diff --git a/spring-cloud-release-tools-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/cloud/release/internal/pom/PomReader.java b/spring-cloud-release-tools-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/cloud/release/internal/pom/PomReader.java
index e81ce18f..2a081345 100644
--- a/spring-cloud-release-tools-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/cloud/release/internal/pom/PomReader.java
+++ b/spring-cloud-release-tools-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/cloud/release/internal/pom/PomReader.java
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ class PomReader {
 			return xpp3Reader.read(reader);
 		}
 		catch (XmlPullParserException | IOException e) {
-			throw new IllegalStateException("Failed to read file", e);
+			throw new IllegalStateException("Failed to read file: "+pom.getAbsolutePath(), e);
 		}
 	}
 }