Elli and Sam are identical twins. After a period of fame as tween/teen stars, they struggle. Elli wants a normal life and Sam wants to get a handle on her addictions. What are each of them willing to do in order to get what they want? The story does an interesting balancing act between showing the solid connection between the two while also showing the impact of having someone so close to you for so long. The resulting story has a lot of depth and nuance. The reader can get completely wrapped up in the story of female power, sibling rivalry, cults, and drug addiction or read it at surface level for a good thriller. Depending on your mood and perhaps familial relationships, this story can be a different experience for the reader. No matter, I expect it is one most will enjoy.

Twin sisters and former child stars, Sam and Elli haven’t spoken in over a year, but when Elli goes missing it's up to Sam to figure out what happened and in the process confront the secrets from their past.

Billed as a thriller, this is slower-paced than that genre usually implies. There are twits, and they are satisfying is not always surprising, and the momentum is perfect - the need to uncover the mysteries will keep you turning pages. But there is also great character development and a real literary quality to the writing. I was invested from the start and never wavered.

This was my first book by Janelle Brown and I am eager to read more.

Janelle Browns thrilling book is about a set of identical female twins who got into some sort of arguement or disagreement over a year ago. 388 days ago to be excat but whose counting?! The girls ended up not speaking to one another that entire time. Until now, sorta. Elli and Sam's mother calls because she received a text from Elli to have her get into contact with Sam to take Charlotte whom Sam knows nothing about. Charlotte is Ellis adopted 4? year old daughter. Charlotte was adopted while Elli and Chuck were still together, during the time that Elli and Sam quit talking. Ellis parents dont seem too worried about where Elli is or the fact that she hasnt come to pick up Charlotte. As their mother states: She is the responsible one and she maybe just needed more time since Chuck and her are getting a divorce. Elli is at some GenFem retreat and or spa. Upon Sam speaking to the neighbor lady at her sisters home, she learns that the woman feels GenFem has "culty" vibes. Is it a cult?

When Sam goes to take Charlotte to see her mother at this "retreat" they refuse to let them in, stating they have nobody by the name of Elli or Ellanor and they need to leave they weren't invited. So, what happens next will sujrprise you.... and why can't Sam find any of the paperwork on Charlottes adoption?? What is really going on??
Read this book. It's very good and a bit misguiding at times but a true "whodunit" Is Elli in trouble? Does she need rescued? Is Elli running from parenthood because Chuck and her are getting divorced? You decide, then conclude for yourself. You won't be sorry you did.

Triggers from Book:
abandonment, family feuding, drug talk, pill use, divorce, selling to minors, child star abuse, cultish, bad parenting, adoption, secrets, lies, retreat, feminism, and soooo many others.

Sam and Ellie are beautiful twin sisters, former childhood actresses, and have not spoken in a year. Sam loved acting and being the center of attention, but has faced a long battle with addiction and grief at the decline of her acting career. Ellie , the responsible sister, seemingly has it all with a loving husband, big house, and career she loves.

When Sam's dad asks her to come home to help out with Charlotte, Ellie's daughter (this is Sam's first time hearing of her niece!), Sam agrees. With one year of sobriety under her belt she struggles being around her family, but thrives with caring for Charlotte. After the weekend passes, with no sign of Ellie returning home, Sam starts to worry. With help from a new friend from AA, Sam tries to get to the bottom of where Ellie is and what is going on.

Written in dual timelines we switch to Ellie and learn where she is, and how she got wrapped up in what many would consider a cult. We dive into the cracks in her "perfect" life and deep secrets that shocked those around her. The book wrapped up nicely with not everything perfect, but everything going as well as they should be,

I loved this book. I have read many books about cults, but this one was different. It did not focus on a lot of the nitty gritty workings of the group, but instead the logic for members and how they got so involved. I also loved the pacing of the book. The woven in past chapters helped tie things along as we went through the story. I appreciated that there were no crazy background mysteries and that we seemingly had all the details we needed along the way. I had never read a book by this author before, but have immediately ordered more. I give this book 4.5 stars, rounded to 5.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

If you enjoy women's fiction and reading about cults, this book is definitely for you. If you're hoping for a nail biting thriller, you may want to keep looking.

I really enjoyed the crux of this story, the cult concept and the interesting lives of child actor twins - twins are always interesting!

I don't want to give anything away, but just know there are some really interesting twists that you will not see coming.

The only issue I had with the book was that it dragged a bit, and the ending felt a bit anticlimactic to me. It just didn't have the punch I was looking for from a thriller.

I’ll be You by Janelle Brown is an impressive and engaging look into sisterhood. I’ve always been fascinated with books about sisters and twins. My sister is my best friend and my mom was a twin. This story even brings in another aspect I’m intrigued with-cults. Brown weaves together the characters their motivations and the action flawlessly. At one point, the perspective changes and it elevates this to the next level. There was one point where I got actually chills. Sam was such a layered person that she felt real to me. I’ll be You is impossible to put down once you start. Brown evoked so many emotions and I am immediately getting her entire backlist.

Sam and Elli Logan seemed to have it all. Identical twins who were discovered by a talent agent at the age of nine, they were transported from a quiet life in Santa Barbara to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. They were a team: inseparable, each defending and covering for each other, often switching their identities to do so. Sam, the outgoing one, loved being the center of attention. Elli, the shy one, longed for a normal, quiet life. But as they hit their teen years, the pressure of Hollywood took its toll and their once impenetrable bond fractured.

Now, in their thirties, Sam is recovering from alcohol and drug addiction. Elli is apparently living a charmed life as a florist, married to her college sweetheart. But Sam finds out that things have not been quite as idyllic for Elli as she thought. Elli sends a cryptic message to their parents, asking that Sam help take care of her adopted daughter, Charlotte, while she extends her stay at an exclusive “retreat”. Sam learns that Elli is going through a divorce and her business is floundering. As Sam spends time with Charlotte and Elli still does not return, she can’t help but feel that something is wrong. Sam begins to investigate her sister’s life and the organization behind this retreat, as she tries to piece together who Elli is now from the version she knew growing up. Both Sam and Elli will have to confront their fears, vulnerabilities, flaws, and regrets, as they pick up the pieces of their shattered lives and figure out how to embrace who they truly are on their own.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a slow burn for me, but I still devoured most of it in one day. I love how Janelle explores their relationship and how inseparable they are, but also the struggles they have together and how they handle their lives independently. Personally, I cared for Sam’s character more. I was more emotionally attached to her, despite not ever having dealt with addiction. I was able to understand the path of addiction better by how Janelle crafted her storyline, and I loved Sam’s attitude throughout the entire novel. Elli is probably more like my personality, but she fell a little flat for me, particularly with her choices. Without giving any spoilers, I was a fan of the reveal concerning Elli’s whereabouts. Janelle Brown did her due diligence researching that element, and I felt like I gained more knowledge on why people are susceptible to the life that Elli found herself inadvertently choosing. Also, I always love an ending involving redemption. In all, I definitely recommend this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I will link this review to my Goodreads profile and post a sneak peek review on Instagram this week, with my full review closer to the publication date.

I'll Be You was an enjoyable read primarily because of its interesting exploration of identical twins - their psyches and their unique roles in the TV industry. This book is classified as a thriller/mystery, but it falls short on both fronts. While it's hard to classify the novel within a rigid genre, to me, it read more like a contemporary family drama. Three and a half stars rounded up.

Overall the writing and plot were good, and the story was engaging.; I wanted to keep reading. Midway, however, it slowed down. While I wanted the author to move the story forward, she kept going back in time to explain the twins' history. Also, I felt like much of the cult material was adapted from recent cult documentaries, especially those focused on NXIVM. More emphasis on the cult's leader and her interactions with followers would have been welcome and added to the suspense.

All in all, I'll Be You is a good read, but not if you like "heart in your throat "thrillers.

Thanks, NetGalley, for providing me with a free ebook version of this book in exchange for an honest review.

After recently reading (and loving!) Pretty Things, I was super excited to get I’ll Be You audiobook as a #PRHAInfluencer as well as a digital copy on NetGalley. The book starts out with the POV of Sam, narrated by the always amazing Julia Whelan, and I was intrigued by both the present day Sam as well as the flashbacks to her and her twin’s childhood acting career. This book did a great job at portraying the messy family relationships and the way hurt and anger can exist along with deep love and devotion to your family members.

When the POV shifted to Elli I struggled a bit, her storyline seemed to drag out a bit too long and touched upon many things we already knew. I also felt like her storyline had some very far fetched plot points which I can’t really detail without giving away spoilers. The ending also felt a bit too clean and easy given the multitude of issues being addressed. This was missing a bit of the suspense I’d expect in a thriller and feel like it might be more of a family drama than a thriller/mystery. It is an entertaining and well written novel that I enjoyed that I would recommend to fans of literary family dramas. 3.5/5⭐️

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for the DRC. I’ll Be You will be out on April 26!

I really enjoyed this novel by Brown. While there is a bit of a mystery/thriller angle, it's really a family drama about identical twin sisters, B-list child stars, who are now trying to navigate adulthood, and what that looks like for each of them.

“'You be me, and I’ll be you,” I whispered.'

As children, Sam and Elli were two halves of a perfect whole: gorgeous identical twins whose parents sometimes couldn’t even tell them apart. They fell asleep to the sound of each other’s breath at night, holding hands in the dark. And once Hollywood discovered them, they became B-list child TV stars, often inhabiting the same role.

But as adults, their lives have splintered. After leaving acting, Elli reinvented herself as the perfect homemaker: married to a real estate lawyer, living in a house just blocks from the beach. Meanwhile, Sam has never recovered from her failed Hollywood career, or from her addiction to the pills and booze that have propped her up for the last fifteen years.

Sam hasn't spoken to her sister since her destructive behavior finally drove a wedge between them. So when her father calls out of the blue, Sam is shocked to learn that Elli’s life has been in turmoil: her husband moved out, and Elli just adopted a two-year-old girl. Now she’s stopped answering her phone and checked in to a mysterious spa in Ojai. Is her sister just decompressing, or is she in trouble? Could she have possibly joined a cult? As Sam works to connect the dots left by Elli’s baffling disappearance, she realizes that the bond between her and her sister is more complicated than she ever knew.

Thanks to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Twins have always fascinated me, especially Identical twins. Sam has to find her sister Elli, who seems to have vanished. Ellie left her daughter behind, something Sam can’t fathom or even know her sister had a daughter. What the story? Each twin has her perspective, but the narrative mostly focuses on Sam, only turning to Elli in the end.
This was an ok read, although I didn’t care for either twin, especially Elli, for many of her actions.

I hate stars

4 or 5... eh

What makes this book brilliant almost made it a bit meandering.

I loved how it wasn't just person joins cults.

Because... NO ONE JUST JOINS A CULT.

I really, and I believe (from the way too many documentaries I've watched) in a very thorough, thoughtful and fact based manner, showed how you get from hey I'm going to this meeting, to oh shit I'm in a cult.

I loved the characters. I loved the sibling bond and how it played out. The structure was perfectly utilized to enhance how the story was told.

Thank you to NetGalley and Janelle Brown for this E-ARC in exchange for my honest feedback and review.

Identical twins and former child actors Sam and Elli could not be more opposite. Sam loved the spotlight and now struggles with sobriety. Elli married and moved into a beautiful beach home. The two sisters haven't spoken in years so Sam is surprised to get a call out of the blue from her mother asking for assistance with her sister's daughter. Sam has more surprises in store when she returns home.

Janelle Brown's Pretty Things kept me on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen next. Unfortunately I'll Be You did not have the same urgency to me. I picked this book up and down several times. I had a hard time focusing on it. I do wonder how this book would go as an audiobook. It didn't captivate my attention as much as I was hoping.

Thanks to Random House for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Janelle Brown’s “I’ll Be You” combines two topics of my own, personal interests, twins and cults.

Elli and Sam are identical twin sisters who achieved some notoriety as teen stars on television. Their lives took a different turn after their last show was cancelled. Elli retired from acting, married, and opened her own floral business. Sam lost her career due to her alcoholism and drug addiction and has been in and out of rehab for the past decade. Sam graduates from another rehab stint when her mother tells her that Elli has gone missing and has left her daughter, Charlotte, behind. Sam takes on the responsibility of taking care of her niece then goes in search of Elli. Sam finds Elli living at cult compound, GemFem, that promises women empowerment and fulfillment, but also costs them their darkest secrets and personal possessions. Sam will put herself at risk to rescue Elli then will uncover secrets that can either bring them together or drive each other out
of their lives.

Brown covers a lot of territory in “I’ll Be.” The story is divided between Sam and Eli’s points of view. Both go through setbacks and trauma. I imagine some readers may have a difficult time reading about their tumultuous lives, but I can tell them that their issues are handled sensitively and without melodrama. There are no easy solutions or quick fixes for either Eli or Sam. Brown bravely allows them to have setbacks. The strongest aspect of the story is that Brown cements the twins bond in the beginning which makes their unified front convincing when they take on the founding leader of GemFem in the excellent finale.

I often have a problem with stories that take on multiple issues, because I wind up
getting confused with all the drama that goes on. Janelle Brown writes her issues and themes in her latest release with plotting that’s clear and concise.

“I’ll Be You” is a page turner that takes it’s time plot wise, but leads to a completely satisfying ending.

I enjoyed the setting of this book, in California. The author's descriptive writing made me feel like I was driving along the coast myself. I also liked the storyline of twins, Elli and Sam, and even enjoyed the alternating timeline. However, I did not enjoy the cult aspect of this novel. I am usually a sucker for a twisted cult novel, but for some reason, in this instance, it just bored me. I think this could have been an even better novel if it wasn't so drawn out. I will definitely read more by Janelle Brown in the future, I just think I'm in the minority here, and just wasn't a huge fan.

Omg her books are sooo sooo good! This one kept me up so late! I highly recommend it and clear ur schedule once you start this you won’t want to stop!

Janelle Brown is back! I'll Be You is another creepy thriller, this time with two twin sisters, one of whom has joined an MLM-like cult. I really enjoyed this, although I did enjoy Pretty Things more. That said, this is definitely worth a read!

This book had so many things going for it - the bond between sisters, a woman struggling with her sobriety, another woman struggling with her “perfect” life being not so perfect, and the identical twin thing. And then the author threw in a minor romance, a kidnapping, and a cult! Another solid story from Janelle Brown. I will continue to read whatever she writes.

Quick and dirty - family/sibling struggles, addiction issues, missing person, twist at the end. While there are a lot of different characters in the book, it's really about just two - Sam and Elli, twins who have had a falling out and are no longer speaking. I enjoyed Sam, with all her flaws and mistakes she made. She wasn’t perfect, and she accepts that. Elli grated on me with her passive and malleable personality, how content she was to be a doormat.

There was a lot of potential to this book, if it chose either the mystery/suspense, or the contemporary genre. But not both. It's labeled as a mystery, but it honestly fell flat for me in that area. Elli's "spa" trip and the events leading up to and following it were far-fetched and hokey. Yes, it created a suspenseful turn to the storyline, but it really felt like more of an afterthought. What I did enjoy was reading about the struggles Elli and Sam went through as they grew up, and how those struggles evolved as they became adults. I thought there was a family dynamic that could have been developed and delved into in much greater detail. This could have been a great contemporary genre focused on Sam and Elli and their struggles, and ultimately, how they overcame them.

"Let's get together, yeah yeah yeah
Why don't you and I combi-ine
Let's get together, what do you say
We can have a swingin' ti-ime"

Sam and Elli are child stars. They first shared the role as the daughter on a popular tv show. Then as teens, they starred in their own show. While they looked exactly alike, their personalities couldn't be more different. Sam is the outgoing, sparkling star. Elli is the introverted, quiet one. After they reach 17, Elli doesn't want to act anymore so the girls split, with Sam moving to LA to continue acting and Elli going away to college.

Now, as adult, the women have not spoken in some months. Sam is one year sober and working in a coffee shop. She receives a call from her mother, asking her to come home to help take care of Elli's daughter. Sam is surprised, mainly because she didn't realize that Elli even had a daughter.

Elli was supposed to be away just for the weekend but now it's been several days...and Sam feel like something isn't quite right about this.

.....

I'll Be You is a fast-paced thriller that really depends on the power of the relationship between sisters. The flashes between the past and present timelines was probably my favorite part. I found Elli's 'voice' to be kind of boring - I liked Sam's voice much more compelling, however Elli's voice was important to hear to move the story forward.

The story is almost a cautionary tale on MLMs and women's 'empowerment' groups. I've read a few of Janelle Brown's few books and this is the best one so far.

Thank to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.