Absolutely fantastic book. I loved reading this and could not put it down! Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read it.

This was a slow read at first, I got to the point at which the window broke, saw how much of the book was left and couldn’t see how this book would hold my attention for long. But woah! I flew to the end with such a fast paced and at times scary read. My heart was in my mouth as and there were the odd occasion where I actually spoke out loud to the characters telling them to stay put or move!

Absolutely fantastic book. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.

This was a fast-paced engrossing read and one I thoroughly enjoyed.

The Sullivan family are broken and in desparate need of a quiet place to lick their wounds. Only months after their sons death in a car crash they become victims of a violent mugging. So when Tom Sullivan’s boss, Lionel, offers them his secluded escape in the Highlands they grab the chance to try and put what’s left of their small family back together. Tom feels only that he has failed his family. Failed to protect his wife and daughter from the mugger, and failed to stop his son from going (uncharacteristically) off the rails by stealing and crashing their car… and killing both himself and his teenage girlfriend in the process. Something he’s never quite been able to forgive his son for. The loss and shame has been almost too much for the family to bear.

Now their only thought is protecting their young teenage daughter Holly who has been left severly beaten from the mugging. A few days away seems the perfect medicine and the borrowed secluded house in the Highlands – with state of the art security – the perfect setting. Nothing is getting past that security, for now they can feel safe.

Their escape very soon becomes a nightmare and their sanctury a prison when they are awoken in the dead of night and realise someone is in the house with them. It soon becomes clear that the intruders are no friends and before long the family are running for their lives on a property from which there is no escape. Why do these men want to harm them and why does Tom feel there is something that his wife hasn’t told him?

Events soon take a sinister turn and Tom must question everything he believed to be true about his life and his family. They are in this together and there is noone to help them survive against the brutality of two men who only seem to want them dead. This is a wonderfully thrilling novel that will keep you reading long into the night and have you asking yourself ‘what would I do in that situation?’

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for my review copy of A Window Breaks. This is a brilliantly engrossing read and one I thoroughly recommend.

Thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My, my, this is a true thriller that really lives up to its name. 'A Window Breaks' is pure adrenaline distilled in novelistic form. It literally has it all: a gripping storyline, told in taught edgy prose, and the twist? Well, the stunning, final denouement was to die for. C.M. Ewan certainly knows how to grip his readers from the first page. This has much to do with Ewan's evocative writing style that simple oozes suspense from the get-go. The description of the home invasion that was the stimulus for the unfolding, terrifying events, had me on the edge of seat, my kindle clutched in my hand in a death-grip. The storyline, moreover, as described in the blurb, appears deceptively simple and straightforward, but it is anything but. The lives of Tom, Rachel and Holly are to change irrevocably, with danger lurking in the shadows of an idyllic Scottish retreat. There are none of the usual, hackneyed old tropes of suspense, here, though, in this pulsating story of survival. Ewan's immense talent and fertile imagination sees to that. Indeed, if you want a darn good story, told by a master of his craft, then look no further than 'A Window Breaks'.

Absolutely thrilling.

OMG this book grabs you from the first chapter and takes you on a non stop adrenaline rollercoaster. I kept thinking that the frantic pace couldn’t be sustained for the whole book, but it does. It leaves you completely drained and wrung out. A great ride!

I am still shaken after finishing this book. It was such a thrilling and fast paced read I had to remind myself to breathe multiple times.
Tom and his family go to spend some time in a friend’s lodge in Scotland to recover from the death of their son Michael.
The first night some intruders break in and the nightmare begins..
Cue a terrifying cat and mouse game where the family will do everything in their power to stay alive, and a huge twist at the end.
Many thanks to NetGalley and PanMacmillan for letting me review this book.

A very intense ride into terror as Tom’s family, who after enduring so much trauma and heartache, try to reconnect as a family as a remote Scottish lodge promised to be their safe haven. But then the terror increases as masked men break in with very violent intentions - leaving Tom with nothing but questions. The story takes place over one night from hell as they fight for their survival, and Tom learns that nothing is as it seems. I really enjoyed this read, but as the answers were slowly revealed, the pace slowed somewhat which made it feel a bit too long.

Tom, Rachel and daughter Holly have had a traumatic few months. Things started when their 16 year old son Michael stole his dad's car and crashed it into a tree, killing both himself and his 15 year old girlfriend Fiona. Then as they struggled to come to terms with that the three of them are mugged in an alleyway as they left a charity event for Justice For All, a cause close to the heart of mum Rachel.

Arriving at the remote lodge in Scotland which belongs to Tom's wealthy boss Lionel the first impression they get is of an imposing estate surrounded by high fences and secured by electric, intercom controlled gates. Narrated from dad Tom's point of view the reader is well aware of the sense of foreboding he feels from the moment they arrive. It seems more like they are being locked in rather than the fencing keeping the world out. He tells himself he is over-reacting, being paranoid after the traumas his family has had to deal with recently, and does his best to relax into the holiday as planned. The burly presence of Brodie, who oversees the property on Lionel's behalf does nothing to calm Tom and the secretive looks which pass between Rachel and Brodie make him wonder if the two of them have met before.

Then in the early hours the family's world is shaken once more when Tom and Rachel are woken by the sound of breaking glass. This is where the pace of the story changes and the reader starts getting a hint that someone in the group hasn't been completely open and honest with the others - but who? What are they hiding and just how much danger are the family actually in?

I have to admit that this is the point my heart rate started to crank up and the hairs on the back of my neck kept prickling with all the sinister situations which bombarded the family over the hours of darkness through to the next morning. If someone had told me that a whole book could be set over a few intense hours and still manage to keep me gripped to the edge of my seat I would perhaps have doubted that would be possible but this is exactly what this book did. The conundrum of who knew what, who the bad guys are and how they knew the family would be isolated at the lodge is eked out perfectly right to the very end of the book without getting boring.

This is the first book I have read by this author and I am suitably impressed. Definitely one I would recommend, although maybe not one to read on your own on a dark winter's night!

Well, that certainly was a page-turner with non-stop action from the sound of breaking glass to the sickening crack of metal against bone.

Tom, his wife, Rachel, and their daughter, Holly, have been through it. First their teenage son, Michael, and his girlfriend, Fiona, die in a road traffic collision when Michael was driving and if that wasn't bad enough, Holly is viciously attacked by a mugger. What's needed is for them to getaway and take Tom's boss up on his offer of time away at his secluded and secure lodge in Scotland ... what could possibly go wrong?

Written mainly from Tom's perspective, we are taken on a thrilling journey of survival; we are lulled into a false sense of security when Tom and his family arrive at the lodge but are quickly plunged into a nightmare when they are awoken by the sound of someone walking on broken glass. When Tom goes to investigate, what he sees makes his heart drop to his toes and so it begins 😰

Tom's voice is a breath of fresh air because he is not your usual macho Bear Grylls hero, he is a "normal" husband and father ... vulnerable, fearful and afraid but determined to protect his family despite not being particularly brave, strong or fit ... this made him more real somehow and because of this, you are never quite sure how this was going to end.

With an easy to read, flowing style, this book is dripping with tension and atmosphere with many hold-your-breath moments that had me gripped and eagerly flipping my Kindle® ... I couldn't read fast enough.

Recommended reading for action/thriller/suspense lovers.

Many thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for my advance copy in return for an honest review.

Let me be clear: I am very glad I continued to read this book beyond the for me slightly tricky 10% mark.

4/4.5 - Because whilst I am conflicted about parts, there is no doubt that this story was also technically, skillfully written and plotted; characters and their dynamics were fleshed out without info-dumping (beyond the beginning exposition, which was more topical and not bad all considered and fair). The characters were also clearly sympathetic, if not interesting and likeable. The protagonist annoyed me. Up until around the 30% mark. But I kept reading because despite that, the story and characters were so compelling that at some point, as a Reader, I got invested.

CM Ewan writes real people, not likable characters. They are all so human. I'll leave it at that otherwise there will be spoilers. The plot was driven, good pacing that changed with the events in action (very well done!), the prose and description vivid (painfully, insnaringly so) and the tension and mystery fresh. Suspense, thrills/tension, mystery, fear, frustration, sadness and sympathy - and yes, annoyance are the main emotions for this book.

The one reason it's not 5 stars is because after 30ish% whilst it was great, for me personally, towards the end of the novel - and certainly the end of this episode of drama and tension etc, for our Protagonist- there was a closing that at that point was not what I wanted as a reader, or what would have been my personal preference. I should have expected it. But found it a bit contrived or too cheesy, for me. Not the end scenes of the book; those were great. The ending and closing scenes to this novel soothed that and we're tasteful. So, it goes down to personal taste being a bit different, in parts for me; might work for other readers.

Masterful switching between characters (not too many), chronology and keeping us clear on that whilst still having pieces we're not 100% sure how to piece together.

A very awesome debut novel. I look forward to future works by Ewan.


SPOILERish BIT BELOW: But my legitimate reaction at that point follows :
30ish- 78% (and then it does not stop until near the end). Okay so around the 30% mark we start seeing some heightened action, the author (CM Ewan) has talent and a knack for it and telling it in story form. Wow.

Also I now like the protagonist. Moreso. Not entirely but I understand him better and still don't like his wife though.

The Sullivan family haven’t had an easy year. First a tragedy that almost destroyed the family and then they were attacked and mugged in the middle of the night while coming out of a party leaving thirteen-year-old Holly with bruises all over her faces, so they really need this break away from the city and when Tom’s boss offers them the use of his remote house in Scotland they happily accept. The house is beautiful with a theatre room, an inside pool, and highly technological. They should feel safe in there, right? Except that they aren’t and, when men wearing masks break in in the middle of the night, they need to find a way out safe.

What a read!!! The tension is way way up and there is never a quiet moment in which you can relax. You doubt if this family will make it out alive, you doubt who you can trust, you doubt everything you read and it will keep you literally on the edge of your seat. A fast-paced and thrilling read that will make you hold your breath the entire time.

This is a tremendous storyline and the reader is hooked from the beginning, when the family of three are all in bed and a window breaks. It is a fast paced storyline and in between we are given glimpses into their son Michael’s life and death. The story moves to a lodge in Scotland and events happen there that will have a lasting impact on all three of them, Holly, the daughter, Rachel, his wife and Tom, himself.
A little different from the normal psychological thriller but an excellent read.
Highly recommended.
With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the arc, which I have enjoyed reading.

Wow. This book is incredible.
Fast paced, dramatic, addictive. Read in two sittings and that was not quick enough. Tiredness got the better of me one night and the first thing I reached for was my kindle.
It was tense, I felt like I heard every noise and was there as it played out.
Amazing description and narrative lures you in.
In parts I was racing to read the words to find out where the men where what was happening and if they were going to be safe.
I throughly enjoyed this book. A 5 star read for me without question.
I am very very grateful to net galley for providing me with a copy of this wonderful book. I am very very grateful.

Positives:
- There were some moments of true poignancy, and the final chapters/epilogue in particular were incredibly moving
- There are some very unexpected twists and turns along the way, and even the most presumably clear cut elements of the plot (e.g. Michael's death) end up being anything but
- That synopsis! Seriously, even thought its brief it gave me chills, and I can't help but think how I would feel if a window were to suddenly break downstairs right now...

Negatives:
- The writing was a little too descriptive for me. There were times where it felt a bit like the author had just been looking for ways to bulk up the word count, and one section in particular about a mezzanine was quite possibly the most repetitive use of a single word I've seen since Stephanie Meyer described the girl in twilight eating Ravioli
- Once the window was broken, the plot just became a bit too repetitive for me. Run, hide, nearly get caught, relocate to another location, rinse and repeat. Other reviewers have clearly found it thrilling, but for me it became a case of very quickly moving from tense to tedious
- Tom. I wanted him to be this big brave hero, but in actuality he was a bit of a wet blanket. Underwhelming and not a particularly thrilling narrator


Overall, this was ok. It wasn't really that enjoyable for me, but nor was it the worst book I've ever read. It was a quick read that I didn't bail out on, but it's not one I would read again. However, I do seem to be in the minority, so it might just be that I'm a bit fussy when it comes to thrillers!

After the tragic death of their son and a brutal mugging, Tom takes his family to a secluded lodge for a break and a chance to reconnect. Instead their sanctuary is broken into and they begin the fight of their lives to survive and learn just why these people are after them.

Wow what a fast paced thriller. The action begins very quickly and I was worried it would either drag on or finish too soon but that was not the case. This had me on the edge of my seat as to what would happen next and I just had to keep reading. The story also makes you think about what you might do in their situation. The plot is action packed and not one to read before bed. It's dark and creepy and the ending is very well written. One of the best reads this year so far.

This novel opens by describing how a father deals with the aftermath of his son’s death in a car accident. Then his wife and daughter are attacked in a mugging and he feels powerless to protect them.
The family decide to try and heal themselves by going away to a remote house in Scotland. From here the tension hikes up tremendously and we are on a roller coaster of emotion.
It is a gripping read and one which keeps you hanging in to the final unpredictable ending. I would recommend this to those people who enjoy page turners. I thank Net Galley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

The plot of this book is really interesting and the characters are well written which I love most about the book. I really enjoyed reading this and at one point I couldn’t put it down. Slow at the beginning but it picked itself up.
Highly recommend to other book lovers

Fast-paced and endlessly.tense, this book never lets up. There are no happy moments and no happy endings but how can there be? A perfect study in how far a regular family can be pushed both physically and mentally to save both themselves and each other. The stakes are high with a heightened awareness that the harsh reality of decisions made needs to be morally reconcilable in whatever constitutes the future.

This is quite hard to review, due to the brilliantly twisted plot that I would really hate to spoil.

Tom and Rachel are having a temporary separation. Their son, Michael had died in a road accident and then a mugging left their daughter, Holly with facial injuries. So when a friend offers them a short break in a secluded Scottish lodge...they decide this would be ideal to help them mend.

But, when an intruder wakes them, the nightmare really begins……..


Fast paced and utterly nerve wracking with some real gasp inducing moments. Thoroughly entertaining and I can recommend it for anyone who love family drama and thrillers.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this for free. This is my honest and unbiased review.

What a great traditional style thriller. Lots of creepy, edge of the seat tension !!

Tom and his wife, Rachel, are grieving for their teenage son, Michael. Tom has moved out of the family home as they try to come to terms with their loss but then their daughter, Holly is attacked after an evening out, so they decide to go for a weekend away at a remote Scottish retreat, owned by Tom’s boss.

Everything seems to be going well and they are finally spending quality time as a family. But the first night Tom is woken by Rachel, after hearing a window breaking. Is someone in the lodge ? Who would want to break in ? And what do they want ?

This is a great traditional style thriller, which is a pleasant change from the large number of psychological thrillers that are now being written. There is plenty of edge of your seat tension and it is a great page turner.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book.