Thank you NetGalley anf Gallery Books for an ARC of The Break-In. Alice a professional mother of one is hosting a playdate with friends in her upscale London home when a disturbed man breaks in. With her child in the next room Alice panics and kills him. The plot was fantastic! It was quite the page turner and I could not put it down once I began reading it. Got a little slow in the middle however you want to know the ending so keep reading. Recommend it to anyone I know.

This domestic thriller starts off strong with an interesting premise, then veers off with confusing flashbacks/timeframes, and finally loses me at the end with too many twists and POV's. This book is definitely plot-driven not character-driven, because of the weak FMC who I did not root for but instead silently admonished for being such a clueless enabler, and the distant omniscient third person POV.
Still, I enjoyed reading it to find out the big secret behind the break-in.
Lastly, did Alice leave Martha home alone at one point towards the end? I swear she did.

Thank you Gallery Books and NetGalley for the digital review copy.

This was a twisty read that really made me think about what I would do in this situation. It centers on Alice, who is hosting a playdate with her daughter and a few friends when a man breaks in and she kills him in order to keep the kids safe. There is a whole investigation and Alice is struggling to cope with what she did while wanting to find out everything she can about the life she took.

Alice was mostly a likable character, though she did a lot of very ill-advised things that made me very tense when reading the book. I felt like she took some risks that no reasonable person would have taken, but this does give the reader a good glimpse into her state of mind. As she digs deeper, some great twists are revealed; while I saw a few of them coming, many were surprises and all contributed to my enjoyment of the story. The author did a great job of throwing something new into the mix just when you thought you had it all figured out. I thought all the loose ends were tied up well, which was impressive because there were many facets to the story. I liked the way the book ended and thought it worked with the rest of the story.

Overall, this was an engaging read and even though the protagonist caused me some angst at times, I enjoyed the story. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was in the mood for a fast-paced mystery/thriller and Katherine Faulkner has fit the bill in the past. While many parts of this novel were unbelievable, I do think this met my parameters-- for the last two-thirds of the book. I think this book had a real pacing problem in the beginning of the book, and I almost set it aside-- I'm glad I stuck with it because once the plot got moving, I couldn't put it down, and I did NOT guess many of the twists (which is always a sign of a good thriller for me).

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.75 stars

I've enjoyed Katherine Faulkner's books, so I was excited to read this newest novel. This one may have readers accurately guessing at some of the twists, but they'll still enjoy the journey.

Alice has a scary and outrageous experience when she is hosting a playdate for her young daughter and several other mothers and their young wards. Things are proceeding as usual until a young man breaks in and Alice kills him. Needless to say, things definitely go off of the original family calendar plan!

Unsurprisingly, Alice is very upset by what's happened to her AND by what she has done. Her coping methods leave something to be desired. And, in the midst of all of this upheaval, there are other upsetting changes in their household. What does everyone know? How are they involved or not in a number of upsetting events? Are things as bad as they seem or somehow worse?

Faulkner has a knack for writing about intelligent women who somehow lose all common sense and critical thinking ability, but Alice is less frustrating in this way than her predecessors. She still misses some big items, but she is able to catch on to certain things not too far after readers may hope.

This is an engaging read with some good twists, and I look forward to more from Faulkner.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for an ARC of The Break-In.

I've been kind of over domestic thrillers lately because so many of the plots are over-user and the unique ones are unrealistic to the point of being ridiculous, but I'm happy to report that I was pleasantly surprised by this one! The variety of character POVs kept me interested in the story and invested in getting to the bottom of the mystery. One less star because the ending was fairly predictable and over-explained. If you are a domestic thriller junkie, this definitely belongs on your 2025 TBR!

4 stars

Alice, a professional mother of one, is hosting a playdate with friends at her upscale London home when a disturbed man breaks in. With her child in the next room, Alice panics and kills him, an act later ruled to have been in self-defense! Great twisted thriller! This book had chilling suspense, murder, mystery, intrigue, and a few jaw dropping twists and turns! The storyline was very interesting! I highly recommend reading this book! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

This was so twisty! There was one part that I definitely saw coming, but everything else really surprised me. I love it when a book does that! I thought this did a good job of revealing backstory and character motivations.

Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy!

On a rainy day, Alice has a few friends over and while the kids play with the nanny, she is hoping to unwind and connect two friends. However, this day changed everything....when an intruder makes his way into the hope, Alice is forced to act fast. But as things begin to unravel, she learns this was not a random attack. She becomes consumed with finding out about this mans past, his possible connections to her friends, nanny or even husband.

Alice, a young London mother, wife and career person hosts a playdate for her daughter's friends when an intruder breaks in the house and Alice ends up killing him. Alice’s daughter and her young friends were in the next room where the intruder was heading so Alice acted on instinct and hit him over the head. This act starts an avalanche of other events that almost makes your head spin. You realize very soon that several people close to Alice are not what they seem. I found this book to be as suspenseful and good as the last two books of hers. I believe Katherine Faulkner is definitely a writer to follow.

Faulkner’s background in investigative journalism shines through the pages, adding a layer of realism to the thriller that made it feel grounded. I never found myself needing to suspend disbelief. The story's structure was especially engaging, beginning after the break in and after the victim’s identity is revealed. This setup made it clear there was more to uncover than what the police had concluded. While the final outcome wasn’t particularly surprising once you learned more about the side characters, I really enjoyed the journey to the ending and how Faulkner skillfully brought all the pieces together.

Alice has what seems to be the perfect life. A loving husband and small daughter. A new job. A restored Victorian townhouse. Even a nanny. Then one afternoon, while two friends and their daughters are visiting, an intruder breaks in a challenges Alice with a knife. She kills him. And this begins a cascading series of strange events that end in tragedy. Told in several different voices and moving seamlessly between past and present, The Break-In mixes mystery, class differences, obsession and gaslighting. Each character has his/her reasons for behaviors. Faulker makes those reasons so clear that you always understand the why of actions even when they are horribly wrong. female characters, especially Alice, Linda and Jade, are strong women with complex problems and relationships. The multilayered plot keeps you guessing until the final pages. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Gallery Books and Katherine Faulkner for this ARC.

I just finished reading this book. The plot was absolutely fantastic! It was quite the page turner, and I could not put the book down once I began reading it. I can't wait for it to be released. I will recommend it to everyone I know!

This is a story that starts with an innocent playdate, turns into a murder on self defense then a mystery of why the intruder was at their house in the first place. It is a twisting story that starts fast but then gets a little slow in the middle. However you want to know the ending so keep reading.

Thank you netgalley for this ARC.

A play date turns deadly in The Break In, a twisty thriller that will have you guessing right to the end. When Alice kills a man in self defense who has broken into her home during a playdate, her world is turned upside down when she receives an anonymous call, telling her all is not as it seems. When the people closest to her all start to act strangely, Alice decides to investigate on her own just who the intruder was and why her house. The book moves slowly as more hints are dropped that the break in was not as random as it seemed, when a rapid series of events changes the pacing and the story zooms full speed ahead with plenty of surprises that catch the reader off guard. The book tends to drag with a lot of recapping of events, but the suspense keeps the reader invested with a good payoff. Takes a while, but worth the wait. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this thriller and the twists were great. It kept me guessing until the end! I do think it was a slow burn but for me, that’s not a bad thing. I love slow burns. I look forward to reading other books by this author; this was my first one.

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

I adored Katherine Faulkner’s past two books (both five star reads) so I accepted this ARC without even reading the synopsis.

A wealthy, middle-aged, married mother, Alice Rathbone, is hosting a get-together with friends and all of their children when a strange male teenager, Ezra Jones, breaks in. Alice kills him in self-defense.

The social media response to the murder is not kind to Alice, yet despite her husband Jamie’s flippant brush-off of her feelings about being outcast, she cannot stop reading about herself in media coverage comments. Alice cares.

One day Alice receives a strange phone call, about Ezra’s purpose.

With that: *Bam,* the mystery begins!

The story has four parts and is written in third-person POV of Alice; Linda, mother of Jade and Ezra; Becca, Alice’s nanny; and Alice’s friend Stella. The plot begins after the climax of the titular break-in, then flips to the day-of, then reverts in time to fill in the story.

I could not put this book down, wanting to learn the why of the incident - and who everyone in Alice’s blind life *really* is!

I enjoy Katherine Faulkner’s sharp, suspenseful writing style; and her experience as an investigative journalist is evident in this story of a mysterious crime attempt.
I also enjoyed being in her setting of wealthy London in which Alice lives in a have-vs. have-not awareness.

Four stars. The wrap-up at the end left me a bit confused at points with all of the connecting of dots.

I loved the first 70% of the book, then it started feeling chaotic and messy. The ending felt abruptly and the MC was naive and unreliable m, which doesn't really bother me.

3.5 stars

Somewhat predictable but still a thrilling g read. I try my hardest not to guess and just let things unravel, but some thing were just pretty blatant. Other than that the writing was sharp, and the story flowed at a fast pace and had me fully engaged.

Honest review 🫣🫠

I was so excited for this one, I loved the other mothers from this author - so this was definitely a most anticipated read for me. The first half was great, I was hooked on trying to solve everything. But by the end of the first half, I had it all figured out and things started to get VERY repetitive.

At almost 400 pages, I think this one could be about 150 pages shorter and still be able to get everything across. There’s things we as a reader would know already, but the MC is figuring it out, so you have to read the same story multiple times. Towards the last 100 pages I was just skimming because I already knew what was happening.

Now, this book does have a 4⭐️ on Goodreads and I have been seeing good reviews about it, so if this has been on your radar definitely still give it a go! Everyone has different opinions on books, so you may love it! I think this author is a great writer so I will be picking up more from her in the future, unfortunately this one just didn’t do it for me.