This one was a very weird read in my opinion! And I don't mind weird at all. I love books about twins and I love books about cultish things so it was a good recipe from the start. I think it got a little too unbelievable at times which is my only real complaint, other than at some points it was too slow and I got bored.

I want to read Brown's other novel to get a better overall picture of her writing. This one was intriguing but choppy at times.

3 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House and Janelle Brown for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first novel by this author, but it will not be my last. I was instantly immersed into this story and the twins relationship. I loved the twists and even if you guess some of it, you can’t predict what happens next! The cult aspect was well done in that it wasn’t the entire focus and the ending was perfect!

Pretty Things was my favorite book of 2020, so I was more than excited to read I'll Be You. And the premise will make every aspiring writer jealous. Identical twins grow up in Los Angeles, where they play the same role on a TV show in typical Hollywood fashion. One adores the vagabond creative actors' life; the other detests it. The actress, Sam, goes the familiar young actor-in-Hollywood way, booze, drugs, roles drying up. The other, Elli, finally free of the acting lifestyle, gets married, opens a flower shop, and leads idyllic but ordinary existence.
Until it all comes tumbling down. And the irresponsible twin is left to pick up the pieces.

This book has everything: a deep understanding of the envy, the love, the co-dependency of twin sisters, where love is ingrained in the sisterhood, but is then buried and forgotten by huge misunderstandings, a twisted need to belong, a trust that is overlooked, and exasperation that can only come from knowing another too well. Then we have that juicy Hollywood sheen, trashy and entertaining, and Spoiler Alert, a cult!

And, that is not all: in the midst of all this, there is a three-year-old girl, left behind by her mother, now the burden for the former drug addict.

I love these sorts of upmarket thrillers that skew all genre rules. Because, of course, the heart of this novel pumps on the mystery of Elli's disappearance, and we have Sam (!) playing detective, looking for clues, even going out of state on the hunt for her lost sister.

It is tense, moving, and insightful; the plot is masterful, and the characterization of this novel is, like it was in Pretty Things, out of this world. And I haven't read a more satisfying ending in a while.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

Sam and Elli are identical twins. At a young age, they are discovered by a talent agent and signed to TV deal. They alternate playing the young daughter of a cop and then killed off in the 5th season. They stop acting for a short time and then Sam convinces Elli to give it another go and they are signed to a show playing twins. The TV series lasts a few years and then ends when Elli says she cannot continue to act. She hates it. Sam thrives in it. So starts the splintering of their lives together.

College comes and college goes, Sam drops out and tries to make a career in acting. Elli goes and becomes the perfect wife and starts a floral business. However, Sam's spiral down the hole of drugs and alcohol continues to splinter the relationship with her sister.

Elli's marriage falls apart as Elli adopts a little girl. One night, their parents call Sam and ask for help. Elli has dropped off the daughter and went away to a spa and they need help caring for the little girl. However, when the time of the spa is over, and Elli still has not returned, Sam decides she needs to figure out exactly where her sister is and what is going on.

This book is a non-stop, cannot put down thriller of trying to figure out which turn is next and what is really going on.

I need more books from this author - STAT!!!!!

This is my second Janelle Brown novel, and I have to say that she is on fire. I absolutely love the way she writes and how she pulls me into a story, making me feel like I'm write there with the characters.

This novel has a little bit of everything: twin sisters that have sometimes switch places, the lives of child actors and how quickly those lives can fall apart, a sister who has fallen from grace, and my new favorite thing: cults.

I loved the back and forth not just between the past and present, but also between Sam, the sister who falls from grace, and Ellie, the sister who disappears. Sam took the story far, and then Ellie took a turn and colored in the pictures for me. I was absolutely blown away at the end of Sam's turn, and I loved getting to dive into Ellie's brain and find out exactly what had happened to her.

I absolutely loved this story, and I was so disappointed when it was over and I had to say goodbye to the twins. It's a reminder that you can reach rock bottom and manage to claw yourself out of it. Definitely a person pool read.

This one wasn't bad. In fact, I was enjoying it very much until I checked how much time I had left in the book. Halfway.

I was like... no... I can't only be halfway done? For some reason, after that it kind of dragged out. I liked the POV change but I really enjoyed the first half way more. The ending cleaned up a bit too nicely.

I forgot this one was about cults and for some reason, that is just not my thing. I'm not dinging points for that, but I just can't get into the cult plot.

I loved that this was about twins since I am one as well. And I was even more glad that, no matter how similar they may look, there is no way a spouse can't not tell them apart. So glad that was realistic because some books do it so poorly.

Overall, I will still read others by this author, this one just fell a little flat for me.

This book is amazing! There are a lot of issues happening here as it is a very multi layered story. We have twins, a cult, addiction, Hollywood and more. The amount of research this book would have taken must have been immense. This author is one of my auto read authors and I think her books are getting more complex and more intriguing with each book. I have loved all her books and I am awed by how much she keeps raising the bar with every new one. I have a Netgalley copy but I will be buying the physical book to add to my collection! This book is on sale now!!

I feel like I’m going to be in the minority here, but this was an odd, unrealistic story. I just couldn’t connect. I struggled each time I tried to read.

Cults aren’t a favorite theme of mine, so maybe that was part of the problem.

*4 stars +

Samantha Logan, former child star and recovering addict, hasn't spoken to her twin sister, Eleanor, in over a year when their mother asks for her help taking care of Charlotte. Who's Charlotte? she asks. It appears Elli has adopted a little girl recently and has gone off on a retreat for a break. But when a weekend turns into a week and then more and Elli is unreachable by phone, Sam begins to get suspicious and worried. What has her sister gotten herself involved in?

There's an intriguing mystery here which I really enjoyed. But the real gem of this novel is the insightful look into the relationship between twins. Nature vs nurture. Life choices. Can they become distinct individuals without losing that inherent closeness? And how responsible is one for a sibling? Sam, the first-born, is a flawed person but she's such a kick, the bolder of the two sisters. Elli is also flawed in her own way--she has been too much of a people-pleaser, a follower. So who would have expected her to do what she's done now?

I received an arc of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks for the opportunity. I apologize for the delay in publishing this review.

The plot sounded so interesting – a thriller with identical twins and one joining a cult, sign me up! The book was told in three parts – parts 1 and 3 narrated by Sam and part 2 narrated by Elli. I really enjoyed part one, which was basically “Sam’s story” but that’s about it. It was a slow burn, very repetitive, and not a thriller at all. There was no suspense, I would describe it more as a family drama. Unfortunately this one wasn’t for me at all.

A huge thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this advance copy. This is about Sam and Elli who are identical twins that switch roles when it's convenient for them. Starting with their acting career in a popular series. Only, as they grow older, Sam ends up getting addicted to drugs and alcohol, while Elli is perceived as the "good" twin.
They have a falling out and don't speak for over a year, until their parents need Sam's help with her adopted daughter. Honestly, the book kind of dragged for me and didn't hold my attention. It became very word without advancing the plot so it was a struggle to finish.
#ARC #netgalley

A solid middle-of-the-road title from Janelle Brown, I'll Be You primarily offers views into family of origin relational dynamics, particularly between the "good" sister and the "bad sister/daughter." I was invested in seeing Sam succeed in turning her life around while saving her twin sister Elli from a cult--we all know how much I love to see a good cult and/or MLM comeuppance, right?--and while most of the book was engaging, the pacing was inconsistent and the ending felt rushed. Also, as an adoptive parent I feel the need to caution about the "adoption" in this book and the negative impact that has on the storyline, for all parts of the triad.

My thanks to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview this title!

This is my first book by Janelle Brown and I was not disappointed. It’s the story of twin child stars and how different their lives are. It is told in the present and the past when they were stars. It’s interesting to get glimpses into the past at just the right time in the story to add more to it. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more of her books.

"We are ping-pong balls, paddled about by fate and coincidence, doing our best to wrestle back some agency from the forces that move our lives."

Elli was always hesitant about going into acting. Why shouldn't she be? She was only a child after all. She was shy and reserved, the kind of kid more content with quietly playing than drawing attention to herself. Why then, you may ask yourself, did Elli become a child actress? The answer is quite simple really. Her identical twin sister Sam wanted her to. The sisters were inseparable. They had that innate connection that twins often do, each able to sense the other's thoughts and desires without having to say a word. Sam was much more outgoing, and she was willing to bring her sister along for the ride. Naturally, the impulses of the stronger-willed sister won out, setting the siblings on a course that would alter the rest of their lives.

As adults, the inseparable bond of the twin sisters has splintered into estrangement. Elli retired from acting, got married, and created the perfect suburban life as the owner of the flower shop. Sam went in the opposite direction. Like countless child stars before her, she fell into addiction. She clings to the hope of reclaiming her former fame, but the reality is far more depressing. There isn't a likelihood of her ever earning a living as an actress again. On her plummet to rock bottom, Sam made the worst mistake of her life, a moment of weakness and desperation that ultimately severed the last remaining threads of her relationship with Elli.

It comes as a surprise when Sam receives a call from her father asking for her help. Divorce and the recent adoption of a two-year-old girl have left Elli's life in shambles, a stark contrast to the picture-perfect image Sam long held in her head. Elli left the new daughter in the hands of her parents as she embarked on a mysterious self-help retreat for the weekend. Only she never came back, and she isn't answering her phone. Sam's parents have recruited her as a last resort to come help care for the child. They're certain that Elli will come home in due time, but Sam isn't as sure. Her deep connection to her twin sister tells her that something may be terribly wrong.

I first encountered the writing of Janelle Brown through her novel Watch Me Disappear. That novel veiled a poignant character study with an engrossing missing person mystery. This latest effort does much of the same but in a very different way. We see the perspectives of two sisters both in the past and present. Brown uses the shifting point of view to slowly reveal elements of her mystery and the motivations of the characters. While the mystery behind the missing sister helps the novel to maintain a swift pace, it is the relationship and deceit between the two twin sisters that fuels much of the suspense and tension. Brown's characters are so authentic that I couldn't help but fall under their spell. The genuineness of the characters helps balance some of the more implausible plot elements, grounding even the most unimaginable story beats into the real world. Overall, I'll Be You is a good thriller written in service of a great character drama. It proves Janelle Brown's narrative prowess and serves as a fantastic summer read.

This novel about identical twins trying to find their individuality is not terribly original, but it was engrossing to read at times after a slow start. Elli and Sam were child actors who leave acting and go their separate ways after a terrible argument. Elli is a housewife who wants to be a mom and Sam is in and out of rehab, never really finding her niche in the world. The discoveries that the two find out about each other is what makes this book good and worth a read. Neither is whole without the other, but it takes a lot of plot twists to get the two of them to this revelation. I cannot say that either character was particularly strong or likable. Both were weak in their own ways, and I could not relate with either of them. However, I did enjoy the story as it plodded along, sometimes meandering on unexpected paths. The twists were appreciated as they added interest to the story. I’m not sure I would have kept reading if not for the twists and the need to know how these twins were going to find their way out of their self-created dilemmas. Fans of slow-moving and methodical plots will enjoy this book, but I must say I did find it predictable at times and somewhat boring at others. There was a lot to the plot that I’m not writing about so that I don’t spoil the surprises, but this book was not one that I would highly recommend as I considered it okay but nothing special.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guidelines Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

Ok I don't know why the cover for this book was chosen quite honestly? To me it doesn't do the title or the contents justice. With that being said, I SO ENJOYED this book and found it thoroughly entertaining and that surprised me because I knew nothing of the author or the story going into the book very much. The title is what drew me in and this is the first time that has happened to me as a reader. Very surprising. Anyway, I loved how she, the author, described mundane things about the story in a way that really captured my attention and made the subject not so mundane at all. It was entertaining and that is sooooo what I look for in a book. Her writing style and flow were what made me compulsively read and just by that alone I will be picking up her titles again in the future! I never read pretty things but maybe it's time to go back and pick that up now I've gotten a taste!

Thank you Netgalley and Publishers for my advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book was an amazing story of child actor twins, who had grown apart and fallen apart in their own unique ways. I was riveted from the very first page. But as is Janelle Brown’s style, it wasn’t just the mysteries that kept me intrigued, it was the deeply complex characters and the delicate interplay between them all. The only negative I have to share is that it’s over. I can’t wait for her next book to come out. I highly recommend this book!

Thank you to #NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the advanced copy of this book.

while the plot had a some interesting developments, a lot of the addiction portions felt repetitive & in fact, this book read like the author wanted to talk about addiction but wrapped it in a suspense novel to make it more entertaining.

I loved the setting for this book!
My husband and I drove through Ojai last year and I definitely felt all of the vibes.

I read this off and on while traveling for work so I had a harder time staying connected to the characters but I still think it was a well done book and a good read.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this novel. I was not a fan of the storyline and will not be leaving a full review.