In true thriller fashion, Pekkanen did not let the reader go from the first page until the very end! This was a thriller that I did not know where it was going to go and it’s plot twists were unpredictable and blew my mind! I’ve read a few other books from this author and I can confidently say that House of Glass is my favorite! I can’t wait for everyone to read it!

Pekkanen's voice is truly one of a kind, and refreshing in the thriller genre. Loved this solo work of hers and can't wait to read more! The perfect thriller that not only gives you all the twists and turns, but leaves you feeling like you don't know/can't trust anyone.

House of Glass, Sarah Pekkanen
When Stella, a power attorney, is asked to cover a case for a young girl, she's apprehensive. Rose’s nanny fell to her death from a third story window. Was it an accident or did someone push her? Her parents are in the midst of a terrible divorce, a grandmother who has something to hide, and 9 year old Rose who loves sharp objects like knives and shards of glass. So many twists and turns where everyone is suspect and no one can be trusted. Stella also has her own past and trauma she's trying to cope with. Can there be a happy ending for everyone?
I always enjoy Pekkanen's book and this was a good one. Probably not my favorite, but worth a read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was a fabulous twisty psychological mystery. So glad I got the opportunity to read this. Now I need to look for her other books

Absolutely love it. Addictive page turner for sure

I've read a lot of Sarah Pekkanen and I think she knows how to weave an interesting and thought provoking thriller. This book reminded me a lot of when I first got into psychological thrillers with it's fast pace and classic "whodunnit" vibes that make you keep guessing.

I found this to be good, not great. I thought the killer was easily sussed out to a well seasoned thriller reader but I still enjoyed seeing it through! I didn't care for the romance aspect at the end, it felt like Stella was "taking her eyes off the prize"

Rounded up from 3.5

After not loving Gone Tonight I was a little hesitant to give this author another go. I was thoroughly surprised by this one and really enjoyed it. I thought it was going to be a lot like the Push and was waiting for the evil child to actually be evil.

Oooo this book captured my attention very quickly. I loved the domestic thriller genre and this got me. At first it gave Sharp objects vibes especially when it went into the childhood trauma stories. It was a really great book and wrapped up well.

House of Glass relates the story of an attorney specializing in evaluating families for the purpose of making custody recommendations. The family Pekkanen brings to life is full of strife and secrets with full development of characters that pull the reader in to their turmoil. The twists and subplot about Stella, the attorney, add another layer of mystery to keep the reader captivated.

House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this eGalley read.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars

Rose Barclay is a nine year old girl who witnessed the possible murder of her nanny. Stella Hudson is a best interest attorney, appointed to serve as counsel for children in custody cases. So begins this tightly woven psychological thriller of a story. A book that is fast-paced, tense and full of red herrings.

An eerie home, a child who collects sharp objects and refuses to speak, a mother, a father, the grandmother and the nanny’s boyfriend—all are suspects. Who murdered this young nanny?

Another addictive read by Sarah Pekkanen.

The Energy: Blithe, imploring, heedless
The Scene: 🇺🇸 Washington D.C. and a renovated historic mansion in Maryland.
The POV: We follow a children’s Best Interest Attorney dealing with a whirlwind case involving a nine-year old girl traumatized by her nanny's death and her parents’ impending divorce.

🎬 Tale-Telling: Stella's first-person narrative was present tense so that gave a sense of urgency for the drama, but most of the time it trended more toward melodrama. It sometimes felt like it was trying to do too much with too many storylines.

👥 Characters: Stella dominated the narrative with her self-proclaimed importance and taking the moral high ground. I was craving more depth and less posturing. Despite all the reminders about how she uses her past trauma to excel at her job, she made dangerous decisions not just for herself but for the people she is supposed to be acting in the best interest of, and we didn't really get any exploration of why she was doing that. The peripheral characters were more fleshed out, quirky, and unlikeable in a way that didn’t feel over the top.

🤓 Reader Role: Listener and observer. We get all of Stella's thoughts, justifications, and dilemmas. We rarely know more than the main character so we are sleuthing and discovering things alongside her.

🗺️ Ambiance: The setting of Washington D.C. and the renovated mansion worked well. The ‘off’ vibes in the house were felt from the start.

🔥 Fuel: The mystery around the nanny’s death and psychological suspense with the family was so compelling! But the suspense was undermined by spoon-feeding us the twists. The romance felt tacked on, like a last-minute instant-love addition. By the halfway mark I was irritated with the sub-plot of Stella’s past...I had so little interest in it, especially just as things were ramping up with the assessment.

🚙 Journey: The story started off promising with the eerie undertones of a troubled family. I feel like it needed polishing because most subplots started off interesting but fizzled out awkwardly in the middle of other storylines. The endings felt rushed to conclude and I disliked the action scenes. It did that thing where the ‘big bad’ and potential victim pause to have a deep discussion in the middle of high-stakes pursuit and escape.

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🐺 Growls: Contrived plot points. The YA-like writing style with overt guidance and lack of nuanced character development (on the plus side, this could be a good book for readers transitioning from YA to adult novels).
🐕 Howls: Trying to do too much by having Stella’s history compete with the mystery of the nanny’s death and the family assessment.
🐩 Tail Wags: The core murder mystery and the unsettling "creepy kid" vibes. The psychological elements, Rose, and her family dynamics. The sleuthing and interviews with people who knew the nanny.

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Mood Reading Match-Up:
-Melodramatic characters with touches of ‘how far would you go for your family”
-Amateur sleuthing and whodunnit foul play or folly mystery
-Psychological suspense with shady family secrets
-Commentary and light themes about manipulation, lies, child trauma, vulnerabilities of childhood, loneliness, and family secrets.

Content Heads-Up: Loss of a parent (in childhood). Drug abuse and overdose (recall, on page). Infidelity (descriptive, on page). Violence. Child abuse, emotional neglect.
Rep: Bisexual. Heterosexual. Traumatic mutism. White, ambiguous, and Latine/Latino characters.

👀 Format: Digital review copy from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley.

“Reviews are my musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶 refined by my AI bookworm bestie ✨”

First, thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This book came along at just the right time for me. I love mysteries, especially those with psychological overtones. I'd just finished a mammoth book, weighty in its subject as well, and this quick read was a great follow-up to it.

I must say that I enjoyed the first half of the book more than the last. I liked the main character, Stella Hudson, developed well by the author. Beievable and likeable too. But she seemed to get dumber as the book went on. This one is a page turner that you'll want to keep reading to see what happens.

The subplot disclosing Stella's background and her mother's death offered insight into Stella's career choice, although her benefactor's involvement at the end felt unnecessary and an unwelcome surprise.

Still, I enjoyed the book and would pick up another by this author.

I really enjoyed this book. I have read from Sarah Pekkanen before and like her writing style. This book had me interested and intrigued from the first chapter. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Stella's next case is helping a nine year old girl. Stella will have to be on her toes to figure out who can be trusted. A great read.

Sarah always sucks me in from the first page and this book is no different! This is a wonderfully crafted page turner that will have you second guessing everything you think you know! Thanks to NetGalley and the author for this one.

This book had me hooked from the beginning! Rose experienced a traumatic event and is now refusing to speak. If things can't get worse for this 9-year-old, her parents, The Barclays, are going through a divorce, and the lawyer, Stella, has to decide who Rose should live with. Rose's nanny died after falling through the window in her room. The circumstances are questionable and Stella is secretly uncovering this family's secrets as she tries to determine which family member Rose should live with. The first things she notices is that there is no glass in this house, but has caught Rose collecting sharp objects, why?

Rose has secrets she is hiding and her family is doing everything to hide them. There are a lot of twists in this one and you will be on a rollercoaster of emotions by the end. Rose's character is so good! You will not know where this one is going until the very end.
4.5⭐

This book had me on the edge of my seat and guessing who was the mastermind throughout. The characters were interesting and some were quite despicable which made it fascinating. This is a definite page turner and hard to put down.

A solid four stars for House of Glass
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was a quick read and just as I thought I was starting to figure things out the story changed and kept me on my toes. Stella Hudson was so relatable and all of the feelings and experiences she was going through came through in the amazing writing.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Marten’s Press, and Sarah Pekkanen for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book!

Publish date: August 6, 2024

This family drama pushes a lot of 'buttons' for childhood divorce survivors.

Lawyer Stella Huxley survived a harrowing childhood and now her law practice is focused on 'the best interest of the child.' when filing her custody recommendations. Her latest client is 9 yo Rose Barclay who has gone mute after the trauma of the violent death of her nanny, Tina. Was Tina's death an accident, or murder? Who was responsible for it? The more Stella investigates the more evidence points to Rose whose parents join together to protect her. Can Stella overcome her own childhood to rescue Rose?

The plot moved quickly with so many new suspicions and revelations. The ending made Stella's sacrifice for Rose all worth it.

𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗚𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀 by Sarah Pekkanen
𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲: August 6, 2024

I love Sarah Pekkanen so I was really excited to get this ARC! The story follows a child custody lawyer who is evaluating who Rose should live with when her parents file for divorce and her nanny unexpectedly dies at their house. This book was super creepy. There were times when I found the hair standing up on the back of my neck. The characters were all so mysterious that I had no idea who did what and what was going to happen! Besides the creepy house and cast of characters, there were many emotional moments that showed alot of character depth. The suspense was on point and the ending was not something I saw coming. I definitely recommend pre-ordering this one!

Thank you to NetGalley, Sarah Pekkanen and St. Martin's Press for an ARC!

House of Glass was a very fast paced and engaging thriller but I ended up feeling pretty mixed about it. I really enjoyed the first three-quarters of the book, but the end kind of fell apart for me and parts of it felt over the top and unnecessary.

Stella works with children whose parents are going through divorce and a custody recommendation needs to be made. Rose is 9 years old, her nanny has just died in a tragic accident, and she has stopped speaking as a result. Stella immediately feels unease when she goes to the home, and isn't sure who she can trust. Stella also had a traumatic childhood and can relate to Rose.

The quick chapters move the plot along very quickly, and I was so curious where it was going. I was pretty stressed out for parts of it, which is the sign of very engaging writing for me.

Every character in this book felt shady and I was suspect of each of them at one point. It was very hard to know who to trust and the whole thing was very unsettling.

I did really enjoy the descriptions of the Barclay house -- I could visualize all of it, and loved picturing the garden and the big windows.

If it wasn't for the ending I would be rating this higher, but it kind of lost me.

I will continue to read thrillers by Sarah Pekkanen in the future -- is good at pulling you right in and keeping you engaged.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!