This book is just great! Nice style, beautiful and meaningful descriptions and a story that has a message!
This was the first book I have read from Janelle Brown, but definitely not the last one. Important questions are raised in this novel about family issues that can happen to anyone (loss of a loved one, parental issues, dysfunctional marriage, problems at school, etc.). There are no "good ones" and "bad ones" here, only ordinary people, without bad intentions, who try to cope with their lives.
I found myself wondering what would I have done in a different way if I was in the place of Jonathan or - even though I am quite past that age - Olive. I was also happy to get to know Billie, whose personality and way of thinking became clear by the end of the story.
I think this novel can actually be a base for some productive discussion between family members, couples, or even friends. It is great how the author managed to write an interesting story, with unexpected twists, that is well paced, beautifully told, and - most importantly - makes you think!

Well paced missing person thriller with multiple surprise twists. Started slow but gained momentum quickly and kept my interest to the very end. Besides the thrills, the author does a great job of exploring social and relationship themes through well developed chararacters.

I did recommend this book as a book for reader advisory groups because it is thought provoking, however, the story dragged on and I was expecting a little more suspense.

Absolute roller coaster of a read! I am not sure where to start on this one as I do not want to give away too much of the story!
The book revolves around Olive, a young girl who has just lost her mother. Or has she? Olive starts having visions of her mother being alive and sets out on a mission to find the truth.
This book will have you laughing and crying often on the same page. You will want to 'disappear' into the pages until the finish. A great summer read for the beach.
Janelle Brown really has a way to tell a story and get readers to feel truly involved in the characters lives!

I received an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. I am used to fast paced thrillers with short chapters and an energy that keeps me wanting more. This book was the opposite of that - and it was refreshing. The story builds at a pace that is more realistic as a family investigates what happened with a family member that disappeared one day.

Many of the chapters were followed by chapters from a novel that one of the main characters was writing. It was an interesting juxtaposition to compare their current grief and characters attitudes to the reflection of the past.

The ending surprised me, and I can't wait to read more from this author!

Billie Flanagan is a seemingly happy wife and mom who disappears on a hike, leaving her grieving husband and daughter to mourn and question her death. They find our she was not the person they thought she was, leaving them even more confused and devastated. There are enough twists and turns to keep you guessing. Are any of us what we present to the world, or is there more than what we outwardly project? A most satisfying read!

The husband is always the last to know.

Billie is a restless soul, married to a lovely man who works around the clock to provide for his family and has a fifteen year daughter, Olive, who is naturally pulling away from her parents to establish her own identity and struggling with some pretty heavy issues.


Billie is also needy and constantly in search of center stage, something to add excitement and pulse to her mundane life as a trendy northern California housewife whose role as class mom is swiftly coming to an end. She is also a quintessential introvert, one that requires a decent amount of alone time to recharge.

Billie plans a solo hiking trip to a place in a place called Desolation Valley. When she fails to return home, she is declared dead and Jonathan and Olive must adjust to a life without her.

Jonathan decides to quit his job and write his and Billie’s love story but he is forced to face the possibility that their idyllic life was not at all as it seemed when facts about Billie’s past surface and the woman he married is called into question.

The husband is always the last to know.

Billie has been harboring several world rocking secrets, a few of them imparted to Jonathan by way of Billie’s best friend Harmony, a clingy woman who makes a very obvious play for Jonathan’s affections after Billie is out of the picture. In addition to this Olive has been having visions of her mother leading her on a quest to find her.

Watch Me Disappear is full of twists as the reader is led on a path to wanting to learn the truth about a very complex character and the truth about what happened to her. The pacing is even and suspense is built slowly till the final pages leading up to a satisfying finale.

BRB Rating: Read It

Billie- mother who went backpacking to have time alone along Pacific Coast Trail.
She never came back down- becoming classified "missing, presumed dead."

1 year later daughter, Olive and husband, Jonathon are still trying to live their lives.

Secrets are uncovered. Surprises are found.
Answers ...to leave or to die? ...

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview Watch Me Disappear.
Jonathan, Olive, and Bilie live in California - they are living a good life. Jonathan works as an IT guy, Olive attends a private school and is doing well, and Billie is a renagade mom who doesn't follow or live by the rules. All in all they have a good life. But Billie is restless and distant. She needs some alone time. One day, Billie goes on a hike and she never returns.
A year later, Jonathan is prepared to go to court to have Billie declared dead. One day, Olive starts to feel strange and gets and image of her mother telling Olive to "find her". The quest to find Billie begins, but in this search, Billie's life and past is disected by Jonathan. He starts to find that Billie was living a secret life and it is one he is not sure he wants to know about.
The book goes back and forth with Jonathan, Olive and Billie's POV. I like that type of writing as it lets you become engaged with the characters. This is a book about family secrets, reality, and the past and how it impacts personal dynamics. This is well written and I really liked the ending. Recommend.

This book started out slow, then really hooked me, then disappointed me at the end. Serious disappointment. I was completely hooked on the characters, and then the end left me feeling... blah. It was okay, not bad, but just blah.

Billie's boots found filled with water and sand.

I wanted to like it but this was like trying to read through water and sand, just moved too slow.

Billie--mother of Olive and wife to Jonathan--has been gone almost a year since she disappeared while hiking. Just before the court date to pronounce her dead, Olive begins having visions of her mother and thinks she is alive and in trouble.

The characters and story were interesting enough and the writing good, but the series of events and pieces of the puzzle, as they fell into place, didn't quite fit and left me unsatisfied.

Wow! What a great storyline! A woman's hiking shoe is found, but no body. A beloved mother and wife has gone in a solitary hike and is presumed dead. This is only the beginning. You will soon learn that no body is ever as they seem. Not a daughter, best friend, husband, or even anybody's past. While writing his memoirs of meeting his wife, a husband finds that the loving girl he married is not at all who he thought she was. Was she a dedicated mother or a terrorist? A faithful wife, or a cheat. A true friend, or enemy? Dead or alive. Incredible story, sure to keep you up reading till the last page. Sensational.
5 Stars

Wife and mother Billie Flanagan, disappears on a backpacking trip on the Pacific Crest Trail and is presumed dead. One year later, her husband Jonathan is waiting for the courts to issue a death certificate so that he can move one. Their daughter, Olive, isn’t so sure her mother is dead as she sees visions of Billie. Olive decides to search for her missing mother while her father begins to learn that his wife had some secrets from her past and starts to believe Olive. What a concept and it drew me in. I wanted to know about Billie’s secret past and whether she was alive or dead. The twists certainly has me surprised. I enjoyed this story but then I didn’t. It took me sometime after reading it and absorb to write my review. Can’t give away spoilers but I was deeply troubled by the end of the book.

Damn! When that's the last drawn out word uttered as you close a book, you know it's good. Janelle Brown pieces together the lives of this family with precision and expertise. Each character is flawed, human and reachable in their own right, and together make a family that's believable and unique. The plot twists and turns as you plunge and emerge once again, until the bitter end where you find yourself whispering "daayymmnn!"

This was an interesting missing person mystery. The cast of characters I did not find very likeable. At times the pace of the book was rather slow. However, it is a book I would recommend to those who are looking for an easy read mystery.

I can't say I heartily enjoyed this book, but it was entertaining. I'm not even quite sure what to say because it was a love/hate relationship. There are moments where I couldn't put it down and moments where I considered putting it down and never picking it back up. I understood that the author wanted to make a mystery, but it was to the point where the characters weren't consistent with themselves. I like the way it ended in a wrapped up package for the most part. Overall I liked it, but I probably wouldn't recommend it to any of my friends.

'Watch Me Disappear' had me riveted from page one. I found it to be a quick page-turner with complex characters and unexpected twists. While I thought I knew exactly where the book was headed, the ending surprised me twice. This is satisfying as both a family drama and a mystery, and will probably have a wide appeal. Well worth staying up late into the night to finish.