By: Mary Kubica
Narrator: Andi Arndt
Harlequin Audio
ISBN: 978-0778308065
Publisher: Park Row
Publication Date: 04/02/2024
Format: Other
My Rating: 5 Stars + ARC)
APR #AuthorElevatorSeries Q&A
An ICU nurse accidentally uncovers a patient’s frightening past in this chilling thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Local Woman Missing and Just the Nicest Couple.
Meghan Michaels is trying to find balance between being a single mom to a teenage daughter and working as a full-time nurse.
While on duty at the hospital one day, a patient named Caitlin arrives in a coma with a traumatic brain injury, having jumped from a bridge and plunging over twenty feet to the train tracks below.
But when a witness comes forward with shocking details about the fall, it calls everything they know into question. Was Caitlin pushed and if so, by whom and why?
Meghan has always tried to stay emotionally detached from her patients, but this time, she mistakenly lets herself get too close until she’s deeply entangled in Caitlin’s and her family’s lives. Only when it’s too late, does she realize that she and her daughter could be the next victims.
Look for these other pulse-pounding thrillers by New York Times bestselling author Mary Kubica:
The Good Girl
Pretty Baby
Don't You Cry
Every Last Lie
When the Lights Go Out
The Other Mrs.
Local Woman Missing
Just the Nicest Couple
About the Author
Photo by Sarah Jastre
Mary Kubica is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of nine suspense novels, including THE GOOD GIRL, PRETTY BABY, DON’T YOU CRY, EVERY LAST LIE, WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT, THE OTHER MRS., LOCAL WOMAN MISSING, JUST THE NICEST COUPLE, and SHE'S NOT SORRY (April 2, 2024).
Mary is a former high school history teacher with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and American literature from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She lives outside of Chicago with her husband and two children.
A former high school history teacher, Mary holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in History and American Literature. She lives outside of Chicago with her husband and two children.
Mary’s novels have been selected as Amazon Best Books of the Month and have been LibraryReads selections. They’ve been translated into over thirty languages and have sold over three million copies worldwide. She’s been described as “a helluva storyteller,” (Kirkus Reviews) and “a writer of vice-like control,” (Chicago Tribune), and her novels have been praised as “hypnotic” (People) and “thrilling and illuminating” (Los Angeles Times). She is currently working on her next novel.
Connect with Mary:
Exceptional Authors. Standout Books. Elevator Talk.
INTRIGUING QUESTIONS. INQUIRING READERS WANT TO KNOW.
"Behind the Book & The Author"
With New York Times Bestselling
Author Mary Kubica
Welcome to the April 2024 #AuthorElevatorSeries —and joining us for the third time, a personal and fan favorite, special guest New York Times bestselling author Mary Kubica with her ninth novel — highly anticipated thriller and best yet, SHE'S NOT SORRY.
Join us as Mary shares some fascinating behind-the-scenes exclusives from the book and up-close and personal fun moments from this award-winning author!
Welcome Mary!
Behind the Book
Q. Give us your best ELEVATOR PITCH for SHE’S NOT SORRY.
MK: An ICU nurse, Meghan Michaels, is tasked with caring for a patient who arrived at the hospital unconscious after a suspected suicide attempt – it’s believed she jumped from a bridge. Over the next few days, Meghan finds herself getting unintentionally close to the patient’s family but, as she does, it starts to become evident that this patient may not have jumped from the bridge, but was pushed. Now Meghan wonders if she’s let herself get close to the wrong people and, in doing so, put herself and her teenage daughter in jeopardy.
Q. INSPIRATION: The spark that ignited the novel (or series). Where were you when the idea came to you?
MK: This one is hard to answer without giving too much away, but the twist came to me first and then I built the story around it. That’s almost never the way it happens for me; generally, I start with some mystery that needs solving, like the missing mother and child in Local Woman Missing, and then I solve it with my characters as I’m writing, figuring out the twist along the way. With She’s Not Sorry, it was a much different writing experience, since I went into it knowing how the book would end, but having to figure out how to get my story there.
Q. SETTING: Tell us more about the book setting and why you selected it.
MK: She’s Not Sorry is set in Chicago, which is home to me and the place where I set the vast majority of my books. It’s such a diverse city with so many wonderful areas to explore that I never feel like my settings are redundant. In this book, it’s winter and there is a man on the streets attacking women at random, which adds to the atmosphere. Much of the book also takes place in a hospital’s ICU and I’ve seen many reviews mention the creepy hospital setting and how much they enjoyed it - that’s something I love to hear!
Q. RESEARCH: Any fascinating medical research for the novel, or anything you learned along the way?
MK: My protagonist, Meghan Michaels, is an ICU nurse, which required a significant amount of research, not just in medical jargon (which I try to keep to a minimum because I don’t want to bore or overwhelm the reader with that), but in what daily life is like for a nurse, what the interactions with patients and visitors are like and more. I did plenty of research on my own, but I’m also fortunate enough to have a number of nurses in my life who I relied on for information and as early readers to catch any medical mistakes I made.
Q. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: Your favorite character to write, and/or most challenging?
MK: Meghan is a wonderful character who I greatly enjoyed writing. She’s a mother of a teenage daughter, as am I, and so I found her very relatable and I think readers will too. I felt like I knew her well right out of the gate, which is rare, and loved developing her as a warm, generous and supportive person, yet the kind of woman who will do anything to protect herself and her family when necessary.
Now, for more up close and personal with Mary!
Behind the Author
BIRTH STATE?
Illinois
CURRENT STATE?
Illinois
ZODIAC SIGN?
Pisces
FAVORITE THING ABOUT WHERE YOU RESIDE?
My family is here
FAVORITE COLOR?
Gray
MORNING/NIGHT PERSON?
Morning
FAVORITE HOLIDAY OR SEASON?
Halloween
FAVORITE TV SERIES? (Or Movie/Video) binge-watch, series, etc.?
The Killing
MOST MEMORABLE PLACE YOU HAVE TRAVELED?
Slovakia
YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO WRITE?
At home alone
IF YOU COULD ELIMINATE ONE THING FROM YOUR DAILY LIFE, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Making dinner
HOW DO YOU RELAX?
Running or yoga
YOUR FAVORITE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM? (Or would you prefer none of them)?
HOW MANY BOOKS HAVE YOU WRITTEN?
9
NAME A TRAIT YOU INHERITED FROM YOUR DAD OR MOM. (Good or bad)
Good navigational skills from my dad
WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT? (Excluding computer, tablet, phone)
My slippers
THE ONE THING YOU’VE LEARNED YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT IN A QUARANTINE?
Friends
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE REMEMBERED FOR?
Being kind
WHAT ARE EARLIER JOBS YOU HAD BEFORE BECOMING AN AUTHOR?
Plenty of retail jobs when I was a teenager, a catering job in college, followed by working as a paralegal and a high school teacher after college
ICE CREAM: CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA?
Chocolate
FIRST CAR?
Honda Civic
GO TO A PARTY OR A QUIET EVENING AT HOME?
Quiet evening at home
AT WHAT AGE DID YOU CONSIDER BECOMING A WRITER?
My first book was published when I was 36, but I’ve been writing since I was 12 or 13
NAME SOMETHING YOU FEAR.
Enclosed spaces
IF YOU COULD GIVE YOUR YOUNGER SELF WISE ADVICE, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Stop caring so much what other people think
YOUR FAVORITE AGE (in your life)?
My thirties
IF YOUR FOOD IS BAD AT A RESTAURANT, DO YOU SAY SOMETHING?
Definitely not
WHAT ARE YOU FREAKISHLY BAD AT?
Singing
Thank you, Mary, for spending time with us today!
Praise
“The bestselling Kubica’s latest thriller is her best one yet, with multiple twists and unreliable characters that will hold readers until the nail-biting end… Kubica is a mastermind of fast-paced stories and complex characters that readers can immediately invest in and relate to.” —Library Journal, starred review
“Twisty, addictive, and bingeable… This suspense-thriller will fully engage readers and leave them guessing until the very end.”
—Booklist, starred review
"A twist is expected in any Kubica novel, and this one is pretty successful... Interrogates and exposes the everyday fears that women face—while still checking all the thriller boxes."
—Kirkus Reviews
"Mary Kubica has done it again—she's created a tense, compelling thriller that's a study in unreliability and that surprises the reader with believable but completely gasp-worthy twists. I was so absorbed, I read it in a single sitting!"
—Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid and The Mystery Guest
"A dark and suspenseful thriller with delicious twists and compelling characters. Cunningly constructed, this is a multilayered story that will hook you from the start, tapping into every parent's darkest fears. It will keep you guessing until the end."
—Alice Feeney, New York Times bestselling author of Rock Paper Scissors
"She's Not Sorry is Mary Kubica's twistiest tale yet. Complete with a clinically creepy hospital setting and an entire cast of characters you cannot trust, every page is steeped in a sense of deep, debilitating dread. This book gave me whiplash with the sheer number of twists."
—Stacy Willingham, New York Times bestselling author of A Flicker in the Dark
Join Mary on her 2024 Book Tour!
Interviews with Mary!
WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT (2018)
JUST THE NICEST COUPLE (2023)
My Review
NYT Bestselling author (a favorite), queen of suspense, and master storyteller Mary Kubica returns following Just the Nicest Couple with her ninth novel and best yet, SHE'S NOT SORRY.
This atmospheric, exhilarating, mind-bending, plot-and character-driven psychological/medical/crime/domestic thriller— with multiple twists and turns, two storylines, and unreliable characters, will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final jaw-dropping, intense climax!
Get ready for a WILD, clever ride where no one is as they appear!
Set in Chicago in the winter, Meghan Michaels, a single mom and an ICU nurse at the local hospital, is caring for a patient (Caitlin Beckett), age thirty-two, who has been brought in unconscious and is now in a coma after a suspected suicide attempt.
They think she jumped from a pedestrian bridge over the train tracks. She narrowly missed the train tracks and landed somewhere between them on the rocks. She was lucky to be alive. Meagan also has experienced suicide in her family (her younger sister).
Was it suicide, or was it murder? Will she wake up to tell the truth?
Meghan usually does not get too emotionally invested with her patients; however, the patient's family opens up to her, and then they find out she may have been pushed, not committed suicide, after a witness comes forward.
It is in the nature of nurses to be compassionate, and the two things (detachment and compassion) are at odds with one another.
Megan is also a mother to her teenage daughter, Sienna. Things are tense in the city as a killer is on the loose attacking women. In a walkable city like Chicago, darkness lurks around every corner, from alleys, derelict buildings, and creepy parking lots to the L/train/subway/Red Line and the strong sense someone is following her.
Meghan becomes afraid of everyone around her as sinister things happen at home and the hospital surrounding this woman. Who is the creepy man visiting Catlin? What is going on with her daughter? The parents are worried about someone getting into Caitlin's room that shouldn't be there. But what if the danger is already inside?
Meghan becomes entangled in Caitlin's life, family, and mystery. However, the closer she gets, the more danger she puts herself and her daughter in.
What happened on the bridge? Someone isn't telling the truth. Mix in a kidnapping, an old friend at a divorce support group, domestic abuse, murder, an ex, a serial killer on the loose, an ex-con, mysterious envelopes, and so much more.
Wow! Kubica is a master of suspense like no other, ratcheting up the suspense while juggling complex characters you can relate to, placed in high-stakes situations with moral complexity.
You will never guess how the storylines will converge. Ample plausible twists, well-developed characters, riveting suspense, and a fast-paced plot make this a superb thriller. The scenes in the basement and the hospital room were heart-pounding!
SHE'S NOT SORRY is a dazzling, knock-out, nail-biting, unputdownable psychological/medical thriller. It combines a multi-layered plot, murder, unreliable narrators, and gripping suspense—unpredictable!
Compelling and terrifying, Kubica fans will devour! Fans of Freida McFadden, the late author Michael Palmer (medical thrillers), and his son Daniel will appreciate the impressive medical research.
Mary's brilliant signature style keeps you on your toes, and her impressive lineup of hit titles keeps you returning for more. She is the master of this genre and one of my favorite authors. I have read all her books and anxiously await the next. It seems only yesterday I read her debut, which was ten years ago, and she keeps getting better, if possible!
Thriller lovers, get this on your spring TBR list! Top books of 2024! Be prepared to burn some serious midnight oil!
Stay tuned for my #AuthorElevatorSeries Q&A (pub day) with Mary as we go behind the book and this mega-talented superstar author.
Thanks to Park Row Books and NetGalley for a digital advanced reading copy. I look forward to the audiobook narrated by the fabulous Andi Arndt.
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars +
Top Books of 2024
Pub Date: April 2, 2024
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