I thought I figured out the story pretty early. I was going to be disappointed if that was the big twist at the end. Thankfully that wasn’t the case. My second guess did turn out to be the correct one, but I wasn’t certain until the very end. The story kept me guessing and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing everything through Stella’s eyes while she worked the case.

Stella was a great character. She’s had lots of trials and tribulations in her life. She had a difficult childhood and was betrayed by people that should have loved her. Despite her childhood, or perhaps because of it, she works in a profession where her job is to determine what is best for children. Thankfully during this case she was able to dig deeper into her own past and find some peace.

I read another review that thought the ending was over the top and things were wrapped up too neatly, but I disagree. I thought the ending was great and I really liked that the author, through Stella, went through everything and recapped the case. I felt this way it avoided any lingering questions the reader may have, such as what about that phone call, or whose voice was that?

This was my first book by this author, and I look forward to reading some of her other books.

WOW! WOW! WOW! I just finished House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen, and I feel as though I have been on a non-stop roller coaster ride. If sleep was not calling me at 1:00 this morning I would have read the book in one sitting. Stella Hudson is 38 years old, ending a marriage and reluctantly taking on a case dealing with a 9 year old girl suffering from traumatic mutism. Stella is a guardian ad litem- a child's best interest attorney. She prefers working with teens as she feels they possess more agency to cope with what can often be very difficult situations. She only agreed to accept this case as Judge Charles Huxley asked her to; Charles is the closest thing to a father that Stella knows. Her father died when she was young, and it absolutely devasted her mother. Her mother sought comfort in drugs and alcohol and died a few years later. So overwhelmed by her mother's death Stella suffered from traumatic mutism when she 7 years old.
Her client is Rose Barclay. Rose's wealthy parents, Beth and Ian are divorcing and each has requested sole physical and legal custody of Rose. To complicate matters, Rose is severely traumatized by the death of her nanny Tina de la Cruz; did she fall out of the third floor window of the Barclay's palatial home or was she pushed? t's also relevant that Ian was having an affair with Tina, and she was pregnant when she died. Oh what a tangled web...everyone in the Barclay household had secrets even Harriet, Ian's mother and dedicated grandmother to Rose. There is so much more to this multi-faceted, finely crafted book than I could possibly include in a review. Suffice to say it's a powerful and dynamic read; I thoroughly enjoyed it.
My only criticism, and that may be too harsh a word, is that at times it seemed as though Stella was too vulnerable from her own issues to be effective in her position- she was extremely fragile. Saying that I have to add that I liked her. I liked the book, and extend my thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Sarah Pekkanen for granting me an opportunity to read an ARC of House of Glass. My review reflects my honest opinion. 4.5 stars.

Wow! I literally couldn't put House of Glass down and stayed up past my bedtime to finish. House of Glass incorporated all of my favorite psychological thriller things...a creepy child, rich people behaving badly, and possible murder. Pekkanen seamlessly wove the main character's childhood trauma into a present-day custody battle for a well-known DC family while also trying to solve the nanny's suspicious death. Everyone is a suspect. I thoroughly enjoyed the twists and turns of House of Class and appreciated how it kept me guessing.

This was my first introduction to the work of Sarah Pekkanen. While it won't be my last, I'm not sure that it lived up to my expectations. After seeing quite a bit of rave early reviews for it, I went in very excited. Initially, I was sucked in from the first chapter. It opens with a sense of foreboding and I was immediately invested and wanted to find out why Rose saved a piece of broken glass from the sidewalk (and also why it seemed that her mom just LET HER, haha). The chapters were fairly short and it was easy to get gripped into the story quickly. (This is an easy binge read!)

We learn fairly early on that Rose's parents are in the middle of a divorce and custody battle. Some of the details here felt a little too overdone. I think that it was done to throw the reader off on who the real culprit of the murder was, but I think it actually made it obvious who didn't do it (as in if culprit ended up being any one of a certain group of characters THAT would have been too obvious). This is where the story started to lose me a bit. I think there was a lot of potential here, but it just fell flat for me. I will say that the story did have a creepy feeling to it and the twist, while a bit predictable, did give me a feeling of unease.

The ending was wrapped up very nicely, but almost too nicely. I can't say why without spoiling anything, but the conversations that happened after everything was revealed just seemed too perfect and not organic.

Overall, while it didn't live up to the hype for me, I do think it was a solid psychological, domestic thriller and I'd give it a solid 3 stars.

Thank you for the chance to be an early reader! All opinions are my own.

When a nanny falls to her death out the attic window, an investigation begins. The investigation goes cold quickly but with the owners of the house divorcing, a special interest lawyer has to come in and decide who will get full custody of their 9 year old daughter. 
Stella, the lawyer, quickly learns that something isn't right in this house. Did someone here push the nanny or was this just an accident?
This thriller really delivered! I loved the eerieness of the storyline and how it all came together. I also loved that Stella's background played such a big role in it all. One thing I love about thrillers is when they have short chapters. I don't know why but it feels like the story just moves so fast when there are short chapters. 
This story had so many elements to it but it really came together great. I was questioning who could be responsible for the nanny's death the whole time! This one kept you guessing but laid everything out perfectly. 
4 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for offering an arc of this book!
I've been a fan of both Sarah Pekkanen's books and her cowritten thrillers. This book was a bit slow to start for me (which surprised me, because other reviewers have said that they were immediately sucked in). I noticed that the author wrote about the house not having any glass several times in the first few chapters, and thought it belabored the point. Otherwise, I enjoyed the ending, despite having seen the ending a mile away. This book was good, I'd recommend it, but it was a three star thriller for me.

I received an ARC through "NetGalley" and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

The story begins with Stella being assigned as the advocate for a young child who parents are going through a divorce. Her role is to make a determination of which parent is best to have custody. What makes this difficult is the fact that the child cannot speak because of an incident in which her nanny died.

There was a specific reason that Stella was asked to handle this case. It seems that when she was young, she had a similar experience when her mother died. Stella's first visit left questions because of her first impression of the house where Rose, the daughter, lived. The more Stella learned about the family she determined that they were keeping secrets and was going to find out why.

As Stella dug deep into Rose's family she got an uneasy feeling. To top matters off, Stella was looking into the death of her mother.

To discover what Stella discovered regarding Rose's family, what she learned regarding her mother's death and how everything worked out in the end, then you need to read this book. The ending is not one that you might expect.

Thank you to St Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for advanced reader and listener copies of House of Glass in exchange for my honest opinion. I listened to the beginning and ending, and read about 15% in the middle. I thought Laura Benanti did an excellent job with the narration!
It’s #thrillerthursday and this upcoming book will definitely take you for a thrilling ride! The female protagonist works as a child advocate, and she is working on a case where the parents are getting divorced and custody of the one daughter needs to be determined. Add in that the daughter’s nanny recently died in a horrible accident at their house, and the child has not spoken since the accident. The advocate looks into the nanny’s death in addition to investigating her own childhood trauma.
House of Glass is the right blend of a slow burn that is also twisty enough to be bingeable. I switched from audiobook to digital copy because I was at a loud restaurant waiting for a friend and I couldn't just sit there waiting - I needed to know what was happening. I predicted one of the twists, but there were MANY more that surprised me. I had to suspend my disbelief for a few things, but overall it was a good read. If you like books with hidden secrets to uncover, this book will be right up your alley! Pour yourself a glass (hah!) and enjoy.

Sarah Pekkanen does it again! House of Glass is such a twisty, turny book. I kept thinking I had figured it out and then it went a totally different way. I would recommend this for any thriller lovers!

This book started out slow and methodical. I wasn't sure what to make of what was happening and this excited me no end!

Stella is asked to help a family with a divorce. A little girl, 9 year old Rose, witnesses the death of her nanny and the death has affected her so badly, she has mutism. The death is ruled accidental but the parents are splitting and they both want full custody. It's Stella's job to assess the family and make her recommendations.

Everyone is lying. The house has nothing in it that can be broken. It seems odd that a house has no mirrors and no glass in the windows. Everything down to the glassware is made from plexiglass. Nothing they say rings true and there is something more to Rose and Stella is determined to get to the bottom of it...

It was exciting. The story was full to bursting with threads and you can't see where they will all end up but it the author is a true artist and it all makes sense when you get to the end and it will BLOW YOUR MIND!!!!!

The more we learn about the family, the more you can see they are hiding something but you can't work it out because nothing seems right and I love books that do that!

The ending had me screaming! GENIUS! Did not see that coming!

5 stars, If you love thrillers... GET THIS ONE!! Out Aug 6th

House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen delivers a gripping psychological thriller wrapped in a family drama that keeps you guessing until the end. The story centers around a young girl named Rose Barclay, who has become mute after witnessing the potential murder of her nanny amidst her parents' bitter divorce. Stella Hudson, a best interest attorney with her own troubled past, is reluctantly drawn into the case, uncovering layers of deceit within the seemingly perfect Barclay family. Pekkanen's portrayal of the Barclays' gilded but deeply flawed world, combined with the eerie, glassless house that symbolizes their hidden secrets, creates a tense atmosphere that grips the reader. The novel excels in its intricate plotting and character development, as Stella navigates through a maze of suspects and hidden motives. The resolution is both surprising and satisfying, making House of Glass a compelling read for fans of psychological thrillers.

Thanks you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for an arc of House of Glass in exchange for a review.

Stella is a “best interest attorney” for children of parents going through a divorce. Her client, 9-year-old Rose, isn’t able to speak after the traumatizing experience of seeing her nanny, Tina, fall to her death. In order to make a recommendation for custody of Rose, Stella needs to figure out what really happened to Tina.

At times it felt like the story was dragging, and I got a little bored of Stella’s very quotable inner monologue. There were a few aspects of the story that felt superfluous (Stella’s divorce from Marco and subsequent love interest did not do much for the plot, but if given a choice I would always pass on the romance…) For a while I was convinced that the killer was so obvious. It turned out I was wrong, though, and that redeemed the book for me. I got tricked and the author deserves some credit for that! There weren’t any loose threads or anything really outrageous in the plot. I would give this one a 3.5 (rounding up for the rating).

A solid domestic thriller. I loved the connection and flashbacks to the main characters own childhood as she worked with a child client. There were many twists and turns, every character was hiding things and had secrets, you never knew who to trust. I love a book where I'm kept guessing until the very end and House of Glass was definitely that. While there were some spooky elements, I did not find this one scary at all. It was an interesting look at grief and family dynamics.

After hearing great things about this book, I went into reading it with high expectations, and this may have been my first mistake. While an interesting premise, House of Glass had moments that just fell kind of flat for me.
First the good: Because the plot primarily centers around a custody agreement, not a murder, the author is given a chance to introduce small morsels of information about it that the reader can easily digest, because let’s face it, we’re all reading this book to find out who killed the nanny. And the murder itself is a really interesting whodunit…it had me guessing a few times before I got it right myself.
Now the bad: The suspense was not there for me in this story, which was made worse by how forced the author tries to push it. At one point the FMC’s pen is missing and she almost has a panic attack. Anything odd was described as terrifying, but just because you call something scary doesn’t mean it is. It had me rolling my eyes less than halfway through the book. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the FMC’s voice…she was almost too cocky in the way she described things which came off unlikeable. Lastly, the author tries to cram too much into this book that was just not necessary. Scary thriller family dysfunction…wait, we still don’t have a random romance so let’s throw that in there too at the last minute? Sometimes less is more.
If we just look at the mystery portion alone, I think this book had potential. While somewhat predictable, that part was also interesting and had enough detail to keep a reader happy. For me, the other pieces just didn’t work and didn’t keep me turning the pages as quickly as other books do. 2.5 star read/rounding up to 3 for Goodreads.

**Thank you to St Marten’s Press, NetGalley and Sarah Pekkanen for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review**

This was a slow-burn thriller but I read it in a day! Stella is appointed a case in a custody battle for the Barclays' divorce. When she takes on the case, the daughter's nanny, Tina, has just died. Stella is trying to figure out what happened - if it was an accident or did someone kill Tina. If someone murdered her, then Stella wants to make sure Rose doesn't end up in the hands of a killer.

This was so interesting. There weren't a lot of suspects and the book has you believing different people could be capable. I love how we are in the thick of it with Stella, trying to discover what happened. While we are trying to figure out what happened, Stella is also dealing with her past and it comes into play in this case.

I thought this was an entertaining read. I enjoyed the ending and I thought the suspense and twists were perfect for a thriller. Thank you to the publisher for an advanced copy. Opinions are my own. 4.5 rounded up.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC of House of Glass in exchange for an honest and independent review.

Sarah Pekkanen is back with another mind bending, psychological thriller that will leave you on the edge of your seat with your heart racing. I was sucked into this novel's orbit from page one and I just couldn't get to the next page or chapter fast enough. Sarah's writing flows effortlessly and paints a perfect picture for the reader that grabs you into it's pages and implants it's emotions into your core like a virus.

Come along for the ride when best interest attorney, Stella Hudson, is assigned to serve as custodian to Rose Barclay, the nine-year-old daughter of Ian and Beth Barclay. Rose is a more than curious case for Stella as a young girl stuck between her parents divorce, and a possible witness/murder suspect in the sudden death of her nanny who plunged from the families third story window in their breathtakingly historic DC home. At the hands of her nanny's accident, Rose is suddenly rendered speechless and diagnosed with traumatic mutism, a condition that almost exactly mirrors Stella's condition as a young girl when she too stumbled upon the corpse of her mother, which impacted the trajectory of her life forever in more ways than she could have ever possibly imagined.

The deeper Stella gets into the Barclay family, the more quickly she realizes literally everyone is lying to her, including grandma Harriet, who also lives at the residence. As the family rallies to gather around Rose and support her and her condition, the more suspicious of the family Stella becomes and the more she fears she will share the same fate as Rose's nanny. Everything about the Barclay house feels twisted and wrong from it's complete lack of glass anywhere, to the strange noises and nagging sensation that you are always being watched. This is literally the last place Stella wants to be, but knows she will do anything to protect Rose from her family, that house, and possibly even Rose herself. Is the one person that Stella is required to protect at all costs the one person looking to get her out of the Barclay residence by any means possible? Can she hold on long enough to find the answers to all of her mounting questions before a second body is discovered on the Barclay residence?

I cannot urge you enough to pick this one up for yourself and come along on this twisted tale of loss, trauma, and healing. Everything about this books just pulls you in until you realize you are racing to make it to the end and six hours have passed and you are still sitting in the same spot with a much higher than average heart rate. House of Glass has so many thrilling twists and turns, you eventually won't know which way is up, but you do know everyone has something to hide and you will stop at nothing to figure it out. The question is, why? Run, don't walk to pick this one up August 6th!

House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen is one of those books that will keep you on the edge of your seat while you are reading. I was so sure I had it all figured out as to what happened to the nanny. Oh, the author did a great job of throwing a twist into what was happening.
The only one who saw what happened was Rose and she is nine and she stopped speaking when she witnessed what happened.
This is a book you need to get and then settle in because this is one book you are not going to be able to put down.
Thank you NetGalley, Sarah Pekkanen and St. Martin's Press for the copy of House of Glass. This is my personal review.

Unfortunately I was not a big fan of this, some plots I questioned why they were in there, and a lot of unbelievable circumstances.

A child advocate is trying to decide what's best for the child, while her parents are going through a divorce, in the wake of a nanny falling to her death. A case of who done it. Our child advocate also delves into her past to figure out what and how her mother died.

Solid 3 stars!

Thanks to St Martin's press and Net Galley for this ARC! Humbled and blessed
HOUSE OF GLASS OUT AUG 6TH!!!!!

💥 Pub Date: 8/6/2024

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

• domestic suspense
• secrets & childhood trauma
• lively narration

This story kept me guessing left and right! It did come to a thrilling and action-packed climax, but I still wanted a little more out of the ending.

🗣 Thank you to netgalley, St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio Books for the opportunity to read and review this book via both gifted eARC and audio! All opinions are honest and my own.

This was my first book by Sarah, and I can confirm it will not be my last. I couldn’t put this one down. I was on the edge of my seat, heart racing, waiting to see what was going to happen. If you’ve ever watched the movie ‘Orphan’ those were the type of vibes Rose was giving me at one point. Safe to say, this one did not play out like I thought it would. There were several plot twists that just kept me so invested in this story. I was dying to see how it would all unfold.