National Bestseller! “Unflinching and unforgettable. Little Secrets has everything you want in a thriller” –Riley Sager, New York Times bestselling author of Lock Every Door Overwhelmed by tragedy, a woman desperately tries to save her marriage in award-winning author Jennifer Hillier’s Little Secrets, a riveting novel of psychological suspense. All it takes to unravel a life is one little … suspense.
All it takes to unravel a life is one little secret…
Marin had the perfect life. Married to her college sweetheart, she owns a chain of upscale hair salons, and Derek runs his own company. They’re admired in their community and are a loving family–until their world falls apart the day their son Sebastian is taken.
A year later, Marin is a shadow of herself. The FBI search has gone cold. The publicity has faded. She and her husband rarely speak. She hires a P.I. to pick up where the police left off, but instead of finding Sebastian, she learns that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman. This discovery sparks Marin back to life. She’s lost her son; she’s not about to lose her husband, too. Kenzie is an enemy with a face, which means this is a problem Marin can fix.
Permanently.
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Little Secrets will leave readers completely floored. You don’t just read this book; you inhale it.
Little Secrets starts with every parent’s nightmare ― the disappearance of a child in a crowded store. If that sounds like tough stuff, trust me, you want to keep reading. Better yet, trust Jennifer Hillier, a rising star in crime fiction whose work is like no one else’s. That gut punch of an opener jumps to a twisty tale of trauma and grief and revenge, with extraordinary empathy for everyone involved.
You will be obsessed with this unputdownable read. Razor-sharp writing, believable characters, emotional depth ― this is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Absolutely loved it!
Little Secrets is a powerful, enthralling thriller that had me looking forward to the end of each day I could spend with these intriguing characters and Jennifer Hillier’s riveting storytelling. Prepare yourself for a terrific read.
Jennifer Hillier is a powerhouse of the thriller genre. Little Secrets is sophisticated, compelling, gut-wrenching, stunning, and absolutely magnificent. If you only read one book in 2020, make sure it’s this one.
Once I picked Little Secrets up, I couldn’t put it down. It’s crackling with suspense, bursting with characters I cared about, and has one of the most satisfying endings I’ve ever read.
Very reminiscent of Greer Hendricks’ and Sarah Pekkanen’s An Anonymous Girl, Hillier excels at putting the reader in the head of two women whose lives have been twisted by the men in them. Tactfully utilizing deception, humiliation, lies, manipulation, and kidnapping (!) — each in a surprising new way — the characters in Little Secrets are everything you don’t want in a relationship.
Primary protagonist Marin Machado has it all (doesn’t every woman at the beginning of a thriller?), until one day her son is abducted in a busy shopping market. After a grueling investigation, he still hasn’t been found. A year and a few months later, Marin’s life is in shambles. She and her husband barely speak, she’s lost interest in her successful salon, and she’s dealing with crippling depression.
Marin soon learns from the private eye that she hired behind her husband, Derek’s, back that Derek is trying to move on — with another (much younger) woman, McKenzie Li — a juicy twist, if a bit predictable.
After months of being consumed by nothing but thoughts of her son, Marin is relieved to have somewhere to focus her energy and rage: right on McKenzie. It takes her one day to make a decision that will change the course of the lives of all the novel’s characters in unexpected ways.
Little Secrets has all the best elements of a thriller and twists I honestly didn’t see coming. A must-read for those who love a good twisted thriller.
Little Secrets
A Novel
by Jennifer Hillier
352 pages
Publication date: April 21, 2020
Publisher: Minotaur Books
5
Wow ! Just wow ! This is the best thriller I have read so far this year . If I could give it more than 5 stars I would. Having your child taken is every parents fear and worst nightmare. I totally loved this authors different spin on it and taking us inside the head of Marin (this child’s mother) and McKenzie ( the dad’s mistress ).
Jennifer Hillier sure knows how to suck you in and take you on a journey that will have you staying up all night just to finish. Little Secrets is a 352 page masterpiece with many twists and turns. This story drew me in so much that I refused to put this book down until I read the last page. I started and finished this book very quickly. It Caught my attention from the very first page and didn’t let go til the end. I was sad to see it end and say good bye to these characters. The characters were well developed,and the plot well done and fast paced. The ending was totally mind blowing. Left me in total shock ! The first thing that drew me to pick this novel up was the title, and then I read the blurb and was intrigued. I’m really glad I read it because now I have a new author to follow. I am very much looking forward to reading other books by this author.
Trust me when I say this is one book you will not want to miss. As always if you like the book you read please take the time to leave a review for the author in places like goodreads & Amazon. It does not have to be long. Just a few sentences saying you liked the book will do. Authors really appreciate every review they get !
I want to thank St. Martin’s Press Minotaur Books and Jennifer Hillier for sending me an arc of the book and the opportunity to read it.
Jennifer Hilliar’s writing scares me. Her stories are so real, the characters could easily be someone I know, or the situations could easily happen to me or a loved one.
Little Secrets deals with what is quite literally my (and probably every other parents) worst nightmare. Child abduction.
This book was phenomenal. Twisty, addictive and terrifying. The entire time I was reading it my stomach was churning with nervousness and full of dread, yet I just had to keep reading. I loved that we got perspectives from both Marin and Mackenzie. Their characters were so incredibly different, and neither were necessarily likable but they were so layered and equally interesting.
One of my favorite things about Hilliar’s writing is her reveals. You truly can’t figure out the twist until Hillier is ready for you to know it. You spend the entire book guessing, thinking you have it figured out, only to be blindsided by the twist. I was definitely blindsided by this one!!
If you love a good twisty thriller full of secrets, that keeps you guessing this is the book for you!
A huge thank you to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for allowing me to read and give my honest review of this incredible book!
Gorgeously written, so involving, and a searing deep dive into parenthood, marriage and friendship.
LITTLE SECRETS, the latest from Jennifer Hillier, is an emotional dive into grief and rage that will leave you breathless as you eagerly turn its pages. Sixteen months ago, Marin’s son Sebastian was kidnapped in a busy marketplace by someone dressed as Santa. Now, the P.I. she hired to find him (after the FBI’s investigation went cold) uncovers that her husband, Derek, is having an affair with a much younger woman. Having already lost her son, Marin refuses to lose anything else, and she sets her eyes, full of rage and revenge, on Derek’s mistress. This story is filled with surprises; even when you think you know where it’s headed, Hillier throws a shocking curveball into the mix. It definitely isn’t easy reading a book about a kidnapped child, but the reader is in excellent hands with this author. As more and more secrets are revealed (by the way, LITTLE SECRETS is a bit of a misnomer; these are BIG secrets, EARTH-SHATTERING secrets), the story becomes more and more addictive, allowing for a hundred pages to go by seemingly in the blink of an eye. Hillier’s characters are brilliantly conceived and developed; each of them, even the most villainous, have so much depth, making this more than just a gripping, suspenseful book; it’s a poignant portrayal of personal darkness, and the places we’ll go, the things we’ll do, when we’re pushed to the edge, when our backs are against the wall. Also… the ending was SO, SO GOOD. I don’t even want to vaguely say what was good about it for fear of spoiling it, but I will say it’s one of my favorite thriller endings I’ve ever read. Do yourself a favor and pick up this book!
Amazing! From the first chapter to the last, Jennifer Hillier hits all the right marks: heart-achingly believable characters you’ll root for in spite of their flaws, emotional twists that will keep you up at night, and an ending you’ll never see coming. This is a not-to-be missed thriller with a well-earned place on my read-again shelf.
Fast-paced and twisty, Little Secrets has all the feels! A compelling story about woman seeking answers in the abduction of her child – and finding more than she ever imagined. Hillier has a way of trapping your emotions as she cleverly drops breadcrumbs that lead along a thrilling and unforgettable path.
“Little Secrets” by Jennifer Hillier is a portrait of two women told in alternating perspectives. It is a dark tale filled with deception, trickery, and lies. Marin Machado owns the high-end Marin Machado Salon & Spa. She and husband Derick have money, abundant money, but money cannot buy what she lost. McKenzie Li works at a coffee shop and struggles to pay her bills. She is not a prostitute; she is a professional girlfriend. Her rates go up if the guy has a wife because they have more to lose. They share Derek, and they share other things as well.
The story opens with a traumatic event that took four minutes; that is how long it took someone to steal a child, Marin’s and Derek’s child, from Pike Place Mall in Seattle. It was Marin’s fault, all of it, and she has lived four hundred eighty-five days with this nightmare. Marin went to therapy, to a support group, and to a private detective. When she discovers yet another dreadful lie, she is sick of being sorry for things that are not her fault. She is filled with rage, and rage is better than sadness. The drama unfolds one secret, one lie, one deception at a time. Readers watch as the liars, all the liars, descend into an ever more complicated web of deceit.
“Little Secrets” has an unusual and unexpected ending, one that is sure to elicit mixed feelings, but certainly matches the personalities of the participants. For readers who might hesitate to read a book which starts with a child’s kidnapping, not to worry, it is not about child abduction or gangs of kidnappers. I received a copy of “Little Secrets” from Jennifer Hillier and St. Martin’s Press. Terrible things happen, and sometimes they lead to more terrible things. However, there is some measure of unusual karma.
****4.25****
Unflinching and unforgettable. Little Secrets has everything you want in a thriller ― complex characters, heart-pounding suspense and a stunning conclusion. Jennifer Hillier is one of my favorite writers, and this is her best book yet.
An engaging story about the ripple effect of unsolved mysteries, little (and big) secrets, and the things we do to keep this fragile life from shattering into a million pieces. I found this mystery/thriller to be a page turner for sure, with strong character development and surprisingly relatable themes. Check it out!
5 STARS!
EVERY STAR!
This is the best book I have read in a long time and I read about 300 books in 2019. Do yourself a favor and read as little about it as possible before diving in.
This is not one to miss, I predict it will be all anyone in the book world is talking about in April 2020!
Thank you to Jennifer Hillier, Minotaur Books and NetGalley for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
4.5 twisted stars!
Wow, I really liked this one. While some of it was hard to read (I feel like your child being abducted is most parents WORST nightmare) I appreciate the brutal honestly the author attacked the story with. The beginning completely sucked me in from the get go, then it drug a bit for me around the halfway mark but when it started to pick up again it was a crazy series of revelations till the very end. I didn’t completely guess what was going on and I always enjoy when an author can blindside me a bit.
For those who like thrillers/suspense I highly recommend!
I received this book as an ARC
Right from the beginning, this book had me by the throat and choked up. My heart raced and I couldn’t seem to read it fast enough. At the same time, the intensity was such that I needed to set it aside and process it…..let it fester. The twists took my breath away never expecting the way things played out. What a great story! Intense, emotional, and suspenseful. At times you can feel the emotions so strongly, it’s as if you yourself are the actual characters. Highly recommend.
I would warn this may not be suitable for anyone with a missing child.