3.5 stars
Identical twins, opposite personalities, totally different lifestyles. Sam and Elli are thrust into the spotlight at the age of 9 when their mother pushes them into acting roles on TV. Sam lives for it, but Elli hates it so Sam convinces her to pretend to be the other twin when working. Sam takes over the roles of both of them, but only as long as Elli is willing to play along. Of course Elli chooses a more normal teenage experience, leaving Sam unfulfilled. Sam's life spirals out of control, but Elli isn't all that happy either.

After a separation from each other, it is now up to Sam, the unreliable one, to try to help Elli and repay all Elli's efforts to save Sam. Can they still pretend to be the other? Can a dysfunctional upbringing result in a functional sisterly relationship for them now?

Good story. Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

Janelle Brown caught my interest when I read Pretty Things. When this next book came across my NetGalley must haves… I knew I just have it. Gripping story with great characters! Loved it

Janelle Brown was a new author for me. The description of this book really caught my attention. I didn't love this book but I didn't hate it either. I'll Be You was a slow burn that kept my attention just enough to keep me reading to the end. I will definitely read more from this author in the future, I just didn't love this one.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I’m not gonna lie, when I first started this I thought it was a little slow but hung in there because I love a good thriller about cults. I am so glad I that I stayed with it because the twist was EVERYTHING! Loved it!!

Identical twins Sam and Elli are discovered at a young age and begin acting together. While Sam loves acting, Elli is much more reserved and tires of it quickly. Since Sam adores the limelight, she tells Elli, "I'll be you!" That's where the twin switching begins. Flash forward years later, Sam has not done well for herself and is summoned home to help find Elli who has left behind her young daughter to visit a retreat. Things don't make sense because Elli is the responsible one. Sam is left to take care of a small child and try to figure out where Elli really is, why she left, and if she is ever coming home.
I liked this book, but it wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be.

I finished I'll Be You by Janelle Brown a little while ago. Sometimes I want to see if a book will stay with me for a little while, make itself hide out in my thoughts more than usual. Sadly, this one didn't. It's about identical twins who were once child actors. When the story begins, Sam and Elli have been estranged for awhile and they have taken different paths in adulthood. Sam struggles with addiction and the loss of her acting career while Elli has become a wife and mother, forging a completely different path than Sam.

The Hollywood aspect is something I didn't really enjoy. Just a personal preference. I love Janelle Brown's writing and this really isn't a thriller. It's more a mystery told in two POV. First Sam, then Elli. There are lots of twists and turns and I'll Be You is a hard book to put down once you start it. But some of it was overly dramatic, much like Hollywood. I think this made me not care about the characters quite as much as I would have.

Still, this book is a solid read about siblings, addiction, the power of cults and stardom. 3.5 stars

I’ll be You follows twins sisters Elli and Sam. The two grew up incredibly close and had a career as famous child actors. Eventually, due to Sam’s struggle with addiction and Elli’s desire to have the “normal” life that Sam didn’t want, they lose the close relationship they had as children. One day, after over a year of not speaking to each other, Sam receives a text from her parents saying that Elli has gone missing, and asking that Sam come to help take care of the newly adopted niece she didn’t know she had. When Sam begins to suspect that Ellie has joined a cult, she attempts to save Ellie by learning what’s been happening in Ellie’s life in the past year, what led to her joining the “self improvement movement,” and what caused her disappearance. 

This book was just a fun time. I had a great time reading it, and that’s why I gave it 5 stars. I love thrillers. I love cults. I love stories about twins. When I found out what Sam did that caused her estrangement from Elli my mouth dropped open and I audibly gasped. I was given drama, suspense, and plot twists. It was exactly my favorite kind of mess and was overall very well written. That’s why I gave it 5 stars.

Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

PUBLICATION DAY: April 26, 2022

Sam and Elli are identical twins…inseparable as children/teens, but currently estranged in their adulthood. Once successful TV stars, Sam is now a recovering addict and Elli is married and living in suburbia. When Sam receives a panicked message from her parents asking her to help care for Elli’s young daughter Charlotte, Sam responds, hoping to mend the bridge she has broken. But what is really going on with Elli? And where has she gone?

PROS and CONS:
This is a slow one…an in-depth character study into the intricacies of a twin relationship. Told from two perspectives, Sam then Elli, we are able to see the trail of events that lead to their current lives, and just how much they might benefit by having each other close again. This book is completely different from Pretty Things (which I enjoyed a bit more), but still written very well and it kept me interested until the satisfying ending.

READ IT?
It’s a slow drama, one you can take your time with. I enjoyed it!

4 Stars

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I've read a couple of Brown's previous books and have been looking forward to I'll be You.

Sam Logan is a twin and has been child actor who is a recovering addict and estranged from her twin sister Elli, short for Eleanor for slightly over a year, for reasons we find out later. Sam is finally in control of her life, working at a café and living in a studio in Hollywood, when her mother summons her home to help out. She discovers that her sister supposedly adopted a 2 year old daughter named Charlotte, is getting divorced and needs her to help babysit for a week or so. Elli has gone on some kind of retreat and left suddenly.

We learn in flashbacks that Sam and Elli were discovered at a beach in their Santa Barbara town at age 9, building sandcastles by an agent named Harriet. (Elli later calls her Helen, maybe this error gets corrected in the final edition). Harriet books them jobs and they get a tv show where the twins play one child. Elli is more reluctant to act, but wants to please her sister. After the character they play gets killed off, they return to regular lives as high school sophomores. Until they get roles playing twins on a Nickelodeon show. That's where Sam's pill addiction really starts to veer into dangerous territory.

Meanwhile in the current setting, Sam watches Charlotte and takes her places but is worried about her sister. Where did Charlotte come from and when is her sister coming back? Sam discovers Elli may have gotten sucked into a cult called GenFem. She starts investigating with help from a guy named Caleb she met at AA, that remembers her from high school.

As Sam digs deeper into the mystery behind GenFem, and the alarming fear that Elli might be in danger, the narrative shifts to Elli's perspective recounting how she got into this mess. It builds the suspense to reach the conclusion, which was - in my opinion- slightly anti climatic. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this book.

TW for addiction, cult and psychological manipulative behaviors, gaslighting, kidnapping, disordered eating/ punishment using food and rest.
4/5☆ release date 4/26/22

4.5 stars.

What a great book to binge in one day. I had zero expectations going in and I was blown away. I was very skeptical in the beginning- a story about a woman who was a recovering addict, she was detached from her family, someone was missing. It was riddled with tropes. But this was used so well in every way. The family dynamics were handled well and I loved seeing both sides to the twins stories.

Sam was a powerful character to follow and she wasn’t your typical unreliable narrator that make thrillers nauseating. She was on a path to being better and this made the book better. Her way of connecting to Charlotte was beautiful. The use of backstory was not overwhelming and it shed much needed light on how the characters were as adults.

After about 15% of the way through, I was hooked. The twists were well woven into the story and so well written it was easy for your jaw to immediately drop. They were so simple but so impactful that I wad amazed at how they didn’t need to slap me in the face for me to love them. It’s a slow burn for sure, but done better than most.

I highly anticipate this book hitting the shelves and will recommend this one to all my friends who love a great thriller! This one is absolutely worth the buy.

I have just read I'll Be You by Janelle Brown.

This story starts off with two young girls, identical twins, who are discovered one day on a beach and land acting jobs in a tv series.

Sam and Elli and quite different in many ways though. One gets into many problems over the years, with addictions and the other has what appears to be a very happy life, married with a lovely house and career.

Along the way there are many twists and turns in the story, and a great deal of analysis as well..

It is a book that is gripping, although not my usual choice as it really has quite a chick-flick feel to it, with a huge amount of drama, counselling, and issues.

However, I did enjoy it, as the twists kept me engaged

Thank You to NetGalley, Author Janelle Brown and Random House Publishing Group for my advanced copy to read and review.
#IllBeYou #NetGalley

I've never read anything from Brown before, and this premise really caught my eye. Sadly, it didn't meet my expectations. I thought it would be an edge-of-your-seat thriller, but it was more of a family drama. The pace was slower than I thought it would be, and I had a hard time staying engaged or connecting with the characters. The ending was a bit too predictable.

“I’ll Be You” is a dramatic novel focused on a set of twins, Elli and Sam. They’re “discovered” and become child actors, a la Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen. As they grow older, they each take different paths. Elli walks away from acting, goes to college, gets married, and works a typical job. Sam, however, goes the route many child actors do, falling prey to addiction. Both women face many struggles when life doesn’t go as planned. Childless and yearning for a family while her marriage falls apart, Elli turns to GenFem to help her “rediscover” herself. Unfortunately, GenFem isn’t all about female empowerment and discovering your true identity, and Elli ends up in a difficult and dangerous position. Can Sam overcome her weaknesses to help save her sister?

I waffled on this one and how I felt about it. I love a book that has dual POVs, however, I didn’t like how this one was done. While it’s certainly a personal preference, I didn’t like that the first half of the book was all Sam’s POV, THEN we got Elli’s POV. The story moved along well while in Sam’s POV, but once we got to Elli’s, the story line felt like it hit pause while we went back to the beginning to get Elli’s version of events and her timeline. Once Ellie’s timeline caught up, we hit play again, and the last 4 chapters were Sam’s POV. I think this book would’ve greatly benefitted from going back and forth between Sam & Elli’s POV. The story line would’ve been more fluid and natural. Again, that’s just a personal preference.

I did like that while this book dealt with cults, the story line felt original. I haven’t read a book with this type of story line before, so I appreciated that. It’s tagged as a suspense novel, but I don’t necessarily feel that it read as a suspense novel. More of a drama/mystery.

I would’ve liked a different ending. It felt a little too neat & unrealistic based off the first 95% of the book.

All in all, it was a good read. I went back and forth between 3.5 and 4 stars, but I’ll round up to 4 for its originality.

3.5 rounded up. I liked the dueling perspectives in this novel; twins always fascinate me and I think Brown did a good job distinguishing between both twins, and more so, showing how their circumstances caused them both to spiral in different ways. I will say I feel I've read a few books about cults lately (Please Join Us and This Might Hurt both come to mind) so the idea itself didn't feel fresh, but it was still enjoyable. The novel did seem to drag a bit at times and the ending felt a bit too clean, but overall, I would read more from this author.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

You have Two identical twin sisters and former child actors who have grown apart- until one disappears, and the other is forced to confront the secrets they’ve kept from each other in. I think it’s important to know going in that This is not a thriller- there is an element of suspense but it’s more about the relationship between the sisters than anything else.

Sam and Elli were very close growing up - identical to the point where their parents sometimes couldn’t even tell them apart. They got discovered when they were little and mbecame B-list child TV stars, often inhabiting the same role.

But as adults, their lives have taken very different turns. After leaving acting, Elli became 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. sam has a lot of questions but as she's being trusted with something for thr first time in a long time, she goes to help.

This book had so many elements that worked for me. I loved the LA setting and the way the author told the story. It's in 3 parts, and it all leads up to what is happening at this mysterious retreat. Theres also sections where we flash back to the girls growing up and their rise to fame and fall from stardom. Sam has an addiction problem and I thought the author handled it in a very realistic way and with care. The organization elli is a part of has a very Nexium vibe to it and I couldn't wait to figure out what all was going on.

This would be a great book pairing with cultish by Amanda montell. If you like stories about sisters or missing person stories, then I think this will work for you.

I really enjoyed this thriller! Very entertaining, good characters, and I didn’t expect the twist. I read it all in one day!

I felt like this book was less thriller, but more mystery. I enjoyed the characters and the plot line— it just wasn’t exactly my type of book or what I had expected. Doesn’t make it bad— just doesn’t make it good for me.

3.5 stars rounded down

I’ll be You is more of a general/women’s fiction book with a touch of suspense rather than a thriller. With that lens in mind the book is a decent read.

The focus on woman’s self-help groups is timely given society’s obsession with MLMs and cult-like groups like NXIVM. We’ve all had that one friend from high school send us a Facebook message asking us to change our lives with whatever new product/program they’re selling, and this book explores the problematic nature of this trend. I thought this was a unique topic to explore and I really enjoyed the main character, Sam. I also liked the premise of a book about identical twins.

However, I did struggle with a few aspects of the book and that impacted my rating. Firstly, some of the chapters were excruciatingly long and focussed too much on a one dimensional re-telling of the twins’ past (specifically chapter 12 and 13 were ridiculously long and all back story).

Secondly, I found the lack of alarm over Elli’s disappearance unbelievable. Particularly Elli and Sam’s parents behaviour read as beyond belief. While Brown tries to justify this by building up the mother as a bit unreliable and flaky, it just didn’t work for me.

Finally, the switch in narrators from Sam to Elli wasn’t as smooth or utilized as efficiently as I would’ve liked.

Overall, I’ll be You is a solid general/women’s fiction read. While there isn’t a ton of thrill or suspense, it is an engaging story with engaging characters and outlines a shift in our society that has proven to be quite dangerous. I will definitely read another Janelle Brown book in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for a free digital copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I enjoyed this suspenseful story. This is my first book by this author which I enjoyed her writing style as well as her attention to details. This is a story that is fast paced and well written. The author has created characters that not only are connectable but bring the story to life. I enjoyed how they pulled me into the story from the beginning. They are supportive of each other which made the story easy and entertaining to read. This is a story about a set of twins. One comes up missing and the other has secrets that they kept from each other. The twists and turns had me sitting on the edge of my seat just waiting to see what would happen next. A great story that was hard to put down and I look forward to reading more from this author. I highy recommend this book.

This book is the story of Elli & Sam, twins that are discovered as youths to become child stars. Elli wants nothing to do with it but goes along because of Sam. Eventually, Elli quits & Sam has to find her way without her. She is already knee deep in drugs by this point & spirals out of control. She is trying to make her life better & stay sober when she finds out Elli has been missing & has a child from her parents that need her help watching this child. That's all I am going to say & highly recommend reading this book to find out what happens. I like how the story weaves the past & the present together.