Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier

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Jennifer Hillier is such an amazing author. I just find her books to be very thrilling and suspenseful and keep you wonder what's going to happen. Jar of Hearts is just like that. 

Angela Wong, Kaiser Brody, and Georgina "Geo" Shaw were high school friends. One day, 16 year old Angela Wong went missing. 14 years later, Calvin James, a serial killer known as "Sweetbay Strangler" is found guilty for Angela's murder. Calvin was in a relationship with Geo. Geo had helped with the cover up of Angela's murder, and agreed to testify against him in court in exchange of a lighter sentence of 5 years. Calvin James went on to kill 3 other women. The community reminds Geo that if she had come forward initially, those 3 other women's lives would have been spared. In the courtroom, Calvin passes a note to Geo that says "You're welcome", inside a hand drawn heart. Geo swallows the paper. So now I'm thinking, why would Calvin say you are welcome?? Does that mean he's taking the fall for Geo?? But why would Geo hurt her best friend Angela??

In the women's prison, Geo befriends a powerful inmate for protection, named Ella Frank. In exchange, she helps Ella with her money laundering operation. She also befriends a nice inmate named Cat Bonaducci, who sadly gets diagnosed with cancer later in the story and dies. Geo also seduces the prison officers with sexual favors to get better treatment. So now I'm thinking this Geo lady's got game.

Shortly after Calvin and Geo are imprisoned, Calvin escapes and is on the run. Kaiser Brody is a detective. He thinks Calvin would try to contact Geo. He goes through all of the letters Geo receives in prison. Nothing seems suspicious initially, but later, he realizes there are 10 letters from the same address, all with superhero names on them. How exciting! Just kidding. They turn out to be some foster care student doing a school project about life in prison.

Shortly before Geo is supposed to be released, two bodies are found in the woods behind Geo's childhood home. The bodies belong to Claire Toliver and Henry Bowen. Henry Bowen is Claire's son that she had given up for adoption. Henry Bowen is only 2 years old at time of death. On the boy's chest is a heart drawn with lipstick and the words, SEE ME. Since the woman's body is dismembered, the detective thinks it's similar to Angela's murder, who was dismembered also. Through police interviews with Claire's roommate, we learn that Calvin is Henry's biological father.

In flashback, we are back in high school. On a drunken Friday night, Geo wakes up to see Calvin raping her best friend Angela. When Angela threatened to call the cops, Calvin strangled her to death. Calvin convinced Geo to help him bury the body. Afterwards, Geo lied to everyone and pretended to help with the search, etc. She was ridden with guilt and wanted to go to the cops, but Calvin raped her and disappeared. 

Now Geo is released. She has trouble getting a job or a place to stay so she lives at her dad's place. She's back to being friends with Kaiser Brody, who's liked her since high school. He tells her about the bodies that were found. They get intimate.

Two new bodies are found. This time, it's mother Sasha Robinson and her four year old biological daughter, Emily. Sasha's dismembered, Emily has a lipstick heart on her chest and the words,SEE ME. We find out that Sasha had also given Emily up for adoption, and Calvin is the biological father of Emily. Coincidental much? Clearly someone is going around killing Calvin's biological children and their biological mothers, extra likely if those babies were given up for adoption. Man this Calvin guy was busy. But who goes around town killing their own children? I mean, I doubt he had to pay child support anyway. 

Flashback time again. We find out that Geo was impregnated in high school by Calvin, and given the child up for adoption! The child's name is Dominic and he is now 18 years old. Geo chose a nice couple to adopt Dominic, but they turned out to be abusive, and Dominic ended up in foster care system. Dominic has been writing letters to Geo in prison. So those superhero letters in prison turned out to be related to Calvin after all...

Geo invites Dominic over to warn him that there's someone out there killing Calvin's biological children and their mothers. Dominic looks at Geo with so much hatred that Geo realizes that Dominic is the one out there killing his half siblings and their mothers. Now, Dominic literally drops his pants and is getting ready to rape his own mother and clearly plans on killing her too. I didn't expect this turn of events. Well, unfortunately, he's having trouble getting it up and Calvin shows up, which I'm sure doesn't help his endeavor. Calvin is there to save Geo, but Geo is so mad at this point that she gets the gun she has hidden and kills both of them.

At the end of the book, Geo visits Angela's grave and Dominic's grave. She's now in a relationship with Kaiser and is pregnant with his child. She tells us that she's finally happy since she was 16. What a crazy wild ride of a book!!

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