Jar of Hearts blew me away! The writing was great! There were so many twists and turns that really left you guessing up until the end. I figured everything out when Kaiser did and it shook me!! I was completely wrong the whole time. That to me is a tantalizing thriller! Now I have to look of the author’s other books! Make sure to great this one! You won’t want to miss out.

4.5/5 stars

This is the first book I've read by Jennifer Hillier. I really, really enjoyed this sick, twisted novel. Her writing reminds me of that of one of my top-five authors, Caroline Kepnes. It's a thriller, it's psychological suspense, it's gory, but it's SMART. It's different, it has shadows of a real-life story (especially considering the location). I would have given this a full five-star rating if the ending had been finessed differently. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something was missing for me.

In summary: I heartily recommend this book!

Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier
Book Review by Dawn Thomas

311 Pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press / Minotaur Books
Publication Date: June 12, 2018

Mystery & Thriller, Suspense

Georgina Shaw is a young successful executive at a pharmaceutical company. She is engaged to the owner’s son and has everything going for her. Her life comes crashing down when actions from her past emerge. Angela Wong is a beautiful sixteen year old. She is the girl every girl wants to be and every boy wants to be with. She disappears one night after a party and no one seems to know where she went. Kaiser Brody is a police detective and must put the pieces together to find the truth.

This is a riveting story written in the third person point of view. The characters are complex and the storyline is fast pace. The story moves from the present to flashbacks of the past. I could not put the book down I once I started it. There are so many twists and turns I did not figure it out until the end. I highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys fast pace thrillers with a lot of suspense.

WOAH! this was one creepy, but great, story. You never know, do you? The way the story unfolded was very good. kept me interested and up late!

NetGalley ARC

When Georgina (Geo) is 16 her best friend Angie disappears. 14 years later, Angie's remains are discovered and Geo's ex-boyfriend Calvin is convicted of the murder, as well as the murders of several other women over the years. Geo is sent to prison for her involvement in Angie's murder.

While this book held my interest, I found the characters somewhat lacking in personality and motivation. The action focuses on the events surrounding Angie's murder, Geo's time in prison, and the events immediately after she is released. To be honest, the only time Geo was at all interesting was when she was in prison. I liked reading about how she survived and her relationships with her fellow prisoners.

I didn't care much about Geo, she's a pretty boring character. There's a lot said about how she's beautiful but she doesn't know it. This seems to be the extent of her identity. There wasn't a lot of time spent on Geo's life between Angie's murder and her time in prison. I think if this part of her life was examined, it would have gone a long way towards some character development. There was a lot of telling and not a lot of showing.

When she was 16, Georgina watched her boyfriend kill her best friend and helped him dispose of the body. The sight of Angela Wong's blank dead eyes haunted her for 14 years until her arrest. 5 years in prison for helping Calvin bury Angela in the woods. Georgina survived prison. Now she's back home again. But nobody wants her there. Dirty looks. Harsh treatment. Doors shut in her face. Nasty messages in red spray paint on her father's garage doors. Dead bodies left in the woods behind her father's house. The bodies are dismembered just like they did to Angela. They are a message to Georgina. Is Calvin coming to kill her?

This book seriously creeped me out...but I couldn't stop reading. I was completely engrossed in the story...until the ending. The plot had me....until I just couldn't reconcile the very end. It just seemed a bit too....convenient? Maybe that's not the right word. The end of this book just seemed too easy. I can't hint at events because I don't want to spoil anything. But I don't think a similar story in real life would end that way. Too simple. Too easy. Too forgiving. But,despite my slight disappointment in the last few pages, this book kept me up most of the night reading.....great story! The pacing was perfect, keeping the suspense going from beginning to end. The characters are likable and severely flawed at the same time, which is realistic. Georgina got caught up in an abusive, psychologically damaging relationship at a young age. The choices she made have far-reaching consequences for everyone around her. Sometimes people can be good and bad at the same time.

I enjoyed this book and will definitely be reading more by this author. Seriously creepy story....I can't wait to read more!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from St Martin's Press via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

There is a slow build to the end and you won't want to put the story down. There's not a lot of characters you're cheering for because most of them have done some horrible things. Geo is the main character and for as smart as she is I'm surprised she didn't see the ending coming when a confronting a person (who I will not name). Not as twisty as I was expecting but the plot keeps you turning the pages.

Geo is arrested for the murder of her childhood best friend 14 years after the fact. This is an extremely well written psychological thriller. There are just the right amount of twists and turns without it being too much to keep up with. I couldn't put this one down.

This is a fascinating, horrifying thriller! So many trigger points - gratuitous violence, rape, child murder, dismemberment...
But a well-written type of horrifying thriller. I mean, seriously, she reveals, the whodunit in the first few pages. But there's more, so much more.
Good, solid writing, jaw dropping moments, a true thriller that will keep you reading long into the night, but maybe that's not such a good idea.
A good description of friendship, duty and family.
Despite how well it's written and how much I liked the book, it's difficult to recommend because of the many horrifying themes. I will say, however, I was never really grossed out or skipping paragraphs (or pages), and I never wanted to stop reading it, so she evidently hit all the themes well, knowing when to stop.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the ARC!
Author - 1⭐
Story - 1⭐
Ending - 1⭐
Offensiveness - 0⭐
Recommend - 1/2⭐

We all have a past, some more sorted than others of course, and most would do anything to protect it. But what happens when your past comes back to haunt you? Jar of Hearts is the story of a young woman with a haunting past that stalks her present and threatens her future. As it always goes, lies eventually are found out and secrets don't stay secret for long. Jar of Hearts kept me up far too late a few nights in a row as I found once I started it I could not put it down.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and to NetGalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for my candid opinion.

An interesting psychological read. It is about a high school girl who assists her then boyfriend (who is eventually convicted of being a serial killer) in covering up the murder of her best friend--after 14 years have gone by.

Geo is now a successful business person with a high-powered job in a prestigious company, and who is engaged to the son and heir to the business empire. Whe then is found to have assisted her boyfriend in murdering or covering up the murder of her best friend. She is convicted as an accessory and goes to jail for 5 years. Her ex-boyfriend, now serial killer, is caught, convicted and escapes. And that's just the first few pages.

It is an intriguing, psychological thriller, with a very fresh story line. It is a book about choices---why didn't Geo say anything about the murder of her friend? Did she help? Did she think that it would go away? What was she thinking.
This book is about what happens in jail and after, and about the horrible impact of Geo's choices. It is about Geo trying to put her life back together, while mysterious murders are occurring in the area, and which are eerily similar to those committed by her ex-boyfriend/serial murder.

It was a compelling read with interesting flashbacks to the original murder and the days leading up to it. It was a fairly quick read, as I really wanted to find out what happened and why. My only criticism is that the ending was a bit abrupt and unbelievable.

If you love thrillers, you will love this book.

My Rating: 4 stars

Technically, this one falls somewhere between 4 and 4.5 stars for me. To start off, I will say that yes, this is yet another excellent, well-written suspense thriller, one that hooked me from the start and had me turning pages breathlessly as the plot unfolded from one chapter to the next. However one of the things that set this one apart from other thrillers for me was that this one went quite a bit deeper into several very important societal and moral issues that actually left me some “food for thought” when all was said and done (sorry if I’m being vague, as I don’t want to spoil things for those who haven’t read this one). For this reason, I feel that this book would make a good group or buddy read, as there are definitely a few things worthy of discussion here.

This review will be shorter than most of the ones I write, as I’m trying to refrain from saying too much because this is definitely one of those books where you should go into it knowing as little as possible. Unlike a few of the other thrillers I’ve read the past few months, this one didn’t have a lot of twists and turns -- there was basically only one major reveal at the end (which I definitely hadn’t seen coming). From the first page, the author Jennifer Hillier took her time revealing parts of the plot, with things getting more complicated as the story built up chapter by chapter, yet at no point did I feel that the story was slow – in fact, this one was so fast-paced and engaging that I found it difficult to pry myself away even for a few minutes. I actually had pockets of time throughout the day to read this one and when I was forced to put the book down briefly to tend to other things, I couldn’t help thinking about it still and wanting to get back to it as quickly as possible – goes to show how much I truly enjoyed this one!

One thing I do have to mention is that this thriller was actually a lot darker and grittier than what I usually read and it was also more graphic than I expected, though the scenes were brief enough and didn’t dwell on too much detail so it was still within acceptable level for me. This one was definitely more intense than other thrillers though and I would go so far as to say that it’s not for the faint of heart, so just be aware before picking this one up. The one complaint that I had was that the ending felt a bit rushed, which was a little disappointing given that the author had done such a great job seamlessly laying out the plot and making me invested in the characters. While I would consider the ending satisfying in terms of closure, I still felt like I had missed a significant chunk of the story when it jumped from the “ending” to the epilogue that obviously took place way later. In the grand scheme of things however, I would say that this is a minor complaint and didn’t affect too much my overall enjoyment of the book. This one is definitely recommended, especially for thriller fans who are looking for a read that is a step above in terms of others in the same genre.

Received ARC from Minotaur Books / St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley.

Holy cannoli. I requested this book because it sounded interesting. I wasn't prepared to be absolutely blown away by the story contained within this gorgeous cover.

Geo and Calvin are the only ones who truly know what happened the night Angela died. Everyone thinks they have finally solved the mystery of what happened the night she disappeared, but they have no idea how far down the rabbit hole the story behind her death goes.

The story is told in alternating time frames. You learn what happened that night fourteen years ago and are taken along as new crimes come to light. Including looking for the escaped Calvin James...whom the crimes are starting to reflect.

A fast paced heart clenching story that is going to you have racing for the end.

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Avid Reader – ☆☆☆☆
M/F Thriller
Triggers: Murder, Stalking, Rape

This is a dark story. Just be prepared for that if you're taking this story on. It is wonderfully written and there is a lot of really good development.

Geo is a character that you want to do well – you want her to succeed. However, there is a part of you that wonders if she really should get that second chance. I enjoyed the fact that you were able to see the story from the before perspective and after – it gave the book a depth that really helped the reader know the mindset of the characters.

As you read, you see that the flaws of Geo are due to immaturity and not necessarily malicious intent. However, as you keep reading, there are aspects that definitely make you question her.

I loved this story and the only reason I didn't give it the five-star rating is that I found it to be somewhat predictable. You saw the ending before it happened and that was somewhat disappointing after a wonderfully complex story unfolded.

"Jar of Hearts" is an awesome summer thriller, filled with twists and turns. 

The story opens with Georgina "Geo" Shaw on the witness stand at the trial of the Sweetbay Strangler, her high school boyfriend, Calvin James. 14 years before, Geo was present the night that Calvin murdered and dismembered her best friend, Angela Wong. For years Geo kept the secret that Angela was buried in the woods behind her house, but when the secret is finally revealed, Geo is sent to jail for 5 years as an accessory for murder.

The book travels back and forth in time, from Geo's high school years to her time in prison to when she is released and returns home to live with her father among disgusted neighbors and former friends.

Kaiser Brody was the third member of the Geo/Angela friendship. He carried a torch for Geo for years, but their friendship fell apart after Angela went missing. Now a Seattle PD detective, he is determined to bring Angela's killer to justice. When new bodies start showing up, he must get to the bottom of what really happened to Angela all those years ago in order to stop the killer from striking again. 

This book was a wild ride. Hillier builds a compulsively readable, suspenseful story with plenty of twists to keep the reader guessing. She slowly parses out details from Geo's past, leaving the reader wanting to know more immediately. 

Towards the end, we learn what Geo's role was the night of Angela's disappearance, which I felt was uncharacteristic and unrealistic. Also, the end was a touch too gory for me. Overall though, I ate this book up - another great summer thriller!

The ending ruined the fantastic flow of events for me. Geo should've just went out the window and left them to their own devices.

WoW! I recommend to everyone. Run out and buy, check out from the library or borrow from a friend 'Jar of Hearts'. This is a must read.

Thank you Netgalley, the publisher and Jennifer Hillier.
This is the story of Geo and her boyfriend who killed her best friend, Angela, in high school and buried her in the woods.

I love mysteries, my favorite read and I absolutely loved this one. You have it all it this book, a murder mystery. Who killed Angela at the beginning of the story and when Geo gets out of prison unsure if there is a copycat or if Geo ex boyfriend is back and is killing more women. I enjoyed reading it, the twist and turns, the shocking ending. WOW. I recommend this book.

Thank you to netgalley and Minotaur Books for providing me with a galley copy!
Geo’s first love, Calvin, turned out to be a serial killer. Now, after fourteen years, Geo was arrested and sent to prison for knowing about and assisting in her best friend’s murder. Although the truth seems to have been revealed, things are not exactly as they seem.
Geo serves her sentence but prior to her release, more victims are murdered that appear to be Calvin’s work. Is he trying to send Geo a message or is there a copycat in search of attention?
I really enjoyed this one! It was fast-paced and revealed information along the way. It kept me interested all of the way through and wanting to read more! I will definitely be checking out more books by Jennifer Hillier!

This book was an expected win for me. While I read a lot of thrillers, I've found that a lot of them start to feel a bit generic and the description of this didn't necessarily sell me on anything different. I was pleasantly surprised by how strong the multiple POVs were in the book. Alternating perspectives are not usually a feature I enjoy, but they really carried this story. The action picks up quickly, and I found myself zipping through this read in a matter of days. My only complaint was that the big confrontation near the end of the story felt rushed in comparison to all of the previous set-up.

The content is fairly dark. If you're someone who likes your thrillers on the lighter side (or, at least, you prefer more of a "fade to black" implied violence), pass on this one. It doesn't shy away from tough subjects.

Thank you Netgalley for giving my a copy of this book in exchange for honest feedback!

This book seems to really sneak up on you and bury itself in your subconscious. It is so true when the author mentions that a character can be both hero and villain. I had so many mixed emotions and didn't want this book to end.

Thank you Netgalley for my copy of this book in return for an honest review.