Talk about a ride or die partner!

I really did not enjoy Local Woman Missing, but I thought I would give Kubica another shot. I did enjoy Just the Nicest Couple quite a bit more, so I'm definitely open to reading this author again. The writing style is enjoyable, and I liked how the stress that was placed on the characters was portrayed.

Jake Hayes is missing, and he was an asshole. Lily might have been the last person to see him alive, and he was attempting to sexually assault her at the time. She tells her husband, Christian, that she beat him over the head with a rock and ran. A couple days later Jake still isn't home and the couple thinks the worst. Maybe Lily killed him. Christian will do anything to prevent her from going to jail, including covering up the crime. Unfortunately for them, Jake's wife Nina, and Lily's best friend, won't stop until she finds her husband. 

I think this is a really interesting mystery because Jake technically was never seen "dead" by Lily, so there's a full possibility that Jake is alive and well the whole time the cover-up is happening. Christian and Lily even find the spot in the woods where the assault happened and there is no body. That in itself is truly what kept me reading. Regardless, Christian is doing all he can to help Lily get away with this potential murder. 

The two POVs we get are from Christian and Nina, and this was a good move because these two know the least "true" information. Christian only knows what Lily has told him, so there's every possibility that she's lying or withholding information from him. Nina has literally no idea what's going on. It allows for there to be continuous "discovery" from both POVs, so neither of them feels like they're dragging. 

I also found the twists pretty good. I had my theories, and parts of them were correct, but I wasn't able to figure out the full story. I loved that, and there was ample evidence to support the twist. I feel like if I went back and re-read the book I would see even more signs. 

There were a few things I didn't really love. This is my second book from Kubica, and my second book that heavily featured pregnancy. That's fine, there's nothing wrong with it, but it did put me off a little bit because Local Woman Missing had some of the WORST, most horrifying writing about birth I've ever read. Genuinely nauseating. The second thing I really did not enjoy was the extended description of a murder that didn't really happen. The author wrote most of a chapter where someone is violently murdered, and then hit the reader with the, "NOT! Gotcha!" Come on, that's really cheap. It really put me off. 

Nina is a little bit annoying as a POV, but that's just because she's constantly sad and thinking that her husband leaving was her fault. She's also got this stalker subplot that isn't really too important. It works well enough as a lead to who might've disappeared her husband though so it works. 

This was a totally fine thriller. The pacing lagged a bit at times, but there were enough little clues, mysteries, and red herrings to keep my attention for most of the book. I'd recommend the audiobook. It's a good background book. 
 

This book was a regret for me. Lets go over some of the isses I found within this book. Fiest, I listened to it as an audiobook and it felt like such a slow, annoying burn. It wasnt the good kind of plot prolonging, it felt like a bad date that never ended, but i hoped it would get better. Apparently, I should have looked at the reviews first, because it was so annoying to listen to how "beautiful" the main character was, like she somehow was only defined by her beauty, and the plot had SO much potential but was so poorly executed I will likely never read another one of Mary Kubicas books again. The writing style was annoying, and I dont know if its because i was listening to it, it because I just dont like the style. It was overall pretty disappointing as far as peaks and climaxes of plots go. Genuinely felt like a waste of time. 

I was really excited to read this when I hear it came out. I completely adored "Local Woman Missing" by this author so I was really ecstatic about her new release. Sadly, this book fell short for me. I wasn't on the edge of my seat at all for the plot.

They already set up the fact that Lily killed Jake so there was no mystery element to this book until towards the end when he find out that he was killed by a gun.

. The ending was pretty abrupt too. And some parts were left for inference when we could've just been told what happened. It didn't need to be as ambiguous as it was. Also didn't find the "twist" all that exciting or surprising either. It was one of my predictions. I remember reading a similar twist in one of Alice Feeny's books. Nothing came as a surprised to me which was similar to when I was reading "Local Woman Missing". However with that book I felt like there were more twists and turns and emotions involved which is why I loved it because although it was simple crazy things still happened and I really felt for the characters. I just didn't really feel connected to the characters in this one. Although this book was a letdown it wasn't terrible by any means. It was a decent book but I'd categorize as more of a mystery than a thriller because I didn't really find anything "thrilling" about this book. Oh and also the prologue is so useless. Like it literally had nothing to do with the book. I had an okay time but it's not something I'd ever pick back up again.

i had a really nice time and lots of fun with a lot of gasping involved but i knocked it down a star bc i was kinda left with an unanswered question and it feels a little incomplete.