Such wonderful writing and a gripping story! I loved the way Maureen wrote and the way the story was told from different points of view. As a mother, the whole premise of the book (two children being kidnapped while under their mother’s watch) was terrifying and hard to read at times but so well written that I was driven to keep reading to find out what would happen next. My only complaint (and the reason I didn’t give it 5 stars) was the ending. I feel like it was sudden and I would have liked more. I feel like some things were left unresolved and I would like better closure. Overall, a great book that I will definitely recommend and I look forward to reading more by Maureen Joyce Connolly.

*I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

As a mom of girls, I was hooked from the very beginning! I couldn’t get through the pages fast enough. I thought the characters were well developed and the author kept us guessing.

When Claire Rawlings is driving down the highway with her two small children asleep in the back of the car, the severe nausea that overtakes her forces her to do the unthinkable - pulling over onto a gas station, she leaves the children in the car while she runs to the restroom and passes out. When she comes to a few minutes later, the car - and her children - are gone.

The story drew me in right from the start. I could imagine the horror Claire was feeling when she discovered her children had gone, from panic to disbelief to guilt. I liked the way the story unfolded from thereon in, revealing the impact on each person involved, and following along. Although it is a story of tragedy, it is also uplifting and compelling, and as the story drew to a close, I was willing everything to be alright in the end.

There really wasn't anything I didn't like about the book, and I am looking forward to reading more by this author.

This book really seems to tug at your heartstrings. Many times I found myself almost crying. It tells the story of a woman who is driving to work with her children and pulls over because she feels sick. She leaves the car alone and goes to a gas station bathroom and passes out and when she awakes her daughters are gone. It’s every mother’s nightmare but its written so well, it blows you away. I actually can’t believe this is a DEBUT novel. I will for sure keep an eye out for more books by this author.

Wow!! This was one emotional piece of literature. The combination of a mother’s worst fear, folklore, death, and longing are the basis of this book. I can’t tell you how many times I cried reading this - it is so intense at times, I didn’t know how to control the tears! As a mom, this one sure did scare the crap out of me, but in a way that made me realize not to take what i have for granted. Ever. Hug your babies tight. Every day. This is one “fookin’” good book!

This fine novel captured my attention from the very first page and I found it very hard to stop reading to go back to my ordinary life. The characters are well-drawn and intriguing, and the emotional story of each is beautifully written. I especially loved the interplay of the spiritual and the intuitive throughout the story line. It is not your typical story about missing children, and because of this I highly recommend it.

Little Lovely Things is a story of mystery and loss. As a mother, I kind of wish I hadn't read it. It's a well written thriller but the children! It's psychologically brutal if you're like me and never read anything involving children and danger. The story is engaging with twists and turns you won't see coming, and it will stay with you. Read with caution. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Really excellent book. Fabulous characters, great story, really well developed plot. Touching, emotional, just an all around good read.

Holy cow, what a whirlwind thrill ride! This book had MANY twists and turns; the author took me in directions I never knew possible. Quite a few things I really honestly couldn't believe happened as normally authors shy away from the BIG tragedies. I'm not kidding, I was really blown away by this one. Pick it up, you won't be sorry.

A thriller about a doctor who feels ill pulls over to the side of the road and her children disappear. A little silly of the premise but the writing keeps it from being completely ludicrous. Fast passed and enjoyable, a great travel book because it will make your ride go by in a flash.

In Maureen Joyce Connolly’s debut novel, Little Lovely Things, every parent’s worst nightmare plays out as two parent’s search for information about their young daughters who’ve gone missing. With a rawness that makes the story authentic and emotional, Connolly still manages to add lightness and hope to a difficult subject matter.

Reflection

The opening sequence to this novel is so compelling and well-written. With the way Connolly writes descriptively, I could almost feel the symptoms Claire is experiencing during her allergic reaction—an important scene, because it is the catalyst to her girls being taken. It was such a vivid and terrifying scene to read, and it really set the novel off with a bang.

In fact, the novel moves surprisingly quickly! Often domestic dramas feel somewhat slow, because they tend to be character-driven rather than action-driven. This novel somehow manages to have extremely well-developed characters, as well as a fast-paced, unputdownable plot. Truly a unique mix for the genre, and one that I immensely enjoyed! It felt like I flew through this book!

There were moments in this book that caused me to tear up. I’m not a parent myself, but the thought of wondering if your children are safe, and not knowing what happened—that resonated with me. At the same time, the book manages to have hope weaving throughout. Even in the lowest moments for Claire, I was able to see the potential for happiness.

I was so saddened but touched by the way this event impacts not only Claire and Glen as parents, but also as partners in life. It is such a sad statistic that the loss of a child often causes a rift between the parents, as they each grieve in different ways. There’s no resentment in the book, but there is the sense that these two people who know one another so well, don’t know how to hold the burden of the other’s grief when they haven’t figured out how to cope with their own.

With a beautiful, emotional story and outstanding characters, this one should be on your 2019 list!
Many thanks to Suzy at Suzy’s Approved Book Tours for my copy to review, and including me in the tour.

Claire gets incredibly ill while driving to work with her four-year-old daughter and baby daughter in the back seat. Dizzy, she pulls into a gas station, and staggers in a blurry haze to the bathroom. When she comes back out, her car and daughters are gone.

I’ve read a couple stories of children going missing. This one was different. Odd, actually, because of some of the perspectives the story is told from. I tend to not like extreme coincidences in books, but somehow, in the end, it all worked.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the opportunity to review this novel, which RELEASES APRIL 2 , 2019.

I was weary to request Little Lovely Things because books about bad things happening to children usually get me pretty emotional. Little Lovely Things did that but I am so glad I got the chance to read it. Joyce Connolly wrote a masterpiece. Everyday, we are presented with options. Do we do the right thing or the convenient thing? Little Lovely Things is about a mother who is presented with the option of waking up her kids or running in to the store due to her feeling sick. She makes her choice and the book takes off. Where are her babies? What happened? I was stunned by the book as a whole and especially the ending. This would make a great film!

Little Lovely Things is a remarkable debut novel from Maureen Joyce Connolly that is enthralling, enigmatic, heart-breaking and full of dark suspense. We anxiously encounter the nightmare every parent dreads. SOMEONE STOLE MY CHILDREN! The story engages our thoughts and emotions and pulls us erratically between hope and despair.

Claire was suffering a dreadful reaction after taking a double vaccine dose, and while driving with her 2 children pulls into a garage where she is violently sick in the toilet and passes out. When she awakens, her car with her 2 daughters, Lily and Andrea, is gone. The anguish and turmoil experienced by Claire and how she manages alongside her husband is beautifully crafted. The undercurrents of guilt and blame are subtly drawn and Maureen explores how their relationship gets put under strain with such clever, emotional and concealed forces that it is just … a-maz-ing.

Jay is a Native American who has an extrasensory insight about certain events and has been attracted to particular circumstances. Somehow he found himself intuitively driving along a deserted track and he finds clues of the children that drags him into the story and a connection with Claire that is ultimately a lifeline for all involved.

The background and relationship between Moira and Eamon, who kidnapped the children, is also very unique and again the multiple character layers are so wonderfully crafted. Both are Irish travellers with a unique outlook and approach to life and it's their disreputable lifestyle that underpins the destructive motivation in this story. Moira, in particular, is a multi-faceted character and her irrational connection to the girls shapes many of the decisions she makes.

Maureen develops fascinating complex characters and their interactions are wonderfully portrayed and not always obvious. This brings about an intriguing and captivating power to the novel where we can experience the different dynamics between the two couples and sympathise, at times, with the criminal elements, and become frustrated with the victims.

Maureen uses a very descriptive writing style and initially, it is wonderful to appreciate the imaginative ways of describing the settings or reactions between characters, however, after a while, I felt it started to intrude into the flow of telling the story. This is a personal point-of-view as it’s a fine line allowing the reader the freedom to complete the images outlined by the author rather than describe every minute detail.

The pace of the story is steady for the majority of the book, but that gives the sense of a bubbling precarious theme that eventually ramps up towards a climactic end. While the main story concept is not new, it does, however, introduce unique perspectives, plot elements and characters that I thoroughly enjoyed. The psychological elements seem very well researched and were very interesting.

I highly recommend this book and I wish to thank Maureen Joyce Connolly and NetGalley for an ARC version of the book in return for an honest review.

This book is every Mother’s nightmare!!!! To be driving with your most precious lives and you become incapacitated is hard enough on a mother but the author takes you into the lives of a family torn apart by an unimaginable act that is just horrific!!! Unable to put this book down don’t read at night as I spent a few reading into the next day!!! Very good book that does not turn out as expected. I cannot wait for Ms. Connolly’s next book!!

Little Lovely Things is the story of a parent's worst nightmare. Claire was driving her two young daughters to daycare when she had a terrible allergic reaction to meds. She pulled into a gas station, leaves the car running with the girls still inside and runs into the restroom. After passing out in the restroom, she finds her car and her daughters missing. I was pulled into this story from the first page. Little Lovely Things is a page turner! Maureen Joyce Connolly has written a captivating debut!

Thank you Netgalley, Maureen Joyce Connolly and Sourcebooks Landmark for an advanced reader's copy of Little Lovely Things.
This is the story of Claire, a medical student, her husband Glen and her two little girls, Lily and Andrea. Claire becomes ill from a vaccine on her way to work and stops at a gas station to get sick while leaving her two girls in the car. When she emerges from the restroom, the car and the girls are gone. Every mother's nightmare is born. The book rotates with chapters named after a character and involve their perspective of the pain and search the family goes through. Although the premise should have made for an unputdownable book, I never could quite relate or care enough about the characters to make it that for me. There were times in the book that I found myself skimming paragraphs. The ending is a little to easily tied up and rushed. This book could have been so much better since the premise was actually a good. one.

Wowzers this is rough on a mama heart. Be forewarned. Very well done though. Surprising debut.
Claire is suffering an adverse reaction to a vaccine she got as a medical student. She gets sick on the way to work one day and pulls over to wretch into a gas station bathroom. While her daughters sleep in the car outside. And then Eamon and Moira steal the car. And the children.
I died. During this entire book. It was SO hard. I just wanted to fix it all. Right then. And hug my babies. Definitely that.

For everything this book tried to be (missing children, strained marriage, ruminations on Native American and Irish Traveller cultures), it did too much and yet somehow wrapped up a little too neatly in the end.

I really liked this book a lot!! It was very emotional for me as a mother and heart wrenching! I cannot imagine my kids being kidnapped and what depths of horror you would have go through and what it would do to a family.