Marin is frazzled trying to do last minute Christmas shopping. Her four year old son, Sebastian is getting tired. He's begging for a colorful pinwheel shaped lollipop. She has promised him one after one more stop. Her phone rings, it's her best friend Sal. They've been best friends for twenty years. They had dated for about a year, things didn't work out, then she met Derek. As she's trying to text Bach she drops her child's hand, that is the last time she sees him. The store cameras show a Santa Claus dressed individual walking out with her son.
Derek is having an affair. Hey name is Kenzie. Marin finds out from her PI she hired to continue looking for her son after the case was put on the back burner.
Kenzie dates married men. When they try and end the affair she exhorts money out of them.
Sal is the only one that Marin has shared everything with. She even shares her desire to have Kenzie killed. He surprises her by saying he knows someone who would do it for her. She goes so far as to actually hire and pay him. Then she changes her mind and calls it off.
Little does she know of the tangled web of friends conspirators and even her husband that are involved, in this convoluted plan. A plan which may even have involved the kidnapping of Sebastian.

I loved this one. It got to the point where I did not want to put it down. I didn’t see the twists coming and was surprised. This was the first I’ve read by this author and I would certainly read another.
There was never a low point to the story.

Marin owns an upscale beauty salon and is the stylist of the stars. She is quite successful, as is her husband, Derek who runs his own multi-million- dollar company. Their world changes when their young son, Sebastian, is kidnapped at a shopping mall. Over a year later, the marriage is on the rocks and Marin discovers that Derek is seeing a younger woman. Marin, determined to keep her husband, decides to possibly fix this problem on a permanent basis. This will lead to major ramifications.
This is another excellent domestic thriller by Jennifer Hillier who has won the Thriller Award for best novel last year for JAR OF HEARTS. The plot is quite clever and never quite lets up in both the pacing and the suspense. The author puts some effort into the characterization of her main protagonists. There are some stereotypes among them but they are well developed, as a whole. Twists and turns abound especially as we get toward the conclusion of the novel. Highly recommended.

Larry Gandle
Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine

Little Secrets is a quick read full of twists and turns. I anticipated a relatively straight-forward "whodunnit" and was pleased to find much more. Little Secrets explores how far a mother will go for her child, how well you know those around you, and how secrets have the potential of destroying everything. It follows Marin in the aftermath of her son's kidnapping and the depths of her despair and heartbreak. It's impossible not to feel Marin's pain and sympathize with her. I found myself unexpectedly tearing at several points.

Little Secrets is a complicated story of loss, lies, and secrets. It has great pacing, flawed but believable characters, and interesting twists. It's a page turner!

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved this book! It had me on the edge of my seat and I couldn’t put it down!! It was heartbreaking, suspenseful, and raw! Some of it was very hard to read since I am a mother too. I gave it 4 stars!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, Jennifer Hillier!!! I miss some of her "darkness" she wrote back in the day but she is still a fabulous author!

Little Secrets is about a couple who's son is kidnapped and for over a year they are trying to keep their marriage together so when their son does come home it will be just as it was before he was gone.

But things aren't as they seem and the marriage is in trouble. There has been no ransom calls, the police have no leads and life has spiraled out of control.

Marin's best friend has been there for her through thick and thin and she trusts him with her life......until she can't.

We wish Creep, Freak, and Butcher would be reprinted. We could sell those everyday in our store.

Marin appears to have the perfect life. She has been happily married to her lying, cheating, scumbag, SOB husband, Derek (I don't have strong feelings about this at all) when one day their son, Sebastian is kidnapped. With no real suspects in sight, no hide nor hair of her son, the case goes cold.

Marin is now a wreck. She can't get past the pain of losing her son, she was right there holding his hand, she let go of his hand for a just a few seconds and in that time, he was gone. She is stuck, living in a home where she and her husband rarely speak, going to a support group, and waiting to learn the truth. Her world is so sad and lonely. Then one day the PI she hired to find her son, calls to tell her she has found someone - but it's not her son - it's Mackenzie Li, her husband's mistress. A mistress who makes having wealthy "boyfriends" a habit. She doesn't care if they are married. She only cares about what they can give her.

What's a woman to do? Who would you react? How does Marin?

Whew! Marin doesn't always make the best choices, but she makes interesting ones. It was fun to be a fly on the wall while watching these people implode. It was also fun to imagine throwing rotten tomatoes (or eggs) at Mackenzie "Kenzie" and Derek. Both are unsavory characters who deserve each other IMO. Again, not that I have strong feelings about this at all....

Hillier continues to deliver the thrills, twists, turns all the while tugging on readers emotions. She had me feeling sorry for certain characters, booing and hissing others, but all the while having me on the edge of my seat, turning the pages to see how this book would end. This book was fast paced and there was always something going on. Plus, it is well written and well thought out. Plus, all of the characters are interesting - even the unlikable ones. They all have that little bit of something - that makes them jump off the page.

Talk about a page turner! I literally got nothing accomplished while reading this book. I was too enthralled in the story. Literally glued to my seat, trying to figure things out, wondering what the truth would be, and praying my butt wasn't expanding too much form the hour after hour of sitting I did while reading this book. This book is full of secrets, lies, twists, turns, revelations, tears, anxiety, heartbreak and guilt.

Riveting, emotion provoking, compelling and unputdownable. Hillier delivers again! I can't wait to see what she writes next!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press- Minotaur Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book! The storyline grabbed me by the third page and hasn't let go even after I finished the book. I literally would read so late into the night I would fall asleep with my Kindle in my hand because I just couldn't put this down. This story is heartbreaking, riveting, and thrilling. I found myself at times holding my breath and others screaming out loud! Love the characters, love the drama, LOVED this book. 5 Stars without a doubt.. If you like a good thriller, add this to your TBR, it will not disappoint.

Little Secrets begins with four year old Sebastian letting go of his mother, Marins, hand, and disappearing into a crowd. Over a year later, Sebastian's kidnapping has not been solved and he has not been found.

I liked the writing in this fast paced book a lot and recommend it for fans of suspense. The kidnapping very quickly becomes more of a subplot to the story of where Marin and her husband, Derek, are in the aftermath. Although the kidnapping is an ever present part of the entire book, as the investigation remains open and Marin and Derek have of course not emotionally moved past this huge loss, it's also the structure used to the tell the story of Marin and Derek's response to the event, and the justification for their actions throughout the novel as grief weighs on all their decisions. Rage coupled with wealth and entitlement may serve as motive and means for extreme and dangerous behavior. If you're used to getting what you want when you want it, do you see (and stop) at a moral or legal line, or do you keep pushing?

None of these characters was particularly likable, and I absolutely hated some of their decisions (SPOILER like when Marin engaged in sexual violence by stealing a woman's nude photo, showing it to a friend, then making it her iPhone wallpaper so yet another man sees it, making Marin no better or different than anyone else who engages in revenge porn END SPOILER) yet this was an engaging and fast read where you want to keep going to see what sort of emotional explosion the characters are all rushing toward.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC. The opinions in this review are honest and my own. #LittleSecrets #suspense

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

First, I have read and enjoyed all of the author’s books and this one was no different. I did guess who the kidnapper was about a quarter of the way through the book, so I wasn’t surprised toward the end. There were a couple of smaller twists that I didn’t see coming and made for an enjoyable read.

I appreciate that the author did not sugarcoat anything about Marin, the main character. She was incredibly broken by what happened with her son and then the additional drama that happens with her husband and I think the author captured that incredibly well.

Overall, this was a fun read and I would recommend it!

I received an ARC of this novel from St. Martin's Press via Netgalley in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own. I haven't read any of Jennifer Hiilier's books but I have read about them on various blogs so I was very excited to be given an ARC of this novel and it didn't disappoint! Marin and Derek are a highly successful couple and they seem to have it all until the day their world falls apart when their son Sebastian is abducted. It is now a year later, Derek and Marin's marriage is on the rocks and the trail to find Sebastian has grown cold. Marin decides to hire her own private investigator to make one last attempt to find her son. When the private eye finds clues that hand Marin more information than she was bargaining for, will she finally get what she has been looking for or has she lost everything? Great suspense-lots of plot twists-I am a fan!!

Jennifer Hillier is an author to keep watching and to keep reading. Ever since her breakthrough novel JAR OF HEARTS was recognized as one of the best book of the year, Hillier does not disappoint with her new book, LITTLE SECRETS.

The story begins when the happy successful couple - Marin and Derek - very much admired in their community fall apart when their son is kidnapped. As so often happens during a family tragedy, their marriage is strained at best. Marin hires a private investigator to try to find their son after a year has passed with no leads. The PI's discovery turns their world upside down again.

Hillier is brilliant as taking was seems to be merely a little mind game and ratchets it up into the stratosphere. This is a twisty and twisted story about revenge and the depths one person will do to right a wrong. I highly recommend this book and everything else that Jennifer Hillier writers.

Thanks for letting me read and review..

I just finished this book and wow, what a great ending. While I had sort of figured out who was involved, once the twist happened , this book went full-force, non-stop, and I couldn’t put it down. I actually woke up this morning and grabbed it so I could see how it ended. This book does have some tough subject matter, missing children, suicide, abuse, but it’s woven well into the story. I would definitely reccomend Little Secrets.

This is a great suspense novel that I read in a day because I got really caught up in it (a perk of all roads around us being closed because of blizzard conditions this weekend). I'm glad I'd forgotten most of the synopsis, as it was a little misleading and would have taken some of the fun out of learning things as they were revealed in the book.

The upshot -- it follows the life of a wealthy mother a year after her four year-old son is abducted as she's shopping in a busy farmers' market with him. He's disappeared without a trace and she's in a very dark place. Told from multiple POVs, her life gets more dark and complicated as new events unfold.

The book has great storytelling and is an engrossing read. The characters are fully fleshed out people, not black and white, bad and good. Highly recommended.

I read a digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

This book had me hooked right from the start. It was full of twists and turns that I never saw coming. Great amount of characters and suspense. Looking forward to reading more from this author. Thanks to NetGalley for the privilege to read and review this book.

Quite enjoyed this book (Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier.) Storyline was interesting and taut, and it kept me reading even during the night.

I'd recommend this book for folks who like interesting suspense based books that aren't gory.

4 stars.

Thank you to the author and publishing house for an ARC of this book!

Crossposting at Goodreads.

This book , although slightly predictable towards the end, kept me on the edge of my seat wanting more and wanting to know more - few nice twists that were unexpected - overall an enjoyable story with several different plot lines

Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier is a gripping thriller and I am predicting it will make my short list of my favorites for 2020. Sebastian is 4 year old boy Christmas shopping at Pikes Peak Market with his mom when he disappears. Video footage shows him being led away willingly, but they are unable to identify the person who is dressed in a Santa suit. A year later with no suspects or leads the case turns cold and the boys parents, Derek and Marin, drift apart in grief and despair. That small spark of hope which wakes Marin to push through each day will bring to light a number of secrets and deceptions in those around her. If you enjoy suspense and thrillers with a few great twists - I highly recommend this book! I received an ARC, all opinions are my own.

This book was SO GOOD I really enjoyed how fast paced it was. I feel like I was very surprised on how the plot twist was. I feel like I already knew kind of but not really. It was shocking of who took the child. The mother went through a lot to find her child she even hired a P.I. (private investigator) to see where her child was. The mother Marin has so much faith and which the father Derek didn’t even though.......the plot twist. I give this book four stars it was very enjoyable and hold my attention

I would like to thank Net Galley and Minotaur Publishing for giving me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This book starts off with a bang - Marin Machado’s perfect world is disrupted when her four year old son, Sebastian, is taken straightaway in a crowded marketplace. A year later, we learn Marin is a shell of the person she used to be and her marriage with Derek has dwindled to almost nothing as both husband and wife are overcome with grief and guilt. After hiring a private investigator to look into her missing son, Marin happens to learn about her husband’s extramarital affair with a young woman. This springs Marin back to life and she makes the decision to save her marriage (by any means necessary) while continuing to search for her son. This was a compulsive, frantic two day read for me because I really wanted to get down to the bottom of it and find out how the story unfolds.

One thing I appreciate about Jennifer Hillier’s novels is the thought and detail she puts into the characterization bit of writing. Her characters are never flat, and always multi-faceted. Each chapter peels more and more layers of each character and we as readers are left hating, loving, or just rooting for the characters. I like that each character’s psyche is explored in a detailed way. There were moments while reading where I did feel that there was an almost excessive amount of delving into the characters’ backstories and emotions, hindering the momentum and direction of the story.

The story is told from the perspectives of Marin, the female protagonist, and Kenzie, her husband’s mistress. Hillier’s characters are never black and white and because of that I think it makes it easier for the reader to become invested in their outcomes. There were times when my heart felt for Marin and, believe it or not, Kenzie as well - as much as I didn’t want to. Then there were other instances where I thoroughly resented Marin and Kenzie for their stupid, reckless decisions and convoluted thinking patterns. Even Sal, Marin’s shady best friend, is interesting to me and I enjoyed the parts in the book that include him.

The story itself moved forward more quickly in the second half the book. I have to say that the twists did catch me off guard, something that doesn’t happen often as I’ve been reading suspense novels for a very long time in my life and have gotten quite good at guessing. I live for those “aha” moments of clarity when I’m proven wrong and want to smack my forehead. It happened more than once while reading this book.

One more thing I’ll add is that a lot of people have been comparing the two books, but I feel they were so...different? Jar of Hearts had me holding my breath and checking every door to make sure it’s locked whereas Little Secrets was more about which direction the story was going and wondering about what resolution would be at the end.