Another book about terrible people. I felt stressed the entire time. The plot is honestly very predictable. I accurately pinned down all of the major twists and tropes except for the very final twist. It was entertaining. It just wasn’t anything special.

Rating: 2.75⭐️

Would I recommend? No

Audio Review: Well-acted, but the male narrator’s voice wasn’t my favorite.

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. 
 

Another fun mystery with a twist from Mary Kubica!

I went from being at a solid 3 star rating up until over 80% through the audiobook when for a moment I truly believed I would be leaving a 1 star review. I ended up with such relief that a particularly unwanted outcome did not happen, that my rating shot back up. I also was excited that I was right about the main culprit, yet while I understand how many people say the twists were predictable, I questioned myself just enough to worry it was going to go in a direction I did not want as there were obvious red herons where some made 0 sense but others had relevance. 

This book was fast-paced & really kept me trying to figure out what happened! The whole time I kept saying how everything Lily said made ZERO sense. honestly, I think this book could’ve definitely been a 5 star read if the author had just adjusted some details (the ending, getting more in-depth with Nina’s mom, explaining deeper what happened on the day of Jake’s death, etc..). The ending & the “big reveal” felt a little lackluster which is why I only gave it 3.5 stars. It definitely had the potential for a 5 star though! (Nina deserved SO much better from EVERYONE😭)

Really disappointing read. So much unnecessary filler. Skimmed through most of it just to find out the ending which was so mid. Hated Christian's character. After loving "local women missing" I had high hopes for this book but it would put me off reading this author again. 

I really enjoyed this book! I've seen a lot of bad reviews on Goodreads, but I really really liked it! I read it in 24ish hours, unable to put it down once I started.

I thought the writing was great; some people claim it was clunky and awkward, but I didn't feel that way at all. The way Kubica wrote this book, certain things weren't described. For example, she would write things like "We went for Mexican...", but the next sentence is about Nina and her mother getting home. Some scenes weren't written out, some dialogues were shortened, which some people found annoying and awkward but I liked a lot. I feel in these sorts of books sometimes, over description and too much dialogue takes away from the suspense of it all. Things end up getting lost and muddled and I sometimes become bored if people are having conversations that lead no where, so I did not mind this style of writing at all. I did not find it clunky whatsoever! I preferred it, tbh.

Speaking of suspense, this book DELIVERED! I've been saying how I need to find a recent thriller that actually gives me the creeps and makes me paranoid and wanting to keep the lights on... last night, I had a difficult time sleeping which is not something I should be happy about but it's what I've been looking for in a book! The suspense and the not knowing what the hell was going on and everyone seeming sketchy and looking over their shoulders was so deliciously tense and suspenseful and it stayed with me!

But like in the other 2 Kubica books I've read, there were many plot holes and inconsistencies and added characters that provided nothing. For example, <spoilerRyan. Why the fuck was Ryan added into this story? Why did he send those flowers and why was he randomly at the forest preserve when Christian was there walking his dog? Was he stalking Nina? Was he in love with her? Why did he resign after she came back in the prologue... none of it makes any sense. Him sending her the flowers was glossed over so why was it even added in the first place? He touched her knee in the car, which screams sexual attraction, but then when he followed her home I thought it made sense? He wanted to make sure she got home okay... that doesn't scream stalker to me, I don't know. Very weird and confusing. Also, the woman in the car just idling on the street when Nina went for a walk but then asked for directions? The bottle of cologne that spilled? The dirty muddy footprint? I am assuming the footprint was left by Christian, but it was never explained and it was never described from Christian's POV... I don't know. Doesn't make sense. None of it connects.

The worst part of the book was the ending. Like I've said in my last review of Kubica's 'She's Not Sorry', there is SO much lead up and then there is nearly zero pay off. From phdiva.blog's review of this book [She's Not Sorry], "Kubica is known for launching a bunch of plot threads at the beginning, but fails to tie them together in a way that makes sense and has impact for the reader. Threads began fraying into different directions instead of coming back together." 

I did not see the mother being the murderer at all until the last chapter when it was revealed, but it just felt like lazy writing. The book was 315 pages long, and at 310, the big twist happens... that doesn't make any sense. There were no signs pointing to the mom, there were no signs that I caught and I am pretty good at catching onto a twist... I want to say that this book was beyond amazing for that, but it just felt sloppy and lazy and like Kubica didn't know how to wrap it up. I thought Lily being the murderer made the most sense, or some crazy turn of events where Nina found them in the woods and she was the one who shot him herself... but a 62 year old woman following her only daughter's husband into the woods (apparently not the first time she followed him either which is wild and never discussed before, not even a hint of it was mentioned) to then shoot him execution style? THAT MAKES NO SENSE! 

It was evident that Lily and Jake were having an affair, but what didn't make any sense is that she has a sudden change of heart in telling Christian and then Christian becoming afraid of her for like... 4 paragraphs/half a chapter. He ends up divorcing/separating her after her trial I assume (again, it's never discussed what happened but you can figure that out), which makes sense, but I just wish it was described more.

All in all, I really did enjoy this book minus the few plot holes and things that just didn't make any sense/things that felt rushed. I would recommend it to someone since the plot holes weren't as unforgivable as they were in She's Not Sorry or Local Woman Missing. There are only a few main characters which is a plus, and everything was very straight forward and definitely very suspenseful and kept me turning the pages desperate to know what was going on!