I really struggled to get into this book. It took weeks for me to read it. I had high hopes because of what I had heard about it. I also had trouble connecting to the main character. She wasn't very likeable and she made some very strange decisions.

For me, this book was extremely hard to rate as I didn't love it, but I also didn't hate it either.

How to Hide in Plain Sight is a complex story of healing, a broken family, and love. The characters are complicated in the best possible way but left me feeling conflicted at times. Usually, I'm not a huge fan of flashbacks in a story, but in this case, I think it worked well. Those flashbacks helped me to understand the family dynamic and the trauma they went through better.

How to Hide in Plain Sight does deal with some pretty tough and heavy subject matter, which I do think the author handled with care. I especially thought the author's take on OCD was interesting and not what you'd typically see in a romance novel.

One of the things that didn't work for me though was the pacing. Pacing is such a huge thing for me and it can honestly make or break the story. Unfortunately, in this case, I felt like the pacing was just too slow at times and that just killed me since the story started out so strong. My other issue was the ending. After everything that happened in this story, I found the ending to be lacking and wished for more.

Overall, this book was a bit of an unexpected read for me. I found the writing style, and the characters to be unique and the plot intriguing. While this book wasn't a 100% hit for me, I'm still glad to have checked it out.

An important book about mental health and specifically OCD. The impacts of intrusive thoughts on the life of our main character, Eliot, were so profound it’s hard to imagine how she managed to live her life day to day. I enjoyed the family dynamics, Eliot’s and Manuel’s relationship and the details around how Eliot tried to manage her OCD. My husband suffers from this Illness and this gave me a glimpse of why he must go through. I hope I can continue to be his Manny.

How to Hide in Plain Sight by Emma Noyes presents an intriguing concept with its blend of suspense and personal drama. While the narrative offers some engaging moments, its overall execution may not fully captivate all readers.

What a beautiful and important novel. I empathized with Eliot, her OCD and how her Worries took over her life. And how true…keeping emotions inside and not sharing with others is definitely ‘safer’.

Eliot’s family made me laugh and, at times, extremely frustrated, but I eventually wanted to hug them all!
I read this slower than I could have, so I could enjoy it just a bit longer….releases September 10th.

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up. This was my first book by Noyes, and I was immediately captivated by her beautiful prose. This story completely opened my eyes to a type of OCD that I had never heard of. I read about 30% in one sitting because I was intrigued by the family dynamics and what happened between Eliot and Manuel. But once I dived into the more complex topics, I had to take a bunch of breaks in between reading because it was so heavy. It was also a bit repetitive at times, but I think the purpose was to give the reader a glimpse of what it feels like to live with such intrusive thoughts. The ending made me want to give Eliot a big hug.

I really enjoyed How to Hide in Plain Sight, and it also marks my first book by Emma Noyes. I’m so impressed with her writing and metal health representation that she’s immediately become an auto-buy author for me, and I’m already looking forward to reading more by her.

This book focuses on Eliot Beck and her chaotic family, along with childhood best friend Manuel. After not seeing her family for three years, they’re all due to meet at her older brother’s wedding, which inevitably leads to drama, home truths, and a romantic rediscovery of sorts. The family dynamics are brilliant, the tension is so realistic, and everything Eliot experiences is true to life. Families are messy, and that’s never been more apparent than in this book.

Eliot suffers from OCD, and I think this is the first time I’ve seen this particular kind represented in a fictional book. Emma Noyes has firsthand experience of Eliot’s OCD, and I’m so grateful to her for writing about it. It’s unusual for me to see a little bit of myself and my own OCD in a story like this, and I can’t accurately explain how it made me feel to know someone else understands it. That’s why books and authors like this are so important, and I’m so very glad I was given the opportunity to read this book.

How to Hide in Plain Sight has much more to it than meets the eye, and I hope it finds a wide audience. It deals with grief, mental health, families, romance, personal happiness, and healing, and portrays each with kindness and sensitivity. Emma Noyes should be very proud of herself for what she’s written here, and I hope other readers can also find some comfort within its pages.

3.5 STARS!!

This book did take me by surprise and I have to admit I’m glad I am a strong-minded person because this book tended to be a lot. It’s a lot of mental power to absorb and understand the complexities someone goes through who has OCD.

I have to say I certainly learned a lot and what I love the most is her best friend, Manny, and the honest, true love and support He always gave her. Sadly, she never really understood.

The story has so many complexities to it and I’m not going to try to explain any of it because you truly need to experience the story to understand it completely.

The author crafts the story with a lot of intricacy and detail that is positive and uplifting, but also very heavy at times. It’s almost exhausting to read what’s going through the main character’s mind.

But what I loved the most was her relationship with her best friend and what she had to do to work through that.

What I really missed the most in this book was the ending. We are taken on this journey of growth, healing, complex relationships, and mental warfare. Then the ending is super abrupt and we really don’t get much of a closure. We don’t get that final happiness that the two main characters deserve after they go through it all.

This book truly needs an epilogue and I wish we would’ve gotten that for a better closure for our own part as well as the characters. We need to feel her joy too.

This is a tough one to rate. Tough subject matter but definitely a unique story that is well told and well written. How to Hide in Plain Sight is one to remember!

"How to Hide in Plain Sight" offers a compelling exploration of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) through the eyes of Eliot Beck. Eliot’s struggle with OCD significantly shapes her interactions and inner world. Noyes portrayed OCD with sensitivity and authenticity.

Returning to Canada for her brother’s wedding after a three-year absence, the reunion with her childhood friend Manuel triggers emotional and compulsive challenges, highlighting the severity of her OCD.

Noyes excels in capturing Eliot’s internal dialogue and the impact of OCD on her daily life. The story emphasizes understanding, patience, and self-compassion in coping with OCD. The book’s strength lies in its character development and realistic portrayal of mental health struggles.

Overall, "How to Hide in Plain Sight" is a beautifully crafted novel perfect for those that enjoy reading about mental health & messy families.

<i>How to Hide in Plain Sight wasn’t what I thought it would be, and I can’t decide fully if that’s a good or bad thing yet…

This book has some heavier subject matter that is handled well, so that was definitely a plus for me. The real issue I had with this are two things. First I felt it dragged on a bit too long. It kind of made me stop feeling for Eliot. Which leads me to my second point. It took a long time and there was too much spiraling for us to get the ending we get. This book is drawn out just to have the ending rushed. Felt like I didn’t get to enjoy any of her joy.

This book is much more about the internal struggles of having a mental health challenge that is misunderstood than it is a romance novel, and there are times that the first person limited narrative is frustrating because I wanted Eliot to actually talk about the things she's keeping to herself when she won't. But it's very well written and a very well done look into the life of a non-typical romance novel protagonist, which I very much enjoyed.

I received a free ARC of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

How to Hide in Plain Sight is a candid, poignant, and at times, heart-wrenching examination of how the barriers we construct to shield ourselves can inadvertently shut out the love necessary for our growth. Noyes's writing is imbued with emotion and a palpable, relatable desire. Readers will delight in the victory of this wonderfully affirming tale of self-acceptance, as they eagerly journey towards a hopeful and fulfilling conclusion.

If you would like to be educated on the type of OCD where one's thoughts are so intrusive that they rarely leave you alone and lead you to devalue yourself, How to Hide in Plain Sight by Emma Noyes is a good choice. Eliot started having those thoughts at age 10 after the death of the brother who was closest to her in age and companionship. She was convinced she had to be a bad person because she didn't cry at his funeral, even though his loss was devastating to her. Later on, her thoughts led her to believe she was a disgusting person for various reasons and resulted in her leaving her large family and Manuel, her closest male childhood friend, for several years with little to no communication. Her job as a copywriter in New York is a good fit, distracting her and making her feel better about herself, but unwelcome thoughts plague her once again when she attends her brother's wedding at her wealthy's family's private island in Canada.

From there, the story goes back and forth in time--sometimes confusingly-- to cover her childhood, her high school years, her life in New York, and the present. Because the author shares this type of OCD with the protagonist, it is an authentic portrayal of what it means to have this form of mental illness. And although I admire her courage and her accomplishment in writing this book, I have to say I was personally exhausted at the end of the story. It's somewhat repetitive as she describes in detail Eliot's relentless "troubles" and inability to allow even her family and Manuel to convince her she is someone worth knowing and loving. Several of her family members are or have been plagued with depression, drug addiction, and other problems. I appreciate learning what I did about this type of OCD, but I wish there had been more time devoted to something else--anything else--to relieve the intensity and bleakness.

My thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley for the free E-arc in exchange for an honest review

Actual rating: 4.5 (rounded up)

The youngest of six siblings, with her oldest brother nearly 30 years her senior, Eliot Beck returns to her family for the first time in three years for the wedding of one her brothers. Except she’s been gone for a reason, and as she returns she has to confront not only the family she abandoned, but the boy she left behind.

This book is about as raw as it gets. On top of beautiful and compelling writing on a technical side, Eliot’s arc as a narrative feels so real. Her battle with OCD comes across as genuine and honest, with the author pulling no punches regarding what it really means to suffer with OCD. It is not an obsession with organization or hand-washing, it’s so much more. I must say that while this book was difficult to read at times due to my own personal experience, it was still a wonderful story. The complex dynamics in this family were a huge part of this story, and it has some very interesting things to say on what it really means to be a family.

My only criticisms come in the fact that I did notice some inconsistencies with details (although this is an ARC so benefit of the doubt) and I wanted a bit more depth from the family dynamic. One of the brothers was a bit under explored, despite having a large part in the driving plot, and a few of the other siblings had their dynamic described a bit repetitively, although still well done. Additionally, some things were just hinted at or briefly explained, and I wanted to see a tad more so that the emotional climax for Eliot would hit me as a reader harder.

Regardless, this is definitely worth the read.

This book contains sensitive topics including but not limited to: child death, grief, anxiety, OCD, panic attacks, and intrusive thoughts. It does not pull punches, so please take care of yourself.

Thank you again to Netgalley and Berkley for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't too usure about this book at first but ended up liking it. I was iffy bout the cover and the description at first but I liked the books.

When does the movie come out? I feel like this book what I've wanted from all of the current romance authors. I know the premise is not one we haven't seen before, with the entire girl meets boy at a wedding premise, butttttttt, what this book does differently is actually give everyone breathing room. Emma Noyes, you will always get my money, the fact that you were able to make me full on bawl my eyes out so many times and swoon in my chair, was everything.

This was a great summer read but it lacked depths and layer it just felt very simple and that's also how the writing felt as well.

Emma Noyes' How to Hide in Plain Sight is a captivating thriller that takes readers on a roller-coaster ride of suspense, emotion, and unexpected twists. The story revolves around our protagonist, a woman with a complex past, who has perfected the art of blending into her surroundings to escape a dark and dangerous secret.

The plot is engaging from the very first page. Noyes masterfully weaves a tale of intrigue and danger, creating a story that is both gripping and thought-provoking. The pacing is well-maintained, with the right amount of tension to keep readers on the edge of their seats without feeling overwhelmed. Each chapter unravels new layers of mystery, making it difficult to put the book down.

Noyes excels in crafting multi-dimensional characters. The protagonist is both relatable and intriguing, with a backstory that slowly unfolds throughout the novel. Her journey of self-discovery and survival is compelling and emotionally resonant. Supporting characters are equally well-developed, each adding depth and complexity to the story.

Noyes' writing is clear and descriptive, painting vivid pictures of the settings and emotions. Her ability to create an atmosphere of suspense is commendable. The dialogue is natural and flows smoothly, contributing to the overall realism of the narrative.

How to Hide in Plain Sight explores themes of identity, trust, and the lengths one will go to protect themselves and their loved ones. The novel delves into the psychological aspects of fear and the survival instinct, making it not just an enjoyable read, but also a thoughtful examination of human nature.

Overall, How to Hide in Plain Sight is a riveting read that will satisfy fans of the fiction genre. Emma Noyes has delivered a story that is both entertaining and emotionally engaging. Despite a few predictable moments, the novel's strong character development, compelling plot, and atmospheric writing make it a must-read. This book earns a solid four stars and comes highly recommended for those seeking a thrilling escape into a world of mystery and suspense.

I thought this one was interesting. I didn't know a ton about OCD, so I was really intrigued by how it was portrayed. This one deals with some heavy topics via Eliots intrusive thoughts. If you want a book that dives head first intothe struggles of mental illness, this one could be for you.

thank you emma noyes for the most accurate representation of the thoughts that plague my mind. filled to the brim with a massive cast of characters, regular and intense family drama, as well as childhood best friends to lovers, i loved every aspect of this book. while there are a lot of complex and difficult topics in this story, it is worth it if you can handle it. despite our characters going through the unthinkable, hope is still a prevailing theme