Just the Nicest Couple was my first book by Mary Kubrick and I struggled with it. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters and found it odd that we weren’t given Jake and Lily’s point of view. I had a hard time staying interested in the book and found myself skimming a lot. By the end I really didn’t care how it wrapped up because I wasn’t invested in the story.

I love Mary Kubica books and I really liked this one! I will say my favourite has been and will probably always be Local Woman Missing but this book is so good too!

Filled with lies and deception, this thriller takes you on a wild ride from start to finish! Would definitely recommend for a New Year read to kick off your 2023!

Honestly, this was a disappointment. After reading and absolutely loving LOCAL WOMAN MISSING, this was one of my most highly anticipated reads of 2023.

But I was just bored 😴 It starts with a big shock but slowly fizzles out through the middle. I didn’t feel invested in any of the characters and found them to be pretty one dimensional. There were no big “twists” and a lot of this was just unbelievable.

I would definitely still pick up another Kubica book but this one just was not for me.

**Also I know this is an advanced copy by the formatting was SO off it made it a little hard to weird. There was weird spacing between lines and often even between words.

Usually, I can find something about a book to recommend to my followers. I try very hard to help my followers select books they’ll enjoy.

With “Just The Nicest Couple,” I cannot think of one good thing to say. The writing felt odd and elementary. It was strange that we did not get either Lily’s or Jake’s perspective. I found Christian’s inner monologue extremely immature and bizarre. I am all for wild twists, but the idea of Nina’s mother faking blindness and killing Jake …. it was way too unbelievable.

I do not trash books on my social media. I let this one unrated on Goodreads and will not be mentioning it on Bookstagram. I loved “Local Woman Missing” and will give Kubica another try, but this absolutely was a miss for me.

I’m not hugely familiar with this author but I was hugely surprised with how well the characters were developed throughout the story. The writing style was just okay; not my favorite. I think the author could’ve done a better job with making sure it makes the reader want to keep reading.

Where to start with this one! First of all, I enjoyed the writing and stayed up way too late to finish it because it kept me guessing and wanting to know the next twist. This is a story about two couples, Nina and Jake, and Lily and Christian, who became friendly because the wives worked together as school teachers in the same high school. One day Lily freaks out because she thinks she hurt someone or maybe even killed him when he tried to assault her. Her husband tries to console her and is determined to stand by her or even cover for her if needed. This leads them down a rabbit hole of guilt and reliving the event to try to keep the focus off of themselves. Meanwhile, Nina and Jake are having marital troubles and at the start of the book, they have had a massive argument leading to ugly words to be exchanged and Jake slamming the door to head into work. That is the last time Nina sees him and isn't really sure how to proceed to find out if something happened and he is "missing" or if he is still so angry that he won't return home.
There is a lot of overlap between the couples and interesting character development and plot twists. This book will keep you guessing with fun plot twists and developments.
Definitely recommend.
#JustTheNicestCouple #NetGalley #HarlequinTradePublishing #Park Row

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance reader copy of this book. Kubica never disappoints. This mystery is not her best work, but I still love her stories. Figuring out the twists and turns and ultimately the ending kept me reading quickly. 3.8 stars rounded to 4

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Two couples, two close friends, one missing husband.

I absolutely LOVE Mary Kubica’s writing! I fell in love with it during Local Woman Missing and I cannot wait to read more books by her. I had such a hard time putting this book down and I feel like I ended up finishing it in like 2 days. It was so good and kept me on the edge of my seat! The twists at the end were amazing and I didn’t see them coming at all. I feel like my head is still spinning from that ending! I thought the characters were good and definitely made you want to keep reading the story because you wanted to see what was going to happen to them. There were definitely some parts that felt repetitive and it was frustrating to go over again and again. Like Lily’s pregnancy, I felt like this was just one that kept coming up over and over and it just felt like it was a fluffer at times for the book. Overall, I still love her writing and would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys slow burn mysteries!
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This review will be posted to my Instagram blog (read_betweenthecovers) in the near future!

Nina and Jake used to be so in love, but as their careers and Nina’s mother become more demanding of their time they have slowly grown apart. After a particularly bad argument, Jake doesn’t come home from work the following day. When Nina doesn’t hear from him from several days she is convinced he has left her. She turns to her friend for support. Little does she know that Lily has her own secrets she is hiding.

Woah…this was a fantastic book. It was super engaging and I had a hard time putting it down. There is a great twist that is hard to predict. I just loved it and will definitely be recommending this one to customers and friends!

I think it's going to be a great year for thrillers, this is just another example of that. A first round purchase for all libraries

This book was a slow burn that keeps your head spinning!
Christian and Lily and Nina and Jake are the nicest couples. Nina and Lily are friends and are both teachers at the same high school. One evening Christian comes home and immediately notices Lily acting fearful, worried because she’s newly pregnant Christian tries to calm her nerves and checks the alarm system.
At Ninas, Nina is getting worried because Jake hasn’t come home, she knows they had a fight but he’s never gone this long without talking to someone. She’s soon scared when his work calls and tells her he’s missed surgeries and since he’s a surgeon this is unlike him.
Lily makes a confession to Christian that she’s scared because she’s connected to Jakes disappearance, and they both agree they have to do anything and everything to cover it up. They try to stay two steps ahead of Nina who isn’t giving up trying to find Jake. We follow the cat and mouse game but we soon realize everything isn’t what is seems. This book was great I loved it!

What a great book! I love everything by this author and this book was no different! I couldn't put this down and was up all night waiting to see how it ended!

So many twists and the only sure thing in this story is murder. This excellent read, is the ultimate whodunnit with a large serving of crazy. A good, exciting read. Grab this one, a definite addition to your TBR list.

A slow start turned into a gripping thriller. Kubica did not disappoint! Read for an engaging look at familial relationships. The ending will surprise you!

Lily is a math teacher--exhausted by spending her days teaching math to teenagers. Her husband, Christian, a market analyst, is especially worried about her as she's pregnant again after several miscarriages. One day he comes home to find Lily staring out into the backyard--and she tells him of an encounter at a local forest preserve with the husband of her close friend, Nina, also a teacher. Nina's husband, Jake Hayes, is a surgeon. And now he's missing.

Honestly, this was a strange thriller. It seemed to be told from a weird simplistic writing style that often felt repetitive--yes, we know Lily is pregnant. Yes we know Christian would do anything to protect Lily. Yes Nina's mom is suffering from an illness, etc. It's hard to explain, but I felt like I was reading the same snippets over and over.

Basically, Lily feels she did something, Christian goes all wild trying to protect her, Jake is missing, and Nina freaks out, because they fought before he disappeared. Who is telling the truth--anyone, everyone? Christian irritated me with his impulsive doltish ways, Nina needed to stand up for herself, and even Lily got to me after a while. And Jake seemed to have no redeeming qualities and could stay missing for all I cared. One of the twists was a pretty decent surprise; the other one not so much. An odd read overall.

I liked this book! I found it fast-paced, not too far fetched.

I wasn’t surprised by any of the twists, except for one thread that didn’t pull through the way I would have expected.

Overall it was enjoyable, the right length, and I wasn’t disappointed!

Nina and her husband Jake have a fight, both saying things that might or might not be true. But when Jake doesn’t come home, Nina is distraught. Surely he wouldn’t just walk away from their life as well as his career?
Lily has some thing she must tell her husband Christian. She knows more about what happened to Jake than she should. Lily and Nina work together and are good friends, so why doesn’t Lily tell Nina what she knows?
Told in alternating chapters by Nina and Christian, we watch a wife try to find her husband and a husband try to protect his wife. I was fairly confident that I had this one figured out until, bam,the author’s final reveal turned everything I believed upside down. Short chapters made the pages fly and even though I wanted to shake Christian more than once ,for the most part I couldn’t stop flipping pages to see how this would turn out.
I don’t think I felt really sorry for any of the main characters until the end when I may have felt incredibly sad for one of them (no name equals no potential spoilers). The way this one plays out took a bit to get used to but in the end I did enjoy the ride.

Is it any wonder that Mary Kubica is one of my favorite thriller authors of all time?! Holy moly my head is still spinning after finishing this book. The plot twists, the characters, the gasp-worthy turn of events, this book was amazing. I keep thinking that her newest book is my favorite of hers and then she surpasses everything and writes something like this and my mind is blown and I have a new favorite all over again.

This story follows two points of view, Christian and Nina. Christian thinks he is the luckiest guy in the world, married to the love of his life Lily who is pregnant with their first child. Lily is a high school teacher alongside her friend Nina who is married to Jake. Nina and Jake don't have the best marriage and everyone is shocked when Jake goes missing. Lily thinks she might have been the last person to see Jake and after confessing everything to Christian, they decide to keep everything a secret and not let anyone know what happened before Jake disappeared. But Nina isn't going to stop searching for her husband and what she will uncover will shock everyone.

This was one of those books that I was thinking about even when I wasn't reading it and couldn't wait to get back into the story. It's not everyday a thriller hooks me as much as this one did, I can't count the amount of times I was shocked by something. I had my suspicions about certain things going on in the story and Mary Kubica set the story up perfect for me to draw these conclusions, that were definitely wrong. Absolutely amazing read and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

*Many thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing, Park Row for the gifted copy for my honest review*.

I've read other books by Kubica, and I really wanted to like this one. Sadly, I struggled with it. I just couldn't connect with the characters, and I had a hard time staying engaged. The pace was inconsistent, and many points, including the killer, were too predictable, which left me not really caring how the story ended.

I love Mary Kubika books and this one was as fun as her others. Lots of twists and turns and while I figured out the big twist earlier than I would have liked, it was still a very enjoyable read.