Having never read anything by Ms. Kubica before I was happily surprised. I did enjoy the suspense and the pace at which the book flowed. Usually dual points of view bother me, but it worked well in this instance. It was well put together in the past vs the present and allowed the story to play out in it's own time. There were so many elements in here, from depression to elation to mystery to well, you name it, that emotion or element was in this book. Determining the lies from the truth or the lies in the truths was what kept my intrigue throughout the book, it is a definite page turner. It's a clean psych thriller, not much gore or language or graphic scenes at all. Looking for something a little darker this summer? Pick it up!

will be posted on blog closer to pub date.

It's a gut-wrenching book with the death of a husband shortly after a new baby is born. I liked the combination of the story telling: Nick's perspective and Clara's perspective. However, I found the daughter Maisie to be annoying and the ending was a disappointment after so much build up.

It's been a long time since I was this hooked on a book!
I would’ve finished in one night, but I couldn’t keep me eyes open any longer and the sun was starting to rise.

Just when I thought I had it all figured out, Kubica cleverly threw me back in a loop making me second guess my initial thoughts.

The characters were well developed and despite finding Clara a tad annoying at times, I absolutely loved this story.

Mary Kubica is one of the best when it comes to suspense. She had me tearing through this book wanting to know what was next. The only thing that fell short for me was the resolution at the end. There were lies upon throughout the story lies that added up to make this an entertaining read. 3.5 stars (only because I wish there was more in the end).

Mary, Mary, Mary. Were you cruising toward summer? Basking in the glory of the good reviews of The Good Girl or Pretty Baby?? Whatever the reason, I could hardly WAIT to settle in with the advance copy of your latest, Every Last Lie (which I was happy to receive from Harlequin/Park Row Books & NetGalley in exchange for my honest review), and I am disappointed..

This is a standalone suspense/mystery thriller, and like many recent domestic psychological thrillers, it is told from alternating perspectives of main characters: in this case a young married couple, Nick and Clara Solberg. Their tragedy is flat out smack in our faces (actually jarring) right at the beginning to the novel.

A few days after Clara has given birth to their son, Nick takes their precocious 4-year-old daughter Maisie to her ballet lessons, phoning Clara on the way to ask what kind of takeout food she’d like him to pick up. Nick never makes it home as he and Maisie are in a terrible car crash that leaves him dead while Maisie escapes with just a scratch.

As if the overwhelming grief of losing her husband isn’t enough, Clara begins to believe that it wasn’t an accident as the police have determined, but that he was murdered. Clara goes through various suspects trying to determine who it was that ran them off the road causing Nick’s death. She basically covers all the bases including friends, family, co-workers – you name it, Clara is at one time or another sure that several people must be the criminal.

So, the story is a fast read and as usual Kubica does a great job developing the characters into people we KNOW and care about, and moving the action along with events as well as dialogue. The problem for me was there were several red herrings, and the story was building and building toward the big reveal, than it just didn’t work for me.

The way the story is told, with Clara’s post-crash chapters alternating with Nick’s pre-crash chapters works well, and the reader cycles through pity, sympathy, etc. along with the characters.

I think Kubica’s fans will love this, and I would recommend it selectively to a certain type of reader. I can only give it three stars, and I have thought for hours about whether it was just that my expectations were too high. I concluded that wasn’t the case, and while I am still a Kubica fan, I hope that in her next book she returns to the terrific level of thriller writing her fans expect.

Three stars.

After reading The Good Girl, and being disappointed (and bored), I wasn't sure I would try Mary Kubica's work again. But, redemption!

The story of a woman's life in the weeks after her husband's accidental (?) death as she tries to figure out what really happened. The story is told from her perspective, and her husband's, in a before and after mix.

While I enjoyed this book, there were a lot of times when I wished I could have skipped a lot of things. There was a lot of repetition, and it seemed like it was maybe just there to make the story longer. I think about 100 pages could have been left out without changing the integrity of the story.

Publication date: 6/5/17, 3:00 AP Central Standard Time
Link: http://thepagewalker.blogspot.com/2017/06/book-review-every-last-lie-by-mary.html

Grief-stricken and seriously stressed, Clara Solberg is not handling her husband’s death the way she wants to. Too many things are piling up while she is trying to compromise with her current state, along with a four-year old daughter and a new-born son. A few days later, details emerge and Clara starts to question whether Nick really had an accident or was he actually murdered.

EVERY LAST LIE is another suspenseful novel from Mary Kubica -a slow burn that kept me at the edge of my seat. Whenever I thought I had it all figured out, the clues will pull me in a different direction. With her customary technique, the narration is altered between Clara and Nick, giving me a chance to cross out every mistaken conjecture. The characters are all vividly rendered, they readily hooked this reader and before I knew it, I was totally invested on them.

I love how this book explored marriage and trust in the midst of a tragedy, and how these things ultimately affect how we perceive things. I do recommend this book.

I received this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I really like this author, so I had high hopes for this book. And it met my expectations. The storyline was fast-paced and gripping and at times it was really hard to put this down. Great character development too.

Clara's world comes crashing down when her husband Nick is killed in a car crash. The police say it was the sun in his eyes and the hairpin curve he took too fast that led to the accident and his death. But was it really? Clara begins to uncover secrets Nick was keeping from her, leading her to suspect that his death may not have been an accident.

Every Last Lie is another psychological thriller from Mary Kubica that tells the story from both Clara (present day) and Nick's (before) points-of-view. The world is full of secrets, but can those secrets end up killing you? This book will keep you questioning everything in Clara's life, and by the end of the book it will be pulling at your heart strings. A good thriller that will also grip you emotionally.

My review can be found on my Pinterest book board and on Goodreads. I will post links to both but below is the text of review.

Mary Kubica has become a must read author for me in the domestic suspense genre. She has a way of reeling me in with addicting storylines that are hard to put down. Thank you to Net Galley for the complimentary copy.

Clara's husband Nick has just died in a car crash. Their daughter Maisie was with him and survived but it isn't saying much. She has however, developed a fear of black cars and, "bad men." The police are telling Clara that Nick was driving too fast but Clara doesn't think that's the whole story. She's grief stricken, sleep deprived and has a new baby to deal with in addition to Maisie. Slowly, she begins to investigate what happened and finds, in the process, that there are many things she didn't know about Nick. (Aren't there always in this genre?)

The book is told from two points of view; present day Clara and pre-crash Nick. I liked this element. So many times, you don't see things from the husband's perspective and it makes them rather one dimensional. In the spirit of an honest review, I will say that this is not my favorite book by Kubica. I enjoyed it more than her last one but less than the first two. Some parts dragged for me and a few plotlines felt unresolved. That being said, halfway through the book I was invested and wanted to know the truth about Nick.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Park Row Books and Mary Kubica for the opportunity to read and review her latest book - which I loved! I'm a big fan of Mary Kubica and was excited to read her latest - not a disappointment!

Clara is barely home from the hospital with her new baby boy when her husband is killed in a car accident bringing their 4-year-old home from her ballet classes. Stunned by grief, Clara refuses to tell her daughter Maisie that her daddy is dead and becomes paralyzed - stops sleeping, eating, barely getting by taking care of the kids.

When Maisie starts having nightmares about a "bad man," Clara starts questioning the police's version of the accident. Then Clara starts learning things about her husband, Nick, that make her question everything about their life together.

Told in two different voices - Clara in the present and Nick in the months preceding the accident - this is a great thriller that I couldn't put down - highly recommended!

Thank you, Netgalley, for this arc.

The mystery had me flipping pages, but I didn't think this was as good as others I've read by Mary Kubica. I didn't like Maisie - she was too whiney and spoiled - and I didn't care for Clara, either. She seemed to leave her kids in the car all the time while she went around investigating. (I know she had heard of all those poor babies and kids dying of heatstroke in hot vehicles.) Poor Harriet (the dog) was left with the short end of the stick - being neglected; not being taken for a walk; and left to have accidents in the house.

I didn't like this novel because it seemed to me like there was something lacking. All the suspense and secrets were building up throughout... and by the time the ending came I was left feeling let down. Izzy, however, was definitely a surprise.

No matter how disappointed I was in this, I will continue to keep Mary Kubica on my radar. Maybe I will like her next book better?

Review goes live on the blog on June 23 at 00.00 amd gmt+2 and will show up on Goodreads sometime later.

In a Flutter: Super tense read!
Fluttering Thoughts:
Worldbuilding: The quiet, safe street where Clara and Nick live is a lie. The community where one might think nothing much happens is a lie too. Even the happy marriage between Clara and Nick seems to be a lie – and maybe partially is. There’s so much tension in this world, that you nearly choke on it with every page.
Characters: Though one might expect to like Clara more than Nick, I liked him more. I tend to love flawed characters – they both were considerably flawed, don’t get me wrong. There were times when Clara came through as somewhat head-in-the-clouds and a bit annoying to me. I mean, how does a grown woman not know anything about the financials of her family? Seriously? Highly irritating to me. I didn’t hate her or anything, and I sympathized with her loss, though her behavior as a result was pretty out there. She went through different stages of loss, and I felt by the end of the novel she made a lot of progress. Essentially, she was plagued by doubts, while Nick kept reaffirming his love for his wife and family though his behavior was questionable in the light of the truth.
Plot: I’d say the story was composed of two perspectives, Clara’s and Nick’s. The two stories tackled two different timelines, one leading to the accident, and another one leading from it. Both stories were full of tension and thrilling in their own ways, and the combination made for a very interesting experience. The tempo felt overall slow at times, and because the situations themselves were sad or unpleasant, it made me feel like I wanted us to move faster from this or that point.
Writing: First person, present tense narrative, his and her POV. I liked Nick’s voice better, it seemed more down-to-earth and easier to relate to for me.
Curb Appeal: Cool cover, hooking blurb – and autobuy name for my experimental, dramatic-craving moods.

Every Last Lie is a touching, at times annoying, always tense story of a family struck by tragedy. It’s an interesting perspective on loss, surviving day-to-day life and responsibilities, and dealing with reality in all its forms. I recommend it to fans of dramatic and tragic stories, but I do advise caution in going in: it takes a lot of strength, I think, to embark on this journey and keep going until the end. It’s an emotional roller-coaster and by the end of it I felt emotionally drained. I think it was the most emotionally exhausting Mary Kubica read for me, and she only does intense stuff to begin with.

Remarkably underwhelming, Every Last Lie tells the story of one young mother as she seeks the truth about her husband's death. After her 4 year old daughter begins to share mysterious details about his car crash, Clara desperately searches for meaning behind his death. Unfortunately Kubica fans will see, long before the protagonist, that this story is going nowhere. While her writing is, as usual, full of character, Every Last Lie ultimately falls flat - developing mediocre tensions that leave the reader vastly unmoved.

Every Last Lie is a standalone suspense/mystery thriller.

The book alternates chapters between Clara (28 year old mother of two small children) and Nick (her husband). Clara's chapters take place in the present. And Nick's chapters take place a few weeks before.

The book begins with Nick being in a car accident. We find out how Clara deals with everything to do with her husband and the accident. We get Nick's perspective in alternating chapters. But his chapters start a few weeks before the accident and move forward till the night of the car crash.

This was a very interesting way to tell the story. Clara finds out so much about her husband that she did not know. And we find out a lot from Nick's chapters too.

I thought that both Clara and Nick were very interesting characters. Clara was pretty much a mess dealing with the accident, a new baby and another child. Plus there was a lot going on with her parents. I liked how the author let us piece together the full story bit by bit. Nick was also compelling. At times I wasn't sure whether to love him or hate him. But I liked how his chapters gave us a much better insight into the story.

The book definitely got very exciting towards the end. And I could not turn the pages fast enough, as I was desperate to find out what had happened to cause the car crash.

To me the ending is everything. And while I found the last lines of the book to be perfection I am not sure if I was completely satisfied with the rest of the ending. We did get a lot of answers and that made me happy. But I still had a few questions that I wish had been addressed. But overall a good mystery.

Some of us are old enough to remember the commercials and advertisements with the slogan, ‘Maybe she’s born with it; Maybe it’s Maybelline.’ The idea behind that old sales pitch is that ‘real’ can be disguised. Truth can be hidden behind some cosmetic applications. In Every Last Lie, Clara Solberg finds out just what cover ups can do when applied to a flesh and blood reality.

Clara’s son Felix is just four days old when her husband dies. Nick had taken their four-year-old daughter Maisie to a dance class and been picking up Chinese for dinner. It was a thoughtful act; he had called home and realized Clara was far too tired to cook. But rather than a dad and daughter with takeout it is a policeman that next walks through the door. Dreadful words fall from his lips: an accident, so sorry for her loss, she needs to come to the hospital. Amazingly, Maisie is unharmed by the crash that took Nick’s life; or at least, that’s what the authorities tell Clara. But within days of the fateful accident, the little girl starts having night terrors. She begins to cry out in her sleep, “It’s the bad man, Daddy. The bad man is after us.” Told by the police that Nick’s death had been caused by his driving too fast, her increasingly agitated daughter makes Clara question what really happened when her husband’s car met a tree head on.

Within days, and while Clara is still pondering what to do regarding Maisie’s nightmares, Nick’s secrets slowly start being exposed. The receipt for an expensive necklace is found in his underwear drawer but Clara had not received any jewelry from him. A close friend explains he had been laid off from Nick’s company due to financial difficulties Clara knew nothing about. Exhausted and overwhelmed by agonizing grief, Clara finds herself sinking down a rabbit hole. Realizing that what she once believed was reality was in fact just a clever façade, she wonders if investigating what happened the day of the accident will bring her answers, or just leave her with more questions. Only one thing is certain; the man she loved, the man she thought she knew so well was, in many ways, a stranger to her.

The story of Nick and Clara is told from both their viewpoints. We follow Nick in his last months of life, as he wrestles with the many things he is trying to keep hidden from Clara and the many reasons why. We follow Clara as she slowly investigates Nick’s death and the days and weeks leading up to it. Kubica is the queen of flawed characters, showing us a husband and wife whose exhaustion and struggles have lead them to some dark places. She reveals a relationship where the love is real but the people involved fear exposing too much of who they are. And ultimately we are forced to ask the questions, do we really want to know everything about our significant other? Does marriage end their right to privacy? Or ours?

Kubica does an excellent job of capturing the postnatal experience from the perspective of the mother. After the first few pages I was ready to take a sympathy nap, remembering well the exhaustion that accompanies being the caretaker of both a newborn and a toddler. The mental fuzziness, the emotional rollercoaster - they all came back to me as I turned the pages. I couldn’t imagine Clara’s torment as grief was added to that and then as that grief was intensified and confounded by the exposed secrets. The author invites us into Clara’s dark place and the invitation is so enticing it is impossible to say no to - but there are times you’ll wish you had.

Perhaps that wish is part of what kept this from being an A-grade read for me. Being inside the mind of someone who is exhausted and beleaguered was at times deeply uncomfortable. This is a woman completely overwhelmed - her mother has dementia, she fears her father is doing too much and dying as a result, she has a cranky infant and a traumatized toddler, financial troubles, a dead husband and a home that is breaking down around her. Just reading about her was incredibly wearying and I couldn’t envision how awful the life of a real Clara would be. Wait, I take that back - I could because I lived it with her page by page. I don’t know if it was because the author did such a good job of making these characters real to me or simply because I could relate to a young, exhausted mother but I became more obsessed by what was going to happen to her - how would she earn a living, take care of the kids, deal with the house - than what the tale was about. The past, the car crash and the marriage to Nick might have been the primary focus of the story but what occupied my mind was the present and future. The bills that needed to be paid and the home that needed to be made for two very vulnerable children. As a result, the book was less thriller for me and more women’s fiction tale about a struggling mom. The mystery is good, don’t get me wrong, but concern about the characters may very well draw your attention from it.

I think Every Last Lie will appeal to readers looking less for suspense and more for a cerebral yet emotional conundrum. The flawed characters, their very bumbling, human solutions to their problems, and their difficult relationships will draw your sympathy, frustration and admiration. You’ll find yourself challenged by trying to figure out just what happened and is continuing to happen. You may not be engrossed but you will be intrigued, which leads me to give the book a recommendation to those readers who enjoy spending time in dark places and tough spots.

Clara Solberg's life gets turned upside down when her husband and their four year old daughter, Maisie are in a car crash. Her husband, Nick, had taken Maisie to her ballet practice, picked up Chinese food and was on his way home when his car hit a tree, killing Nick but leaving Maisie unharmed.

Clara is not willing to believe that her husband's death is accidental. Her daughter is having nightmares about a bad man being after them. A bad man who may have been following then that tragic night. Clara, who has recently given birth to the couple's second child is sleep deprived and full of grief. She is fueled by the need to know the circumstances surrounding her husband's death.

This book is told through both Nick and Clara's point of view/perspectives. Through Clara's POV the reader gets a glimpse on how she is coping with her husband's death and the "truths" she uncovers surrounding her husband, his dental practice, their finances and his relationships with others. Through Nick's perspective, we see a man hiding secrets from his wife. He's not a bad guy. He is a man who wants to protect his wife from feeling stress while she is pregnant, so he is not forthcoming with the truth. Nick plans to come clean - to tell her everything. He just never seems to find the time to sit her her down and tell her everything. He also makes decisions without his wife's knowledge. What will happen when she finds out the truth? How will he dig himself out of the hole he has dug?

What really worked for me was the alternating perspectives of Nick and Clara. This book was a fast easy read which kept my attention the entire time. Kubica kept the plot, secrets and revelations coming at a very good pace. I had to keep reading to find out what lies and what truths would be revealed. As the story progresses, the book turns into a page turner as the truth finally comes out. Clara and the reader eventually learn the truth about Nick's accident.

This is a good book for those who enjoy a good mystery/thriller without an graphic scenes/language/gore, etc.

I received a copy of this book from Harlequin/Park Row books and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Another great thriller by Mary Kubica! I read it nearly all in one sitting.

I have loved Mary Kubica's preious books and this one didn't disappoint. I felt for Clara trying to deal with all of the things that were thrown at her at once. I didn't like that there were quite a few loose ends when the story was finished that I would have like to have had sewn up nicely but were not. Like what happened with Izzy? What happened to all of the money that Nick had won gambling? How was Clara going to survive and care for two small children? I guess it's a make your own conclusion for those questions left unanswered.

RELEASE DATE: June 27, 2017

RATING: 2 Stars Four hours of my life I’ll never get back…

GENRE: Mystery/Suspense

AUDIENCE: Fans of previous Mary Kubica novels will enjoy “Every Last Lie”.

SERIES: Standalone

REVIEW: First of all, let me just say “no”. No, I didn’t enjoy this book. No, I won’t be recommending it to anyone. No, I didn’t finish it. I understand that this is not a popular view of a novel other readers seem to be raving over, but so be it.

Clara is married to dentist Nick, and together they are raising toddler Maisie and newborn son, Felix. Clara has her hands full with two small children, and Nick is wholly preoccupied with his struggling dental practice. While on the way home with Maisie, Nick is in a fatal car accident and Clara’s world is shattered.

Clara sinks into a world-class depression, enmeshed in weird goings on like the receipt for a necklace that Nick purchased shortly before he died. Who was it for? Why didn’t she have a clue what was going on with his struggling practice, which was doing much worse than she had been led to believe? Why are Maisie’s nightmares laced with memories of a bad man that’s going to get Daddy? Why did Nick let his life insurance policy lap….?

This could have been a good story, but too many ridiculous circumstances had me rolling my eyes in frustration and dismay. Clara had way too many issues going on for me to get emotionally involved. Brand new baby and precocious toddler are a handful. Dead husband adds to the stress. Elderly father and mother suffering from dementia also add to the pile of crappola Clara is dealing with. Then, she has to add to her own suffering by digging when she should have just said, “You know, I have enough shit on my plate that I do NOT need to dig into my husband’s old shit.” Did she tell herself that? No, she dug. Sigh...

I enjoy books with sympathetic characters and fast-paced suspense, but this just didn’t cut it for me. There was a point, probably half way through the book, when I just kept thinking that Clara had to tell poor Maisie that her father was gone. Next chapter, maybe…nope. That poor child was dragged along an entire book before being told the truth by her mother about why Daddy wasn’t coming home. Really?! I’m not buying what Kubica is trying to sell here.

*I am very appreciative to Netgalley and Park Row Books for an ARC.