I absolutely LOVE stories with a cult aspect, especially in the horror, thriller, or mystery genres - and this didn't disappoint! This is my second book by Janelle Brown, and has solidified her as a must-buy author for me moving forward.

Told from two perspectives of twin sisters dealing very differently with an early life of fame & stardom, we follow first one and then the other as their stories fully intersect in a final culmination of twists and turns. I loved that, despite how similar the girls looked, they're fully fleshed out & have totally different personalities. It can be hard for an author to accomplish this even when the characters aren't sisters - let alone twins! So I really loved this and thought it was executed very well.

Overall, loved this twisty thrill ride, and can't wait to read more from Janelle Brown!

Janelle Brown has a unique skill for creating characters with detailed backstories and layers that make them believable and deeply intriguing. Sam and Elli, the twin main characters of I’ll Be You are no exception. Once childhood actresses, Sam is single and now struggles with addiction while Elli is married with her own floral business. That is, until one day when she mysteriously disappears to a retreat and stops responding to all communication. As Sam begins to worry about her sister, whom she’s been estranged from for years, she realizes that Elli’s happy life may be a mere facade.

Brown shows the progression of the sisters and their bond as they are discovered, become famous, and first learn to switch places. These flashbacks add such a richness to their present-day story and helped me understand their motivations.

I didn’t expect the cult aspect of this book going into it, but I found it especially fascinating, particularly the introspection into the members and how they ended up where they did.

This wasn’t a thriller in the traditional sense, and definitely was a little slower moving, but it kept me glued to the pages trying to guess how everything fit together and how the sisters would end up at the end of it all.

Intriguing read for sure! Sam and Elli are identical twin sisters, and former Nickelodeon, T.V. stars. The two have not spoken for over a year. They have fallen out due to Sam's substance abuse issues. When Sam is called by their parents to help babysit Elli's daughter, a new addition Sam is only just learning about, she finds that there are some odd occurrences associated with Elli's absenteeism.

What makes this book good? First, the storyline is totally believable. What is happening with these two women could definitely happen to former stars! Second, these characters, especially Sam, is well-written. She is much more than a 2 dimensional plot point. The characterization in this story, absolutely elevates the novel above your typical suspense drama.

Put this in the hands of fans of Lisa Jewell and Liane Moriatty.

Twins almost always make a great storyline, and this one was great.

Sam and Elli are identical twins, former child actors, and now estranged as adults. Sam could never get over her failed Hollywood career, and turned to drugs and alcohol to cope. This drove a big wedge between her and her family. Especially Elli. Elli moved on to a "normal" life, but eventually got tangled up in a cult.

There are lots of twists and turns in this book, and it all worked well. While being a great work of fiction, it also shows how easily people can be manipulated when they are vulnerable. People think, oh people who get involved with cults must be so dumb. It's not like that. It can happen slowly, and before you know it, you're stuck.

If you like twin stories, this might be for you. Identical twin sisters, Elli and Sam, are “discovered” at 9 years old and are tween/teen stars. One twin, Sam, loves the spotlight, while the other twin, Elli, hates it. Cut to present day, and the twins are in their 30’s and when Ellie's marriage falls apart, she goes to a mysterious retreat. Sam then seems out to discover what's really going on at the retreat. What transpires is a slow burn look at cults, addiction and family secrets.

This book took me a bit to get into and then I didn’t love the second part very much at all, but then I am not a big fan of reading about people stuck in cults. Ellie and Sam are twins who get discovered in child hood since they can play the same part and work twice as long as other children actors. Sam loves everything about acting, but Ellie seems to be fading away and one day Sam has an idea “I’ll be you” and this starts her on a path with Adderall and ending in addiction. Ellie has always been the good twin, but her marriage falls apart and she goes on a retreat leaving her adopted daughter with their parents but when she doesn’t return when she said she would she texts her parents to invite Sam to help even though they haven’t talked in over a year. Sam is about to learn that maybe there isn’t a good and a bad twin and they both have their secrets.

I received a digital advance copy of I’ll Be You by Janelle Brown via NetGalley. I’ll Be You is scheduled for release on April 26, 2022.

I’ll Be You follows identical twins Sam and Elli. When they were younger, Sam and Elli shared roles on film as child actors. They moved in and out of each other’s personalities as they shared one role on the screen and sometimes played each other off screen.

Now they are adults who have grown apart due to Sam’s addictions and Elli’s longing for a normal, real life. Sam is surprised by a phone call asking her to come home and help care for Elli’s newly adopted daughter while Elli spends a long weekend at a retreat. Elli doesn’t return when expected, which leads Sam on a path to investigate the life her sister has built and bring her home.

I’ll Be You is described as a thriller/ suspense novel. It did start on this path, with a sister potentially missing and the search to find her. Once we hit the midpoint however, that sense of mystery and potential danger disappears. While there is a big twist at the midpoint, the second half of the novel is the very logical playing out of that revelation. For me, there were no surprises in the last half of the novel. After the questions raised in the first half, this was a bit of a letdown for me.

The two sisters at the heart of the story are separate and distinct characters who fit together as a pair. We do get a better sense of Sam as she is the narrator for the first half of the book. She is taking us with her on her hunt for Elli, and sharing her memories of their past together. Elli is less well developed. In the first half, we are seeing her through Sam’s lens. In the second half, Elli takes over as narrator, but her narration felt distant to me, and lacked the same connection that we were given to Sam.

I’ll Be You seemed to be more of an exploration of relationships, and the forces that can either drive people together or apart, rather than the suspense/thriller it was billed as. While I did miss those suspenseful elements in the story, I did enjoy what it had to say about connections.

Identical twins are discovered by a talent agent and they go to Hollywood to be on television. They are still in elementary school when they begin this journey which continues until around college time. The two choose different paths at that point, one of them chooses home and family…the other chooses drugs and alcohol.
But they are never apart from one another more than a short time until this last break…..it has been a year and everything has changed….
Elli has a daughter and not a husband, Sam has sobriety and a job.
Sam is called to help with Ellis daughter when Elli goes to the spa and does not come home after two weeks…then this book becomes even more compelling.
Won’t share more, I don’t want to spoil it.
It is a good one, read it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me this ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

Very interesting book. Not what I had expected so I was pleasantly surprised. Definitely recommend!

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Identical twins and former child actors Sam and Elli have gone their separate ways. Elli yearned for a normal life and Sam was deep in her addiction issues. When their mother reaches out to Sam to come help with Elli's young daughter Charlotte while Elli is on a retreat comes as a surprise, the least being that Sam didn't even know Elli had a daughter. But Elli doesn't come home and doesn't come home and Sam begins to investigate where her sister is really at.

This one took a couple of turns I wasn't expecting, which made up for the ones that I was. The first portion of the book is told from Sam's POV, then switches. It was a nice change from the alternating POV books that I've been reading recently, to see the story Sam was telling and then see it again from Elli. The chapters were short and this book was easy to keep reading. I felt like I was racing through it to see how everything turned out! Overall, a good read and I'd definitely recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me a free digital copy of this book.

Available April 26, 2022

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

6/10

This one was solid for me . It was a good novel . I didn’t like the jumping around of the times and narrators but overall it was good. Thanks to Netgalley for letting me review this book

I wasn't impressed by this book. It was a very slow burn thriller that I was often bored with, because most of the plot twists were so blatantly obvious that I could see them a mile away. This is the first book I've read by this author and I definitely want to read some of her previous books in hopes I enjoy them more. Unfortunately, I will not be recommended this one.

**Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me an advanced copy of this book and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion. I am posting this review to my Goodreads account immediately and will post it to my Amazon & Instagram accounts upon publication.

I am a huge fan of Janelle Brown’s writing going back to her very first novel. Pretty Things was one of my favorite novels back when it came out and I will read anything and everything that she writes unless it’s dystopian/science fiction, or fantasy. I was of course, very eager to read I’ll Be You!

The premise grabbed me right away. Take a look:

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.

I cannot imagine what it’s like to be a twin and sharing everything. It’s interesting how these sisters chose to deal with their famous childhood, one goes in a direction of domestic bliss (or so it seems) and the other spirals into a life of drugs and destruction. But when its Elli who leaves for what seems to be a cult, its Sam who comes to her rescue. Or is Elli drawing Sam into something? Or is it Sam? Or what is going on?

Your mind will be racing trying to figure it out! This book is quite a ride of suspense with two broken souls.

Another great read from Janelle!

I enjoy reading books by this author and thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The story is based around identical twin sisters who were once famous as child actresses.
As they get older, one of the twins wants to quit acting and pursue another path which infuriates the other twin. They take on completely different career paths with consequences that they have to come to terms with and they become estranged.
They both battle through their issues and choices that they make in their lives. It was a very engaging story and I would highly recommend this book.

I love a book that steps outside of the box and brings a completely fresh story with a twist. This one does just that. It starts with two identical twins estranged for reasons unknown. They grew up in Hollywood as child stars and now “has been” adults. One has spent her fortune and the other may be in a situation to lose hers. Their mother is in failing health and calls the “black sheep” recovering addict twin home to help her care for her twin’s toddler daughter. She is unaware her sister had adopted the girl. Now the girls mother, the responsible twin, is “missing” .The book is full of secrets revealed. It keeps you guessing. I enjoyed it and plan on recommending it. Thank you #Netgalley for an advanced copy. @JanelleBrown #I’llbeYou

Sam and Ellie are identical twins and became childhood TV stars oftentimes doing a shared role (like Michelle on Full House). They would often pretend to be each other. They have a falling out when they are grown-ups and Sam is surprised when she receives a call from her mom that Ellie had taken a relaxing weekend to recharge and decided to spend a bit more time away. She needs help caring for Ellie's daughter Charlotte until Ellie is back. After arriving, Sam's twin intuition tells her that Ellie is in trouble and begins to search for clues as to where she may have gone and why.

I liked how this novel was written. The first part was in Sam's perspective and the second was in Ellie's. It lets you see the voice and personality of each twin separately over a long period of time. I really enjoyed getting to know these two characters. There were flashbacks to their lives as childhood actors which I thought was super neat. I also how it touched on the difficulties with child actors and how easy addiction can be in that environment. The overall story kept me interested and pulled in. I wouldn't really classify it as a thriller. Maybe a domestic drama with a mystery attached. I was excited about the puzzle of where Ellie was and Sam's detective work to find her. Overall a great read!

A scary and enthralling story about 2 sister!
Now this is exactly what I wanted.

I found this story to both be thrilling and emotional, something that not often happens when reading a thriller. The characters were fantastic, and reading and finding more about our two sisters kept me on my toes. Great read!

I'll Be You centers around twin sisters, Sam and Elli. They are former child TV stars, all grown up and dealing with the consequences of their unconventional childhood. Sam, a recovering addict who desperately misses the lifestyle of being famous, and Elli, who absolutely hated acting and all that it entailed, tries to create a more conventional and safe life for herself.

The novel deals with both the present, and the past, showing us glimpses of their life as children on TV sets, but also now as adults. Sam is called to help her mother take care of Elli's daughter Charlotte when Elli surprisingly fails to return from a "weekend retreat".

The main action of the novel is Sam investigating where Elli has disappeared to and the resulting revelations of the mess Elli has found herself in, primarily from Sam's POV, with several chapters from Elli's POV towards the later 30%. Both narrators have their own unique voice and I found it very enlightening seeing their own perspectives on overlapping events.

This is a book about identity, and choices we make. This is not a suspense or thriller, but if one approaches it as an exploration of how 2 lives so entwined can have an impact, both positively and negatively, it is absolutely enjoyable and very worthwhile.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

Janelle Brown weaves a compelling page-turner as she explores the complicated relationship between twin sisters in I’ll Be You. Sam and Elli were famous child actors who, as identical twins, could take on each other’s role and no one could tell they had switched parts. The girls could even fool their parents, and they were close, parts of each other. But as their Hollywood acting careers wane and they grow into adults, they drift apart — Elli marries, Sam falls into a world of addiction — and they have stopped speaking. But when Sam receives a call from her father and returns home as a recovering addict, she discovers Elli has a child and has checked into a spa for relaxation, but suddenly stopped responding on her phone. When Elli does not return home as expected, Sam starts investigating and discovers that Elli’s life may not be all it appears on the surface. Sam must struggle through her addiction to reconnect with her sister, her other half, her shared history. Many twists, turns, and revelations make this an interesting read, although some readers may find the premise a bit far-fetched. Told in dual narratives the book focuses on the characters of Sam and Elli, creating a more character driven novel. Fast-paced, hard to put down, good writing!