Tara has a dysfunctional relationship with her "mother", who is cruel and unfair throughout Tara's life with her. Tara escapes, lands an internship with the Feely family - who she has watched online for years and taken mental refuge with them. Tara feels that she has a fresh start with the Feelys while still harboring the constant fear that her mother will find her. Little does she know she is still trapped - how will she finally escape and find happiness?

This was a very compelling story and I loved the twists at the end - but I have to admit it was a hard, depressing read. Overall, good story. Just listen to happy music once you're done to lift you up!

Thanks to Emily Bleeker, Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

WOAH.
This was my first novel by Bleeker, and I will be reading more!
Just the right amount of suspense.
just the right amount "what the fuck is going on"
Thanks for the ARC!

DNF. Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for this early copy! I decided to not keep reading this one, it was not for me. Thanks!

This book reminded me of the book/movie White Oleander. Emily Bleeker is one of my favorite authors and I always look forward to her newest book. This one seemed a little more bland than some previous ones but still an enjoyable fluff of a read. She writes so that the stories are easy to read, flow well and you can vividly picture the characters and that's what makes her stories suck you in. I'm not really sure why the main character continued to pretend to be pregnant, when she didn't need to in the first place. I didn't get the feeling she was very bright, causing a lot of her predicament.

The few chapters didn't interest me at all which was disappointing.
I kept putting this book down and sadly had to DNF.
Thank you Netgalley for the free eArc in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first Emily Bleeker book and wow! It was really good! The storyline hooked me immediately. It was twisted and concerning and I needed to know where it was going! I basically couldn’t put this one down. There was a little bit in the middle that I got a bit bored by but it was pretty minimal and nothing that kept me from loving the book altogether. Full of twists and turns for sure! I also loved the writing and how vividly I could picture the events that were occurring and the personalities and actions of the characters. I would definitely recommend it & plan on reading more from this author!

4.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital copy!

I have this book 4 stars...and here’s why:

This is my first Emily Bleeker novel and I’m happy to have discovered her. I love a good twisted thriller, and this book pretty much did it for me. I’m interested to check out Bleeker’s other work. 4 stars!

Thank you to net galley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. This book was good. Not great. Good character development and well written. The story didn't hold my attention so I found myself struggling to finish this having to come back multiple times before finally finishing. I wish I had a better explanation for the author as to why this book didn't work for me, but I honestly don't know why other than the story itself just wasn't interesting to me. So in my opinion I'd say it's more of a my preference thing than anything having to do with the book. So I wouldn't not recommend nor recommend this book due to that.

This was a fast read and a page turner, even so, the story isn't very believable. I struggled at times to not give up and DNF the book, but I really wanted to know how the story ends.

TW: abuse

This story had a lot of potential with its unique premise but it just wasn’t as successful as it could have been.

The Pros: What worked for me

I really liked the way the author opened up the story. The way the reader was able to get into the head of Tara, the protagonist, and understand her plight was really good; I was invested in her character and worried for her.
The writing style made it easy for the reader to get into the story and the pacing was decent, too.

The Cons: What I didn’t like

Once Tara makes her daring escape, the story quickly switches from being a thriller to being an existential crisis of sorts. As one might expect, reality is never what it seems and Tara is surprised by the Feely family off-camera. If I’m honest, I didn’t really care about this revelation. It’s not something new, and it wasn’t even used to drive the story in any particular direction.
The author had explanations for scenarios that seemed a bit too convenient … but the explanations still didn’t leave me satisfied. While plausible, it was just a bit too simple and I wanted more development here.
There was a blossoming romance in this novel that made me roll my eyes. It was not developed well, and it really wasn’t necessary.
The ending was just too damn convenient. After all of the struggle Tara went through, the way things wrapped up in the end was just too easy. It left me feeling very disappointed.
Throughout the novel, I couldn’t help but feel as if the author just needed to spend more time delving deeper into the content to bring out the darker elements of the story. The premise has so much potential but the convenient explanations and lack of depth let it down.

While I ended up reading the book and didn’t mind 75% of the story, the disappointing ending and consistent lack of depth means I can only give this book 2.5/5 stars.

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars. Rounded down to 3 stars for Goodreads.

I had high hopes for What It Seems, but it fell short for me. The beginning was gripping and I liked that it started and ended with details from Tara/Angela's kidnapping. I feel like Angela's time with the the Feely's went from 0 to 100 really quick and could've had a bit more development. I did like the development of Angela and Henry's relationship and could tell that there was a romance budding there IF Angela could become free.

I did like the twist of her Mother kidnapping another girl and how that helped Angela remember what happened 20 years ago. On the note of Mother, I wanted a bit more background on her. The "prison" idea was just introduced and forgotten about. Why was she in prison before, was it for something to do with the original Tara?

Overall, I would read another Emily Bleeker book because I read some troupes that I liked.

I'm going to say that this was okay for me, it didn't make big impression on me 🤷 it was good writing but it has a lot of hard elements in it.. too savage for my taste i guess.

Thank you to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing.

I knew nothing of this book or author going in, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was fantastic ! Loved it! Fast paced, gripping and with twists I didn't see coming. The mother though? Damn!! Worst mother of the year award!

Impressive!! I loved this book from the start and couldn’t put it down! Such an eye opening account if one woman’s bravery through such adversity!
Kept me on my toes from page one right until the end!!!!

Tara lives with her adoptive mother in a psychologically abusive relationship - finding her escape by following vlogging families as her emotional escape. She finds an opportunity to become an intern one of the families and makes her escape after an altercation with her mother. While taken into the folds of the new family she discovers not all as it appears online.

Thank you to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC!

This synopsis gripped me right away, but unfortunately the book didn't completely hit the mark for me as I thought it was a bit predictable and wanted more action and twists/turns. With that said, this is a perfect, quick summer thriller and I definitely recommend it!

This is another thriller that is full of family drama and keeps you guessing until the end. I just wish it was more "action packed" in the middle and that I related with the characters a bit more!

Tara has had a difficult life. Abandoned by her birth parents at the age of 8, she was then adopted by Mother. Mother is controlling and manipulative and abusive, and Tara desperately dreams of a life outside of her prison. Her only escape is through YouTube, where she watches normal families live their normal lives and fantasises about joining them. But when her dreams show signs of coming true, Tara must question whether she is really strong enough to leave everything she has ever known. Can she truly find happiness in the outside world? Or is Mother right when she says that Tara will never leave her?

Ok, this is a bit of an odd one in terms of plot. You've got a young woman, who was adopted by an absolute horror of a woman at age 8. To escape from the abuse, she becomes an intern for a popular YouTube family, the Feely's. But they too are hiding a darker side, and nothing is quite as it seems behind their picture perfect facade. So yeah, it just all sounded a bit odd to me, and I wasn't really sure how it would all tie together. But fortunately, it worked really well!

Genre wise, it's a mix of a psychological thriller and domestic drama. There's definitely a strong tone of suspense throughout the novel, and although there are elements of it that may stretch reality a bit, altogether it does make for a very unique and interesting read. It definitely stands out in comparison to other thrillers around nowadays, and by the ending I was completely gripped, flying through the pages desperate to know how everything would tie together! On the whole, it's one I would recommend, by an author I'd love to read again.

POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNING: Now, I will admit there is quite a lot of child abuse described in this one, which I imagine may be off-putting for some people. For me, I felt like these elements of the plot were handled cautiously and with respect, and that their presence in the story was not gratuitous in any way. However, others may disagree, and obviously everyone knows their own limits when it comes to reading this sort of content. For anyone who is trying to decide whether to give it a go - the abuse is largely emotional, with some physical abuse/deprivation also included. There is no reference to childhood sexual abuse, although there is an incident of sexual assault later in the book between two adult characters.

I wanted to love this book, but I struggled and truthfully, didn't finish it. I have a hard time reading anything that alludes to or implicitly describes child abuse or emotional abuse. I am sure the book is well written, but the content was just not for me. I may at some point try reading this again, and I will at that time update my review. ( until I can properly finish, this will be my only review, so I don't skew anything based on book I was unable to complete).

Tara was adopted by her foster mother at the age of eight when her parents decided that they could no longer take care of three children. Now twenty-years-old, she hasn’t managed to see much of the world. Mother is extremely controlling. Tara is forced to work for Mother shoplifting and reselling the items they acquire. Tara yearns for something more. She wants a life and a family like those popular accounts on YouTube. What would happen if she ran away from Mother? Could she find her own happiness or would Mother find her first?

WHAT IT SEEMS drops the reader into Tara’s life with Mother. We see an unhappy life of shoplifting and imprisonment. Tara isn’t free to leave Mother, her house, or even her room without the possibility of severe consequences. Being front and center watching Tara’s life immediately allows the reader to bond with her and cheer for her escaping this life. This start also adds an immediate sense of tension and dread with thoughts of what Mother is capable of and what could happen to Tara if she did escape.

I want to keep the bulk of the plot to this story vague, so I won’t be digging deeper than that. I really think this is one of those stories you need to go into blindly to avoid any spoilers. What I will say about the progression of the story is that Bleeker does a fantastic job of holding a sense of suspense throughout the book. There are moments when you feel extremely worried for Tara, but you can’t look away because you need to know what will happen next.

I thought the basis for the story was really original and not what seems to be rather run of the mill these days in the thriller world. There are a lot of great modern touches, which make the story relatable and believable for the current generation. I loved how everything came together at the end! I absolutely flew through the last fifty pages simply glued to my seat needing to know more!

If you’re looking for an entertaining and heart pounding read, you’re going to want WHAT IT SEEMS on your TBR!