I love this author so much and would love to be able to give this book five stars. But unfortunately the twist pretty much ruined what could have been a great book. On the plus side, I couldn’t put this book down. I was fully engrossed in the story. But the ending seemed rushed and nothing was tied up that way it could have been.

2.5 stars

I’ve read The Good Girl and Every Last Lie by Kubica before and I really thought this one would be a little different, but sadly I was wrong.

Kubica knows how to write a story, that’s for sure. She also knows how to hook you in the middle of it and right towards the end. But for me, Kubica fails to end her novels with a great twist. It’s never really shocking, or sometimes the twist isn’t there at all. But I do enjoy reading her novels. The plot is always very intriguing and a lot usually happens through the book. It’s never bland.

I was expecting a lot more from this novel but that doesn’t mean I didn’t love some parts of it. Reading about Jessie’s insomnia and how it drove her to paranoia. It’s very interesting to see what situations she gets herself in and if what she is seeing is real or not. I did like how it shifts from past to present. The story shifts from the early 20th century, Eden is a young woman who is having trouble conceiving a child and it goes back to Jessie, who insomnia is driving her to see things that might or might not be real. Are those two stories connected?

I really wish I enjoyed this one a little more than I did, but it was still a great read!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Park Row for providing me with a digital copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I couldn't put this one down, but, of course, I am a fan of all of Mary Kubica's books. A bit of a slower start, but still wonderful as always. Thanks for another great read.

I first want to thank the publisher Harlequin/Hanover Square Press and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review.

Within the last year I have read all of Mary Kubica's novels. Sometimes I really like them but sometimes not as much. This book is my favorite Kubica book that have read thus far.

With Chicago as the backdrop like most of Kubica's novels we follow Jessie Sloane whose Mother passed away while Jessie fell asleep in the hospital bed next to her. Her Mother's last words to her were "Find yourself" and so Jessie sets out on a journey to find herself. The problem is that at every turn Jessie is hit with one obstacle after the next as she finds that she has been declared dead many years ago. It must be a mistake, right? On top of that she is not sleeping. Jessie has not been able to sleep since her Mother died as she is wracked with the guilt of not being awake when her Mother passed away. As her lack of sleep begins to turn her days and nights into waking nightmares her world begins to fall apart more and more. She begins to question everything she thought she knew of her life.

We also hear from another woman named Eden in Wisconsin as we read her diary and see how her life and marriage begins to fall apart because of her desperate need for a child that she seems to not be able to have.

Both Jessie and Eden are likeable and interesting characters and my heart broke for Jessie almost constantly. As someone who has lost my Mom I identified with her sorrow and grief as it was just her and I our whole life. I felt the pain that Jessie was going through.

The novel is well written with a dreamy quality that pulls you in and keeps you interested until the end. Now, for the end. I will be including a spoiler of sorts down below if you don't want to be spoiled please don't not go below the ***!




*****************************************************************Spoilers Sorta*************************************************************************



I did enjoy the ending a lot. I did figure out the twist about three chapters away from the end and am kind of surprised that it took me so long. Though, as I said I really .enjoyed the ending I can imagine that there will be a lot of people very upset with the twist. Let's just say that there will be readers that may be tossing the book across the room.

e Sloane is there when her mother passes away, but she was asleep. Jessie has not slept since. she decides to listen to her mother's dying wish to find herself so she gets a new apartment and applies to college. Her social security number has raised a flag and she should sort out the misunderstanding. The only problem is that they are not going to believe her without a license she never got and a birth certificate she doesn't possess. Jessie goes on a hunt for the truth while sleep deprived which blurs the lines between reality and imagination. Intertwined with Jessie's story is the story of a woman from twenty years earlier and how the decisions she made then affects Jessie's present.

Jessie's adventures in finding out the truth bordered between sleep deprived hallucinations and weird predictions. Eden's story starts out full of love and promises young newlyweds make at the beginning of their story. You slowly watch obsession and disappointment take over their lives and the decisions they make because of it.

If you are a fan of Mary Kubica's previous works, you will enjoy her latest as well. It is for the fans of Gillian Flynn. Just a word of warning: You will either love it or hate it once you get to the end. It was a page turner and I was very excited for her to solve the case of the mixed up social security number, but it turned into disappointment when the case was finally solved.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I would like to thank NetGalley and Harlequin - Trade Publishing for this privilege.

#NetGalley #WhenTheLightsGoOut

Jessie has spent years taking care of her mom Eden who has cancer. After her mom dies, Jessie tries to move on with her life by applying to college and moving to a new apartment. The college informs Jessie there is a problem with her social security number, it belongs to a dead 3 year old child. Jessie starts questioning her entire life. As she searches for answers, the reader is taken on a thrilling ride! The book is told by Jessie and her mom Eden. Eden's chapters go back in time and follow until the latest years. I truly loved the characters as they are flawed and real. I felt for Jessie in every step she takes to find herself. I received an advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Harlequin Hanover Square Press. All opinions are my own.

Good story! I always enjoy reading books by this author! She keeps her stories fresh and interesting.

WOW! When the Lights Go Out left me speechless. Mary Kubica did a brilliant job at character development, description, and with the story line. This book is one that will be read in one sitting. You will not want to put it down as you follow Jessie through this thrilling read.

I first want to start by thanking Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced readers copy!! I think this is truly an awesome service for those of us who LOVE and ADORE reading! Warning ⚠️!!! If you have NOT read this book, please skip to the last paragraph!
I really want to rate this book a 5 but, I'm so conflicted by the story. Or rather, how the story played out. Waking up and the entire story being a dream is one thing but, SO much of the dream didn't even make sense. I think this will be my first 2 star review sadly. Where did the old lady fit into the story? The seeing her "father" in the old ladies attic? I get the Liam/Jack angle but, the rest just had me so puzzled.
Sorry it's been awhile since my last review, I just haven't been able to stay up late like normal and read all night. I'm always tired and it stinkssoooo bad because, reading gives me such pleasure!! It's truly the one thing I could do for a living and yet now, I just can't stay focused. (BIG ugly tears) Maybe it's my new side hustle selling Younique, I may work from home but, dang y'all, it's actual work haha!! However, I'm really having fun and it's really made my confidence level increase so much! So many things that I would have never done before, I'm doing! I've always been super shy and the last thing I would have done would be to go live on Facebook or Instagram and yet, I find myself doing it 2-3 times a week.
Thanks for reading y'all!! Tell me what y'all are reading right now!!

I couldn't get into this book, and felt the twist, and ultimately the story, was silly. I think Mary Kubica's writing is just not for me, as I know plenty of people who enjoy other books by her. This is my third and her writing just doesn't resonate with me.

Review by 2shay..........

Well. Hell. How does a book, beautifully written and flawless, go from this reviewers rave 5 Star rating to a pretty ho-hum 3 Stars? The ending. If the book wasn’t so well written, I would have dropped it further.

I’m going to keep this short. I was completely invested in Jessie’s story, and more so in her mother’s. When I reached the twist at the end, I said a long string of pretty foul swear words, startling the dickens out of my dogs. Are you kidding me? What a lazy waste of a story with amazing potential.

My advise? Skip it. If you have to know why, message me.

ARC graciously provided by Harlequin and NetGalley for an honest and voluntary review.

Let me preface this review by saying, I love Mary Kubica. Her books are amazing, she can do no wrong. However, When the Lights Go Out was my least favorite of her books. It was definitely a departure, as it wasn't really twisty suspense like she normally writes. It was more of a drama with a little mystery thrown in.

It was well written for sure and I enjoyed the slow reveal of the stories of each of the narrators until they were woven intricately together. But I just didn't love the story as much as usual.

Jessie is a young woman who after caring for her ailing mother is a little lost without her. She is trying to move on--apply to college, get a job and find an apartment. But somehow, she doesn't seem to know a thing about her past. Then she discovers her social security number is a fake and she really starts to wonder what is going on.

The other narrator is a woman who struggles with the constant desire to be a mother and the heartbreak of infertility.

Both women are slowly (or not so slowly) losing their minds and each of them tumble further and further down their own rabbit holes. Neither know how to move on, both are stuck in the same place.

Sound pretty good, right? I just thought that if Jessie had a super close relationship with her mother, that her mother would have prepared her to be independent, especially if she knew she wouldn't be there to help her out. That part baffled me. Even if her social security number was a fake--wouldn't it be worth it to come clean and help her daughter move on?

I also was somewhat maddened by Jessie's behavior. I just didn't feel her character was completely believable. And although I hate to completely judge a book by its end...that's all I'll say!

Special thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin Park Row for a free e-galley in exchange for my honest review.

I say if you are a Kubica fan, it's definitely still worth checking out. My opinion is only mine and I hope many of you disagree! This one is out September 4, 2018. This review will be published on my blog, WomeninTroublebookblog on August 14, 2018.

Let's be honest, I love Mary Kubica. I have enjoyed her books that I have read, and I am always excited to get my hands on on of her books. She is SO talented. I'll be honest, this wasn't my favorite.

Let's start with the good. The writing, in typical Mary Kubica fashion, was beautiful and brilliant. It was a stray from her usual books, and hey, we can't fault anyone for that. I enjoyed how Kubica alternated the narrators, between Jessie, and the past version of her mother Eden. Both characters are well-developed, and it is easy to form an attachment to both of these women. Mary Kubica is an author that I typically with forego sleep due to being caught up in her stories, and the beginning of this book did that for me. For that first 30-30%, I was in. Hook, line and sinker. The story of Jessie dealing with her mother's death, and Jessie coping and beginning to focus on herself. Jessie enrolls in college, to find out her social security number is invalid, her birth certificate rules her deceased. Wwwhhhattttttt?

But then there's the bad. Does anyone ever get invested in a story, only to feel cheated by the ending? Yea... that happened.

I give this book 2.5 stars, rounded up. 5 for the beginning, 0 for the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin/Hanover Square Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Jessie Sloan has grown up as an only child with her mother and has never known her father, and now her mother is on her deathbed and time is running out. While Jessie struggles with insomnia at the same time she tries to unravel and understand her past, we read excerpts from her mother’s journal to see if we can figure out Jessie’s history before Jessie does. I’ve liked Mary Kubica’s books, especially her first one, The Good Girl. I personally don’t think the others have been nearly as successful with the “twist” she did so well in that book, but this last one was a huge miss for me. Not even halfway through, I thought I had the whole story figured out. I was wrong, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Kubica’s story was better than my theory. When I flipped through that last page all I could think of was that I felt cheated; cheated and majorly disappointed that the author chose to take this route. I can’t say any more without spoilers, so all I can say is that I hope her next book is better.

This was a very slow going book and I truly felt like the ending was the author saying gotcha or just kidding! I was starting to get a headache trying to figure out what was real and what wasn’t and then that ending came along. Let’s just say that it made my rating very clear to me after that.

Being a fan of Kubica, I was super pumped to get approved for this title. However, it fell a tad short for me.

The plot took a bit too much time to move. At times, I felt it was too repetitious. What kept me moving was just needing to know the answer.

Then I got to the answer and it felt very anticlimactic. As much as I love Kubica, this one just fell short for me.

First of all, I have read and enjoyed several of Mary Kubica's novels. As a native Chicagoan, I love that they are often set in Chicago and I love her particular style of suspense. This one, too, did not disappoint.

This novel follows Jessie and Eden, through a few different periods of time: Jessie in present-day, as she is caring for her terminally ill mother (Eden) and in the case of Eden, through various periods of time, one in which she struggles with infertility and another in which she cares for Jessie. In the present day, Jessie struggles with insomnia and has difficulty discerning what is real and was isn't. She finds out that she doesn't have a birth certificate and that the only Jessie Sloane on record is dead. Who is Jessie? Why doesn't she have any record of who she is?

This is a thriller/suspenseful book, but in the end I found it moreso about family, grief, the struggle to motherhood and mother-daughter bonds. Some will find the ending predictable but I found it redeemable because there was so much heart present in the last few pages that made it satisfying.

Interweaving two characters who at first glance have little in common, Kubica manages to connect readers to each woman's heartbreaking journey through loss. As the story unfolds, the characters' motives and thoughts became a puzzle that had me up at all hours of the night trying to envision. Each new revelation had me rethinking what I knew previously. As Jessie and Eden both work through identity, loss, and redemption, I found myself rooting for them; No matter the compromising situation that arose. The "never saw it coming" finale brought sweet resolution to the major crisis' of the story and bookended Eden's story beautifully. However, I felt that the ending did not do justice for Jessie and the journey she was on through much of the story. I became so attached and invested in the identity crisis Jessie was on, that I felt like it was cut short in the name of a happy ending. After reflection, I give this novel a solid 4 stars because of Kubica's masterful characterization and realistic portrayal of how grief transforms and changes the trajectory of your life.

First of all, thanks to NetGalley for the ARC for my Kindle.
I've purchased and read Mary Kubica's first 4 books and loved them all- 5 stars- but this one wasn't a good one for me. When I finished the book, I went back and reread the last 10 -15 percent of the book because I couldn't believe it ended as it did. Had me interested in the story until the end.....

Oh, Mary, I love your writing style and I will continue to crave your books like a fix. But you let me down with the ending of this one. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride; I stayed glued for the entire day off and don’t regret a minute of the suspense. But the twist was a bit of an insult. I literally flipped back thru to try to find the clue I missed. There were just too many items left dangling that remain unclear.
But I forgive you because it was an enjoyable read. I anxiously await your next project!
(I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you to Harlequin- Hanover Square Press for making it available.)