Wow! This book is not for the faint-hearted and I absolutely loved it! The writing was full of suspense and it was a real nail biter a lot of the time!
Brilliantly written, keeping you on the edge of your seat the whole way through. Definitely recommended

A Window Breaks by CM Ewan

Tom, a high powered lawyer, and his wife Rachel are separated. After losing their son in a car crash — a joyride which resulted in killing his passenger — and their daughter being mugged at a gala event, their relationship, or lack of, is on a downward spiral. Rachel is well written as the grieving partner, and her stress evident by her mannerisms and behavior. The writing is impeccable, a style I really enjoy. Poetic descriptions which are not labored, but scattered throughout the prose to put you at every scene. All senses are catered for!

The upside of Tom’s day is an offer from Lionel he cannot refuse. Some time to build bridges at his secret retreat in Scotland. But the idyllic surroundings aren’t as idyllic as Tom had hoped. If a home invasion isn’t threatening enough, the internal struggles he senses even from the start, reveal a much greater turmoil along with its terrible secrets. Tom must protect his family at all costs. I kept wondering if he was up for the challenge and whether he would win the love of his wife once more. But her attentions seem elsewhere. Small hints sprinkled along the way tell us all is not well with each individual, and perhaps someone knows more than they are telling.

Although this book hurtles along at breakneck speed, I felt the grief over Michael’s death wasn’t as evident for Tom as it should have been in his flashbacks. The flashbacks themselves were distracting at times. I understand why they were sprinkled throughout the book but Tom’s internal monologue, although cleverly written, was somehow distracting. A divider to separate the time frames would have been easier to read. I felt it jumped around too much and I had to go back to read a few paragraphs to reorient myself.

It’s a brilliant story and one I would recommend in any book club. It’s hard to put down and something I enjoyed diving back into at the end of the day. The personalities of each individual are so well drawn, you might think you’ve guessed the ending. But think again.

CM Ewan is a new author for me but one I will definitely be watching.

Thank you Netgalley, the author and the publisher for allowing me an advanced copy of this book to review.

Wow! A real spell binding story, so graphic I felt I was there with the family as they battled to survive. A very different novel and way of telling a story. Definitely one to recommend.

A good read, did take me a bit to get into the storyline but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Very well written, an excellent page turner with plenty of twists and turns.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book which I can recommend.

I never repeat the blurb...
I chose this book simply as the author's name is an anagram of mine, but it certainly looked good. Most of the action takes place over the course of just a few hours and that part is exciting and well written. However the flashbacks and the subsequent revelations and expectations were disappointing in their unlikeliness. A shame.

Gripping from the start!

Tom and his wife Rachel have had a terrible year. Their son Michael had killed both himself and his girlfriend 8 months before when Michael had taken his father’s car without permission for a joyride and crashed killing both of them instantly. The strain between Tom and Rachel had caused Tom to leave the marital home and when his daughter Holly is mugged whilst with Tom leaving a gala event the family are at breaking point. Tom is a high powered lawyer working for Lionel and when he suggests that the whole family take a break in his remote retreat in Scotland, this seems to be an ideal way of putting their lives back together. However, everything is torn apart once again when Tom and Rachel are woken up in the middle of the night and soon realise that there are two armed men in the house who are there to kill them!

The book moves at breakneck speed with Tom and his family desperately trying to escape the killers but what I needed to know is why were they being targeted? There are various small clues, Tom soon realises that his wife knows more about what is happening but she is unwilling to confide in him fully. There are also flashbacks throughout the book regarding the events of the night when Michael had taken his father’s car and again we are given small clues as to whether he really did crash the car or was there someone else making him crash.

The action is relentless and every time you think the family will never escape somehow they do. The ending is shocking, I had not got even close to what really had happened and it was brilliant and relatively obvious but such is the talent of the author that I just did not realise at all. Mr Ewan is a brilliant storyteller and I now want to read some of his previous books.

If I was allowed I would have given this book four and a half stars and this is because the book was very long and I thought there was just too much emphasis on Tom’s feelings and struggles constantly throughout the novel. Although it was refreshing to have a male hero who is frightened and who questions his own ability to protect his family I just felt it was slightly overdone and could have been reduced.

I really enjoyed this story it gripped me from the start and I read it in a few days as it is one of those books where you really need to find out what happens, why and who really are the bad guys.

Despite this what a brilliant story, I can’t wait for his next book!

Dexter

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

A fast paced & thrilling read that will keep you up all night to find out what happens next! This is a complex & amazing book I’d recommend to anyone I loved it.

I really enjoyed this book, though I found it absolutely terrifying in places! Tom and Rachel go to stay in a remote Scottish lodge, taking their 13 year old daughter. In the early hours they hear the sound of breaking glass downstairs, and when Tom goes to investigate, he sees 2 men who are clearly intent on killing them. What follows is a scary game of cat and mouse which will have you sitting on the edge of your seat (or hiding behind the sofa!). I recommend this as a good read. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

The whole premise of this book requires the reader to believe that our narrator, having lost his son in a car accident a few months ago and being attacked with his wife and daughter a few days ago, would choose to go to the remote Scottish hideaway of a friend (who lost his wife in a violent attack) where there is reportedly no phone reception and no one for miles around. When the inevitable happens, the chapters following take far too long and the cliches become more unbelievable by the page. The thing that kept me going was that I was keen to find out why the family seemed to have been targeted and that part of the story did keep me guessing to the end. I really would like to be more positive and I usually focus on what I have enjoyed in a book in my reviews but I'm afraid this book just made that very difficult.

Really enjoyed this book, was so hard to put down once I’d started. So many twists, really does keep you guessing until the end!

This was just OK for me. The story itself was quite good and had me gripped at some points but there was some unrealistic parts that let it down for me and some of the descriptions were repeated which I noticed to much for my liking.
Overall not a bad book.

Fantastic mystery that kept me on the edge of my seat. Fantastic spooky location. Description was great. The book was well written and a great plot. It was easy to read and exciting wondering what way it would go

I'm not completely sure how I feel about this book yet, but I just don't feel I can give it any higher than a 3.5⭐for several reasons.
Let's start with the positives; the blurb was really intriguing and I just knew I had to read it. I think it was marketed really well. This book was at times scary and did have me on the edge of my seat in parts. The mystery was super intriguing and I just had to know what was going on; I did not guess any of it either! The writing was alright; there was a lot of red-herrings which was both good and bad (I'll go into that a little more later). I enjoyed the flashback scenes a lot and the structure of where the flashback scenes were placed and in what order in relation to the rest of the story was very clever. I liked the beginning a lot; some may have been disappointed by the beginning as it does take a while to get into the meat of the story and the thrilling part but I personally enjoyed the beginning; it had a slightly contemporary feel, I liked the discussion of marriage and separation as well as the family dynamics that both come along with that and with the loss of a child (not a spoiler don't worry).
Now let's get into the negatives...
Firstly, I noticed pretty early on that although it was written quite well, it was quite descriptive and so on, description of surroundings were neglected quite a bit and what was included was at times confusing. I struggled to picture the layout of both the lodge and outdoors. I also noticed that every now and then he'd include a little description but then he'd focus on that and just keep repeating it. Two strong examples I have of this are the mezzanine and the deck. He said mezzanine so many times in the space of one chapter and the same happened with the deck. It wasn't a massive issue but I definitely felt disorientated through out the book and struggled to come up with a solid image of anything in my mind, and I struggled not to roll my eyes every time he said 'mezzanine' or 'deck'.
Another issue I found I had with this book was that over-all it was unrealistic and this presented itself in several ways. I won't go into all of it for fear of spoiling something but one thing that really bothered me was that Tom was seemingly invincible. Everyone else - and I mean EVERYONE, every single character other than Tom - got some serious injury when it was Tom that was doing all of the things that would cause injury. Tom was always the one to act hero and yet everyone else was on death's doorstep and Tom was basically unscathed. I don't want to spoil anything but I feel I need to provide an example. I think this was the earliest example of this so hopefully it doesn't spoil anything but Tom, Rachel and Holly are climbing off the balcony and Rachel falls ON TOP of Tom and yet she dislocates her shoulder and Tom's fine - is it just me or is that completely unrealistic? Again it wasn't a huge issue, it didn't stop me reading or anything but all of the issues together bother me and it definitely annoyed me while reading.
Something else that bothered me was that everyone else other than Tom was kind of portrayed as a villain. Throughout this book I felt it was reinforced that we should only agree with Tom but I mostly didn't!
I may be nit-picking here but I have a lot of thoughts I need to release!
I know Holly is supposed to be 13 years old but as is all to often seen when a man writes for a woman/younger girl, mostly from the way she speaks, she is very clearly not a young girl, and there wasn't a lot of consistency, showing further that he did not know how to write about her. One minute she'd speak like a wise-old man, slightly pretentious, a little eye-rolling, but if he stuck with that for her it could've worked. Unfortunately he didn't; only a second later she'd be acting childish (in every sense of the term) and being treated like a newborn. I don't know I just wish there was a little more consistency in the side characters. It definitely felt like a lot of time was spent on Tom and less so on the other characters which was a little disappointing.
There were quite a few anti-climactic moments that I just felt were completely pointless. For example (this isn't word for word but it's pretty close!), he's think something like, 'if he just lowered his torch he'd catch us and it would all be over...but he didn't.' I don't feel like it's necessary and because of these it became clear that every time he did say things like this something wasn't going to happen which feels like a paradoxical effect to me... These were a bit like pointless red-herrings in my mind honestly.
There were also a good few abandoned plot lines which, like the last issue I mentioned, definitely took away from the heightened tension and created an anti-climax. My example does spoil so I'll refrain.
I've heard that editors don't like similes but I never realized why until I read this book; '...felt like I was walking on frozen turkeys'??? I'm sorry but that is just silly, I really don't think I needed that to be able to put myself in his shoes...(or should I say, frozen turkeys?...sorry I'll stop). And a good number of times the similes he chose to help the reader understand the enormity of the situation actually minimized it (once again, paradoxical!) for example, (this is in reference to the intruders in their holiday home) '...like a disgruntled employer...' that (to me at least) is the ultimate minimization.
For fear of going on, I have one more thing to mention that I did not like. Three quarters of the book built up to finding out who the intruders were and why they were there, but the explanation was brushed over a little and unfortunately I found this to be a disappointing and anti-climactic resolution which honestly was a little confusing.
To finish off on a high note, the epilogue and following scene from Michael were probably the best chapters in the book and I really liked them. They were poignant and I think they tied the book off perfectly, bringing the two points of view together at last and giving the family and the reader some closure.

I literally struggled to put this book down once I had started. I was drawn in after a slow start and then needed to know what would happen to this family. I felt for them all - places in an almost impossible position and faced with choices nobody would want to face.

Tom needs to defend his remaining family after the death of his teenage son under very difficult circumstances. He marriage fractures under the strain of his death and his wife, Rachel, finds other ways of coming to terms with his death. Her choices lead to a train of events which puts them all at risk.

I was not sure that I felt the background was wholly credible but the struggles the family went through felt very real. The book asked the question of how far you would go to understand why an event happened and how important justice and revenge were to you.

A book I will be recommending.

Absolutely loved this book even though i spent the majority of it terrified! Really well written with a story that grips you but also offers you a good emotional connection to the main characters

This book was a mix of breathtaking and confusing for me. The first half was sensational, I was so gripped and on the edge of my seat, but the second sort of fell flat. 4 stars are mainly for the first half. Overall a fantastic book though

This was a real edge of your seat, non stop action of a read and thoroughly enjoyable. I am not going to rehash the plot as I think this a book that’s better to get into with no real ideas of how it’s going to pan out because it’s a very different read to the one I was expecting.
I liked the characters and thought they were well written my only criticism is that I found the story at times to be a little far fetched bit it was a good fun read set a breathless pace that I flew through in a couple of days. So for something a bit different from some thrillers I think you have it here and I can recommend it.
My thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Very fast-paced with lots of twists and turns to keep you hooked. Great plot line and I found myself getting far too invested and deciding what action I would have taken each step of the way. Lets hope I never have to put that to the test!

4 stars

This book was not for me at all. It was very slow in the beginning and then I found it hard to believe. I also struggled with it constantly changing perspective without warning. It became very confusing and I didn’t enjoy it.

I see that a lot of people have loved this book so I am in the minority here. But it just wasn’t the book that I was expecting. Can’t love them all

A first-rate thriller where the focus is on escape and self-preservation.

Tom and Rachel Sullivan are mourning the loss of their teenage son, Michael, who died in a joyriding accident, along with his girlfriend. When their daughter Holly is subsequently mugged, the family are keen to take some time out to concentrate on reconnecting as a family. When Tom's boss, Lionel, offers them the use of his luxury lodge in a remote part of Scotland, the family jump at the chance. On their first night away, Rachel is certain she has heard the shattering of glass downstairs. Suddenly, the Sullivan's are caught up in a fight for survival...

As a devotee of a well-written thriller, A Window Breaks deserves full marks. In the first part of the book, CM Ewan cleverly lures the reader into a false sense of security, with admirable skill. The action moves to the luxurious lodge in the Scottish wilderness and then it's a nail-biting, nerve-racking read as the family fights for their lives. Chris Ewan is a dab hand at ratcheting up the tension to a maximum level, as I found myself trapped in the pockets of Tom and his family. I was desperate for everyone to escape.

With a pace that is relentless and tension in abundance, the story hurtles through the many twists and red herrings towards an outstanding denouement. In less able hands, this may have been an all-action-no-plot kind of story, but the author adeptly manages the undiluted pace throughout while using a split narrative for some time out and the backstory, so there were absolutely no disappointments here!

This is one of the most rambunctious thrillers I've ever read and now I'm off to check out another of Chris Ewan's novels - Safe House.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Pan Macmillan via NetGalley at my request. This review is my own unbiased opinion.