5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
House of Glass
Author: Sarah Pekkanen
Thriller
ARC review! Thank you so much Netgalley and St. Martins Press for this ARC! I loved every second of this one! Stella is a best interest attorney and she is assigned to a case of a nine year old with trauma induced mutism, whose parents are going through a messy divorce. On top of it all, the husband had an affair with the nanny who also suffered a mysterious death in their home… Rose, the child, also has a strange fear of glass. This book was super creepy, and had me sweating as I was reading. I loved it so much. The characters were all super interesting and reading Stella’s past and her own trauma around her mother’s death kept me intrigued. All of the family members are suspects in this one. A classic who done it murder mystery. Sarah is one of my favorite thriller authors. I started reading her books back in 2019 (Anonymous Girl was my first!). Shes absolutely amazing and I can’t wait for more of her work. This book releases on 8/6!

It should come as no surprise that Sarah Pekkanen’s latest thriller HOUSE OF GLASS is a wild ride of psychological suspense.

When Stella Hudson, a “best interest attorney” (guardian ad litem) Is tasked with finding the most suitable custody arrangement for Beth and Ian Barkley regarding their nine year old piano child prodigy, Rose, she believes it is just another case. Ian and Beth are divorcing after Ian had an affair with Rose’s nanny, Tina Dela Cruz, who becomes pregnant and then falls (or is pushed) from a third floor window at their estate. Since Beth holds the very affluent purse strings in the family, Ian is worried about losing his money source and the home for his family, including his disabled mother, Harriet who has a very close bond with Rose.

Stella has had a very tumultuous upbringing with a mother who apparently overdosed when she was a child and a father who died in a car wreck. She was then raised by a cold, sinister aunt. Rose has also had an unstabled upbringing. A piano prodigy, she is now homeschooled and is continuing to hone her craft and even learning to speak Chinese. Unfortunately, she saw her nanny fall and was so upset by the event she is now traumatically mute. AND there are very strange things happening in this creepy home. There are no sharp objects immediately available and the windows do not contain glass but plexiglass. Stella cannot seem to put her finger on it but things are not as they seem. Some of her things are disappearing, she is receiving warnings and threats and she is now having flashbacks of what happened when her mother died. While she still has a loving and supportive ex-husband in Marco, her biggest supporter is and has been Charles since she was about 19 years old. An issue of trust brought them together and he has acted as a father figure in her life ever since. As Stella continues to dig into Rose’s family life, more inconsistencies become apparent, like why she is homeschooled, what’s up with the glass and what really happened with the Nanny. After meeting with the various people in Rose’s life, Stella becomes even more convinced that all is not right in the Barclay home. She and Charles come up with a plan to try to get to the truth. Then, at the 12th hour, Beth and Ian decide not to divorce and call off the entire divorce/custody plan, but Stella can’t let go as she feels a visceral connection to Rose.

As with most previous Sarah Pekkanen novels, I could not put this down. It had me by the throat on page one and did not let up until all the secrets came to life. I could feel myself creeping through the old estate as I tried to put the pieces together. My blood was racing and my heart was in my throat.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC opportunity. All opinions are my own and given voluntarily.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy. This was a good, fast-paced thriller that I read in just a few hours. I don’t always love a thriller that centers an “evil” child, but I am glad this one turned out the way it did. Probably a 3.5 star read for me.

Was there ever a time in your childhood when you just couldn't tell anyone what was wrong?

That’s Rose Barclay’s problem: She suffers from traumatic mutism after witnessing the death of her nanny. With her parents both angling for sole custody, the court appoints Rose a BIA (Best Interest Attorney) in order to make the best recommendations on her behalf. Stella Hudson became a BIA partly because at one time she suffered from traumatic mutism after finding her mother’s dead body. Rose is a little younger than Stella’s usual clients, but no other BIA is as uniquely qualified to represent her.

House of Glass is a really entertaining novel with a lot of page-turning fun. The front half of the book is really engaging and compelling, but the back half felt a little messy to me. It didn’t feel as suspenseful or as compelling. The pacing was also tidier in the front half than the back.

I enjoyed most of the characters. There were a few that came across as a little transparent in their motives, but that could possibly be due to it being close to the end of summer and it’s thriller season. Rose and Stella were especially fun to read, especially when they were in a scene together on their own. I also enjoyed Charles as a character, especially earlier in the book.

The story is a good one, but I felt like the ending could’ve been done better. I felt like the motive behind the murder was there but was still pretty murky when Pekkanen could’ve made it a clearer point. I also didn’t like the ultimate ending too much. Overall, this is an entertaining summer thriller with a lot of themes around stolen childhoods, grief, absent parents, surrogate parents, childhood advocacy, deceit, and the dissolution of marriage.

I was provided a copy of this title by Netgalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Domestic Thriller/Murder Thriller/Psychological Fiction/Suspense Thriller

House of Glass

Y’all. This one was a WILD ride. I’m not a regular thriller reader but I enjoy trying one every now and again. A great, trust-no-one adventure that I could not put down because I had to know how it all played out!

Stella is a best interest attorney, appointed to serve Rose, a traumatically mute 9-year old girl reeling from the tragic death of her nanny, caught in a custody battle between her divorcing parents. Stella navigates all the relationships around Rose as she tries to figure out what’s best for Rose and what really happened to the nanny.

Highly recommend if you’re looking for a fast paced family drama thriller!

I alternated between the ARC and ALC. The narrator did a fabulous job building suspense and suspicion with all the characters.

Thank you to Macmillan audio and St. Martins Press for this ARC/ALC! House of Glass is on shelves August 6, 2024! My opinions are my own.

I'm withholding my review of House of Glass in solidarity with the #SpeakUpSMP boycott. Please visit https://r4acollective.org/about/ for more information.

I’ve always enjoyed Sarah Pekkanen’s collaborations with Greer Hendricks, so I was really excited to receive this ARC. I actually ended up getting a copy from BOTM as well and am glad to own a physical copy since it was so good!

This book was so easy to get into from the beginning. The main character’s career was a plot point I’d never read before and it was very interesting.
I loved the sinister feeling that was created around the Barclay house and its inhabitants, the implication that none of them were what they seem and were hiding big secrets.
As much as I love a twist, I really liked that this was a straightforward plot with just a few surprises along the way.
The resolution was great and I loved that not only the main character’s case was solved but we got to see some of her personal life as well.

This was my first solo book by Sarah Pekkanen and it definitely won’t be my last!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the gifted ARC through NetGalley, as well as the author.
Publication date 8/6/24

This is one of my go to authors. In a wealthy house, a young nanny plunges to her death. With not enough evidence, no one has been charged with her murder – maybe it was an accident. Now the parents are getting a divorce and Rose, the minor daughter, is appointed an attorney to look out for her best interests. Stella is that lawyer; and this is what she does for a living. She learns about the child, their environment, the people around them, and anything else she can learn so she can give a report to the judge about a custody arrangement. As soon as Stella steps foot into their door and their world, she knows something is off. There are deep secrets in the family, and even stranger, there’s no glass in the house; it’s all plastic.

I enjoyed this book! It kept me on the edge of my seat and it certainly kept me guessing! These characters were all complex with a lot of depth to them. Each one had their own voice and were developed really well. Discovering what happened to the nanny while Stella was doing her investigation of the circumstances made me guess all the wrong people. I should have known better!

There was also a subplot in this book. Stella was a victim of trauma as a child as well. She never sought out any answers in regards to what happened to her mother. She does her own investigating into what happened to her mother. She got the answers she was looking for but was also given a huge shock. I didn’t LOVE the subplot, but I did understand why it was there. It gave insight as to why Stella had this particular job and why she cared for kids as much as she did.

Overall, a great read that any thriller reader will enjoy!

I thought I figured out the story pretty early. I was going to be disappointed if that was the big twist at the end. Thankfully that wasn’t the case. My second guess did turn out to be the correct one, but I wasn’t certain until the very end. The story kept me guessing and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing everything through Stella’s eyes while she worked the case.

Stella was a great character. She’s had lots of trials and tribulations in her life. She had a difficult childhood and was betrayed by people that should have loved her. Despite her childhood, or perhaps because of it, she works in a profession where her job is to determine what is best for children. Thankfully during this case she was able to dig deeper into her own past and find some peace.

I read another review that thought the ending was over the top and things were wrapped up too neatly, but I disagree. I thought the ending was great and I really liked that the author, through Stella, went through everything and recapped the case. I felt this way it avoided any lingering questions the reader may have, such as what about that phone call, or whose voice was that?

This was my first book by this author, and I look forward to reading some of her other books.

WOW! WOW! WOW! I just finished House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen, and I feel as though I have been on a non-stop roller coaster ride. If sleep was not calling me at 1:00 this morning I would have read the book in one sitting. Stella Hudson is 38 years old, ending a marriage and reluctantly taking on a case dealing with a 9 year old girl suffering from traumatic mutism. Stella is a guardian ad litem- a child's best interest attorney. She prefers working with teens as she feels they possess more agency to cope with what can often be very difficult situations. She only agreed to accept this case as Judge Charles Huxley asked her to; Charles is the closest thing to a father that Stella knows. Her father died when she was young, and it absolutely devasted her mother. Her mother sought comfort in drugs and alcohol and died a few years later. So overwhelmed by her mother's death Stella suffered from traumatic mutism when she 7 years old.
Her client is Rose Barclay. Rose's wealthy parents, Beth and Ian are divorcing and each has requested sole physical and legal custody of Rose. To complicate matters, Rose is severely traumatized by the death of her nanny Tina de la Cruz; did she fall out of the third floor window of the Barclay's palatial home or was she pushed? t's also relevant that Ian was having an affair with Tina, and she was pregnant when she died. Oh what a tangled web...everyone in the Barclay household had secrets even Harriet, Ian's mother and dedicated grandmother to Rose. There is so much more to this multi-faceted, finely crafted book than I could possibly include in a review. Suffice to say it's a powerful and dynamic read; I thoroughly enjoyed it.
My only criticism, and that may be too harsh a word, is that at times it seemed as though Stella was too vulnerable from her own issues to be effective in her position- she was extremely fragile. Saying that I have to add that I liked her. I liked the book, and extend my thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Sarah Pekkanen for granting me an opportunity to read an ARC of House of Glass. My review reflects my honest opinion. 4.5 stars.

Wow! I literally couldn't put House of Glass down and stayed up past my bedtime to finish. House of Glass incorporated all of my favorite psychological thriller things...a creepy child, rich people behaving badly, and possible murder. Pekkanen seamlessly wove the main character's childhood trauma into a present-day custody battle for a well-known DC family while also trying to solve the nanny's suspicious death. Everyone is a suspect. I thoroughly enjoyed the twists and turns of House of Class and appreciated how it kept me guessing.

This was my first introduction to the work of Sarah Pekkanen. While it won't be my last, I'm not sure that it lived up to my expectations. After seeing quite a bit of rave early reviews for it, I went in very excited. Initially, I was sucked in from the first chapter. It opens with a sense of foreboding and I was immediately invested and wanted to find out why Rose saved a piece of broken glass from the sidewalk (and also why it seemed that her mom just LET HER, haha). The chapters were fairly short and it was easy to get gripped into the story quickly. (This is an easy binge read!)

We learn fairly early on that Rose's parents are in the middle of a divorce and custody battle. Some of the details here felt a little too overdone. I think that it was done to throw the reader off on who the real culprit of the murder was, but I think it actually made it obvious who didn't do it (as in if culprit ended up being any one of a certain group of characters THAT would have been too obvious). This is where the story started to lose me a bit. I think there was a lot of potential here, but it just fell flat for me. I will say that the story did have a creepy feeling to it and the twist, while a bit predictable, did give me a feeling of unease.

The ending was wrapped up very nicely, but almost too nicely. I can't say why without spoiling anything, but the conversations that happened after everything was revealed just seemed too perfect and not organic.

Overall, while it didn't live up to the hype for me, I do think it was a solid psychological, domestic thriller and I'd give it a solid 3 stars.

Thank you for the chance to be an early reader! All opinions are my own.

When a nanny falls to her death out the attic window, an investigation begins. The investigation goes cold quickly but with the owners of the house divorcing, a special interest lawyer has to come in and decide who will get full custody of their 9 year old daughter. 
Stella, the lawyer, quickly learns that something isn't right in this house. Did someone here push the nanny or was this just an accident?
This thriller really delivered! I loved the eerieness of the storyline and how it all came together. I also loved that Stella's background played such a big role in it all. One thing I love about thrillers is when they have short chapters. I don't know why but it feels like the story just moves so fast when there are short chapters. 
This story had so many elements to it but it really came together great. I was questioning who could be responsible for the nanny's death the whole time! This one kept you guessing but laid everything out perfectly. 
4 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for offering an arc of this book!
I've been a fan of both Sarah Pekkanen's books and her cowritten thrillers. This book was a bit slow to start for me (which surprised me, because other reviewers have said that they were immediately sucked in). I noticed that the author wrote about the house not having any glass several times in the first few chapters, and thought it belabored the point. Otherwise, I enjoyed the ending, despite having seen the ending a mile away. This book was good, I'd recommend it, but it was a three star thriller for me.

I received an ARC through "NetGalley" and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

The story begins with Stella being assigned as the advocate for a young child who parents are going through a divorce. Her role is to make a determination of which parent is best to have custody. What makes this difficult is the fact that the child cannot speak because of an incident in which her nanny died.

There was a specific reason that Stella was asked to handle this case. It seems that when she was young, she had a similar experience when her mother died. Stella's first visit left questions because of her first impression of the house where Rose, the daughter, lived. The more Stella learned about the family she determined that they were keeping secrets and was going to find out why.

As Stella dug deep into Rose's family she got an uneasy feeling. To top matters off, Stella was looking into the death of her mother.

To discover what Stella discovered regarding Rose's family, what she learned regarding her mother's death and how everything worked out in the end, then you need to read this book. The ending is not one that you might expect.

Thank you to St Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for advanced reader and listener copies of House of Glass in exchange for my honest opinion. I listened to the beginning and ending, and read about 15% in the middle. I thought Laura Benanti did an excellent job with the narration!
It’s #thrillerthursday and this upcoming book will definitely take you for a thrilling ride! The female protagonist works as a child advocate, and she is working on a case where the parents are getting divorced and custody of the one daughter needs to be determined. Add in that the daughter’s nanny recently died in a horrible accident at their house, and the child has not spoken since the accident. The advocate looks into the nanny’s death in addition to investigating her own childhood trauma.
House of Glass is the right blend of a slow burn that is also twisty enough to be bingeable. I switched from audiobook to digital copy because I was at a loud restaurant waiting for a friend and I couldn't just sit there waiting - I needed to know what was happening. I predicted one of the twists, but there were MANY more that surprised me. I had to suspend my disbelief for a few things, but overall it was a good read. If you like books with hidden secrets to uncover, this book will be right up your alley! Pour yourself a glass (hah!) and enjoy.

Sarah Pekkanen does it again! House of Glass is such a twisty, turny book. I kept thinking I had figured it out and then it went a totally different way. I would recommend this for any thriller lovers!

This book started out slow and methodical. I wasn't sure what to make of what was happening and this excited me no end!

Stella is asked to help a family with a divorce. A little girl, 9 year old Rose, witnesses the death of her nanny and the death has affected her so badly, she has mutism. The death is ruled accidental but the parents are splitting and they both want full custody. It's Stella's job to assess the family and make her recommendations.

Everyone is lying. The house has nothing in it that can be broken. It seems odd that a house has no mirrors and no glass in the windows. Everything down to the glassware is made from plexiglass. Nothing they say rings true and there is something more to Rose and Stella is determined to get to the bottom of it...

It was exciting. The story was full to bursting with threads and you can't see where they will all end up but it the author is a true artist and it all makes sense when you get to the end and it will BLOW YOUR MIND!!!!!

The more we learn about the family, the more you can see they are hiding something but you can't work it out because nothing seems right and I love books that do that!

The ending had me screaming! GENIUS! Did not see that coming!

5 stars, If you love thrillers... GET THIS ONE!! Out Aug 6th

House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen delivers a gripping psychological thriller wrapped in a family drama that keeps you guessing until the end. The story centers around a young girl named Rose Barclay, who has become mute after witnessing the potential murder of her nanny amidst her parents' bitter divorce. Stella Hudson, a best interest attorney with her own troubled past, is reluctantly drawn into the case, uncovering layers of deceit within the seemingly perfect Barclay family. Pekkanen's portrayal of the Barclays' gilded but deeply flawed world, combined with the eerie, glassless house that symbolizes their hidden secrets, creates a tense atmosphere that grips the reader. The novel excels in its intricate plotting and character development, as Stella navigates through a maze of suspects and hidden motives. The resolution is both surprising and satisfying, making House of Glass a compelling read for fans of psychological thrillers.

Thanks you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for an arc of House of Glass in exchange for a review.

Stella is a “best interest attorney” for children of parents going through a divorce. Her client, 9-year-old Rose, isn’t able to speak after the traumatizing experience of seeing her nanny, Tina, fall to her death. In order to make a recommendation for custody of Rose, Stella needs to figure out what really happened to Tina.

At times it felt like the story was dragging, and I got a little bored of Stella’s very quotable inner monologue. There were a few aspects of the story that felt superfluous (Stella’s divorce from Marco and subsequent love interest did not do much for the plot, but if given a choice I would always pass on the romance…) For a while I was convinced that the killer was so obvious. It turned out I was wrong, though, and that redeemed the book for me. I got tricked and the author deserves some credit for that! There weren’t any loose threads or anything really outrageous in the plot. I would give this one a 3.5 (rounding up for the rating).