𝗤𝗨𝗜𝗖𝗞 𝗣𝗟𝗢𝗧 𝗣𝗘𝗘𝗞
Alice Rathbone kills intruder Ezra Jones during a playdate at her London home. Shaken and unable to move on, she becomes consumed with figuring out why he targeted her family. What starts as a home invasion spirals into secrets, online threats, and betrayals.

𝗛𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗢𝗣𝗜𝗡𝗜𝗢𝗡
Alice, consumed by the break-in, dives into amateur sleuthing that quickly spirals into chaos. There’s a ton of gaslighting from husband Jamie and it was kinda sad to see pretty much no one supporting Alice.

The multiple POVs could’ve added depth, I usually love them but to me they felt more like filler than function - they just didn’t seem to add much to the story.

Luckily there was enough to keep me gripped, especially half way in when there’s a shift. Things start to make more sense and it becomes more than about the break in. The pace quickens and poor Alice gets whiplash!

Alice is messy, obsessive, and often feels like she’s stumbling blindly rather than sleuthing. I did wish she uncovered more herself instead of the guilty parties eventually laying it out.

𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗛 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗?
Overall this was a really entertaining domestic thriller. I read and listened to this book and while Alice may not be the most charismatic character, the audiobook narrator did a great job, making her more likable and matching the tense vibe. The story is strong, the twists were plenty and I had a good time!

Thank you @gallerybooks and @simon.audio for this #gifted ARC.

🎧 Narrated by Shiromi Arserio
📖 Publishes 08•26•25 | 432 pages | 12h 51m

Katherine Faulkner has given us another fantastic read! There is a break-in at the home of a well-heeled couple, and to protect her daughter a mother unintentionally kills the intruder. What follows is a tense, tight and twisty thriller which unravels at just the right pace and keeps you glued to the page!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for this ARC!

The Break-In was hard to put down. I liked the plot and felt it was well thought out. Not all the characters were likeable but I did feel bad for Alice. In the end, I think everyone got what they deserved. I haved enjoyed all of Katherine Faulkner's books and can't wait for more. Bravo, for another masterpiece.

Many thanks to the publisher for my gifted copy. My full review will be shared to my account @coffee.break.book.reviews closer to publication date.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC! After enjoying Greenwich Park and the Other Mothers, I was looking forward to reading Katherine Faulkner’s latest, the Break In. The blurb was intriguing - about a woman who kills an intruder in self defence, to protect her child. However, she starts learning things about the intruder afterwards and everything is not as it seems. I was really interested to see what the author was going to do with this set up.
Well, it does turn out to be a fairly predictable story! I guessed the twist early on and was hoping I was wrong…I was not. Still, it’s well paced and I couldn’t put it down - read it in the one sitting. I liked some of the observations made about motherhood too.
Recommend if you’re looking for a fast paced domestic thriller.

Katherine Faulkner has a knack for writing domestic suspense that is impossible to put down!

When a mentally deranged man barges into Alice's home, she kills him in both self-defense and to protect her child in the other room. When everyone in her life starts acting strange, including her husband, nanny and friends, she feels the need to dive into the man's past.

As someone who wakes up from nightmares convinced someone is in my home, this premise alone was terrifying! In the aftermath of the murder, the suspense manages to raise even higher as Alice tries to make sense of everything happening in her life. I was hooked from the beginning, and really enjoyed how everything came together in the end.

Alice is distraught after she kills an intruder in her home. Everyone tells her to move on but she can’t let go of her suspicions that there’s more to the break-in.

This was definitely one of my favorite reads of the years. It was suspenseful, twisty, and in a clever way; not just simply entertaining. It was pretty long and the twists kept coming but I was happy to keep going. All the characters were well developed and had their own demons; I especially liked Linda’s character. Highly recommend this one!

“Some men are just toxic. And the world would be a far better place for our daughters if they did not exist.”

The Break-In comes out 8/26.

Thank you so much to Katherine Faulkner, Gallery Books | Gallery/Scout Press, and NetGalley for this ARC of The Break-In.

It has been a few years since I read a book by Faulkner but I was excited to get the chance to read this book early. Alice is a posh, professional mother that lives in London. Recently she had to defend her and her daughter when a young man broke into her home, ultimately resulting in his death. Alice will stop at nothing to figure out if she was targets, and if so, for what reason?

Faulkner does a great job weaving together the stories of a handful of people that end up creating the resolution of the book. Although there were many times that I paused to think how the author was going to tie all of this together, she ultimately came through with a beautiful bow on top. There were many times while I was reading that I got extremely frustrated with Alice (come on, girl, Martha is catching on to some things faster than you are) I still felt very connected to the characters. Like most of Faulkner’s books, I would categorize this one as a slow burn.

Overall, 3.5/5 stars, rounding up to 4.

The Break-In by Katherine Faulkner
8/26/25; 400 pages
Gallery/Scout Press

The Break-In by Katherine Faulkner is a highly recommended psychological thriller/mystery full of secrets.

Alice Rathbone has two friends over on a playdate for their children when a young man breaks into the house, grabs a knife from the kitchen, and moves toward the room where the children are playing. Alice grabs a stool and hits him on the head, resulting in his death. Now she is waiting to learn if she will be charged or cleared for the fatality and mentally struggles with what happened. Although her husband Jamie tells her to let it go and move on, she was protecting the children, she can't.

Amidst her mental struggles Alice wants some closure. She learns that the young man was 18-year-old Ezra Jones and he has a surviving mother and twin sister. At this same time she is receiving phone calls warning her and threatening on-line comments. Inexplicably she goes to Ezra's house, meets his mother and later his sister, never identifying herself. She enlists her journalist friend Stella to investigate them. What follows is a series of impossibly flawed decisions and poor discernment as Alice's life unravels.

The writing is very good in this psychological thriller and twisty mystery which will hold your complete attention. The plot moves at an even pace, with several twisty reveals and surprises along the way to keep the momentum moving. You will have to set a healthy dose of disbelief aside several times as the narrative unfolds. Alice makes one bad decision after another and seems clueless about the the actions of people and the events happening around her.

Alice is the main narrator with other character's viewpoints occasionally inserted, along with newspaper articles and the comments which follow. Most of the action is in the present, but there are also flashbacks to past events. This is a very satisfying novel, although a case could be made that better editing could have tightened up the story and result in a faster paced novel.

None of the characters are likable. Alice is a sympathetic character, but all her flaws and poor choices can overwhelm your feelings about her. You'll wish her well, but you will also want to tell her to snap out of it, open her eyes, and get a clue already. Sometimes it is difficult to believe that she is an adult woman in her forties and it was hard to believe she could be so clueless, especially about Jamie.

The Break-In is a great choice for anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers and mysteries. Thanks to Gallery/Scout Press for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Edelweiss, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

This took a lot longer than I’d like to get into it. The story didn’t really pick up for me until around the 70% mark. It was still entertaining enough to read, while also being slightly boring, but in the end it was still an average thriller to me. Plus, my poor girl Alice was gas lit the whole damn time lol

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for my eARC.

Alice Rathbone lives in a lovely home in a gentrified area of London with her husband Jamie and daughter Martha. While hosting a playdate, a young man around eighteen breaks into her house, slurring his words, and threatens them with a knife. She goes into full defense mode, picks up a metal stool, and hits him on the head, killing him. Afterwards, Alice is determined to learn more about Ezra Jones, the person who upended her life. Ignoring police orders and common sense, she infiltrates Ezra's family's lives, first visiting his mother at her home and then speaking with his sister, never disclosing her true connection to them. She enlists the help of her friend Stella, a journalist, to help uncover more about Ezra. Soon, Alice's life starts to unravel. She receives online threats and unsettling phone calls. Treasured items go missing, and Martha's nanny abruptly quits. It seems like this random act might not have been random at all. Yet no one seems to take Alice's concerns seriously.

Katherine Faulkner's The Break-In is a tension-filled thriller packed with twists and red herrings that will keep you guessing. Since there's more to the crime than initially appeared, the book is filled with a wide range of suspicious characters. And Alice, while a smart woman, makes some bad decisions in her quest to reclaim her life. It's a binge-worthy book.

This was a slow burn but I enjoyed it!

Didn’t expect all the twists and I was hooked until the end

This author is new to me but I enjoyed their writing and I look forward to reading more!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for the ARC copy!

The Break-in by Catherine Faulkner, in the book we meet Alice who recently while having a play date with her daughter Martha, who was in the other room with her friends while Alice and her two friends were in the kitchen drinking champagne a man broke in. A decision that cost him his life and forfeited Alice’s piece of mind. At first everyone is clamoring for her arrest calling her a murderer but the man had a knife and she totally felt threatened something I would think most people would understand but in any event when the police say there won’t be any charges and it was self-defense for some reason Alice believes there’s more to the story. before the break in Alice had a nice life with her husband James and nanny Becca. Now however her world has been shook and this will be the beginning of some bad decisions only topped by even worse decisions and in the end the story will not look anything like it did in the beginning. This is a very long story I mean extremely long I bet it is over 500 pages I didn’t look but I would bet money in any event there are many things I want to say about the book but don’t want to give spoilers away what I will say is I liked this story in the beginning but found as it went on and on I just felt as if I wanted it to end but not without knowing what happened. I am so tired of wives not knowing things about their husband like James didn’t talk to his family although he had a huge family with lots of brothers he didn’t speak to any of them when he went to a convention she didn’t know what hotel he was staying at through this she will find out things that as a wife she really should’ve known but didn’t. Having said that I think I would still recommend it because if you like very slow very slow burn thrillers you absolutely like this book I just am not big on long books and this one was very very long. if that is your jam this is your book I did enjoy her first book and enjoy this one to a point had it been shorter I probably would’ve loved it. #NetGalley, #TheBlindReviewer, #MyHonestReview, #CatherineFaulkner, #TheBreak-in,

I enjoyed Katherine Faulkner's previous book and was excited for this one. However, I found the story repetitive and the multiple POV acted like filler. The trope of the lonely wife who would NEVER suspect her husband has been played out. This one was not for me.

Katherine Faulkner is the queen of complex thrillers & this one is my favorite yet. I could not put it down! So much suspense packed into short, snappy chapters that make you keep turning the page. Lots of fun twists right up to the end. As soon as I finished I wanted to start all over again!

Book Review 📚
Title: The Break-In
Author: Katherine Faulkner

Alice is hosting a playdate when a disturbed man suddenly breaks into her home. In a moment of sheer panic, she kills the intruder but the trauma doesn’t end there. Unable to move on, Alice becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth about who this man really was. Taking matters into her own hands, she begins digging and what she finds is darker and more twisted than she could have imagined.

The story is packed with shocking secrets and unexpected turns. Just when I thought I had things figured out, another twist would throw me off completely. I couldn’t put this book down! I had to know who could (and couldn’t) be trusted!
I absolutely love Katherine’s writing. She has a real talent for pulling you in and keeping you hooked until the very last page. I can’t wait to read more of her work!

Thank you NetGalley, Katherine Faulkner and Gallery Books for the eARC!!

Publication Date: August 26th 2025
Rating: ✨✨✨✨✨

The Break In gives so many moments of spine tingling suspense it kept me up way past my bedtime and with ALL of the lights on!

This story was definitely twisted like a tornado. Alice the MFC was clueless to her world that she created with her husband Jamie. 4 stars for me.

This was an enjoyable and bingable thriller that totally did not head in the direction that I thought it would initially. The plot held my attention the whole time, and I think other thriller fans will enjoy this one. Certainly one of the stronger thrillers I've read this year-- a year where thrillers have not really shined.

This was an incredible book with numerous layers that kept me completely glued to the pages until the very last page.

When a break-in occurs, Alice thinks fast and accidentally kills the young man who broke into her home. She did what any mother would do. But the event plagues her, so, needing closure, she goes to the man's home and meets his mother. From here, lies, deceptions, breaches of trust, and other crimes pull her into a complex situation.

Told from multiple points of view, everyone has something they are hiding. Going into this book not knowing anything but the bare minimum is best. You will appreciate how things unfold.

Very well written, I loved it!

This is a great suspense read if you want twists, turns, and lots of action. I finished it in two nights and looked forward to it in between readings. The characters are fully fleshed out, and the ending hits with a bang. Highly recommended for suspense readers! Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

#TheBreak-In