This month I caught up on two books both by the same author Jennifer Hillier – Little Secrets (2020 ) and Jar of Hearts (2018).

Jar of Hearts has won the ITW Thriller Award for Best Hardcover Novel and was shortlisted for the Anthony and Macavity Awards – literary awards for mystery writers. Little Secrets made it as finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Anthony Award.

Both the stories were some of my fastest listens for this year .They kept me on the edge of my seat up until the last minute.

Fun Fact : All the books I have listened to this year have been from Female Authors. Since I started on Alka Joshi’s The Henna Artist, unconsciously I have been picking Female authors. And I for one am not complaining 😍.

How did I discover Jennifer Hillier?

If you have been following my posts, you would have noticed that I usually pick books that come recommended. If I enjoyed the recommended book then I try and look up other known books from the same author to satiate that inner bookworm.

Jennifer Hillier came recommended, not by a friend but by a lifestyle influencer on Instagram. One of influencer while sharing her latest lifestyle finds also shares the audiobooks that she is listening to at that moment.

It was on her Instagram story that I first saw the recommendation for Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier two months ago.

Once I had finished Little Secrets , I went looking for other books by her and found Jar of Hearts.

Little Secrets and Jar of Hearts

On the onset let me warn you, these books are not for the weak hearted. Even for me who loves thrillers they have some unsettling details in Jar of Hearts . But by now you know I love thrillers and these stories had everything I love about thrillers and a little more.

One of interesting part of these stories personally for me was that they take place in and around Seattle ! Haha nope I am not a bit worried. It’s just a story *saying a silent prayer*

There are many references to known places throughout the story , like her reference to the famous Pike Place market where the story of Little Secrets begins or the mention of oldest Starbuck and such.

Every time it came up in the story, I couldn’t help but smile even though the stories invoke many emotions but that!!

Jennifer Hillier masters in psychological thrillers. Both books are spine chilling nerve bending psychological crime stories. There are so many layers to a human mind and emotions that given a situation anyone, absolutely anyone is capable of committing a crime.

Little Secrets

Genre : Mystery Thriller | Author : Jennifer Hillier (April, 2020) | Running Time : 10 hrs and 38 mins

Narrators: Kirsten Potter

Little Secrets starts with a four old child Sebastian’s kidnapping from the busy farmers market – The Pike Place Market. His mom Marina a successful famous business woman lets go of his hand to text her husband back for a minute. When she looks down her son is nowhere to be seen.

On a busy December shopping weekend her son was last seen walking with a man wearing a Santa suit. Five minutes, five minutes that’s all it had taken.

Sebastian is still missing, 485 days now, when Marian finds out her equally rich and famous husband Derek is having an affair with a girl half is age. What will she do? Seek her best friend Sal’s help ? And what about Sebastian ?

“Hope lasts only so long, can carry you only so far. It’s both a blessing and a curse. Sometimes it’s all you have. It keeps you going when there’s nothing else to hold on to. But hope can also be terrible. It keeps you wanting, waiting, wishing for something that might never happen. It’s like a glass wall between where you are and where you want to be. You can see the life you want, but you can’t have it. You’re a fish in a bowl.”

There are so many secrets in this twisty thriller that it did keep me guessing till the end. It’s an emotionally driven psychological suspense novel about secrets, hope, revenge, and more!

Jar of Hearts

Genre : Mystery Thriller | Author : Jennifer Hillier (June 2018) | Running Time : : 10 hrs and 43 mins

Narrators: January LaVoy.

Jar of Hearts is brutal, raw and extremely interesting read. It’s a story of friendship between three high schoolers. Angela, Geo and Kai are three best friends and one night Angela goes missing. 14 years later her body is found very close to Geo’s house.

Geo knew all along but for 14 years she went on with her life, building a successful rich life for herself. But now the past has finally caught on to her. It’s her friend Kai who puts her in behind the bars, a cop now who is still in love with Geo.

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche”

It’s a gripping, emotive, dark psychological thriller that had me trying to finish it as as fast as I possibly could, desperate to see how it all ends. 

The story is explicit in its narration. There are some unsettling and disturbing material that had me stop listening to it for a bit. But it is not something you haven’t seen or read about somewhere else.

I needed a change after this book. I couldn’t continue with another thriller and that is how I went for a war drama, currently on my virtual library shelf.

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The only solace after reading these psychological thrillers that is that both Little Secrets and Jar of Hearts have a happy ending. May not be what you want but it ends on a rather peaceful acceptable happy note.

If thrillers are not your thing, don’t go anywhere near these. But if you do enjoy thrillers, then I recommend these for the story telling, the twists and turns, the suspense that will have you cringe and yet leave you wanting for more.

Currently , I am on my third book of this month, yet another by female author. A war drama set in world war II, a story of two sisters in war torn France. So far it’s been an interesting listen.

This book is going to spill over to my April Reads. We should be seeing the screen adaptation of this book by the end of this year. Any guesses on the book ?

“In every story, there’s a hero and a villain. Sometimes one person can be both.” – Jar of Hearts.