Stars: ⭐⭐⭐

PUBLICATION DAY: August 18, 2020

A child is injured in her own home...who is to blame?

PLOT SUMMARY:
Liz is a doctor...and she is stunned when her best friend Jess’s daughter is admitted to the hospital she works at with a serious skull fracture. What is happening? Liz always believed Jess to be a “perfect mother”, committed to her children and blessed with limitless patience. But why does Betsey have such serious injuries? Is there an innocent explanation? Or is something more sinister going on?

PROS and CONS:
Unfortunately for me, I found this book to be quite repetitive. Going over and over Jess’s point of view when something else was obviously happening. Everyone was blaming themselves for the situation, and very graphic descriptions of child abuse were included, but the story never seemed to really go anywhere.

I found myself interested in finding out what happened to Betsey, the defenseless baby. But other than that, I found I didn’t care too much about the other characters.

The ending was pretty good, wrapping up all the loose ends, and even including a twist that I didn’t see coming.

YES or NO:
It’s a MAYBE - definitely more drama than thriller...for those who love a slow burn, this one is for you.

3 Stars

Little Disasters is the first book by Sarah Vaughan that I've read. Liz is a pediatric ER doctor. When her friend Jess's ten month old daughter, Betsey, is admitted with a suspicious head injury, she is torn between her friendship and her obligation to report the incident to authorities. It's obvious that Jess isn't being truthful about what happened to Betsey, but the question is why? Who is she trying to protect?

I really wanted to like this book but sadly it didn't resonate well with me. I found it to be slow moving with few twists and I was bored with it at times; having to push myself to finish.

Little Disasters by Sara Vaughan is a stirring psychological drama, a compelling and unputdownable story that takes into account some uncomfortable yet important topics. 

It's primary theme revolves around the difficulties of parenting, particularly during the early days when one is simultaneously exhausted and exhilarated. The narration is first person, dual POV, one by Liz, a pediatric doctor and the other by her friend Jess,  a stay at home mom of three. The story begins with Jess rushing her ten month old, Betsey, to the ER with a head injury. Liz is the one on call, and after an initial examination of the baby she suspects something is not quite right. Jess's explanation on what happened seems suspicious and does not match the huge bump on the baby's head. What happened? Is Jess hiding something? From the years that Liz has known her friend Jess, she has always been the effortlessly perfect mother, so how is it possible that Jess did not notice the blow to her baby's head until hours later? 

The story that follows is harrowing as it is uncomfortable and addresses some extremely tough topics. The author writes with a heart wrenching authenticity, expertly entwining fiction with pertinent social issues that's bound to make readers uneasy yet keep turning pages. 

With some well placed twists and a completely unexpected ending, this would qualify as a well done suspenseful mystery that I enjoyed and would recommend.

However, since this has some very heavy triggers (mental illness, postpartum depression, child abuse, self harm, substance abuse) I'd strongly suggest skipping it if any of these is difficult for you to read.

Want an inside look at postpartum depression? This book delivers along with a mystery/thriller plot. The "action" is all domestic inside family homes and at school functions. As a mother who suffered from a relatively mild case in the past, I found this to be authentic portrayal as well as a reminder to look out for other moms and be compassionate. Often a new mom feels isolated and the situations is exacerbated if she is trying to hide her depression. That only leads to further trauma and could put the baby and other children in the home at risk. Healthy friendships and a helpful husband can go a long way toward minimizing the adverse effects post-pregnancy hormones can cause. This book is from primarily two POVs: Liz is a doctor and friend to Jess who brings her daughter into the ER with a troubling head injury. I would recommend this book to fans of Lisa Jewell and Claire Mackintosh.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

This one leaned slightly navel-gazing(y) and there is one character whose actions remain inexplicable despite explanation, but, all in all, it was a pleasant read. Without annoying jump scares or the threat of violence to children, basically.

Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan A suspenseful domestic drama. Not an easy book to read due to the subject matter, however it was intriguing and thought provoking. Well written with reliable characters. It is an eye opening insight into motherhood, postpartum depression, and anxiety. Also, emphasizes the benefit of open communication between family members, between friends and health care workers.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

I went into this book mistakingly thinking it was a psychological thriller after seeing it advertised as crime fiction, and because of that I felt a little bit disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, it was very well written, but the upsetting subject matter made it very hard to read in some parts. It just didn’t do very much for me unfortunately, and the end felt a bit anti-climatic. This was by no means a light read, and if your looking for a book about the struggles of motherhood and mental health issues then I’m sure you will enjoy it more than I did.

𝐋𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 by Sarah Vaughan thanks to @netgalley and @atriabooks for the e-copy in exchange for an honest review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⁣
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Liz’s close group of girl friends all met years ago at a birthing class. When Jess brings her ten month old daughter into the ER with a head injury she is shifty and vague to Liz, who is also the doctor on shift. While Liz is required to call CPS, she’s not able to reconcile the possibility of abuse with the Jess she knows. ⁣
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This was an interesting story. I don’t think I’ve read anything quite like it. It was both a family drama and a mystery novel, and had some surprising twists throughout. I saw one of them coming, but was entirely surprised by others. This may be a difficult book for some to read with child abuse being the main topic and a young infant in the hospital. However, it’s also an important read because it shows how even the “perfect”, most loving and organized mother, can suffer from birth trauma and/or ptsd. ⁣
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Little Disasters comes out 8/18.⁣

This is a fast paced story. The chapters alternate between years and characters. I found this a bit confusing at times.
You can’t help but feel for Liz and Jess as you read through the book. I was kinda surprised at the twist at the end.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy

Little Disasters is a fast paced and engrossing drama with bits of mystery that kept me reading late into the night.

Sarah Vaughn does an incredible job exploring the harder, and sometimes darker, sides of motherhood and the bonds of female friendship that can come with it. Little Disasters takes a hard and honest look into mental illness and the feelings of isolation that many women endure postpartum.

This was a little different from what I expected.

Liz has to examine one of her best friend Jess's baby and is surprised to find all the red flags of child abuse. Even though she ends up calling the social service, she still can't believe Jess would hurt her youngest, despite remembering how detached her friend had been toward her daughter.

2.5.

This book is told from three points of view—sometimes a fourth—, going back and forth in group of friends' history as we all try to piece together what happened to the baby. I'm not a big fan of the telling a story through a flashback style, but what really frustrated me was how slowly this made the pace go.

Aside from the pacing issue, I was more ready for a thriller. We do have a mystery or two, it is a little exciting, but it wears off in the middle of all the family and social dramas. So I'd put this in the drama box rather than in the thriller one. Knowing that ahead would prevent me from even picking the book, since I'm not into sappy books, but even if I did start it—because the summary, the cover, it's all very attractive—, I'd know where I was getting into. I've never read any of this author's works either, so I feel a little bit fooled.

The answer to the big mystery surrounding the baby and all the plot twists were predictable and I'm not so sure the explanation for the last plot twist made that much sense. Do people really do that? I'm still frowning at how much stuff had to happen for that to really happen. After waiting so long, I was hoping at least from a big ending, but the book kept going the exact path you predict at the first fifth of it.

As I try to go past my disappointment, I do think there were perks. I liked Liz's character, although even she would make me feel vexed once in a while. Also, despite calling it a drama, or women's fiction as you like it, the reading flowed very well, just as a more normal thriller would go. Some scenes had navel-gazing, so I would have made them shorter, and as I said the pacing was more on the slow side, but it was still good to read, which shows that the book is good after all. It's the reason I thought it deserved a round-up to three stars; it's far from being a bad book.

I'm sure those who like dramas tempered with a psychological thriller should enjoy this book a lot more than I did. At the same time, considering how much the actual genre is not my thing, I already liked it a lot. In other words, it won't hurt to give it a try.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Thank you Atria for the free copy, all opinions are my own.

This is a very well written novel that straddles the line of suspense thriller and family drama. It’s very thought provoking and takes a close look at the behind the scenes life of women. As a wife and mother myself, I was able to relate to many elements of the story. And while some parts were very emotional I felt like they were very true to real life.

This was an enjoyable read. Part suspenseful story, part dissection of family life, I would recommend this one to mothers and thriller lovers alike!

I really enjoyed this fast paced thriller. A book about how family and friendships can be tested when a mother is being questioned about hurting her child after a visit to the ER. Jess, the stay at home mom, who brings in her daughter to the ER because she’s sick and not herself . Liz, Jess’s friend and the doctor, who ends up on the call and has to make a tough decision.

The story was well written and had my attention from the start. I could feel Jess’ tension and anxiety jumping right off the page.

The book also does a great job of looking into the roles of friendship vs. ethical boundaries. Liz grapples with being the doctor and making the right decisions even though she’s friends with Jess. She also has to sensor how she talks about the incident to others because of the ethical boundaries of being the doctor and the on going investigation.

Thank you Netgalley for the copy!

This was a very compelling story that captured me from the beginning. It is very thought provoking. Do we ever really know someone? Motherhood has many facets and how well does every mother cope with them?
Many thanks to Atria Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Little Disasters is brilliant and devastating; a novel that peers into the nooks and crannies of the human heart as well as what one will do vs. what one thinks they'll do. Absolutely riveting and very highly recommended.

This was a hard read but a great story. Liz works in an emergency in the pediatric unit. She's working when a friend comes in. Jess, a mommy group friend she knows well, is cradling her youngest daughter saying she is acting odd but she thinks she might be over-reacting.

Quickly, Liz notices that the young child has a serious injury - it looks like she has had an internal head injury and is hurting. And just like that, it's all out of everyone's hands. The police, social services, more doctors and nurses - they all swarm in to try to understand what's happened.

I loved the main character, Liz, although you also get Jess, Jess's husband Ed and few other POV's. Liz was an easy character to like and I found getting to know her brother, husband, kids and mother interesting. I also liked getting to know more about the mommy group and how their group met and worked together as their kids grew older. It's a good read and I appreciated the ending. I wish the cover better conveyed what the story was actually about.

Wow. I really enjoyed this book. Like, a lot. But I have to say first – this is being marketed as a mystery/thriller, but I wouldn’t describe it that way at all. To me, it’s more of a domestic drama with a mystery/suspense aspect. It is a page turner, though, and will definitely have you hooked from the beginning.

There are some trigger warnings that I’d like to mention straight away. Child abuse, self harm, substance abuse, postpartum depression and other mental illnesses are major themes throughout the book. I would strongly suggest skipping this one if any of this content is difficult for you to read.

This book takes postpartum depression/postpartum anxiety and completely nails it. After my first baby, I had PPD. It is such a difficult topic and those feelings are hard for many new mothers to admit too. I was so afraid to verbalize my feelings about my baby because I felt like it was wrong, that I was somehow broken. The character of Jess and the way she was with her youngest captured those same feelings perfectly. This story was a bit tough to read because of all of the emotions involved, but it gives such a realness to that raw emotion and shines a light on something that many women/mothers don’t like to talk about.

I think it’s also important to add that those closest to Jess knew that there was something off after she had her daughter, but no one ever said anything. Not to one another, and not to Jess. It was a lot to unpack and sometimes I hated the other characters for not stepping in, but at the same time I felt that they probably assumed they’d be overstepping or that Jess would reach out if she truly needed help. I can’t say for sure before reading this book whether or not I’d have stepped in if I felt someone I was close to was suffering from PPD/PPA. After reading this, though, I always will.

This book was full of secrets, betrayal, friendship, and love. I liked the alternating points of view between Jess and Liz (Jess’s best friend and the doctor who treats her daughter). The realness and rawness of the topic brought a lot of feelings to the surface and I found myself feeling a lot of anger, sadness, and pity throughout the story. I really felt that Jess’s husband could have done more for her. He seemed to ignore a lot of the issues in favor of keeping his life as normal as possible for himself.

Overall, I was very impressed with this book and Vaughan’s ability to bring to light some major mental health issues that are not much talked about. This was a heavy read but I highly recommend it if you can get through the triggers.

I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free electronic copy of Little Disasters. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

(I will be reviewing on my blog, instagram, Amazon, and Goodreads. Will post those links when they are live.)

This was a difficult book to get through, mostly because I just couldn't relate to any of the characters. I don't have kids, so I didn't really get the difficulty they were having with their kids. I was surprised by the twist, but still didn't see everything at the end being perfectly fine - everyone seemed happy and 'back to normal' in a weirdly unrealistic way. This didn't feel like much of a mystery; it was more of family drama and how mother's deal with difficult children and whether it's right or wrong.

A tough situation for a friend to be in is what I thought when first reading this book.
Liz is a doctor at a hospital working in ER when a good friend comes in with her child
Suspicion arises when the injuries don't match the story that is given. Social services are called to investigate to find out what happened.
Motherhood is stressful as it is and this mom tries harder than most to be a good mother.
This wasn't so much a thriller as a mystery.

I give this 3 stars
Good book

Little Disasters is a very compelling and thought provoking family drama that hooks you from the very start.

We begin with Liz, a lead pediatrician at the hospital, working the night shift when her friend Jess's daughter Betsey is admitted for a head injury with an explanation that doesn't add up. Liz is forced to get child services involved, despite her judgment that Jess would never do anything to harm her child.

Following the lives of Liz, Jess, and their respective families and friends, we begin to draw parallels to events from Liz's childhood and issues with her own mother that shaped her future.

The gut wrenching portrayal of postpartum depression seems well researched, and is a topic that needs to be discussed and no longer pushed into the shadows as a taboo.

This book will have you asking how well you really know your friends, while encouraging you to be a lifeline for someone in your life who may be too afraid to reach out and ask for help.