Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier is a must not miss!

“Whoever said lying was hard was so, so wrong. Lying was easy. Lying was like a hot knife slicing through room-temperature butter. Lying was a bunch of words strung together in a pretty sentence designed to make the other person feel like everything was fine. Telling the truth, however, was impossible.”

Jar of Hearts was my first experience with one of Jennifer Hillier's books and I am so glad that I didn't miss out on it! It is edge of your seat suspenseful and a roller coaster ride of emotions.

Angela Wong, head cheerleader, popular student and best friend of Georgina (Geo) Shaw, goes missing at age 16 and Geo knows the how and the why but is unable to bring herself to come forward.

Fast forward 14 years to when Geo Shaw is a successful VP of one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in Seattle and is months away from her wedding and in walks her other highs school best friend, Kaiser Brody. But this is not a social call. This is an arrest. Angela Wong's skeleton has been discovered and after 3 more victims, Geo's rebellious and obsessive high school love, Calvin is named the alleged murderer.

Geo pays the price for her role in secret keeping and is looking forward to putting her life back together after ridding herself of the weight of the secrets of the past. So, why then, does she still feel the guilt so heavily that she can't seem to move on? What exactly happened in the last hours of Angela Wong's life and why is the past coming back to haunt her in the form of more murdered women?

Jar of Hearts was nothing short of gripping and mesmerizing. I devoured this book in 2 sittings. When I first read the blurb, I didn't think I would connect with any of the characters. How could I? Through Geo's grief and love and loss and life, that's how. Despite the circumstances, Jennifer Hillier created an incredibly relatable main character. All characters were well developed and important to the book as a whole. It is well written all the way through and closed with an absolutely satisfying end!

If you are looking for a fast paced thrill, look no further. Jar of Hearts is your book!

5 Stars for In The Vines by Shannon Kirk !

Oh, wow! In The Vines was outstanding!! I could not get enough of this book and I would love to see a duology if not a trilogy and see how those Vandonbeer genetics evolve in Mop?! I think she is a bit more like Aunty Liv than maybe she thinks.

In The Vines is a beautifully written book (I can't stress that enough! Lyrical!) about Mary Olivia Pentecost, or Mop for short and her Aunty Liv who has been her best friend, next to her mom, since childhood. She has come back to Aunty Liv's sprawling, gothic estate to find closure and also to find out exactly what happened to her mother the night that she died. Throughout her search she unearths many dark family secrets and as she finds herself in imminent danger, she soon realizes she is in way over her head and she maybe should not have started pulling that string as it all begins to unravel and fall apart.

In The Vines is dark, disturbing, exciting and I absolutely could not get put it down! I had to stop myself from constantly reading parts to my husband (which I did) and then asking him, "WHO thinks like that? I love this author!" and then there was the audio book..... Janie, Mary and Joseph! The audio book is a MUST have! I did make my husband listen to much of Aunty Liv's internal dialogue. This was fantastic! The book on its own was a very well written solid read and the audio only added that much more and was so very realistic and exciting!

I am absolutely looking forward to reading more of Shannon Kirk's work.

Special thanks to Netgalley and Thomas And Mercer Publishing for an opportunity to read and review In The Vines.