Danny Madsen has been missing for four days. He is only ten years old and neither his parents, the local police, or the FBI have any leads as to who might have taken Danny. Jesse carlton and his wife Melissa are close friends with the Madsens - Becky and Don. Jesse is even Godfather to Danny. Jesse is besides himself with worry and with the dropping temperatures and cold nights ahead decides to go in search of Danny himself. When a new lead surfaces, Jessi races to the scene only to lose control of the car at the exact same moment Danny comes out from a clearing. Jesse’s car makes contact with Danny killing him almost instantly. Jesse loses consciousness and when he awakes, he can not remember why he was in an accident.

We learn early on who the kidnapper is and why he chose Danny. Charles Hastings did not have a normal home life with loving parents. He was beaten and abused for most of his life by his father. Now as an adult, He only wanted to save children he thought were from unhappy homes. Hence, why he decides to kidnap Danny to give him the life he deserved. When Danny ran away and Charles witnessed the tragic accident he blames Jessi for killing Danny. This sets forth a series of events that put Jesse in the crosshairs. Charles is determined to make Jesse pay for the crime he committed. When the truth is finally revealed will it give Jesse the peace he needs?

A Broken Reality is a great name for this story since it encompasses so many different meanings. We have Jesse who is recovering from a car accident with PTSD symptoms where his brain shut down what actually happened in the accident. Charles, on the other hand, is not really of sound mind especially given what he went through as a child. In a way, I can understand what he did, and you can see why his reality is broken.

There were parts of this story I liked and yet there were also parts to this story I felt could have been expanded on a little more. Don and Becky were wonderful drawn out characters where you can sympathize and feel their pain as their son is missing. We can relate to them and understand their pain. Jessi is a good character and we can see how the accident changed him and he began to behave differently. Charles I felt could have been worked on just a little more. I feel as if he was just given this short past into what it was like growing up as a child with abusive parents, but without getting to feel all of the emotion and sadness that goes along with it to make the character really stand out.

All in all, A Broken Reality was a hit and miss for me. Is it a good read? Sure, but I never really felt like a connected with any of the characters enough to care what happens to any of them. There were a couple of surprises though that were interesting and kept me engaged. Even though this was not my favorite, the writing is done really well and I am sure someone will enjoy it more so than I have.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy.
This was a good book with a unique plot but was fast paced and a page turner.
I will read more by this author

A Broken Reality
By Rob Kaufman
1 star
Confusing plot, slow start.

Generally I have liked this style of writing, and It could just be me, but I was completely lost by the time I was a third of the way through the book.

The concept of interwoven plots often works well, but I dare say not in this case.

Really enjoyed this book, kept me in suspense through out, just when you think you know what's going to happen it doesn't, would totally recommend, looking forward to reading more of Rob Kaufman's work, thank you for the chance to read it.

Loved it. Really catchy plot and fine writing. Keeps your interest right to the end. I thought I had it figured out but had to keep reading to find I was wrong.

This was a great book to read.

Really surprised at the ending, but I won't give that away.

A little boy goes missing, family is frantic.

The boy's godparents and parents are extremely close and he is like the godparents' son, as they haven't been lucky to have one of their own.

When godfather Jesse is out searching desperately for the boy on a snowy night, he accidentally comes across the boy, fleeing from his captor, and he hits him with the car.

After the accident Jesse is unable to remember anything and the boy is still missing and not able to be found.

The story goes with the desperation of a missing child, a killer who covers things up and tries to transfer the blame.

Really enjoyed the book. Great writing style and was wanting to not put it down.

Looking forward to more excellent work from Kaufman

I loved this mystery about a young boy who goes missing. Unlike others in this genre, the novel focusses on an unusual premise as early on we see Jesse, the man who's out looking for Danny accidentally hits and kills him. So what's left to know? Well, the pedophile who kidnapped Danny is still on the loose and looking for Danny as well! The plot continues to thicken as Jesse has no memories and Danny's family is heartsick not knowing Danny's whereabouts. Lots of family drama and relationship struggles make this novel a great read. I look forward to reading more by Kaufman!

The book was written in such a way that we knew what happened, as intended, but while continuing to read, the puzzle pieces were slowly added to complete the picture- right up until the very last page. Well done, worth the read, athough it was way too short in my opinion!

Ten year old Danny is missing and his godfather, Jesse, will do anything to find Danny safe and unharmed. As Jesse is driving through an ice storm, looking for Danny, he sees him in his headlights...something bad happens but Jesse can't remember anything when he wakes up in a ditch, with emergency personnel pulling him from a car. Jesse is left with missing pieces of his memory of what happened right before the crash.

As the search for Danny continues, we meet Jesse's wife, Danny's heartbroken parents, Danny's kidnapper, and the law enforcement personnel involved in looking for what happened to Danny. Jesse feels an uxexplainable guilt concerning Danny's fate and over the next few months his mental and emotional health deteriorates. This is such a heartbreaking book, that kept me reading, even as I hoped for a happy ending that I knew could not come.

Thank you to Rob Kaufman and NetGalley for this ARC.

First, I want to thank Rob Kaufman and NetGalley for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.

If you are a parent you are going to want to hold your child a little closer tonight after reading this book. Rob Kaufman’s A Broken Reality is an incredibly chilling, shocking, intense, emotionally painful, heart wrenching novel about a missing boy out in a middle of a winter storm. This book is filled with secrets, stalkers, abductors, vandalism, threats, missing persons, investigations, extremely worried parents, etc.

Rob did an incredible job throwing you into the craziness of the story! This hooked me so fast onto the story! A missing child in the middle of a snow storm and you are trying not to get into an accident yourself. How exciting yet scary is that! Every parent worst nightmare come true!!! For the first part of the book I was on the edge of my seat!!!

One amazing aspect about Rob’s writing is his eye for bringing out the detailed emotions in his characters. I was overwhelmed by that. I could feel exactly what each character was feeling and how much they were suffering. I am not a parent but I could not imagine if that was my child out there in those weather conditions. Not knowing where he is! Not knowing if he is safe, if someone has him, if someone hit him, etc! His mom had not heard from him for weeks and thinking the worst! My heart went out to her! We as readers needed to feel the emotions she was going through. Rob was the king of that!

On the subject of Jesse there was one scene where I wanted to scream at Melissa I was so upset with her!! Of course, Jesse was withdrawn, he lost weight, he was worried about Danny, he was not himself emotionally or mentally. Danny was missing! Jesse was in an accident himself. He couldn’t find Danny. He didn’t know if he was dead or alive. That would all take a toll on someone! Melissa didn’t get that.

Even though I really liked the book I felt some places were kinda choppy and a little disconnect at times regarding Charles story-line. He just creaped me out in general.

Melissa was confused about Dylan being Danny and that scene confused me too.

I loved hearing about how Melissa and Jessie met. That was a sweet story.

Rob Kaufman was a new author for me. I am a huge fan of this genre. I would definitely read and review from him again.

This one was middle of the road for me. I was drawn to the storyline and I liked the MC enough. There was just something that kept me in the middle here. I didn't hate it and I didn't love it. I wish I had a better reason why, or any reason for that matter. I'm sorry that I don't. But, please don't let my indecision keep you from reading this book. The writing was really, really good and I did enjoy the world that Mr. Kaufman built.
The characters were hit or miss for me, though. Maybe I just need to come back to this one and do a re-read when I'm in the mind for it.

Review: A Broken Reality by Rob Kaufman

A Broken Reality written by Rob Kaufman has made to my list of my new favourite books with genre, Mystery & Thrillers.

‘A Broken Reality‘ – a book named perfectly.

“Ten-year-old, Danny Madsen, has been missing for four days when Jesse Carlton begins his own search for his godson on a frigid, snowy night. Driving along a deserted rural road, Jesse hits a stretch of black ice at the same time Danny appears from the thicket. Unable to control the car, Jesse slams into the boy and watches helplessly as Danny’s body flies back into the dark brush.

When Jesse regains consciousness, he has no recollection of how he and his car wound up in a ditch. However, there’s a witness: Charles Hastings, the sociopathic kidnapper who chased Danny through the brush and into the path of Jesse’s car.

Hastings takes this chance to set up Jesse so he’ll take the fall for both Danny’s disappearance and death. And so the mind games begin—an onslaught of psychological manipulation that devastates Jesse, his wife, Danny’s parents and the cops’ investigation. Inexplicably, the torment continues even after Hastings is killed, leaving everyone involved on what seems to be a never-ending rollercoaster of emotions and heartbreak.”

You get to know the characters and you also get to know how sick Charles Hastings is!

I usually get annoyed by the unnecessary comic relief characters. ‘A Broken Reality’ did a good job by not annoying me.

This story isn’t predictable or too revealing. You can’t guess what is going to happen next. (At least I couldn’t.) And even when the torment continues even after Hastings is killed will make you believe that.

It was amazing and worth reading. Not forgetting to mention it maintained my interest till the end.

It is a book full of emotions, heartbreak, and tragic moments.

Love suspense, mystery and thriller?

‘A Broken Reality‘ is the book just for you.

What are your thoughts? Share in the comments below!

Till Then Happy Reading!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing a copy of this book to me in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.