Score: 4/5 Bookmarks

Thank you to Minotaur Books for gifting me a review copy of Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier.

To be honest, I almost couldn’t get through the first four chapters. Not because there was anything wrong with the book, but because it’s set in Seattle. I live in Seattle. The first character we meet is the mom of a young kid. I’m also a mom to a young kid. That kid gets taken in the first scene. Every. Mom’s. Worst. Nightmare. Basically, I had to keep putting the book down every few pages to hug my daughter.

But I persevered, and I’m glad I did. This is one messed-up, twisty story…and I loved it.

I didn’t particularly like any of the characters, but they were fun to dislike for the most part. The story really moved along at a quick pace too. Its 336 pages seemed shorter than that, and once I stopped putting the book down to force my toddler to cuddle with me, I read chapters five through 34 in one sitting.

I can’t say too much about the story without giving anything important away, but it’s definitely worth a read. You can grab a copy by clicking the button below.

Synopsis:

From the author of Jar of Hearts, a mother driven to the edge by the disappearance of her son learns her husband is having an affair with the woman who might have kidnapped him.
Four hundred and eighty seconds. That’s how long it took for someone to steal Marin Machado's four-year-old son.

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. Up until the day 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. The only thing keeping her going is the unlikely chance that one day Sebastian reappears. She hires a P.I. to pick up where the police left off, but instead of finding him, she discovers that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman.

Kenzie Li is an artist and grad student—Instagram famous—and up to her eyeballs in debt. She knows Derek is married. She also knows he's rich, and dating him comes with perks: help with bills, trips away, expensive gifts. He isn't her first rich boyfriend, but she finds herself hoping he'll be the last. She's falling for him—and that was never part of the plan.

Discovery of the affair 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. But as she sets a plan in motion, another revelation surfaces. Derek's lover might know what happened to their son. And so might Derek.