Make me Disappear is a read that can come off as quite unexpected!

While I did figure out the big twist about half way through, overall I still very much enjoyed reading this.

4 stars/5. The book started out so interesting, I wanted to keep reading. I immediately hated the antagonist. I caught on the plot twist pretty early though, and when I reached around half of the book I felt some of the twists were a bit far fetched. It’s still a good read though. Looking forward to reading more from the author. Thank you for the ARC! :)

I can not have loved this book anymore. It was truly a pleasure and an honor to be able to read this in advance. Everything about it was great: controlling boyfriend, missing ex girlfriend, ingenious plot of having yourself kidnapped.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for an early copy of Make Me Disappear. What a Fabulous debut!!!!! Sooooooo good, sooo entertaining. I figured out a few things but not everything. It was a Fantastic read. Can’t wait to see what the future books will be like.

If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Noelle is in a relationship with a man, Dr Daniel Ashcroft, that firstly appears to be perfect and she cannot believe her luck. But as time goes on, she realises he is more than just protective and she feels trapped. She knows she needs to escape her sociopathic, narcissistic boyfriend, so she arranges her own kidnapping. And the fun begins.

I absolutely flew through this one and it was a fabulous debut. It was fast paced and twisty and while there are clearly TW in this one, I found it fascinating. I look forward to reading more by this author.

I read this very quickly. Very suspenseful. Noelle's boyfriend Dr. Daniel Ashcroft is a narcissist that wants what he wants. And he what he wants is Noelle. Noelle realizes that she needs to get out of the relationship but it's not as easy as done. Daniel can ruin her life and her family's life. She comes up with the idea of being kidnapped so she could be free from Daniel and his Mother's clutches. Will it work?

Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC!

2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

Good premise, ok execution but slightly botched ending. I don't want to give too much away but the set up needed to be slightly better to take that turn. It was a reliable enough thriller with alternating POVs but Noelle wasn't compelling enough for me to be fully engaged with her.

This book was a fast paced keeping you on the edge of your seat until then end. It keeps you guessing to the end. That’s for sure. I can’t wait to read more from this author.

Thank you Netgalley, Bookouture, and Jessica Payne for my gifted copy!

Synopsis:
When Noelle finds an advertisement for deliberate kidnapping, she knows her chance to get away from her abusive husband Daniel has finally come. But when she's taken, for the whole world to see, nothing goes as planned. Because the guys who kidnapped her aren't the ones she's hired...

My thoughts:
This book was a really suspenseful game of cat and mouse, and I absolutely enjoyed this wild ride! I loved that I never knew who I could trust, and who was on which side. Some parts I found quite lengthy, and the story could have been told in less pages. The twist didn't surprise me, per se, because I've read two or three books with a similar ending lately, but it was quite well executed and satisfying.

Parts of this book reminded me of:
- After All I've Done by Mina Hardy
- The Marriage Secret by Carey Baldwin
- The Breakdown by Arianne Richmonde

I cannot wait to find out what this author comes up with next!

“Make Me Disappear” is a debut thriller novel by Jessica Payne. From the description of this book, I figured it was going to be an enjoyable quick read - and it was. Having just read a book about “if someone seems too good to be true, he probably is” (yes, another thriller!) I was expecting this book to be similar, and it was - and wasn’t.

What I enjoyed:
- learning that “extreme kidnapping” is a thing (what???? why?) and how it works (while I understand how kidnapping works, how ‘joke kidnapping’ worked was a bit different)
- the twist in the plot - I saw the main twist being set up but knowing ahead that it was coming didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the book
- how Daniel reminded me Joe from “You”
- the descriptions of the Seattle area - Pikes Peak Market has my heart
- the Author’s Note describing why she wrote this book - a very moving reason for exploring and explaining

What I enjoyed, but not quite as much:
- the need to suspend belief a bit - I won’t give away some of the plot points, but sometimes things fit together a bit too well to be completely believable
- the dueling private investigators - they weren’t dueling, but I don’t think that one can cancel the job of another (unless there was some seniority ranking)
- some of the technical sloppiness - maybe sloppiness isn’t the correct word, but with all the GPS tracking, knowing each other’s passwords, spy cameras, and the like - let’s just say sloppy mistakes were made by both parties

As this is Ms. Payne’s debut novel, I think she did really well and I'll be interesting in reading more by her in the future. The book was engaging, an interesting topic, and an interesting main character (who had some chapters devoted to his point of view). I wasn’t quite a fan of Noelle’s cousin’s storyline, but understand how it was necessary for plot development.

Daniel started off as the perfect boyfriend but it’s gotten to the point where Noelle is desperate to get away after learning some seriously unsettling things and she is so concerned about the likely repercussions of her leaving to her loved ones, she arranges her own abduction.

While you will likely need to put on your suspension of disbelief socks (I did), I still found this very engaging and enjoyable. The story started strong and the plot kept my interest throughout, even through some of the more unrealistic directions the plot took and the twist was easy to spot. I had hoped to see more of a resolution for some characters, but a mostly fun ending.

I plan on reading the author’s future work.

Daniel is one controlling jerk that you will love to hate. Finally Noelle decides she wants to ruin Daniel's life just like he ruined hers. This is when the story gets very intense as you are not sure how this is all going to play out. This is the part where I cheer for Noelle and and am thrilled when she cancels his credit cards, ruins his car, gets him suspended at work and slowly takes everything away from him. Yeah!

Only to discover that there is someone who is even worse than Daniel. Someone who has been in control the whole time.

This book was a very easy read, making it difficult for me to want to put it down. Jessica did an excellent job in ending each chapter in a way that left me wanting to know what happens next to Noelle and how she ended up in such a crazy relationship. My only critique is that I figured out the ending earlier than I would've liked. Great read!

Lovely thriller. I enjoyed the story immensely. This book is full of twists and turns. The ending was definitely unexpected but really tied the entire story together.

I'm not gonna lie, I had a good chunk of the conclusion of this one figured out. HOWEVER, I never could have predicted all of the twists and turns that lead me there. Also, I hardly ever figure out the big answer waiting at the end of the book so figuring it out for myself by no means took away from the quality of this book.

Daniel's chapters were INCREDIBLE. I loved having a look at the inner psyche of such a... deranged human being. I wish more thrillers had that.

I was left with a question though: is Daniel controlling because he's a misogynist, insecure, arrogant (yes, he's both), or insecure because of what happened in his past? Or is it a combination of all of the above?

I was excited to be approved for this and was so excited to read it after the very high reviews. Honestly, though, I think I’m in the minority, because I had a really hard time getting into this. The expectations I had for it just didn’t happen, and it fell flat for me. Maybe it was the whole setting up a kidnapping scenario, and maybe the PI thing, but sadly this one just wasn’t for me.

This is a really well written book, with plenty of twist and turns along the way. Great characters that you really root for and a enjoyable.

#NetGalley #MakeMeDisappear

Great read with constant suspense, atmosphere, and a strong female protagonist who you will root for! If you enjoy stories about women in abusive relationships who have to work cleverly to try to escape you will love this! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for this ARC of Make Me Disappear by Jessica Payne.

I personally loved this one. Noelle, desperate to get out of her sadistic relationship, sets up what is called Extreme Kidnapping, where you can hire someone to kidnap you, for fun. She sees this as her one and only way out, to escape her boyfriend. Only something doesn't seem right with the kidnapping she had planned.

This is the perfect example of a cat and mouse type book. I loved it from the start and kept me on edge the entire time. The alternating timelines and characters were perfect and lacked the confusion other books do when authors try to do this. I loved the dynamics of the relationships in this book that Noelle had. And unlike many books before where you get frustrated with the victim, Noelle was such a strong female, but also human. I definitely recommend this one for my fellow thriller readers.

5 WELL DESERVED STARS!

This is one of those books that you will want to read in one sitting because you are on the edge of your seat the entire time and you have to know how it ends! I was mad at life getting in the way preventing me from finishing this in one day!

This book is the perfect psychological thriller filled with everything I love. Fast paced, thrilling, heart stopping, and filled with twists and turns throughout. I love books that make you question who you can trust! I really liked Noelle’s character and found her very relatable. I was rooting for her the entire time. The antagonist made my skin crawl! I have read hundreds of books with narcissistic, sociopathic characters and Dr. Daniel Ashcroft rates high on my list as one of the worst!

Make sure you clear your day when you read this. Once you start the first chapter you will not be able to stop!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my eARC.