Release Date: June 10, 2025
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 & Reviews
“Nobody does twisty revenge like Kaira Rouda―and her trademark dark humor and deviously toxic characters are always deliciously entertaining. Fans of Freida McFadden will gobble up this pacey page-turner―and hope that someone like the uniquely unhappy Jill never crosses their paths. Kaira has done it again!”
~ Hank Phillippi Ryan, USA Today Bestselling Author
“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
“This tightly woven story is evocative and chilling and kept me compulsively reading until the clever, twisty end. You won’t want to miss this deliciously dramatic and suspense-filled thrill ride.”
~ Seraphina Nova Glass, Edgar Award-nominated author of On A Quiet Street
“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