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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Great book I loved it. Very impressive book. It was about a loving family and the son gets kidnapped. It goes from there. What an amazing book!
I was very excited to learn Jennifer Hillier had written a new novel following her huge success with the award winning “Jar of Hearts”, I loved that book and therefore had very high hopes for this her latest, “Little Secrets”.
The story is based on the after effects, emotionally and physically, when Marin’s four year old son Sebastian, is taken by a stranger during a trip to a Christmas market. Fast forward 485 days and Marin wakes up every day, barely hanging by a thread, to a text from her best friend and ex lover ‘Sal’ asking ‘you alive?’ Although Marin and her husband Derek have the perfect life, successful business, lots of money and everything materialistic they could want, their missing son and the ‘what if’s’ are all Marin thinks about, every hour of every day. Having experienced for myself that few minutes of sheer terror when you think your child has disappeared, I truly felt every emotion Marin endured and understood totally her fears. Thankfully I found my son instantly but Marin and Derek weren’t so lucky and their lives and relationship changed overnight. When she discovers Derek has been having an affair with a much younger woman for the last six months, the fight in Marin returns and she vows to get her husband back at all costs.
After reading a couple of very slow books categorised as thrillers, I was lulled into thinking this too was going to be a slow burn story but I need not have feared, the story soon captures your attention and becomes thoroughly addictive. Although I didn’t particularly like any of the characters, they play their parts perfectly, all the emotions were spot on and even though the denouement was slightly predictable, it was still thrilling and was executed with edge of your seat tension.
Knowing that the author is a mother too, I can only imagine the feelings she had writing the story herself, protecting and guarding your children from harm’s way is a mothers lifelong duty and she captures all the emotions, from attending therapy groups, visiting doctors and even hiring a private detective, perfectly and with compassion.
Twisty, addictive, highly entertaining, I loved “Little Secrets” and can’t wait for more again by Jennifer Hillier in the future.
4 stars
Marin’s four year old son is kidnapped 3 days before Christmas at a busy outdoor market. Months later, she and her husband Derek barely speak to each other. Marin’s best friend from college, Sal checks on her every day. Marin has hired a PI to find her son but never told Derek. The PI discovers Derek is having an affair. There was a lot going on in this book. It was a page-turner, it kept me guessing and I couldn’t predict what was happening. I really enjoyed reading this.
Wow! I was so excited to read this as I read amazing reviews for it. Hillier has a great reputation in the writing community and I see why. I can’t wait to read more by her. This was twisted and just so good!
Fantastic audiobook! So many twist and turns I feel like a pretzel
Don’t miss this one
Marin is a privileged wife and mother to young Sebastian (Bash), but her life changes dramatically one Christmas when Bash disappears while they are shopping for last minute Christmas gifts at Pike Place Market. The disappearance drives a wedge between Marin and her husband Derek. As Marin grieves her son’s continued disappearance Derek begins and affair with a young barista, Mackenzie. Comfort for Marin comes from a support group for parents of missing kids, and her old flame turned friend Sal. Desperate to regain at least Derek, Marin hires a “fixer” to correct the situation. Thus begins a series of events that soon spins out of control. Some great twists and turns, this one was hard to put down, although I did figure out the villain way before the hints came in earnest. I enjoy many of Hillier’s books, and this one was good as well.
Little Secrets is full of secrets, both big and small. This book is amazing and in this time of unease, when I’ve been having trouble concentrating on reading, this story and the lives of these people captured my attention and kept me spellbound. I was hooked from the heart-wrenching first chapter. So intense!
I loved this book and all of the drama and secrets. Jennifer is a new author to me but I’ve already got more of her books on my TBR list. I love her dark and twisty mind, er stories. I highly recommend Little Secrets if you like to read edge-of-your-seat, page turners that you can’t put down.
What the hell did I just listen too. The narrator does amazing job keeping me wanting to listen to more. This book was so unpredictable. Didn’t see some of those twist coming. Highly recommend this book. Jennifer did amazing with this book. I listen to Jar of Hearts and loved it. So this book didn’t disappoint me.
About Book-
Marin loses her five year old son when he disappears from a store they are at. It’s been over a year since he has been gone. Marin is trying to cope that her son will be found. So she hires a private investigator to see if the FBI or the police have missed something. That’s where the private investigator finds out that Marin husband been seeing someone else. But things get even crazier when all the dots start adding up and Marin doesn’t know who and what to trust anymore.
Loved this book. Didn’t see the twists coming, although by the end of the book, it felt like there was no other way it could have gone. Fantastic! This author is an auto-buy now.
After Jar of Hearts, I’ll read anything Jennifer Hillier writes and Little Secrets was one of my most anticipated titles for 2020. This one lived up to expectations, a dark and gripping twister that I sucked down in one huge gulp. Jennifer is master at creating complicated, flawed characters who feel 100% human and relatable, and Marin was the star of this one. I loved her, I fussed at her, I cried and cheered for her. A riveting, terrifying thriller.
Absolutely fabulous. Has the reading X factor.
Fast-paced thriller which kept me turning pages late into the night. I thought the characterizations were good and the reactions of those characters fairly realistic. I could not wait to see what came next. Twists and turns kept me guessing. I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley and the publisher and this is my honest opinion.
Little Secrets opens with Marin shopping at Seattle’s famed Pike Place, one of the oldest public farmers markets in America. She lets go of four-year-old Sebastian’s hand when she is distracted by her cell phone. As she responds to incoming text messages from her husband, Derek, Sebastian vanishes.
After losing Sebastian, Marin sinks into a deep depression and loses the will to live. Fifteen months later, she still thinks about ending her life, especially if she ever learns that Sebastian will never be coming home. Because she knows that it was her fault and she has no one to blame but herself. She was the one who lost sight of her child. Now she is back at work in her high-end salon, and she and Derek are going through the motions of carrying on with their lives, hoping that Sebastian will be found and returned to them. Unable to discover any new clues that might lead them to Sebastian’s abductor, the FBI has shelved the case, even though the file will reopen open and they will reactive the investigation should new evidence come to light. Marin attends a support group for parents of missing children, and still sees Dr. Chen, her therapist, with whom she shares secrets she cannot tell Derek about the lengths to which she goes in order to cope.
She is keeping one rather large secret from Derek. She has never told him that she retained a PI to search for Sebastian. Vanessa Castro is a former Seattle police officer who specializes in finding missing children. She is successful because her methods are unconventional, and she looks in places where the police won’t or can’t look. But Castro has made a discovery Marin wasn’t expecting. So when she tells Marin “it appears your husband is seeing someone,” Marin is shocked to see photos of Derek with a much younger woman.
Marin has maintained a close friendship with her college boyfriend, Sal Palermo. He has remained a lifeline for Marin through the problems in her marriage before Sebastian was born and everything else she has gone through over the years. He texts her every single morning, asking “You alive?” if he doesn’t hear from her first. Sal is an ex-convict, casual drug dealer, and runs a local bar that can best be described as “shady.” Sal has never married, but has had a series of short-term relationships. And he claims that he knows people who can “take care of” problems. Marin trusts him implicitly, has confided in him about everything over the years, and agrees to accept his assistance when she learned about Derek’s duplicitous behavior.
Little Secrets succeeds as a direct result of Hillier’s ability to make readers care about her characters, each of whom is seriously flawed and engaging in abhorrent and immoral conduct, but doing so in response to life events that have driven them to do things they would never have otherwise contemplated. Each, in his/her own way, is motivated by self-interest, but also love. Or at least the kind of love he/she is capable of feeling.
In Marin’s case, she has sustained the worst loss imaginable. Her four-year-old son was ripped away from her without a trace, and she is full of self-loathing and guilt. She actively ponders ending her own life, opting to live only because of the chance, however remote, that Sebastian will be returned to her. She loves Derek and is deeply hurt by the revelation that he has been involved with Kenzie, the attractive young barista, for six months. Derek loves Marin and is mourning the loss of his son, but seeking to escape his own guilt by entering into a destructive affair with Kenzie, who learned long ago that rich men will pay to ensure that their wives don’t find out about their extramarital activities. Her tuition and the costs of caring for her mother, stricken with early-onset Alzheimer’s, are exorbitantly expensive and she has found that she can maintain a certain lifestyle, a modicum of Instagram fame, and accomplish her financial goals by zeroing in on men who are emotionally needy, vulnerable, and financially able to provide for her. She’s surprised by the feelings she is developing for Derek, aware that the odds he will leave Marin are slim. Lastly, Sal has been a loyal friend to Marin since their romance ended more than twenty years ago, always lending a sympathetic ear and support to her as she has struggled to keep her marriage intact and get through another day of grieving for Sebastian. He’s the friend everyone wants in their life: the one who knows you best, including your most humiliating moments, loves you anyway, and will make sure you get home safely when you drink too much. But Sal’s compassion and empathy are not unlimited or entirely altruistic.
Each of Hillier’s complexly-crafted characters is empathetic, particularly Marin, and Hillier challenges readers to contemplate the lengths to which they would go to save their own family. Hillier believably portrays Marin’s despair, grief, anger, and need to take control of some aspect of her life, no matter how despicable her contemplated action may be.
And each of Hillier’s characters is harboring secrets that inform their decisions, compel their behavior, and threaten to derail their lives and relationships if revealed. Hillier relates the story at a steady, relentless pace that accelerates as, one by one, those secrets start coming to light and the characters react to what they learn. Always at the center of the tale is a defenseless, innocent child — the adorable Sebastian who was last seen wearing a reindeer sweater, impatiently imploring his mother to finish her Christmas shopping and take him to the candy store and buy him his favorite variety of lollipop. Is he still alive? If so, has he been harmed? Who kidnapped him? And why? At least as far as Marin is aware, no ransom demand was ever communicated, so what was the abductor’s motive? Shocking revelations and plot twists compel the story forward to an explosive, but satisfying conclusion.
Little Secrets is a dark, twisted tale. The themes Hillier tackles are unsettling and disturbing, but deeply engaging and thought-provoking, making Little Secrets one of 2020’s most entertaining thrillers.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader’s Copy of the book.
As soon as I read the BOLO book review of LITTLE SECRETS, by Jennifer Hillier I knew I had to get a copy–and it’s one of the few books I read from start to finish in a day. Hillier takes you deep inside her characters and it is within the dark recesses of their passions and fears that her story emerges. Every action has unintended consequences that propels this twisty plot and will keep you turning pages well into the night.
I debated whether I should give Little Secrets 3 or 4. I had a hard time getting invested in the book. I didn’t like any of the main characters. But, the last half of the book was excellent. If you like psychological thrillers check it out. Just go into it knowing the first half isn’t great.
Really liked this book. Marin and Derek seem to have the perfect life; each having very successful businesses and appearing to be the perfect, loving family…and then their 4 year old son, Sebastian, is taken and everything changes.
This was my first novel by author Jennifer Hillier, but it won’t be my last! I loved this fabulously woven story of a woman whose young son is stolen, and whose husband has committed the ultimate betrayal. I give this novel an A++.
Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier has just shot straight into my “Top Reads of 2020”! This book was EVERYTHING!!! Hillier jam-packed this novel with so much emotional character depth that I had to take more than a few deep breaths just to calm myself down! The sheer darkness and raw despair within the mind of a mother of a kidnapped child pierced through every page, right into my very own heartstrings. Little Secrets is more potent than I could have ever imagined, and then some. I was in tears throughout the first chapter, the final chapters, and many moments between!
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The ending was a TRUE shocker. Usually, I can guess, or at least get a pretty good idea of ‘whodunnit’ but not this time. I was thrown for a loop in the cruelest possible way. I simply cannot fathom how Marin Machado survived this utter mental torture. Seriously. I just reminded my own children to never talk to strangers or go anywhere with anyone unless I say no matter what.
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I love reading, even though these books tear me apart… then people wonder why I get so paranoid about my kids in public. Nope. Couldn’t do it. I could NOT survive this.
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However, this was only the beginning – and the end. The middle is filled with SO much intrigue that it was near impossible to put down. I reveled in the fact that Hillier was able to bring about such a connection to not only Marin (and her twisted downhill spiral) but Kenzie as well. Kenzie, the mistress. Kenzie, the enemy. McKenzie Li was brought to life through the many chapters dedicated to her history and current motivations. There are a few other characters I’d love to write about, but, for fear of giving too much away, I won’t. Just know that Little Secrets should be a must-read on everyone’s to be read list for 2020!
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This book was gifted to me by a close book buddy of mine, Reanna (@booknook8756 on Instagram), and I couldn’t be more grateful! There were several times I had to pause to send a quick message to her sharing my theories and several WTF moments! With 22 pages left to go, I seriously contemplated ordering take out, again, to skip cooking and finish reading! Ultimately I cooked, we ate, and I cleaned up really fast! It was so worth it. Dissecting the climax and conclusion with my book bestie was quite an enjoyable experience, and I can’t wait to do it again… with Jennifer Hillier’s “Jar of Hearts”!
Hillier sucked me in with the drama and characters then blew me out of the water with her break-neck ending. Excellent psychological domestic thriller!
I think I’m a little late to jump on this author’s bandwagon, but I might just start by driving it! Stayed up late last night to finish it. Worth it. The is every parents worst nightmare (missing child), my heart was in my throat throughout the entire book. I don’t know how many times I was saying No. I thought the author did a great job of showing how this set of parents each handled this horrible issue in their particular mindset and background. It’s easy to say “I would never do that” when not faced with this situation or resources. The characters are flawed, realistic and broken.
Marin and Derek are living the life….wealthy, successful, parents to adorable 4 year old Sebastian. Their life is totally turned upside down when ‘Bash’ is abducted days before Christmas. What transpires next shows what stress does to the individuals and the couple itself, and the lives of those close to them. And, how little secrets will destroy.
Thanks to Ms Hiller, Minotaur Books and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.