The Breakdown by B.A. Paris (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"Cass is having a hard time since the night she saw the car in the woods, on the winding rural road, in the middle of a downpour, with the woman sitting inside—the woman who was killed. She’s been trying to put the crime out of her mind; what could she have done, really? It’s a dangerous road to be on in the middle of a storm. Her husband would be furious if he knew she’d broken her promise not to take that shortcut home. And she probably would only have been hurt herself if she’d stopped.

But since then, she’s been forgetting every little thing: 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.

The only thing she can’t forget is that woman, the woman she might have saved, and the terrible nagging guilt.

Or the silent calls she’s receiving, or the feeling that someone’s watching her…"

My Thoughts:

What a way to end my reading year in 2017!  I was literally sitting in bed last night thinking about what I wanted to say about this book in my review (yes, I'm crazy like that!).  It was such a wild reading experience and way more intense than I expected.  The book starts with Cass seeing a woman in a car on the side of the road.  The next day she wakes up to find that the woman has been brutally murdered.  Cass doesn't share with anyone that she saw the woman before she was killed which means that she is keeping this huge secret.  Add to that the fact that she also seems to be having memory issues - forgetting things more often then is normal and doing things that she doesn't remember having done later on.  She begins to think that the murderer is possibly after her which sets her even more on edge.  And from there everything really seems to spiral out of her control.  I was of two minds reading this book which is why it is almost so hard to share my thoughts on it.  For a good portion of the book, I was just so completely frustrated by Cass and her lack of control with everything.  I kept putting the book down and then picking it up five minutes later because I also didn't want to stop reading.  It was like a constant tug of war to see what was going to happen next along with the desire to kick the main character so she would do something already.  LOL!  The only book that I can possibly compare my reading experience to was The Girl on the Train but I liked this one more than I did the other.  I did have that same feeling though of just wanting to shake the main character in order to get her to wake up already!

I'm going to get slightly spoiler-ey here so just a word of warning if you haven't yet had the chance to read this book - you might want to stop reading.  Obviously this book made me feel all of the emotions which led to quite the reading experience!  What really made me love this book though was the last quarter of it when Cass started to really stand on her own two feet.  This had me cheering inside because this was really what I had been waiting for.  It's funny because I feel like I guessed early on a part of what was possibly going on, but I was still so invested in seeing how this book was going to play out.  It was a page turner and a reading experience that I won't be forgetting about any time soon!  I peeked to see other reader's reactions and it looks like people either loved it or hated it.  I can see both opinions because really my emotions were all over the place when reading this one.  Ultimately this book will end up being a four star read for me for those reasons alone.  Any book that can make me react and feel like this deserves those four stars!

Overall this book was a way more intense reading experience than I expected.  It was absolutely a great way to end my reading year because this isn't a book that I will be forgetting about any time soon.  I am so completely excited to read more by this author!  She has a new book coming this year that I'm going to have to get my hands on plus I haven't yet read her first book.  Eek!  I love when I find new authors with books to look forward to!  I can definitely recommend this one - be warned that you aren't going to want to put it down though!  I'm still feeling the after effects from finishing this one!

Bottom Line:  An absolutely thrilling read!

Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher and NetGalley.