I loved Meg O'Brien's Jesse James series and was disappointed when they ended. I read Gathering Lies - the first O'Brien book I read since that first series and really liked the book. It was very good. But Crashing Down? I agree with one reviewer. The author should have just written her own life story instead trying to fit it into a suspense novel about other people. I found this book very dark and hard to get thru - meaning there just wasn't anything there - nothing compelling you to read. I made it to 2/3 thru and just skimmed the rest. I didn't like the character development of Nicky and I didn't get much in the way of a growing love relationship between Nicky and Callie. Her descriptions of the abuse scenes were chilling, especially since you knew from the forward that they were based on her own experiences, but the rest of the book seemed to be lacking something. I tried to read to the end, but just gave up.