Just The Nicest Couple: The nail-biting new thriller for 2023 from the New York Times bestselling author of Local Woman Missing

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That’s what happens when your expectations are too high, canceling weekend plans ( instead of chatting with friends and consuming great selection of wines, I made an appointment with this book. I kept my wines to myself) , hoping to read a book that keeps you on your toes. It didn’t happen! The character development is top notch, per usual, and all four characters and even supporting characters were fully flushed out. There is not one character in this story about which I do not understand their motives or actions. By the time we reach the conclusion, everything becomes crystal clear. As someone who hates messy conclusions to thrillers, I really appreciate this about Kubica’s writing. The shooter was Nina’s mom, because she knew Jake was cheating on Nina. She was faking the macular degeneration and had followed him to the woods from work. She figured Lily would take the fall for his death, and rightfully so because of the cheating. The Ending: It’s getting dark in the house. Out the window, the sun is about to set. Lily hasn’t bothered with the lights, and so the in- side of the house is colorless and gray. We face east. Any pretty sunset is the other way. You can’t see it from here, if there even is one to see. Nina realizes that Christian’s car matches the car of her intruder, per the Ring video that a neighbor sent her.

Rich with detail and a mounting, almost suffocating sense of dread, Just the Nicest Couple is a dark and twisted exploration of loyalty, family, and how far we'll go to protect the ones we love." --Andrea Bartz, New York Times bestselling author of We Were Never Here Kubica’s approach to telling the story is inventive and provocative. As noted, readers get to know Christian and Nina, and are privy to their thoughts and emotional struggles via their alternating first-person narratives. However, she does not include narratives from either Jake or Lily. Rather, readers get acquainted with them only through the recollections, observations, and impressions of their partners and friends. Thus, Christian and Nina are inherently unreliable narrators. The next day, the body is positively identified as Jake. He died via a gunshot wound, though, not blunt force trauma. The Reveal: Nina’s friend Lily thinks she may have been the last to see Jake before he went missing. After Lily confesses everything to her husband, Christian, the two decide that nobody can find out what happened leading up to Jake’s disappearance, especially not Nina. But Nina is out there looking for Jake, and she won’t stop until the truth is discovered. Told in dual mostly alternating POVs, each narrator (Christian and Nina) caused me mild irritation. Despite both having very real motivations behind their deeds, some of their reactions and thoughts were uncomfortably melodramatic. Nina in her naivety and Christian with his pinballing emotional state. But, while I found them difficult to swallow, I have never been in either’s shoes with regards to what they were experiencing and so their thoughts and reactions could very well have been authentic and true-to-life. It just didn’t read like it was for me.The characters are not especially well fleshed out and some dialogue between them isn’t good either which considering what’s occurring this feels very understated and underwhelming. Lily Scott, Nina’s friend and coworker, thinks she may have been the last to see Jake before he went missing. After Lily confesses everything to her husband, Christian, the two decide that nobody can find out what happened leading up to Jake’s disappearance, especially not Nina. But Nina is out there looking for her husband, and she won’t stop until the truth is discovered.

The characters were boring. Only Nina was relatable. I didn’t like Lily. I found Christian creepy and obsessive like every nap you take I’m watching you style ( he keeps watching his wife sleeping). And Jake: that narcissistic asshole made his bed! I didn’t care if he’s dead or alive! Meanwhile, Nina has discovered that Jake’s gun is missing from their safe. She also has found a traffic violation issued to her mother the day Jake disappeared, a violation that is suspicious since her mother claims she cannot see well enough to drive. Nina searches her mother’s house and finds Jake’s gun in the trunk of her mother’s car. Her mother finds Nina with the gun and tries to explain that she saw how unhappy Jake was making Nina. Nina’s mother believes she did Nina a favor by killing Jake. She believes Nina should be grateful to her. Nina acts as if she is not going to turn her mother in to the police. In the warmth of the lamp’s glow, I see that Lily’s hair is wet. She wears maroon-colored joggers and a sweatshirt. She’s showered and changed since coming home, which is more than she usually does. Usually she falls flat on the couch and doesn’t leave until it’s time to go to bed. Finally, the end seemed rushed and confusing to me, almost like they forgot to record the last chapter of the audiobook. If anyone has read this, and you know the answer to the following questions, please message me (so as not to add spoilers in the comments)!! I have only two thoughts in that moment: staying alive, and that this isn’t the way it was supposed to happen.Lily Scott, Nina’s friend and coworker, is convinced she was the last person to see Jake before he went missing. After Lily relates the traumatic details of her encounter with Jake to her husband, Christian, they decide that no one can find out what happened leading up to Jake’s disappearance . . . especially Nina. A husband’s disappearance links two couples in this twisty thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Local Woman Missing, Mary Kubica Some readers have enjoyed this one, but as you can tell, it was not for me. This will be my last by Kubica.