I was intrigued by this book. A mother brings her baby into the hospital and it's discovered she has a fractured skull. The doctor, a friend, knows the mother is covering up something. An investigation ensues and the story gets very tangled. The author included tricky plots that were very clever. I felt sorry for little Frankie who bore the brunt of the blame and he wasn't at fault at all. Jess stupidity angered me. It shows how quickly life can become disastrous if you turn your back.

This book wasn't what I expected but I enjoyed it all the same. I requested this thinking it would be a fast-paced thriller, but instead I would say that it is a thoughtfully-paced mystery. However, the tension builds throughout the book and I found that I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. Recommended for anyone who enjoys mysteries.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was a fan of The Anatomy of a Scandal, so I was curious to see what Vaughn would write this time around. Liz is a pediatric doctor, who has drawn the short straw and is working Friday night when a friend, Jess, brings in her ten month old baby to the ER. The mother’s story isn't consistent with the head injury. As much as Liz doesn’t want to, she’s forced to get social services involved.
We hear from both women, in a nonlinear fashion. The women have vastly different lives. Jess is a stay at home mom in a “traditional” marriage. She’s an anti-vaccine, perfectionist, organic food kind of mom as well. I can’t say I liked either Jess or Ed, probably because I just couldn’t identify with them. But I could sympathize with the way their lives are overrun once the ball starts rolling on the investigation. And as the book went on, I definitely felt sorry for Jess, as she has some serious issues.
Liz was someone I totally related to. She’s blessed with a good marriage but has an alcoholic mother. She's the kind of gal that suffers insomnia because of everything she worries about.
The book shows how little we sometimes know or understand our friends. And how one instance can make us call all our assumptions into question. It is a well paced book, with an underlying tension. We know from early on that Jess is lying. But why? Kudos to Vaughn as I was sure I knew what had happened but she threw in a great twist I didn’t see coming. I loved this ending as it reminds us of the importance of our friendships.
Now, I’m not maternal at all, unless there are four legs and a tail involved (another reason I didn’t bond with Jess). But parts of the book disturbed me!
My thanks to netgalley and Atria Books for an advance copy of this book.

Jess is a mother of 3 and has felt overwhelmed since the birth of her youngest. Her husband works long hours and she finds herself frequently alone to manage the home and children. 

Jess feels isolated and alone. She struggles with feelings of anger and resentment toward her infant daughter. 

A trip to the ER with the young girl results in protective services being called; raising questions about Jess’s care of her children. Her husband is ambivalent; torn between how he feels and inconsistencies in Jess'  story. 

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a slow building drama/,mystery 


Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to review this book

Liz, an emergency room doctor, is called on to assist with a baby girl's head injury. The head injury is puzzingly severe, and her mother - an old friend of Liz's - has no proper explanation. From there, this novel moves back and forth in time - from the present to when the group of friends first met at a prenatal class - ratcheting up the tension as it goes. The story deals with mental illness (such as postpartum depression, anxiety, and intrusive thoughts) and does so in a thoughtful and sensitive way. Some of the passages are quite difficult to read, particularly if you have young kids, but not in a gratuitous way. I reached the end and felt quite emotionally wrung out - it's an enjoyable psychological thriller, although I think it would have been better without the final twist.

This novel is both a compelling psychological thriller with unexpected twists and turns, and also an exploration of motherhood and female relationships from multiple angles. Pediatrician Liz is called in on a consult and finds a friend and her infant daughter. As she examines the little girl, she notices a head injury and has the sinking realization that the story is not adding up and she may have to report potential abuse. This has crossover appeal for thriller and women's fiction readers, as well as fans of Celeste Ng and Liane Moriarty.

Motherhood in the raw. Sarah Vaughan weaves the tale of motherhood through a group of women who met in a birthing group though ten years later things are not as they seem when Liz, a doctor, has to report her friend Jess after her youngest child has a skull fracture and the story doesn't quite add up. Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the advanced copy of Little Disasters in return for an honest review.

When pediatrician, Liz Trenchard is called into ER by a junior doctor she is surprised to see that the baby daughter of her friend Jess is the patient. Jess says the baby has been crying all night and then started vomiting but when Liz examines her she finds a head injury that Jess can't adequately explain. However, Liz knows that Jess, stay at home mother of three, is the perfect mother all other mothers are jealous of, so what happened for baby Betsey to have a head injury?

This tale of mothers and parenting will resonate with many mothers who have experienced the long and often lonely hours of dealing with an unsettled baby who won't stop crying and hardly sleeps. It's no wonder that some exhausted, sleep deprived mothers will suffer from postnatal depression and even anxiety about accidently harming their babies. In trying to work out what has happened to Betsey, Liz is also forced to look at her own relationship with her mother and events that happened in her childhood. Although not a thriller, this is an engaging character-driven mystery, delving into what happened to baby Betsey, the events that led up to it and the importance of society and friends in supporting new mothers and recognising when they need help.

3.5 stars

This book explores the consequences of postpartum depression in a character driven story that alerts the readers to the various ways in which new mothers often find themselves after having a new child in their midst.

Charlotte, Mel, Liz, and Jess are friends having met in a prenatal class. In this book, Jess is the main protagonist and the mother of three. She has a good husband, but he works constantly so she can be a stay at home mom. Jess is a perfectionist and is troubled by dark dreams and visions of tragedy and hurt for her new daughter who is fussy, crying all the time, and making demands on Jess that she feels incapable of delivering. She thinks herself a bad mother and when the awful happens she is brought into the sphere of Liz, a pediatrician and a friend, at a local hospital who herself is feeling harried, overworked and unable to devote time to her offspring.

This book looks to these women who try to balance everything, one being a single parent, another being unhappy in her marriage and unable to conceive and desiring another"s husband and Jess, not understanding why she is unable to function as she had done previously. Life and all its trials of being a parent catches up with all of them, and the book reveals what many a woman has felt, gone through, and continues to be dealing with on a daily basis.

This was a good character study viewing a side of the other side of parenthood we often tend to push to the side.
Thank you to Net Galley for a copy of this story due out on August 18,2020.

After giving birth, several woman have to face post-partum depression and it can be very tough to overcome! This is a story of one woman overcoming several mental illnesses that mothers face several days or weeks after giving birth! This are very hard times and an important time to stay close to those people rather your family or just a friend! One kind word can change someone's day and can stop them from doing the unthinkable.

Little Disasters seemed to have an interesting story line and I was eager to dive in; however, the story seemed to fall flat, and it was a bit long for something that could have been summarized into 200 pages or so. The story seems to be presented as if it is a thriller, where as it actually ended up being about the depression a mother can experience after giving birth. There was a small little twist at the end of the story that changed the outcome; however, the reveal was lackluster and not very exciting. The characters were not very developed and as I was reading, I did not care about any of them or what happened to them. Overall, I feel like this book could have had so much more, but ultimately was a let down for me personally.

Little Disasters was a page turner about an infant with a head injury of unknown origins. Jess tells a story of what happened the night her daughter was hurt but the extent of the injuries don't match her story. We are left wondering what really happened and questioning whether or not Jess is being truthful. The book was good, but I just didn't feel connected to any of the characters. I felt like I was reading a book, not like I was actually in the story with them. I honestly had trouble writing this review because I wasn't quite sure what to say. Goodreads says I finished the book just 10 days ago and while I do remember the basic jist of the story, most of it was rather forgettable. Thank you to Atria/Emily Bestler Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

I received a copy of this book from net galley. I did not care for the authors writing style. The book was tedious to me and I didn’t care for the characters

Thank you @netgalley @svaughanauthor and @simonandschuster for the ARC of your newest novel Little Disasters. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read for this thriller! Liz is an emergency pediatric doctor who is called to check on an injury for Betsey her friend Jess’s daughter. But upon further examination Betsey has a fractured skull and Jess has a sketchy story of how the event happened after waiting over 6 hours to bring her daughter in. Is Jess the picture perfect mother Liz thought she was? What will happen to their friendship now that the police are involved? Read and find out! I thought this was a really great thriller but definitely a tough read, full of triggers for many. I enjoyed the characters and the ending was definitely unexpected.

This was an extremely difficult read for me. I'm a Mum myself and have been trying for a second child for six years. But despite wanting children, I know PND is a very real and very scary illness that can happen to anyone and it terrifies me. The thoughts that enter your sleep deprived mind can be awful, and the fear of acting on these thoughts are worse. As parents, we are to love and protect our children and so we feel ashamed if we feel anything else.
And that's what this story is about. Jess has just had her third child, Betsey. Due to a traumatic birth, Jess struggled to bond with her new daughter. She doesn't know how to comfort her or care for her, she's ashamed of the thoughts she has and everything poses a threat to her tiny baby.
But then Betsey gets hurt and ends up in hospital.
Jess is under suspicion from the start. But things aren't quite as they seem.

Excellent read. Learned a lot about postpartum and how important it is to pay attention to those around us who may need help whether it be the adults or the children before something goes very wrong. Even as a nurse myself there are things I learned to help me in life. Touching story as well as heartbreaking. Also proves the true love and bonds of family and friendships.

Little Disasters is the latest book by Sarah Vaughan. I want to thank Atria Books and NetGalley for an early copy to review. Ms Vaughan tells the story with different points of view and back and forth in time. Little Disasters certainly shows the reader a lot of things that shouldn't be done. There will come a time when this book is impossible to put down.

How well do you really know your friends? This book raised this very question when baby Betsey is brought into the hospital with a skull injury. The baby's mother is Jess, a good friend of Liz, who is the treating paediatrician at the hospital. Liz can't help but doubt Jess' explanation as to how the injury occurs and soon, the police and social services are called onto the scene. 

This is a heartbreaking book with so many issues arising. There are a few twists along the way too which kept me engrossed.

Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan is part-thriller and part-women's fiction. For me, the book missed the mark a bit in that it was lacking balance. It also grapples with some intense topics like postpartum depression, which may be triggering for some readers. Readers without these triggers may find this story to be engaging.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

There was a lot of underlying important topics that aren't spoken up about enough, and for that I appreciate this book. But, I did feel this book dragged on for me. Maybe I wasn't in the right headspace to read this one, but it took me way longer to read than usual and I just wanted it to end. At about 65% I was hoping I was much further along, and from then just itching for it to end. Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read this arc and provide my honest opinion.