This came to me just as I began therapy, where one of our goals was to set boundaries in regards to my toxic parent. In fact, my therapist is now interested in this book too for when it comes out.

It was informative and empathetic. I am going to be recommending this to several of my friends in similar positions, and I know my therapist is already anticipating it's release.

Cycle Breakers by Harriet Shearsmith does a great job of explaining boundaries and how to use them, especially when interacting with family members or anyone who inquires about your family relationships. It explains how to maintain low or no contact with family. The book ends with tips on how to find yourself without being defined by your family.

I thought this book was a great read. It's easy to understand, as it doesn't use a lot of jargon and is written in an empathetic way. The author shares good examples from her life. People who have been judged for not being close to their parents will find solace in this book. I also appreciated how she discussed how parents often feel entitled. She explains the WHY parents might feel that way.

This book could be a great help for those dealing with generational trauma and wanting to break the cycle of trauma.

As someone who is struggling with CPTSD from childhood trauma, this book was extremely helpful in thinking differently about how I parent. So much of trauma places you in fear of repeating the problems of your parents, but I felt this provided empowerment of how to break those cycles for the next generation which has always been my goal. Good advice is given throughout and I appreciated the acknowledgement of no contact boundaries for family, which is usually treated as taboo. It validated the choices I had to make with my parents although perhaps that’s not the solution for everyone. Overall a great informative read.

I am very thankful I took a chance on this one. Cycle Breakers had quite literally changed my life. The thought provoking exercises and Journaling/writing letters portion were very helpful. I kept a read along journal as I went through this and it was so healing. The content of this book is what you would assume it is based on the cover. For someone who is fresh to begin to work on their childhood trauma and relationships with their parent's this is an ideal book. The way it helps you reframe your mindset and want to change things for your own children is the best part. This book helped me make important decisions with my parental relationships and has helped me become a better parent.

I was interested in reading this even though I do not have children nor can I have them do to health issues I still wanted to be informed. Both my parents are very toxic and emotionally immature and no matter how much counseling/therapy they attend they will never change. Given that their parents and families were also toxic it makes sense that the pattern repeats and it got passed down to them. I know to learn from their mistakes and I’m a much better person to not follow in their footsteps and to be emotionally mature and aware. I found this book full of tips and strategies to help navigate life and living with such toxic people. It’s difficult to change but I learned that you can’t control what others say or do you can only control your actions and reactions to those toxic people. I recommend this book to those that had a troubled childhood and deal with toxic parents who really shouldn’t have become parents in the first place.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review and feedback.

Grateful to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
Cycle Breakers is about helping people heal from the trauma of narcissistic family members. Abuse comes in many forms, and it differentiates between several different categories, including spiritual abuse. I found this especially helpful, because some therapists don’t even recognize spiritual trauma as actual abuse. The author uses her own experience to keep the book from being too textbook and dry, which is also very necessary. I thought the book was extremely useful, including the section on parenting (even though I’m not a parent). Overall the book taught me a lot about myself and helped me on my healing journey,

A compassionate, actionable guide for anyone ready to stop repeating the past and start parenting with intention.

In Cycle Breakers, Harriet Shearsmith blends personal experience with trauma-informed tools to help readers navigate emotionally immature parents, set boundaries without guilt, and raise their own children with empathy and clarity. With journal prompts, reparenting exercises, and firm validation that healing doesn’t require forced forgiveness, this is the kind of book that feels like both a balm and a blueprint.

Part memoir, part manual, Cycle Breakers stands out for its dual focus on healing the inner child while reshaping how we parent. It’s a powerful resource for readers confronting generational dysfunction and choosing a better way forward—for themselves, and for the children they love.

Thank you to Zeitgeist and Harriet Shearsmith for the eARC.

This was a very informative book and I actually felt that learned a lot about myself as I read through it. This is great read for anyone looking to parent differently than you were parented, work on yourself, and break the toxic cycles/dysfunctional family dynamics that may have been passed down through multiple generations in your family. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC in return for my honest review.

Book- Cycle Breakers: Free Yourself from Emotionally Immature Parents and Be the Parent You Wish You Had.
Author- Harriet Shearsmith
Release Date- June 3rd 2025
4.25⭐️

I really liked the book. I found it super helpful now, and will be throughout the different stages of parenting. It works on healing your inner child trauma as well as how you can parent differently than how you were parented.

The book started off more focused on cutting off (or low contact) the toxic family member(s) and then progressed into how to parent with past trauma and break the cycle of generational trauma.

The stigma about needing to forgive family from major trauma because “it’s family” is actually crazy and that’s always been something I don’t quite understand but also struggle with. If you talk to people about your issues, a lot of the time people will say “well it’s your _____”. The quote that stood out to me the most was “no one is entitled to you because they are titled to you.”

I was nervous to read a self help book like this because I am no where near ready to work on forgiveness but I want to work on me and I was scared it was going to push forgiveness but it didn’t at all. It actually mentions that most self help books preach the importance of forgiveness no matter how vile or traumatic the experiences have been but that you don’t have to forgive to heal and it can be detrimental for your own healing to force something you don’t feel.

The other factor that I really liked about it was that it focused on what to do with your children now while also trying to heal your own inner child. She walks you through workshops through the whole book and helps with how to explain everything to them when they start asking about your childhood, when it’s ok to say no, and how to express the no/low contact with grandparents or other family members.

A book like this is heavy, it’s so hard to look into past traumas and why you are the way you are because of it, I absolutely cried at times but it always feels so much lighter by the end.

I felt like some parts were for bigger kids (I have two toddlers) so some felt like it was maybe more advanced for their little learning brains but I love that I can go back to the book for when they are older.

There is a resources section at the end with so many and different styles between books, podcasts, social media accounts, charities and online support. It genuinely feels like the author (Harriet Shearsmith) is trying to help you throughout the whole book.

Thank you NetGalley and Zeitgeist for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own

Cycle Breakers by Harriet Shearsmith is a compassionate and practical guide for those healing from emotionally immature parenting. Blending memoir with actionable advice, Shearsmith offers clarity, validation, and tools for setting boundaries and rewriting harmful family patterns. Honest, empowering, and deeply affirming.

Thank you to Net Galley for the eArc of this title. This is a great book and resource for anyone starting on a healing journey from emotional immature parent, narcissistic parents, parentification, or parental estrangement. Shearsmith perfectly describes experiences that are hard to put into words. She also includes journal prompts that can help any reader who is willing to start thinking about the impact of their own parents have on who they have become an how the may parent currently or in the future. The information about how to parent differently, as well as her kind and honest tone, put you at ease and help you feel heard.

Wow. This was way better than I expected. I anticipated some fluff and validation but I was met with empathy, validation, and empowerment. This book is going to be an amazing resource for so many who are on similar healing journeys and are either in non contact, semi contact, or just have toxic parents you haven’t been able to separate from. As well as parents and guardians, who know, they do not want to parent how they were parented. Cycle breakers will be a shoulder and a hug for you.

Thank you so much to the author for sharing your words and wisdom. I am so appreciative. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for this ARC opportunity.

This was a wonderful book for anyone estranged/no contact with their toxic/abusive family of origin, either for reparenting or for parenting or considering parenting children. I can't recommend it highly enough, the author is clearly trauma-informed and writes with compassion and empathy. Highly recommended.