a bit mean, but she’s just over dramatic.

I read other reviews of this book and most people thought it was a real pager turner and brilliant. I’m sorry, but it just isn’t what I consider “meaty”.

The story itself is very reminiscent of classic movies such as “Gaslight” and “When A Stranger Calls.” It’s predictable and the ending was lacking in a completeness. All in all, I felt disappointed.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

How you react in one moment can change everything that follows, or so Cass thinks. A drive down a deserted road in bad weather creates a chain of events that she never expected. The people in her life—her husband Matthew, best friend Rachel, co-worker John, supervisor Mary, and even the husband of a woman who is killed all impact her life in different ways following the aftermath of a decision she made in that one fateful moment. It causes the reader to ask—“Who can you trust?”

B.A. Paris has once again taken readers on a roller coaster ride of psychological thrill as we follow the characters to find the answer to this question. Just when I thought I knew the answer, I was surprised yet again. I learned what you think is not always it what it seems.

Overall, I was kept intrigued and would happily recommend this book to others. This review was kept short to keep spoilers out. I was say to read it to experience the full effect.

I voluntarily read an Advanced Reader Copy of this book.

GOOSEBUMPS! CHILLS! AND I STILL FEEL EYES WATCHING ME!

This is book is extraordinarily good! It's the story of a woman, Cass who sees a car off the side of the road while driving home, in the dark, on a deserted side road in the rain. This is the same road her husband, Matthew warned her not to drive on because it was dangerous. Right there, you think predictable, nope! Or maybe but it's so good.

Throughout the book, you can can almost feel eyes watching you. You'll get a tingling spine from the very beginning to the very end!

A phenomenal book that I enjoyed so much, I'm going back and picking up the author's other books.

I loved B. A. Paris' last novel and The Breakdown did not disappoint! I felt so bad for Cass and was frustrated myself for the things she was going through. So many twists and turns. It really kept me on my toes. Couldn't put it down.

An electrifying delve into guilt, terror and the unknown! Strong characters and a plot that keeps you guessing right up until the end!

Cass Anderson can't forget that night. A crazy downpour, heading home by herself in the dark, taking the shortcut along a dark desolate road that she knew would infuriate her husband, seeing the woman in a car, being too scared to get out of her car to offer help. She can't just go on about her life like everyone seems to be doing around her, because she has a secret. No one knows that she was there that night. No one knows that she saw the woman but didn't stop to help ... the woman that turned up dead the next morning.

Now she's losing her mind. She forgets her keys, forgets she took her pills, gets the alarm code backwards ... and those calls. Those unknown, silent calls are driving her crazy. She can't take this guilt anymore ... she can't handle the feeling that someone is watching her ... she can't tolerate the phone ringing.

A descent into madness with a doubly-twisted end. What is happening to Cassie? I'm afraid to say anything about the story because I might give something away. This was a good psychological thriller and kept me flipping the pages. The plot - up until near the end - was fairly predictable, but then there are some surprises. Not as tense as you expect from a thriller, but still a good read.

My thanks to B.A. Paris and St. Martin's Press through Netgalley for the advance copy.

My Highly Caffeinated Thought: A compelling psychological thriller that carefully untangles the lies, deceit, and memories all the while leave you questioning everything.

After becoming addicted to BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, I was hesitant to jump into B.A. Paris’ second novel. I wanted it to be just as good as her first and hoped for it to be better. Pushing aside my crazy bookish fears, I sat down with THE BREAKDOWN and didn’t get back up until I was about halfway through. This book is everything that I wanted it to be.

Filled with twists, turns, and mind games, THE BREAKDOWN is one of those books that captures the grit of human nature. It plays with the bending of reality and Cass’ memory in a way that the reader can’t help but question everything that she does as well as those around her. It is this tension that makes this book so addictive. From beginning to end, B.A. Paris grabs hold of her readers and doesn’t let go. This is a MUST read!

Highly Caffeinated Rating of… ☕ ☕ ☕ ☕ ☕

Netgalley ARC.

If you liked Behind Closed Doors you will love this book because...

It is almost the same book! Cass is our willing dupe of a narrator. She has become forgetful and paranoid, driven to the point of madness by the murder of a local woman. It is clear to the reader that she is being gaslighted (gaslit?) by a mysterious person. But who would want to do this to sweet, well meaning Cass? Since the book begins right at the on-set of Cass's madness, we don't get to see much of her identity outside of her predicament. This book is heavy on action, light on character development. But it's still an enjoyable read.

Like Behind Closed Doors, I couldn't put this book down. It is slow burning and claustrophobic. While I had a good idea of the villain's identity, I was surprised by parts of the ending.

The Breakdown by B.A Paris is one book that I couldn’t wait to read this year. Behind Closed Doors is one of my favorite thrillers and so when I saw that Paris had written a new book, I just knew that I had to get it. The story begins on a cold stormy night when Cass is driving home through a wooded, scheduled road when she sees a ‘stranded’ woman in a car. A series of events occur leading her to leave the woman behind only to wake up the next day and the woman is dead.

The entire story revolves around Cass whose world quickly disintegrated after the encounter with the murdered woman. A lot goes on including a possible stalking and an early onset-dementia. With her failing memory, Cass became an unreliable narrator. She did things that didn’t make sense and her memory kept slipping. I thought her character was quite sympathetic but I just couldn’t figure out what was real and what wasn’t around her. I knew that there was more to the story but couldn’t guess what was happening.

This book wasn’t twisty. As a matter of fact, it felt like nothing much was happening especially since most of the story revolved around Cass and her thoughts about events around her and the murder. Another thing that bugged me was the coincidences. I really wasn’t convinced by some of the things that happened around the big reveal. They felt a bit convenient. Nevertheless, I couldn’t stop reading the book. I know that sounds confusing but it is true. The writing was addictive such that the issues that bugged me didn’t affect my reading experience much.

The final 100 pages were even more addictive especially after the big twist. I had accurately guessed part of the reveal and motive but not the entire twist. Certain characters changed from the role of victims to the avengers which I thought was exciting. In the end, the reveals were not shocking as in BCD but this was still an entertaining read.

Captivating, menacing and intense!

This is a suspenseful thriller that highlights just how easily people can be psychologically and emotionally manipulated and how quickly things can spiral out of control.

It is, ultimately, a story about relationships, friendship, greed, jealousy, exploitation, deception, and murder.

The writing is crisp and clear. The characters are complex, secretive and unstable. And the plot, told through an unreliable narrator, builds nicely and has just the right of amount of tension, befuddlement, mystery, and authenticity.

This is the second novel I’ve read by Paris and although I didn't find this novel as dark and disturbing as her previous novel it is certainly just as engrossing, entertaining and enjoyable.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.