This was a great story, by a great Australian author. Recommend this to fans of Sarah Bailey and Jane Harper. An author to watch for sure!

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

What happens when ambition trumps the truth?
A town reeling in the wake of tragedy…
An arsonist is on the loose in Colmstock, Australia, most recently burning down the town’s courthouse and killing a young boy who was trapped inside.
An aspiring journalist desperate for a story…
The clock is ticking for Rose Blakey. With nothing but rejections from newspapers piling up, her job pulling beers for cops at the local tavern isn’t enough to even cover rent. Rose needs a story — a big one.
A bizarre mystery…
In the weeks after the courthouse fire, porcelain replicas of Colmstock’s daughters begin turning up on doorsteps, terrifying parents and testing the limits of the town’s already fractured police force.
Rose may have finally found her story. But as her articles gain traction and the boundaries of her investigation blur, Colmstock is seized by a seething paranoia. Soon, no one is safe from suspicion. And when Rose’s attention turns to the mysterious stranger living in the rooms behind the tavern, neighbour turns on neighbour and the darkest side of self-preservation is revealed.

This story certainly evoked two distinct feelings from me: excitement and boredom. Let me explain...

The is something about small Australian country towns that really drag me into a story. Maybe it is a feeling of familiarity - I have lived in a few small towns and understand the mentality. The author does do a magnificent job delivering a town that gets into the grip of paranoia as small, isolated incidents become fully-fledged drama. I really did appreciate that and I think it is one of the strongest aspects of this story.
Also, the idea itself really intrigued me and I thought it was original enough to persist with.

On the downside, however - one reviewer called the plot "glacial", and I have to agree. While the generating of tension is excellent, nothing really "happens" and I found myself wondering when it was finally going to let itself run free. Didn't happen until about the last 70 pages or so. And that was disappointing as I thought it had so much more potential to be an incredible thriller.
As for the characters - I didn't really buy into any of them. They were either unlikeable (Rose and Mia) or incompetent and manipulative (the cops.)I had a hard time believing what was being put forward at all times.

Would I recommend it? Sure - there is enough here to make a good read but it may not make it to your Top 5 lists any time soon...


Paul
ARH

Anna Snoekstra has written a complex and riveting novel with a clearly manipulative and unlikeable protagonist.
Straight up Rose starts to manipulate the reader. I initially felt sorry for her but the more I read the more I learned that she was selfish and unscrupulous.

Set in a small country town where unemployment is high and drug use is on the increase you could feel the oppression. Rose’s only ambition is to become a journalist and leave Colmstock behind.

As in “Only Daughter” Snoekstra has again given us a whole load of messed up characters and in “Little Secrets” has placed them in a small town where they can do nothing expect destroy each other.

Many plot lines run through the novel and in a town where everyone has a secret to keep I couldn’t possibly guess the outcome with any of them.

I hated most of the characters, they made me angry, sad and disgusted. All emotions I think the author was trying to evoke.

Little Secrets was a great read! Full of surprises!

Content- Frequent coarse language F –word C-word
Sex scene
Graphic violence

I received a copy from the publisher via Netgalley.

In a sentence? I can’t possibly put all my thoughts and emotions in one sentence. I was reading this book non-stop for a whole day. I was reading and writing down notes. Notes that I thought were important. Notes that I thought described the characters. Little did I know…

As the story unfolded so did all of the main characters. A girl, a best friend, dreaming of a simple life in a simple place with a husband to care for her and children to raise would turn out to be one of the ugliest and cruelest monsters. A man, a messiah, a protector, an emitome of masculinity, every woman’s dream would unfold to be a bully, a sick and horrible creature capable of unspeakable things to satisfy minute desires and cravings.

Yes, the story is horrifying. Some places are more horrifying in their simplicity, familiarity and predictability than others.

Small town mentality is worse than Stephen King’s monsters. Small town that is dying of decay, poverty and crime is even worse. Everyone on their own. Town is a jungle and only the cruelest survive.

Little secrets cause big pain. Little secrets uncover big crimes. Little secrets poison the town like millions of infected papercuts. Everything explodes in the end. Everything breaks, fractures and burns as the bodies in this story.

Once I finished this book I could not bring myself to sort out who is bad and who is good in this story. There is no clear division, no clear boundaries. It feels like everything that seemed good even though simple and limited turned out to be the worst and the cruelest.

The main character Rose manages to leave this town in the end. She leaves behind ruins of the town, ruins of the people she thought she knew and ruins of all the relationships she’s ever had in her life.

She leaves the place, but she does not leave herself behind. It will still be the same her… with her little secrets.

This book is definitely is not a light read. However, it is very engrossing and overwhelming. I’ve read it in a day as I could not put it down. I could not believe an unfolding fabric that was taking place in the story. I gasped and swore too many times along the way.

Humans are dangerous. They are cruel to each other

In the small country town of Colmstock, there’s an arsonist – or arsonists – on the loose and little girls in town are receiving small, porcelain dolls that look just like them. For Rose Blakley, it’s not only concerning when her little sister receives a doll, but potentially her ticket out of Colmstock. An aspiring journalist without the means to leave, the story might just be enough to make her name as a journalist.

Somewhat of a cross between Jane Harper’s The Dry and Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies, Anna Snoekstra’s Little Secret is a competent thriller, if not particularly spectacular as a work of fiction.

It’s a read easy to digest, a real page-turner. The mysteries underlying the story were more than enough to keep me reading, as I wondered just what was going on and what was going to happen next. There are several twists that was enough to keep me guessing.

However, I also found the characters… all sort of awful? It’s all on a sliding scale, of course – there are some truly despicable characters there. It doesn’t help that it comes out of left-field for some of them – characters like Mia and Frank seem to turn suddenly evil for drama. Even Rose, who is the protagonist and clearly one we’re meant to be sympathetic to, isn’t immune to this. I began the novel feeling sorry for her, but it rapidly becomes clear that she doesn’t care about anything more than her “dream career” – she’s exploitive and frequently betrays the trust of people she supposedly cares about, and the only characters in the story that aren’t hideously awful are treated horribly by her in her quest to become a famous journalist. While I started the novel rooting for her, hoping she’d be able to escape, I ended it wondering if she deserved to escape.

I also felt that some things were left unresolved, unexplored – perhaps Snoekstra is laying the groundwork for a sequel or deliberately leaving things up in the air for the sake of atmosphere. While the key mysteries are resolved, I finished the novel feeling sort of bemused by everything else and unhappy.

So while I can say that Little Secrets is a page-turning read, I ended it feeling frustrated and unhappy with the way things had developed.

I found this book very unsatisfying, despite all of the hype around it and the praise I’ve read.

There are several things happening here – firstly there’s an arsonist in the small town of Colmstock and the latest fire claimed the life of a young boy. Then residents start finding small doll’s on their front steps, which look eerily like their young daughters. And Rose Blakey, 25, is desperate for a break that will kickstart the career she so desperately wants – journalist. She sees opportunity when knocked back on yet another application. She’s in a unique position to bring what’s happening in Colmstock to the wider community and there’s not much she wouldn’t do in order to get what she wants. The time is ticking and Rose is on a deadline.

The premise intrigued me and the set up was quite good. Snoekstra does a good job of nailing a dying town. The unemployment is high, there’s a meth problem, the local newspaper has closed and families are struggling to get by. Rose’s own mother works long hours at a chicken production plant and her stepfather is gone days at a time supposedly driving trucks. Rose still lives at home although her stepfather has made it clear that it’s time she moved on. They need the room, he and her mother have three young kids of their own. Rose herself works at the local pub pulling beers for the local police community and anyone else that might wander in to blow the week’s wages.

The arson is very dramatic and the dolls seem very creepy so I think I was probably enjoying this for the first third or so but then….it kind of loses its way for me. Pretty much everyone is horrible in this book and there are some episodes of gross behaviour from so many. Rose is actually a big disappointment as a main character although perhaps she really has picked the most perfect career that she could, given her actions in this novel. I am not sure if what happens with her getting published would be likely but her articles all felt ridiculously Daily Mail-esque with terrible writing. Her friend I had some sympathy for in the beginning as her life seems very difficult and it’s clear she needs some stability. She’s quite willing to throw Rose under the bus in order to get it though. The behaviour of the local police force is abominable in a myriad of ways without even the most basic of understanding about what the difference between homosexuality and pedophilia is. They’re a sad portrayal of a country police force but to be honest, I didn’t have to stretch my imagination too far in order for it to seem credible but I feel as though it went a bit too far after the first incident. The second one was just bizarre.

My biggest problem was that a lot of the resolutions were just…..lackluster. The build up had been good for a while but it was only in the last few pages that one important aspect of the story was resolved and it actually made me laugh when I read it (and not in a good way). It just seemed so silly. Also the book was littered with inconsistent characters (Rose’s stepfather being the primary one) and there were 4 or 5 threads going on that it felt as though none of them could really be done properly.

A disappointing read unfortunately.

4/10

Book blurb...
What happens when ambition trumps the truth?
A town reeling in the wake of tragedy…
An arsonist is on the loose in Colmstock, Australia, most recently burning down the town’s courthouse and killing a young boy who was trapped inside.
An aspiring journalist desperate for a story…
The clock is ticking for Rose Blakey. With nothing but rejections from newspapers piling up, her job pulling beers for cops at the local tavern isn’t enough to even cover rent. Rose needs a story — a big one.
A bizarre mystery…
In the weeks after the courthouse fire, porcelain replicas of Colmstock’s daughters begin turning up on doorsteps, terrifying parents and testing the limits of the town’s already fractured police force.
Rose may have finally found her story. But as her articles gain traction and the boundaries of her investigation blur, Colmstock is seized by a seething paranoia. Soon, no one is safe from suspicion. And when Rose’s attention turns to the mysterious stranger living in the rooms behind the tavern, neighbour turns on neighbour and the darkest side of self-preservation is revealed.

My thoughts…
There are a number of issues erupting in this really small town and Rose’s job is to solve them, but I was not particularly drawn to her as a character. I could not relate to her at all (she was very selfish) and the local police who spent their time at the tavern were thuggish, their morals questionable.
I might suggest this book is for a younger reader as overall I enjoyed this story. I just can't be too passionate about the characters and Rose’s manipulation of the townsfolk to achieve her own goals did not leave me feeling good.
This review is also published on http://www.readroundoz.wordpress.com

EXCERPT: It was a pleasant, quiet morning until the woman started screaming. The street had been silent except for the sound of birds chirping in the sky and the distant rumbles of a lawn mower. Mrs Lucie Hoffman had opened her front door to collect the morning edition of the Star. Instead, she found a porcelain doll sitting on top of the paper on her doorstep, staring up at her. It had thick dark hair and glassy green eyes. That was when the screaming started.

THE BLURB: What happens when ambition trumps the truth?

A town reeling in the wake of tragedy

An arsonist is on the loose in Colmstock, Australia, most recently burning down the town's courthouse and killing a young boy who was trapped inside..

An aspiring journalist desperate for a story

The clock is ticking for Rose Blakey. With nothing but rejections from newspapers piling up, her job pulling beers for cops at the local tavern isn't nearly enough to cover rent. Rose needs a story-a big one.

Little dolls full of secrets

In the weeks after the courthouse fire, precise porcelain replicas of Colmstock's daughters begin turning up on doorsteps, terrifying parents and testing the limits of the town's already fractured police force.

Rose may have finally found her story. But as her articles gain traction and the boundaries of her investigation blur, Colmstock is seized by a seething paranoia. Soon, no one is safe from suspicion. And when Rose's attention turns to the mysterious stranger living in the rooms behind the tavern, neighbor turns on neighbor and the darkest side of self-preservation is revealed.

MY THOUGHTS: I really wanted to like Little Secrets by Anna Snoekstra. I tried, very hard. But in the end the best rating I could give this book is 2.5 stars.

Around this time last year, I read Snoekstra's debut novel, Only Daughter, which I also rated 2.5 stars, downgraded to 2☆. I remarked that while 'The idea for the plot was brilliant, unfortunately I think the execution of it left something to be desired. Parts of the book are well written, others not so well written. There were times I was tempted to put this book down and walk away from it, but my desire to find out what had happened to Bec over-rode that, and in the end I am glad I did finish it. There are a couple of really great twists but also some glaring holes in the plot and I think the author could have done a bit more research - her knowledge of police procedure leaves a lot to be desired.

And really, what I said then applies equally to Little Secrets. Except that I never really considered abandoning it, although I struggled with it in places, and the quality of the writing is more consistent. Hence the rounding upwards to 3☆

However, there are glaringly large holes in the plot that I wasn't able to ignore. And Ms Snoekstra obviously hasn't brushed up her knowledge of police procedure. Even in small desolate and dying towns, there are checks and balances. And Colmstock doesn't actually seem that small. It has two pubs, a rarity these days when most towns struggle to support one, especially towns where employment is scarce and methamphetamine rife, a hospital and a reasonably large police presence.

In the end, I am left feeling vaguely confused and dissatisfied with Little Secrets. The author has left the door wide open for a sequel. If it does occur, I won't be reading it.

Thank you to Harlequin Australia via Netgalley for providing a digital copy of Little Secrets by Anna Snoekstra for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the 'about'page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system. This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com https://wordpress.com/post/sandysbook... and on Twitter @SandraFayJones2

There were times when Little Secrets was interesting and engaging, but at other times, I found the story line difficult to buy into. Many of the sub-plots showed promise (which is why I read the book to the end), but fizzled out becoming somewhat implausible with disappointing, unrealistic outcomes. The characters started out with the suggestion that they would develop into well rounded participants in the story, but ultimately turned out to be shallow, self-centred, unlikeable and difficult to empathise with. Overall, for me, this book showed promise, but did not deliver. Thanks to Harlequin Australia (HQ Fiction) and NetGalley for the ARC.

Living in a struggling little rural town in Australia, full of little secrets and some big lies, Rose Blakey hopes to escape by getting a journalist's cadetship in the city. So far she's had no luck so when strange events start to happen in her town she decides to make her own news story by writing for a local paper. What she doesn't realise is that she will cause a lot of fear and stir up a lot of trouble that will have major repercussions for the town.

I really enjoyed Anna Snoekstra's second novel. Her depiction of a struggling Aussie rural town that has lost it's major employer feels spot on. The heat, flies and squashed cane toads are very evocative of a hot dusty town that has seen better days. Most of the characters are not very likeable but they are certainly very real and believable. Rose has the most spark of her generation but as a wannabe journalist makes some questionable decisions that she lives to regret. There is little to keep young people in the town except dreaming of escape or settling down where the pool of people of marriageable age is pretty limited. In the meantime there are mysteries to solve: Who is leaving porcelain dolls on little girls doorsteps? Who burnt down the courthouse and bakery? And what are the paperplate kids up to? Lots for a budding young journalist to investigate.

There were some chapters in the book that made your hair stand on end, but it was a somewhat bizarre read with oddities that kept popping up and questions surrounding the story that remained unanswered.
Review copy received from Harlequin Australia via Netgalley

As the local courthouse burned in the small town of Colmstock in country Australia, the shock of the police and fire crew turned to desperation – there was someone inside and there would be no getting them out alive. Was it arson?

As Rose Blakey’s time for moving out of the only home she’d known all her life moved closer, her desperation at the continued rejections from newspapers all over the country heightened. She had wanted to be a journalist for as long as she could remember. The waitressing job at the local tavern where the cops all congregated, and Frank ogled her continually made her cringe. She wanted to get out of the loser town; had to before she went mad.

When Rose’s little sister Laura found a porcelain doll on the doorstep, she was happy. The doll was beautiful, her new toy. But the police had to take it, along with several other dolls that had been left on doorsteps of little girls. The creepy dolls even looked like the little girls – what was happening? Was there someone out there after the town’s children?

As Rose investigated her story; and the cops drank every night at the tavern, Will, a stranger in town, turned Rose’s eye. But was it suspicion Rose felt? Or was it something else? Colmstock was on a slow burn – what would be the outcome for everyone involved?

Little Secrets by Aussie author Anna Snoekstra is an intriguing look at a small town and the paranoia which can grip a community when small incidents become large ones. Corrupt and brutal, bullying cops; paper plate kids; desperation; hope and friendship – all are part of Little Secrets. I thoroughly enjoyed my first novel by Snoekstra and will look at more of her work. I love the cover of the Australian version as well. Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital copy to read and review.

This was an enjoyable Australian crime novel with an easy to follow storyline and likeable characters. Well written and it kept me interested the whole way through. I would recommend this and is good to see Australian crime is in such good hands!

This is a fantastic book! And it is an Aussie book... so proud! The descriptions and the characters are so real that I could see it all happening while I was reading. The story of a small town and a girl with ambition.. that sometimes made her unpopular in town with the locals. A wonderful story.. A very big thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin Australia for an advance copy of this book to read and review

I really enjoyed Little Secrets by Anna Snoekstra, my first by this author.
It was dark, gritty and handled the stifling atmosphere of a small town down on its luck so well. I could feel the hopelessness of it all.
It opens with the courthouse and local store recently being set alight by an arsonist and a young boy being trapped and killed in the fire. Then creepy porcelain dolls appear on the doorstep of young girls in the town, strangely they look like the girls living in the respective houses.
Rose is an aspiring reporter that has only had to deal with rejections. Caught in this town, she pulls beers at the local pub and she sees the chance to make her mark with the story of the dolls. Little does she know how her actions will have consequences to some of the town inhabitants and herself..

Not so much a police procedural, I found it to be more of a characterization of the town inhabitants. There was a lot not to like about them, though I did admire Rose and determination to escape the town.
I can’t quite convey the darkness I felt while I was reading this but I could picture everything so clearly in my head. I think it would make a great Australian TV mini series.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for a copy to read and review.

In Colmstock, Australia, an arsonist has burned the courthouse down which killed a boy who was trapped inside. Rose Blakey is a reporter, but she has recently received nothing but rejections for her stories. She tries to make ends meet by bartending at a local tavern, but what she earns isn't enough to live on. She desperately wants to get out of the town she grew up in, and she really needs to land a big story. In the weeks following the courthouse fire, dolls in the likeness of young girls in the town begin appearing on their front porches, and parents are terrified. Now Rose thinks she has found her story as her articles on the arson and the dolls begin taking off. Along the way, Rose creates a few "facts" to move her story along which set off a chain of events that carries the book through to the end.
The book was very good and holds the reader's interest throughout. There are a number of surprises and twists that occur, and all the little secrets of the townspeople are revealed. It will keep readers guessing until the end. I enjoyed the book and found it hard to put down. I was anxious to reach the end to find out what happened. I highly recommend it.