Cover Image: The Day I Disappeared

The Day I Disappeared

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Member Reviews

The Day I Disappeared is a twisty novel-a great end of summer read. Holly, a young women now in her mid twenties, was kidnapped when she was four years old-then returned a few months later unharmed. While a local handyman was convicted of the crime suspicion fell on her mother Cecily and this traumatic event shattered their family. Years later, more kidnappings with similarities to Holly's lead investigator Jason to contact her, thinking she can help. Holly, with gaps in her memory and dealing with her own demons, tries to stir echoes of the past in a race against time . Filled with many twists and turns, The Day I Disappeared is sure to delight the mystery lover!

Thank you you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

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Drew me right in a book with so many twists and turns.So wellwritten so tense kept me reading guessing late into the night.Highly recommend #netgalley#lakeunionpublishing

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4 stars. Holly was kidnapped as a child, but has no memory of it. Now twenty years later another little girl has gone missing. Holly can help solve the case if only she can remember the details of her own abduction.
The Day I Disappeared is told in alternating points of view between Holly and the thoughts of her mother, Cecily, who’s currently in a coma. Holly had sensed her mother knew more than she’s telling about what happened twenty years ago. What is Cecily keeping from Holly?
I had so much fun unraveling this creepy who-dunnit mystery, and was completely stumped. Suspicion and danger pointed all directions. I wanted to throw cuffs on most of the characters. When I thought I had it all figured out, I didn’t, then had to start over again. And wow did I love the big plot twist at the end! It’s a good quick read I highly recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing a free copy for review.

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The Day I Disappeared was a perfect end-of-summer read. It was a great blend of intrigue and mystery without being too heavy/dark. It was a REALLY quick read - I got through it in just a couple of days. And while it was a little bit predictable/surface level at times, it was a super fun page turner that left me wanting to find out what happened to the main character, Holly, and her mother.

I found myself suspecting EVERYONE throughout the story and constantly changed who I thought was the bad guy. There were a ton of twists and red herrings that will keep you on your toes!

The premise was actually surprisingly captivating (that can be hard to achieve with this genre), but I wish the author had spent more time really fleshing it out - some of the side plots felt rushed and the characters a little flat (looking at you, Kitten).

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would describe it as an entertaining, well-written read. However, I feel like it had the potential to be taken to a deeper level. I'd like to see more from this author!

3.75 stars

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I could not read this one because it never showed up on my Kindle. I'm sorry. I usually check that and make sure they are there but somehow overlooked this one. I sure wanted to read it too,

Thank you #NetGalley and #LakeUnion for the chance. I can't review because it never appeared.

I will give it 5/5 because that is only fair. I think!

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I loved this book! It was so nice to read a book, finally, that was so well written, kept my focus and left me happy to suffer the next day at work after staying up all night reading.
Three months after four-year-old Holly Gebhardt was kidnapped, she was inexplicably returned to the same park from which she’d vanished…with no memory of the ordeal. Though a local handyman was convicted, suspicion also fell on his friend—Holly’s mother, Cecily. The troubling doubts about her involvement shattered the family, forever driving a wedge between mother and daughter.
Twenty years later, another girl goes missing under eerily similar circumstances. It’s just the latest in a series of kidnappings that Detective Jason Guidry thinks Holly can help solve. Though Holly has tried to move on with her life, a young girl’s life hangs in the balance. All she has to do is try to remember…
With her memory still mostly blank, Holly is missing vital pieces of the puzzle, and she believes her mother can put them in place. In desperation and fear, Holly and her mother come together again. But in a chilling rush toward the past, Cecily still has secrets she’s yet to share with her daughter. Should she dare to breathe a word, she could lose Holly all over again.
#TheDayIDisappeared #NetGalley

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It took me a little while to get into this, and in the end it was a little predictable, and the ending was not my favorite, BUT, I did keep me engaged and up all night!

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As a child, Holly was kidnapped and returned home a few months later. She's an adult now, and has no memory of what happened during the time she was kidnapped. Twenty years later, another child is missing, and Holly may be able to help solve the case if she can remember her past.

Told with alternating points of view - Holly and her mother. Holly wants to know about her kidnapping, and her mother may know a lot more than she has led on.

A complex mother-daughter relationship and a suspenseful mystery. This was a fast-paced and entertaining thriller. Gripping and dramatic.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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It took me some time to get into the story of this book. Initially, I felt a bit lost over the plot but before the book hit the halfway mark, everything started to gel in together and from there onwards it was a compelling read. Told in the dual POV of Holly and her mother Cecily (who is in a coma after a road accident), this book has enough twists and turns to keep one guessing till the end. I definitely did not guess correctly who the actual culprit really was... sure wasn't the 2-3 people I had placed my suspicions on. Cecily's POV was the most interesting and her's was the character I liked best....she is complicated and flawed, having to live with the distrust of her own husband and community, who deemed her to be complicit in her own daughter's kidnapping and struggling with her own issues of alcoholism and depression and yet she is strong enough to be a lone warrior in her fight for the truth to be revealed.

My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher Lake Union Publishing and the author Brandi Reeds for the e-Arc of the book.

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I could not put this down, which has not been the case through much of this global pandemic. This was interesting and quick moving.

Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

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Missing (and returned) children stories always capture my interest, so I was excited to experience this novel - my first from this author. And going in, I had no idea that she was also a local to me author! It's always fun to read something that is set close to home (the suburb of Lake Bluff in this case). And while the author has an implausible taste in baseball (really - not the Cubs, but the other team??), no other details about the setting stood out as being unbelievable.

Told in two perspectives, the adult daughter who went missing for 94 days when she was four, and her alcoholic mother who is in a coma - this one hooks the reader right in. While the main characters both make bad decisions and the drama level is high, the story is genuinely entertaining. The plot does take a few predictable turns, but the latter half was especially impossible to put down. I would definitely read more from Reeds in the future!

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The Day I Disappeared is a twist on the child abduction thriller where the victim returns home safely. When she was only four years old, Holly Gebhardt was kidnapped from a crowded park and then mysteriously, returned three months later. Now, twenty years later, Holly is asked to assist the police in locating another young girl who has gone missing and discovers that she is only one of many young girls taken in the same manner. But Holly doesn't have any memories of her abduction. As she tries to balance her help on the case, her best friend's impending wedding, her childhood crush returning home, and her mother's coma from a serious car accident, Holly is pushed to her limits. Everyone seems suspicious and Holly's digging into her past has dredged up dark family secrets.
Full of twists and turns, The Day I Disappeared is a page turning thriller that is sure to keep you guessing until the very last page.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions are my own.

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For sake of spoilers I won’t say which, but one of these POV’s had me really feeling sorry for her. I imagined myself in her perilous position and although I may not have made the same choices, I at least “understood”.

One of the many benefits of alternating POV’s is seeing something from a different perspective. Often learning more about a situation first, before other characters in the book. If a book is crafted well the book kind of unravels.

This book, TDID had me from the beginning. Interested in unraveling the mystery, feeling for characters, and ready for a resolution.

It was thrilling and tied up nicely.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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I really can't describe the book any more than what is on the description without ruining the book or taking away from the twists within this book.

I can say I really enjoyed it and loved the roller coaster that it sent me on. I'm missing my coasters due to vivid!

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for my honest review.

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‘Three months after four-year-old Holly Gebhardt was kidnapped, she was inexplicably returned to the same park from which she’d vanished…with no memory of the ordeal.’

‘Twenty years later, another girl goes missing under eerily similar circumstances…’

THE DAY I DISAPPEARED is the first book that I have read by Brandi Reeds, and most certainly won’t be my last!

A psychological thriller filled with twists, turns, lies, and speculation, but at its core, at the very marrow of the narrative—a mother’s never-ending love for her daughter, as they unravel the truth behind the lies.

There’s a line that stood out to me in the book that resonated with me as a parent, and I wanted to share it with you:

‘One of the hardest things about being a mother: watching your kid trip on the same cracks in the pavement you stumbled on.’

I couldn’t agree more.

Thank you, NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing, for loaning me an eGalley of THE DAY I DISAPPEARED in exchange for an honest review.

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This was a great read. It drags you in from the very beginning! The author does such a great job of making everyone seem they are the prime subject of a child kidnapping 20 years ago. Holly now 25 is thrown into reliving this event as things are resurfacing again and she's been contacted by an investigator hoping Holly will remember anything to help with the current missing child. Holly figures out someone close to her is trying to finish what they started 20 years ago and Holly is determined to help find this current missing child. I didn't want to stop reading until I knew what happened. I would definitely recommend this book!

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The story is told from two different points of view, that of Holly and her mother, Cecily. Both are unreliable narrators (my favourite type of narrator!) and leaves you not knowing who to trust!

Between the two of them you find out that 20 years prior, Holly had been kidnapped aged 4 and returned 3 months later unharmed. Her kidnap was witnessed by her best friend and the man responsible was identified and locked up. That is until a policeman comes looking to talk to Holly about lots of little girls who have gone missing since… is it the same man who had Holly? or a copy cat? and why can’t she remember those three months?

I didn’t work out the ending, although the person responsible was on my list of possible candidates. I like a crime fiction where I genuinely don’t know who did it. I like to be surprised and sadly it happens less and less as these books become more formulaic. This one however has managed to break out of the formula and has a fairly solid plot and back story. It left me satisfied (although the whole thing would need to be taken with a rather large pinch of salt.) Unfortunately I thought it was over-written, there was a lot of repetition, and some odd word choices/similes, which is why I didn't give it more stars.

So, to sum up, it was a shame about the writing but it would make a cracking movie!

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This story is told from Holly and her mother, Cecily point of views. Cecily is in coma because of an accident but you will get the snippet of what happened in the past.

Holly was kidnapped 20 years ago when she was 4 years old. She can't remembered anything. She reappeared after 3 months at the same park from where she was kidnapped and she was unharmed. Now another girl goes missing and police asking her to help them by trying to remember.

I thought I figured out who was the bad guy here but damn too many suspects and I was wrong! I keep changing my mind 🤣

Holly's friendship with Kitten don't seems right. I mean Kitty is freaking self-centered and annoying. She never try to understand Holly's problem like goshhhhhhh I'm pissed off!

Thank you Netgalley, publisher and author for The Day I Disappeared ARC!

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I loved this book - the author really knows how to hook you in, and I couldn't put it down. Holly Gebhardt was kidnapped as a child and held for 94 days. She was unharmed - though drugged - throughout her ordeal, so she couldn't remember anything about the time she was gone. Now in her twenties, she still doesn't remember that time, but is being asked by a detective to assist in newer cases of missing girls thought to be abducted by the same man who took her. But how could it be the same man when he was convicted and is serving a life sentence in prison? She'd ask her mother, Cecily, about it as she was suspected to be involved at the time, but unfortunately she is in a coma after a recent car accident. Holly's father thinks it's best to leave the past in the past and her best friend is too busy planning her wedding to be of any support. But Holly can't let it go, and is determined to discover what really happened to her and the other missing girls.

There are plenty of suspects to keep you guessing throughout the story, which is told through the alternating points of view of Holly and Cecily. Between both outlooks, the story comes together for the reader while the author manages to have the characters arrive at the conclusion at the same time. And what an ending! The only thing that bothered me, and I know it's ridiculous, is the name of Holly's best friend - Kitten. I'm sorry, but anyone past the age of 10 needs to let that nickname go. Or at least use it sparingly as a term of endearment, I just kept cringing at a woman in her twenties, city chic and with a posh fiance, going by the name of Kitten. That's just me nitpicking and it didn't stop me from loving this book. It surely won't stop you either!

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Loved this book! It hooked me from the very beginning and kept me entertained the entire time. It definitely had some mystery/thriller vibes but I loved how the author really focused on developing the characters and their relationships with one another. I would have given it 5 stars, but it was predictable and I guessed a lot of the main plot points pretty easily. With that being said, I still enjoyed it and would definitely recommend!!!

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