This is a parent’s worst nightmare! We have all played that kidnapping roulette game in our heads, “They will be ok here for just a minute. Right? Maybe? Maybe not?” I always landed on “maybe not” and loaded myself up like a pack mule and took the kids with me everywhere I went, assuming kidnappers lurked around every corner. But Claire was so ill that day, that wasn’t an option for her. Connolly captures Claire’s terror, guilt, and grief perfectly throughout the book. I thought she realistically portrayed how this tragic event can impact a marriage and one’s life decisions. I enjoyed that the story was told through the points of view of all the key players. I like knowing what motivates the characters and how they are reacting to their situation. If you like all the detective minutia of a murder mystery this is not for you. Connolly focused much more on character development, which I appreciated. I found this book very enjoyable, even given the dark content.

A hard book to read, but so worth it. A busy mother who is trying to balance schooling, motherhood and being a spouse has an allergic reaction and the next thing she knows her children and her car are gone. With a heavy layer of guilt she must continue to search for her girls while also move forward with the life that she has left.

I absolutely loved this book. The pacing was top notch, enough where I read it in one day in two sittings - I couldn't put this one down at all. I really wanted to know what would happen to these girls and this family.

The writing was fantastic. I fell in love with this family from the very beginning and felt the whole range of emotions for them all. I had such sympathy for both parents who are put in such a horrible situation. My favorite thing is when I have such deep emotions for a character where I have REAL feelings.

I love it when I look up an author after I finish their book and go searching and realize that the book I read was a debut, makes me sad because there is no backlist to go dive into, but excited because if this is the debut I am in hopes that there is more and more to come from this author!

I received a free e-copy of Little Lovely Things by Maureen Joyce Connolly from NetGalley for my honest review.

A beautifully written yet gripping and emotional read. Claire Rawlings and her husband Glen, have two young daughters, Lily and Andrea. Claire becomes violently ill, while driving with the girls in the car and has to pull over into a gas station. She leaves the girls, sleeping in the car and keeps the bathroom door open so she can see them. Unfortunately, she passes out and when she wakes up, her car and her children are gone.

The police can't locate the girls and the only witness that has come forward is lying. A powerful and heart-wrenching story told from multiple perspectives, which is fascinating as you find yourself emotionally engulfed in each person's story. (guilt, shame, hope, anger, hate, love, and sheer panic)

You will have memories of this book etched in your mind long after reading it. Although, horribly sad, it is so beautifully and powerfully written it will catch your breath.

In this stunning debit we find Claire struggling through life after the fateful day she passed out in a gas station bathroom and her two daughters, sleeping in the car, were abducted by a couple of kicked out travelers. The ensuing guilt and stress on her marriage as well as her trying to move on with life after such a tragedy is well drawn out with descriptive with emotion filled writing that pulls you in and keeps you there until the last sentence. Told through the perspective of the major characters I found the plot well drawn out and perfectly paced. I congratulate the author on such a wonderful first novel and look forward to future efforts. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend you pick it up when it's released on 4/2/19.

Thank you Maureen Joyce Connolly and NetGalley for the ARC ebook to review and enjoy.

This story centers itself around every mother's worst fear - that of losing her children. Claire and Glen have it all - blossoming careers, two little girls, a cosy home, and each other. One day their perfect life is ripped apart when their daughters are abducted.
This story brings out all the emotions and takes them on a rollercoaster ride of despair, guilt, and hope. We get a multiple perspective story from Claire, the kidnappers, Colly, and Jay - a native american drifter trying to start his life over. All of the characters are interesting and multi-faceted, and the ugly things guilt, blame, and grief can have on a marriage creates one more loss in their lives.
This book is both brutal and beautiful.
It was well written and subtly powerful.
I highly recommend this!

This book will take you into the depths of every parent's fear of a horrific, tragic and devastating event. This story is heart wrenching. As I turned the pages I had to know what was going to happen and I was afraid to turn the pages because of the heart ache it caused for the main character, Claire. How would she go on? Where were her babies? Why, why, why?
Ms. Connolly's debut novel had me from the very first page. It's very gripping and held me the entire book. There are things that happened I didn't expect in ways that were unusual but also possible in the search for these two little girls. This is a story of an incomprehensible event. Ms. Connolly had my heart sobbing for Claire. This story was difficult and dark. The characters had depth. Each one uniquely developed. I had feelings for them whether it was that I liked them or despised them. They were believable and realistic.
Even as difficult as this story is to read, it's very well written and has passages that touched me in ways that I could relate to. It's a subject that is a parent's worst nightmare and how to keep going day by day or even hour by hour is unimaginable. It's very hard. "You have to choose happiness. Daily, hourly, maybe even moment by moment. You have to find that the power is in you to do this."
I want to thank Netgalley and Ms. Connolly for the privilege of reading this novel and giving my honest review.

This book was a highly anticipated read of mine, after I’ve seen it popping up everywhere. And it definitely didn’t disappoint. It was a fantastic debut novel.
I had so many feelings while reading this book, I think the author did a great job really making you feel like you were in the main characters head and going through what they think and feel with them. I liked that there were many different POVs (Claire, Moira, Jay and finally Andrea) I think it gave a better understanding of the events unfolding before our eyes. This story is every parent’s worst nightmare, and unlike many of other abduction stories I read, it felt more realistic. There wasn’t a happy ending as you might find with other similar stories, and while it was heartbreaking, I think it painted a much more real picture of how it would happen in real life.
The story begins with Claire, a mother living in the Chicago suburbs, driving her girls to daycare - only she has to make a hasty stop at a gas station in a bad neighbourhood because she suddenly feels very sick. And that moment is all it takes for two opportunist travellers, Moira and Eamonn to grab her precious daughters, Lily and Andrea. We soon find out the girls terrible fate, although it’s not until the end of the book that Glen and Claire (the parents) learn about what really happened to Andrea.
I also liked Jay - his portrayal was fantastic too - it was interesting to have a Native Indian character who struggles with his identity and heritage at some point in his life - only to finally accept you can’t deny who you are.
I think the character development was great and relatable, I can easily imagine that this is exactly how most people would deal with an abduction and the aftermath. Not every marriage survives and not everyone is strong enough to face the events and go to therapy. I was happy that there was some kind of good outcome at the end - without giving too much away. I am glad I had the opportunity to read this book as the story was capturing and the writing was beautiful.

Thank you NetGalley, the publishers and the author for my free advanced reading copy!

nerdybooknurse
Little Lovely Things by Maureen Joyce Connolly starts with medical resident and mother Claire. She’s feeling unwell while driving with her two daughters. As she fights severe nausea, she is eventually forced to pull over and run into the bathroom at a gas station. She passes out and when she comes to the girls are gone...⁣
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Claire and her husband Glenn are then forced to try and figure out how to move forward. They try and investigate while remaining hopeful and are left with a fractured relationship they are both barely clinging to. As more time passes and the girls remain missing, they start to wonder if they’ll ever be able to recover.⁣
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This book is Maureen’s debut novel and I really enjoyed it. It shattered my heart and was a true gut punch as you felt the tension along the way. The book paces along pretty well but it’s not your typical thriller. Instead, this is a psychological exploration of a family undone in the wake of unimaginable tragedy. For those who like family driven suspense with richly developed characters - this is the one for you! // ☕️☕️☕️☕️
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For some reason, I’ve read several in the past few weeks that center on children in peril—kidnappings, mysterious disappearances, murders in the woods. I don’t actively avoid books like this, but I also don’t seek them out. These books found me. Perhaps it’s a subconscious choice—if I read about these horrible things on the page, maybe it will prevent anything like this from befalling me or my children.

Little Lovely Things is the debut novel from author Maureen Joyce Connolly, whom I had the pleasure of speaking with on the phone recently. Two things about this book are shocking—the first that a book this gorgeously written and effortless could possibly be a debut, and the second that a woman so friendly and vivacious could have written about such brutal and disturbing events. The story follow Claire Rawlings, a medical student, wife and a mother of two little girls. On the way to work, Claire becomes violently ill and is forced to stop at a gas station, leaving her girls in the car with the motor running. When she returns, she encounters a mother’s worst nightmare. The car is gone.

The rest of the novel is brilliantly structured, switching between perspectives from Claire to Moira, one of the kidnappers who desperately wants a child of her own, to Jay White, a bystander with a checkered past, to Colly, one of Claire’s kidnapped daughters. Each character is beautifully developed and real, and Connolly did a marvelous job integrated the characters’ ethnic backgrounds and native languages into the story—Moria is an Irish traveller and Jay is Native American. No matter which character we are with, Connolly somehow manages to get the reader on their side, using backstory and realistic details to engender empathy and understanding. This novel defies characterization, but I think it’s much more family drama than thriller.

One of my favorite aspects of the book is the wonderful descriptive language. The fresh and unique turns of phrase really make the scenes come alive.

Here’s a few of the many I highlighted:

“Curling her spine forward like a small shrimp in its shell”
“The arabesques of frost on the windshield in the winter”
“The sun, which was warm and bright and caramel flavored”
“The stars seemed to crackle like cellophane”
The rich mellow odor of old crayons, so different from the plastic-y new ones”

Every character has their fair share of trauma and grief, but Connolly does a remarkable job with the ending, a heartbreaking combination of sadness and hope. Little details carefully placed along the way come together in a just right ending which is also a long awaited new beginning for the Rawlings family.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced review copy.

Told from multiple perspectives, this sad story starts when Claire leaves her children in the car when she stops to use a rest room due to nausea- and the car disappears. You know early on who the kidnapper is but that doesn't make it any easier to read this as you watch Claire and her husband Glen unravel. It wasn't a strong marriage to begin with but this, this is more than they can bear. Enter Jay White, a Native American who has evidence to help, sort of. There are several intriguing angles to this well written and carefully plotted novel. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. No spoilers but try this one for an unexpected twist and a good read.

This was an unexpected twisty piece of literary fiction. I really enjoyed it and was drawn into the characters and storyline, although harrowing, it showed resiliency, love and the peeks into the human spirit during times of disbelief and grief. A very good debut from author Maureen Joyce Connolly.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for the early copy.

I was surprised by this debut at how much I enjoyed it. It was well-written, character focused but still had suspenseful moments. I will be checking out more from this author in the future.

Gripping, edge-sitting, sometimes disturbing fictional account of the abduction of two sisters. Skillful storytelling has you living the emotions of the characters. Keeps you flipping pages!

I was a bit torn by this one, eventually landing on 3.5 stars. On one hand, it is a well-written drama about how a family falls apart. Yet, the marketing of it as a thriller/mystery is a bit disconcerting. The story begins with a busy medical student rushing her two little girls off one morning; when mom becomes ill and passes out in a sketchy gas station bathroom, she awakens to an empty car. Taking the point of view in different chapters are a variety of characters: the overworked mom, as her life falls apart for the years following her daughters' disappearance; the young Native man who is spiritually connected to the girls; the Traveler who kidnaps the girls who has deep issues of her own; and the oldest daughter herself, as she works to discover who she really is. No mystery is really involved here, but the disintegration of people's lives is engrossing and entertaining as one reads to a rather predictable ending. Solid debut novel - I will definitely check out her next book as I thought her character development was rich.

Little Lovely Things by Maureen Joyce Connolly is an extremely heartbreaking and emotional read. I will be honest and say that the first half of this novel was difficult for me to read. Stories about child abduction are (obviously) devastating and not something I typically pick up. Am I happy with my decision to keep reading? Yes, absolutely. Given the subject matter, I still found this novel to be beautifully written. I was instantly captivated by the style of the writing and could not turn the pages fast enough. Connolly does a superb job of describing the aftermath of such a gut-wrenching experience. How does a parent move on from such a tragedy? Can a marriage survive after a loss this horrific? I found the characters and their actions quite compelling. I don’t think a parent is ever really prepared for such a traumatic event or can predict their reactions. This novel fully portrays how a parent’s worst nightmare can come to life in one split second. I want to thank NetGalley and SourceBooks Landmark for sending me an advance reader’s edition of this wonderful debut in exchange for my honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5

Little Lovely Things by Maureen Joyce Connolly is a gripping debut novel about the choices we make that will be sure to move you to tears.

What it's about: Claire Rawlings seems like superwoman, a mother of 2 little girls she is also juggling a husband and a medical residency and seems to be holding everything together perfectly. But this illusion will completely shatter one day when she has a bad allergic reaction and her daughters get kidnapped while she is in the bathroom at a gas station. Told in multiple viewpoints, this is the story of a family torn apart after a tragedy and how everyone copes with the guilt.

Little Lovely Things is definitely a book that is going to pull at your heart strings. There isn't a mystery here, but a story of loss, guilt, and how one family deals with a tragedy. I can't even tell it is a debut novel, that is how moved I was by Connolly's writing. The flow was perfect, and she seems to really be able to portray how an actual family would deal with a kidnapping and the aftermath.

The book is short at just over 300 pages but it really packs a wallop. I found myself tearing up at different points, and I felt very connected to the family and what they were going through. I have never been through a kidnapping (thank god), but the characters all made choices I could see happening in real life. I think this would be a great choice for lovers of women's fiction, literary fiction, and novels that talk about the bonds of family.

Final Thought: For some reason I was expecting a bit of a mystery (even though the synopsis obviously doesn't make it sound like there is one), but that is not what you will get. You know who took the girls and why, but Little Lovely Things really explores the choices we make and the consequences it can have on people around you. It is a novel that will definitely make you think, and I highly recommend it. I can't wait to see what Connolly's talented writing will hit us with next!

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy of this book!

This one was a tough read! I don’t have children but this was an incredibly sad story of a mother who feels ill while in the car with her kids. So she stops off and leaves her sleeping kid in the running car and runs into the bathroom. Someone steals her car and the children in it. I don’t want to spoil anything but I was really disappointed with the outcome for one girl. I think because of the nature of the book and the realness of the story line I couldn’t love this book. I would give it 3 out of 5 stars. If you have little children, this may not be the book for you.

This was a very interesting book. Studying for medical school, raising 2 young girls only 2 years apart in age, and trying to be supportive of her husbands career is more than enough on your plate. But when Claire also happens to get extremely nauseous while driving kids to day care, she pulls over in a gas station and runs in the bathroom and passes out. Upon waking, Clair’s car and daughters are gone.

Will their marriage survive? Will they find the girls? Will Clair ever finish Medical school?

I enjoyed the characters. The story was well thought out and kept you interested until the end.

3.5*
Claire Rawlings makes a last minute decision... one that just might cost her everything! On her way into work with her two daughters safely in the backseat, a rush of nausea overtakes her and she feels as though she may vomit. An allergic reaction? Whatever the case, she must stop the car NOW!
Taking the next exit, Claire makes a mad dash into a bathroom behind a local gas station. Rushing into the restroom, she passes out. When she comes to her car is gone. Along with her two beautiful daughters!

How do you carry on? How do you possibly move forward? The grief, the unanswered questions, and most of all...the overwhelming guilt.

There’s a taste of Native American folklore interspersed throughout from Jay, the one possible witness to the abduction. In fact, that was my favorite part of the book and hoped for even more from his character.

Maureen Joyce Connolly writes a gripping debut thriller. The characters were all well developed, and the story-line flowed easily. I will definitely be searching out her next release.

A buddy read with Susanne!🌸

Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark and Maureen Joyce Connolly for an ARC to read and review.

The premise of this book is that one tiny mistake will forever change a family. A mother decides to leave her children in the car with it running as she is feeling sick and has to get to a bathroom. This one mistake completely changes their life.

A compelling story that I enjoyed. I wished it would have been more suspenseful but besides that I really enjoyed this story.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.