Jill Is Not Happy

By: Kaira Rouda

ISBN: 978-1613166765

Publisher: Scarlet

Publication Date: 6/10/2025

Format: Other

My Rating: TBR (pre-ordered)

JUN 2025 MUST-READ BOOKS

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An ill-fated road trip resurrects a married couple’s darkest secrets in this new thriller from the USA Today bestselling author of Best Day Ever and The Next Wife.

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.

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Praise

"Mix one part family dynamics and Rouda’s trademark dark humor, and you get the heady cocktail that is Jill Is Not Happy. A revenge thriller at its best, who knew til death do us part was so literal for some people? A clever spin on the glue that keeps marriages together, I devoured this in one sitting."

― Kimberly Belle, USA Today and internationally bestselling author of The Paris Widow

"I love everything Kaira Rouda writes and Jill Is Not Happy is no exception. Jill isn’t just not happy, she’s creepy!"

― Robyn Harding, bestselling author of The Haters

"No one crafts a character quite like Kaira Rouda. In Jill is Not Happy, Rouda brings us Jill Tingley, a wife with a seemingly perfect life―and a sinister agenda. As Jill and her husband embark on a road trip, dark secrets unravel and the journey becomes a wickedly suspenseful game of cat and mouse. Readers will be captivated by Rouda’s signature blend of charm and chilling suspense."

― Liv Constantine, New York Times bestselling author of The Next Mrs. Parrish

About the Author

Kaira Rouda is an award–winning, USA Today and Amazon Charts bestselling author of contemporary fiction that explores what goes on beneath the surface of seemingly perfect lives. Her novels of domestic suspense include The Widow, Somebody’s Home, The Next Wife, The Favorite Daughter, Best Day Ever, All the Difference. Her latest, Beneath the Surface, has been optioned for a feature film. Her next novel, Under the Palms, is out in May 2024, followed by The Next Mrs. Strom in August 2024, and Only the Nanny in November 2024. To date, Kaira’s work has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Three of her novels have been named Amazon Editor’s Picks for Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense. The Next Wife was named a Suspense Magazine’s Best Book of 2021 Award, and a 2022 Silver Falchion for Best Suspense Novel and a 2022 Silver Falchion first runner-up for Best Book of the Year.

She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, Women’s Fiction Author Association, and the International Thriller Writers Association. She served as a committee chair for the Edgar Awards 2024, and frequently appears on panels at conferences across the country. Active in the areas of homelessness, food security, and empowering women and girls, in her twenties, as a volunteer, she created the first walk-in emergency shelter for homeless families in Central Ohio. Kaira has received numerous awards for her community service, including the national Kiwanis Service to Mankind Award, the Ohio Sertoma Service to Mankind Award, and Kick Ass Woman of Orange County by Orange Coast Magazine. Kaira was appointed by Governor Gavin Newsome to the California Volunteers commission. Kaira lives in Southern California with her family. WEBSITE