Because I've read a few novels by Sarah Pekkanen, I can tell with a reasonable degree of certainty that I'll enjoy her latest novel before I even read the synopsis. In this case, I was correct. I loved "House of Glass."

Stella is a best interest attorney. She's charged with deciding who a child should live with during a nasty divorce, when both parents are fighting for full custody. Her client, 9-year-old Rose, witnessed the death of her nanny, who accidentally fell from the 3rd story window of Rose's home. At least that's what Rose's family says. But her father admitted to an affair with the nanny, which angered her mother and grandmother. Was the fall an accident? If not, who is responsible?

Pekkanen is a master of misdirection. With the many twists and turns, I had no idea what really happened until the reveal at the end of the novel. It was a huge surprise that I wasn't expecting at all. Any reader who enjoys domestic thrillers and/or has appreciated any of the author's other novels should love this book. I highly recommend it.

House Of Glass

House Of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen is another murder mystery. We all become envious of seeing families who are perfect compared to our own don’t we? Correction, we get jealous of those who appear to be perfect. Note I italicized the word appear. The Barclay family appear perfect in public but behind the scenes they are anything but. A young nanny fell to her death. Question is, did she plunge to her death or was she pushed? Everyone in that house is a suspect from the divorcing parents, 9-year-old Ruth Barclay, the boyfriend of the deceased nanny to the grandmother. Stella Hudson serves as counsel for children in custody cases, comes to the house to try to figure out what happened to the nanny and why someone would want her dead… When I received an email from NetGalley that this book is available to read I immediately downloaded the book, and I started reading it Saturday & finished it today!



Writing, Pacing & Characters

The characters were well written, but my favorite character was Stella. I liked her backstory as to how she became who she is. The pacing & writing were excellent. The pacing was slow enough to keep you invested in the mystery but not slow to where you are immediately bored. The twist as to who was behind Tina’s death I did not see coming which is what makes it a great mystery! Certain things seemed farfetched, but overall I enjoyed it!



Overall

Overall if you’re a fan of Sarah Pekkanen & Greer Hendricks or if you’re a mystery fan in general and this is your first time reading any solo work by Sarah Pekkanen, I recommend this book! If you don’t have a copy from NetGalley or a physical copy, I would preorder House Of Glass coming out on August 6th 2024! Thank you, Sarah, for writing this great book! I can’t wait to do this Behind The Book with you.

House of Glass is an engrossing psychological thriller perfect for keeping you entertained on a dreary winter day. Stella, a child advocate, is assigned to recommend custody arrangements for Rose, a brilliant 10 year old who's parents are getting divorced. Her assignment is complicated when the couple's nanny dies after falling through a window and Rose becomes mute.

Wow! Let me tell you……. I finished this late last night and found it very satisfying! I gobbled this right up in two days! Talk about a great suspenseful story! Bravo Sarah Pekkanen!

A nanny has fallen to her death out of a window at the Barclay’s residence. A very wealthy couple who are going through a divorce with a nasty custody battle of their nine year old daughter, Rose. Stella Hudson has been appointed to represent Rose during the custody battle, looking out for her best interests.

Was Tina, the nanny murdered or did she fall during a terrible accident?

Man OH MAN, did I blow through this! Stella’s character is driven and stops at nothing to find out just what happened in that creepy freaking house. As she starts discovering, something is wickedly wrong with Rose! You know how some books portray evil kids in a very annoying way? Not here! Pekkanen does a splendid job throughout the book. Her writing is excellent and is superb at sucking the reader in!

Everyone in the house is a suspect! Who did it and why?

This is somewhat of a slow burn but HIGHLY SUSPENSEFUL in the process! Brilliant and wickedly good! I highly recommend you add this little number to your TBR!
4.5 ⭐️ raised to 5
I’d like to give a massive thanks to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and Sarah Pekkanen for the opportunity to devour this ARC. All opinions are my own.

Expected publication date August 6, 2024

I really love this author, both alone and when she partners up on other books. This story is about Rose who suffers a trauma when she sees her nanny fall from a window while she is working in the garden with her grandmother. This renders her mute, which is also what happened to her lawyer when she was a child.
Her dad was having an affair with the nanny, and her lawyer must decide which parent she will be better off with. The mystery is who could have killed the nanny, and who is lying about it.
Thank you to #netgalley for this #arc. It was a great read to start 2024 off with.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this Advanced Reader’s Copy of House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen due to be released August 6, 2024.
I had already read and loved Gone Tonight by this author and The Wife Between Us and An Anonymous Girl by Sarah Pekkanen and Greer Hendricks so I was looking forward to this one!
Stella Hudson is a best interest attorney, BIA, called upon to determine who nine-year-old Rose Barclay should live with after the divorce of her parents. There are a few problems – Rose’s nanny has plunged to her death from a third story window. Did she fall on her own or was she pushed? Rose won’t say because she isn’t talking – at all.
Stella realizes not only is the case more twisted than she thought but parallels part of her childhood, also. Her past and present are set to meet. Can she protect Rose, solve the mystery of the nanny, and figure out her own life in the meantime?
House of Glass kept me guessing until the end – I devoured it in a couple days. The character building was perfect and the ending superb! Can’t wait to read the next book from Sarah Pekkanen!
#netgalley #Sarah Pekkanen #st.martinspress #houseofglass

A page-turning thriller that will keep you up 'til the wee smalls! I've read this author before and had forgotten how talented she is. A thriller lover's treat!

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC.

Opinions are mine.

LOVED this book, this author has quickly become an auto-buy for me. Definitely going to check out the rest of her catalog because I loved these characters and this quick and twisty plot so so much.

I went into this book without reading the blurb. After reading so many other books by this author I just wanted to try it and see how much I'd enjoy the book and it did not disappoint. The characters were in a league of their own and the pacing was perfection. I loved it.

𝑭𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒔. 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒂 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒓. 𝑨 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒅𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕. 𝑰𝒇 𝒂 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏 𝒊𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆, 𝒊𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅.

Even though it's only January, HOUSE OF GLASS is going to take a spot in my top ten thrillers of the year! This is a chilling, character driven story that is far above other stories in this genre. The characters are created as though they were sculpted from clay and then an omniscient creator breathed life into them. The reader is invested from the first page, and here's why...the Barclay family lives in a house of glass, vulnerable and exposed, after their nanny plunges to her death via an old window that wasn't up to code and was placed far too close to the floor.

This family is very good at living behind a facade, and each one is lying about the series of events that led to the nanny's death. Beth and Ian are in the middle of a bitter divorce but are living together in the family home for the sake of their 9-year-old daughter Rose. Ian's mother lives in the space as well, and after Rose witnessed the nanny's fall, she withdraws and becomes mute.

Enter Stella Hudson, an attorney specializing in serving as counsel for children in custody cases. Because of her own tragic childhood, she never takes on clients younger than 13, but her mentor, retired judge Charles, encourages her. The minute she steps foot in the house, she senses that something is off. As she's leaving, she realizes what has so unnerved her is that there is no glass in the house. Everything is plastic. What could that possibly mean?

As Stella spends more time with Rose, her unease grows. She finds alarming objects hidden in Stella's room, and she is the recipient of a drawing with the words "GET OUT" boldly written across it. The more Stella investigates, the more everyone becomes a suspect. In the midst of all this chaos come questions about Stella's own traumatic past.

Completely original and totally bingeable, HOUSE OF GLASS will have you turning pages late into the night. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the early copy. This book will publish August 6, 2024.

Solid 4 star thriller. Enjoyed the pacing, even if I found the ending a bit fantastical. Weirdly enough, the one thing that stuck with me is if Stella ever got her fancy pen back? A loose end I either missed or didn’t get resolved. Another good standalone by this author and I’ll definitely tune into the next one.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was so good! Absolutely 💯 loved it. Thanks NetGalley and to the publisher for this. I look forward to reading more from this author.