Thanks to NetGalley, Minotaur Books, and St Martin's Press for the ARC of Things We Do in the Dark in exchange for my honest opinion! I was lucky enough to also find a physical copy in my favorite local Little Free Library which I was happy to pass on to a friend afterward!
This was my first book by Jennifer Hillier and I'm so excited to read her backlist because I thought this one was fantastic! It comes out on Tuesday and I can't wait for others to discover this one. I thought it would be scary but it's more intriguing and twisty than scary, so don't be afraid of this one like I was.

The story begins with Paris Peralta being suspected of killing her older celebrity husband. She's got secrets that must remain hidden lest this not be the only murder she gets charged with!

I very rarely pick up a book without first reading the synopsis, but when it comes to thrillers sometimes I do because I just want to be completely blind as to what may be about to happen. I am glad I went into this one blind. Told through past and present perspectives this one had a lot of layers to unfold and I thought the pacing was really well done. I loved how it all come together at the end!

As with other Jennifer Hillier books I've read this one does have a dark undertone. (TW: child abuse & sexual assault of a minor)

Rating: 4 stars

Special thanks to @netgalley for providing me with a digital ARC and @macmillan.audio for the complimentary ALC for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

Hands down, this is the coolest and most clever promotion of the year with the glow in the dark cover!

This was such a compelling story that I totally binged! I was hooked from the beginning and I was so curious to know what happened and where this story could possibly go!

Being from Toronto myself, I absolutely relished the setting and it had me constantly getting excited with every mention Hillier made to the city and it’s surroundings.

Hillier’s writing style is certainly one of my favourites amongst our Thriller writing Queens and I loved how flawlessly this one flowed and kept me engaged and invested.

While it didn’t end with the type of bang I was anticipating, I loved the twists along the way and felt that they were done just right!

Told from duel perspectives and alternating timelines, this was an entertaining mystery that should leave all thriller lovers satisfied!

As soon as I saw that Jennifer Hillier had a new book coming out, I knew I just had to have it. She builds thrillers up and leaves me grossly satisfied, so I couldn't wait to dig into Things We Do in the Dark.
This book starts off with a bang. Paris is arrested with blood on her hands. Her famous, much older husband, Jimmy is dead in their bathroom and Paris seems like the most likely culprit. Only thing is, she can't remember killing her husband. But with her husband being famous, Paris' name is now all over the headlines. She is now more concerned with the past coming back to haunt her.

Jennifer Hillier created two stories for Paris. One for her past and one for her present. I was just enthralled with her past as her present and I wanted to know what she did in her past that made her run/hide. The beginning started out strong and with conviction, but then the plot began to drag a little in the middle. I would've liked to see more action or more mystery as I guessed a few things early on. After the slower middle part, the ending picked up again and secrets were revealed from the past and the present and wrapped up the story in a cohesive manner.

While this book wasn't my favorite of Ms Hillier's, I still enjoyed the overall feel of the story as well as the tie in of the podcast to the title of the book. It shows the fascination our culture has with deaths and mysteries surrounding unexplained murders. Thank goodness we still got to the bottom of this death in a satisfying way.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Joelle/Joey/Ruby/Paris has had many lives. One for each name, in fact. Born to an angry single mother, she is abused by her mother and her mother's boyfriends until, at thirteen, she finds a way out. But the new life is worse than the one she left, so she escapes it, too. And that one isn't a lot better, but at least she is away from her family. Then things go horribly wrong with this life, too, in several different ways one New Year's Eve., so she runs away again and reinvents herself again.

But now she is accused of murder and her picture is in all the papers and all over the TV and internet, and her past is closing in. But this time, there is no way out, she has to finally face all those past lives and decide who she will finally be.

It's a good read. You will root for her and wish, just once, things would go her way.

Jennifer Hillier is an auto buy and auto read author for me, and I was so excited to get my hands on this one as soon as I knew she had a new book coming out and it did not disappoint! The book does not waste any time getting started, it opens with Paris Peralta being arrested in her bathroom where her celebrity husband has been found dead. Blood is everywhere and she is holding a straight razor which is allegedly the murder weapon and she knows this all looks bad. She realizes she will be charged with murder, but even more worrisome is that her past will come back to haunt her, and everything she worked so hard to hide may ruin the future and new life she worked so hard to build.

This started strong, got a little slow in the middle, and then picked up and ended strong, delivering overall just like I knew Hillier would. There were a few twists in here I didn’t see coming and I enjoyed learning about Paris’ past just as much as I did learning about what happened the night that her husband died. While not my favorite of Hillier’s books this is solid as they come and I definitely recommend it!

I also want to note that I listened to this one via audio and it was fantastic. The narrator, Carla Vega, did a fantastic job and I would absolutely recommend this medium if audiobooks are your thing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ALC and advanced digital copy to review.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
I reviewed, read & loved 2 previous books by Jennifer Hillier
("Little Secrets" & "Jar Of Hearts")
so when I discovered that her newest book, "Things We Do In The Dark" was available to review, I had to request a copy.
Oh boy, she has done it again!
This book was twisty, interesting, unpredictable & addictive.
I highly recommend this book for those that love dark & disturbing thillers.
I'm patiently waiting for Ms. Hillier's next book.

An addicting new thriller from Jennifer Hillier, Things We Do in the Dark kept me hooked through the whole book
Paris Peralta is arrested in her own bathroom, covered in blood while her husband sits in a bathtub full of blood. As the story unfolds, we discover that Paris has a lot of secrets hiding in her past.
Highly recommended. Superb character development had me hooked from the first chapter.

* I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books in exchange for my honest review.

This book stands out from the other thrillers I’ve read this year. It started out as a typical thriller, but soon it morphs into an intriguing story about a young girl with a dangerously narcissistic mother. This book was both fascinating and terribly gripping.
There are several mysteries wrapped up in this one book, which makes it a fascinating read. I also liked how everything came together in the end. Although there were a lot of different threads and red herrings, the ending felt strong and satisfying.
My only ‘problem’ with this book was that occasionally the time lines became confusing. However, that didn’t impact my enjoyment.
If you like murder mysteries and domestic dramas, then this book is for you.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Releasing this week! THINGS WE DO IN THE DARK is a twisty whodunnit with secret pasts and secret lives.

In the two Jennifer Hillier books I've read, she does a great job of going a little beneath the surface, which I love. You're going to get a great twisty-turny suspense-thriller, but you'll also get fleshed-out, dynamic characters and at least a few moments that really make you think.

Major content warnings for this one, though, especially for child abuse. The main character experienced significant child abuse in her past and it's a primary focus of her story. I was not prepared for that, and honestly, that's the reason I didn't *super* enjoy this book the way I enjoyed Hillier's LITTLE SECRETS.

(Instagram post forthcoming @fromsarahsbooknook).

A big thanks to Netgalley, the author, and Minotaur Books for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Read this if…you like celebrity gossip and a good underdog story.

Paris survived a horrendous childhood and has literally created a new life for herself, as well as a new identity. All of her hard work threatens to come crashing down when she becomes the main suspect in her husband’s murder. This is a high profile case since her husband was a famous comedian and Paris is found at the scene of the crime, covered in blood and holding the murder weapon. Now that her face is plastered all over the gossip magazines, Paris is worried that someone from her past will recognize her and blow her cover. Can she prove her innocence all while keeping the skeletons in her closet hidden?

This was my first Jennifer Hillier book and it won’t be my last. I really enjoyed Paris’s story. It was hard to get through the parts where she was abused by her mother and others, but I was really rooting for her. There were so many other unlikable characters in this one that it would be hard not to like Paris just by comparison. Ruby is a heartless monster and Drew’s character was just kind of “meh” for me. I liked the parts of the story told from his POV much less than the ones told from Paris’s perspective. It was a bit slow in the middle, but the pacing picks up nicely about two-thirds through. Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was an interesting mystery with a satisfying ending.

Jennifer Hillier has such a way with words! I absolutely love her writing style. I enjoyed how the book gave different perspectives from past and present. I felt like the story was told perfectly this way. Got a little bit of information a piece at a time, There were parts of this book that were absolutely heartbreaking. I felt so bad for Joey and what she experienced in her life. There were some things that I expected to happen. But it was written in such a way that it didn't even matter that I saw it coming. There were things that I somewhat expected but it didn't happen exactly like I thought. Then there were things that came out of left field that wasn't expected at all. As with any JH book, I greatly enjoyed this one and highly recommend it to others. My favorite characters were Joey, Paris and Drew. I wish we could have had a little bit more from Debbie and Belinda. But it seems this book was over ran with despicable people, unfortunately. I also like how there wasn't an epilogue. We were just kind of allowed free reign on how we wanted to interpret what happened once the book ended.

I was surprised by this one, but I really enjoyed it! It was slightly too long, but I love love an alternating POV and dual timeline. The twists really just kept coming and I'm excited to read something else by her! 3.5 stars!

One of those instances where I wonder if I read the same book as everyone else.

The story is told in dual timelines but I preferred the present, in which Paris is accused of murdering her celebrity husband Jimmy. It sure kept me guessing! On the other hand, the past timeline was terribly predictable despite it trying to be dark and gritty. I never warmed to any of the characters and wasn't a fan of Joey or Drew (who sucks). I got real bored fast after Part 1.

Overall, this is just another run-of-the-mill thriller. It was an okayish read and I'd actually wanted to give it 3 stars until the ending, which I hated. I am not a fan of thrillers that derive pleasure and satisfaction from the dehumanizing and downfall of women, no matter how reprehensible they might be. Plus I'm of the belief that people are layers of grey, not black and white.

As I told a friend – if Little Secrets (which I loved) is pro-mother, Things We Do in the Dark is anti-mother. Not a bad book but not my cup of tea!

✔️ I read this in less than a day; it was fast paced and kept me engaged . There’s a lot of dark and sad undertones but I found the author did a good job of capturing it without being too explicit
✔️ I thought the strip club setting was unique and added a different vibe
✔️ can’t help but be thrilled that Toronto was a major player in the book
🔘 I pretty much predicted all the twists early on - having said that, that almost made it more enjoyable for me ( who doesn’t want to be right all the time ? 😆)

This book has been marketed as a thriller, but it’s not at all. So with that out of the way I did enjoy the story. The story started off strong, the middle did drag a little and the ending was good. There was one twist that got me and that made me so happy. I actually cheered at the part when it was revealed. This is my second novel by Jennifer Hillier and she continues to impress me with her storytelling.

This is a story about a girl whose on at least her 2nd life.

I really enjoyed elements of this one- Hillier’s writing style always lands for me, and I the child-welfare elements were done really well… but I vastly preferred one of the narrative choices over the other, which was disappointing since the sections were long. Overall, I wouldn’t necessarily call it a thriller, but if you go in looking for a solid legal drama, you won’t be disappointed!

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️. 💫rounded to 4!

Thank you so much @netgalley @macmillan.audio @minotaur_books &@stmartinspress for the advanced e & audio copies 🖤

Thanks to NetGalley I got an advance copy.

Unfortunately, this one is a dud!

Saw the twist right at the start and no redeemable characters.

Book is also very choppy.

I have been wanting to read one of Jennifer Hillier’s books for a year, so I was thrilled to get a copy from Libro.fm a little early. It’s super fun to have an author interview at the end with a podcaster (that contains spoilers). Like she says, there are so many characters with backstories that keep you not knowing. It’s interesting she didn’t really know how it would end until she got there. She said she reads it out loud four times so she can hear it and the rhythm of it. Interesting!

She based the story on a crime news story about a boy who didn’t survive abuse. And she wondered, if he lived, would he be an abuser or what might his life have been like. So, this book is about a mother that allows sexual abuse to happen to her daughter (from multiple people), and she just wasn’t a good mother. She didn’t care about her daughter and was just a selfish person.

This daughter grows up and through a tragic experience, changes her identity and marries a famous older comedian. She returns from a yoga trip to find her husband dead in the bathtub and is accused of his murder. Most of the book is almost more literary fiction - backstories of characters. Main character is Filipino (based on her mother coming to Canada). Jennifer herself is Filipino-Canadian, born and raised in Toronto, and spent eight years in Seattle.


Fictional Seattle world (Green Bean coffee shop in both of her books, a Cuban restaurant) Toronto - Little Park is based on Lakeshore strip / Golden Cherry based on House of Lancaster - when she lived there in the 90s

This is the first book I read of this author. It was pretty good. I figured out part of the mystery but there were a few surprise nuggets. I really liked the characters but not everything was wrapped up in a bow.