2.5 stars | What a book. For me it didn't worked as a thriller or mystery book at all because I was constantly annoyed by Emily Firestone. Her name is as stupid as her decisions. I don't blame her because it was for her and her mind an extreme situation but it made the plot redicilous and predictable. Halfway through I knew how this would end (I have to admid that there has been one tiny surprise). Emily being bipolar didn't felt like an extra, more like a plot element and this, I think, was the biggest mistake Jacobs could do. There is nothing wrong with an unreliable protagonist, this can be extremly intriguing.
If the ending would have been able to surprise me I would have given this book 3 stars. There were moments, which were really good written. For example the scenes between Cal and Emily where they talk about grief and try to process their loss: such a strong, emotional moment!

Wow! I read this one quick! Lots of suspense in this one! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Thanks NetGalley!

After years of learning how to manage her bipolar disorder, Emily Firestone finally has it under control. She's got a great job, her own place, and a boyfriend, Paolo, who adores her. So when Paolo suggests a weekend sailing trip, Emily agrees. But when Emily wakes the morning after, the boat is still adrift... and Paolo is gone.
A strong swimmer, there's no way Paolo drowned, but Emily is at a loss for any other explanation. Where else could he have gone? And why? As the hours and days pass by, each moment marking Paolo's disappearance, Emily's hard-won stability begins to slip.
But when Emily uncovers evidence suggesting Paolo was murdered, the investigation throws her mania into overdrive, even as she becomes a person of interest in her own personal tragedy. To clear her name, Emily must find the truth - but can she hold onto her own sanity in the process?

Really great read, started off slow at first but picked up after the first few chapters. I found myself relating a lot to Emily’s character, she just seemed real. The suspense definitely builds up as the story unravels but I loved it, the feeling of needing to know the whole story, that itching feeling to get through the whole book, I haven’t felt that in a while. Again, this was a great read, definitely recommend.

Wow, oh WOW! I loved this book. I had a hard time putting this book down. I actually thought I had figured out a different ending. Emily is a child psychologist. She is enjoying time on a boat with her wonderful boyfriend. They spend the night on the boat, and when she wakes up, he is gone. Emily doesn't accept that he drowned, so she searches for answers. Emily becomes a suspect and must clear her name. A great read!

This was the kind of read that keeps you on the edge of your seat. I really liked the main character Emily; she has flaws, but that only made her more relatable. I also liked her because even though she was dealing with many problems at once I didn’t feel as if she pitied herself the whole time.

I couldn’t put this book down and read it in two nights because I had to find out what happened. I was completely hooked from the first page to last page. I would definitely read more of R.J. Jacobs’s books in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Publishers for letting me read this book in exchange for a review. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This book was good, but predictable. I read it in two days (70% in the first day, might I add), only because I started it late and didn't plan on the beginning being as good as it was. I think I made it about 60% through before figuring out the ending (but of course you can't just STOP once you figure out the end; you have to follow through and make sure you're right!). The writing was good; it was easy to follow, even when talking about the science stuff. There were errors though (I think. I may have read it wrong and not followed along well). So unfortunately, even though the writing itself was good, this book only gets ⭐⭐⭐. Better luck next time, Mr. Jacobs!

And Then You Were Gone by R.J. Jacobs. I was given an advanced copy by Netgalley for an honest review, which I will now give. I was pleasantly surprised as I read this book to see how much I actually enjoyed it. I wasn't expecting much going in as I haven't read anything from this author before, but I am here to tell you this book grabbed me from the start and never let me go! The main character Emily is fighting her own battle with her own mental health issues at the same time trying to overcome obsticles that keep coming her way. (Sorry I can't tell you The obsticles...I don't want to ruin it for you. ) The writing is very tight and keeps the reader engaged as well as intrigued to what is happening next!!! I highly recommend this book! It's an excellent choice for a.thriller/action-packed read.
#AndThenYouWereGone #Netgalley

The synopsis of this psychological thriller completely lured me in, and I had really high expectations for this book. Unfortunately, I didn’t end up enjoying it as much as I thought I would (although I didn’t end up hating it, either.) I guess I just felt sort of neutral about it.

The premise of the story has a lot of potential: a couple goes sailing and one of them goes missing while the boat is still adrift. The main character, Emily, who suffers from bipolar is accused of murder when evidence points to foul play. Emily has to fight to keep her bipolar under control while proving she's innocent. There's also the fear of an H1-N24 outbreak occurring every two years (a disease Emily's father contracted and died from) lurking in the background of the story.

It all sounds like the ingredients for a gripping page turner, right? Unfortunately, the story lost me with its execution. The beginning was slow, the middle sort of dragged (even though there were a lot of dramatic twists), and the ending was very confusing. I reread the last chapter and the epilogue several times, but I still have questions about Paolo (the person who went missing.)
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Disclaimer: I received an advanced reading copy from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this book. A main character who isn’t perfect, with so many twists that I could hardly keep up and there was no chance I was going to guess the ending. Actual character development, with all the side characters fleshed out enough that you care about them as well. This is a thoroughly good book that I’ll be recommending to some of my regular customers.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review,

This book has a good story line and addresses some mental heath issues. It is a thriller and I don’t believe is supposed to do that but it does. You go through the ups and downs with Emily after they set sail and she finds Pablo murdered. I definitely recommend reading.

And Then You Were Gone kept me guessing until the end. While the beginning is a little slow hold on because the story picks up and is nonstop from there! R.J. Jacobs did an excellent job describing Emily's inner dialogue. As the story progressed I could feel her manic behavior while reading. It was like my own mind was racing along with her.

A couple of side notes: I loved the cover and the epilogue at the end!

Rating-3/5 Stars
Emily has bipolar disorder, but she tends to manage it with medicine and lives a pretty normal life. She has a handsome boyfriend and works as a psychologist with children.
One day, her boyfriend convinces her to sleep on a sailboat with him. When she wakes up, he is gone and no where to be found. The police either think she killed him in a rage or he somehow drowned.
But, Emily does not think he is dead or drowned. What could have happened to him though?
I really love the concept of this book and I thought it had a good start of a foundation for an amazing book. I found this one to run flat though. There was really no anticipation or oh my gosh moments. It felt mundane. I enjoyed reading through Emily’s perspective and seeing her go from great to terrible, back to sane. But, the action and the pacing was just not doing it for me.

When Emily and her boyfriend Paolo decide to spend a night on the lake, things quickly take a turn for the worse when Emily wakes up to find Paolo is missing and she has zero memory of the night before. Even though the police have declared him dead, Emily cannot accept that this is what happened, and she decides to do a little investigating of her own. Due to lack of sleep and dealing with her bipolar, Emily becomes an unreliable narrator leaving the reader to question everything along the way.

This book was a decent read, but I never found myself reaching for it to find out what happens next. The author did a great job of depicting mental illness and it was a good psychological thriller, but I did find myself a little bored at times. It was a good debut from the author, and I will try more of his books in the future.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Although a bit slow in the beginning, this book quickly picked up steam into a fast-paced read. The protagonist’s bipolar disorder presented an interesting yet complicated perspective. If you like psychological thrillers, you’ll enjoy this book. Thank you to Net Galley and Crooked Lane Books for this eBook in exchange for my honest review!

<i>If you came with a warning label, what would it say about you?</i>

And Then You Were Gone was a great thriller if you are a fan of quick-paced novels with unreliable narrators. The book begins as Emily and her boyfriend, Paolo, go on a romantic overnight sailing trip to get away from the stress of their jobs. Emily is a child psychologist and Paolo is a scientist doing vaccine research. Waking up the next morning and ready to head back to shore, Emily can find Paolo nowhere on board the small boat. She steers the boat back to shore and immediately calls the police, who begin a search and then an investigation with Emily as the person of interest. The rest of the book is a whirlwind of Emily's struggle to cling to her sanity (literally, as she is bipolar) and to find out the truth. We hear Emily's inner dialogue, and it never seems that she wants to prove her innocence so much as she just wants to find out the truth behind Paolo's disappearance and her friend's death.

The author of the book, R.J. Jacobs, is actually a psychologist and has done work with veterans (one of the supporting characters in the book is a vet). I really enjoy and appreciate when authors are actually in the niche of the characters and/or plots that they write about. I feel that it helps the books feel so much more authentic. I think it gave much more to Emily's condition and to Cal's character as well. Plus it fed into the thriller vibes as well. The build and the timing were awesome. Emily was a perfectly unreliable narrator! All of that being said though, there were a couple inconsistencies or repetitions of text throughout the book that are relatively easy fixes I think. Too much about the not taking meds and counting down...I felt like she should have snapped already or whatever ticking timebomb should have happened would have happened. I either needed that to be clarified again, or I needed it to happen. It was just repeated so many timed without anything actually <i>happening</i> that I just got confused. Then her cane being lost and resurfacing then being back at a crime scene? A little oopsie there. If she was on probation, Who's checking in on her? Where did Marty go?

So those are my feelings. I thought the writing was good, the book was exciting, the pacing was pretty quick. Emily wasn't my favorite character but her unreliability was spot-on and was perfect for this book. With just a little more editing, this book could be brilliant.

I don't believe all main characters have to be likable, but as a reader, it's better when I can find something I an also relate to in them. I had a hard time with this main character in doing that. That being said, I did enjoy the read and the MC's issues actually kept me unsteady throughout, which once I got used to, I enjoyed.

And Then You Were Gone by RJ Jacobs was the perfect page turning thriller! I couldn't put this one down and never figured it out until it was revealed. Every twist had me surprised, and the climax was heart thumping and thrilling. I was enlightened by the author's detailed and seemingly educated (see RJ Jacobs' bio/career field) description of a person struggling with and working through her life with bipolar disorder. The little hint of a romantic storyline in this one didn't hurt either.

This book took a little while to warm up, but was most intriguing once it did. I think the most gripping thing was the fact the main character and narrator of the story is bipolar and doubts her own take on reality and the way her mind is processing information.
Emily is a psychologist battling her own demons who is asked on a boating holiday by her boyfriend Paolo, she reluctantly agrees even though unable to swim and being petrified of water. A sequence of events then takes place that has everyone including Emily doubting her sanity. As her fear grows so does her mania as she forgets her medication and sets about trying to find out what happened on the boat.
Who can she trust if she can't even trust herself?
A great read, thank you Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

And Then You Were Gone is a gripping psychological thriller filled with suspenseful twists and turns. Worth the read!

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley for a free copy of this upcoming book!
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When Emily wakes up on a boat alone, she knows something is wrong. Her boyfriend Paolo is missing. Being bipolar and the lack of evidence aboard, Emily is an automatic suspect. Not believing this is happening, Emily goes on her own private investigation of what happened to Paolo. But when other murders start happening, Emily knows she cannot stop until she knows the truth.
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What I loved: The plot line in general was well done. Not that the premise was new, but it was well written. Bipolar is not a mental disease usually done well in books. But not here. I felt that Jacobs wrote about a stereotyped disease well and though you may not like Emily, you could understand her angst. Because everything was an absolute battle for her.
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What I didn't: There is about 10% of the book that drags a bit. Keep it moving. Also, the twist wasn't a twist. It was totally guessable and that's coming a lot from me because I don't figure out many.
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Overall, this was a well written debut and I look forward to future books by R.A. Jacobs.