Mary Kubica has nothing to cry about...plus a book giveaway

Mary Kubica has been receiving a lot of acclaim ever since her debut novel, The Good Girl, was published in 2014. Her novels are suspenseful, but also have characters that are easy to sympathize with. Melissa A really enjoyed Mary's latest, Don't You Cry (reviewed here), which published today. Let's wish her a happy pub day and learn more about her main character Quinn's childhood. Thanks to Mira, we have one copy for a lucky reader!

Mary Kubica is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of THE GOOD GIRL and PRETTY BABY. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (where Melissa A's husband went to college), in History and American Literature, and lives outside of Chicago (close to where Melissa A and Melissa S grew up) with her husband and two children, where she enjoys photography, gardening and caring for the animals at a local shelter. Her first novel, THE GOOD GIRL, received a Strand Critics Nomination for Best First Novel and was a nominee in the Goodreads Choice Awards in Debut Goodreads Author and in Mystery & Thriller for 2014. She is currently working on her next novel. (Bio adapted from Mary's website.) 

Visit Mary at her website, Facebook, and Twitter.

Synopsis:
In downtown Chicago, a young woman named Esther Vaughan disappears from her apartment without a trace. A haunting letter addressed to My Dearest is found among her possessions, leaving her friend and roommate Quinn Collins to wonder where Esther is and whether or not she's the person Quinn thought she knew.

Meanwhile, in a small Michigan harbor town an hour outside Chicago, a mysterious woman appears in the quiet coffee shop where eighteen-year-old Alex Gallo works as a dishwasher. He is immediately drawn to her charm and beauty, but what starts as an innocent crush quickly spirals into something far more dark and sinister than he ever expected.

As Quinn searches for answers about Esther, and Alex is drawn further under Pearl's spell, master of suspense Mary Kubica takes readers on a taut and twisted thrill ride that builds to a stunning conclusion and shows that no matter how fast and far we run, the past always catches up with us in the end. (Courtesy of Goodreads.)



Thank you to Chick Lit Central for including DON’T YOU CRY on today’s blog. I love this theme of regression, and had so much fun diving into the inner psyche of a young Quinn Collins. In DON’T YOU CRY, Quinn is only twenty-three, not too far past her childhood days. She’s bridging that gap between the dependent teenage years and becoming an independent adult – recently graduated from college and living on her own for the first time in her life, in a dead end job she doesn’t like, learning financial responsibilities and navigating her way out into the world. She makes plenty of mistakes throughout the novel, but I hope readers will love her for her vulnerability nonetheless, and that they will see her personal growth through the pages of the book.

As a child:

What did your character want to be when they grew up?
Quinn suffers from a learning disability and doesn’t put much stake in her own intelligence. Her self-esteem is low, and though she tries to laugh it off and not let people think it bothers her, deep inside it does. I’m quite certain Quinn wouldn’t have had enough faith in herself to believe she could be a doctor or a lawyer or a teacher. She lacks ambition. As sad as it sounds, I don’t think that Quinn would not have striven to pursue a dream job, but more likely settled on that which she considered within her reach, mainly a menial position like the one she finds herself in in DON’T YOU CRY.

What was something your character found funny?
Her family. Though she pretends not to love her mother and father and younger sister, Madison, she absolutely does. They are a close knit family, and in it, Quinn is extremely loved and protected. It takes her struggles throughout DON’T YOU CRY to realize this, but her family is one thing as a child she would have adored, and the one place she was undeniably safe.

What was your character's favorite TV show?
Quinn certainly would have preferred comedies or a teen series laden with drama and gossip. She doesn’t take life too seriously; in fact, even after her roommate goes missing it takes some time until she realizes that she has a serious problem on her hands. Quinn would have gravitated to shows like One Tree Hill or Malcolm in the Middle as her favorite programs growing up.

What was your character's favorite food?
This is an easy one – pizza and popcorn! They’re two of her favorite foods even as a young adult, and Quinn makes it clear that one of the best parts of being independent is not having to eat the more healthful foods her mother would like for her to eat.

Who was your character's celebrity crush?
Zac Efron

What was your character's favorite thing to do?
Hang out with her friends. Quinn tends to be a social butterfly and, though socially awkward at times, having friends and that sense of belonging is so important to her both as a child and a young adult.

Thanks to Mary for chatting with us and to Mira for sharing her book with our readers.

DON'T YOU CRY is part of BookSparks' Summer Reading Challenge 2016!

How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here.


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Giveaway ends May 23rd at midnight EST.