Decent read, but definitely not a book for everyone. It dealt heavily with themes of parenthood and mental illness and, not being a parent myself, I feel like a lot of the motivations and emotions just didn't connect with me. If that is what you want, then it is a quick, interesting read with a decent amount of drama and mystery. My only critique of the writing itself would be that it felt like it lacked a little focus and added more than a few unnecessary names and details.

First I want to thank netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Little Disasters is about a group of friends that met with their first pregnancy. The book mainly follows Jess and Liz, Jess being a stay at home mom of 3 and Liz a pediatric doctor with 2 kids.

One night Jess brings her daughter in to the ED and everything unfolds. Social services gets involved and throughout that you hear about Jess and Liz and their up bringing . It’s a good book I felt like it wAs more drama then mystery bit over all good book.

Opens your mind to PPD and OCD. My heart went out to Jess I understood some of her fears as a parent not to the extreme she had but I felt it.

NOT SWEPT AWAY
While this book is written in a way that every creative writing professor would praise, I didn't enjoy it one bit. I found the style overwrought and dull. As someone with a two-year-old in my family, I thought this book would resonate with me, but it fell flat. The characters, the story, and the writing itself did nothing for me, and I struggled to read past the very first pages, those pages that were supposed to sweep me away. Many sentences were so pretentious and tried so hard to "show" rather than "tell" that they were downright comical. If you are looking for books with detailed descriptions of the sounds of a washing machine and other mundane happenings elevated to great importance (without a trace of humor), you might enjoy this book more than I did. It is a matter of sensibility and taste.

This is an honest review in exchange for a free copy of the book from NetGalley and the publisher.

I enjoyed this book. It centers around Liz, a pediatric doctor, and her close friend Jess, who brings her 10-month old daughter to the hospital one night with a story that causes Liz concern. From there, you get a story of friendship and also mental instability as you uncover what really happened and what is going on in the lives of both women. The book goes back and forth between Liz's and Jess's POV, which led to a fast pace.

As others had said, I don't know that I would refer to this book as a thriller. It was a mystery for sure, and maybe a little bit of a domestic suspense, but didn't scream "thriller" to me. The author does a great job of getting into the heads of characters in a way that we can empathize with them even if we don't agree with what they are doing. I also feel that books don't delve into postpartum depression frequently and I liked that the author was willing to go there and shine a light on this very real issue that many do not understand. The end was a surprise, and was interesting to me, though things did feel like they were tied up a little too neatly.

One minor nit is that each chapter of the book started with a date, and those dates jumped around from past to present quite frequently. I found myself having to do the math on how long ago each chapter took place, and think it would have been more effective to label the chapters something like "2 years before" and "5 years before" rather than the actual dates.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to those who enjoy the mystery/domestic suspense genres. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan was a heart wrenching, compelling read. Liz, and ER physician, is forced to alert social services with her close friend, Jess, brings her baby in with a skull fracture. Jess' behavior is strange, and Liz is shaken by Jess' answers and reactions when questioned. As this story alternates POV, the reader sees into Jess' mind from when she is pregnant with her third child, up until the incident. Vaughan also writes from Liz's POV, which describes how she interpreted the scene and her reasoning for it. The entire story, it is never clear how the baby is hurt, until the very end.

This book was well written, and the multiple POV makes it easy to empathize with each Jess and Liz. I found Jess to be very complex and interesting. I wish there was a slight bit more complexity to Liz, but she is a very likable character. There are themes of child abuse in this book, but nothing graphic. I would recommend this for those who like thrillers, with more of an emotional side as well. Thanks for the chance to read and review!

Little Disasters by @svaughanauthor was such a great book! It was an up all night read for me! It will be available August 18, 2020 and should be on your #tbr. The story had some great plot twists, each time I thought I’d figured it out, there was more! The writing style was well paced, the characters were well developed. Synopsis: A pediatrician is shocked when a good friend shows up in the emergency room with her injured infant. The doctor is then faced with the moral & ethical dilemmas that go with treating a child she knows that presents with a suspicious injury. Overall a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read for me!

This was a very well-written book about that covers a very difficult topic/story. There were a lot of moments while reading that I felt uncomfortable or sick to my stomach, but I kept going - and am glad that I did.

Liz works as a pediatrician at a hospital and is called to the ER to see a young child - who turns out to be the child of one of her friends, and may have been abused. I was pleased with how Liz handled the situation; from the book blurb I almost expected her to cover the situation up. No spoilers, but I did feel that the portrayal of what happened, from the investigation to the treatment of Betsy in the hospital, was highly accurate.

The resolution of the story was not at all what I expected, with lots of twists and turns all the way to the end. I was pleased with the conclusion and felt that it was the best possible end to this difficult story.

Most unpredictable ending. Great book exposing manipulation and hidden secrets. Couldn't quit reading until the bitter end.

While this novel is a page-turner it would be a disservice to call it a thriller because it is so much more than that. Just like in her previous novel, Anatomy of a Scandal, Vaughan peels back the layers of a disaster so awful and distant in many ways, yet one we all are likely just one or two people removed from, at most.

Mental illness, postpartum depression, malice, accusations of the worst kind, and how a family can spiral out of control by an accumulation of innocuous-seeming decisions.

I like Sarah Vaughan's spare yet precise way of showing us her characters and her achingly compassionate depiction of children. She lets us explore the unfolding events from a variety of characters' perspectives and this allows the reader to get a ton of story without too many words.

Depth, emotion, nuance, compassion. This novel has it all.

Thank you, #netgalley for the e-review copy of this book.

I thought this book was written very well. it left the chapters open ended at the right time and then switched over to the other persons point of view. I was a little disappointed in the "twist" at the end because I feel we have seen it before. Other than that, you feel for these characters and you want them to succeed. You are in constant question of who did this to the baby!

Liz is a pediatric doctor. Her friend, Jess, presents at the ER with her sick baby. Liz is called in to examine the baby and discovers serious injuries that suggest possible abuse.

Liz has always looked at Jess as the perfect mother/wife/homemaker who makes it all look so easy. She couldn't have possibly hurt her own child, could she? Liz has to make the impossible decision to report the injuries to the authorities.

This book deals with abuse, post natal depression, OCD, friendships, family relationships and the nightmare of being accused of hurting your own child.

After reading a 'meh' book immediately prior to this one, I was delighted to start a story that drew me in so quickly. With several flashbacks, the story is primarily told in the present, day by day as the infant Betsey recovers in the hospital, her family is questioned, and Jess is required to be supervised with her older children.

The outcome of the investigation into Betsey's injuries is not entirely unexpected, which is to say... I saw it coming. But this is a book with a twist, and I have to say it's a satisfying twist. I love that although I predicted what was about to happen, Vaughan followed up with the unexpected.

Little Disasters was provided for my reading pleasure by Netgalley in exchange for my review. I'm pleased to give it four shots, which is very good on my scale. Little Disasters will be published on August 18, 2020.

I'm in the minority here, but the pace of LITTLE DISASTERS felt off to me. It's described as a heart pounding thriller but I found myself bored or impatient at times, mainly because some characters could've been left out and some other POVs trimmed. I'm not a fan of books where we "re-read" certain scenes to see them through another character's eyes. I did think the writing was top notch and the characters seemed incredibly realistic and sympathetic, which is a huge accomplishment.

Sarah Vaughan's Little Disasters explores the challenges of motherhood through many lenses in this thrilling book. The many twists made it hard to put down, and the characters were easy to sympathize with.

The story centers on Liz Trenchard, an experienced pediatrician who has to make a tough decision when her close friend brings her infant daughter to the hospital with an injury highly unlikely to be accidental. The book covers serious themes of motherhood throughout one's life, the cycle of abuse/neglect, postpartum depression and anxiety, substance abuse, and a host of other topics. This wealth of thought-provoking material and believable plot twists will keep readers guessing through the end. My only small complaint was that it took me a long time to figure out which character was which, as there are quite a lot of adults (many of which have one syllable names) and children to keep track of. This is minor though, and I 100% would read more by this author.

Note: I received a free advanced copy ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

I had high hopes for this novel, having enjoyed 'Anatomy of a Scandal' very much, but I didn't really like this one. Jess takes her baby Betsey to A&E, where her friend Liz is on duty. Liz discovers a skull fracture, and is obliged to notify the police. The bulk of the narrative is set in this 'present day' from the perspectives of different characters, but there are also chapters set in the past, including when Liz and Jess and various other women meet at an antenatal class, and even some as far back as Liz's childhood.

While there was a bit of a twist at the very end (which seemed far-fetched and unpleasant), the bulk of what was revealed seemed to me to be obvious. The story was depressing, the characterization (apart from perhaps Jess) was a bit thin, and the sections dealing with Janet, Liz and Mattie more of a distraction than anything else.

Disappointing.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books/Emily Bestler Books for an advanced copy of Little Disasters in exchange for my honest review.

I am so all over the place with this one. I liked it - quite a bit. I can't really put my finger on what I didn't love about it. It might be because this book was advertised as more a mystery/thriller when in reality, this felt more thought provoking and thoughtful than a typical mystery would. This felt more women's fiction than it did mystery. Because I was expecting this to be something that I don't think it was, I have different feelings coming out of this than I would had I known what I was getting into.

With that said, Little Disasters is an incredibly eye opening and relatable story about what it means to become a mother. What it means to give your life over to someone else. What it means to give your body and your free time and your hopes and dreams to a little human. I am not a mother but I will say, this book opens you up to the parts of motherhood that are not only not glamorous, but are heartbreaking and hard and horrible and scary. This was such a real take on what motherhood is actually like - there's no fluffy Instagram posts or those making it look like motherhood is easy or a breeze. Little Disasters brings real life to motherhood and I so appreciated getting a REAL take on what it means to devote your life (and your heart) to motherhood. I also appreciated seeing motherhood from different views - stay at home moms, working moms, dads that are in the picture and those that aren't. This was a family drama that touched on all of the beautiful and horrible parts of being a mom and I loved all of the different takes. There were times I wanted to hug these moms, shake these moms, yell at these moms; but ultimately, I admired all of them. They were brave and strong and Sarah Vaughn did them justice.

Because this wasn't really a mystery (in my opinion) I wasn't shocked at the ending, but I did appreciate that everything was tied in a nice bow. Overall, I really liked this book, even though I am still digesting.

Thrilling, Nail-Biting, Intense!

I was so excited to be approved for this title because after reading this author's previous book, Anatomy of a Scandal, I knew I'd be a fan for life! I was not disappointed whatsoever by this one. This was an incredibly unique, suspenseful, and engaging psychological thriller.

One thing I truly appreciate in a good novel is drama! There is loads of it in this story. You won't know who is telling the truth and who is telling a lie.

What do you do when everything you ever thought about a dear friend may be untrue? How do you confront them? Especially when it has to do with their parenting.

Trek through the mud and dirt while attempting to climb out of this mess! Put on your detective cap and try to decipher the truth from the lies!

Well I have to say I've read better. I'm giving this book 3 stars. Oh I truly wish I could give it 4, obviously I am in the minority here, but, although it was a good read, it was a little predictable towards the end with maybe one twist but the twist was not a shocker.

As a mother, I found the main character Jess's thoughts a little disturbing about like when she was chopping meat or vegetables and all of a sudden, she thinks of sticking the knife in her daughter's chest. Terrible. And many more scenarios, like this which were hard to read. But, I respect the author Sarah Vaughan for addressing postpartum depression, which is a very real thing. I've also just watched The Gabriel Fernandez Trial on Netflix, so I am especially on the verge of tears and sensitive. Also Jess has OCD and I recall one night of having the urge to drop my daughter out a 2nd floor window 25 yrs ago after a difficult night so I can relate in a much more downplayed way. Oh don't judge me, it was only once and my daughter maybe got one little spanking her whole life. Also I thought the way Jess was portrayed having OCD was accurate since alas I suffered from that for a very long time.

Then there's her husband Ed and a group of friends who are now wondering why this seemingly perfect mother of 2, has gone off the rails with her 3rd child. But, everything is not as it seems so you guys just have to pick the book up and see for yourselves. I read it in the space of 24 hrs so I did like it. Maybe 70 pages too long.

But I'm extremely thankful to NetGalley and Atria/Emily Brestler for this ARC copy and I would like to read more from Sarah Vaughan. I think she nailed postpartum depression and OCD on the head. Now I have to re-read this 3x bc my OCD is kicking in. Great and here I thought I beat it!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5

Told from different perspectives, this story begins from the point of view of Dr. Liz Trenchard, a pediatric doctor with a traumatic past. When her perfectionist friend, Jess, brings her infant child in for a seemingly mild problem, she notices questionable clues that causes her to second guess what really happened.

This book was super interesting and had an unanticipated twist that kept me wanting more until the very end! I loved that this story jumped from the present to the past with multiple character’s perspective! I strongly recommend you pick this book up!

Review Copy

I finished LITTLE DISASTERS yesterday and couldn't even figure out how I was going to tag this novel for my Goodreads page. Is it truly fiction? Child abuse? It's almost psychological horror if you're a parent. For all too many new parents - mothers and fathers alike - it's reality. The reality of being unable to care for the new child you've wanted so very much.

This is the story that will keep you going to the very end with the twists and turns of all the characters. This is the story of four couples who meet in natural childbirth class and become friends. This is a book a parent can relate to. Thank you to Simon and Schuster for the advance copy.

I was given the opportunity by #netgalley to receive an #ebook copy of this book #beforepubdate for my #honestreview. I loved this book it clearly opens up to honest truths we as parents have thought. Even the best mothers have had these beginning thoughts before. Nobody is perfect we all lose our temper. I honestly will say this book was triggering in so many ways and my mouth fell open at many points. I mean i honestly dont know what i would do if my friend whom i thought i knew was being so shifty when me being their nurse finds a big goose egg on the back of her ten month olds head and neither parent can give any explanation and plays it off as 'normal'. I am going to stop there because there is sooo much more. Just read the book, this has definitely made my top 10 for 2020 already. Keep an eye out for this book due to release August 2020.