Interesting story,with complex characters. Wasn't sure which direction it was going but was surprised.

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The Breakdown
By B. A, Paris
The Breakdown
Blurb

For my birthday last year I received a copy of Behind Closed Doors, the debut novel by B. A. Paris, and I really enjoyed it. The Breakdown was even better and in my opinion is already a contender for the best psychological thriller of the year.
It is a dark and stormy night, Cass has been out with friends, and despite promising her husband she wouldn’t, she takes a short cut home.
“Even with my headlights full on I can barely see where I’m going and I instantly regret the brightly lit road I left behind. Although this road is beautiful by day – it cuts through bluebell woods – it’s hidden dips and bends made it treacherous on a night like this.”
When she is almost home she comes upon a woman pulled over in a layby. Cass pulls over and debates getting out to see if she wants help but then she remembers stories about car thieves tricking people into stopping. When the girl gives no indication she needs help Cass decides to drive on.
The next morning Cass discovers the woman was brutally murdered. She later learns she worked with her best friend and she herself had been for dinner with her. Cass is burdened with guilt and feels really bad that she didn’t get out of her car to help.
Cass feels unable to tell her husband, Matthew, as she knows he will be appalled that she put herself in danger. She can’t tell her best friend Rachel because she feels as though she would judge her for not helping.
Then there are the strange phone calls where the phone rings and she answers but nobody speaks and the sense of being watched.
On top of all of this, Cass is experiencing memory problems. She invites friends round or makes plans with them and then has no recollection of making plans, she orders things online but again has no memory of doing so and she even makes plans for an alarm to be fitted to her house but forgets having done so.
Cass is worried that she is showing symptoms of early onset dementia, her own mother was diagnosed with it at the age of 44 and Cass is in her early 30s.
As the book progresses Cass’ behaviour becomes increasingly eratic and her sense of danger only increases.
Brilliant book.

I received this copy from Netgalley for an unbiased review.

The Breakdown begins with Cass assuring her husband she won't take a short cut through the woods on the night of a bad storm. But she just wants to get home and through torrential rain she spots a car seemingly broke down. Her initial instinct is to help but she gets spooked and leaves. The next day she hears that the driver was brutally murdered. And worse still she knew the driver, the darkness and rain having made it impossible to recognise her. Racked with guilt Cass begins to fall apart, having a different sort of breakdown. She forgets everything, such as buying prams for non existent babies, where she parked, plans she's made....she fears her guilt is driving her mad.

Anyone that read Behind Closed Doors will have been waiting for this with great excitement. B.A . Paris seemed to come from nowhere with that fantastic book and I must admit I feared this would not live up to that story. But it more than lives up to it, it has left me wanting more again. Is it realistic? No probably not but do you know if I wanted realism I'd be looking in the wrong place. This is just simply a great work of fiction that just begs to be read in one day. So clear you diary, stock up on snacks and drinks (you won't want to be distracted by unimportant things like cooking) and get reading. You won't regret it!

behind closed doors was brilliant but this one was woow dont usually have bad dreams but this give me haha but bloody brilliant what a story a real page turner fans will love my review will be on amazon and goodreads

Early onset dementia or paranoia?

Cassandra Anderson, a local teacher, is looking forward to the summer holidays. At the end of the last day she decides that she will not go to the planned party, but will head home to husband Matthew instead. Despite his warnings to the contrary, as it is bad weather she decides to take the short route home through the woods by Blackwater Lane. In a lay-by in the lane she spots the figure of a woman in a car and is torn with whether to stop and see if she needs help or not. This indecision leads to a period of inner turmoil and terror in Cass’s life.

When Cass hears the following morning that a woman has been found dead in her car on Blackwater Lane and then later on that there were ‘suspicious circumstances’, she is beside herself with anxiety as to whether or not she could have prevented this death. There follows a litany of self-reproach and periods of ‘forgetfulness’, such that she is minded of her mother’s early onset dementia. When she begins to receive ‘silent’ telephone calls, her fears are compounded.

I enjoyed reading this thriller and found myself feeling great sympathy towards Cass, as she seemed to progress along the road of forgetfulness compounded by her fear of almost everything – at least at the beginning. Then somewhere in the middle it all became a little too much for me and I wanted to physically shake her! I think that sometimes less is more and that B A Paris over-egged the cake in this central section.

Having said that, the majority of this book was magnetic reading and I really enjoyed the satisfying – if slightly simplistic – tying up of all the loose ends.

Sméagol

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of this book to review.

After the huge success of Behind Closed Doors, B A Paris had a lot to live up to with this second novel, and for me, it wasn’t anywhere near as good. It didn’t grab me as well as the last. The tension was built just as well in this, steady and slowly, but it was the actual plot that I wasn’t connecting with. It seemed a bit outlandish and didn’t keep me on my toes quite as much. Annoyingly, someone hadn’t marked the spoilers in their review of this, so about halfway through reading the novel, the twist was “ruined”, but, to be honest, the ending was very predictable and I had already sussed it by the time I read that person’s review, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

Another problem with this book was the lack of character development. While we felt so attached to Grace and eager for her to be rid of the troubles in her life, I didn’t find myself thinking the same for Cass. In all honesty, she was a bit of a drip and was so overly hysterical that she just became annoying to read about. Our other, more side characters, Matthew and Rachel, were flat, soppy and unrealistic.

I hate to say such negative things about this novel, but I just don’t get the hype. The story has been done a million times before, and in better ways, too. Maybe I think so badly of this novel because Paris’ last was so great, but there is no comparison between the two.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin UK Ltd for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

The breakdown by BA Paris is a general fiction (adult) read.
If you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust?
Cass is having a hard time since the night she saw the car in the woods and the woman who was killed.
Since then she’s been forgetting everything. Where she left the car, if she took her pills, the alarm code, why she ordered a pram when she doesn’t have a baby.
Fantastic read with brilliant characters. Couldn't put it down. Surprised by the end. Highly recommended. 5*. I voluntarily reviewed an advanced copy of this book from netgalley.

This was a fantastic, lightning quick read that completely kept me glued in. I immediately was sucked into the story by asking myself what I would do in the same situation. Was Cass wrong not to stop or did she do what most solo female drivers would do, especially late at night? I found Cass's subsequent journey into memory loss intriguing and emotionally charged. Because of her memory issues, Cass quickly becomes an unreliable narrator which adds even more intrigue to the story. I really felt left in the dark for this book and though I had some of my own conclusions, I really had no idea what was going to happen.

Near the end, as things become clearer I was genuinely left gasping with shock when some things going on were revealed and my heart really broke for Cass and what she was going through. I was angry, sad and thrilled all at once and i could not put the book down until I'd read the very last page. i 100% recommend this book to anyone looking for an exciting, thrilling read that they can't put down.

The Breakdown started as a cracking read but never really went anywhere. I felt it tended to repeat itself over and over. And guessed the end.

I loved the author's first book last year and wondered how the next one would go. I absolutely loved this book. We meet Cass, a school teacher who is happily married and has good friends. One day in filthy weather conditions she drives past a car which looks like it has broken down. She finds out later that the woman in the car has been murdered. From then on, Cass starts forgetting simple things and is convinced that the murderer is out to get her.

The book was fast paced and I genuinely didn't know what the outcome would be. In fact, I was wrong from my initial thoughts. Am just sorry I read it so quickly.

There is currently a minor sub-genre of stories about (paranoid) women losing their short(ish) term memory. With always a suspense supposed - building up to a crisis - and never are they really 'mad' - always someone trying make them seem so.

So, when I started this book, my suspicions were immediately aroused. I know that such memory losses can be caused by drugs - see other similar stories - was her husband drugging her? The oh so wonderful Matthew who can't have children - I wonder why not?

Now we come to the phone calls - we get some kind of an explanation as to why she doesn't contact the police - but in the UK, he first thing you do is contact BT who put a trace on your line and can change your number. This to me was a big plot hole.

Due to my disbelief at the story-line right from the very beginning it was clear to me that I have read too many stories with the same plot!
Or

there are too many stories out there with the same plot;
or

the writing and story-telling in this book are too derivative;
or

I am too cynical and need to read with a more open mind;
or

she really was losing her memory and going mad ..... and something nasty happens.....

Choose any one answer. from above. I'm not telling you which is correct.

I haven't read B A Paris's previous books but I liked the look of this one so thought I'd take chance on a new author. Paris is an excellent author with a tight writing style which really ramps up the tension and plays on the motions. The emotional aspects of the book are beautifully handled and the psychological aspects tense.

The book starts when Cass sees a woman in a car in a lane in a dark wood. She does not stop and the woman is subsequently murdered. Alongside this Cass is forgetting things and is worried that she is developing early onset Alzheimers like her mother. This leads to a taut psychological thriller which had me on the edge of my seat. I truly could not put it down and was reading until 3.30 am to find out what happens. To say it is a page turner may be a cliche but it is true.

There are not many characters in the book but the ones which are there are realistic. The way they play of each other and the very sparsity of them only adds to the tension.

This is an outstanding book which I would not hesitate to recommend.

On her way home from a works do on a stormy night down a lonely road not far from her home Cass passes a car in a lay by. She stops wondering if the driver needs assistance but as she doesn't get any reaction that would indicate distress she drives on thinking that maybe the woman in the car was waiting for someone. The following and furthermore she knew her !! morning she finds that the woman in that car was murdered and furthermore she knew her!! Whilst racked with guilt that she didn't get out of her car strange things start to happen and she begins to think that she is going mad. Her recently deceased Mother had early onset dementure at an early age. Could the same thing be happening to her? Her husband and best friend try to keep her calm But is all as it seems? A gripping suspenseful second novel from the author of Behind Closed Doors.

THE BREAKDOWN by B.A. Paris is a psychological thriller that will burrow inside your head and make your pulse race. Cass' life is turned upside down when she learns that a woman whom she saw sitting in her car during a storm on her way home late one night, has been found brutally murdered. And it becomes worse when she realises that she actually knew the victim. As Cass struggles with feelings of guilt over having not done more to help, every other part of her life starts to suffer as she begins to forget things. Worried that she is taking after her deceased mother who had early onset dementia, Cass is fighting to remain calm and upbeat for her husband Matthew and her friends. But then the phone calls start. Somebody wants to scare Cass and will stop at nothing to achieve it. Convinced that the murderer has tracked her down, can Cass overcome her own issues to figure out who is out to make her their next victim? Or is it all just paranoia associated with her illness?
THE BREAKDOWN by B.A. Paris is a superb piece of criminal fiction as it kept me guessing all the way through. Just when I thought I had it figured it out, something explosive would happen and throw my theory out the window. And I have never encountered such an apt title as it encompasses everything about this story. Brimming with tension, danger, and fear, this is the type of novel that really gets under your skin. Fast-paced and gripping at every page, THE BREAKDOWN by B.A. Paris cannot be missed.

Rating 3.5/5

This was a hard one for me; whilst I haven’t read anything else from the author I had heard a lot of good things from other bloggers about her first book, so when I had the opportunity to read it I, of course, went for it. I don’t know if it’s that I went into this with unrealistically high hopes but it wasn’t quite what I was expecting.

The storyline was clever and I certainly appreciated its originality, but I had a bit of an inkling as to what direction the story was going to take. Whilst I didn’t predict everything that happened I was fairly close and with any book in this genre not being proved wrong does kind of deflate the read a little.

It was a very well written book and the depiction of Cass’s memory failing her was tremendous, how she could be so adamant, seem so unreasonable and then realize that she is becoming a nightmare and questioning herself and her sanity. It was very realistic and she is the epitome of an unreliable narrator, however there were parts of her behaviour connected to the guilt that she felt over the murder that I just found a bit unreasonable and frankly became annoying.

I don’t want to go too much into detail as to why because I couldn’t do it without spoiling it for other readers, but I feel that for me this meant I couldn’t really empathize with Cass so I couldn’t really get invested in her. Which is a shame because I really wanted to feel that for her, I think it’s a testament to the authors writing that even though I couldn’t gel with her she was written in such a way that I felt that I should have.

I certainly wanted to find out what had happened and after a certain point in the story I couldn’t put the book down but I didn’t feel like the reveal left me stunned. I would still recommend this book because I think there will be people out there that will love it and it is definitely worth picking up. Even though this book didn’t entirely click with me I know I’ll be looking out for more work from this author in the future.

This novel is a really classy psychological thriller. It’s the first time in an age that I have completed a book within one evening and the following morning, reluctant to put the book down, even when my eyes were drooping much later than I usually fall asleep. When I woke early I picked up the book again, reading on through the morning until I completed this engrossing story about Cass Anderson, a local teacher, who starts off her long summer holiday discovering that a new friend she has recently made has been mercilessly slain in a lay-by and not far at all from where she lives with her husband, in their isolated woodland home.
Cass is really stressed because she has been forgetting things for a while now, just the same sort of trivial things her mother forgot before she was diagnosed with Early Onset Dementia. When she learns the details of how her friend was slaughtered, she is riven with guilt because she had passed that very lay-by the evening before and had seen a car parked there as if waiting to meet somebody. It was pouring with rain so she had slowed down and pulled ahead of the parked car. When nobody got out of the car and slipped into the seat beside her, or even flashed their lights to signify that they needed help, she had driven home, meaning to alert the police about the suspicious car with what looked like a blurry female occupant, but she had plain forgotten. She is too ashamed to come clean to her husband when she learns about the murder, and when the police appeal for witnesses she only contacts them with details of the time she passed by anonymously. But then the disturbing silent phone calls start and Cass begins to think that the murderer must think she is a potential witness. She even sees a strange and unfamiliar man looking in to their house. She is terrified, paranoid and loses her grip on reality. However the phone stalking continues and Cass descends into a fog of depression, eventually succumbing to prescription drugs to calm her down. The long summer is soon over with many unexplainable things happening, driving Cass into oblivion.
The storytelling is absolutely superb with tension racking up as the story travels along at break-neck speed. There are many alarming twists and turns as chilling things happen that bring Cass down onto her knees. She becomes convinced that she is going mad and her character was developed so skilfully that her decline both alarmed and devastated me. She was such a lovely, caring lady; a friend who would truly be there for you in your times of need. Although her friends and her husband supported her, all they could do is stand by and watch as her terror rose to fever-pitch, convinced she was going to become victim number two.
I would like to thank NetGalley and publisher HQ for my copy of ‘The Breakdown', sent out to me in return for an honest review. It is an excellent read and will definitely be in my top picks for 2017. It is the second novel written by B A Paris and I will certainly be waiting eagerly for novel number three. I have no hesitation at all in awarding this novel a well deserved 5* rating and recommending it as a stunning psychological suspense thriller.

I'm sure there will be hundreds of readers who will adore this fast paced and well constructed book which didn't press my personal buttons enough. I found it rather predictable and the heroine too neurotic and hysterical to have enough empathy with her. Just not quite my cup of tea, I tend to lean towards heroines who grow stronger in adversity rather than crumbling.

This book is another thrilling book from BA Paris. It has many elements to it which kept me enthralled.

Cass had been driving home on a stormy night, using a shortcut through the woods which she had promised her husband she would not take. En route she sees a woman in a stationary car in a lay-by. Cass pulls in ahead of the car in case it has broken down but due to the heavy rain doesn't get out. The person does not signal that they need help so Cass drives away.. The following day she hears the woman in the car had been found murdered. As the details are disclosed Cass goes through a gamut of emotions, including guilt for not getting out of her car to check, fear of what could have happened if she had.

This book is brilliantly descriptive and enthralling. The characterisation is excellent and the twists and turns had me second-guessing everyone. I did not think that this author could write another book as good as Behind Closed Doors but she has and it is equally as dark and thrilling. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Cass is having a hard time after finding out the woman she had driven past on a stormy night, in the woods on a rural winding road, had been killed. She could not confide in her husband as she had promised him she would not take the shortcut and he would would be furious with her. Ridden with guilt, Cass is starting to forget things. Where she parked her care, meeting with friends etc. Is she suffering from early onset dementia?

B.A. Paris has covered all bases with her new psychological thriller. On three separate occasions I thought I knew where this story was going and three times I was wrong. There is a lot of twists before we get to the conclusion but I certainly did not see the final twist in the last chapter coming. I highly recommend it.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Harlequin (UK) Limited and the author B.A. Paris for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Driving along country roads at night is never fun, especially in the pouring rain, and – for a woman alone – it can be especially scary, the idea of being stranded, alone, in the dark. For Cass all these fears start to come to the fore when she pulls over to help a stranded vehicle but can’t then get herself to get out of the car to see if the woman she sees sitting in the drivers seat needs help. The fact that the woman doesn’t call out to her or get out of her car to talk to her convinces Cass she’s ok and so, instead of doing more, she heads home….only to wake up the next morning to the news that the woman is dead.

The news is bad enough, flooding Cass with guilt as she realises she may have been able to save the woman, but it’s made worse when she finds out that it’s someone she knew. This sends her spiralling, unable to sleep and a unable to concentrate. As the days and weeks go on, Cass struggles to get her mind back on track and starts to become more forgetful still, something which could be down to the murder, the mysterious calls she’s been receiving since then (with nobody speaking when she picks up), or it could be something worse – a sign of the early on-set dementia that killed her mother.
Her husband tells her it’s stress, her best friend tells her she’s been silly but Cass isn’t so sure. Something is wrong, a killer coiled be after her. The only problem is no one will believe her. That included me as a reader, at least at times. Her behaviour was so erratic; her friends, husband, doctors, are convinced she is stressed, anxious, cracking up and it does seem to be the case. B. A. Paris does a great job leaving you guessing almost all the way to the end as to who is right, then they reveal the truth and turn the story on it’s head.

It’s a formula followed by a lot of authors in this genre – the fragile woman who seems to be loosing her mind, the family and friends who want to support her but don’t believe her, the strange occurrences and odd happenings, before it all becomes clear at the end. I don’t mind formulas at all though as long as they are done well, and that was definitely the case here. B. A. Paris created an interesting character in Cass, one I couldn’t help but like and root for. She was well written, as was the book, with short chapters to keep you turning pages – which I did – and a strong plot.

When it got to the twist I had an inking but wasn’t 100% sure what was going to happen or how it would turn out. I thought B. A. Paris’ answer was clever and I was left completely satisfied. I hadn’t felt quite that way with their first book, though I had enjoyed it but this felt much more accomplished and much more confident. I am really glad I got the chance to read it – liked it a lot.