Ellice is supposed to be a strong, extremely intelligent woman. However, she continues making the worst decisions that put her and others in danger. I understand her apprehension around the police, but she even kept those close to her at arm's reach throughout.
Once this major flaw is addressed, I enjoyed this thriller.
Thank you, Netgalley, for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for an unbiased review.

Thanks to BookClubGirl, NetGalley, William Morrow, and Harper Collins for this copy of "All Her Little Secrets."

This was Wanda Morris' debut novel and it was a very memorable thriller! It's been awhile since I read it, but Ellice and the ending were definitely unforgettable!

All Her Little Secrets
Written by Wanda Morris

This mystery/ legal thriller debut by Morris was excellent. I really enjoyed reading this book.

Ellice Littlejohn is a mid 40s corporate lawyer at Houghton Transportation in Atlanta Georgia. She's the only black female in the company. When her boss is murdered, she's the number 1 suspect because she's hella SUS! I was like girl, you are a lawyer but you are forgetting the basics of never taking to the cops without a lawyer!

Common now. But everyone has secrets and some secrets are bigger than others.Every other chapter is a flashback of Ellice's childhood to the late 1970s. As her past collides with her present, we see a very flawed and complex main character. She's hypocritical yet she's still human who makes mistakes and is insecure, scared but acts tough. Ellice makes mistake after mistake as she realizes Houghton is involved in some very shady deals. There was one part that was so sad and unexpected & really bothered me but thought it was important to the story in making Ellice realize what she needed to do.

This story is at the surface, a thriller but Morris delves in sexism, racism, corporate corruption, complacency , and complicity.

Morris is a corporate lawyer herself too and it was interesting to see the interworkings of corporate law. While I know nothing about the law, I felt it was not too over my head. Great book, definitely would consider reading another of her books now that she's more "seasoned"!

I listened to the audiobook and this is a suspenseful twisty thriller that I really enjoyed listening to. I didn't guess the secrets and the surprise ending was perfect for the storyline. You're not going to want to put this novel down!

A suspenseful read with layers of family, trauma, and workforce intrigue. Morris's story has several twists which will leave readers awe-struck. An excellent debut for thriller readers who like dual timelines.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-galley.

A very well written mystery/thriller. We follow Ellice Littlejohn as she tries to discover who murdered her lover.

Secrets afrom Ellice's past slowly make there way to the surface as she stumbles int something dark within the company she works for.

My review at one point was going to be 5 stars but instead it’s 3 stars. It is a good debut and a good legal thriller that was hindered by the stupidity and unbelievable actions of its main character. What lawyer, especially an African American one who’s had bad experiences with the police in the past would talk to the police without a lawyer present? And the author used a lot of repetitive descriptions like “my knees buckled” and “sweat dripped down my back”. The book could have benefited from a bit more editing and gotten rid of 40 or so pages to move the plot along faster.

Overall it was a decent debut mystery that would have been helped by a bit more editing. If you like the books of Attica Locke and legal thrillers in general then you might give this a try.

**Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the e-arc I received in exchange for my honest review**

Thank you to NetGalley for letting me read this in exchange for my honest review.The book is written in the first person and you don’t see what the main character doesn’t see. I was surprised to have enjoyed this book as much as I did.

I love a good crime mystery, but this one just didn't do it for me. I felt it was like everything other book. Just ok from me.

*Thank you @williammorrowbooks for the copy in exchange for an honest review. Review not posted to Amazon/Goodreads because less than 4 stars or DNF.*

“Every lie you tell, every secret you keep, is a fragile little thing that must be protected and accounted for…”—Wanda M. Morris, All Her Little Secrets

Ellice Littlejohn has been hoarding a cache of secrets from her friends and coworkers. Not only did she grow up poor and Black in rural Georgia, she had with an alcoholic mother and a sexually abusive stepfather and her kid brother is an ex-con. She’ll do anything to stay out of the spotlight.

Now she has it all: an Ivy League law degree, a well-paying job as a corporate attorney in midtown Atlanta, great friends, and a long-term affair with a rich executive—her White boss, Michael Sayles—who is married.

But everything changes one cold January morning when Ellice goes to meet Michael and finds him dead with a gunshot to his head. Ellice just walks away; afraid her secrets will get out. What appears to be a suicide is later determined to be murder, and having been hastily promoted as his replacement, she becomes a prime suspect.

When she uncovers shady dealings inside the company, Ellice is trapped in an untenable ethical and moral dilemma. Her past and present lives collide as she races to protect her brother and stop a sinister conspiracy.

I wanted to root for Ellice, a Black woman in a company dominated by White men, but her affair with a married man caused me to dislike her right off the bat.

In the beginning of the book, the author portrays Ellice as a strong, confident woman, but as the storyline progresses, this "intelligent" attorney does some cringeworthy, stupid things. Her mistakes in judgement grew frustrating.

I also found the dialogue to be lacking. The banter between Ellice and her friend Grace was silly and didn’t suit the serious circumstances. The same applies to the conversations she had with her brother, Sam.

There were some definite positives, though. Thematically, the plot is a spot-on social commentary about racial and sexual discrimination and loathsome corporate politics. Wanda Morris wrote All Her Little Secrets in first person, which created tension. She injected little cliffhangers at the conclusion of most chapters that encouraged me to read on. I enjoyed young Ellice’s narrative the most. The sexual abuse she experiences was emotionally gripping and effective.

All Her Little Secrets was a Goodreads Choice Awards nominee for Best Debut Novel (2021) and Best Mystery & Thriller (2021), so other readers felt differently about it. This book missed the mark for me, but I’ll give the author another try. 3 stars.

This was a really great thriller by a new author! It kept me guessing to the last page! I felt that the characters were well formed and the plot was incredible

This was a great legal thriller!

LIKES:
1) Black female MC, Black female author, strong and intelligent
2) I haven’t enjoyed legal thrillers in a very long time. This one really had me guessing
3) So many parts that all worked together. Nothing seemed like it was too much
4) oh there are so many layers, so many moments that make you go hmmm, so well done!

DISLIKES:
1) I’m never okay with books that have child abuse, molestation, etc. Where I know it’s part of the real world, reading is an escape those moments were tough to read.

An interesting book that kept me up all night. It’s a book that’s hard to put down once you get into it. It’s an interesting plot.

Wow! What a thriller! I loved Wanda M. Morris’s All Her Little Secrets. The writing style kept my attention throughout & I could not wait to see where this story was going!

This story was engaging and fast paced. I enjoyed it. It was full of twists and turns and kept me guessing until the end.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy. This is my honest review.

Fantastic book! I loved all the twists and turns. I had no idea what was going to happen at the end and enjoyed the story going between the main characters past and present.

I loved the premise of a murder happening at a law office, and the main character being the "token" Black employee who is suddenly promoted for what seem to be ulterior motives. I just didn't love this as much as Anywhere You Run. I didn't enjoy the nursing home visits or flashback chapters, and the supporting characters fell flat.

Will review in the future, was offered as a free book with no review needed. However, as soon as I read this I will review. Thanks for offering free reads for Book Club Girls.

Thank you Net Galley for a copy of this book and this is my honest review. This book is well written and the author is very descriptive. This was a hard book to read because of the issues of race that dominate this book. I did like the flashbacks throughout the book and how well we got to know each of the characters, This book made me re-evaluate my feelings on the justice system. In this book, we have corporate greed, white supremacy, racial profiling, murder, and blackmail. It was more than just a legal thriller, it was insightful and made us think about what secrets we keep and the cost we pay for those secrets.

Ellice Littlejohn is a successful corporate attorney, and the only Black woman, working for a transportation firm in Atlanta. One day she walks into her boss, Michael's, office - the same boss she's been having an affair with - to find him dead on his office floor. Rather than calling the police, she walks out and returns to her own office in shock. Elice has her own secrets and doesn't want to be caught in the middle. However, when his body is found later that morning, it sets off a string of incidents that Elice can't quite believe are happening.

I really enjoyed "All Her Little Secrets." It was fast-paced, engaging, and well-crafted. Elice is believable as a main character and as a flawed human being trying to make it in a corporate environment that isn't exactly welcoming to her. There is socially relevant commentary and the reveal of what exactly happened to Michael and what is happening behind closed doors at her office is very well done. This was a 4-star read for me. Highly recommend.