***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of THE DAY I DISAPPEARED by Brandi Reeds in exchange for my honest review.***

4.5 STARS

Four-year-old Holly is kidnapped and returned three months later with no memory of her abduction. Twenty years later, her mother lies in a coma from a drunk driving crash that may or may not have been an accident. Holly, like her mother, drinks excessively. Still close to her best friend Kitten, the only witness to the kidnapping, Holly struggles to fulfill her role as maid of honor.

Told primarily in Holly’s point of view, with some chapters in her comatose mother’s I stayed interested from start to finish. Although her captor sits in jail, new evidence makes everyone a suspect, from Kitten’s older brother and father to the creepy foreman on her father’s construction site to Holly’s own parents. My initial guess was wrong.

My only criticism is the subtle pro-gun message that permeated throughout the book including the shooting range called The Second Amendment Club. Everybody is pro gun and carrying concealed weapons, which prevented me from rounding up.

THE DAY I DISAPPEARED is an engaging, unpredictable mystery.

This was a fun, well plotted mystery that honestly kept me guessing right up until the reveal.

The Day I Disappeared follows kidnapping survivor Holly who was abducted from the park as a child and then mysteriously returned to that same place 3 months later with no memories of the time she was missing. At the time, a local man confessed and was sent to jail but now 20 years later the police have received a tip that makes it look like a string of abductions that have happened since are actually all connected which raises doubts about if the man who confessed actually did kidnap her or if there is a copycat out there. The police ask for Holly's help with the case, to see if she can remember anything from that time that would help them recover another little girl who is currently missing. Holly would rather leave the past in the past but she has her own questions about the time and so she agrees to help in the hopes of finding the missing girl and filling in the missing gaps in her memory.

I did find the synopsis of this book a little misleading as it makes it seem like Holly's mother is actively hiding things from her/impeding the investigation in modern times but in actuality the story is told in alternating POVs between Holly as she tries to figure out the truth behind her kidnapping, and the recollections her mother (who is currently in a coma) has of the time. Her mom is still extremely suspicious, don't get me wrong! But the family drama doesn't really play out between Holly and her mom and is instead shown more through how each of them is feeling.

I suspected literally every man, woman, and child at one point or another during this book. I knew that there were a lot of red herrings being thrown around but because both Holly and her mother are unreliable narrators I really couldn't figure out who was guilty of what until a couple of pages before the reveal happened. Sometimes I think mysteries have the reveal come completely out of nowhere just for the shock factor but I didn't find that with this story. The clues were there, but the author did a good job of laying false trails and making the reader doubt the narrators so it wasn't really clear where exactly the book was going.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and thought it was a fun, quick read. My only real complaint was that Holly's ~personal issues with her best friend and ex boyfriend were kind of annoying/repetitive. Because the story is relatively short neither of those characters is super developed and so I found the amount of time spent on them frustrating. Kitten (the best friend) was especially obnoxious and if I didn't know like 3 different people in real life who would probably act just like her I would have found her incredibly unbelievable instead of just mildly unbelievable. I would have liked to see those character either be better developed or around less.

I'd give it a 3.75/5. This wasn't exactly mind blowing but it was thoroughly enjoyable and I'll definitely be looking out for more books from this author going forward!

Dark, creepy, deep, and disturbing at times! This was a jam-packed story full of stories and crazy characters! So many characters were involved and because I found it a little hard to follow at some points and had to backtrack, it lost a star. And just a side note: I found Kitten to be very annoying and self-absorbed! But I think that was the point of her character!

At 4 years old, Holly was kidnapped from a park and was returned 3 months later in the same location. Even though she has no recollection of the event, a man was arrested, convicted, and is serving 25 years in prison. But how if there was no proof? Fast forward 20 years and another girl goes missing. The detective on the case reaches out to Holly in hopes that she can somehow recall her ordeal and help find the current missing girl. This story is told from two points of view - Holly, and her mother, Cecily. Holly’s views are current and Cecily’s views are from what happened in the past, as she is in a coma from a car accident. Secrets come to light and many people become involved in this nightmare! I recommend it!

Full Of Surprises. I normally pride myself in picking up on things somewhat early. On this one, I didn't actually know what was happening until the final reveal. Lots going on here, but all written and revealed in a compelling fashion. Pretty dark, involving serial kidnappings, many with murders. But truly compelling reading, there is never really a sense of "I can put this thing down for good now" until the last word is read and you're forced to put it down for good. Very much recommended.

The Day I Disappeared is the story of Holly who 20 years ago was taken from a local park but returned to that same park unharmed 94 days later. Even though Holly could not remember any part of her time away the local odd guy was arrested and put away for the kidnapping. While at her best friends engagement party she receives a call from a local detective wanting to talk about what happened to her.Is it possible that they put the wrong man in jail? Has her abductor been kidnapping and killing 10 other girls over the last 20 years?
The premise of this book was very interesting and Brandi Reeds does a good job of giving you multiple options for the killer that it keeps you guessing. However I did not really care for Holly or her best friend, Kitten. Normally I can move past a dislike of a character or two but in this case Holly is so integral to the story that I could not give this more than a basic "like" for this one.

It's been twenty years since Holly Gebhardt was kidnapped as a four-year-old only to be returned to the same park some three months later, physically unharmed but without any memory of who took her or where she'd been.

When another young girl disappears, the clues point to a copy-cat case since Holly's kidnapper is in jail, having been charged and found guilty of her abduction. But this is not the first case with similarities to Holly's, although most of the girls taken were either found dead or presumed to be so. Is there a copy-cat or did they lock up the wrong man? And why can't she remember anything still?

The story is told principally from Holly's viewpoint as she relives the incident when similarities to her case jolt her memory. But, to her disappointment, it's all so vague and disjointed.

The other viewpoint character is Holly's mother, Cecily, who is in hospital in a coma after a car accident. Cecily's story hints at her knowing more than she told the police. Her to-date untold story gives the reader an insight into what might have happened and why.

Put together, the two perspectives create a suspenseful whole ... but not until all of the theories and suspects are eliminated to leave only one possibility. Such is the joy of the unreliable narrator ... or, in this case, narrators!

This is more than a story of a child's disappearance. It strays into the lives of Holly's parents and neighbours whose past actions make them worthy of suspicion. The story challenges friendships, stirs doubt and raises suspicion all while the hunt continues for the latest missing child. Secrets, affairs, and lies all contribute to a tense and suspenseful read.

Thank you to #netgalley and #lakeunionpublishing for an advanced free copy, in exchange for an honest review.⁣
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This thriller was superb. It had me at hello and held me in a vice grip until the very end. I know I am being redundant, but thrillers are SO hard to do well. This one would have had Angela Lansbury scratching her head. I aggressively accused and handcuffed every single character by the end of the book. I was stumped in the very best way. ⁣
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Holly is kidnapped as a child and found months later, seemingly unharmed. She has no memory of what happened to her and was of little help to the police. A man is eventually charged and found guilty. Twenty years later, he remains behind bars, but there is another girl that vanishes under very similar circumstances. Holly is asked to help the police and to try to remember what might have happened to her twenty years ago.⁣
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Set your alarms for August 25, 2020, when this nail-bitter is released into the wild. After finishing, I immediately went to check out Reed’s other works. Two of her other books, Trespassing and Third Party are on Kindle Unlimited, so I immediately checked those bad boys into my e-library. ⁣If you’re new to the Reed party too, I’m telling you, she’ll having you compulsively turning pages. Add her to your thriller must-read list!
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would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this brilliant book

wow was pulled right into this story right from the first chapter and it kept the momentum and suspense right up to the end...

this is about a kidnapping of a little girl called holly

she is at the park with her mom and her best friend kitten and her mom when she is kidnapped
as the days weeks and months continue with no body the investigation goes on and hollys mom starts to disintegrate and becomes a sort of pharaoh in the eyes of the police and the general public, and its not long before she is blamed for it all and the hate mail starts.....

suddenly holly is returned and the person is caught thanks to kittens identifying the kidnapper and he is jailed for life...
but why are there more little girls kidnapped and suddenly things take a twist...

oh i have to say i was gripped by this story and was suspecting everyone...brilliantly written on a subject that is quite hard to read about

will be keeping an eye out for more of this authors works

Thank you Netgalley, Lake Union Publishing and Brandi Reeds for this ARC in return for my honest review.
While I enjoyed this book, I didn't find the characters likeable and the story was murder by numbers. A little too predictable for me.

The Day I Disappeared is an interesting combination of women's fiction and suspense/thriller. The book was a quick read for me because it kept me engaged throughout. I found about 70% of the thriller component fairly predictable, but there were definitely twists I didn't see coming. I found Cecily's perspective really interesting and felt that the chapters and reveals told in her view really pushed the story forward for me. On the other hand, Holly, as a character, was extremely frustrating to me. I think my rating could have been a little higher if I liked or felt invested in at least one character enough to care about more than just solving the mystery. I found even the surrounding characters unlikeable - especially with Holly and her best friend, Kitten, their dynamic seemed relatively toxic to me.

Thank you to the author, Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book is intriguing, but I found it slow going and very predictable. The main characters were not credible, their characterization flat and they were all unlikeable. In addition, there were so many of them - although I enjoy reading stories with alternating POVs, it took me ages to work out who was speaking and where they belonged in the story.

This took me a little while to get into, but once I did get fully invested into the story, I really enjoyed it. It was unpredictable with lots of twists and turns. Will recommend.

This book was quite the page turner! I actually read this one while I was in the hospital after having my last baby, so if I hadn't been completely exhausted I likely would have finished it in just a few hours.

This was a fun and refreshing break from the "typical" thrillers. As much as I love the genre, thrillers and suspense books can start to all run together if I read too many at once. I have to scatter my thrillers between other genres so that I don't get that "thriller burnout" that seems to affect many of us bookworms. But like I said, this wasn't the stereotypical thriller story and I liked that about it.

The book alternates between Holly's point of view and the thoughts of her mother, Cecily, who is currently in a coma after a vehicular accident. As Holly is trying to piece together the events that transpired twenty years ago, Cecily is finally coming to terms with admitting some things she long ago buried about what really happened leading up to the day of Holly's disappearance. If only she could wake up.

I had a lot of fun trying to unravel this story. Each time I thought I had something figured out, a wrench was thrown in and I'd have to start again. Toward the end, things started to piece together nicely and although I was able to figure out the twist, it was still surprising and unexpected when I did find out. I felt the ending was a bit rushed, but it added to the page-turner aspect as well so I can forgive that. I though Reeds did a wonderful job on creating the characters in this story and setting everyone up for their perfect spot in the twisty plot. This was a great fast-paced book and a fun mystery.

(Will be reviewing on Instagram, Amazon, my blog, and Goodreads. Will post those links when live.)

Reading this thriller, I was hooked from the start and the story kept me on edge, suspecting everyone, as a mystery is unraveled. A four-year-old child, Holly, is missing and three months later appears in the same park. Holly’s mother, Cecily, has secrets about what happened the day Holly disappeared. When another girl disappears twenty years later, Holly’s help is needed to find the child. Told in alternating points of view, the story moves at a brisk pace and has a satisfying ending. I was cheering for Holly and Celeste all the way and plan to read the author’s other novels. Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

For some reason, this book and I just didn't mesh well. I didn't find the main character enjoyable to read and I had a tough time buying the friendship between her and Kitten *cringe*

I mystery was interesting and I know others will really love this one - if the synopsis sounds like your kind of story, grab it. Maybe I'm just having an off day.....

The Day I Disappeared was rather dull as far as mysteries/thrillers go. For me, a key component in what makes for a good mystery/thriller is having twists and turns that I don't see coming--and not because they are simply too ridiculous to possibly see coming, but instead are only obvious in hindsight with endings that are clearly being built up to from the beginning. Unfortunately, this book just did not have that key component and fell pretty solidly into the predictable category. Not to mention that the book didn't really have anything very fresh or new to offer the genre, and it kind of felt like I've read three other books like this one. Overall, it was a distinctly average read.

Three months after a young girl, Holly, is kidnapped, she is returned to her parents apparently unharmed. She has no memory of the incident. Twenty years later, a similar kidnapping takes place, and Holly helps in the investigation. The story is told from both Holly’s perspective and that of her mother, who is comatose following an automobile accident and who has her own demons.

Although this novel was slow moving plot wise for me, it was a good read with a fair amount of twists and turns. However, the characters fell flat for me and seemed underdeveloped. Additionally, there were so of them that they made the story confusing at times, and virtually all of them were difficult to connect with. (I especially found Holly’s best friend Kitty particularly difficult, especially as a Bridezilla.) Nonetheless, I look forward to what Brandi Reeds writes next for her adult audience.

This is my first book by this author. Holly, as a child gets kidnapped and returned three months later with no memory of what happened. There is tension between Holly and her mother. Now, twenty years later another girl is kidnapped and the police want Holly’s help. The reason for three stars is because it was slow and tedious at times. I also figured it out. It had some twists and turns. I want to thank net galley and the publisher for this ARC I received for an honest review.

I'll admit, this book took me quite a long time to read. The beginning had me quite confused, and it didn't really draw me in. It wasn't the type of book that you would feel obsessed with reading, like you're immediately hooked in. It was slowly paced from the beginning to the middle, I'd say. Though, I understand why it was slowly paced, because Holly is battling with her past rising up, especially when she has no memories of the incident. So being pushed to help out in the case really does change a lot for her.

The book is interesting in the way it is wrote; it's a dual point of view. One chapter is of Holly, while the other is her mother, Cecily, who is in a coma. So the way the story is told, is two different stories. Holly talks about the present, while Cecily is stuck in her thoughts, explaining herself and her choices/actions. Eventually, the reader gets more information than Holly, but it didn't really piece all together, like where you could say "Oh yeah! That's where that happened, or that's what she meant!", until like into three quarters of the book.

I'd give the book a three stars, because the start of the book didn't really set it into stone for me. It was interesting, but it wasn't enough, to get me to keep on reading. But I'd say to keep on reading, because later on in the book, does everything does get going. And there are some well put surprises.

Thank you Netgalley for an early copy for an honest review.
This is my first novel by Brandi Reeds , I enjoyed The Day I Disappeared very much. Many twist and turns not the usual predictable ending .