Marin Machado has the perfect life. She married Derek, her college sweetheart, and mothered Sebastian, a miracle child. The owner of a highly successful, upscale salon, Marin spends her days as the go-to cosmetologist for many of Hollywood's A-list celebrities. Her husband is the CEO of a lucrative, powerful company. It's safe to say, Marin has it all.

Family.
Friends.
Money.
Power.

Until one day, she doesn't. During a Christmas season shopping rush, Marin lets go of Sebastian's hand. Four hundred and eighty seconds later, she realizes he's not simply missing. He's been taken. Abducted. Even with a vast empire at their disposal and the assistance of both the FBI and media, Marin cannot find her child.

Sixteen months later and still unable to accept the disappearance of Sebastian, Marin is a shadow of her former self. After hiring the best P.I. money can buy, she spends her days hiding secrets from her therapist and her nights being soothed by her support group. She finds comfort in her longtime best friend, Sal, while her husband finds solace in the arms of another woman.

In a desperate moment to reclaim her life, Marin makes a rash decision that has a profound effect on everyone around her. At Marin's weakest moment, she is left with a startling truth, one that will change her life irrevocably.

Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier is a cleverly plotted and absolutely riveting standalone thriller. Smartly written, devastatingly beautiful, and absolutely unputdownable, it is doused with enough shocking twists to keep the pages turning. Hauntingly evocative, the themes of this one are painfully clear: loss, grief, betrayal, acceptance, love, and family.

Little Secrets is a fast-paced thriller, dropping the reader directly into the plot, when everything in Marin Machado's perfect life goes perfectly wrong. What the reader is left with is a compelling account of just how far a mother will go to protect her family and locate her missing son.

I was SO excited to get my hands on Little Secrets! The premise sounds unique and I love a good thriller. It started off great, with the first couple chapters leaving you dying to find out what happens! However, I had troubles connecting with the bulk of the story. I’m not sure why, and I definitely feel in the minority here, but it just didn’t capture my attention the way I’d hoped it would. Towards the last quarter of the book or so, things really picked up again and I was definitely satisfied with the ending! I loved the way all of the puzzle pieces ended up fitting together.

Overall, I felt it was an ok thriller. While this one wasn’t necessarily the best fit for me, I’d definitely recommend checking out other reviews as many people LOVED it!

I'm not going to give a long synopsis as I don't want to give anything away. I went in blind and I think that was the best. But short and sweet - Marin & Derek are successful, wealthy and seem to have it all, until their 4 year old son vanishes at Pike Place Market during the busy Christmas season. Flash forward 16 months - there are no leads, no new evidence, the case remains at a stand still.

Best thriller I've read in a long while! I flew through this book in less than 24 hours because I had to know. I think Marin's character was so well-written to capture the emotions of a mother whose child is missing. The characters were likable and the plot was realistic, which isn't always the case for thrillers.

I loved this book! The characters were very realistic and had depth to them that made you question their actions but root for them at the same time. I originally thought it was going to be all about the child who was kidnapped, but I was happily surprised that it took a different direction that kept me on the edge of my seat through the whole book. If you are questioning whether to read this one, just do it! You will not be disappointed. I think Jennifer Hillier is one of my new favorite thriller authors.

Wow. Jennifer Hillier. She is one to watch. This book was so gut wrenching but also so amazing. I went through such a spectrum of emotions. It was strange, I started reading and the main character Marian has a four year old son and not far into the book I almost had to put it down for a minute, but persisted and am so glad I did. She has such a seemingly honest portrayal of a mother in grief and I can’t even begin to imagine how she was able to get to herself in that mental headspace to build these characters. Also I had a strange love hate relationship with the secondary character McKenzie Li, she’s the 24 year old student artist barely making it by (been there not fun)and how she’s represented through her social media and how it plays a part in the book is really interesting. Overall I highly recommend this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫.

I so loved this book. It’s compulsive, a page turner full of complex characters with a great twist to finish the book.
Sebastian is just 4 years old when his mother drops his hand to send a text and he vanishes from a bookstore in a local market. Despite a nationwide search, no trace of him is found. Marin, his mother can never forgive herself for letting go of him and her life spirals out of control. She has hired a P.I. to look for her son when the police have passed the case on to investigate more current cases. It’s the P.I. that brings her the news that her husband is having an affair. She has one true friend, Sal, a former childhood friend and lover who has remained a constant in her life. When Sal offers her a solution to her husbands infidelity she takes it and the consequences lead to a page turning ride for the reader.
#netgalley #littlesecrets

It's no secret that Little Secrets is going to be on everyone's Summer Reading list.

This fast-paced and absorbing read delves into the murky depths of marriage, devastating loss, friendship and deception as a couple deals with the abduction of their four-year-old son. The story is told using two female POVs and includes several twists (some I saw coming, some I didn't). But for me, it was the attention Hillier gave to developing her characters and the emotional glimpses into the lives of people whose children have been abducted, that truly gripped me.

The characters are a mixed bag of dysfunction, but all are well-developed and no one comes off squeaky clean. From parents Marin and Derek whose moral compasses don't point due north, to secondary characters who throw some curve balls into the mix to the tertiary characters in Marin's support group, their stories, deceptions and experiences bring a real depth to the story than you might not expect from a psychological thriller. I particularly appreciated how Hillier shows how differently Marin and Derek experience the loss of their child.

While not as dark as Hillier's earlier books, Jar of Hearts or The Butcher, this story has its emotional moments and is filled with good twists and fascinating deception that will keep readers guessing and compulsively turning pages. I cannot wait for Hillier's next book.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Minotaur Books for the complimentary copy they sent me, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved Jar of Hearts and was excited to get a review copy of Little Secrets. Little Secrets is such a nail biter. Throughout the story we follow Marin who has many secrets of her own, uncover her husband's many secrets. I can't wait to see what Hillier puts out next.

This book was amazing! An edge of your seat thriller about a couple whose young child gets abducted. But there is OH so much more that goes on - and so many secrets, as the title suggests. There were tons of jaw-dropping twists as well. HIGHLY recommend this one!

There's not a lot I can say about this book without giving too much away! Most of this review will be so vague until you read the book, but just know that you NEED to read!

Marin and her husband Derick have lost their son to child abduction and it has been 16 months since they have seen them. Between husband and wife there are so many secrets that have to be dug up. The point of view is told from two female characters, which I enjoyed getting to have a different perspective every now and then. Most of the book is told from the mother's point of view.

There were reasons that I absolutely detested each character but also empathized with at the same time. This book was extremely fast-paced for me with a lost of twists up until the very end. I was able to put some of the clues together, but once everything was actually revealed I can't believe I hadn't fully figured it out. Honestly all the clues are completely set up for you, but you get so sucked into the story and what the character's next move is that you don't even bother to put things together.

This was such a gripping and highly anticipated novel that is a must read!

Wow, Little Secrets was absolutely FANTASTIC. Huge thank you to Netgalley and MacMillian for the e-ARC in exchange for my review.

This book was so binge worthy I finished it it under 12 hours!! I don't know the last book that I was able to finish that quickly. I was immediately drawn in by the characters and the plot and it only got better as the book progressed. I am not a mom but I just felt such a connection with Marin! I loved dissecting the relationships between Marin and Derek, Marin and Sal, and learning the big twist that I did not see coming. It was refreshing to get somewhat of a happy ending in a thriller.

I cannot wait to read more of Jennifer Hillier's work and recommend this book to all of my friends. This book is going in my top 5 for 2020 for sure.

Loved this thriller!! Slightly predictable, but I loved how fast-paced it was. I kept finding myself wanting to come back to this book until I was able to finish it! The characters were all so well developed, and while none of them were that sympathetic, I still found myself understanding them and feeling for them.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy of this book!

I had heard a lot about this book when I first started reading it and let me tell you... it lived up to the hype!
This book made me feel so many emotions from sad and angry to happy. In the beginning I was so sad for Marin, and so angry at Derek and McKenzie. By the end I hated Sal and felt bad for everyone else.
I never would have guessed the turn the whole story would take after Marin found out about her husband's affair. I also never would have guessed that at the end Marin's son would have been found alive.
All in all a very good read!

I didn't put this book down until it was done.

This book started off really strong and did not disappoint, its difficult to pull a fast one on me in this genre, but this book definitely caught me off guard a couple times.

The book opens with a mother and son in a crowded market, what plays out next is every parents worse nightmare.
A glace at a phone that lasts a little too long, the slip of a little hand, and your child has disappeared.

Told through the eyes of the grieving mother, and the young woman sleeping with her husband, this book will take you through a dark story with multiple layers of betrayal

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Little Secrets! I picked up this book based on a lot of hype I had seen on Goodreads/Bookstagram. I didn't know much going into it, but the story quickly starts with the kidnapping of a young boy in a wealthy family in a very public area. The story transforms into a journey of grief for the mother, Marin, as well as trying to navigate her life when she finds out her husband is having an affair. Until the last third of the book I really felt like the book abandoned the storyline of the kidnapping and focused on the affair. By the end, I felt like the author really did it justice and had me completely wrapped up in the story. I couldn't put that last third of the book down until it was finished!

A while back I read Jar of Hearts and loved it so when I saw that Hillier had another book coming out there was no doubt that I had to read it and wow was it fantastic!

Marin Machado is a highly successful stylist, has a successful businessman husband and a beautiful little boy. She is living a great life until she lets go of her sons hand for just a moment. It’s every parents worst nightmare. He’s gone. Kidnapped. A year later, her marriage is on the rocks and her son is still missing. She’s mentally and physically exhausted and is barely functioning. The PI she hired to find her son doesn’t have any news either but does have information about her husband and his mistress. But Marin has already lost her son and she’s not going to lose her college sweetheart to a 20 year waitress named Kenzie. What transpires is a series of events that exposes more truths that Marin never expected. But her one constant, is her best friend Sal, who is always there for her.

The story is told from Marin and Kenzie. Marin is a distraught wife and mother who is willing to do anything’s to find her son and save her marriage. She doesn’t make best decisions when it comes to Kenzi or her husband for that matter but I still felt awful for her. Kenzi on the other hand, we’ll, I just didn’t like her. She labels herself as a “professional girlfriend”. She seeks out rich married men and the threatens to tell about the affair, of course for money she will go away. Need I say more…

There are so many things about this that I enjoyed so much. The story is one that tear at your heart strings. Make you angry. Make you understand Marins actions. And maybe even Kenzie’s and Derek’s. The characters are definitely flawed but with Marin it was her pain and guilt that drew me to her. Her pain just dripped of the pages and made my heart hurt. Kenzie was just one of those that I wasn’t sure of till the end, Derek either. And then there are the twist and turns. There so many of them. And so much deception! While I did figure out some things early on, the ending threw me off big time. What a twist it was! Did not see that coming at all! And I loved it! I won’t give to much more away though because this is one those types of reads that blindly going in works the best.

Little Secrets is a captivating thrill ride and definitely not one to miss!

Little Secrets was a little different than your normal kidnapping book, which was a breath of fresh air so I'm giving it 4 stars. I genuinely liked this book, but I think I'm so stuck in the same genre that I need a change of pace.

I think the author Jennifer Hillier did a great job and I'm anxious to read more from her and Jar of Hearts, a previous book of hers.
If you like stories with twists and turns that tie up nicely at the end, then this book is for you. I enjoyed Little Secrets up til the last page, I cried a bit because I'm such a sucker, and I gave it the 4th star because I felt I wasn't rushing to get the book over with, like I've done with my past few reads.

I recommend this book for anyone who likes lies, deceitful betrayals, mixed with tears, happiness, jealousy and fright of losing a child. Which sounds dumb, nobody in their right mind would ever "like" to lose a child. I meant, who likes or doesn't mind a little kidnapping in their fiction. Forgive me it's 6am. I'm exhausted. What I'm trying to say is I would recommend this book.

A special thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books and Jennifer Hillier for providing me with this ARC to review!

This was a good read. I found it to be a bit different than what the description said. The description would have you thinking the mistress and husband know what happened to the son but that’s incorrect. It’s clear early on the mistress and husband are clueless. I loved the Sal character even though he turned out to be not so lovely. The twist was great. This was my first Jennifer Hillier book and I look forward to reading more.

I always wait to read Goodreads reviews and was glad I waited – I was surprised when I read the blurb as parts of it’s inconsistent with the story and also gives away too much.

I wasn’t in the right frame of mind when I started this book, what with Covid-19 and the subject of a missing child, so I put it down for a few days. When my children were little, I was terrified that they would be kidnapped and during that time period, there were several news stories and movies about the subject. It would be terrible to know they had died but I think I could handle that better than not knowing like so many have suffered through. When I picked it up again, I couldn’t put it down and it was a roller coaster of a ride! There was so much heartbreak with how Marin has blamed herself for her son being kidnapped – it only took a moment of letting go of his hand.

What started out as an almost perfect life, Marin is now suffering daily and has chosen to almost give up on life without her son. She attends group meetings with other parents who’ve lost children in various ways and I think the people can’t decide if it helps or hurts more. Her husband is quite wealthy but stays busy with work, so they end up just passing each other in silence as they grow apart.

Her college boyfriend, Sal, has stayed friends with her for more than twenty years, even after she married someone else. He’s her one true friend and even though he still longs for her, he’s always on her side.

The title of the book is so appropriate as you continue to discover secrets throughout the story. Marin hires a PI to help find her son and every day when the phone or doorbell rings, Marin’s heart drops as she’s afraid what she’ll learn. When the female PI uncovers that her husband is having an affair, that brought Marin out of despair and the more she learns, the more she hates. I won’t go into the various things she contemplates, but it really ramps up the storyline.

There are so many intriguing details about this story, and I want to talk about each one but it’s best if you go in not knowing much about the story. There are so many surprising twists and turns, it’s dark, and then, horror as more comes to light. It’s at times unbelievable and yet I could see these circumstances really happening! I was a stressed mess by the end of this book, but it was very intriguing.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read this new book. Ms. Hillier is a new-to-me author and I look forward to reading more of her work.

This book was so good! Jennifer Hillier has become one of my auto buy authors.

Marin’s four year old son is taken from a public market when she lets go of his hand to answer the phone. Marin is a well known hair stylist and her husband Derek runs his own company. They are rich, good looking and have everything.

Their marriage starts to flounder and there’s an affair and a Marin has a best friend that’s an ex boyfriend. They all have so many little secrets.

This book is a compulsive read. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an early copy for an honest opinion.