Author: Jennifer Hillier
Narrator: Kirsten Potter
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Publication Date: April 2020
Genre: Mystery / Thriller
Buy The Book: Amazon | BN | Audible
Description: All it takes to unravel a life is one little secret....
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—until their world falls apart the day their son, 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. She hires a PI to pick up where the police left off, but instead of finding Sebastian, she learns that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman. This discovery 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.
Permanently.
My Thoughts: Little Secrets was my introductory ear-read to author Jennifer Hillier and it won’t be my last! This story was quite riveting and the lines between good and evil are definitely blurry here. After her four-year-old son is taken in broad daylight in a packed Seattle marketplace, Marin has lived her life just going through the motions. Video footage shows Sebastian leaving the area with someone dressed as Santa and no trace of him is ever found. She had one attempted suicide several months ago, but she had made a promise to herself that if Sebastian is found dead, she will be following him.
Fifteen months later, Marin is seeing a therapist, participating in a support group and has hired a private investigator to keep searching. Through the P.I., Marin discovers her husband, Derek, is having an affair. Though I do not condone Derek’s actions, their marriage is practically nonexistent. They rarely see one another or speak and for all intents and purposes are living separate lives.
The rage that Marin feels is so palpable and so blinding in its intensity it drives Marin to do the unthinkable and remove the threat to her marriage from her life. While I had a hard time with Marin’s decision, I certainly understood it and I felt massive quantities of empathy and compassion for her. It’s certainly easy for someone to Monday morning quarterback the situation, but how can any of us say, with complete certainty, how we would react to our child being taken and then having this bombshell land in our laps? I enjoyed that this story dives into Marin’s choices and her thoughts and feelings about it, which drive her to make other choices.
I really wanted to hate the other woman, Kenzie, but she elicited some empathy and compassion from me too once I got to know her backstory and understood what was driving her motivation. As with Marin, I didn’t approve of the choices Kenzie was making in life, but she is one of those characters that make an impact. She’s a survivor, she’s had loads of experience getting the short end of the stick and she knows that nobody is going to look out for her so she has to do it herself.
Marin’s best friend, Sal, was also an interesting character and his unwavering love for Marin was keenly felt. I also enjoyed the scenes with Marin and her support group, listening to their experiences and how they were coping with their own loss and pain.
This story packed quite a punch and Ms. Hillier does a wonderful job of drawing the reader into Marin’s life with all the feels. I began to feel anxiety whenever the private investigator reached out, terrified at what news she had to impart. Please, God, let Sebastian be found alive. I went with the unabridged audio format for this book and I think my enjoyment of this story was in great part to the wonderful narration by Kirsten Potter. Her performance brought these characters to life and their thoughts and emotions were portrayed realistically.
My Final Verdict: Overall, this story was equally intense and convincing. At the heart of the story, my main concern was who took Sebastian and what happened to him. My need for closure was strong and Ms. Hillier delivered on all fronts. I highly recommend this story to readers who love thrillers and novels of domestic suspense. All the threads are neatly tied off with this story, though I can’t say it ends with a happily ever after, there is hope for healing.
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of Little Secrets from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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