In Maureen Joyce Connolly’s debut novel, Little Lovely Things, every parent’s worst nightmare plays out as two parent’s search for information about their young daughters who’ve gone missing. With a rawness that makes the story authentic and emotional, Connolly still manages to add lightness and hope to a difficult subject matter.

Reflection

The opening sequence to this novel is so compelling and well-written. With the way Connolly writes descriptively, I could almost feel the symptoms Claire is experiencing during her allergic reaction—an important scene, because it is the catalyst to her girls being taken. It was such a vivid and terrifying scene to read, and it really set the novel off with a bang.

In fact, the novel moves surprisingly quickly! Often domestic dramas feel somewhat slow, because they tend to be character-driven rather than action-driven. This novel somehow manages to have extremely well-developed characters, as well as a fast-paced, unputdownable plot. Truly a unique mix for the genre, and one that I immensely enjoyed! It felt like I flew through this book!

There were moments in this book that caused me to tear up. I’m not a parent myself, but the thought of wondering if your children are safe, and not knowing what happened—that resonated with me. At the same time, the book manages to have hope weaving throughout. Even in the lowest moments for Claire, I was able to see the potential for happiness.

I was so saddened but touched by the way this event impacts not only Claire and Glen as parents, but also as partners in life. It is such a sad statistic that the loss of a child often causes a rift between the parents, as they each grieve in different ways. There’s no resentment in the book, but there is the sense that these two people who know one another so well, don’t know how to hold the burden of the other’s grief when they haven’t figured out how to cope with their own.

With a beautiful, emotional story and outstanding characters, this one should be on your 2019 list!
Many thanks to Suzy at Suzy’s Approved Book Tours for my copy to review, and including me in the tour.

Claire gets incredibly ill while driving to work with her four-year-old daughter and baby daughter in the back seat. Dizzy, she pulls into a gas station, and staggers in a blurry haze to the bathroom. When she comes back out, her car and daughters are gone.

I’ve read a couple stories of children going missing. This one was different. Odd, actually, because of some of the perspectives the story is told from. I tend to not like extreme coincidences in books, but somehow, in the end, it all worked.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the opportunity to review this novel, which RELEASES APRIL 2 , 2019.

I was weary to request Little Lovely Things because books about bad things happening to children usually get me pretty emotional. Little Lovely Things did that but I am so glad I got the chance to read it. Joyce Connolly wrote a masterpiece. Everyday, we are presented with options. Do we do the right thing or the convenient thing? Little Lovely Things is about a mother who is presented with the option of waking up her kids or running in to the store due to her feeling sick. She makes her choice and the book takes off. Where are her babies? What happened? I was stunned by the book as a whole and especially the ending. This would make a great film!

Little Lovely Things is a remarkable debut novel from Maureen Joyce Connolly that is enthralling, enigmatic, heart-breaking and full of dark suspense. We anxiously encounter the nightmare every parent dreads. SOMEONE STOLE MY CHILDREN! The story engages our thoughts and emotions and pulls us erratically between hope and despair.

Claire was suffering a dreadful reaction after taking a double vaccine dose, and while driving with her 2 children pulls into a garage where she is violently sick in the toilet and passes out. When she awakens, her car with her 2 daughters, Lily and Andrea, is gone. The anguish and turmoil experienced by Claire and how she manages alongside her husband is beautifully crafted. The undercurrents of guilt and blame are subtly drawn and Maureen explores how their relationship gets put under strain with such clever, emotional and concealed forces that it is just … a-maz-ing.

Jay is a Native American who has an extrasensory insight about certain events and has been attracted to particular circumstances. Somehow he found himself intuitively driving along a deserted track and he finds clues of the children that drags him into the story and a connection with Claire that is ultimately a lifeline for all involved.

The background and relationship between Moira and Eamon, who kidnapped the children, is also very unique and again the multiple character layers are so wonderfully crafted. Both are Irish travellers with a unique outlook and approach to life and it's their disreputable lifestyle that underpins the destructive motivation in this story. Moira, in particular, is a multi-faceted character and her irrational connection to the girls shapes many of the decisions she makes.

Maureen develops fascinating complex characters and their interactions are wonderfully portrayed and not always obvious. This brings about an intriguing and captivating power to the novel where we can experience the different dynamics between the two couples and sympathise, at times, with the criminal elements, and become frustrated with the victims.

Maureen uses a very descriptive writing style and initially, it is wonderful to appreciate the imaginative ways of describing the settings or reactions between characters, however, after a while, I felt it started to intrude into the flow of telling the story. This is a personal point-of-view as it’s a fine line allowing the reader the freedom to complete the images outlined by the author rather than describe every minute detail.

The pace of the story is steady for the majority of the book, but that gives the sense of a bubbling precarious theme that eventually ramps up towards a climactic end. While the main story concept is not new, it does, however, introduce unique perspectives, plot elements and characters that I thoroughly enjoyed. The psychological elements seem very well researched and were very interesting.

I highly recommend this book and I wish to thank Maureen Joyce Connolly and NetGalley for an ARC version of the book in return for an honest review.

This book is every Mother’s nightmare!!!! To be driving with your most precious lives and you become incapacitated is hard enough on a mother but the author takes you into the lives of a family torn apart by an unimaginable act that is just horrific!!! Unable to put this book down don’t read at night as I spent a few reading into the next day!!! Very good book that does not turn out as expected. I cannot wait for Ms. Connolly’s next book!!

Little Lovely Things is the story of a parent's worst nightmare. Claire was driving her two young daughters to daycare when she had a terrible allergic reaction to meds. She pulled into a gas station, leaves the car running with the girls still inside and runs into the restroom. After passing out in the restroom, she finds her car and her daughters missing. I was pulled into this story from the first page. Little Lovely Things is a page turner! Maureen Joyce Connolly has written a captivating debut!

Thank you Netgalley, Maureen Joyce Connolly and Sourcebooks Landmark for an advanced reader's copy of Little Lovely Things.
This is the story of Claire, a medical student, her husband Glen and her two little girls, Lily and Andrea. Claire becomes ill from a vaccine on her way to work and stops at a gas station to get sick while leaving her two girls in the car. When she emerges from the restroom, the car and the girls are gone. Every mother's nightmare is born. The book rotates with chapters named after a character and involve their perspective of the pain and search the family goes through. Although the premise should have made for an unputdownable book, I never could quite relate or care enough about the characters to make it that for me. There were times in the book that I found myself skimming paragraphs. The ending is a little to easily tied up and rushed. This book could have been so much better since the premise was actually a good. one.

Wowzers this is rough on a mama heart. Be forewarned. Very well done though. Surprising debut.
Claire is suffering an adverse reaction to a vaccine she got as a medical student. She gets sick on the way to work one day and pulls over to wretch into a gas station bathroom. While her daughters sleep in the car outside. And then Eamon and Moira steal the car. And the children.
I died. During this entire book. It was SO hard. I just wanted to fix it all. Right then. And hug my babies. Definitely that.

For everything this book tried to be (missing children, strained marriage, ruminations on Native American and Irish Traveller cultures), it did too much and yet somehow wrapped up a little too neatly in the end.

I really liked this book a lot!! It was very emotional for me as a mother and heart wrenching! I cannot imagine my kids being kidnapped and what depths of horror you would have go through and what it would do to a family.

I was so honored to be asked to be part of the book tour for this wonderful book! I began reading this book during the wonderful polar vortex in Michigan, it was a nice surprise to see that this book took place partly in Michigan as well! Yes I’m a Michigander! Claire a mother of two beautiful little girls happily married to her husband Glen she’s a physician in training. Claire wakes up with a fever and a small rash but she doesn’t want to miss her rounds, she rushes around packs the girls in the car to take them to daycare. While driving she starts to feel like she’s going to throw up her fever is causing her to almost black out. She pulls into a gas station the girls are sleeping so she rushes into the bathroom throws up and passes out . When she come to she rushes out side and her car and daughters are gone! The book is told in a couple of different perspectives first Claire’s she’s never forgiven herself for that fateful day. The grief has taken over her life and is about to completely end her marriage. Moira and Eamon who are Irish travelers who are completely responsible for Claire’s and Glens worst day of their lives. Jay who ends up being an innocent witness whose role becomes bigger as the book goes along. He ends up being my favorite! I loved how raw every character was I found my heart breaking for Claire and I even caught myself with tears in my eyes. The way the author described the background and nature made me feel like I was walking right along with Jay and seeing things through his eyes. What scared me as a parent is how one minute can change a whole lifetime. This book takes off and sucks you in and through out the book it slowly builds more of the story line. I give this book four stars!

This book starts with a mother (Claire) who is having an allergic reaction, yet needs to get to work, and is trying to make it there but can not take the symptoms anymore. She must pullover with her two children in tow and leave them in the car when she goes to the restroom. Next thing she knows she is waking up on the floor of the gas station bathroom and her children and car have vanished. The people searching for her children are not finding anything and as time passes she begins to go beside herself with guilt and worry. The case over time and the still missing girls weighs heavy on Glenn and Claire's marriage. This book was hard to put down and riveting from start to finish. The only challenging part for me was the ending, it left me with various questions. Overall though the story was well written and a thriller that I will not soon forget.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book for a fair and honest review.

As parents, we worry every day that something bad will happen to our kids. What if the something bad is your fault? Claire Rawlings just left her kids in the car for minute - she felt overwhelming ill and just wanted to reach to gas station bathroom before she threw up - and now her two sweet girls, Andrea and Lily, are gone, taken by a stranger. LITTLE LOVELY THINGS is about what Claire, Glen and Andrea do in the aftermath of the kidnapping. Needless to say, it is not a happy story but it is fascinating. Good writing, good plot , good characters.

This started out pretty good. I was drawn into it very early on and enjoyed Claire's narrative.

Unfortunately, the more I read the more I started disliking it.

I didn't like how often it switched narratives.

I really really disliked Moira. I know that was the point, but she literally had no redeeming qualities.

My biggest problem with the book is the ending. It was so abrupt and didn't explain anything and I just really really hated that. I have more questions finishing the book then I had reading it and that irks me so much. With novels like this I want a satisfying ending. This did not have one.

It wasn't the worst book, wasn't the best. Can't really say much more than that.

Fantastic psychological thriller. From beginning to end, I was completely in this story, alongside each character and hanging on to every word. I'm not a parent but I am very close to my niece so the thought of this happening is simply terrifying.. Wonderfully well written and each character is so well portrayed.

Claire Rawlings, mother of two and medical resident, will not let the troubling signs of an allergic reaction prevent her from making it in for rounds. But when Claire's symptoms overpower her while she's driving into work, her two children in tow, she must pull over. Moments later she wakes up on the floor of a gas station bathroom-her car, and her precious girls have vanished.

The police have no leads and the weight of guilt presses down on Claire as each hour passes with no trace of her girls. All she has to hold on to are her strained marriage, a potentially unreliable witness who emerges days later, and the desperate but unquenchable belief that her daughters are out there somewhere.

Little Lovely Things is the story of a family shattered by an unthinkable tragedy. Played out in multiple narrative voices, the novel explores how the lives of those affected fatefully intersect, and highlights the potential catastrophe of the small decisions we make every day. (less)

This. Book.

First off -- Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC of this book!

This book follows a mother who's two children get abducted under her watch. Claire is suffering from an allergic reaction on her way to drop her children off she has to stop at a public restroom and falls extremely ill. She leaves her two children in the car while she is in the bathroom. While that happens, two drug dealers steal the car and take off with the children.

The story covers 5 years after the abduction.... her marriage becomes strained.
Her job as a doctor under pressure.
She has a strong sense that one of her daughters is still alive....
Is that enough to keep hope?
Will they ever find her alive?

This book sucks you in, and you have to keep reading until the end. I highly recommend this read.

The storyline in Little Lovely Things is one of terrible tragedy and a parent's worst nightmare, but Maureen Joyce Connolly handles the story with care and makes it an enjoyable read - if that's even the right word for a story like this. While the events of the novel are difficult to handle, the story is immediately engaging and holds the reader's attention. I liked Connolly's treatment of the characters and found them to be genuine and realistic. I found it easy to both like (and dislike) Claire and Glenn for exactly this reason. They are just like any two people you might know in real life complete with their own set of complicated emotions, life situations, and problems. The story does not end with a completely neat resolution, but what in life does? I actually prefer an open-ended finish to a story. The one thing I didn't love about the novel was Jay's involvement. I loved his character but often felt that he didn't quite fit into the narrative, that he was more of a forced plot device. Overall, this was a fast and easy read. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC ebook.

Difficult story to read evoking strong emotions. The characters were well developed and the reader can easily follow them. The material is sometimes very difficult making the characters all that more human. Very good!

Little Lovely Things is a very fast read. From the first few pages it grabs you and doesn’t let go. This story of stolen children is mixed with happy and sad moments. The hell that parents must go through is shown in what I can only imagine to be very close to the reality of such a terrible situation.
The author does wonderful descriptive writing. I never read books cover to cover in one sitting due to limited time to read every day but this one I did! Do not start this book unless you have time to finish it! I had “great book” insomnia last night into the wee hours. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. I can’t wait to read more from this author.