What a heart wrenching mystery this is. A book about a dysfunctional family. Heartfelt grief , queer love and blended timelines and different perspectives.

This book was very well written. It may have been my mood but it just wasn't for me. If you're looking for something different check this one out!

Thanks to NetGalley and crown publishing for this arc

Unfortunately, I think this book was not for me. The writing was very good, and the premise is fascinating. I was delighted to get the opportunity to read this book, and if we have customers at the bookstore who want to know more about it, I can definitely provide them with information to help them choose. I think I was looking for more of a twist, or a bit more urgency, based on the description of the book. I did feel that it could hold up on its own as more of a family story than as a thriller.

Many thanks to the publisher for my copy - all opinions are my own.

This book is a terrifically crafted mystery that revolves around a dysfunctional family and will keep you glued to the page from start to finish. I love a book that pulls together different character POV's and shifting timelines, and this serves both up flawlessly.

Sarah Easter Collins does incredible work building a claustrophobic and intense vibe through the plot, It's atmospheric and haunting and I really enjoy a build up that leads to a really solid and satisfying conclusion.

While the build up on this one is a slow burn, it's definitely a must read for your summer reading lists.

WOW I can't believe this is Collins' debut novel! When Willa's sister Laika goes missing on her way to school, Willa devotes her next 20 years looking for her. We eventually find ourselves at a dinner party with characters from their past. This was an interesting take that felt more like a mystery than a suspense/thriller novel. The plot was complex with a lot of layers and twists, covering deep topics like grief, loss, and healing. Thanks for the ARC!

Thank you, Partner @crownpublishing for my #gifted (free) copy.

This is a character driven novel where friends and also some strangers gather together for a dinner party.

I'm not sure what I expected when I went into this book, but this was different than I thought. It took me a few chapters to get into the story, but once I did the story unfolds nicely.

This is a story about coming of age, self discovery and the importance of friends and family. Willa's sister disappeared but Willa. even as an adult, does not believe she is dead and continues to search for her even while everyone else believes all Willa needs is therapy. Revealing much more would spoil the story, but if good writing and those themes appeal to you, I recommend this one. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc without pressure for a positive review

Touching and meaningful

A number of years ago I read the book Broken for You, which had similar themes of breaking and mending. While these books are nothing alike in their plots, the imagery of things being broken and mended in a different way are mirrored in both.

Willa and Robyn meet as seventeen-year-olds at boarding school. Willa's thirteen-year-old sister, Laika, had disappeared the year before, no trace of her was ever found. Throughout their year at school, Robyn and Willa become very close and start a romantic relationship. In an escape from her melancholy, bereft parents at home, Willa joins Robyn's family for an idyllic summer vacation. The years pass, but Willa never gives up hope of finding Laika again, and she continues her search even after everyone else has given up.

This is such a nuanced story, I cannot believe that it is this author's debut novel. The layers of plot build on each other, with the exploration of grief, loss, abuse, love, rejection, regret, and healing. Yes, there's the mystery of what happened to Laika (and we do find out what happened), but this book is much more than that. It's a coming of age novel, a domestic drama, and a character study all wrapped in one.

It is a story that dug into my consciousness and I couldn't stop thinking about it. Every character, even though there are many, has a purpose and a piece in the mosaic of the tale. This book really resonated with me and I can't wait to see what the author comes up with next.

This was a good, if difficult read. Sort of dark and not really a thriller, more of a literary domestic mystery. Twenty years ago, Willa's sister Laika disappeared on her way to school and Will never stopped searching for her. In present day, we have a dinner party with several players from the past in attendance and a psychologist specializing in false memories. Oh, what fun. Questions are asked, some are answered, and we have a lot of issues brought out into the open. I don't want to give anything away, but it was hard to put this one down. It wasn't necessarily fast-moving, but I really wanted to know what was happening. Great characterization.

Thank you to #NetGalley, Sarah Easter Collins and Crown Publishing for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

I will publish my review to Amazon, Facebook and other retail and social media sites upon publication Day of July 16th.

Things Don't Break On Their Own is a family drama wrapped in a mystery/thriller. The mystery is throughout, but the thriller doesn't really get there until the last third or so. By that point it's more to set up the conclusion, and less to "thrill" the reader.

Sarah Easter Collins kept me reading THINGS DON’T BREAK ON THEIR OWN long past bedtime! This one had me hooked from start to finish!

When Willa accepts an invitation to a dinner party from her first love, she expects to white knuckle her way through the evening. Robyn started out as her ‘assigned buddy’ in a new school but became so much more. Willa was struggling with the disappearance of her sister, Laika when they met. The two girls became inseparable and Robyn was even able to come spend summers at Willa’s family home, though Willa wished she could spend more time at Robyn’s as that was what she always thought a ‘real’ family could be. While Willa always wondered if her father had something to do with Laika’s disappearance, as she was beginning to argue and fight back against his aggressive, bullying behaviour, her mother always suspected a local builder who was reportedly the last to see Laika.

Anyway, I digress. Twenty five years after Laika goes missing, Willa looks at the dinner party as a chance to see Robyn’s brother Michael again and show Cat, Robyn’s partner that there is no longer anything between them other than friendship. Also at the party is Nate and his date, Claudette and Jamie, Willa’s date, a male chauvinist whose behaviour is nothing short of embarrassing.

As the dinner progresses, we get the backstory of the relationships between the women and the details surrounding the disappearance. We see familial bonds, learn about memories and the bonds of female friendship. What happened during those 25 intervening years is what legends are made of!

This one had me hooked from the very beginning. I could feel the tension mounting as the dinner progressed. I truly felt engaged with the characters and wondered how their lives progressed beyond dessert. The writing was clear and concise and led to a very enjoyable, long read as I couldn’t put it down. This is my first Sarah Easter Collins novel, I believe, but if she writes like this, it will certainly not be my last.

Thank you too NetGalley and Crown Publishing for this ARC opportunity. All opinions are my own and given voluntarily.

2.5 stars - it was mid.

this is pretty heavy on domestic abuse and child abuse. so be aware going in.
in my opinion this leans more literary fiction & mystery. Told in multiple POV & dual timelines, and the story moved really slowly. I'm all for a slow burn but this kind of felt like it was a 400 page book when in reality its only 272 pages LOL.

The "big twist" at the end was pretty anticlimactic, since you kind of saw it coming.
Without giving away spoilers, there were some parts I liked and some I did not. I can't say I hate this book but it'll probably never think about it again post writing this review either.

Thank you to Crown publishing & Netgalley for providing a digital copy. As always, opinions are my own.

thank you crown publishing for an unexpected top 10 contender for 2024! I loved Things Don't Break on Their Own, Sarah Easter Collins' style really grabbed me and brought me into a wild set of feelings and emotions, of unexpectedly strong suspense and mystery, and into the inner chaos of people's lives and secrets spiraling, collapsing, and intersecting. There is a quietly powerful subtlety in how the characters' share the same moments but tell them from their own separate perspectives (well done), a sense of relationships not yet finished, and also a sense of underlying dread, of holding on to things that are slipping away or perhaps coming to surface.

If you have watched the family holiday episode of The Bear (second season, TV perfection), I felt a little like that in some parts as I got into the book but with a little less overt chaos, a sneakier unfolding of dysfunction, and a little more exploration of characters' thoughts in ways you can't experience on TV.

I don't want to say much about this one, it was just a perfect read after a lot of increasingly predictable, or bland, romcoms and thrillers, this read is a reward for the how the story about grief and family and secrets, and how people hurt and are hurt, comes together.
Consider me a big fan of this author and excited for a next read.

Robyn and Cat are hosting their sibling dinner party. In attendance is Robyn’s brother Michael and his new girlfriend Liv, a psychiatrist specialized in false memories. Cat’s brother Nate brings his new French girlfriend Claudette. Willa, Robyn’s high school friend, with her fiancé Jamie, is also present. As the night progresses, it’s obvious that Willa is still mourning her missing sister, who disappeared over two decades ago. As the guests become engrossed with Liv’s specialization, the night might just answer some secrets that have been in hiding for years.

Alternating between the present dinner party, and when they were teens; our narrators start from Robyn’s perspective, then to Willa’s, and finally we get a glimpse into the events that lead to Willa’s sister, Laika’s disappearance. The way the narrations are separated made the story feel almost as if they were three different stories, instead of a single interwoven story. We also get quite a bit of background from all three’s perspective and while I normally love getting ALL THE INFO on our main characters, there were parts that seemed more drawn out than necessary. In the end, the different POVs made the story feel slow and certain events repetitive.

This was not what I expected to read based on the synopsis and think it should be marketed as more a literary mystery more than a thriller. While I was hoping to get a page turning thriller, this was more of a slow, character driven, emotional family drama. I think I would have enjoyed this story more if I had gone in with a different expectation, but ultimately this didn’t cut it for me. If you want a slow burn literary mystery, then this might be perfect for you.

TW: Abuse, while not graphic is certainly a prime topic of the story.

Things Don’t Break on Their Own is out now. Thank you to Crown Publishing for my advanced copy in exchange for my review. If you liked this review, please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my
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Thank you @PRHAudio for gifting me this audiobook and @Crown for providing the ebook. All thoughts are my own.

Things Don’t Break On Their Own is a well-written and thought-provoking novel with a mystery central to its core. The disappearance of Willa’s younger sister, 13-year-old Laika, has haunted her for the last two and a half decades. The story begins at what appears to be a normal dinner party, but the truth will finally be exposed.

The story is told in multiple perspectives, that of Willa and of Robin, women now both in their late 30s in London. In boarding school, Robin was Willa’s first love and their relationship ended abruptly surrounding the disappearance of Laika. Both have seemingly moved on and recently become friends again. They once played a profound role in each other’s lives. I would say it is more character-driven literary fiction than mystery, though the reverberations of Laika’s disappearance reverberates throughout the story.

Willa’s family has immense wealth, and this has often been used to hide the abuse of the girls’ domineering father. The juxtaposition between the childhood families of Willa and Robin are clear. Though Robin’s family is untraditional, they are loving and functional. Willa’s family is the opposite, rigid and dysfunctional. Wealth plays an outsized role in their family dynamics and complicity of others.

The novel is a little slow-going at first but becomes so riveting. The pieces start being put together. Finally, after twenty-five years, there are answers. Though the loose ties are solved, this novel asks so many ethical questions. How do you stand up for your loved ones if you’re a victim yourself? How much blame can we put on those who don’t or can’t protect us? What responsibility do we each have to our family members and keeping them whole?

A slow starter for sure - almost went to the DNR pile - but something told me to finish it.

Not an easy read - but makes you think and feel so not so pleasant feels. A missing sister - abusive situations and a search that leads to a wonderful conclusion.

Definitely one to read - even if it's a bit hard.

20 years ago Willa left for school thinking her sister, Laika, would be following right behind. Laika doesn’t make it to school and seems to have vanished into thin air. This book goes back and forth between the current day and 20 years ago. Some scenes are told a couple times from different perspectives which makes it interesting. I wouldn’t call this book a thriller really, but definitely a mystery with a story that slowly unravels the truth of what happened to the missing girl. I thought it was a great story and did not expect the twists in this book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced reader’s copy.

Thank you, NetGalley and Crown Publishing | Crown books for this advanced reader's copy. I really enjoyed this thriller about a young girl whose sister goes missing and how it affects her entire family. Willa is the perfect daughter. Laika is the rebellious one. Laika goes missing one day on her way to school and Willa is never the same. Willa has continued to search for her sister for 20 years, convinced that she is still alive. When Willa is invited to dinner party by her first love, she finally finds out what happened to her sister all those years ago. This was an extremely messy family drama/thriller, where at times, you don't really know who to trust or believe.

Wow, this one was SO great and so well-written! I love a good mystery and I love it even more when it is solved in the end. Although it’s classified as a mystery, it is so much more than that and I couldn’t put it down.

A heartbreaking story of 2 sisters growing up with an abusive father and the aftermath when one goes missing. Told from different perspectives of the main characters and the people whose lives they touch

Willa's sister goes missing as a teen. It is something that has haunted her for 20 years. This literary thriller was well-written and had me intrigued until the end.