“A shattering adventure.” — Jacquelyn Mitchard, bestselling author of The Deep End of the OceanA mother’s chance decision leads to a twist of fate that is every parent’s worst nightmareIt is the wrong time to get sick. Speeding down the highway on the way to work, her two little girls sleeping in the back seat, medical resident Claire Rawlings doesn’t have time for the nausea overtaking her. But … Rawlings doesn’t have time for the nausea overtaking her. But as the world tilts sideways, she pulls into a gas station, runs to the bathroom, and passes out. When she wakes up minutes later, her car—and her daughters—are gone.
The police have no leads, and the weight of guilt presses down on Claire as each hour passes with no trace of her girls. All she has to hold on to are her strained marriage, a potentially unreliable witness who emerges days later, and the desperate but unquenchable belief that her daughters are out there somewhere.
As hopeful and uplifting as it is devastating, Little Lovely Things is the story of a family shattered by unthinkable tragedy, and the unexpected intersection of heartbreak and hope.
Perfect for readers of Watch Me Disappear and After Anna!
Additional Praise for Little Lovely Things:
”Little Lovely Things is an insightful and moving read that is well worth the journey.” — Vivian Schilling, bestselling author of Quietus
“Combining the suspense and razor-sharp outlook of a Gillian Flynn novel, Maureen Connolly’s debut sizzles. I finished Little Lovely Things in one heartbreaking, tear-batting gulp. Connolly takes risks that make the reader’s heart start anew. Finding shards of hope amidst the chaos of tragedy is a testament to both the writer, and the characters she creates.” — Jenny Milchman, USA Today bestselling author of Wicked River
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What a gut wrenching, can’t stop reading, page turner. The subject matter is like a kick in the stomach. Any mother that reads this will feel that way. The characters were well rounded, which I always look for in a book. I was invested in them. The twists and turns made me just want to sit down and read read read!
I recommend this book!
Lovely Little Things is an amazing and emotional book, from the moment I picked it up it tugged at my heartstrings.
Maureen Joyce Connolly does an amazing job at pulling you into the story of Glen and Claire Rawlings, two parents who are forced to face an unimaginable loss when their two daughters are abducted. This is one book you will not want to put down!
This book will take you into the depths of every parent’s fear of a horrific, tragic and devastating event. This story is heart wrenching. As I turned the pages I had to know what was going to happen and I was afraid to turn the pages because of the heart ache it caused for the main character, Claire. How would she go on? Where were her babies? Why, why, why?
Ms. Connolly’s debut novel had me from the very first page. It’s very gripping and held me the entire book. There are things that happened I didn’t expect in ways that were unusual but also possible in the search for these two little girls. This is a story of an incomprehensible event. Ms. Connolly had my heart sobbing for Claire. This story was difficult and dark. The characters had depth. Each one uniquely developed. I had feelings for them whether it was that I liked them or despised them. They were believable and realistic.
Even as difficult as this story is to read, it’s very well written and has passages that touched me in ways that I could relate to. It’s a subject that is a parent’s worst nightmare and how to keep going day by day or even hour by hour is unimaginable. It’s very hard. “You have to choose happiness. Daily, hourly, maybe even moment by moment. You have to find that the power is in you to do this.”
I want to thank Netgalley and Ms. Connolly for the privilege of reading this novel and giving my honest review.
In this stunning debit we find Claire struggling through life after the fateful day she passed out in a gas station bathroom and her two daughters, sleeping in the car, were abducted by a couple of kicked out travelers. The ensuing guilt and stress on her marriage as well as her trying to move on with life after such a tragedy is well drawn out with descriptive with emotion filled writing that pulls you in and keeps you there until the last sentence. Told through the perspective of the major characters I found the plot well drawn out and perfectly paced. I congratulate the author on such a wonderful first novel and look forward to future efforts. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend you pick it up when it’s released on 4/2/19.
Thank you Maureen Joyce Connolly and NetGalley for the ARC ebook to review and enjoy.
An emotionally charged debut, Little Lovely Things will leave you asking a million different “what ifs” about your life. What if your children were missing, and you blamed yourself? What if the things that defined you– your job, your family– were stripped away? What if your intuition was pushing you forward while fear was holding you back?
Claire Rawlings made a choice: a split-second decision made in the throes of illness that would completely destroy her world. Her two beautiful children are stolen while she is clinging to consciousness a few feet away, and nothing will ever be the same for Claire, or her family, after that moment.
The story flows smoothly and I found myself glued to my spot while reading, eager to find out what happened next. I enjoyed the character development as much or more than the plot itself, and found myself feeling quite a bit of sympathy for the “bad guys,” which says a lot about Connolly’s ability to showcase the complex nature of the human heart.
I eagerly look forward to more books from this debut author!
**Thanks to NetGalley for my free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review**
I have very mixed feelings about this book. I know a lot of people have raved about it, so I went in with high expectations. However, upon finishing, I find myself feeling somewhat let down. Make no mistake, it is beautifully written, evocative and hauntingly poetic. The author is masterful at creating moods and describing scenes in ways that give the reader an absolute feeling of “being there.” In that regard, it is a very fine book. However, I found the plot itself to be somewhat lacking. I felt that it just tried to do too much. Moira and the Travellers, Jay’s struggle to find himself, Glen and Claire’s relationship…the explorations of each dovetail from one event, but to me, it felt disjointed. Oddly, I felt each story on its own was interesting, and I would have preferred that more time been given to concentrating on only one or two. That being said, I still highly recommend the book because the writing is exceptional, the story just wasn’t for me. Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark, and the author for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
What a great read, but I definitely needed more at the end! Maybe there will be a sequel?! Looking forward to more by this author.
Welcome to a trip back in time with Throwback Thursday. Tonight’s Gem comes to us from 1991. Not the long past, but long enough, nearly 30 years ago. It is a gold medallion, worn, as though someone has held it and worried the original saint and his or her name completely unknowable. Perhaps it was St. Eulalia or St. Jude, both of whom are said to watch after lost nestlings. The medallion is precious and careworn, simple in its beauty, it gives off a feeling of warmth and care, but underneath One catches a slight feeling of claustrophobic desperation. This is Gem Maker Maureen Joyce Connolly’s “Little Lovely Things”.
This is the tale of a mother, Claire Rawlings, who is like many mothers. She loves her children dearly, but she rushed and pushed to the breaking point. She runs her home, attends medical school, is in her intern program and very nearly finished. She loves her husband and they both are looking forward to the day when pennies do not have to be pinched so hard that Lincoln screams in anguish. She’s very nearly there, just a few more months. She can see the finish line!
But then something awful happens. It sounds like a Grimm’s Fairy Tale set in a nightmarish landscape that is far too awful and far too true for some parents. Claire gets extremely ill from a vaccine she had to have and pulls over at a gas station, her two little, perfect, lovely girls in tow. She tells them to stay put, though she, herself is barely functioning, she runs to the restroom and passes out. When she comes to, she runs back out and realizes her car is not there and her babies are gone!
This is 1991. There are no cellphones, no Amber Alert, no computers or internet. A person could still disappear relatively easily in 1991. The police are called. A man from the gas station tries to track down her car, but they are near a busy highway, no way to tell where the car went. This is the first day of Claire’s and her husband, Glen’s, trip to Hell. Will they find their daughters? Will they find their daughters alive?
I am not going to tell more than that. I want to tell you about Maureen Joyce Connolly’s writing. I loved this book. I know that sounds weird. I loved the writing. The prose is perfect. No one is over the top here. No one is cartoonish or flat. These characters feel alive. I felt for Claire and Glen. Their girls, Lily and Andrea, two precious little nestlings away from their mum, made my heart hurt. All the side characters were not a waste. Connolly brings it home as though she were the lead detective reporting on it all. This was her first book for me, I dare say it shall not be my last.
The book also has an interview with the author in the back and a discussion guide for your book club! I have never experienced that in a book before. Lovely! If you are looking for a book with suspense, Traveller Culture, Lakota Culture, intuition, true raw emotion and a downright stunning detective story..Little Lovely Things is for you! You can find it at booksellers everywhere!
I would also encourage you to visit my Facebook Page tomorrow, when I have a guest author dropping by The Cave! Until tomorrow I remain, your humble Book Dragon,
Drakon T. Longwitten
I received a copy of this book thanks to #suzyapprovedbooktours and #maureenjoyceconnolly My opinion is my own.
Maureen’s debut book was wonderfully written!! Claire was a mother of two daughters when their day drastically changed on the drive to work and school. This book pulled at every heart string of mine because I know what happens when you get sick. Claire never stopped looking for her daughter! I couldn’t imagine what I would do in her shoes throughout the future years of their lives. I would recommend this book in a heartbeat!
Thank you to Maureen and Suzy Approved Book Tours for the opportunity to read and review this book!