Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

Oh wow. This was my first Nicole Baart book and I have to say that I really enjoyed it- but it took me forever to read (although that was not Nicole’s fault- it was a rough ten+ days at my house taking care of Sir Thomas- and while some cats will let their humans read- mine DO NOT understand why I would even bother reading when I could be petting, holding or feeding them!)

Drawing comparisons to Big Little Lies ( a fave of mine) Little Broken Things did have the secrets, but it was also different. Liane used humor in BLL- which provided a nice counterpoint to the secrets and seriousness of BLL. Nicole, though, just tells a story- a story with characters that will make you think, settings that feel real, and a secret that could heal the women involved in the story.

What I liked:

The cover. I like the hazy colors over the girl. You can’t get a good look at her and that really fits in the story line.

The women. Mother/daughter relationships fascinate me- I always find that they are ripe for conflict- which leads to good storytelling.



Bottom line: Nicole Baart has a winner on her hands and you should check it out- especially if you love family dynamics/secrets in your books.



*Thanks to Atria Books for providing me with a free copy of Little Broken Things. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.*

**Little Broken Things was a November 2017 #FuturisticFriday pick of Traveling With T’s.**

What a great book! I love what I call "relationship fiction", and this book fits the bill nicely. It begins with a mysterious text between sisters- "I have something for you"- followed by a little girl dropped off with little information. Who is she? There is clearly danger, but what? Who?

There are well developed characters and relationships throughout the book. Husband/wife, mother/daughter, sibling. The book is interesting to the very last page. I can highly recommend it!

I was excited to read this once I read the synopsis. It intrigued me greatly, but unfortunately my TBR list is so long that many books got in the way. I came across this one last week after reading quite a few suspense novels, unsure if another was the next best read for me, but I picked it up anyway…. and then I didn’t put it down until I was done.
Baart sends us on a crazy, unexpected journey throughout this novel. It’s filled with betrayal, secrets, and more family drama than you’d expect, but it’s written beautifully.
Her characters are all unique and well described. Reading through this novel, I was able to watch it playing through my mind like a film- It was so vivid and forthcoming. I adored the relationship Walker and Quinn had- so much love and passion for one another. Nora was someone who actually reminded me a lot of my own sister- distant and wrapped up in her full, busy life. Quinn and Nora’s mother Elizabeth was interesting. That whole mother knows best attitude was brimming throughout this novel, until she finally saw her daughters as strong, capable women. I loved seeing the evolution in the characters as the plot progressed, Baart did this so eloquently.
The storyline was not one I’ve read before. Although compared to Moriarty’s Big Little Lies, I believe Little Broken Things has more depth and suspenseful turns. The twists were unexpected and kept me wanting more. You may be about halfway through and have a lightbulb click on in your mind and feel as if you have it all figured out- Keep reading! You don’t…
That’s what I loved about this book. That and the underlining message of being there for your family and that a determined woman can do anything she sets her mind to. This was the absolutely perfect read for me to pick up. I fell in love with the storyline, the characters, and the author.

My review can be seen at RT Book Reviews / 4.5 stars TOP PICK

A beautifully written story about the power of a mother's love and the heart wrenching way a family is reunited after a long estrangement. This suspenseful story is written in a slower yet intriguing manner, so it's perfect for those who love a good mystery, but not all of the super graphic drama and violence that is found in many books lately. It does have it's dark spots, but isn't overwhelmingly heavy.

Little Broken Things is told from multi-POV which I generally enjoy in a book of this genre. I found it to be the perfect narration for this story as it helped to unravel the layers of history that each characters has hidden away. From the first text... "I have something for you" to the very last line, my emotions were all over - anxious to see what would happen next, filled with hope and nervous energy while trying to figure out how many more secrets there could be in this family.

Overall, I'd classify this book as a family drama and mystery with a dash of thriller (though not too much). I'll definitely be checking out more by Ms. Baart as I think this is a great kind of writing style to snuggle up with in the coming winter months.

This is as much a suspense novel as it is about a family broken apart by secrets and lies. It is about repairing that damage and learning to heal. It’s knowing that even though you are estranged that when you need them you can truly count on them.

This is a novel that will satisfy a great many people.

A dysfunctional family with a big secret, Little Broken things is a great family drama and mystery for those who love Liane Moriarty’s novels.

Quinn Cruz is back in Key Lake Minnesota living in one of her mother’s luxury vacation cabin rentals with her artist husband Walker. Her family isn’t close, but Quinn really wants to start a family of her own with Walker although they are having troubles. One day her sister Nora shows up with a secret, who happens to be a scared little girl with dyed hair. Who is Lucy and why does she look like she’s related to Quinn – is she Nora’s daughter?

Nora has always been there for her best friend Tiffany, but she’s at the point where she’s in too far. Tiffany is in a relationship with a bad man and needs to escape. How can Nora help her and keep herself safe? Her co-worker Ethan is the only person who can help her.

Liz is Quinn and Nora’s mother. She takes pride in appearances and living life as perfectly as she can. She tried to raise her children right, and can’t understand now that she is a widow, why she doesn’t have a relationship with them. When mysterious things start to happen around the lake involving her children, she starts to try to figure out what is going on . . .

I liked the three main point of views in this story of Liz the mother and her two estranged daughters Quinn and Nora. What happened to this family and how can it be repaired? The story is also suspenseful – who exactly is Lucy? What has Nora gotten herself into? It’s a slow burn suspense centered on the family and their problems.

I was drawn into the story and it was a very interesting read during this hectic time of year.

Favorite Quotes:

“Indifference was for people who had no reason to care.”

“Even her cutlery knew that one was a melancholy number.”

Overall, Little Broken Things is a good suspenseful family drama.


Book Source: Review Copy as a part of the TLC Book Tour. For more stops on the tour check out this link.

Very much in the vein of Liane Moriarty, Little Broken Things kept me wondering just what was going on.

When Lucy was dropped off to Quinn, I really wasn't sure exactly what to expect. I figured out quite early on who the little girl's father was. What I didn't know was what they were running from...or who. As things begin to be revealed, the whole picture blossoms into a somewhat lackluster end.

I did enjoy the different points of view. I felt it easier to get to know each character. And this was also helpful in unraveling parts of the story. At times, I found Nora unlikable. I wanted her to be more upfront about just what she was hiding. I felt all of Quinn's emotions. Everything she was keeping in the dark, taking care of a strange little girl...and Liz. She reminded me of Emily Gilmore at times. I loved her personality.

In the end, the overall WHY was just "meh." I wanted the girls to be safe, but really it didn't seem as dangerous as I'd thought. I was expecting murder and more. The villain was a piece of work, and disgusting, but he just wasn't part of the story enough.

Fully formatted review available @ https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2067483177

After over a year of avoiding her family, Nora sends her younger sister Quinn a cryptic text: "I have something for you." Quinn is eager to see Nora after all this time, but she's surprised when Nora shows up to their meeting with a six-year-old girl. No explanations, no timeline—just a plea to keep the girl safe and hidden for a few days. Nora flees before Quinn has the chance to refuse. What has Nora dragged Quinn into?

The Sanfords appeared to be a typical suburban family to the outside world, but there were deep fractures forming behind closed doors. The chapters alternate between the perspectives of the three Sanford women:

• Quinn and Nora's mother Liz is a problem-solver, though she's never been comfortable examining any problem too deeply: "sometimes getting lost in the details was better than stepping back to look at the whole, ugly picture." Anytime her thoughts get too close to the heart of an issue, she immediately shifts her attention elsewhere. Over the years, she made many compromises trying to keep her family together and maintain their perfect facade. It cost her; time flew by and everything she was trying to preserve disintegrated. She centered her identity around being a wife and a mother, but now her husband is dead and her children want little to do with her. After years of taking a back seat in her own life, she's finally in charge. She's determined to fix her family's problems, even if things have to get a little messy first.

• Nora (27) is the middle child. She's rebellious and passionate. She escaped her family as soon as she could.

• Quinn (26) is an eternal optimist and eager to be loved. She idolizes her older sister Nora who is kind of a mythic figure to her. Quinn craves stability and will do anything to keep the peace. It surprised everyone when she ran off to Los Angeles and married an artist. Now both Quinn and her husband Walker are unemployed and temporarily living at her mother's rental property in Key Lake, Minnesota. Not only do they have financial stress, but Liz has made no secret of her disapproval for Walker.


DISLIKES
• This book is recommended for fans of Liane Moriarty. Both Baart and Moriarty have a talent for examining complex emotions and uncomfortable thoughts, but what I like most about Moriarty's writing are the moments of lightness and her wicked sense of humor. Little Broken Things didn't make me feel the same range of emotions, though I liked the rare moments of joy that appeared.
• Nora's character was elusive to me. I never fully understood Nora's complete devotion and self-sacrifice for her best friend. The one thing that would have made sense to me didn't pan out. It was interesting that all the Sanford women experienced uneven relationships, or at very least felt on unequal footing with their partner.
• I liked when Liz reflected on her marriage and her alienation from her children, but overall she was so unlikable and self-serving that I kept looking to see how many minutes were left in her chapters. I was not interested in her party planning, even though her focus on the superficial made sense! To be completely fair, I think my recent reading of Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere reduced my tolerance for this type of character (and for meaningful art projects at the end). One small thing that endeared me to Liz was her reflexive impulse to make passive aggressive comments or offer unsolicited advice and the immediate regret she felt as she was doing it! Nora and Quinn both have positive manifestations of Liz's most annoying qualities, so it would've been interesting to get more of a glimpse of pre-marriage Liz.
• The characters had a tendency jump to conclusions and repeatedly assert those conclusions as fact. This is especially annoying when it happens so early in the story that you can assume they're probably misguided!
• “I think I have a God complex.” These characters had a frustrating habit of trying to handle HUGE problems on their own. I often wished they would consult the police, a lawyer, or even each other and let me get on with my life. :D
• Predictable. I figured out all the twists as the characters were introduced, so the reveals were underwhelming.



LIKES :
• I enjoyed Baart's writing and insights. I wanted to see how the story played out.
• Quinn! I related to her the most and I really liked her character arc from beginning to end. I especially enjoyed reading her conflicted feelings about marriage, motherhood, and her sister. One of my favorites scenes was when she becomes overwhelmed during a gathering of old high school friends. She no longer fits into the small town life that she once reveled in. She has difficulty being surrounded by all the young families while she is trying to get pregnant.

• The BEST part was Quinn trying to win over six-year-old Everlee—all the painful rejections and the small victories. If you read the "Acknowledgements" section at the end, you'll understand why those scenes were so special! While Quinn is trying to bond with Everlee, Liz is trying to reconnect with Quinn and failing. She wants so badly to have a relationship with her daughter, but she can't overcome her own flaws to make any progress.
They were too far apart and far too close all at the same time. Perpetually missing each other.

Who is Everlee? What is Nora running from? What tore the Sanford family apart—was it one big explosion or the build-up of multiple tiny fractures? Will this broken family be able to put themselves back together again? Will the Sanford women learn that it's okay to be vulnerable? I preferred the small family conflicts over the big central drama. This book is at it's best when dealing with conflicted family relationships. The characters can't help feel the inescapable pull towards their family (biological or chosen) even after they've been hurt numerous times: "How could she begin to explain the way she felt for her husband? The pretty layers that peeled back to reveal something dark and rotting beneath? They had lived a good, solid, respectable life. But that didn’t mean that she loved him. That she would mourn his loss. And yet." I've overdone it on the suburbia/"behind closed doors" type books lately, so that might have affected my enjoyment. Fans of domestic dramas like Cruel Beautiful World by Caroline Leavitt and The Fall of Lisa Bellow by Susan Perabo might enjoy this story.

Quinn gets a very mysterious text from her estranged sister, Nora Sanford: I have something for you. Intrigued, Quinn meets Nora and picks up the "thing", which happens to be Lucy, a six-year old girl, with the only instructions, "Keep her safe and hide her from everyone." Quinn does as she is told, while trying to discover who Lucy is and what trouble Nora has gotten into. Is Lucy Nora's daughter? She does look like a Sanford, but how and when? As she tries to answer these questions, Quinn learns more about herself, her mother and her sister than she could even imagine. Little Broken Things is a novel that explores the mother/daughter/sister relationships in the folds of a family drama/crisis. It goes deeper to answer the questions the characters ask and all women ask ourselves at one point, "Am I a good mother?", "What makes a good mother?" Can I be a better mother?"

I loved the suspense in this book. It isn't piled on all at once, but rather spread over time and delivered so easily and simply, you don't realize it's there until you can't put the book down. The characters are amazingly real and relatable.Liz was probably my favorite due to the amount of growth she made as a mother/mother-in-law and friend during the crisis, not only with her with her own daughters, but with her son-in-law, Walker, and her friends, Macy and Kent. At the end, it did leave me with a few lingering questions, which would make this a perfect read for a book club discussion.

I absolutely loved this book! My book club chose this as our December pick and it was a 5 star read for me. I was sucked in to this story immediately and read it in one sitting. Even though it was more of a slow burn and I figured out the twist early on, that did not take away from the reading experience for me. I thought Nicole wrote it so beautifully and built so much tension and unease up all through out the book that I constantly felt on edge. I loved the way the book examined motherhood and family secrets.... and I also loved when Elizabeth Undone was revealed at the end ..... ALL. THE. FEELS. The author's note at the end made me tear up over her honesty. This book secured a spot on my top reads of 2017 because I thought it was an excellent portrayal of how difficult motherhood is, how much sacrifice can be involved and how complicated relationships among family members can be.

I received an Advance Review Copy of this book. All Opinions are my Own.

This book has been compared to Big Little Lies, but I think it stands all on its own. I love stories with strong characters and plot lines, and this one did not disappoint. Quinn was a great main character, and her relationship with Nora really sucked me in from the beginning. Definitely recommend this for readers who like the slow burn mystery genre!

This story was full of strong women who had been through troubles in their lives. I really enjoyed how their family came together to help Everlee aka Lucy. This is a beautiful book with strong characters and an excellent plot. There is an interesting revelation toward the end of the book and I enjoyed the clues leading up to it and then finally being right about my suspicions. The ending was amazing & I’m so glad to have had the chance to read this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this novel. All opinions are my own.

I kept seeing this book compared to Big Little Lies, which I absolutely loved, so I was hoping I'd love this book just as much. It was good, but I'm not sure that I would compare it to BLL.

The characters were well written and came to life for me...so much so that I was getting annoyed by things and found myself having little inside jokes with them. Quinn would say something, and I'd immediately think, "That's so Quinn!". I think this speaks volumes on how much thought and detail Nicole Baart put into the characters.

The setting was so cozy, that I had a hard time getting my mind to remember this was supposed to be a drama. I wanted to curl up on a dock of this lake with a good book. I could picture it all very vividly in my mind.

The plot moved at an OK pace, but I would have preferred it to move a bit quicker--I'm impatient. Over all, I thought the twist at the end was shocking--definitely not what I was expecting.

I received an Advance Review Copy of this book. All Opinions are my Own.

I didn't love this book. I didn't care much for the characters and was bored with the story. It just wasn't for me.

As much as I wanted to love this book, I just didn't. My interest is piqued when Nora gives Quinn a little girl named Lucy, then disappears, leaving Quinn filled with questions. I do love the character names but found the story to be a bit too predictable. It was hard for me to get into the book and I was not drawn to continue reading it. I did finish the book as I was given a copy in return for an honest review. If not, I probably would have put it down long before the end.

This book had me hooked from the first page. It was one where I stayed up later, woke up earlier, put off things I needed to do so I could read another fantastic chapter or two. The characters were all so great, the bad guy was especially bad, and the story itself was amazing. Loved it!

Wow. What to say without giving away anything of the story. Once I started this book, I wanted to finish it immediately. The layers to the story were slowly revealed one layer at a time. Reading this book reminded me of when I was a kid and would watch a scary movie. I would often cover my eyes with my hands but peak through my fingers to still watch. That is how I felt reading this book. I wanted to know what happened but I was scared that the actual story would break me. This was my first story by Baart and it won't be my last.

I received an Advance Review Copy of this book. All Opinions are my Own

Have you seen the buzz surrounding this gem of a book? I sure have, especially on Instagram and I haven’t missed the comparisons to Liane Moriarty and as much as I usually hate when books are touted as the next (insert name of huge, best selling book) I can definitely see why the comparison is being used. Fans of books in Moriarty’s vein will adore this one, I can see it being picked as a book club read very easily!

This is told using various points of view, you have Liz mother to Nora and Quinn and all were extremely well rounded and well written. You know how you sometimes read a really great book and by the end you feel like you truly know the characters? That’s Little Broken Things in a nutshell. The depth of characterization is outstanding, this was a multifaceted story written in a heartbreakingly gorgeous manner.

As much as the beginning of the book hooked me, it had that steady quiet type of suspense that requires some patience. BUT, if you stick with it I really believe the payoff is worth it in the end. Don’t get me wrong, I was still very engrossed and I found it to be a compelling read, I just want to give a warning to those who may be expecting a super intense and fast paced read.

I liked the premise. It grabbed me from the beginning. It was a good read with suspense though some of the actions were not fully believable. I would read more from this author.