Synopsis from Good Reads:
“Jar of Hearts grabs you by the throat! The perfect blend of riveting characters, chilling details, and gasping twists in this standout thriller will keep you frantically reading until the explosive end.” – Lisa Gardner, New York Times bestselling author of Right Behind You
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?
I received a copy of this title via NetGalley. It does not impact my review.
Jar of Hearts will be available June 12, 2018.
Wow. I hardly know where to even begin with this. Jar of Hearts is the kind of book that you’re almost afraid to say you enjoyed because of how dark and twisted it is. But it’s one of the best books I’ve read in awhile.
Jar of Hearts is told in 5 parts, each associated with the 5 stages of grief, and in alternate POVs of Geo and Kaiser. I really enjoyed both perspectives. The story is told both in present and flashback and I loved how things were revealed and how you’re never sure if you’re getting the whole story (spoiler alert: you usually aren’t). The writing was smart and surprising. There weren’t any gasp-worthy twists, but there were plenty of smaller ones that I definitely didn’t see coming. I love when a book can surprise me like this one did.
Despite being deeply flawed characters, I liked both Geo and Kaiser. I liked how their relationship evolved, though I did feel pretty bad for teenage Kaiser. I found Geo pretty compelling. She did whatever she had to do to survive in any situation, even when that meant doing some terrible things. I would definitely consider her an anti-hero.
I really don’t want to say too much about the plot, for fear of giving anything away. I will say that there are several scenes that were pretty uncomfortable to read. If you’re easily triggered, you should probably avoid this one. If you can handle those type of scenes, though, the writing is intense and addictive and it sucked me in right from the beginning.
Overall, I really liked Jar of Hearts. This was my first book by Hillier and while I’m a little disturbed by her, I definitely want to read more from her. The mystery was well-written with many small twists that surprised me and there were some really flawed, but compelling characters. I feel like I’ve read a lot of so-so books lately and this one really grabbed me right from the start and kept my attention the whole time. I definitely recommend it to fans of darker mysteries.
Overall Rating (out of 5): 4 Stars
Awesome review ❤
Thank you! 🙂
Ah, embrace the dark side! 😀
Gorgeous cover and the story sounds awesome too!
Haha I have! It is a very good book. Definitely recommend this one!
I’m really excited to start this one. Even more so after reading your review! Thanks, Stephanie!
I’m excited for you to read it! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Fingers crossed! You’ll see my review up in June ❤️
I agree with your review. I finished yesterday afternoon! I wasn’t able to read the very “graphic” passages. I would just skim over them , like quickly, and it was fine. I need to write my review later. It was also a 4 read for me! Have a fab week Stephanie.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, too! There were parts that were definitely hard to read, but I’m glad it didn’t impact your overall enjoyment.
Great review, Stephanie! I will have to get a copy. It seems everyone is really enjoying it! xx
Thank you! I definitely recommend this one. I hope you enjoy it if you get to it!
The five parts and five stages of grief sounds like an interesting concept. I like little quirks like that in books.
I really liked the narrative style choices that were made all throughout the book. It was very good!
It’s officially on my tbr. 😊
This is one I really want to check out! I already requested too many books on Netgalley to fit it in. haha! -Ashley
Haha I know what you mean! I’ve been a little too liberal with my requests there lately. But I hope you still get a chance to read it!
I really try to stay on top of it and request only what I can read, but I seem to have overestimated myself for June. lol! I will try to pick this up from the library later in the year. 🙂
Great review! I just finished this one at 3 am because I couldn’t put it down. I loved it which sounds so odd! My review posts tomorrow, and I agree with everything you said! It was so darkly disturbing, but I loved Geo and the entire plot. I’m going to check out more of Hellier’s books!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it too! I’m looking forward to reading your review. I need to check out more of her books as well!
The funny thing was that I had no plans to read it since I’m overboard with my ARCs for the next 2 months lol. Then I kept seeing all the reviews last week that made me really want to read it, so I asked for it on NetGalley Thurs and had it approved Fri. I started it as soon as I finished up another one I was reading and couldn’t put it down, lol. I was so glad I decided to request it!! Thanks, I don’t feel like I did the book justice at all, but I hope it at least conveys how much I enjoyed it! I can’t believe I’ve never read any of her books before!
Ooh I love a quick netgalley approval! I never feel like I do justice to the books I review either, but I think your reviews always sound well thought out.
Me too! I was surprised by that one! Thank you…I appreciate that, and it could be because it takes me forever to write them, lol. As in hours. I have horrible writer’s block and then the English professor in me goes back and edits and edits and edits..you get the picture. With Jar of Hearts, I just wrote it while waiting for something I was baking to be done and then that was about it. I’m tempted to rewrite it and edit it a million times, but then again, I don’t want to spend the rest of the night doing it when I could actually be reading! I’m having to force myself not to pull it up and make any changes, hahaha!
I can’t wait to read this one!!! Especially now, after seeing that you liked it!
I think that you will like it. I can’t wait to hear what you think!
Ooo! Dark and twisted and Seattle. I need to read this one! I am writing this down for my next book club pick. Great review!
Yay! I hope you enjoy it! It’s pretty dark, but really good!
Do you think it’s one a broad group of people would enjoy? I know several of them like dark and twisty. They loved when I picked Bad Mommy by Tarryn Fisher.
I think so. It does have some graphic (as in gory) scenes, but not a lot and there are a couple rape scenes, so you might want to disclose that first. But most of the book is more psychological.
Hmm….I’ll have to think about this one then.
So excited to read this ^^ Everyone I follow seems to have liked it!!!
I’m excited to see what you think of it! I think you will like it.
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I loved this one too. Great review.
Thank you! I think it’s one of my favorites of the year so far.
She is an amazing author
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