Unfortunately I didn't finish this book, as I couldn't get into it - nothing against the author or book, just not to my personal taste. Thank you for the opportunity to read it.

I received a copy from Netgalley.

I initially requested this one because I liked the previous book I’d read by the same author. I had no idea it was actually a companion novel to Burning until I was half way through and looking up something else on Goodreads.

This was an interesting book, after reading the first two or three chapters slowly, I read the rest in a couple of hours one evening. I just couldn’t put it down. I wasn’t completely blown away with the book, I can’t even say I really liked all the characters that much. There was just something about the story and the way the plot unwound that made me want to keep reading and just had to know what was going on and how it all wound up together.

Trigger Warnings: Suicide.

The novel tells the story of teenager Charlotte, starting off when she’s a very young child, her mother who is some sort of doctor giving her genius tests (which Charlotte is not very good at) her mother has certain expectations of what sort of girl Charlotte should be. You get the impression that Charlotte doesn’t really care about her mother’s expectations, even at a very young age. Skip ahead to a teenager in a posh prep school. Charlotte is in the principal’s office one of her best friends Devon, has recently committed suicide in a very short time since her other best friend Ariel also committed suicide. Both were bright, smart and popular.

Charlotte doesn’t seem to fit the bill with the other smart kids in the school. The kids in the school are all very smart to genius. She’s struggling in her classes and not making the grade. Her mom is a very prestigious (and very rich) alumni. She’s about to pull Charlotte from the school on the principal’s advice, failing grades and the sudden deaths of her two best friends very close together and Charlotte’s attitude seems to be very blasé about everything.

Whilst packing her stuff Charlotte finds a package left by one of her deceased friends containing a strange note and a tiny bottle saying “Drink me”. Charlotte realises there must be something more going on, she can’t stop thinking about the note. She realises she wants to find out what it means and will have to be at the school to do that. When almost overnight her physical appearance improves and her (really bitchy) mom notices too. She uses this and manages to convince her mom to let her stay at the school for the rest of the semester contingent on her grades rapidly improving.

Spoilers

Charlotte notices quickly that her grades are improving as well, she’s answering questions in class without studying, acing essays and vastly better at her fencing class than she’s ever been. And she’s not the only one who noticed. Her BFF Ariel’s former boyfriend Jack for one, when they start talking again over what happened it turns into more than talking and flirting. And a rival in Charlotte’s fencing class, Zoe, who is not happy at all when Charlotte kicks her ass in fencing.

The plot is fairly fast paced and there’s enough intrigue that kept me interested when Charlotte finds more notes and more clues left by Ariel and realises at one point that she found the notes and clues left for her in the wrong order. The mystery deepens, Charlotte’s relationship with Jack is getting more and more intense and she’s got the added irritation of fending off Zoe who seems determined to make things difficult for her.

The characters were kind of flat, I couldn’t really identify with Charlotte much, she was cold and aloof and had a sort of above it all vibe about her. There was an interesting morality grey area to the plot as it developed as well. It definitely takes a darker twist towards the end, and that’s where it ties in with the previous novel Burning. It can be read as a standalone, there’s very little that gives away anything to do with Burning’s actual plot but if you’ve read Burning there’s an “ahhh” moment when you realise the connection.

I also have issues with Charlotte and her two best friends, Ariel and Devon, the reader learns some pretty unsettling things about the two girls as Charlotte delves into the mystery as what caused them both to commit suicide within weeks of each other. These girls were supposed to have been the tight knit group that everyone wanted to be part of, yet there was a sense of underlying threat rather than close female friendship with Ariel as the ring leader and Devon following with Charlotte trailing behind. There was a sense of rivalry and tension that was supposed to be uncomfortable but more annoying than anything else.

There was an eye rolling side plot revolving around Ariel’s former boyfriend Jack who was close with Charlotte and Charlotte had always had a thing for but never did anything cause Ariel got there first even though it’s completely obvious Charlotte liked him. Jack is a typical nice guy, good looking with rich parents. His dad has an important job – senator or judge or something along those lines (can’t remember which) but Jack doesn’t seem interested in following those footsteps and like Charlotte doesn’t seem that interested in the classes at the prep school. He and Charlotte redevelop their friendship which of course develops into something more. She (of course) gets to see the side of him that no one else really gets to see. Then Charlotte notices Jack starts rapidly improving in grades and stuff like she did. The romance angle was irritating.

It was a fairly quick read and definitely interesting, not something I would call a favourite but definitely worth a go if you like prep school mysteries and are intrigued by unlikeable characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) for approving my request to view the title.

A gripping tale of friendship and mystery, leaving you perched on the very end of your seat! Would definitely recommend!

I was expecting Breaking to be something full of intrigue and secrets about the prestigious Weston Prep. And yes, there is that. And though there is an interesting storyline to work on, I feel like it fell short to deliver a story that will keep me enthralled. It was such a struggle to finish this one. I had a hard time understanding any of the characters, most especially Charlotte. There are a lot of things that I tried to make sense of and failed. I didn’t like the push for romance, too.The ending also appears rushed and the cliffhanger frustrating. But it’s not all bad. I appreciate the mystery and there are twists that took me by surprise. The writing is good despite the shortcomings, and the plot, if not something new, is interesting. The setting is perfect and there are some weird twisted stuff incorporated that fits well with the story. Overall, a decent dark and grim mystery thriller read. Younger readers should read with caution, though, as it contains some gruesome scenes.

I had big hopes for this book, and was looking forward to it a lot, but you can tell by the number of stars that I had issues.
My biggest disappointment was the way Charlotte wanted to join her friends and commit suicide. Suicide/depression is a traumatic and grave subject which seems to have been dumbed down to the point where it is almost glamourised for the sake of casting a pity vote for the protagonist who I ended up wanting to shake some sense into.
Not only have I been in the same position (a friend committed suicide), but I work in a school where the same has happened and we counsel the students; they are given help and support and not left to their own devices to ‘come to terms’ with the loss. Charlotte's behaviour was extravagant and obsessive almost to the point of selfishness. I can't even begin to describe how lax Charlotte's life seems to be and the whole 'woe-is-me despite everyone trying to help me' scenario got very old, very quickly.
I get it; I get the whole ‘what could I have done?/Why didn't I notice any signs?/Why didn't they take me too?’ and the self-castigation because of the way she feels about her friend’s ex, but this book made me grit my teeth over and over again.

Yet, despite this, there was one thing in the book's favour and that was the writing. For that alone, I want to read something else by this author, and shall do so with my big ‘hopeful’ hat firmly in place.

Charlotte is struggling to cope with her two best friends' suicide, whilst maintaining average grades and trying to not get kicked out of the elite private school she attended with said best friends, Ariel and Devon. Charlotte begins to find mysterious clues left behind by Ariel and despite having a demanding mother on her back about her slipping grades and hours of missed classes, Charlotte devotes her time to working out the truth behind the two girls' deaths.

This book is part of a companion series, but I hadn't read the one that came before Breaking and I don't feel as though I missed out on anything. Described as a prep school thriller with slight paranormal elements, I would say this book lived up to expectations. It was a genuinely enjoyable read and I sped through it, dying to find out what was going on within the halls of the prep school. I did find the main character slightly annoying although I can't put my finger on exactly why. I also feel as though there were some parts of the book that were pretty shallow and not fleshed out well enough. It worked well as it was, but a little bit more detail and fleshing out of certain parts would have made this much better in my opinion. If you love prep school mystery thrillers, I'd recommend Breaking.

Full of twists and turns. Quirky read.

Breaking will definitely keep your brain busy with all the guessing ...it was absolutely brilliant the story just kept flowing and has left me wanting more...follow up novel please xxx I could not recommend this book more

I really like the MERCILESS series, so I'm not surprised that this book turned out to be a page turner as well. I like how a lot of things in this book could be real. There are a lot of secret experiments going on, trying to change people for the best, that I'm sure of. And I also think that if you're rich and famous you can buy anything, even some help to improve yourself and your family. Well, maybe the side effects of those experiments aren't really of the supernatural kind, but it made for a fun read. I hope there will be a next book about Charlotte and Jack, I would love to read more about them. I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc!

A great boarding school YA that sets itself apart from the rest.

Charlotte has always felt ordinary next to her best friends at their boarding school, and she doesn't meet the high standards of her very successful mother. This novel wraps up the intricacies of female teenage friendship, romantic relationships, and family. Whilst also tackling mysterious suicides and a trail of clues... this book will definitely be eaten up and combines two of my favourite genres (boarding school and thriller!)

I had not read "Burning" and did not know of its existence before reading this, and enjoyed the book as a standalone nonetheless.

I thought that this would be more bitchy girls in prep girls cutting each other down, but what I got was so much better than that. There was a lot of intrigue and mystery, but there was also a lot of grief from Charlotte. Grief for the way her mother can't love her, grief for the loss of her two best friends. The first part of it is pretty introspective and it makes you wonder a lot why Charlotte stays at Underhill, despite the fact that there's the mystery of the "drink me" bottle.

But that's the heart of the story. This is the story about the way that she changes. The way that she gains the confident to assert herself, whether that's just because of the fact that she drank something from a little bottle or the fact that she's finally realising that she can be her own person instead of endlessly failing to be what her mother wants her to.

I think it's this character that makes the book more than anything else. Charlotte is a product of her mother's desperation for her to be smart and despite her mother being absent for most of the book, she is always there in the background of Charlotte's thoughts. And as Charlotte starts to change, she starts to go against her mothers wishes more and more.

It ended in such an interesting way too. I really can't wait for the sequel to find out what happens next.

OMG THIS WAS SUCH A PAGE TURNER!!!! I couldn't stop turning the pages until I'd read every last word!

Charlotte’s two best friends both killed themselves in the last few months. She is obviously devastated but she’s also certain that something was up with them… Just before being asked to “take some time off” from school, she finds a clue that one of her friends left her. That clue is labeled 2/3.
After packing and deciding to give up, she changes her mind and wants to go back to school to figure the whole thing out. She, then, makes a deal with her mom, a very powerful doctor, that allows her to go back to school. (All her mom has to do is make a phone call to the school director…)
She then does her best to discover the truth while dealing with the fact that she’s now basically alone, and that her body is doing weird stuff…….

This was something like the parallel story of another book from the same author, Burning, which I haven’t read and I’m still wondering if I should have read it before...

This was far from perfect, but the story grabbed me from the first chapter to the end and I couldn’t put it down. I both felt Charlotte’s pain and anger but was weirded out by the times she wasn’t feeling, mostly because I didn’t stop feeling and to me, it was hard to understand and picture.

I honestly couldn’t figure out what was going on and most of my theories turned out to be wrong. However, I’m still a bit angry about the fact that all my questions weren’t answered by the end of the book. I guess I have to go read Burning now...

3.5 stars

Breaking, a sequel/companion to Burning, has all the makings of a paranormal thriller – strange suicides of two best friends, freakishly talented teens, secret serums – but I have to admit I didn’t find it quite as compelling as Burning. It opens with Charlotte, a teenager at Weston Preparatory Institute, whose two best friends (Ariel and Devon) commit suicide within weeks of each other. We are immediately set up with the mystery of why two mostly stable people would suddenly kill themselves, especially when Charlotte finds something unusual left for her by Ariel. It’s obvious something strange is going on, especially when we learn that Charlotte’s mother is Dr. Gruen from Burning.

Although I enjoyed Breaking, I think the links to Burning were a bit too obvious; I figured out the links between the two stories fairly early on, which made the reveals within the story a little anticlimactic. I also found Charlotte to be an underwhelming protagonist; she comes across as meek and bland, and only seems to have had a personality when she could feed off of Ariel and Devon. I felt like I couldn’t connect with her and think the only reason she wasn’t unbearable is because we learn everything through her as she tries to figure out what really happened to her friends. I am, however, intrigued to see whether this series will be continued as I thin there’s definitely the potential for a final book with an epic showdown.

Overall, this is a strong addition to the young adult genre – it’s a fast-paced, intriguing paranormal mystery, and even though I had it figured out I still enjoyed Charlotte slowly discovering what was happening at Weston, and uncovering the truth behind Ariel and Devon’s suicides. You definitely don’t need to read Burning to enjoy this, and I do wonder if it would actually be a more compelling mystery without reading it.

This is such an amazing book that kept me guessing throughout the whole story. It was unlike any book I've read before. I loved it.

Amanda Bowe is all that is wrong with sensationalistic journalism especially when they have an axe to grind. She found it oh so easy to insinuate and manipulate information and to steer the public’s perception exactly the way she chooses. What follows is a media frenzy that ruins lives.
Connie Lawson the teenage daughter of Justin Lawson and niece of Karl Lawson goes missing one night after a huge fight with her parents over a concert. Soon after her disappearance Karl becomes the main focus for both the media and the Garda, in the ensuing weeks and months he loses everything, his family, his home as well as his business.
On the back of her destruction of Karl and her primary source of information within the Garda, Amanda seems to now be leading a charmed life, successful career, a wealthy husband and child as well as a secret. Then one day she receives a call, the call that is every parent’s worst nightmare, her son is missing…
This book does male me think of the adage ‘revenge is dish best served cold’ and I loved it.

Read for an honest review. Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture

DNF at 17%.

I am really sad about this. I loved her first book in this series, and when I saw this book would be a book set in the same universe + boarding school + mystery? I just had to have it. I just needed to read it.

Sadly, I can't like Charlotte, I wonder how she is even still at that school, if it is so prestigious as it is said it is. Then again, I can do a good guess and I think the word we are looking for is money. :|
She seemed so ungrateful, people did try to help her, they did extend their hands for her to grab it, but instead she was acting all high and mighty.

Also Zoe. Bleh. What a terrible character. I can't even believe she was so different not that long ago. I may have believed it if we had seen it with our own eyes, but now? Nah.

Also it was just ridiculously silly how she had packed everything, found a bottle, then was in the car with her mom and instantly changed her mind about where to go. It was just hilarious.

I just had no interest in her friends. They are dead when the story starts so we just see what they are like through Charlotte and her flashbacks. I feel it would have been better had they all been alive. That their suicide would have happened as the story was unfold. Now I just didn't know what to think of either Devon or Ariel.
Another option would be to have the first chapter be about the suicide and then rewind back to the time before it all happened. Before it all went wrong.

Plus the OMG suicide is so great message was pretty big in this one (sorry, but I would call it that as Charlotte keeps talking about joining them in the dark and how she wished she was able to do that). It was just uncomfortable and made me unhappy.

Ah yes, and the fact that they apparently drank alcohol like it was water (at least that is how it seems to me, considering they just had alcohol everywhere and didn't hesitate to drink it).

So yeah, an anticipated read which failed to meet my hopes. Such a shame.

Charlottes' two best friends committed suicide and she want to find out why. While packing up her things in her dorm after being 'asked to leave', the private and prestigious boarding school she attends, she discovers a bottle with the instruction 'drink me' so naturally she does. This turns out to be one of three clues and so she convinces her mother and the dean to give her one last shot. What she doesn't tell them however is that she intends to get to the bottom of why the two people closest to her killed themselves, and she uncovers something shocking

This started off with a contemporary feel, Charlotte struggling with the loss of Devon and Ariel, who to her had been like family, her thinking that she was the reason they took their own lives as well as juggling the less than perfect relationship she has with her mother and the feelings she has for her best friends ex-boyfriend.
It then had the feeling of a mystery, with the search for why they died and then sci-fi/paranormal elements were added. It was pretty boring to start off with, I wasn't all that invested in the story, but about halfway through things started getting interested and I wanted to see how the story played out and figure out what the hell was happening.

I'm not sure my feeling towards the main character Charlotte, there wasn't really anything super interesting about her that made me connect to her.

The way it ended gives the impression that there's gonna be a sequel. There is another book related to this, Burning, but I checked it out before reading and someone said that you could read this without reading that. I think I'd probably read the sequel, if there is one, if I got an arc, like with this or it was really cheap on Kindle .

*Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Children's Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*
'Breaking' tells the story of teenager Charlotte Gruen, a senior at Weston, a private boarding school for privileged and talented students. I notice that in the Goodreads description of the book, it says that Charlotte attends The Underhill Preparatory Institute - not sure if the name of the school was changed after that was written? Neither here nor there. Breaking is a companion book to 'Burning,' but can most definitely be read as a standalone novel. I have not read Breaking (yet) and don't feel like I was missing anything.
Charlotte's mother is a high achieving and pushy doctor, who wants the best for her daughter... at any cost. If you're think this sounds like a typical trope of YA fiction, think again. Breaking is a novel full of suspense and twists, as Charlotte fights to discover what has caused the recent deaths of two of her friends. It was a quick read, that kept my attention throughout. I think it would be enjoyed by teenage girls in particular.

3.5 STARS!!!
Entertaining, good pacing, quick read but I liked the writing style more than the plot. This is a book for fans of YA thrillers.