Little Disasters: the compelling and thought-provoking new novel from the author of the Sunday Times bestseller Anatomy of a Scandal

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It highlights the importance to get help and the difference it can make when bonding with your baby. Too often, my concentration would break, and I would suddenly be dropped out of the narrative simply because I encountered an awkward patch of writing or a section that I felt I had read before. The story is told in alternating viewpoints; both Jess and Liz, varying across timelines, so that the suspense pulls you in, and brings you along from start to finish. The story alternates between different characters, mostly Liz and Jess, and also goes back in time quite a bit so you get the full picture.

She sounds like she has been through so much and that it was important for her to get the details of this book right and I can’t help but be intrigued by that dedication and her story!It’s a shame that Vaughan’s best writing is only displayed during the last ten percent of Little Disasters. I'm trying to come up with positives - it's an interesting insight into postpartum, but frankly, it's been done before and much better, in my opinion. I mentioned recently in my review for Megan Goldin's, The Night Swim, that I love when this type of novel has something to say about hard-hitting real world issues. But I could sympathize with the way their lives are overrun once the ball starts rolling on the investigation. I mistakingly thought from its description it would be a medical mystery, but instead found a grim, gut-wrenching tale of family dysfunction, mainly emphasizing postpartum anxiety and depression.

Although not a thriller, this is an engaging character-driven mystery, delving into what happened to baby Betsey, the events that led up to it and the importance of society and friends in supporting new mothers and recognising when they need help. She is sharp and cold and as the story progresses you realise there is good reason to distrust and dislike her.Her husband Ed is supportive but often absent, he works long hours and pretty much leaves the parenting to Jess. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an advance reader's copy in exchange for an honest review! Liz and Jess have been friends for years, and she thinks she knows her friend well but a trip to emergency after a blow to Jess's daughters head has Liz questioning if she really knows Jess at all.

Dark thoughts and carefully guarded secrets start to surface and Liz is left questioning everything she thought she knew about her friend, and about herself.Jess has a group of friends including Charlotte, Mel and Liz who formed a friendship during prenatal classes for their first born children. This was a good character study viewing a side of the other side of parenthood we often tend to push to the side. Although a new author to me, I’m definitely going back to check out Vaughan’s other works, and am keeping an eye out for anything she releases in the future!

This particular author is new to me but it sounds like she has written a number of Regency romances but from a smaller publisher and it looks like she has quite a fan base established and I am super excited to share more about this upcoming series with you guys today! Her husband Ed is good at earning the beans (and plenty beans) but is content to leave parenting to Jess with disastrous consequences. This is my first Sarah Vaughan book and I’m looking forward to read more works of her as soon as I start trimming my frightening Mount TBR! Sarah Vaughan’s latest contemporary fiction title is best suited to those who like to read morally complex domestic fiction stories.A stay-at-home mother of three, Jess is battling postpartum depression when she lands in the hospital with her 10-month-old daughter. Vaughan provides the reader with an honest and authentic glimpse into the general struggles of motherhood via the perspectives of both women. From the bestselling author of Anatomy of a Scandal – a new thought-provoking novel exploring the complexity of motherhood and all that connects and disconnects us. Even so, some women aren't up to the task - temporarily or permanently - because of stress, anxiety, fatigue, frustration, post-partum depression, mental illness, or other nebulous factors. Up until that point it felt like fictional story with substance but then it veered into messy territory.