Heart Of Glass
Twenty-five years ago in Seaside, Washington, three teenage best friends crossed paths with a charming drifter at the Wonderland amusement park. Tragically, days later, one of the girls, Lorelei, was found murdered in a nearby cranberry bog. The surviving friends, Barb and Nicolette, were horrified to discover the drifter was the notorious Carnival Killer.
Following his arrest for the murders of five young women, the survivors went their separate ways to distance themselves from the trauma. Nicolette chased fame in the city, while Barb remained in Seaside to become a local journalist.
They thought the nightmare was finally over. But on the eve of Wonderland's grand reopening, the killer retracts his confession—and a fresh body washes ashore. Now, the dark secrets Barb and Nicolette have spent decades trying to bury are rapidly surfacing, jeopardizing everything they’ve built.
- Samuel - Serial killer known as the Carnival Killer
- Jana - Producer for Killer Confessions
- Barb - Journalist
- Nicolette - Barb and Lorelei’s friend, A.K.A. Cole on Trophy Wives
- Jordan - Cole’s husband
- Lorelei - Barb and Nicolette’s friend
- Marty - Lorelei’s stepbrother
- Ray - Nicolette’s brother
- Kylie - TikTok star, appeared on the first season of Trophy Wives
- Cameron - Seaside Police detective
- Daniel Hawksfield (Hawk) - HS English teacher
- Alice - IT staffer at the Seaside police department
- Owen - Alice's boyfriend
- Glynnis - Founder of the Reality Bitch gossip website
- Ingrid - Appeared on the reality show Happy Ever After
- Patty and Axel Larsen - Ingrid’s parents
- Sydney - Appeared on the reality show Showgirls
- Annika - Cole's friend, Jordan's mistress
- Parker - Ex-military surveillance expert
- Richard - Cole and Ray’s father
- Part I
- The body of a woman washes up on the beach.
- Wonderland reopens.
- Summer 2001: Barb, Nicolette and Lorelei meet Samuel at Wonderland.
- Barb has a side gig writing snarky Trophy Wives episode recaps for Reality Bitch.
- Kylie has been held captive in a cabin in the woods for six years.
- Police identify the body that washed up on the beach as Ingrid.
- Cole, the biggest reality star on television and star of Trophy Wives, is actually Nicolette.
- Part II
- 2001: Nicolette is pregnant with Hawk's child.
- After Ingrid’s murder, Kylie’s kidnapper brings in another captive, Sydney.
- Glynnis grabs Cole and Cole tries to punch her but hits a teenage girl instead.
- Part III
- Cole installs cameras in the house so she can spy on Jordan.
- Cole is ordered to go to rehab for alcohol to save face after the punching incident.
- Barb decides to investigate Ingrid’s murder when police won’t take her theory that it’s connected to Kylie’s disappearance seriously.
- Ingrid’s body had a ring on one finger but Patty says she doesn’t recognize it as belonging to Ingrid.
- Barb recognizes the ring as one Kylie owns that was gifted to her by her little sister.
- Part IV
- Samuel tells Jana that Seaside police coerced a confession out of him for Lorelei’s murder.
- Barb resigns from writing for Reality Bitch when she realizes that the nasty things she writes actually hurt real people.
- Cole catches Annika and Jordan having sex on the camera Parker installed.
- 2001: After the movies end at the drive in, Sam ditches the girls. Nicolette admits that she’s pregnant with Hawk’s child and Lorelei wants to go to the police and get Hawk fired but Nicolette doesn’t want to be known as the girl who got pregnant by her teacher.
- The girls fight and Barb and Nicolette both shove Lorelei at the same time, causing her to fall and crack her skull on the toilet.
- Hawk finds the girls and tells Barb and Nicolette that he will help them so they don't go to prison as long as they don’t tell anyone that he impregnated Nicolette.
- Hawk makes Marty help him dispose of Lorelei's body.
- Nicolette suffers a miscarriage that night.
- Cole was behind Annika sleeping with Jordan. Annika and Cole planned it together because both wanted out of their marriages but had signed prenups. Jordan’s cheating gets Cole $10 million and she is going to split the money with Annika.
- Cole and Barb look at Lorelei’s autopsy which says her cause of death was strangulation, not the head wound.
- Cole, Barb and Cam go to Marty’s cabin because Barb thinks he may be the one who kidnapped Kylie, Sydney and Ingrid.
- Alice answers the door.
- Part V
- Alice says the cabin belongs to her boyfriend, Owen.
- Cameron rescues Kylie and Sydney, who he hears screaming in a smaller cabin behind the main one.
- Kylie beats Owen to death with a poker stick.
- Everyone agrees to tell police that Kylie did it because Owen was choking Barb.
- Cameron arrests Alice.
- Owen killed Marty six years ago and started living in his cabin.
- Kylie gives Barb and Cole one of Marty’s journals from the cabin where she was held captive, in which Marty wrote that Lorelei woke up after the girls left and Hawk strangled her.
- Hawk is arrested for Lorelei’s murder and eight other former students come forward with abuse allegations against him.
- Barb and Cam get back together.
- Cole plans to move back to Seaside once she completes rehab.
WOW! This was my very first book by Jennifer Hillier, and I am officially a massive fan. Heart of Glass feels less like reading a book and more like an immersive experience—it pulls you so deeply into the story that you feel like you are part of the plot. It is rare for me to become this emotionally invested in a book, but I found myself deeply attached to the entire cast. I felt incredibly strong emotions—both good and bad—toward every single character as the events unfolded.
The story is told through various POVs, which adds incredible depth. While there is a surprisingly large cast of characters, they are introduced slowly, making it easy to keep track of everyone. The short chapters keep the pacing fast, and the secrets are peeled back layer by layer, keeping the suspense high the entire time. This book is a must-read for anyone who loves a great story with depth that will have them feeling all the emotions!
- Lorelei - Dead - Strangled by Hawk
- Owen - Dead - Beaten to death by Kylie
- Cole - Alive - Planning to return to Seaside after rehab
- Hawk - Alive - In prison for Lorelei’s murder
- Samuel - Dead - Lung cancer
- Barb - Alive - Happy that Cole is moving back to Seaside
- Marty - Dead - Killed by Owen
- Ingrid - Dead - Killed by Owen
- Murder
- Sexual assault
- Violence
- Substance abuse
- Terminal illness
- Miscarriage
- Adult - child relationship
- Kidnapping
Publisher: Minotaur Books
ISBN: 9781250763181
Publication Date: August 25, 2026
Note: Details are for the original edition. Other formats, editions, and audiobook versions may be available.
