Talk about a happy accident that these photos matched so perfectly!
JILL IS NOT HAPPY – Kaira Rouda (Released June 10th, 2025)
BALD-FACED LIAR – Victoria Helen Stone (Released June 17th, 2025)
JILL IS NOT HAPPY – Kaira Rouda (Released June 10th, 2025 – Thanks to MBC Books for the gifted copy)
Some secrets keep a couple together.
If you ask Jill Tingley, she’ll tell you she and her husband Jack are college sweethearts living the dream in Southern California. Wealthy, popular and genetically blessed, theirs is an enviable life, though they’ve grown distant in recent years. Newly empty nesting with their daughter Maggie away at college, Jill suggests a road trip to reconnect.
Jack would rather do anything else than drive to Utah with his wife. He’s only stayed in this marriage because of a shared secret, a tragedy in the past he wanted to keep buried. And for his daughter’s sake. But Jack is finished with the charade of his marriage. He’s filing for divorce as soon as they return, no matter what.But he doesn’t realize what else Jill is hiding.
So begins a cat-and-mouse road trip as a cunning wife—think Ripley in yoga pants—and a reluctant husband match wits and drive each other to the edge. But everything will be fine. Jill still loves Jack and believes he’s the only one for her. She’ll do anything to keep him. Anything. She always has.
My Thoughts: 3.5/5 stars – More road trip books! While this isn’t horror, I certainly loved the thriller aspects of it and still need more intense road trip books. Kaira Rouda never disappoints with her domestic suspense and thrillers. You know you’re for something twisty and intense! A cat and mouse ride with spouses trying to reconnect while keeping dark secrets from each other. Will they be able to make it through this road trip, and how far is Jill willing to go to keep her husband, Jack?
BALD-FACED LIAR – Victoria Helen Stone (Released June 17th, 2025 – Thanks to Kaye Publicity for the gifted copy)
Traveling nurse Elizabeth May has a promising new home in Santa Cruz. And another new identity. It’s a pattern of reinvention for a woman escaping her traumatic childhood—and hiding from the decades of notoriety and destruction that followed. Invisibility has kept Elizabeth safe. Until now. After all these years, someone sees her for who she is.
Threat by threat, a vengeful stalker is dismantling Elizabeth’s carefully constructed lifetime of lies. And no one in her temporary circle can be trusted—not her fleeting new love interest, not the supportive friend she knows only from online forums, and certainly not the police. They’ve never been there for her.
As fear sharpens to terror, Elizabeth soon discovers something about her past that even she didn’t know. The revelation could finally set her on a path of healing and redemption. Or, now alone in the dark, it could be Elizabeth’s worst nightmare.
My Thoughts: 3/5 stars – While this isn’t the darkest psychological suspense I’ve ever read, it really takes you for a ride! Quirky and funny at times to help balance out the stalking and paranoia – and what a stalker it was! I think this will be one that divides fans of the genre, not because of the plot or turns it takes, but because of the overall pacing. Some find it the unputdownable pace, and others find this to be a slow build. I fell happily and comfortably in the middle. More than enough to keep me captivated, and I never felt a lull. I love Stone’s other books, especially Jane Doe, and for fans of the author, you won’t be disappointed!
Jessicamap Reviews 