I loved Jar of Hearts, and this one sounded interesting and started with so much promise. So where’s the disconnect? I feel like it suffered from a bit of an identity crisis... was it a book about grief? A mystery/thriller? A revenge story? Marin’s 4 year old son Sebastian is missing, but that storyline takes a back seat to her dealing with her grief, confronting the reality of her husband’s affair, and contemplating the value of getting even, and with whom, and then it doesn’t dwell enough on any one of those to make it a cohesive story.

It was still compulsively readable but not nearly as compelling in characters or plot as Jar of Hearts and as I kept guessing each”twist” far ahead of its reveal, I got more and more disappointed as the story unfolded. Initials and nicknames are such dead giveaways for subversion, and the answer to this question was incredibly obvious, as well as the answer to where Sebastian was based on a way too revealing scene.

I never really bought into the friendship between Sal and Marin, especially with her extremely pretentious moments and his obvious low-life vibes. Not a single character in the entire story was likable except maybe the missing kid that’s barely even in it.

I’m annoyed that the author tried to make a scummy person better by giving her a mother with Alzheimer’s and then that absolutely ridiculous ending (the first chapter of part 4) blew my mind in such a negative way that I ended up shaving a half star off my original rating.

The best thing I can say is that the quality of the writing is good despite my issues with the way the story was crafted.

If you are looking for a dark and twisty page turner, look no further. Jennifer Hiller's "Little Secrets" is a fast paced psychological thriller that will leave you breathless. A kidnapping, a scandalous affair, and truths revealed. This book has it all.

I highly recommend, Hiller's novel as it is the perfect book to get your pulse racing and your mind moving, that is if you're ready to hear " Little Secrets."

This was my first novel by Hillier and it will not be my last! I devoured this title in two days; yes, it's that good! Despite the page length, the chapters are fairly short and there is so much action that occurs that readers will not even notice how quickly they are turning the pages.

Marin's character is a grieving mother who is still trying to recover her lost son, who disappeared over a year ago while they were out on a shopping trip. Derek, Marin's husband, is coping with the loss by starting an affair with a much younger woman named Mckenzie; Marin is informed of the relationship through a private investigator she hired to locate her missing child.

With everything in her world slowly slipping away, Marin feels more alone than ever. Luckily, she has her best friend Sal to keep her sane. The pair dated in college and have retained a close bond ever since, despite Sal wishing they could return to their original status. It doesn't come as a surprise when he has a proposal to help Marin out of her latest problem, but will it cost her more than she originally believes?

Becoming unsure of her acceptance to Sal's offer, she tells him that she is no longer interested in the deal; however, has events already transpired beyond the point of return? If so, what consequences will it cause for Marin and everyone she's placed in the line of fire?

The events of this novel build up to one explosive ending that you will not want to miss out on!

Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier

Little Secrets is a riveting novel of psychological suspense set in beautiful PNW Seattle, WA.

This book was such a well written story about what happens to a family when their only son, and their only child Sebastian was taken in broad daylight. After an exhausting year of searching and involving the FBI - making this incident a high profile case because of their influential standing in their community, nothing turned up.

Marin and Derek’s perfect life starts to unravel and Marin refuses to give up even after everyone else has. With the help of a PI, she continues the search and finds more than she bargained for.

This was a great read that once you start will certainly get you hooked and is quite addicting. Writing was razor sharp and had amazing pacing as the mystery was slowly revealed, reeling you into the plots and twists you could not see coming. One of the best psychological reads for me.

Hillier is an author to watch for and I will definitely be reading her entire back list!

Do not miss this.

I highly recommend it!

"Four minutes. That's all it took to steal a child. A lollipop, a Santa suit, and two hundred forty seconds...A missing child is an open, infected wound."

Marin Machado and her husband, Derek, struggled to get pregnant but are totally overjoyed now raising their 4-year-old son, Sebastian. Their wealth and community position don't help them when Sebastian is kidnapped from a very busy Pike Place Market on a Saturday afternoon in December. Marin was texting her husband when Sebastian let go of her hand. The FBI worked the case diligently but the leads went nowhere and the case is now gone cold 16 months later. Marin is in a very bad place emotionally and her relationship with Derek is on the rocks. Then, she learns that he is having an affair. Marin refuses to lose her husband along with her child and decides that she is going to do something about it. NO SPOILERS.

This was a very fast-paced and absorbing psychological thriller that I found impossible to put down so read it in a single sitting today. It is quite heart-wrenching watching Marin struggle and try to keep herself together. The toll that the kidnapping took on her and Derek's marriage was considerable as is common in these situations, and the ways in which both dealt with the trauma and ongoing anguish was difficult to read at times. Although the focus of the narrative is from Marin's viewpoint, there is also insight into what the other characters were thinking and feeling as well. A totally well-crafted story that has a fitting conclusion and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for this e-book ARC to read, review and recommend.

This was a solid thriller and my first book from this author! I am so excited that I was able to read it.
This book is about a little boy who is kidnapped, and how this effects his mother and father (and their relationship). The story unfolds with us reading about the actual kidnapping, and then fast forwards to 16 months in the future, where we read about his mother, Marin, going to a support group, and hiring a private investigator to find her son. The PI isn't able to find any knew details about her son, but does find some other secrets that Marin is not happy about.
I enjoyed this book and felt that many parts were easy to read and fast paced. I also enjoyed the big twist at the end! I didn't see it coming! I do think Part 2 and the parts about the support group were "filler" information and not necessarily needed, but all in all, it was a good thriller and I'll be recommending.

Marin Marchado's whole world changed when she was distracted for a moment at a Seattle market and lost track of her four-year-old son Sebastian. He vanished, without a trace, and there was nothing the police could do to find him. Even the considerable resources of Marin and her husband Derek amounted to nothing. Now a year later, Marin is a haunted woman. The only solace is her support group of other parents who have experienced the same thing, her best friend Sal, and the knowledge that the P.I. she hired is still looking for Sebastian. But then the P.I. turns up something else entirely. Derek is having an affair with a young graduate student named Kenzie. The knowledge of Kenzie's existence finally gives Marin purpose again and a place to channel her anger. Kenzie is a face, an opponent she can see. While Kenzie sees Derek as a rich, married boyfriend, albeit the first she's actually fallen for, Marin sees Kenzie as someone she can remove from her life, a problem she can finally solve. As Marin and Kenzie find themselves on a collision course, each are going to learn some startling truths about themselves--and their pasts.

"Four minutes. That's all it took to steal a child. A lollipop, a Santa suit, and two hundred forty seconds."

Don't get me wrong. This is a really good book. It takes any parent's worst fear and turns it into a raw, dark page-turner. I think what made me a little sad about this thriller is that is was so hyped, so loved that I felt a little let down when I read it. Was it good? Yes, it was. Jennifer Hillier is an amazing writer, and I will always love her books. But did it blow me away like I was hoping? No. And I was a bit disappointed by that. Maybe I'm just becoming jaded in my old age.

Again, this not me saying not to read this book. It's good. It's emotional and sad, twisty and deep. But I also found a lot of it far more predictable than I thought I would. I had an inkling who had taken Sebastian from the beginning and while I still wanted to read the story, I felt a little let down by that. I guessed several of the other big "aha" moments too. Sigh. Maybe I've just read too many thrillers.

Still, this is quite a page-turner, and I read it over the span of two days. You're pulled quickly into Marin's horrible world, where she's completely broken by the aftermath of losing--literally losing--Sebastian. She feels hopeless and when she realizes Derek has cheated on her, it gives her a purpose, even if it is a misguided one. Kenzie works well as an enemy--appearing young and vapid. Derek comes across as a heartless man ignoring his depressed wife. As things build up, you know that an inevitable confrontation will not go well. I just wish I hadn't guessed how said confrontation would go.

However, just about everyone on the planet loved this book unconditionally, so you can't go wrong picking it up. 3.75 stars from me.

From the author of Jar of Hearts comes another twisty domestic suspense novel writ large, Little Secrets.

“The FBI estimates that there are currently over thirty thousand active missing person cases for children.”

Marin is shopping with her four-year-old son, Sebastian, in Seattle’s touristy Pike’s Place Market. Her husband, Derek, texts her with lunch ideas from the other side of the large market. To answer Derek, Marin lets go of Sebastian’s hand. When her text is completed, she looks up and realizes her son is gone. Later, the police are called. When reviewing the video surveillance tapes, Marin recognizes her son leaving the Market.

“Someone dressed as Santa Claus took her son. Deliberately. Purposefully.”

The plot moves to sixteen months later. Sebastian is still missing. Marin and Derek are increasingly distant from one another. Marin engages a private investigator, Vanessa, when the case goes cold. She doesn’t tell Derek. One day, Vanessa called Marin into her office. No news on Sebastian, unfortunately. However, they do have evidence that Derek has a long-time mistress. The rage Marin feels finally relieves her long-term sadness. She has a clear path forward—revenge.

Oh wow! I loved this twisty non-stop rollercoaster of a thriller! But let me give you some advice, don’t start reading this book an hour before work. Little Secrets grabs hold of you from the first page and doesn’t let you go until the last one. It is so compelling, you may forget to eat breakfast! I loved it! If you like domestic thrillers where it is hard to determine who wears the white hat and who wears the black one, pick this book up. You won’t be sorry. 5 stars!

Thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

I received a free digital ARC of Little Secrets from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review; thank you to the author and publisher.

Marin, a rich and successful businesswoman, wife, and mother, has a seemingly perfect life with her attractive, wealthy husband, Derek, and her adorable four-year-old son, Sebastian. However, her perfect life is turned upside down when her son is abducted while shopping with her a few days before Christmas. Now, a little over a year later, Marin is a shell of her former self. The search to find her son has gone cold, and the private investigator whom she hired to search for her son has just informed her that her husband is cheating on her with a woman nearly twenty years her junior. How will Marin handle this news, and does her husband’s mistress know anything about what happened to their son?

It has been a little while now since I have read a thriller, especially a good one, and, you guys, this was just that. This book sucked me in and did not let go! Right off the bat, I loved the plot and the setting, and Hillier’s writing really brings to life the pain that Marin is feeling. While I didn’t really like any of the characters, there is character development, and Hillier writes it brilliantly.

This book could have just as easily been called “Big Secrets” because EVERYONE in this story has secrets - not just little white lies, either, but life-altering secrets. I did guess a twist or two based on some clues I picked up on and ultimately guessed the ending, but this book still took me on a wild ride. It is heartbreaking, exciting, crazy, and unputdownable. I’ve seen this one starting to blow up on Bookstagram, and I can definitely see it being a huge hit of 2020. Go read this now!

She has a secret.

He has a secret.

They all have a secret!

The secrets abound in this mystery/thriller. It begins on the sad note of a child being taken and we see the family one year later. Marin is holding on by a fingernail. Her husband is having an affair. When she finds out, she begins a new quest, getting rid of her. That is the beginning of so many twists that your head will spin. I have to say that I caught on early to one of the main secrets but that didn’t stop me from reading on. I knew I was right but I had no idea to what extent everything played out. It was crazy! It was one of those books where you find yourself saying Oooohhhh a lot. The characters are all multi-layered. Marin is heartbreaking but resilient.

If you love a good twisty book, this is definitely the one for you.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur for a copy of this book.

This story is about a couple who has it all...great jobs, loving partners, a child, everything. Then one day it all changes when their son Sebastian is taken. Things are never the same again, and there seems to be more going on than just a missing child. I loved this story!! I have not read other books by this author but will! This story will pull you in and you won't want it to end! I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book from NetGalley.

Marin is devastated
While doing last minute Christmas Shopping she takes her eye off her son in the mall, he is taken, literally vanished into thin air
14 months on there is no news, no leads and no hope
Then Marin finds out her husband is having an affair, she wants revenge, at any price for everything

A mixed story really re a child’s disappearance which is emotive and described in harrowing detail by Marin, including very raw meetings she attends with other parents of missing children and then equally descriptive chapters on the husbands affair, the woman he is having the affair with and how the affair is making everyone ‘feel’
A little too much focus on this tbh and at times I was like ‘ye ye we know you are angry with your hubby, can we get back to finding your son’ BUT in time it does all link together and there is a purpose in it all

An ending that I found quite easy to guess about 75% onwards but still shocking nonetheless

Dark and not overly likeable characters but a very moving look at a Mother’s grief at the horror she is going through and her thought processes turning into pure white anger ultimately turning her into something she never thought she would become

Powerful at times, bit drawn out at others but all in all a worthy read


7/10
4 Stars

If you’re looking for a thriller with that wow factor then look no further than Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier. Having read a couple of other books from Jennifer Hillier I went into this one expecting it to be good and thankfully I was not let down in the least.

Little Secrets starts off with the unthinkable moment that any parent fears when Marin was at the mall shopping with her little boy. Taking her eyes off her son for just a few moments to respond to her husband’s text Marin’s worst fear comes true when she realizes her little boy, Sebastian, is no longer beside her.

Now, instead of staying with the family and the search the book then jumps ahead sixteen months later with Marin and her husband, Derek. Their marriage is barely hanging on, Marin herself is barely hanging on, and life has certainly not been easy since Sebastian’s disappearance. Then on top of it all for Marin she gets the news that her husband has been cheating and let’s just say Marin is definitely not in her right mind to deal with the news.

Being a definite page turner this is a book that you don’t want to pick up until you have some time to invest because it will be incredibly hard to put back down once you start. Simply one of those stories that feels a bit like a train wreck with Marin’s huge mess her life has turned into so you know you shouldn’t stare but you can’t look away. Definitely one that I would recommend picking up if you can!

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

This book.. WOW. I lightweight skimmed the first line of a review on here that said to go into this book without having seen/researched anything about it beforehand. I’m so happy I followed that person’s advice because WOW. This book is beyond anything I could have expected. It has twists and turns that’ll leave you questioning everything you knew, it has the unending strength of a mother who just wants her baby boy back after he’s taken from her in broad daylight. The strength that Marin’s character shows is outstanding because so many other women would have broken in her shoes.

This book was amazing. Hands down this will be one of the best books I read this year and just like the review I read before reading this book said, go into this book not knowing anything. You’ll be so glad you did in the end!

Wow, that’s all I can say! I just finished this book and my heart is still pounding 100 miles an hour. I find myself having a hard time explaining a story line because I don’t want to give anything away. An affluent couple, a missing four year old child and this story rockets off from there.if you need something to distract you from current issues and take you on a roller coaster here it is! And it is a thrilling ride. Great read! Thank you Netgalley and St Martin press. Everyone needs to get on this ride!

Thank you Netgalley and Minotaur Books for an Arc of this book. The review and comments are my honest opinion. A thrilling new author for me and her thriller was not disappointing. A Mother’s anguish as she turns away for just a moment and her son is abducted. As you can imagine the impact of this loss is devastating and how the parents handle it is also a revelation. This book is full of secrets, lies and suspense. Everything to like in a twisted thriller.

Marin feels like her life ended when her four-year-old son was kidnapped sixteen months ago. She hires a private investigator to help solve what the police could not, and is shocked when the PI reveals evidence that her husband is having an affair. This knowledge brings Marin back to reality, as she suddenly feels ready to go to extreme lengths to fight for her marriage. As she considers harming her husband’s mistress, Marin uncovers more secrets that lead to bigger discoveries.

JUICY! This was a fast, twisty read with intertwining characters. I liked that the chapters alternated between Marin and Kenzie, two-well developed, desperate, and ethically ambiguous women. Honestly this had a ton of potential for me, as I like layered mysteries. However, the ending took a little bit of an unrealistic twist and I didn’t think it was super well done. That said, there’s a lot to like about this fun and complicated mystery.

Marin and Derek are a wealthy couple with a son they finally got through IVF treatments. Now their worst nightmare has come true and their 4-year-old son has been kidnapped.

This is a psychological thriller and I don’t want to give away the story. It is very well done. You’ll hate it and you’ll love it. Read it.

I really enjoyed this book. My only drawback was that some chapters were interminable. Just too long. Main story is while Xmas shopping with her young son, she let’s go of his hand and he is gone. Months and months go by with no word. There is a sub story about the husband having a young mistress but I don’t want to give the whole story away. Quite a good read for which I thank NetGalley for allowing me to read.

"You Alive?"

Is it weird to say I'm in love with Jennifer Hillier now? After reading Jar of Hearts last year, I was beyond excited to read Little Secrets and am happy to report that I absolutely loved this one too! I think this is a good one to go in blind (but I actually feel this way about all books). Hillier touches on loss, infidelity, suicide, depression, friendship and marriage - and gives us twists and turns that I did not expect.

"You said hurt people... hurt people."

What a binge read. These characters are flawed and my heart went out to them. Marin's decline into her own savageness felt so real and raw. I literally stopped chewing and just soaked in one particular chapter. I may have gotten a little teary eyed but let's blame that on the isolation shall we? *wink* Kenzie turned into something more than I had expected and I loved to loathe her.

In a world full of thrillers that seem to saturate us with the same story over and over again, Hillier brings us twisty realness and was exactly what I needed in my reading journey right now. I just want to pull Sebastian in for a big bear hug and get him the biggest lollipop in the world.