Good book. I enjoyed it!

(It's been a long time since I finished reading this one, and I can no longer remember specific details about this title.)

Note: clearing old books from before 2019

I read tis book in July 2017 and rated it 4 stars on Goodreads. I hold each and every one of Mary's books up against The Good Girl because it was so very different to anything I'd read at the time. Every Last Lie was good but not The Good Girl. The alternating narrators took a little bit of time, and everyone seems to be doing this now. But overall I would still recommend anything Mary writes.

I have so many feelings about Mary Kubica’s Every Last Lie. So many. This book was such a stress ride and I felt my emotions being yanked this way and that by a skilled author.

At the beginning of the book Clara learns that her husband Nick died in a car crash. The mother of a toddler and a brand new baby, Clara is completely devastated as well as exhausted. Then a remark from her daughter—who was in the car with Nick at the time of the crash—makes Clara suspect that the crash wasn’t an accident. Her subsequent investigation uncovers secrets that Nick was keeping from her.

Big secrets.

Told from dual perspectives, Every Last Lie gives insight into Nick’s side of the story and offers answers that Clara often doesn’t have yet. It also made me more sympathetic to Nick than I would have been otherwise because the man was really keeping some secrets.

But the investigation itself became annoying to me because Clara considers so many possibilities for Nick’s crash throughout the book—the same ones over and over again—and she reads as majorly confused. This might have been the author’s intent, maybe to play up the suspense and/or her emotional and mental state, but in the end it just felt like I was spinning my wheels, lost in a quagmire. Not like I was enjoying a mystery.

I also had a hard time connecting to Clara because of her behavior. She’s under extreme emotional and physical turmoil but she frequently puts her children in risky situations and does something big plot-wise at the end of the book and there’s little to no follow-up. Then the closing pages of the book are a huge departure in terms of her earlier behavior and I felt like I was just supposed to accept that there were no consequences for her actions and she had done the necessary work to get back to emotional and mental stability...but both of those are tough for me to accept without evidence.

Kubica really keeps the tension high and crafted characters I cared about, but in the end Clara’s constant speculation, her pattern of accepting that x had to the reason for the crash, rejecting x, then accepting it was true again, over and over, as well as the lack of follow-up to one particular plot point, weighed the book down for me.

3 stars

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Netgalley but all opinions provided are my own.

As someone who loves The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve I thought I might also love this book. And I did. But it also reminded me of another book that came out at the same time, Alice's Island by Daniel Sanchez Arevalo (also good). It's when I'm reading books all about the same thing that they blend together and lose their potency. However, it was still a good mystery and Mary Kubica is popular since the rise of Good Girl.

I was given a copy from the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.

Mary Kubica is a masterful author and does not disappoint with this novel. This novel begins as Clara finds out from the police officer at her door that there has been an accident with her husband and daughter. I love how this author writes with going back and forth between two voices, ESPECIALLY like this novel where it is her husband's point of view before the accident and Clara's point of view in the present time. This novel was good with some twists and turns, I think a lot of them were easier to figure out then some of her prior novels. Regardless, this novel did not disappoint and I enjoyed it a great deal and will always continue to read this amazing author!

Started a bit slow but picked up halfway through. I found this a bit more predictable than Kubica's other novels. Since I am a mother of young children, this one was tough to read because it really hit home. The ending was a bit anti-climatic I thought. All in all, 3.5 stars.

EEK! I don't remember a lot of specifics of this story (it's now two months later with no notes, except for a rating). :( I do know that I was curious to find out what was truly going on and was a bit disappointed in the ending - a little lack luster. And, I thought emotions were played out well, except that the daughter's involvement bothered me. (3.5/5)

Mary Kubica never disappoints. She has become one of my go-to authors for suspense. Varied characters, vivid backstories and difficult to anticipate, but not wildly unrealistic twists.

When I am in a reading slump, I know I can turn to Mary Kubica to get me out. This is my fourth book of hers, and she really can write. I look forward to many more from her.

I'm a big fan Of Mary Kubica. I've read all of her books and I really enjoyed this one.
I love how well developed her characters are. She has knack for building the suspense and she doesn't disappoint.

I was so drawn in and I think it was that I was reading one of my worse fears, which made it even more plausible. I really connected to this story.

When Nick Solberg dies in a car accident he leaves behind his wife, Clara, a four-year-old daughter and a four-day-old son. Miraculously, their four-year-old daughter survived the car accident but begins to become extremely upset whenever she sees a black car. This is all the evidence Clara needs to solidify her suspicions that this wasn't just a normal accident: someone wanted her husband dead. There's no way he would've died otherwise. 

Told in alternating points of view--Clara's sleep-deprived, grief-stricken present and Nick's past leading up to the accident--Kubica weaves together clues and explanations that bring every character into question. Clara becomes increasingly convinced that Nick was not the perfect husband she thought he was and that someone--even her own mother--could have orchestrated his death. Every lie her husband has ever told begins to unravel before her: Nick's impending financial doom, how he fired his best friend and business partner, and the fact that a former flame from his hometown had recently moved to the area. 

What Kubica demonstrates is the imperfections of being a human grieving while still trying to keep their family together. Readers will connect with Clara because she does whatever she can to prove what she believes is true and, with that, protect her children. While grief pushes Clara to make questionable decisions, it ultimately is what makes her relatable and the story equally heartbreaking and suspenseful. Kubica doesn't disappoint with Every Last Lie, taking what could be over-done scenarios and turn them on their head. Every Last Lie is a fast-paced page-turner that will keep readers guessing until the end.

I'm a huge fan of Kubica's books and this was no exception! A very interesting concept that kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time I was reading. I will definitely recommend this to friends!

Imagine this scene. Your husband dies in a car crash, leaving you alone with your preschooler daughter and your newborn son. You think your husband has a solid career as a dentist, that he has a network of trustworthy friends and established colleagues, and that he took out a hefty life insurance policy that will take care of you in the case of your husband's passing.

What if you found out none of what you thought about your husband was true?

This is precisely what happens to Clara, who is the lead character in Mary Kubica's Every Last Lie. Told from the perspectives of both Clara and her husband, Nick, the book examines how and when things started to go wrong in their seemingly perfect lives.

Clara is left to figure out how to come to terms with her husband's falsehoods and make sense of it amid grief. She decides to dig deep into their finances and his past, searching his phone, phone records, texts, and emails. She discovers a receipt for a necklace she never received, that Nick made a mysterious phone call to a woman out-of-state right before the crash that took his life, that his dental practice was being sued for malpractice, and that his best friend isn't the person he claimed to be. Even Clara's preschooler daughter Maisie says that a "bad man" in a "black car" was chasing them. The police say that the crash was Nick's fault, that it was a miracle Maisie survived given how fast Nick was going around a windy country road bend.

With this new information about her husband, Clara begins to wonder if the car crash was really an accident, or rather something more nefarious. Did Nick have a disgruntled lover? Did Nick's best friend and dental partner, who he had recently fired without telling Clara, seek revenge? Did Nick commit suicide given the pending malpractice lawsuit against his dental practice? Did Clara's neighbor, who is known for abusing his wife and threatening Nick, run Nick off of the road? Was Nick abusing drugs and perhaps selling them to pay off his dental practice's sinkhole of debt?

The book is artfully paced, building suspense and tension with the passing of each chapter. Just when you think you have figured out what was going on in Nick's life and why he made such bizarre or rash decisions, Kubica takes you in a surprisingly different direction (while still maintaining narrative integrity). This was my first Kubica novel, and I look forward to reading more of her catalog in the coming years.

Thank you to the author, Mary Kubica, the publisher, Harlequin, and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of Every Last Lie.

Mary is an awesome writer. I was blown away by her books The Good Girl and Pretty Baby, so naturally, when I saw this one I knew I had to have my hands on it.

The suspense in her books always builds from beginning to end and this one is no different. AND THAT ENDING! I love a good twist, a shocking "what did I just read?" type of ending and this one will probably be that for a lot of readers.

I'm going to be vague because I think this book is one that it best to go into blindly. Don't read too many reviews, don't try to figure it out. Just let Kubica weave those tangled webs she writes so well!

I enjoyed Kubica's earlier works, but found Every Last Lie didn't reach the heights of her previous novels. Instead, there's a lot of build-up with very little payoff in the end. I found the main character irritating, and didn't really care about her plight.

4.5 stars

Mary Kubica show how far a woman will go to prove that her husband's accident was anything but:

Clara's world was shattered when her husband, Nick, and their four year old daughter, Maisie, were involved in a deadly car crash. Maisie was unharmed in the crash but her Nick succumbed to his injuries. The crash is ruled as an accident, probably speed related, but Clara cannot believe that Nick would drive the winding road fast with their daughter in the back seat. When Maisie begins to have nightmares about the crash, Clara has determined that Nick's death was much more than an accident. Who would have wanted Nick dead? And, more important, why? Clara will stop at nothing to find out and the truth is only the beginning of secrets and deceit she is going to uncover.

This is the second book that I have read by Kubica and while it may follow a similar format to tell the story, it is nothing like The Good Girl, which I appreciated. The format that Kubica chooses to use is a before and after the main event, in this case a deadly accident that kills Nick. The voice of before and after is also not the same person, her husband Nick is the before voice and Clara is the after voice. This allows you to get to know and care about both characters even though you know that Nick's is going to end in tragedy.

Kubica puts real emotion in to this book and I can honestly say that I there are times within the book that I do not know if I would have acted differently from Clara. From not wanting to tell her daughter about her daddy's death, to trying to deal with what actually happened during the accident and setting out to find herself, Kubica puts a very real elemetn behind Clara's thoughts, choices, grief and actions. The need to know what actually happened and that your loved one would not be so reckless not just with their life but that of her child.

I enjoyed going along the journey with Clara as she tries to discover what truly happened that day and Kubica does a great job of introducing new facts and possible along the way that there are many factors and people to consider as to what caused the crash. I think that Kubica chose a bit of an unconventional ending to her book which I think you will either love or hate. I personally loved it.

Two books down by Kubica and I have enjoyed both of them. I think she has mastered the way that she likes to tell the story and uses it to her advantage. I'm off to find another book by her.

Enjoy!!!

Mary Kubica always creates realistic characters and this book was no different. I was totally involved in Clara's life as she tries to find out what was really behind her husband's death. I was a bit disappointed at the ending, but that did not keep me from enjoying the rest of the story.

Every Las Lie by Mary Kubica was a bestselling book for quite a while and I looked forward to reading it. However I was very disappointed by the plot. I can sympathize with Clara’s denial about her husbands death. Precessional help should have been offered to her. She was behaving irrationally and probably suffering from depression. Her little girl was so upset and showing more signs of extreme distress. I feel the story would’ve been more interesting if all the psychological issues were emphasized and formed a major part of the plot.

I cannot figure out the love of this book by everyone--5 stars? Seriously?
I really liked Kubica's last book, but this one left a LOT to be desired.

The premise is interesting, but there's not any depth to the story, so it turns out to be like a crazy-pants TV movie with Clara suspicious of everyone and paranoidly accusing random people of a crime-that-might-not-even-be-a-crime. Was it suicide? Accident? Murder by (take your pick)Connor? Izzy? Random tattooed stranger in the grocery store parking lot?, Clara's mom? Scary neighbor?

I guess I am supposed to believe that Clara's grief and postpartum state (possible depression/psychosis) are what lead to her paranoia and bizarre behavior. But the author doesn't go far enough with this to make it believable. And how naive can you be to not have ANY sense of your family financial state. This is 2017, not 1950, women have NO excuse not to know things about their finances, especially if they own a business.

And don't even get me started on Nick. What a horrible character. For supposedly being such an upstanding family man, so in love with his wife, he comes across as a complete jerk most of the story. His not telling his wife about anything going on (ex-girlfriend, malpractice suit, etc. etc.) just made me hate him more and I really didn't care by the end what the cause of his death was, because I didn't like him at all.

So many things were left unresolved in the end as well, I finished the book late at night and when I got up today to write the review, I had to re-read the ending because I thought I had forgotten how it ended. Nope, just loose ends.

This could have been a decent book had the lies and secrets been good twists, but unfortunately they are pretty lame in the end.

Mary Kubica has once again blown me away with her new psychological thriller. While it really wasn't as fast-paced as her other books, it definitely is a page-turner. It definitely kept my interest, and if it wouldn't have been for many life interruptions for me during the reading of this book, I would have devoured it probably in a weekend. During the final chapters, though, I did read late into the night because I just had to finish and see how it ended.

The ending was very surprising but not disappointing. My heart ached so much for Clara, losing her husband a few days after giving birth to their son, concerned also for her dad taking care of her mother suffering with dementia, and finding out there were things that husband Nick had not been open about with her. I can't imagine having to deal with all of that. Mary Kubica had me, like Clara, changing my mind about who might have been involved in causing the fatal car accident that took Nick's life.

And once again at the end, as in her other books, I was wrong! This is why I enjoy her books so much. I think I have it figured out and then the ending totally takes me by surprise. This is definitely a must-read book. You will not be able to put it down.