Just the Nicest Couple by Mary Kubica @MaryKubica @brit_pressley @garytiedemann @HarlequinBooks

the setup…
Lily and Christian Scott are a happily married couple expecting their first child. She’s a high school algebra teacher and he’s a market research analyst, living comfortably but nervous about her high risk pregnancy. Their world gets turned upside down, though, when Lily shares a disturbing encounter with Jake Hayes, the husband of her friend and fellow teacher Nina. Lily was determined to put the incident behind her until she learned that day that Jake never returned home the night before. Nina thinks he’s still miffed about their own argument; Lily’s not so sure. When Jake fails to return after several days, she and Christian go down a perilous path in an effort to protect themselves.

the heart of the story…
A typical Kubica story has you questioning just about everything you know throughout and this one had me doing that to the nth degree. It’s told from Christian and Nina’s points of view, both of them somewhat reliant on the accounts of others. Jake is a successful neurosurgeon but Nina knows very little about his work family. All that Christian knows is from Lily’s perspective and the story transitions between the two narratives. Of course I questioned whether I could rely on the narrators and those around them. I loved the back and forth, particularly when Christian would share his “reimagined” behaviors as that kept me even more off balance.

the narration…
I enjoyed the two narrators and at first I thought I leaned more towards the performance for Nina. But, the storytelling for Christian’s narrative was what had me mesmerized as the story progressed. No matter, as both delivered fine performances.

the bottom line…
Overall, I enjoyed the story as it kept me engaged and I vacillated between Jake being dead or alive, Lily being culpable or not, or someone else being involved. I developed quite a few theories before I settled into one. I came close but still missed the mark. This was a very entertaining story, even though I found some of the things Christian did a bit of a stretch. Everything else, including the audio performance, worked for me.

Book Info

• Release Date: January 10, 2023
• Narrators: Brittany Pressley & Gary Tiedemann
• Audio Length: 10 hours, 32 minutes
• Publisher: Harlequin Audio

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