I really, really want to give this a 5 star review because it kept me reading late into the night, but it didn't keep me guessing. I loved how well it was written, but it was too predictable. I did appreciate the ending because it was a bit of a twist. All in all I really think suspense readers will enjoy it. The characters were really well written and the pacing was perfect.

The only reason I can't give this 5 stars is it was.........spoiler alert.......











too much like the movie Gaslight for the majority of the book. It was too easy to guess that she wasn't really going insane and that she was being manipulated. Maybe if I hadn't ever seen this movie, I'd have been guessing more.

As a woman driving alone on a country road at night, Cass isn’t that inclined to get out of her car when she passes what appears to be a motorist with engine trouble. It’s pouring buckets, and Cass’s cottage is not far away. Finding out the next day that a woman was murdered is a huge shock, more so when the driver is identified and Cass realizes that she knew the victim.

On a long holiday from work, Cass hopes that she can bring her life into focus. Recently wondering if she is going to go the same way as her mother and experience early onset dementia, Cass has been suffering increasing occurrences of memory loss. The smaller events such as misplacing her bag and phone could be brushed off as the meanderings of a distracted mind but ordering items online such as a pram (when she and her husband are not expecting) is evidence to Cass that her slippage is a symptom of something more serious. The silent phone caller is now ringing the cottage landline every day and the feeling that someone has been entering her house increases Cass’s paranoia – perhaps it is someone that knows Cass could have stopped the murder. That if Cass had only gotten out of her car, a woman’s life might have been saved.

There is only a small cast in THE BREAKDOWN so our suspicious eyes are trained on characters that don’t have anywhere to hide; they are all close to Cass’s life and are becoming increasingly aware that her life is in disarray. Cass becomes more hemmed in by her memory glitches and is desperate to regain control of a life that is being puppet mastered by someone who must be close to her. THE BREAKDOWN is a very suspenseful read, tempered with periods of time where you alternately feel desperately sorry for Cass in her struggles, or frustrated with her as she seems to be going around in circles.

Like this author’s first sleeper hit, BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, THE BREAKDOWN very much narrows the focus to one female character who is struggling without support and is the only one who can save herself. The everywoman leads are frighteningly relatable; we all know someone like them, or have experienced something similar. Compulsive, entertaining and tense reading from an author to watch.

On a deserted side road there is a murder. Cass happened to be on that road that night headed home. She did not witness anything but does the killer think she Did? Now she fears the killer is watching her. As she starts to break down mentally the suspense turns this into a page turning thriller. A must read!

Thanks to the publisher, St. Martin's Press, via NetGalley, for an egalley in exchange for my honest review.

I looked forward to this novel since I had enjoyed the author's debut novel, Behind Closed Doors. This is also a psychological suspense/thriller that is quite a page-turner. It's well-plotted with just the right number of characters, not so many that it's hard to keep track of them.

The protagonist is Cass, a young woman who is suffering from paranoia, forgetfulness, and guilt while being frightened about losing her short-term memory like her mother. Her mental stability is tested throughout the novel. There were times when I had no idea what was going on or who to suspect was causing the drama. But the book is so well-written, I just couldn't put it down.

Cass is traumatized by an event that starts the "breakdown" rolling. From there it's a roller coaster ride. While at times I felt it was repetitive, it continued to be fast=paced. Ms. Paris certainly knows how to grab you at the beginning and not let you go until you finish her novel.

I almost gave up on The Breakdown after the first few chapters because I couldn't wrap my head around what the protagonist was doing. Cass had promised her husband that she wouldn't take the shortcut home through the woods, but she did and along the way she drove past a woman alone in a parked car. I don't get why she didn't call the police after learning that the woman had been murdered and that she was probably the last woman to see her alive. Unrelated to the murder in the woods, Cass is suddenly suffering from lapses in memory and fears that she's showing the first signs of the early-onset dementia that her mother had. But she won't tell her husband about that, either. When I picked this book to read, I thought there would be a compelling reason why Cass couldn't tell anyone that she'd taken the shortcut. But there wasn't. She just refuses to be a grown up and do the right thing. Farther into the book, things do get more interesting and I'm glad I kept reading until the end. But I didn't enjoy this book nearly as much as I enjoyed Behind Closed Door, the author's first novel.

I was very excited about this book after reading Behind closed doors and enjoying it so much. B A Paris has done it again, bringing so much that I loved from the first book. I would highly recommend giving this book a read. This was a very fast paced compelling read. Thanks NetGalley for this Copy

After reading Behind Closed Doors, I knew B.A. Paris would be an author I will love for years to come. I was sincerely impressed, again, with The Breakdown. Honestly, I hadn't even read the description of the book - I just knew I had to read it. The novel was suspenseful and chilling - I was more than satisfied with the book, however, the conversations near the end of the book (via text) were slightly confusing - I had to read them a few times to understand what was happening. I would definitely recommend this books to fans of thrillers and suspense!

This is the second book I've read by this author and I was hopeful that this would be a stronger book then Behind Closed Doors. While I enjoyed Behind Closed Doors, it wasnt as good as I had hoped. With this book, I had it figured out within the first couple of chapters who was behind all of the "strange happenings" going on in Cass' life. About halfway through I figured out another part of the book. The only real twist came at the end when I hadn't figured out who the murderer was.

The book is about a woman named Cass who passes by a car in the rain and doesn't stop to offer any help. The next day the woman was found murdered. Cass is riddled with guilt because of not reporting this to the police and then strange things start happening to her. I will admit that it was kind of annoying to have to hear over and over again how I forgot this, I'm not sure how to do that and, I have early onset dementia but that was kind of tied up nicely at the end.

Overall this was a pretty good book. I would read something else by this author however I don't think this was a psychological thriller.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

Another hit from B. A. Paris. Compulsive, page turner with lots of twists. Read this in one day. Couldn't put it down.

This book gave me nightmares. I heard so much about this author and her book Behind Closed Doors that I was feeling confident that I would enjoy reading this book. Unfortunately that was not the case.

This review has nothing to do with the quality of writing - it was excellent. I just couldn't connect with any of the characters and the plot had me all confused at times. I understand that it was a psychological thriller but for me it was a confusing nightmare that snug into my dreams.

At this point I have to acknowledge that this authors writing is not the right kind for me.

Because of this I won't be writing or publishing a review.

Oh my gosh...read this book. If you enjoy psychological thrillers and you want a book that you will not be able to put down, READ THIS BOOK. I read "Behind Closed Doors" by this author last summer and didn't think anything could come close, but this has. I was literally on the edge of my seat while reading it. It is amazing!

I was very excited to get an arc of this book. I read her first book Behind Closed Doors so I couldn't wait to read this one. While it had a good twist, it wasn't a page turner like I was hoping.
The last 20% or so of the book was the best part. It definitely had the suspenseful thriller feel to it, I just wish more of the book was like that.

“The Breakdown” follows Cass Anderson after rushing home one night, she sees a woman stopped in a car in the storm. Fearing for her own safety, Cass heads home instead of getting out of her car to help and forgets about calling the police. That is, until the next morning, when splashed all over the news is the story of a woman who was brutally murdered- right in the place where Cass last saw her alive. This starts Cass down a dangerous path, stressed out and fearful of the murderer never found and losing her mind with fears of early-onset dementia (which her mother had).

Cass is continuously confronted by things that weren’t as she remembered and things she cannot remember doing. It begins with small things like forgetting that she was supposed to buy luggage for a friend’s birthday and forgetting to bring her purse to the shops. It escalates to bigger things such as not remembering ordering an alarm for the house (including filling out a contract) and seeing things which were not there. As her fears over her mind and competence grow, she begins to retreat and find solace in some kind of medication (not explicitly stated) which knocks her out all day.

We get the feeling very early that something sinister is going on, and the culprit is pretty obvious. The book was pretty predictable overall and got a little bogged down in details. The suspense was not so great, as it mostly seems to be memory-related and the consequences are rather small. The cause was really easy to guess, although the motive was unclear.

I really enjoyed “Behind Closed Doors” and was hoping for another, similar suspenseful book, but this one fell a little flat for me. Everything is wrapped up neatly at the end, which was satisfying, and I did find myself wanting to get all the way to the end, but it was a little slower and less suspenseful than what I was expecting. I have mixed feelings about the overall rating because I did keep reading until the end, but I didn’t feel surprised or caught up in it- I was left with a bit of an overall “meh” for a book which held such promise (maybe my expectations were too high). Long scenes focused on relatively minor things (fear of answering the phone for instance) and it felt a little too drawn out overall for my taste.

Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher through netgalley. All opinions are my own.

This title will be given a spotlight at the Dew on May 1st along with three other titles. It will also be broken out as a separate review posting on it's release date. http://dewonthekudzu.com

I just finished this book and I was really excited by it! I thought that the plot development was fantastic, and as I read the story the pacing was perfect for drawing the reader into the developing twists and turns of this story. I was totally blown away by the ending and was completely surprised by the twist that was revealed. I have book talked this novel to everyone I know and look forward to having it in my library soon.

The Breakdown by B.A Paris
Cass Anderson is on her way home one night during a storm and is warned by her husband not to take a certain shortcut as it was too dangerous. However she is more scared of the storm and wants to get home quicker so takes the shortcut anyway and sees a woman in a car which is parked in a layby. She tries to stop to offer to help but becomes scared incase it's a trap and goes home. The next day she is horrified to find that the woman has been murdered but feels she can't tell anyone as her husband had specifically told her not to go that way. The longer she doesn't tell the police the more scared she becomes and eventually she is eaten up with guilt because she feels that the woman would still be alive if she'd stopped to help.
As if this problem isn't bad enough she has also been incredibly forgetful and suspects that like her mother she is developing early onset dementia, this is incredibly upsetting for her and instead of confiding in her husband Matthew she tries in vain to cover up the ever worsening symptoms.
I really liked Cass as a character but felt she got herself into a lot of trouble by trying to hide things.
When she visited the doctor with her symptoms and was prescribed the medication I really felt for her as she felt that her situation was hopeless.
The book was gripping all the way through and the fear of the journey home at the beginning was almost tangible.
I would like to say I guessed who did it but really I guessed three people and it was one of those.
It was a cleverly woven psychological thriller which got the adrenaline running as I read it.
This is the second book I've enjoyed from this author.

This is a griping book that I found impossible to put down once I started it. Full of twists and turns, that had me guessing until near the end. I love the way the book resolves everything with such an innocent appearance, but we know the real motivation.

Will post a review on Amazon under name Connie

The Breakdown is a twisting psychological thriller that will keep you on your toes and guessing until the very last page. Even the tagline “If you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust?” draws you in straight away. The story follows Cass as she attempts to deal with the death of a woman she feels she may have been able to help. Driving home in a storm from a party late one night she passes a car on the side of the road and sees the shape of a woman inside the car. She stops, but doesn’t try to help and decides to go home. When she discovers that the woman was killed that night she is consumed with guilt and fear that she may be losing her mind as she begins to forget every little thing.

I couldn’t put this book down and read it all in one night of frantic page turning. I HAD to know what was going on and you will too if you pick up this book. The author does a wonderful job with dramatic scenes and with the pacing of the novel. I normally don’t like an unreliable narrator but in this case it really works for the story. Overall I really enjoyed this read and can’t wait to read more from B. A. Paris!

I give the book 4.5/5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the copy to read and review.

Yep! I know, so many four and five star reviews and this one sort of disappointed me. I think I might of had to high expectations. I wanted so bad to love this book. I did enjoy it but found the ending to be very predictable.

Driving home in the rain, Cases decides to take a short cut through the woods against her husband wishes that she stick to the main roads. She sees the headlights of a car, stopped on the side of the road, and barely notices a woman sitting in it, she does not stop to help her. The next morning she is horrified to learn that the woman was murdered, and worse, she knew her. She feels so guilty that she didn't stop.

She starts struggling to remember things. Knowing her mother had been diagnosed with early onset dementia made all of her forgetfulness convince her that she too had the disease. Mysterious parcels arrive, silent phone calls, she is doubting her own sanity.

Is she actually losing her mind or is something or someone else to blame. If you can't trust yourself, who can you trust?

This book did not grab me. I think the main reason is because of the dramatic love triangle, and I just read a book previously that had a love triangle in it. Also let's talk about the character development, there was not one character that I liked, they were all dislikeable characters to me.

Now let's talk about what I liked about the book. It kept me intrigued, I couldn't put it down. I kept turning the pages till the end, curious to find out what was going on. I found it to be a simple fast read. It kept me intrigued from the beginning to the end.

I want to thank NetGalley, B.A. Paris, and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.