Many thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for gifting me a digital ARC by a new-to-me author, Kate Clayborn - 4 stars!

Jess has spent the last 10 years raising her younger half-sister after their mother took off once again and never returned. Only 18, Jess had to put her life on hold to become mom to Tegan. Now as Tegan prepares to go off to college, she discovers that Jess has had some clues into her mother's disappearance that she kept secret; namely, that the man their mom ran off with was an infamous con man and subject of a true crime podcast. When the podcast host and producer show up at their door with a proposition, Jess is not in, but she will also not let Tegan go on her own. So the four set out on a road trip, following postcards sent by their mom, to discover the truths.

I love a good road trip story and this was a good mystery and romance as well. But it's really a discovery of what happens when someone disappears from your life? Can you easily let them go, especially when it's a parent? It's learning to trust yourself and your feelings, and let those you love do the same. You will absolutely fall in love with Adam as he falls in love with Jess, wanting only to never hurt her. Of course, that's not reality either. I felt for both sisters as their relationship went through changes. A great read!

True crime meets romance in this page-turner. We get to meet some very complicated main characters who have a lot of emotional trauma from their past. Jess was abandoned twice by her mother; one as a child and then again as a twenty-one year old. Except, the second time her mom leaves she is also leaving Jess's half-sibling, eight year-old Teegen. And Teegen is doubly unlucky in parents; her dad has never been in the picture. So, literally overnight, Jess becomes Teegen's sole caretaker. Jess is stubborn to a fault, and tenacious and very, very protective of Teegen. We see the difficulties that this mother/daughter, sister/sister relationship causes for the two women. When Teegen turns eighteen and realizes that their mom ran off with the infamous con-man, Lynton Baltimore (who was featured in a popular podcast), Teegen contacts the podcast's creator and offers to go on a road trip to find her mom and Lynton. The podcast team, Salem and Adam, show up on Teegen and Jess's doorstep, and Jess and Adam have an insta-love connection.

I am not an insta-love fan but it worked in this book. Jess and Adam may have an instant connection but they do spend weeks getting to know each other while they drive across the country chasing Jess's mom. Adam has his own complicated past and it's really wonderful to see how he works hard to be what Jess needs. Adam is a feminist and is emotionally mature and stable. It's very refreshing to read about a man who isn't in any way threatened by his emotions and also isn't threatened by her emotions.

As readers, we get to follow along on the true crime journey and also Adam and Jess's romance; and we get to see Teegen and Jess's relationship evolve. It's a beautiful read and I very much enjoyed it.

Kate Clayborn does it again! This is another great story about Adam and Jess as they meet as Part 2 for a podcast that involves Jess's family and Adam as a new producer. There is great depth as they follow a trail of postcards and how life has damaged their trust in relationships. It is a powerful story of how trauma affects us but how we can learn to love and trust again.
Thanks Netgalley for the ARC!

A heart wrenching portrayal of a soul lost and the redemptive power of love to find it again—you will feel every emotion as you read through the transformation of each character in this riveting tale. The strength and resilience of Jess as she steps into an identity true to herself and separate from the one she was forced to take on will have you wanting to reach through the pages and pull her into a hug. As a mom, it gave me pause to consider what lengths I have gone to in order to protect my children from the inevitable world and was a gentle reminder not to lose myself in the parenting process. Adam is the type of hero we can only hope comes into our lives; if not I the form of a lover, then just a friend of his caliber with such a fierce loyalty. I laughed; I cried; I fell in love throughout the pages of this book.

Thank you Netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review. Kate Clayborn’s writing is a gift to this world, just like this book. There was so much angst and emotional baggage throughout the story but, at the same time, so much softness and love. These characters made me feel like they were almost real, and that’s the thing I love most in books, how words on a screen can suddenly make you feel valid and loved and cared about just because of some carefully written characters. This was a delight, I love Jess, Adam and Teagan forever 💌

FOUR STARS! ****

Thank you Kensington Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC!

I love me some Kate Clayborn and have been impatiently waiting for her next release! The Other Side of Disappearing did not disappoint.

Likes:
- Big, creaky bear of a H who is instantly into the h.
- The sister relationship in the book
- The pace was just right, didn't feel rushed or like it was dragging out

Dislikes:
- I wasn't invested in the flashbacks to the podcast.
- I wish there was more interaction with <spoiler>their Mom when they found her.</spoiler>

Overall, big like! Maybe it's time for a Kate Clayborn full reread :)

Oh wow this book was a lot (in a good way). This was my first Kate Clayborn novel, even though I have "Georgie, All Along" sitting on my shelf, and I'll definitely be picking that one up soon. "The Other Side of Disappearing" was a little heavier than the romances that I usually read, but still had all of the quirk, charm, and feels that I love about romance novels.

Jess and Tegan's relationship with their mother felt so real, raw, and visceral that I sometimes had to put the book down. Clayborn did a phenomenal job at capturing the experience of having a difficult relationship with a parent and how that affects different people in different ways. I also loved how their relationship with each other developed throughout the book and how Jess had to grapple with the line between being a sister and a parental figure.

I also loved all of the richly complex characters in the book besides Jess and Tegan. I love how Adam had his own fleshed out story beyond his romance with Jess. Salem I would have liked to see a little more of, if only because she was so interesting. Though I understand why her absence was sometimes necessary to propel the story. I was very impressed by how the book was able to address so many issues (absentee parents, sports and mental health, the effects of true crime on victims, complex relationships with motherhood) without it feeling bogged down and pedantic.

If I had one criticism it would be that I think Adam sometimes wanted to be making decisions for Jess and didn't necessarily trust her in expressing her own desires or making her own decisions. While I don't think characters having flaws is necessarily a criticism of a book, in this kind of book I would have liked to see it addressed.

I think my favorite detail in the book was that Adam said he played two of his best college football games at the Horseshoe against OSU. The implication here being that whatever team he played for defeated OSU twice at home. Go Blue.

4 stars.

Thank you NetGalley and Kensington for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

This is my second book by Kate Clayborn, and it was another hit! I loved the interesting, original premise and backstory. It doesn’t feel like something that’s been done a hundred times. The relationship between Jess & her sister is so beautiful and moved me to tears. Adam Hawkins is a top tier book boyfriend! I also love how this author approaches the topics of mental health & illness, healing, generational trauma, sisterhood, and friendship. I loved this book & will continue to pick up books by this author!

Thank you Kate Clayborn and NetGalley for the e-arc of The Other Side of Disappearing! I love Kate Clayborn and everything she’s written, and this book was no different.

I think that The Other Side of Disappearing is really different from other books that Kate has written. While I would still consider this a romance book, there was almost a suspense feel to the story that her other works don’t have — the stakes were much higher (finding a mother that’s been gone for ten years and how that impacts the two daughters she left behind vs the typical romance book tropes).

I loved reading from both Adam’s and Jess’s POVs and also how the two side characters (Salem and Tegan) had depth and their own issues that made them interesting and I became invested in them as well as a reader. I personally think that Jess’s character had more growth throughout the book, while Adam’s character acknowledged his problems and how to take the steps towards fixing them, but didn’t fully implement them. It did take me a bit to get into this book, but once I did I enjoyed it so much

The Other Side of Disappearing is the perfect for romance readers who sometimes want a bit more than a fluffy read!

4/5 ⭐️
1/5 🌶️

ADAMJESS!!! okay the level of cute they are giving thorughout this book! the storyline was so unique and interesting to me, the slow but sure development of their romantic relationship, and the discussions on toxic masculinity and abandonment were done really well, i need kate's books more than i need air!

3.75 for me! I found this to be unlike any romance I’d read before. I really loved the set up of this story, and the mystery element made the story really unique. Given the timeline of their research trip was only two weeks, there was a lot of potential for it to feel too “insta-love” for me, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I anticipated. Such a refreshing read that I thoroughly enjoyed!

What a unique take on true crime, podcasts, family drama, good old fashioned pining, and road trip romance. A fascinating premise and such a poignant story. TOSOD’s themes of privacy and boundaries are very timely, and the trauma characters have faced is handled respectfully. I’m glad that Jess finally did tell her story, and also that there wasn’t a neat wrap up like, the podcast was fraught and it stayed that way through til the end. But it was the catalyst for hard conversations, it reopened wounds that had festered. Jess’ refusal to be the story mirrored her subsumption into the mothering protector role that had been forced upon her at 21. It was refreshing to see therapy on page, to concretely know how it helped with the healing. As of course did the healthy intimacy with Adam- from the very beginning he saw her, he helped re-embody her. Writing a character as closed off as Jess and trying to have someone get to know her and vice versa is a challenging feat, but Clayborn uses touch/physicality to great effect- grounding in the senses, the way two bodies connect without language, a sensitivity to each other’s tics and expressions I loved the recurring image of Jess and Adam’s hands touching, like Romeo and Juliet “palm to palm is holy Palmer’s kiss.” (like to think it was an intentional given Clayborn’s previous R + J retelling.) Overall a great addition to Kate Clayborn’s oeuvre.

Kate Clayborn has become an auto-buy for me. I just love her writing so much. The chemistry between Adam and Jess gave me butterflies. The concept of pairing romance with true crime was so gosh darn clever. Clayborn has an uncanny knack for using just the right words, conveying so much in so few words. Love, love, love this.

I want to start with that I adore this author and have read every book she has published. This one for me was an
anomaly and just didn’t work for me personally, though I am sure I am in the minority. This is a family drama about a missing mom, older sister doing all she can to raise and protect her younger sister, a true crime podcast about a man who is the last person their mom was seen with, and smidge of romance. Jess is doing all she can to raise her sister so she has a good life after they are abandoned by their mother. When Tegan goes behind Jess’s back and does the thing she least wants her to do while pretending to be her, Jess decides she has no choice, but to go along with her and the true crime podcasters she contacted to find out what happened to their mother. I know that many people loved this journey and all of that, but I got stuck on the subterfuge of Tegan. I get it, she is young and curious, but the way she manipulated the situation left me with not finding her likable so it was hard to connect or care about her. Then there is Jess. She has sworn off love and men in a breath goes all gooey for Adam. It just didn’t seem at all credible to me. I do enjoy some fictionalized insta-love, but this didn’t work for me. Those two issues made the rest of the story hard to connect with and finish. That said, I will absolutely be anxiously awaiting what comes next from this adored author.

This is, I suspect, the least romancey of Clayborn's book so far. And it's weird to say that because you almost discover (maybe not even almost) Jess through Adam's eyes. Adam's the more grounded, rooted and developed character from go, because Jess has--disappeared.

Not like her mom. which is the plotline here, a podcast about an acquaintance of her mother's and perhaps the reason she's been gone and Jess has been raising her sister-but she's disappeared into her devotion/dedication/love for her sister. So I guess this is for all the disappearing babes out there. Because as this book explores in that extreme quiet Clayborn-y way, there are so many ways to disappear and other ways to be found.

Clayborn did some fun things with elements here that I am still thinking about - I love when names have meaning. She took it a step further here with nicknames and the like as well.

Anyway, we've all mentioned/discussed KC's respect for her heroes and no where has it been more apparent than the hulking Adam. He's observant, giant, kind, and protective in just the right way. I love how Jess flattened him and it was a little tough at first because he's what kept me reading because my sense of Jess was kind of amorphous-I think purposefully. But him seeing her let us see and know him, and then ultimately her in the end. So while I wasn't emotionally invested as quickly as I am used to in Clayborn's novels, I was still rooting for them because Adam's presence was so strong and I want him to be able to love Jess. Eventually, we want that FOR Jess too, but I personally didn't get there until about 80% - and of course I sobbed. The structure worked. Some will find it slow. I found it developed, but as I said nothing was immediate. I kind of liked working for it overall.

Thank. you to the publisher and netgalley for the copy and whopping 3 seconds to review this book, which has not affected my rating.

My summary: Jess has spent the last ten years raising her sister, Tegan, and keeping a low profile after their mother ran away with an infamous con man, Lynton Baltimore. Freshly turned 18, Tegan has brought Jess’s worst nightmare to their doorstep—Salem Durant, a popular true crime podcaster, and her colleague, Adam Hawkins. Salem first made a name for herself after covering Lynton Baltimore’s story before he disappeared, apparently with Jess’s mother in tow, and now Salem is determined to finish the story. The connection between Jess and Adam sparks in the first moment they lay eyes on each other on Jess’s doorstep. But beyond needing to find Jess’s mother, Jess and Adam’s relationship is further complicated by Jess’s desire to do anything to keep her story to herself—but Salem has made Adam a deal he can’t refuse if he can manage to get Jess to talk about her mom.
My thoughts: Sometimes you don’t realize how average the books you’ve been reading are until one comes along to remind you of just how fantastic a book can truly be. This is one of those fantastic books. A contemporary romance with a sizable side of mystery and intrigue, it pulls you immediately into the mystery of Lynton Baltimore and Jess’s runaway mom. The style of writing is just so enjoyable. The metaphors are everything—both delightful and insightful. And—holy heartstrings. The tragicness of Jess and Tegan’s lives up until now, plus Adam’s loss of his friend and the guilt he carries over his death.
The way Kate Clayborn weaves everything together in this book is just so satisfying.
Also, I was today years old when I found out con man is short for confidence man. I also thought it was, idk, convict or something. This is my second book by this author and both have been five star reads for me.

I love you, Kate Clayborn, and I'll forever kiss the ground you walk in!!!!

In "The Other Side of Disappearing," Kate Clayborn skillfully explores important themes without being preachy. The story begins with ideas about being seen or unseen, but it goes deeper into how people deal with the roles society expects from them. The characters, especially Jess and Adam, show how personal identity can clash with what's expected of us. Adam, who's a typical "manly" hero (and my boyfriend, tbh), stands out for being supportive emotionally and practically to Jess.

Even though Adam's role is mostly supportive, the heartfelt connection between Jess and Tegan is a highlight. It shows how they find themselves while navigating family duties and still supporting each other. Overall, this book blends deep themes with engaging characters. It's a great read for anyone interested in identity, relationships, and resilience!

Thank you Kensington Books and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange of an honest review!

Thanks to Kensington for an advanced copy of The Other Side of Disappearing by Kate Clayborn.

This will be an unpopular opinion but I was not a fan of The Other Side of Disappearing. This was way too insta-love and I felt like it wasn't a romance at the same time. It felt too much like a detective story. I wasn't invested in the story and didn't really care about the characters.

This was really different from previous Kate Clayborn books I've read with the whole true crime podcast/con-man angle. I think it took me longer to get pulled into the story because of that, but I did love the romance. Adam is the absolute best, and their time together on the farm was *chef's kiss*. I also liked the sister relationship and their complicated history with their mom and everyone's character arcs. Overall, it was a good read.

*I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Kate Clayborn is a beautiful writer. This book was both beautiful and heartbreaking, written in a style that almost felt lyrical or poetic at times but never felt bogged down by prose or pretention. It was soft and aching and hopeful. I just loved it. An absolutely stunning book.