This is the second Brandi Reeds book I've read (the first being Trespassing) and I think she's really got this whole family dysfunction, secrecy, and lies thing down. The basic premise is that a four-year-old child named Holly goes missing for three months and is returned to the same spot from where she was taken, unharmed, and with no memory of where she's been or who she's been with. Crazy right? Well, that little girl is now an adult, and while they locked up a guy for her kidnapping a long time ago, more kids are being kidnapped now. Holly wants to revisit the past and try to help the police, but she's not the most reliable....she drinks too much and blacks out. So did they get the right man all those years ago? Does Holly know more than she's saying? And what about Holly's mom, who has her own crazy issues going on? This story is like an onion, with so many layers to unravel. I really got a kick out of it.

I absolutely loved the author's writing style but I felt I couldn't fully get into this book. Parts of the book felt choppy and sometimes quite confusing; aspects felt a little too convenient at times. Admittedly I struggled to finish it, but felt that the premise itself was great.

Holly was kidnapped when she was 5. She was held for 94 days before being returned to her family unharmed. Now an adult she has no memory of her time away from her parents, but when a detective tells her other girls have gone missing, and not all have survived, she needs to get her memory back and fast. A little girls life depends on it. This is a well written book with a clever plot and lots of other complex, underlying stories of family secrets and deceit. The characters are believable and relatable and you find yourself needing to know what happens next. I read this in a day. I really enjoyed this author's style of writing and will be looking to download more of her work

This one was really good. Holly cannot remember being kidnapped for three months when she was four suddenly finds the police are looking into her case--and others.

The characters are, for the most part, well-written and developed and the reader understands the connections between them. The mystery is tight, with a lot of suspects but none of them really seem too far-fetched--including Holly's parents. I really liked the second narrator (Holly's mom) offering glimpses of the past and rounding out the story so the reader understood the motivations of decisions. The only thing I didn't like was the ending--it felt a little too pat for me, which is why it didn't get another star.

Thanks to Net Galley for giving me the opportunity to read this before it is published.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A kidnapping victim who was returned home safely 20 years previously is enlisted to help a current victim with the same set of circumstances.

A young girl is kidnapped and mysteriously returned several months later. 20 years later, she has hardly any memories of the childhood trauma. When another little girl goes missing, she finds herself questioning everything, and everyone, she’s ever known. Will she be able to remember her past before it’s too late.

A great read with unpredictable twists. Even in the final chapters, I couldn’t put together all of the details and figure it out. But by the end, things were wrapped up nicely.

Not unusually, this book alternates between Holly’s point of view, and that of her mother, who is actually in a coma following a road accident. It’s set in the present, with them both looking back and trying to make sense of what happened when Holly was kidnapped, aged 4, 20 years ago.

Cecily, Holly’s mother, has her own demons to deal with, and you are drip fed throughout the issues they faced as a family both prior to Holly’s abduction, during, and afterwards. Holly, equally, is trying to piece together what happened to her, even more so when it becomes clear she may be able to help with another case involving a missing girl.

This is an interesting storyline, and it’s a fast-pacey read. However, I struggled a bit to really connect with any of the characters. There’s possibly a bit too much going on in terms of relationships that, for me, they felt a little underdeveloped. Holly seems to be very close to a few people, but those relationships just don’t translate well on to the page, so it all felt quite superficial and difficult to relate to.

Equally, so much of what happened, and how it all tied together at the end, felt incredibly far fetched. I appreciate this is fiction, and we can all suspend a bit of belief, but it just barely made sense, other than to finish off a story. For me, that let it all down a little.

The Stars
This was a 3 star for me. It was enjoyable enough, but didn’t entirely keep me hooked, and in the end left me feeling a bit meh.

Not really sure why it was titled the Day I Disappeared, I did think it was a very good read, had a nice story line to it. But I think they could have a better title for it, one more like All the missing Girls, or Who took the missing girls.
With that being said it was a very read, The writer did keep you guessing who it was that took them right up to the very end, I would tell friends to read this book,

This book was rather confusing during the first couple of chapters but once I made it through those chapters I was captivated by the trying to figure out the mystery. A young girl is kidnapped without a trace, three months later she shows up at the scene of the crime without any memory of the kidnapping and only a scar on her arm as physical evidence of the event. Years later another kidnapping occurs and Holly is their only hope. As she tries to remember what happened and where she was taken as a child she begins to question whether the correct person is in jail for her kidnapping. Brandi Reeds writes with such passion that the book flows in a mystical way! I was captivated to the end!

I'm usually not a big fan of books where the point of view changes however this one was very different because it let the reader in on a lot of things that they wouldn't be able to understand otherwise. This book is a very captivating thriller that leaves the reader on the edge of their seat just dying to figure it out. It starts with
our main character Holly remembering part of her past. She was kidnapped when she was younger only to be returned after three months. While Holly was unharmed she has no memory of what actually happened to her during that time frame. Fast forward twenty years later and now she is forced to come to terms with what actually happened to her while she was missing as another little girl goes missing under the same pretenses. Is the man they have charged really guilty of the crime? and if he isn't then who is really behind the kidnappings of both her and other children? This thriller will keep you guessing through the whole story. I really liked the characters in this book they were very compelling but also gave the reader an eerie vibe to them. With so many twists and turns this fast pace thriller will keep you on your toes and take you for a wild ride that you never want to end. I'm very glad that I got the chance to check out this novel, thank you Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity..

Brandi Reeds's The Day I Disappeared was a pleasant surprise--I really liked it!

Holly Gebhardt was kidnapped when she was four. For three agonizing months her family thought she might never come home. And then, as mysteriously as she was taken, she is returned to the same spot, unharmed except for an arrow-shaped scar on her arm.

Now, twenty years later, another little girl is missing under the same circumstances as Holly, and the last in a string of kidnappings that Detective Jason Guidry thinks Holly can help solve, if she can just remember more of her own ordeal.

But as she begins to unravel clues, Holly discovers secrets that could destroy her family.

Reeds moved this story along quite well and I was left guessing who the bad guy was until the very end. I loved that she cast suspicion on everyone in a believable way, so the reader felt just as unmoored as Holly did. And the secrets she weaves through Cecily makes this a departure from a lot of the predictable kidnapping books out there.

The only thing I disliked was the egotistical Kitten, right down to her pretentious nickname. I kept wishing for Holly to slap her silly.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this review copy. I would gladly read more books by this author and I definitely recommend this one.

An eerie phycological thriller with lost of twist n turns. Kidnapping, family ties, loss of memory, the mother a suspect?
Once you think you've figured it out; you realize you were way off.
Great story!! Will recommend to others.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this thriller.

Holly, now in her twenties, was kidnapped when she was four and returned to a park near her home three months later, apparently unharmed. Either because of the trauma or her young age or both, she didn’t remember what happened while she was gone. But 20 years later, when more little girls have been abducted, she wants to help the detective on the case find any of them who are still alive. Currently a handyman is imprisoned for taking her, but she’s not sure he’s guilty. Hollie wants to talk to her mother about it, but she was in a severe car accident and is currently in a coma.

At the beginning, when almost every chapter had the same heading “Holly, June 6,” I had a rough time following along. I wish the author had added a time to those chapter titles. Other than that Reeds writes very well, keeps the story moving smoothly and casts suspicion on every male in the story. That made it very hard to guess who the real villain was.

I would gladly read more titles by Reeds. I recommend this book to all thriller readers who like a fast-paced whodunit.

Wow! This book was amazing. A little girl is kidnapped when she's 4 years old for 3 months. Finally three months later, she is returned to the place she got kidnapped at which is the park. She's unharmed and doesn't even remember the ordeal nor does she know who kidnaps her. Two families are intertwined in this tragedy and no one knows who really did this although someone has been in jail for 20 years for the crime. I really like this book because it was so deep between the two families who grew up best of friends 4 / 20 years. Also the fact that there were other little girls kidnapped and murdered in this story made it really touching and hard to read at times. I just really enjoyed this book it was a little different storyline and it was really deep and I absolutely love this book and I definitely would recommend it

Its a beautiful mother-daughter unity story with suspense and thrilling moments. Classic kidnappings and detective story. I really loved how the author portrayed a mother’s feelings for her missing daughter.. it was deep.. Plot was but bumpy at times.. but “The day I disappeared” is a good story overall..
Thank you NetGalley, author and publisher for reader’s copy of this book. This review is my own and is not influenced in any way!

Wow what a great thriller, absolutely FULL of twists. I kept thinking I had got it, and I knew what was going on and then there was another big shift and I was left guessing again!

I did find for a little while in the middle that the book became a little bit choppy, but the overall plot kept going and I needed to know how it finished! So many of the little parts of the lives of the characters were realistic which added to the intensity and feelings that came with reading.

Any fans of thrillers will enjoy this one - it has everything that you want and need in this genre so comes highly recommended by me.

This was an excellent novel that kept me literally entranced. The character depiction was on point and the story was fascinating and well developed.

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy. Parts of this were confusing and choppy for me but the plot kept me interested. Some really good secrets come to light at the end.

The Day I Disappeared kept me intrigued from start to finish. I refused to stop reading until I finished the book, so I ended up reading it in one night. That said, the prologue/first chapter does kind of give the ending away. Reeds does do a great job with the red herrings and the ending wraps up nicely. It was a little obvious for me, but I was still at the edge of my seat waiting to see how it would conclude. I found some of the dialogue to not completely click, and I do wish some of the side characters had been fleshed out a little more.

Interesting story and the plot moved along nicely. I did figure out who was taking the girls pretty early on in the book, but there were other twists that I didn't anticipate. It kept me entertained and wanting to read more.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.