The narrator was wonderful! Really enjoyed this story and loved seeing characters from other books. I literally had no clue who the killer was until the very end—twisty and so corrupt!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for a chance to read and review this audiobook. I found it to be your standard murder mystery and nothing stood out to me as shocking. The narrator of the audiobook was great and I enjoyed listening to this on my drives to work.

Jennifer Hillier has quickly become one of my must-read, recommend-to-everyone authors. Her ability to wind a twisty, atmospheric tale is always a delight and Wonderland is no exception!

Seaside, Washington is home to Wonderland, the most popular amusement park in the PNW. The park employs many of the town's residents and keeps the local economy booming. Therefore, it's imperative that Wonderland maintain a good reputation.

Deputy police chief Vanessa Castro has just moved to Seaside from Seattle when the unrecognizable body of a homeless man is found rotting on Wonderland's midway. That same day, a local teenage boy goes missing from inside that same park. Fearing what bad publicity will do to Wonderland, and therefore the town, almost everyone involved wants to wrap things up as quickly and quietly as possible. Unfortunately for them, newbie Vanessa is unwillingly to play by their rules. As she digs into Wonderland's history, more secrets surface and more questions arise. Not everything is as it appears in this magical, yet eerie, place.

As someone who frequently visits a nearby theme park, I found the premise of this novel to be pretty intriguing. A creepy amusement park with a questionable history? Sign me up! The story took off with a bang and I was invested throughout. I will say that I was able to solve the Wonderland mystery fairly early on, but I'm not necessarily upset about it (likely due to the brilliant audiobook narration and Hillier's ability to spin a pretty great tale). Overall, this one was a fun ride and I was left feeling quite content.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ability to listen to this story.

Vanessa Castro has just started her new job in a new town, popular for it's theme park, Wonderland. Her first day on duty, a body turns up, unrecognizable, at the theme park. The theme park where Castro's teenage daughter has just started working.

There are many stories of scandal (and young men preyed on by the park's current owner), not to mention family scandal at the top of the hierarchy. And other disappearances from the past come to light through the investigation.

What secrets is Wonderland hiding? How can Chief Castro protect her family throughout her investigation of a serial killer? And how is her new love interest factored into all of this? So many questions to answer, and so many twists unveiled.

Holy moly…every time I read one of Jennifer’s books, I think she can’t top herself …Boy was I wrong. I chose this as my first audiobook since she is one of my favorite authors , and since it seemed like a fun thriller. The narrator kept me intrigued from the get go, and I loved the carnival background( nothing is scarier than clowns in mu opinion!). While I did feel this mystery was more predictable than her other books I have read, I devoured this book in a weekend! Hillier can do no wrong for me :)

Featuring ~ multiple 3rd person POV, missing teens, police procedural, serial killer, dark thriller, attempted r@pe, imprisonment, abuse (I might be missing some triggers)

We have a few main characters:
Blake ~ missing Wonderland worker, Vanessa ~ new deputy police chief, Oscar ~ security guard at Wonderland, Bianca ~ CEO of Wonderland who likes to sleep with the teenage staff, and Ava ~ Vanessa's daughter who just started working at Wonderland.

Vanessa begins her new position with dead bodies and missing teens. I found her to be a great investigator and she acted like she really cared about the missing boys. She certainly did a better job than her predecessor.

This is a pretty dark read with more sexual encounters than I would have expected from a thriller. Overall, it was fast paced with some predictability, some twists and a whole lotta creepiness.

Narration:
Eunice Wong ~ 11 hours 39 minutes ~ a great job.

Oh. MY. GOODNESS!!! This audiobook was so good! There were so many twists and turns! I could not stop listening. There was nothing predictable about this story. I loved the setting...it was so perfect. I loved the characters, there was so much depth to them. Layers and layers of depth! I am excited there are other books by this truly talented writer. I cannot wait to read more!!! Be warned when you pick this book or audiobook, you will not get much done done once you start reading or listening!

I’ve had Wonderland on my TBR for way too long, and so when Macmillan Audio reached out with the new release of the audiobook, I was beyond excited to finally read this one. True to form, Jennifer Hillier did not disappoint. The audio is fantastic, the narrator did an awesome job of building the suspense here, which is wonderful as it is suspenseful enough with the setting alone. Wonderland is an amusement park that is the lifeblood of the small town of Seaside, however there have always been rumors of dark things going on inside. And then a dead body turns up for all to see, and it just happens to be when Vanessa Castro starts her first day as deputy police chief.

This was twisty, dark, and a page turner the whole way through, and I absolutely loved it. I guessed a few things but not all, and it was true to Hillier’s dark and disturbing form, she is just so good at this and is a favorite of mine. I listened to this in one setting as I could not get enough, and I highly recommend this one for thriller fans, it is so, so good!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the digital copy to review. This one is available now.

I loved this book so much! I really didn’t know what it was about when I started reading it, but I quickly was obsessed! The characters are well developed, and I couldn’t help but love them all!

I had already read Wonderland by Jennifer Hillier… however… listening to it as an audiobook was a pleasant experience. Im really getting into audiobooks.
Wonderland is set in an amusement park with many creepy characters. The author knows how to keep you wanting more and more.
Thank you to the publisher and author for such a great few hours of listening pleasure. By the way… the narrator was phenomenal!

The narration was good! I enjoyed the pacing and her reading made for an enjoyable listen. She captured the essence of a middle grade John-John perfectly because honestly, I wanted to fast-forward through his parts. Despite the solid narration, this book took a hot minute to hook me. There seemed to be a lot going on, yet it felt like nothing was really happening for the first third of the book. I’ll be honest, it took me weeks to get though because of the slow start. Once it picked up though, I came around to enjoy the rest and I honestly wished I just pushed through sooner.

I really liked the main character Vanessa and how she wasn’t afraid to take action or to rock the boat. I also really loved that it was the same Vanessa (the PI) from Little Secrets. The big reveal did take me by surprise and I really didn't see it coming. The plot of the novel was middle of the road for me, but the atmospheric setting and the narration were spot-on.

Everyone loves amusement parks because they are so much fun!

Wonderland.is a magical place for children, who like cotton candy, and rides galore. One of the many highlights is the giant Wonder Wheel which happens to be the oldest Ferris wheel in the Pacific Northwest. But something creepy is going on maybe even sinister. There seems to be a feeling of dread over the park. Maybe it’s the Clown Museum, home to creepy wax replicas of movie stars and a massive collection of antique porcelain dolls, or the terrifyingly House of Horrors. Or could it be the dead, decaying body left along the midway?!

Today is Vanessa Castro’s first day as deputy police chief of Seaside, Washington, and her first investigation. What a way to start! The body is an unidentifiable homeless man. To top that off, a picture has been left by a defiant teenage employee at the top of the Wonder Wheel. It doesn’t take long for the news of the two seemingly unrelated crimes to go viral.

Vanessa’s investigation leads her down a puzzling and disturbing path of missing persons that goes back decades. The park’s dark history is finally being revealed and it’s ugly!

I found this story to be quite creepy and twisted. The girls dressing up as live dolls would have done me in as a park visitor.

Jennifer Hillier’s bone-chilling thriller is masterful, fast-paced, hurtling, shocking, and deadly.

I highly recommend this audio book if you want to be thrilled. I’m happy to have been introduced to a new author for me to love.

I really enjoyed this thriller! Vanessa was such a tough and likable lead character amidst a sea of unlikeable ones! It was dark and twisty and I was shocked by the reveals. Very entertaining from the beginning and the lightning fast pacing kept me glued to the story!

Very good audiobook. Kept my interest the entire way. A few turns I didn’t seem coming. I REALLY liked the theme park aspect of this book, not sure I’ve ever read a book about a theme park setting before.

Wow! What a great story with many twists and turns. Can’t wait to pick up another book by this author. Thanks NetGalley for the audio eArc.

I love Jennifer Hillier.  She's an autobuy author for me and this book did not disappoint! Some of the characters definitely give you the creeps but that just makes for a better book in my opinion. 

I read a ton of thrillers and sometimes I can guess the ending but as long as the story is good, I don't mind the predictability.  However, once in a while I read a book with a twist that catches me off guard and it's the best thing ever!  This was that book!

If you haven’t read the book or listened to the audio and you love thrillers, definitely give them one a try!

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HAPPY PUB DAY to the audiobook version of WONDERLAND by @jenniferhillierbooks ! Thank you to the author, @netgalley and the publisher, @macmillan.audio for the audio-ARC. This book was originally published in 2015.

Ok so I have a problem with a lot of thrillers. They don't always hit for me, especially when there is little to no character development and things are pretty predictable. But for whatever reason, this first thriller for me from Hillier was just what I was looking for.

Vanessa Castro's first day on the Seaside police force is a doozy - one man found dead and one disappears from the local amusement park, Wonderland. As the premiere money making entity in this small coastal town, Castro soon learns there are many politics and secrets afoot. As she tries to unravel the strings leading to the truth she finds there are more than a few knots along the way. Who can she trust and who should she fear?

I won't say much more to keep it all under wraps but i flew through this gritty, dark thriller and loved the voice that the narrator @eunicewongnarration gave to the story. Highly recommend this audio version to get the whole creepy atmospheric feel.

Amusement parks are such a perfect setting for a sinister story and I gobble them up. What are some of your favorite settings for thrillers? Locked room? Isolated getaway? Creepy old house?

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I have been wanting to read this in e-book format for quite a while. I am so happy that I waited for the audio version. I loved the narration, and the storyline was amazing. I enjoyed the setting of this book and the creepy factor of the amusement park. The twists and turns kept me captivated all the way through!

Vanessa Castro recently lost her husband and her job with the Seattle Police Department and moves with her children to Seaside, Washington to take a position as Deputy Chief. She expects a peaceful life dealing with minor crimes in the small beach town whose claim to fame is an amusement park. However on her first day there is a murder in the park, a young man goes missing, and an irate father calls to check on the investigation of his son who is also missing. The deeper Vanessa gets into the investigation, the more she encounters police incompetence. No one want to upset the Wonderland owners. The characters in this book are well developed throughout the book and are very believable. Vanessa is a righteous cop who refuses to toe the line. Her old pal Jerry is a bit of a father figure. Ava is the perfect good girl but still rebellious teenager. Wonderland, a character in itself, is the amusement park we all remember from our childhood but it hides its secrets. The story line is creepy and interesting. The twists and turns kept me guessing and I didn't really expect the ending. The book was published in 2015 but was recently rereleased as an audiobook. Eunice Wong did an excellent job with the narration. Her voice was easy to listen to and the tempo was good. She portrayed the various characters well and it was easy to follow them. I enjoyed the book. It would make a good TV movie. I look forward to reading more of Ms. Hillier's work. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a copy. This is an honest and voluntary review.

Oh wow.

Jennifer Hillier has disappointed me a few times since I read Jar of Hearts, but Wonderland is a comeback by my standards.

*research trigger warnings before reading.

Vanessa Castro, new Deputy Chief of Sea Side, has a dark past that she is trying to run from. Moving her family to Sea Side and starting over after her husband's death seem to be the best option. One her first day, a decaying body is discovered at Wonderland, Sea Side's largest income generator. Vanessa must navigate her new position carefully to solve this case, but the troubles go deeper than she ever imagined.

Wonderland is a slow burn thriller, you know it's coming but not sure when. Hillier has a way of hiding her villains until the last possible moment. It keeps you on your toes, but allows you to enjoy the slow journey to get there.