I had heard rave reviews of Behind Closed Doors, so I wanted to get my hands on The Breakdown as soon as possible. It's fast paced, draws you in way faster than The Girl on the Train, of which many will draw comparisons. While the title characters share several qualities, Cass had her life together-- good job, happily married, close friends, and enough money to live comfortably. Everything changes when she doesn't stop on a stormy night for a pedestrian in possible trouble and doesn't report it. Paris includes lots of plot twists and successfully makes you believe you're losing your mind! For readers who want to see how you could intertwine Still Alice and The Girl on the Train, this one's for you!

I really enjoyed Behind Closed Doors so I was excited when I got the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of this (thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press). Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed. I found the first 80% of the book to be slow and boring. Cass was annoying and so dumb. The repetition of Cass forgetting something and then freaking out while her husband and friend acted shady was just too much. Their reactions to Cass were so unrealistic that their involvement was obvious from the start. The ending was predictable but I actually started enjoying the book more once the "twist" was revealed, even though I knew it was coming. The way the truth was revealed to Cass goes beyond suspension of disbelief but whatever. This was okay but not nearly as good as Behind Closed Doors.

I could not wait to read this, Behind Closed Doors was the best book I have read in years. This book was awesome, not quite as good as her previous novel, but still great. I could not stop reading this to find out what was going to happen. I loved all the twists and the ending was amazing!

4.5 stars rounded up!  What an absolutely thrilling and emotional ride this book took me on!

This book totally consumed me and I couldn't think of anything else but this book. I was reading it everywhere and anywhere which was annoying the heck out of my husband.

THE BREAKDOWN by B.A. PARIS is an interesting, thrilling, suspenseful, and cleverly written psychological thriller that takes you on a very emotional and apprehensive tale here questioning the psyche of our main protagonist, Cass.  Is she really having a breakdown, early onset dementia, or is there something more sinister at work here?

B.A. PARIS delivers an impressive, tense, and mind-blowing story here that was executed at breakneck speed grabbing my attention from the very first page and didn’t let go until the very last word.  I could really feel Cass’s emotional distress, guilt, anguish, and frustration throughout the novel and questioning her mental health right along with her.  I didn’t know what the heck was going on and I loved it!

Okay, while I found this story to be really fun and exciting for the most part I must say that I did find some of it to be a little predictable and tedious in parts but it sure made up for it though with its heavy buildup of anticipation, the thrilling climax, and the unexpected and surprising conclusion to make this an extremely good read.

To sum it all up it was an entertaining, gripping, fast-paced, and an easy read with an unexpected and exciting ending. Highly recommend!!

Thank you so much to NetGalley, B.A. Paris, and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book for a fair and honest review.

If you love unreliable narrators, you'll love The Breakdown. Does the title allude to a car breaking down in the beginning, the driver later found murdered, or is it about the main character's declining state of mind after realizing she saw the driver alive and failed to render aid? Or does she, instead, have early onset dementia like her mother? I went back and forth throughout the book, thinking I'd "just" figured it out. I hadn't. Paris does a superb job of creating doubt in the reader's mind at every turn. Such a deliciously fun escape!

To be honest this was probably more of a 2.5 star rating. I didn't find it very compelling and I didn't really care about any of the characters. I found Cass to be a pretty frustrating character and the plot was pretty predictable. As a whole the book is reasonable entertaining and well written, but it just didn't work for me.

How would you deal with living in an isolated cottage close to where a murder had just occured ?
How would you feel when you wake up in the morning, to discover the woman in the car you passed last night had been brutally murdered ?
This is what Cass has to deal with. She feels guilty that she passed this woman last night. She was parked up in a layby on an isolated road close to where Cass lives. Cass did slow down and then stop, but she never went to check.. If she had checked would the woman still be alive ? Or would she herself have been a second murder victim ?
Cass does not tell anyone that she passed the car and this guilt eats her up. She dicovers she actually knew the woman, Jane Walters. Cass had met her at a party that she and her best friend Rachel had attended, they had got on so well, that they then went on to have lunch together.
Add to this guilt, the sleepless nights, silent phonecalls, things being forgotten, and meetings being missed and Cass gradually goes into a decline of drastic proportions.
This is a well written book and i liked the characters. But i actually made a note at 20% into the book, as to who and why i thought the "baddies2 were. It is unusual for me to do this, as i normally don't work out the plot as i am reading. But the more i read the more obvious to me it became. The character of Cass did start to jar a little, but i understand that is the nature of her, and it also would have been how her husband, Matthew, and Rachel would have felt. There were a couple of points in the ending that did surprise me.

Having read this author's first book and loved it, i could not wait to read her second book and boy was the wait worth it.

It was a truly magnificent read from start to finish, i was literally on the edge of my seat with anticipation as to what would happen next.

The characters were believable and story plot was cleverly written. It was a fast paced read that i got through real quickly.

Can't wait to read the author's third book.

After reading Paris's first novel I was very excited to start this novel. Cass, our main protagonist is entering her summer teaching break and is at a year end party when she leaves to drive home in a rainstorm and takes a shorter route. She sees a car pulled over the side of the road but opts not to stop. The next morning she hears that a women has been murdered on that road and then she finds out that the women was her new friend. This event is the trigger to Cass's paranoia and downward spiral.
I did find that the first half of the book legged a bit. The "thriller" points of the novel were quite repetitive with the silent calls. But the last 20 percent was worth because I loved how the ending played out and they way it was delivered to us. Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

The only thing that kept me reading through to the end, besides wanting to review it, was that I had to know if my initial theory three pages in was correct. It was.

There were some other elements I didn't guess that revealed themselves in the last 20% or so, so I guess I'm glad I stuck it out. But the rest seemed so obvious. I mean, it took me three pages, for goodness sake!

In addition to being mostly predictable, the narrator was infuriating. I know not every human being reacts the same in all situations but I could not, for the life of me, understand who would react like she did. For starters, the only thing she did that made any sense was NOT stop for the vehicle she sees at night on a dark road in the middle of a storm. With no signs of distress from the vehicle, her reasons for not stopping made perfect sense but then she spends the entire book obsessing over her guilt at not doing so, not discussing it with anyone, and just can't get the hell over it. This does not seem normal to me. Her insistence the the killer is calling her is bizarre as well. Yeah, silent phone calls are creepy and annoying but the leap to being targeted by the killer is far-fetched.

At the end, you can kind of give her a pass for some other stuff. Because she was.. not entirely to blame. I'm glad she at least pulled herself together and showed some cleverness and spine. But honestly, it seemed sort of out of character for her at that point. At no point did she have any sort of resolve to find out for sure what was happening to her and her mind, until she gets a push and that snaps into action. It seemed like a big leap.

I'm glad the end sort of redeemed itself but for some, it's going to take a lot of patience to stick it out that long.

Why oh why did I try this author again? Her books sound good in a blurb but the finished product does not give this reader a satisfying experience. The writing is lazy, with a broad-brush plot and characters / scenes painted thinly over-top trying to stretch it out into a story arc. I guessed the "surprise" less than a third of the way in because the hints were so overdone. No suspense, no decent character development. Memo to self: do not read anything by this author again.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the e-review copy of this book.

I loved this book, it was just the kind of psychological thriller that I love.  Really gave me the creeps at times and could not put it down, had to keep reading it to see where the story was going, who was responsible and what was going to happen to Cass.

This is the second book I’ve read by B.A. Paris, I loved the first one but have to admit I thought that this book was even better – highly recommended and 5 stars from me!

Firstly I would like to thank the author, publisher and NetGalley for my copy of this book. This is the first book that I have read by this author and it certainly won’t be the last. This book hooked me in from the beginning and I thoroughly enjoyed it right the way through. I think this book has a really good, gripping plot and a brilliant ending.

Holy Cow! This book will keep you on the edge of seat from the 1st page to the end, I had a very hard time putting this book down.

I love how the author makes you think the breakdown is about one thing then turns it on it’s head and makes it something you didn’t see coming. I did start to get a little inkling of what was going on at about 80% but the reveal still blew me away.

This is one of those books that is hard to review, as I don’t want to give anything away. So I will just say BUY THIS BOOK! This is a must read for fans of psychological thrillers. BA Paris is a new star of this genre if you are a Lisa Gardner or Harlan Coben fan give Paris a try you won’t be disappointed!

I feel like I should say more about the book itself but I can’t figure out how to do that without spoilers.

4 ½ Stars


I received this book from the publisher & Netgalley for fair and honest review and I thank you!

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

I read B.A. Paris’s first book “Behind Closed Doors” and enjoyed it but I honestly liked this one much more.

This starts off with Cass being on the phone with her husband, Matthew, as she’s getting ready to head home during a terrible storm. Matthew tells her not to take the shorter way home through Blackwater Lane but she does and everything changes the next morning as she wakes up and hears that a woman has been murdered on that road, the woman she saw as she drove through there the night before.

This book was honestly not what I expected and I mean that in a good way. I enjoyed “Behind Closed Doors” but this book was much better. It kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat until the end.

When I got to the last few chapters, the book had a total twist that I didn’t see coming. It made the book so much better. I would have honestly read this book in one sitting if work hadn’t gotten in my way.

If you want a compelling read, I definitely suggest this one.

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Is Cass losing her mind?

After passing what she thinks is a broke down car on the side of a back road, she decides that getting out and helping the woman inside isn't a good idea. So, home she heads. The next day the news covers a murder of a woman that occurred the night before on the same road Cass traveled. Cass becomes consumed with guilt and paranoia. If she had helped this lady, perhaps she could've prevented the murder. What if she had gotten out and become a victim herself? Is the killer after her? Did she really see the murder weapon sitting on her kitchen counter? And WHO keeps calling her, but not talking?

Another good book by B.A. Paris!

Awesome psychological thriller. I was totally taken into the story with plenty of ,What?? What's??" As going along. I will definitely be recommending this book., and can't wait to read more by this author.

Oh what a tangled web she wove! Celebrating the last day of school with her coworkers, Cass leaves the gathering close to midnight and in the middle of a violent thunderstorm. Eager to get home, Cass takes a shortcut through rugged woods even though she promised her husband Matthew she wouldn't. In the middle of the woods Cass sees a car on the side of the road with a woman sitting in the driver's seat. Not wanting to get out of her car because of the blinding wind and rain, but wanting to make sure the woman is ok, Cass pulls in front of the woman's vehicle hoping she will flash her lights or give some other sign she needs help. When nothing happens Cass continues home. The next morning she hears on the news a woman has been found murdered in the exact spot where Cass saw the parked car. Although the police are asking for witnesses, Cass can't admit to what she saw because Matthew would know she lied to him about not taking the shortcut home. Things go from bad to worse when Cass learns the murder victim is Jane, a woman Cass had recently befriended. Struggling with the guilt she feels over lying to Matthew and not coming forward with what she knows, Cass's life begins to spiral out of control. First she starts forgetting things...a lunch date with her best friend Rachel, Matthew's out of town business trip, and items are delivered to Cass's house she doesn't remember buying. When she starts getting phone calls but no one is on the other end, Cass suspects that Jane's killer saw her in the woods and is trying to torment her. But is she losing her mind, or is something more sinister going on? The Breakdown is like a classic Alfred Hitchcock thriller-nothing (and no one) is what it seems to be. It's intense, twisted and engrossing. The suspense builds slowly-like peeling away the layers of an onion-but then explodes in a mad rush of revelations about who killed Jane and how Cass is connected. Ms. Paris's previous novel-Behind Closed Doors-enjoyed some success, but The Breakdown should be one of the top selling books of 2017.

4.5 stars
I received an e-galley from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I loved Behind Closed Doors so was very excited to read an advanced copy of The Breakdown and I have to say I was not disappointed. On her way home from an evening out, Cass sees a car (broken down?) at the side of a road with a woman inside. She pulls over, debating as to whether or not to get out of the car to see if the woman needs help, but decides not to, just in case it's a set up of some kind. The next day she learns the woman in the car was murdered and she actually knew her. From there, Cass's life seems to go haywire as she keeps getting hang up on her phone and mysterious things happen in her home. It's possible she has early onset Alzheimer's like her mother- or does she? Is something else going on? Who can she trust?
A total roller coaster ride of a book. Highly recommend.

One of the best thrillers I've ever read! The more I read, the more I wanted to uncover all the details! Read this in one night. I just hope that B. A. Paris continues to write books. She surely have a talent.