One-word review: Moving
Emojis: 🤔🥺🥰
Rating: 5🌟s

Favorite Quote: “Before I learned to ignore the siren call of my memories, their taunts, daring me to jump down, down, down, into that all-to-familiar place - a hole into which at times I fell accidently and at others I climbed willingly, allowing the rest of the soil to tumble in after me, shutting off all oxygen and blotting out the sun.”

My Top-Five-style Review:

5. The romance plot thread warmed my heart and made it grow exponentially. Eliot (FMC) and Manuel’s story have so much beauty. I just loved it!

4. The family themes, with their raw authenticity, created a connection that resonated deeply. The messiness and love that make for a good story were beautifully portrayed. I cherished the evolution of their bonds throughout the narrative.

3. The pacing, while leisurely at times, compensated with its intellectually stimulating exploration of topics and themes.

2. The book offers a unique and in-depth perspective on a commonly referenced mental health disorder - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or OCD. It reframes the disorder, shedding light on lesser-known symptoms that pose significant challenges for sufferers and their loved ones. While it can be difficult to delve into a mental health disorder through a story, it is also crucial.

1. Emma Noyes’ courage in sharing this story, which is deeply personal and informative about a complex mental health disorder, is truly admirable. It’s never easy to admit one's struggles, as it opens up a world of uncertainty and fear. However, to go a step further and share it with the world in a moving and informative fictional story is a testament to the book's importance for society.

"How to Hide in Plain Sight" will be available on September 10, 2024. I would like to thank the publisher and author for providing an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this novel via NetGalley.

4 stars.

“How to Hide in Plain Sight” is a well-written novel that deals with heavy topics in a compassionate and eye-opening way. The story follows Elliot Beck, the youngest child of a blended family, as she returns home to her family’s private island for her brother’s wedding. In the three years since she left home, she has had little contact with her family and her childhood best friend, Manuel. The story switches back and forth to flashbacks from the past and present day. I loved the second chance romance storyline in this novel and the dual timeline format made me invested in the characters and their story.

I want to applaud the author for her descriptions of Elliot’s struggles with OCD. It is a raw and vulnerable glimpse into an often misunderstood mental illness. Overall, I really enjoyed this book—it was well-written, smart, and hopeful. My only critique is that I wanted more from the ending. I would love to see an epilogue showing where Elliot and Manuel end up.

HOW TO HIDE IN PLAIN SIGHT by Emma Noyes is a deeply personal and heartbreakingly honest #ownvoices portrayal of a lesser publicized side of OCD.

(Read/Listened concurrently thanks to @prhaudio #PRHAudioPartner and @netgalley)

“Family isn’t about telling the truth. It’s not about starting from the real beginning. To your family, you tell the story they need to hear.”

PLUS: Big blended dysfunctional family, childhood friendship to more, wedding weekend on a Canadian island, a bit of closed-door romance, self-acceptance with heavy and uplifting themes.

VIBES: Anxious People by Frederik Backman in both its simplicity and complexity. The themes of grief, heartache, family, growth, love, friends, and the intricacies of life.

CW: Death of sibling in childhood, Mental health content (OCD, intrusive thoughts), grief, addiction.

3.5 Stars

#HowToHideInPlainSight by Emma Noyes is the story of a dysfunctional family and #mentalhealth with a side of romance.

Eliot is 21 and the youngest sibling in a large family who lives and works in New York City. She meets her family in Ontario for a family wedding. Manuel, her childhood friend and first crush, is there because he’s an adopted member of the family.

For fans of a childhood friends-to-lovers trope, dysfunctional family dynamics, mental health rep (OCD intrusive thoughts), family secrets and misunderstandings, and complicated relationships.

Content considerations: heavy mental health content (intrusive thoughts, spiraling), child death (in past but remembered and a major theme), and grief.

Thanks #Netgalley @BerkleyPub #BerkleyBuddyReads for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

This was a truly eye-opening #ownvoices story about Eliot Beck's grief over the loss of her younger brother and the way this trauma manifested early onset OCD that affected her for the rest of her life.

I loved how real and central the protagonist's intrusive thoughts, obsessive worries and self-hate was in this story. The author does an amazing job showing a facet of OCD that's not the typical germ phobia we see most often in the media but one that's more about internal doubts and debilitating anxieties/fears.

While mental health plays a HUGE part in this book it is also a story about Eliot's big wealthy family and childhood friendship with Manuel, a young boy from Columbia. Through flashbacks we get to see how Eliot and Manuel become best friends and almost more and the way Eliot's family practically adopts Manuel as one of their own, often inviting him to spend summers with them at their private island in Ontario cottage country.

Good on audio and highly recommended for fans of books like Carley Fortune's Every summer after. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and @prhaudio for a complimentary ALC copy in exchange for my honest review. This is sure to be a favorite read of 2024 for me!!

This is one of the most powerful novels I’ve read in a long while. Eliot struggles with OCD after losing her brother at a young age. The ways in which this illness impacts her cause her to feel she must distance herself from her family and her best friend, Manuel. How to Hide in Plain Site picks up three years after Eliot has moved to New York and she’s returning to her family’s island for her older brother’s wedding. She’s got to face her family, the possibility of returning OCD symptoms, and worst of all, the best friend she cut off three years ago.

Noyes did an amazing job sharing Eliot’s OCD and how she battles with it internally. The novel flashes back and forth between past and present, so readers see Eliot as she first begins to struggle with OCD thoughts as well as her then her continued present-day coping strategies. The writing is beautiful and the characters are easy to love and root for. This is, by far, one of the best books I’ve read this year.

This is an interesting read that follows Eliot, in the past and present, as she struggles with her place in her dysfunctional family and deals with her obsessive thoughts. The author handles the difficult topics in the story with sensitivity and I enjoyed seeing the family find the support and love they all needed within each other and their relationships. The audiobook is a great way to read this book and the narration by Emily Pike Stewart is fantastic.

"I love you", I whispered into this third silence. "And not in the way I usually mean it." Manuel's arms tighten. "I've never meant it any other way."

How to Hide in Plain Sight follows Eliot, youngest of 6 kids, and she returns to her family's private island (you heard me) in Canada for her brothers wedding after keeping her distance from them and her childhood best friend, Manuel, for 3 years. After the loss of her irish twin at age 10, Eliot develops a form of OCD that manifests in the form of compulsive thoughts she calls, the Worries, that convince her that she is a terrible person in a verity of different, disturbing, ways. The story is enlightening to OCD as a mental illness and the way that it can manifest without being seen the way it is typically depicted, and it's effect of not only romantic but familial relationships.

This is more of literary fiction novel. focusing on Eliot's journey with OCD and her dysfunctional family of 8, with a childhood friends to lovers/second chance romance sub plot.

I loved the romance plot in this book!! Manuel is a MAJOR green flag, he knows exactly what to do and what to say to ease Eliot's Worries. It is really tough at times to be in her head and see how her mind tricks her into believe such horrible things about herself. I also enjoyed seeing the family dynamic play out between her siblings and parents and how they all coped in different ways after the loss of their brother/son. The pacing was a little bit slow at times for me but the second half of the book picked up big time with both the family drama and the romance.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

4.5 rounded up💫 another absolute win from Noyes for us neurodivergents!! 🥹

This is a heartbreakingly honest portrayal of OCD and how impossible it can be to live with a brain you cannot trust! It’s such a deeply personal book for Noyes + I just know this will make so many people feel seen for the first time❤️‍🩹 I know I’ve never read a book that was so open + honest about this topic!!

It’s also more than that though! It’s got childhood best friends to lovers, it’s about being part of a big family and feeling left behind, it’s about grief and dealing with capital W “Worries” floating around your head, and finding ways to cope and grow and heal, about finding your person.

I love loved the writing style and the audio narration did such a good job of portraying the emotions! It had a lot of flashbacks and characters to keep track of and I do wish we had a bit more at the end but overall highly recommend!! 🥹💞

I went into this expecting a nice friends to lovers romance, and while it was that, it was also so much more.

While there is a romance plot throughout the book, I’d say the bigger focus is on the main character Eliot and her struggles with OCD. Before reading this book I knew hardly anything about OCD. Now, I can definitely say I have a better idea of it. There were so many times while reading that I wished I could reach through the book and give Eliot a hug or help her in some way. I sometimes felt frustrated by her stubbornness to tell anyone or seek help outside of herself, but that also goes to show how mental health can be tricky and hard and imperfect; I think the bold honesty here in showing all the facets to having OCD was incredibly well done.

As for the romance plot, I really liked it! Friends to lovers is always a favorite trope of mine, and having the past/present timeline was a great way of seeing the history between Eliot and Manuel. Their chemistry was good, and I loved seeing how loyal they were to each other.

The big, quirky, dysfunctional family was an interesting backdrop for this story. Seeing all the dynamics between these characters felt a little chaotic at times, which I think helped show how Eliot felt as a member of her family. I liked seeing the growth in the relationships between Eliot and her siblings, especially given the grief aspect to the story. The ending felt kind of abrupt and I wished we got a little more there, but overall this was a layered and intriguing story.

I’ve read everything of Emma’s to date; from her fantasy driven trilogy The Sunken City to Guy’s Girl where she illustrated a realistic depiction of life as a woman with an eating disorder. I knew when I saw that she had written a book about a character with OCD that seemed to resemble mine, I would have to pick this up.

But I’m going to be honest, I was scared. I was scared that by reading this book, it would bring my Worries back to light and start a torrential downpour of swirling dark thoughts and reminders of days I tried to stuff deep into a box in my soul with several layers of duct tape and a “DO NOT ENTER” sign covered in barbed wire.

Once I started though, I could not put this book down. While I was frustrated with Eliot during several moments, I found that I was only frustrated because I had lived the same life for the first 25 years or so of mine. Eliot was incredibly relatable in not only her thought process, but in her reactions to her incessant moth-like worries. Her filling her schedule from sunup to sundown, her excessive use of caffeine to overwhelm her senses to just push forward quickly so as to not stop and start remembering the things she didn’t want to remember, her being present but not feeling included or really present at all because her anxiety told her this was the case; all of it was so damn familiar. But it was also comforting. Comforting to know that the thoughts I thought and the way I’m made are not as unique as I once thought them to be. It was comforting to know that the author may have wrote a book of fiction, but the thoughts and actions of the main character were very much derived from her own experiences in life. Comforting to know that this book will reach a large audience who will come to understand that either 1. If they have OCD, they are not alone, or 2. If they don’t, to have a little extra understanding and hopefully support for those who do.

This is a topic that is incredibly sensitive and difficult to talk about, especially when you are isolated with your own thoughts. Emma did a wonderful job showing exactly what it’s like to be brought down by your thoughts but also that you don’t have to do it all on your own.

This book reminded me a lot of Anxious People by Frederik Backman, in that it wasn’t about an event or a simple plot with targeted outcomes. It was a book about grief, heartache, family, friends, love, death, and, above all, life. A book that will resonate with audiences for a lifetime, rather than until the next book they pick up from their TBR.

In my opinion, this subject, and this book specifically, should be required reading for all.

Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group, and Emma Noyes for the opportunity to read a copy of this book. The thoughts and opinions expressed above are honest and my own.

4.5 stars!

Describing in a coherent way how much I love this book feels like an impossibility, but I’ll give it my best shot. This was truly a phenomenal read. It certainly won’t be for everybody but it was 100% for me.

Mental health representation is always appreciated by me, particularly when it’s the central theme of the story. Our main character, Eliot, is the youngest in a family of 8. After a traumatic loss of a family member 10 years before the present-day storyline, the family is never the same. Especially for Eliot, who is diagnosed with early-onset OCD when she’s 10-11. Eliot’s form of OCD isn’t the kind where she’s washing her hands every 5 seconds, she battles with very intrusive thoughts and compulsions she coins the ‘Worries.’ Often overlooked in her family, she fights this mental illness in silence, only finding comfort and solace in her best friend, Manuel. Until she hits 18 and abandons everyone who loves her.

Eliot is now 21 and reuniting with her family and childhood best friend for her brother’s wedding after 3 years of radio silence. The slow reveal of the past timeline was my favorite part and one revelation had me SOBBING at the end of the book. Literally inconsolable tears. It was so damn good. Everything and everyone was raw, flawed, and amazing. Between Eliot’s battle with her mind, the crippling tension and mystery with Manuel, and awkwardness with her family there was not one dull moment. I was invested in every single page.

There’s a quote between in Alison Espach’s The Wedding People that cut me deep and really rings true here as well: “How can you love yourself when you know every horrible thing you’ve ever thought?” I mean, that’s literally Eliot in a nutshell. She spends the entire book locked up like a steel vault and it made the ending so beautiful and rewarding. Amazingly done.

I would highly recommend this to fans of contemporary fiction that focuses on mental health. Comparable reads for me were The Wedding People by Alison Espach, Everyone in This Room Will Someday be Dead by Emily Austin, and Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake. All 5 star reads for me, so I clearly have a type.

How to Hide in Plain Sight by Emma Noyes
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On the day she arrived in Canada for her brother’s wedding, Eliot hasn’t seen her family in three years. There is a reason that she has avoided them and she is not ready to share, especially when she has finally got a handle on how to keep control on her OCD.
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Wow. This book was just wow. I loved every minute of it.
This story really took me on a journey. A journey of how much you can love your family, and yet they drive you crazy. How well you can know people, and yet they can still do things that make you feel like you don’t know them. How you can work so hard to hold yourself together but you still NEED people in your life that you can just fall apart in front of.

I loved how Eliot’s OCD was not the typical portrayal of OCD that is seen in entertainment. It was wonderful to have a story help explain that OCD looks different to everyone.

I adored Eliot and I just wanted to hug her tight and tell her that she was loved and wonderful just for being herself. Also her siblings kept cracking me up and I could see how she loved and admired them.
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5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I highly recommend this heartfelt and emotional read. It is such a special book that deserves the attention.

Emma Noyes has written one of the most honest and thought provoking portrayals of OCD that I've read in a long time, possibly ever!


How to Hide In Plain Sight is a genre bender, it's got romance, family drama, a little mystery. I think it could delight fans of all these genres! The plot line was inventive and kept me guessing continually. Just when I think I had the book "figured out" it would surprise me. The writing is beautiful and while there are some beautifully written lines it isn't so literary that you are left scratching your head lost for meaning.

And then you get to the portrayal of OCD. Noyes brings you into the mind of someone with OCD that is above and beyond the stereotypical "hand washing, insanely clean, organized neat freak" we normally see in works of fiction. It is raw and vulnerable, filled with honest truth and hard to talk about perseverating thoughts that often go un noticed, especially in high performing and eager to please female individuals.

I truly enjoyed every page and it will probably end up as one of my favorite books I read this year!

I really loved Emma Noyes’ previous book, Guy’s Girl, so I was excited to read this new one, How To Hide In Plain Sight. Unfortunately, this one didn’t work as well for me. It’s labeled as New Adult Romance. Yes, there’s romance, but I think those labels do the book a disservice.

The main female character is named Eliot, so that was a bit odd to me to start with. Apparently, Eliot is now more of a unisex name; who knew? Anyway, Eliot has OCD, the kind that is invisible to other people. She refers to the thoughts in her head as The Worries. The Worries mainly tell her she’s a terrible person, for various different reasons at different times. She finds that if she keeps really, really busy at work, she can keep The Worries to a low murmur. She also decided that she needed to cut herself off from her whole, messy family (lots of siblings; she’s the youngest) and her best friend, Manuel. So she hasn’t spoken to or seen any of them for three years. But now one of her brothers is getting married and she has to see them all.

The book bounces around from “now” to various points in Eliot’s childhood and teen years.

The middle of the book really dragged and that’s when I started to skim.

I did really appreciate the insights into this form of OCD and applaud Emma Noyes for writing about something so personal to her.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the opportunity to read a review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Have you ever read a book that lingers in your mind long after you've turned the last page? This book delivers a powerful punch, offering so much to unpack and reflect upon.

Eliot Beck emerges as an inspirational protagonist, and her journey with OCD offers profound insights. The author's vivid portrayal of Eliot's internal struggles, which she keeps hidden while maintaining a facade, is both enlightening and moving. A particularly powerful moment is when Eliot finally opens up to her father, revealing her ongoing inner battle. The scene where her siblings rally around her, and Manuel's unwavering acceptance, underscores the love and support she has, challenging her own perceptions and leaving me deeply emotional.

The slow-burn romance between best friends Eliot and Manuel adds another layer of depth to the story. Their meet-cute—Eliot rescuing Manuel from bullies as children—is pure perfection. The tension between them, with Eliot running away due to her inner struggles and Manuel patiently waiting, creates a compelling dynamic that keeps you rooting for them.

The Beck family's dynamics feel authentic and relatable. As the youngest, Eliot often feels overlooked due to the significant age gap with her siblings. However, as the story unfolds, the nuances of family communication become apparent. The twist involving her brother's death unravels Eliot's distorted memories but also brings the family closer together.

This is a moving, insightful, and unexpectedly deep read that surprises you. I cherish every moment with Eliot and her family, and the book's representation of mental health is both lovely and essential—a must-read for anyone seeking a heartfelt narrative.

“I’ve told you once, and I’ll tell you again… Don’t apologize, Eliot Beck. Don’t you ever apologize for being who you are.” - Manuel


Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley, for the free copy for review.

4.5 ⭐️

Drawing upon her own personal experience with OCD, Noyes tells the story of Eliot Beck, who cannot trust her own brain. She is the youngest in her wacky, large family, who she has been estranged from for years. When her sibling’s wedding brings the family back together, they’re forced to confront dysfunction that’s been swept under the rug. To make matters more complicated, she also comes face to face with Manuel— her childhood best friend who she fell in love with.

This story is really a love letter to OCD. It is also an important OCD story, as it shows a presentation less commonly known— the endless intrusive thoughts. Noyes does a phenmenal job educating the reader on this kind of experience, and the endless exhaustion people with OCD face when they cannot trust their own minds.

I am so bummed that this book just didn’t work for me. I enjoyed this author’s first book so much.

This book has a very heavy subject matter. There is so much internal dialogue, which I understand since this is Eliot’s personal struggle with OCD. I wasn’t a fan of all of the “then” and “now” chapters, too. The story felt very drawn out with an abrupt ending.

I feel bad since this book is very personal to the author. I just wished I enjoyed it more.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced readers copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This novel strikes a delicate balance between heartbreak and hope, leaving an indelible mark on the reader. Eliot’s inner struggles—her thoughts spiraling endlessly and worries that consume her—create an emotional ache. Her raw and desperate confessions reveal a mind that isn’t always a safe haven.

Yet, amidst this darkness, there’s light. Eliot’s unconventional, meddling family—dysfunctional yet fiercely loyal—provides a counterbalance. And then there’s Manny, her best friend who knows her soul’s every nook and cranny.

How to Hide in Plain Sight not only delves into the complexities of living with a mental health condition but also celebrates unbreakable family bonds and the enduring power of true love.

“Family isn’t about telling the truth. It’s not about starting from the real beginning. To your family, you tell the story they need to hear.”

“We addicts don’t just lie; we believe, too. If you aim to deceive others, the first person you convince is yourself.”

Eliot Beck really doesn’t want to go home. The self described black sheep of her large family, youngest child Eliot has purposely distanced herself from the brood for a few years. But with her older brother getting married and the group chat buzzing, she reluctantly returns.

Upon her arrival Eliot quickly realizes not much has changed. Her family is still full of loud personalities with even louder voices, most of which predictably drowning out their youngest sister. What they can’t drown out, however, are the voices that have haunted Eliot for as long as she can remember.

In addition to dealing with her overstimulating family she’s also reunited with her childhood best friend, Manuel. The one person who always got her, Eliot and Manuel had a falling out that tore Eliot apart. Now Manuel wants answers to what happened, but Eliot doesn’t know how explain when she barely understands herself.

How to Hide in Plain Sight is the sophomore release from author Emma Noyes. Her debut, Guy’s Girl, was one of my favorites of last year. This time around, Noyes delivers another gut wrenching romance with a flawed main character front and center. Not one to shy away from difficult topics, Noyes draws upon personal experience, highlighting her own struggle with thought induced OCD through Eliot’s eyes. It’s a raw depiction, and one that is quickly becoming a signature style of the author. But beyond this, How to Hide in Plain Sight serves as a reminder that not all wounds are visible. It’s also a reminder that Noyes has a strong voice, one that will hopefully be telling stories for many more years to come.