Arc Review: Jar of Hearts

Jar of Hearts By Jennifer Hillier

Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Fiction
Pages: 311 pages
Published: June 12th 2018
Publisher: Minotaur Books
My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Plot: This is the story of three best friends: one who was murdered, one who went to prison, and one who’s been searching for the truth all these years . . .

When she was sixteen years old, Angela Wong—one of the most popular girls in school—disappeared without a trace. Nobody ever suspected that her best friend, Georgina Shaw, now an executive and rising star at her Seattle pharmaceutical company, was involved in any way. Certainly not Kaiser Brody, who was close with both girls back in high school.

But fourteen years later, Angela Wong’s remains are discovered in the woods near Geo’s childhood home. And Kaiser—now a detective with Seattle PD—finally learns the truth: Angela was a victim of Calvin James. The same Calvin James who murdered at least three other women.

To the authorities, Calvin is a serial killer. But to Geo, he’s something else entirely. Back in high school, Calvin was Geo’s first love. Turbulent and often volatile, their relationship bordered on obsession from the moment they met right up until the night Angela was killed.

For fourteen years, Geo knew what happened to Angela and told no one. For fourteen years, she carried the secret of Angela’s death until Geo was arrested and sent to prison.

While everyone thinks they finally know the truth, there are dark secrets buried deep. And what happened that fateful night is more complex and more chilling than anyone really knows. Now the obsessive past catches up with the deadly present when new bodies begin to turn up, killed in the exact same manner as Angela Wong.

How far will someone go to bury her secrets and hide her grief? How long can you get away with a lie? How long can you live with it?

My Thoughts: I have been seeing a lot of people talk about this. I decided to get it when Netgalley had it as Read Now. Everyone was talking about how good it was and how they really enjoyed it. I was very excited to read it. Did I end up enjoying it like everyone else? Let’s find out.

I have to say, yes I did end up really enjoying this one. Yes it did take me a little while to read but that did not affect my enjoyment of the book. I do have to say the first day I read it, I didn’t really know what was happening. I wasn’t very focused on the book. However the next time I picked it up, I got really into it. I’m not sure what it was but I just didn’t have any motivation to pick up my ebook. I ended up reading someone’s review about it and that helped me to pick it up and finish.

This book is told in two perspectives. You get the point of view of Georgina, she has just been arrested for the murder of her best friend. The other perspective is Kaiser, he is a detective who use to be best friends with Georgina. So it’s told in different parts and each part is a different character’s perspective. Their chapters go between past and present. I felt it was very easy to tell which chapter was past and which one was present. The author did a really good job keeping you on your toes this way. I felt one minute I’m finding out about something that happened in the present and she’ll drop something big and then give you a flashback. It left me wanting more.

I do have to say I wasn’t a very big fan of any of the characters. Sometimes that ends up affecting my thoughts on the book but in this case I still really enjoyed the story. I don’t want to give to much away about the characters. Let’s just say they had a lot of flaws about them. I do feel Georgina and Kaiser did a lot of things I didn’t agree with. I did hate Calvin. I thought he was a horrible person. It was interesting to learn more about them as the story unfolded.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It had a lot of characters I didn’t like but I still really ended up liking the story. The author did a great job getting you hooked. There were plenty of times I had to stop reading during big revels and I was so upset. After I read this book I ended up looking up the author. I have a series by her on my list and I really can’t wait to get to it. If it’s anything like this I’m sure I’ll end up enjoying it.

*Thank you Netgalley for giving me this book for free in exchange for my honest opinion.*

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Have you guys ended up reading this book? If so what were your thoughts on it. If not, is this book on your TBR? Are you planning to read it? Let me know in the comments.

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