*4.5 stars*

A fast read that asks the question of what it means to be a hero and how heavy the world can weigh on a person before they reach the point of asking for help.

“What You Hide” begins at a crossroads for both Mallory and Spencer who find themselves questioning where they are in their lives and what the future may hold when they meet at the local library. After a few run ins and missed opportunities their new found friendship is confronted with mysterious happenings within the library walls and when a body is discovered they find themselves working to uncover just what they’re made of.

What I enjoyed most about this book is that at when you think a certain plot point is going to go in one direction it does a 180 and really forces the book to become something else and less cliché especially when dealing with these specific themes it could have easily gone off the rails into something we’ve seen a hundred times but with those few changes it really offered something fresh to the story.

I really loved the back and forth between our two leads as they have very different things happening in their lives and different upbringings to influence their perspective of the world but still manage to come together to offer that new insight into the others problems and that willingness to listen or to be a distraction made their entire journey so great to read.

The use of foreshadowing is done so well in this book with all of these subtle details that don’t really mean too much in the moment but on a larger scale provide perfect symbolism for Mallory’s story and what she was fighting for while trying to get her life on track for both herself and her growing family and just that little parallel speaks volumes and bookended this book perfectly and though it might not be as much as a thriller as one expects reading the synopsis it’s a very well done contemporary and that should be celebrated.

Also as a side note I have to thank this book for giving a fellow Ohioan a new restaurant to try!

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review!**