I’ll Be You is about identical twin sisters, Sam and Elli. They shared everything together from holding hands in the dark or sleeping cuddles together a night. They become actresses and when Elli didn’t want to do it anymore, Sam became both twins.
As adults, their lives have grown apart. Elli got married and had the perfect life and Sam became an addict. That drove a wedge between them for over a year. One day Sam gets a call from her father and found out Elli’s husband left her and she had adopted a two-year-old girl, Charlotte. Elli was feeling overwhelmed and went to a retreat. Their mother has a bad hip and asked Sam to come and take care of Charlotte. It become apparent that Elli isn’t coming back, doesn’t answer her phone. She has disappeared. Sam takes it upon herself to find Elli. The adventure begins and many mysteries await her.

I thought I’ll Be You by Janelle Brown was a quick easy read, I couldn’t put it down. I had to get to the end to discover what this mysterious retreat was all about.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the preview yearly and review.

Sam and Elli are two twin sisters that have shared everything before. They’ve shared a birth date, a connection, the same family, the same fame, and even their lives.

Sam used to take Elli’s spot often throughout their lives and she has to do the same once more. Elli has all but disappeared and it’s up to Sam to find her sister. Does this new self-improvement cult have something to do with it?

While Sam struggles to find her sister, she also has to struggle with her inner demons and the sobriety she’s worked so hard for. Can Sam find her sister before it’s too late?

I completely loved trying to untangle this web of deceit and so will you.

I'll Be You by Janelle Brown was another engrossing novel by this author, whom I have grown to love. As with the last book I read of hers, Pretty Things, she writes about family love and dysfunction exceptionally well. This story is about identical twins, Sam and Ellie, flashing back and forth between their interactions as children and as adults. Especially intriguing is how the same stories were referenced from both their different perspectives and seen so differently by both of them. Sam is the bold, extroverted, wild twin. Ellie is the more reserved, conventional twin. Both were raised by a loving mother, whose fatal flaw was she didn't want to know about unpleasant realities, so often the twins were forced to figure out their own way through tough emotional situations without adult guidance from an early age. Their father enabled his wife's issue,

As kids the twins starred on a couple television shows. The showbiz life was one that Sam loved, but Ellie hated. After their twin-star career ended. Ellie settled into "normal" life as a student then wife and hopeful-mother. Sam tried to be a star on her own, but found it difficult and fell hard into a cycle of addiction and rehab, most often with her sister as her savior.

After a falling out with each other, over a year later, the twins' parents calls Sam (now on the wagon after successful rehab) to ask her to come home to help take care of Ellie's daughter while Ellie is away at a self-help weekend. Sam didn't know her sister had a daughter. But when Ellie's absence extends questionably long with no contact, Sam gets suspicious and decides to try to be her sister's savior for once leading to intrigue.

I liked the book. I found the dynamic between the sisters pretty realistic given the odd circumstances. The mystery of Ellie's disappearance was a little strange, but still engaging. To me, though this book played better as a family drama than as a thriller.

Definitely more family drama than thriller, but a well plotted and engrossing read.

I'LL BE YOU joins a slate of novels exploring cults, this time through the lens of two former child star twins. Each twin was a fully drawn character and there are lots of insights about sibling relationships. A good pick for when you want a family drama with some mystery in the background.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for this review.

3.75 stars. I’ll Be You is a thriller that had me riveted to the end. The story centres around adult twin sisters who were child actors, and when one sister doesn’t return home from a retreat as expected, and sends only a cryptic text to update her family, things begin to get tense. The organization which focuses on women empowerment is hosting the retreat, and it begins to reveal itself as having not so pure intentions as the story progresses. As things unfold, there are interesting layers to the family history, including a lack of boundaries, substance abuse, and jaw dropping decisions that shake relationships to the core. The book also examines how over time, one’s judgement can be clouded by strong emotions and desperation.

The book was a great reading experience, and it has a stunning cover. Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the electronic ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is one of my favorite reads of 2022! I loved everything about it. Janelle Brown does such a good job with the character development of each twin. It was creatively done by giving each one half the book. While it is not a thriller, there is a great mystery vibe that leaves you not wanting to put it down. I highly recommend this book!

I recently started reading books by this author and love her! Good characters, storylines and quick reads. I read it all in 2 sittings!

Janelle Brown is quickly becoming one of my favorite more literary mystery authors, and this was another strong book from her. Brown’s writing has an incredibly strong sense of place that I always enjoy, whether that’s Lake Tahoe, Santa Barbara, or even in this case, just a passing run in on the streets of Burbank. I think in this one, I was a little less invested in what I had perceived as the main mystery.

Wh???? Wha????? WHAT???? This book in bonkers but in a great way. Janelle Brown is such a talented author who is able to create characters that jump off the pages. In this one, its two twin sisters who have a grown apart but when one goes missing, the other one knows that something has happened.

Thank you so much to Netgalley for the arc.

Yep, I liked it and now I’m obsessed with anything and everything twins.

This is my first Janelle Brown book and I’ll definitely be checking out her backlist and will look to add her future releases to my Tbr.

Her writing is exceptionally fluid. Making her books easy to read in big chunks. In fact, I started listening to one hour a day and couldn’t stand the suspense so I finished the second half of the book in one sitting.

This is one of those books you think about while you’re not reading. I asked myself questions about what might happen next, about what the character was thinking, and guessing about the conclusion.

The characters are identical yet different and there is a theme of plurality going on where you’re not sure where one ends and the other begins. It was a Very fascinating premise.

The book was fun to read and would make a perfect book to bathtub read. I promise you-you’ll never want to get out.

Thanks to Random House Publishing, PRHA, and Netgalley for the advanced copies!

I’LL BE YOU…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sam and Elli are former child actor twins who are no longer speaking to each other. When Elli goes missing, their mother calls Sam for help. Sam starts digging into Elli's past but will she reach her in time?

It's not often that cults are the setting of thrillers but after reading this one, I'm all in for it! Not only do I find it interesting but it also adds to the element of surprise as there's so much most people don't know about how cults work. This was a solid read, full of mystery, twists and emotion. It was my first book by Janelle Brown but definitely won't be my last.

Samantha and Eleanor were only nine, playing on the California beach, when a talent agent discovered them. As blonde identical twins with matching dimples, Elli and Sam were captivating, and when they were offered a chance to become stars, they took it. Their agent set them up with acting lessons and headshots, and it wasn’t long before they landed their first commercial.

That commercial turned into a role on a television drama, where the twins shared air time to play the daughter of a police woman. The hours were long, with lots of time spent sitting around in their trailer waiting for their scenes, but Sam loved every moment. Elli wasn’t as excited to be in front of everyone like that. She just wanted to be a normal kid, going to school and trying out for cheerleading and going to parties with friends. But Sam wanted to be a star.

When their character got killed off from the drama, Elli was relieved and excited to spend a year as a regular teenager. But Sam was miserable as a regular high schooler and wanted back in the spotlight. She talked Elli into another show, this time a Nickelodeon comedy about twins, where they got to play characters based loosely on their own personalities, to make things easier on Elli. But after a while, Elli wanted out again.

When it was time for college, she took the opportunity to end her contract and go back to her normal life. Sam wanted to stay in Hollywood, though, and did what she could to stay. But one twin just isn’t as interesting to casting directors, and as Sam spent more time partying than studying, she soon found herself out of school and out of a job.

The years slipped by, with Sam in and out of rehab, and Elli married to her college sweetheart and running her own floral design business. Sam and Elli eventually stopped talking, so Sam was surprised when her mother contacted her out of the blue and asked for help. Elli had gone away for the weekend to a retreat in Ojai and her mother needed help looking after Ellie’s daughter Charlotte. Sam was stunned. She had no idea that Elli had adopted a child. And then Sam found out that Elli’s husband had moved to Tokyo. She was a little over a year sober, but how could so much have changed so quickly?

Sam agrees to help, gets time off from her barista job, and heads to Santa Barbara to her parents’ house. She meets the adorable Charlotte and despite not having been around 2-year-olds before, she does her best to help take care of her. When the weekend is over, Elli still isn’t home, so Sam decides to stay a little longer. The days slip by, trips to the park, AA meetings in the evenings, and still no Elli. Sam starts to get worried about her, so she decides to investigate.

Sam heads to her sister’s house, and she finds a binder filled with self-help writings. Her sister had made notes and highlighted passages. Sam doesn’t know what to think at first, but some internet searches point her to the idea that the group could be a cult. Is it possible that her twin sister has abandoned her daughter to join a cult? And if she has, could Sam figure out a way to pull her back out?

Janelle Brown’s I’ll Be You has so much going on. There are twins who were Hollywood sweethearts. There is the Hollywood party scene and then rehab and sobriety. There are infertility issues that break up a marriage. And there is a woman’s self-empowerment group with a compound behind tall fencing where women shave their heads and wear matching dresses. But mostly, this novel has a lot of heart. The paths these sisters have chosen, the decisions that tore them apart and then brought them back together, drive this story that looks closely at what it means truly to be a family.

I loved this book, racing through the story to find out where it would end up. These sisters are one, but they are also very distinct personalities, and following along as they grow up and grow apart is such an amazing part of this story. But then, when they come back together to take care of Elli’s daughter Charlotte, the true power of these twin sisters comes through. I’ll Be You has so much going on that it’s easy to lose the thread of the theme, but at its heart is the family. The mistakes we make, the choices that cause pain, the forgiveness, the redemption, the second chances, the secrets, the denial, and the strength it takes at the end of the day to just keep moving forward. I’ll Be You is about love, and it’s about hope, and it’s a beautiful book to read at a time when you’re looking to find some hope yourself.

Egalleys for I’ll Be You were provided by Random House Publishing Group through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Identical twins Sam & Elli were discovered as children and became b-list child TV stars. Being identical they shared the same roles, and were often interchange by their friends, family and even on purpose by themselves. Sam loved the lifestyle acting brought, but Elli wanted out of the spotlight.

As adults they have been driven apart by Sam’s addictions and destructive behavior and haven’t spoken in over a year. But when Sam’s parents call her and tell her that Elli is away at a spa and ask Sam to come help out with Elli’s newly adopted two year old daughter, Sam feels like something isn’t right.
Elli’s not answering her phone, the spa she is supposedly at seems more like a cult, and Sam is left to connect the dots to find out why Elli has disappeared.

I enjoyed the pace of the book and enjoyed trying to figure out Elli’s disappearance. I do feel this reads more of a family drama then a thriller.

This story is told in dual perspective which I usually like, but because it was broken up in three parts vs alternating chapters, it sometimes felt like the story was being told twice.

I also ended up like Elli’s perspective more as I felt it told the story better and Sam’s point of view seemed to tell what was happening instead of showing. There is a point where Sam is talking to the reader and it felt completely separate from the story.

I think this story would be enjoyed by a reader that enjoys family drama, and dual perspectives/ timelines.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was BANANAS. Not necessarily in a bad way but also not really in a good way. Between the two sisters, I think we could have gone without Elli's perspective - not only would that have made it shorter but it also would have kept some air of mystery. We already knew all the details (or at least enough to guess) by the time the POV switched; we didn't need to rehash it and kill the forward momentum. (The plot is all Sam, so Elli is just... background)

I read the first ~40% so fast. I tore through it. But after that... I knew where things were heading. Nothing was shocking or groundbreaking and there was some... Problematic content. There is a lesbian character whose ex-wife cheated on her with a man and instead of going "she cheated on me" she calls out "she was bi and never told me" and that's... A bad look. Even if you're married to them, you don't have the right to someone's sexuality. And that doesn't get called out; and while that character is a "bad guy", it doesn't excuse her biphobia

Winner, winner! I blew through this in one sitting. Janelle Brown is such a wonderful writer. I fell in love with the character, Sam. She deserves her own series.

Sam and Elli are identical twin sisters. As children sharing a role in a successful TV series, they learned how to fool people by pretending to be each other. As they grew older Sam was the messed up one with drug addiction and Elli was the successful one with the perfect life or so it seemed. Now, Elli has gone off on a retreat with a mysterious group called GenFem and their parents request Sam's help taking care of Elli's daughter, a daughter Sam knew nothing about. It's up to Sam to unravel the truth about her sister, and about GenFem, and what it all has to do with Elli's daughter, Charlotte. This book is about the tenuous bonds of family and how you can never really know what is going on with another person unless you truly put yourself in their shoes. Sam and Elli are both extremely flawed characters but their innate desire to improve their lives and be better people makes them easy to root for. The plot, which is full of interesting twists and turns, moves along at a steady pace until the book reaches its inevitable conclusion.

The ending was a little anticlimactic. The big GASP moment for me was right around the middle. Other than that I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the complex relationships between the characters, especially between Sam and Elli. I also enjoyed how the story unfolded!

This book is SO good! I absolutely loved Janelle Brown’s last release, Pretty Things, and was anxiously awaiting I’ll Be You, and it did not disappoint! Janelle is the master of psychological suspense and this tale of two twins who have drastically drifted apart is one that will capture you from the first page and never let you go!

Childhood stardom placed these identical twins in opposite directions to the point in adulthood where one goes missing as the other (barely sober) sets out to find her. Though there is not a lot to relate to for me, this story does keep things interesting during a weird turn of events. More suspenseful than thriller it still had me involved to find out the truth.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley for my honest opinion.

Wow this is in my opinion Janelle Brown's best book yet!!!!!! It shows you in depth looks into the relationships between twins that you don't normally understand unless you are a twin. I can't say enough great things about this book so I will leave you with this: I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I promise you will t0o!!!!!!!