JUST THE NICEST COUPLE is Mary Kubica's next domestic suspense and I flew through it! 4 Stars!

Nina's husband Jake goes missing and at first she thinks he might just be taking a bit of time away after a particularly rough argument. It isn't long before she realizes something bad has happened.

Lily is Nina's friend and coworker and reveals to her husband Christian than she had an encounter with Jake and may have had something to do with his disappearance. Christian convinces Lily that they need to stay quiet and lay low.

Nina begins to do her own digging and it brings her closer to truths that may put her in danger as well.

I really enjoyed this story! It was very fast paced, and the tension built well through this quick read. I loved that Jake's disappearance was vague and I was wondering where he was for so long. Plus, having the husband disappear instead of the wife felt like a nice change. Chapters were in the three perspectives of Nina, Lily, and Christian, which was a fascinating glimpse into what one is willing to do for the one you love. The writing is concise and moves you quickly through the story. Finally, the ending has a twist with red herrings, and I enjoyed it!

Thank you so much to @parkrowbooks for the @netgalley ARC. I am excited to enjoy more of your titles and will do my best with my approval status. January 10th is the publication date for this fantastic domestic suspense tale that should be a perfect way to start the new year!

When Nina Hayes’ physician husband Jake seemingly vanishes into thin air after a marital spat, his disappearance sets off a discovery of twisted secrets, marital distrust and numerous characters that are darker than they first appear. .
What Nina thought was a “cooling off” period for Jake, turns into days then weeks of unanswered questions regarding her marriage, her husband until Nina wonders just who she is married to and what led to this unexplained disappearance?
Lily Scott, a friend and coworker of Nina’s, is hiding her own involvement with Jake and, with the help of her husband Christian, sets out to hide that she was with Jake shortly before he disappeared.
This novel starts out as a slow burn mystery and builds to a dread-filled climax where no one is who you think they are and secret after secret is revealed.
I thought the ending should’ve been fleshed out a bit more, but it was well-resolved.

Lily and Jake have a secret. One that finds Jake missing in a woods. Nina and Christian find themselves trying to solve the mystery of Jake’s situation without implicating themselves in the crime. This quick pace thriller leaves the reader struggling to make sense of the situation with limited clues, relationship secrets, and a oddly behaving mother. Kubica once again leaves the reader guessing with her well thought out plot and unreliable narrators.

Nice again, Mary Kubica doesn’t disappoint. Her character development is very good. I especially appreciated the portrayal of the educators. She always has good twists.

Big fan of Kubica but this wasn't my favorite by this author. I didn't feel any connection with the characters and felt like some of the plot points were a little off from what would really happen. I will continue to read Kubica's books, but this just isn't at the top of my list (Local Woman Missing!)

Kubica is a genius. All of her books, allllll of them, have blown me away. Just when I think I have it figured out, nope. I don’t. And her writing, beautiful. She has a way of drawing you in, word by word, and making you forget you are even reading a novel. Cue the movie slides in my brain. So yes, absolutely will be recommending this book to literally everyone. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Having never read Mary Kubica and not typically being a fan of thrillers, I enjoyed this book more than I expected. The book tells the story of two couples after one of the husbands has gone missing. Kubica left me guessing until the very end what had happened to him and who had done it. Her writing style kept me wanting to turn the page. A few places left me confused, and I would have liked more details, but overall this was a fun, quick read!
Thanks to Netgalley and Thoughts From a Page Podcast for the advanced copy!

I received a free digital ARC from Publisher’s Weekly Grab A Galley through Harlequin Trade Publishing. This story alternates perspective between Christian and Nina, halves of two different couples. Nina’s husband Jake is missing and Christian’s wife Lily may have been the last person to see him alive.

I enjoy the way Kubica writes her characters, while none of the characters are like-able (at all) they are all flushed out with great detail and I like well written characters. I found the story compelling and quick to read. I found the school setting, as Nina and Lily are teachers, very relatable — and the personal relationship drama was realistic. While the ending was a bit predictable, I was still intrigued by the resolution unveiling. I’ll continue to pick up a new Kubica book.

Just the Nicest Couple by Mary Kubica

Four friends….two couples….one missing husband…DUN DUN

Well my friends, here we are again, a suburban thriller, and again I throughly enjoyed my time with this one. I’ve heard good thing about Kubica’s other works and I wanted to give her newest release a chance. I’m so happy I did. Now I will say that the premise is a lot like other thrillers we know but the formula works. The strength of this novels lies in its first chapter. The way Kibica sent the stage for this book I was gripped and could not stop reading.

I definitely will be picking up more from Kubica in the future!

Dud Alert!

1.5 stars

Just the Nicest Couple is a bland thriller about two couples, a missing husband, and the plot to cover up his disappearance.

I had vowed to stop reading Kubica, but the premise sounded so good that I had to give this one a go. This book has all of the makings of a juicy thriller, but the flat characters and messy execution made for a boring read.

Told from the alternating perspectives of Christian and Nina, neither has any personality. Nina is married to Jake, a neurosurgeon who has gone missing. Their marriage is on the rocks, and Nina is just trying to hold it together. Her character is flat but somewhat likable, whereas Christian is just a moron.

Christian is blindly in love with his wife, Lily. His inner dialogue was painful to read--he is immature, and his thoughts are pretty basic. He can't string together a complex sentence and spends most of his time obsessing over Lily and watching her sleep. Lily is whiny and annoying. She could have had some of the most interesting chapters, but Kubica does not share her perspective. Both Lily and Christian speak and act like the high school students that Nina and Lily teach.

This was one of those books where I was just flipping the pages hoping for *something* interesting to happen--even something outrageous or over-the-top. Sadly, it never did. The ending had potential, but it crashes and burns like the rest of the book. I guessed all of the twists, and there were no turns.

The one positive is that it is easy to read.

Some readers have enjoyed this one, but as you can tell, it was not for me. This will be my last by Kubica.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

I was sadly not a fan of this thriller, although I have enjoyed other books by this author. It was dull and filled with unlikeable characters.

Mary Kubica is one of my favorite authors. This book was on of my favorites ,. Her thrillers are steeped with twist and turns , lies and deception. The people are all believable and relatable. After the layers were peeled , the ending was nothing but fantastic!

This was a good story with an interesting plotline. I did enjoy it, but the editing took a bit away from the story.- it was very repetitive and verbose in parts. Overall, I enjoyed the plot, the characters, the twists and how it all wrapped up. I always enjoy this author.

It’s about a married couple and the husband goes missing. The wife is searching tirelessly for him, but those in her inner circle may be keeping secrets from her 👀

In “Just the Nicest Couple,” Mary Kubica presents a cast of characters who are fairly likeable, but not so appealing that you find yourself completely in their corner. For me, this was the perfect set-up; everyone clearly had a few faults or made you suspicious in some way. They were perfectly human. This allowed me to wonder about all of them. On a very basic level, the story is abut a man who goes missing. However, each character sees this event through a different lens, so the reader is always wondering what happened. As I moved forward in the book I became more and more engaged, and I stayed up way too late to finish it. In my opinion, that is the mark of a great book! I’ve read and enjoyed many of Kubica’s books and I think that this one top-notch. Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book!

I enjoyed this thriller from Mary Kubica. There were a few surprises although I did figure out who did it in the end. It's a quick and easy read. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

The Nicest couple centers around two couples two close friends, and one missing
husband. As the reader gets introduced to the “ Nicest Couple” ( Lily & Scott) , we learn that Lily is an algebra teacher at the local Chicago suburban school, and her husband is a market research analyst. They have had to endured several miscarriages, and now Lily is pregnant again.

Nina Hayes is an English teacher at the same school as Lily and is married to Jake, a surgeon. Lily and Nina are friends and through their friendship the husband’s have also form a relationship. Nina has a mother that is suffering with Macular degeneration and an unspecified breast lump and therefore has been distracted and hasn’t allocated enough time for her husband. One evening, Nina and her husband Jake have an argument and he subsequently walks out of their home and that becomes the last time Nina sees him . Nina will stop at nothing to discover what happened to her husband.

The Nicest couple is supposed to be a psychological thriller but after reading it , I would classify it more of as a whodunnit murder mystery. The story is too evenly paced with not enough suspense to really classify it as a thriller.

Usually, I can disregard poor sentence structure in a book as long as the story is completely engaging however the story itself is ultimately not as captivating as one would expect from Mary Kubica . Therefore ,the quality of the writing is distracting. At times the sentence structure appear very unpolished. Hopefully , this may be tweaked before publishing.

Nevertheless , I still think that other readers will still be able to enjoy the story as it is solid enough to keep the reader interested , it is also a very quick read with short chapters .


Thank you NetGalley , Harlequin Trade Publishing and Park Row for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review .

I wouldn't call this a thriller (it is too evenly paced with little suspense), but it is a good mystery with enough clues and misdirection to keep it interesting without spoiling the ending. It is an easy, quick read about a missing husband and the nice couple that may or may not be involved in his disappearance. I've read all of Kubica's books, and they never disappoint!

THIS REVIEW. CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS:

This thriller is told from a dual POV: Nina and Christian.

Nina’s husband Jake is missing. You find out very early in that he attempted to sexually assault Christian’s wife Lily. Lily is not going to let that happen and hits Jake in the head with a rock and quickly flees the scene. Many days pass and Jake is still missing, Lily is even more determined that she murdered him. However, that isn’t the case… dun dun dun!

This was my first go with Kubica and she didn’t quite live up to the hype I was hoping for. I had figured out most of the details but not the major killer until the very end. Still a 4 star read!

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

Mary Kubica is a frustrating author for me. Her debut, "The Good Girl, was thrilling and full of promise. While I enjoyed subsequent books to varying degrees, it wasn't until her last novel, "Local Woman Missing" that I felt that same spark I did when reading her debut. Brilliantly written, pacey, and with a perfect denouement, I couldn't stop myself from heartily recommending the novel to just about everyone. So my expectations here were quite high. Unfortunately, "Just the Nicest Couple" fails to deliver. The writing here felt stiff and abrupt. I couldn't connect with the characters and figured out the culprit quite easily and early. I just couldn't see any of the nuance, empathy, and cleverness that Mary Kubica has come to embody for me here. Thank you so much for the ARC and I still look forward to her next effort.

The Queen of suspense, Mary Kubica (fav author) returns following Local Woman Missing with her latest, JUST THE NICEST COUPLE—a gripping twisty domestic suspense where the line between right and wrong is blurred, and no one is as they appear.

Two couples, two close friends, one missing husband…

A whodunnit domestic suspense thriller that will keep you guessing until the final page!

Meet the nicest couple—Lily and Christian Scott. Lily is an algebra teacher at the local Chicago suburban school, and her husband is a market research analyst. They have had several miscarriages, and she is currently pregnant.

Nina Hayes is an English teacher at the same school as Lily and is married to Jake, a surgeon. They are friends.

Nina is distracted and does not have time to be there for her husband's every whim. Her mother is going blind, and they recently found a mass in her left breast. They will need a biopsy to see if it is malignant or benign.

Jake and Nina argue, and he leaves. Jake is not so nice. He does not like her spending so much time with her mom and the stresses of his patients. She thinks he is just blowing off steam; however, he does not answer his phone, and then the hospital calls and says he has not been in several days later.

Now she is worried. He is missing. There is an investigation. Where is he?

From the POVs of Christian and Nina, we learn about an episode in Langley Woods. Lily comes clean (is she telling the whole truth?) with Christian that Jake tried to attack her, and to protect herself, she hit him with a rock and ran.

Christian will do anything to protect his wife and his unborn child.

To do so, they must go to the trails and see if they can find the body or any evidence. However, they cannot find him or any evidence. However, his car is parked there, so they must move it, which involves Christian breaking into Nina's house to get the key. This involves a lot of sneaking around and risk-taking.

Later the body is found in the woods by the authorities. They find the car. He was shot. However, Lily knows she did not kill him. So who murdered Jake? Lily also does not think about her lost earring.

There is a bit of a cat-and-mouse game going on between Christian and Nina. Nina thinks Christian killed him. But she needs proof.

Everyone is a suspect. Suspicion, betrayal, and dark secrets abound —Hidden just beneath the surface of a seemingly perfect suburban life. How far do we go to protect the family?

Kubica keeps you turning the pages into the wee hours of the morning. This was my birthday read, and what a treat! I read it in one sitting. Readers will become engrossed in the intense mystery. What goes on behind closed doors? Do we know the people close to us as well as we think?

The author has a talent for maneuvering multi-storylines and going behind closed doors in suburban neighborhoods, and unraveling dark secrets, lies, and deceit. Well-crafted, you will not anticipate the surprisingly satisfying conclusion.

I have been a fan of the Mary's since her debut and have read every book. Each one is 5 Stars and lands on my year's top books. Kubica fans will enjoy this one, as well as fans of author BA Paris.

INTERVIEW: Stay tuned for my upcoming #AuthorElevatorSeries Interview with Mary on Pub day, Jan 10, 2023, where we go behind the scenes of the book and the author! Do not miss this one.

Thank you to #ParkRowBooks and #Netgalley for the gifted e-ARC. I look forward to the audiobook narrated by Brittany Pressley (favorite) and Gary Tiedemann

Blog Review posted @
www.JudityDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 ⭐ STARS +
Pub Date: Jan 10, 2023
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Read my MK Reviews (blog):
THE GOOD GIRL
Top Books of 2014

PRETTY BABY
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DON’T YOU CRY
Top Books of 2016

EVERY LAST LIE
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WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT
Top Books of 2018
#AuthorElevatorSeries QA

THE OTHER MRS.
Top Books of 2020

LOCAL WOMAN MISSING
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JUST THE NICEST COUPLE
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