Jar of Hearts

Now this is how a thriller should be! Fantastically written and full of dark twists and turns. Absolutely loved Jar of Hearts, I'll be recommending it to everyone!

Amazing book - kept me enthralled all the way through and I was looking for excuses to spend more time reading. Good character development throughout

Jar of Hearts

A complex, twisted tale which had me hooked from the first page. It's one of the best crime thrillers I've read in a long while. It has strong central characters, plausible dialogue and really skilled plotting with so many twists and turns, it's difficult to know where the tale will lead next.

It's a complex tale of young love gone bad and the repercussions. But more than that, it's a very satisfying psychological thriller which explores the real nature of love, trust, friendship, guilt and more.

From the outset, the reader learns that the central narrator, Geo, was complicit in a murder. The victim, her closest friend. The intrigue is how and why and I was really sucked in to a story which looked at familial relationships, privilege and poverty, trust and betrayal but most of all a powerful story of personal relationships, good and bad. The early prison scenes felt very real; I've enjoyed Orange is the New Black and some of the settings are reminiscent of prison stories. I enjoyed the sub story about Cat and her influence later in the plot.

All in all, this book was an unexpected delight which I couldn't put down. Convincing, gripping and one of my best reads is year.

A brilliant fast paced story, beautifully written, with many unanticipated turns. A wonderful dark thriller with pleasantly touching moments. Definitely one to read, gripping and thoroughly enjoyable.

Gripping story. Demonstrates that love can be all consuming - if we let it. Also, demonstrates the lengths people will go to for love and how difficult it is to speak the truth even when given the opportunity.

Loved it! Probably Jennifer Hillier's best one yet, 'Jar Of Hearts' is a narrative of a girl, and later a woman, who has been found guilty of her part in the murder of her best friend.
The truth of the murder becomes secondary to the story of Georgina 'Geo' , who has risen quickly in the business world to become a force to be reckoned with, how she was brought down, sent to prison, survived it and learned to adapt to life again.
However hard this would have been for anyone is compounded by the fact that her ex-boyfriend, the murderer himself, has escaped from jail, and bodies have started turning up at places of significance to Geo. Each has been adorned with a heart, a message for Geo telling her he is on his way.
With the police unable to find him and the judicial system unable to contain him, how long will it be before Caleb adds Geo to his jar of hearts?
Taut and thrilling this is great for fans of psychological tales, it therefore has quite a bit of violence (physical and sexual) so this is a trigger warning (It's appropriate rather than excessive in my humble opinion).
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read this!

Using a then and now narrative, we meet 3 high school best friends. Angie, Geo and Kaiser, all 16 years old. Angie goes missing without any trace. Geo is dating older man, Calvin, an abusive manipulative 21 year old who goes on to become serial killer, the Sweet Bay Strangler. Kaiser searches for years after to find out what happened to Angie. When remains turn up 14 years later the truth eventually comes out about Angie's disappearence.

Meanwhile, when the Sweetbay Strangler escapes from prison and more bodies start to turn up, the race is on to catch the perpetrator.

Jar of Hearts is up there in my top 3 reads of this year. It is a dark, twisted, complex and disturbing psychological thriller. It's pretty fast paced and I read it in just over 24 hours. The characters are particularly well drawn out and, while most chapters are narrated by Geo, I also enjoyed the chapters in Kaiser's voice. I would definitely recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and Ms Hillier for an advance copy to review.