Did you read Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier and want to discuss spoilers? Then you are in the right place! Let’s get to it!
Spoiler Discussion for Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier. This post contains affiliate links.
Synopsis: 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. Up until the day 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.
The only thing keeping her going is the unlikely chance that one day Sebastian reappears. She hires a P.I. to pick up where the police left off, but instead of finding him, she discovers another secret.
Spoiler Discussion and Plot Summary for Little Secrets
So, I loved the twists and turns in this one!! Let’s review all the twists and turns of the book.
Plot Summary for Little Secrets
The opening is heartbreaking – Marin is at a Seattle market with her young son. She lets his hand go for a few seconds to respond to a text from her husband, Derek. In those few minutes, Sebastian disappears.
A year later, Sebastian is still missing. The private investigator Marin hired to look into the case tells Marin she needs to talk to her. No, her son hasn’t been found.
She wants to tell Marin her husband is having an affair. Whoa!!
Marin becomes obsessed with McKenzie, the young woman her husband is cheating with, following her on Instagram and even staking out her workplace.
Marin starts leaning on her close friend (and former boyfriend/hookup) Sal.
She asks Sal if he can help her find a hit man.
I mean, that is what I would do, but I was surprised when Marin did that! Were you?
But there’s more!
We then learn that McKenzie is pulling some sort of con on Derek along with a guy named JR.
Marin actually takes out a hit on McKenzie. Whoa – plot twist!
Spoilers for the ending of Little Secrets
But in the end, “JR” is actually Sal.
Yes, Sal and JR are the same person.
Sal was comforting Marin at the same time he’s scheming with McKenzie.
What happened to Sebastian in Little Lies?
Sal kidnapped Sebastian because his mom needed money – she has been taking care of Sebastian all this time.
Sal sent a ransom note to Derek which Derek didn’t tell Marin about. (I can’t remember why that was – if you know, drop me a comment!)
Sal thought that when he set up Marin with a hit man, she’d put out a hit on Derek, not McKenzie.
Sal always loved Marin and wanted to be with her.
After Sebastian was found and reunited with Marin, Sal died by suicide.
MY TAKE:
Marin has crap taste in men.
Her old boyfriend and now close friend kidnapped her son? Watched her suffer horribly for an entire year?
Then her husband withheld information about the kidnapping AND cheated on her???!!!
This was a LOT of betrayal in one book, but I really loved all the twists and turns.
Talk to me in comments! What did YOU think???
If you want to join the discussion, leave a comment.
I will reply to every comment, so if you also want to subscribe to the discussion and be notified of my replies and other people’s comments, click the arrow next to the little envelope above the comment box and leave your email address.
Join our Discussion for Little Secrest!
What are your thoughts? Our discussions are lively and friendly and all opinions are welcome.
Be sure to leave a comment and (IMPORTANT) if you want to be notified of my (and other readers’ responses to your comments, subscribe to comment replies.
Just click on the bell symbol next to the comment box and enter your email to subscribe to the comments for just this post.
You can unsubscribe anytime!
Are you a Jennifer Hillier fan? Then check out:
My Spoiler Discussion for Things We Do in the Dark!
This was horrible. I hated Derek I hated Kenzie and I hated marin lol I liked sal… But he turns out to be the bad guy lol
lol. I was describing the plot to a friend and when I got to the part where Sal was the bad guy I was unable to explain the logic behind that.
Finally! A spoiler site!!!!! Love it!!!
Hi Karen! Always thrilled to find another spoiler fan. Now there are those out there who HATE spoilers with a fiery passion, so I am trying to figure out a way to promote these (kind of) secret posts. Thinking of a monthly newsletter if you are interested, but for now, you can subscribe to my regular weekly email and I will try to highlight the spoiler posts on there.
This book was an excellent read especially having a long discussion with my book club. I am curious to know, I thought I read it somewhere in the book that Marin had visit Sal and his mom while Sebastian was in the wine cellar? I hope you can answer this one simple question. Thank you so much for your excellent book.
Glad you and your book club enjoyed this. Do you read all thrillers?
I have returned my book to the library but I feel like there definitely was a scene when Marin visited. Does anyone else remember?
She visited them, but it was right before Sebastian went missing.
I think the author totally missed an opportunity for another twist in the ending. She made a big deal about Sal saying they didn’t have protection when him and Marin slept together. Marin totally should have wound up pregnant and had to choose whether to tell Derek or pretend it was his. Imagine having Sal’s baby after he stole ‘Bash’.
That would have been a really good twist!!
Hi just found this site!! It’s 5 months from last post but hopefully someone reads this. I just finished this book!
to answer question above- the reason why Derek didn’t tell Marin about the ransom at the time was bc she just came out of a psych ward from attempted suicide..
I have a question… at the end I couldn’t tell if Derek and Marin were together? Can someone confirm?
Welcome Suzy! If you like spoiler discussions I hope you’ll subscribe to either my weekly post update or my monthly mystery and thriller newsletter.
And thanks so much for pointing out why Derek didn’t tell her. Poor Marin, she went through SO much. I assumed that they were not together (borrowed it from the library so don’t have a copy at the moment) but would love to hear other people’s theories.