Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a sweet, if a bit imbalanced, romance. The combination of the romance with the overall plot of the podcast journey was an interesting combination. I felt a little bit of whiplash at time bopping back and forth from the emotions of the romance to the emotions of the relationship between Jess and Tegan to the emotions of the search for Jess and Tegan's mom. It was maybe a little overstuffed.

I liked the dynamic between Jess and Adam, other than the "love (or at least infatuation) at first sight" on Adam's side, but that's more of a personal preference.

With all of the different plot elements, there wasn't a ton of time to focus on/develop the side characters, but I sure did like Salem and wish I had gotten to read more about her.

Overall, a little much, but still sweet. 3/5.

Thank you to Kensington for providing me an early copy of one of my most anticipated reads of the year!

This book only strengthened my belief that Kate Clayborn is in a league of her own in terms of writing. Even though I wasn’t sure about the story at first, Kate has a way with words that would hook me in and never let me go until I’m done no matter what the plot is. She is so incredibly talented, and the way she made me fall for Jess and Adam is a crime!!!! I need to reread this book another ten times now!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

4.5 stars rounded up. I struggled with the rating here, as I completely adored the characters and the writing was gorgeous as always, but the plot didn’t quite click for me.

The heroine Jess is a 30 year old hairstylist who has been raising her younger sister Tegan since their mom left 10 years ago. Jess was a prickly and careful delight - as a reader, I admired her but also understood why she wouldn’t quite let me in. Tegan has graduated high school and is about to leave for college, which has Jess at a crossroads and not quite knowing what to do with herself.

Kate Clayborn is the master of tender, caretaking heroes and she outdid herself in this book. Adam is an ex-football player turned journalist, and is acting as the assistant to a well-known true crime podcaster, Salem. Their paths intersect when Salem arrives to do a story about Jess and Tegan’s mother, who (as it turns out) ran off with a well-known conman. Since Tegan really wants to find their mother, Jess feels obligated to embark on a road trip with Adam and Salem to try to track her down.

This is where the story went a little off, for me - the road trip felt a bit manufactured. However I loved how the forced proximity made them see and appreciate each other, especially how Adam fell so hard so fast and remained so tuned in to what Jess needed. Her journey to take a risk and trust him was so heartwarming, I loved it.

Not my favorite of this author but still enjoyed.
Meaningful character insights & reflections as is the author's trademark.
Multi-layered relationships--both familial & romantic.

The "steamy scenes" seemed unnecessary, and to me detracted from the story.

With thanks to NetGalley & Kensington for this e-ARC!

I enjoyed this because it is Kate Clayborn, but it is not my favorite by her. I liked the mystery aspect, but felt it overshadowed the romance, which I wanted more of. Her writing is lovely, as always, and I will of course read everything she writes.

Oh this book. I absolutely fell in love with Jess, Tegan and Adam. The adventure they go on in the quest to find their mom is beautiful and heartbreaking. The growth every character goes through is inspiring. Highly recommend this book! Thanks NetGalley for the copy, it was magnificent!

“He kisses like the most impossible dream, a study in perfect contradiction. Soft and firm. Searching and assured. Eager and patient.”

I don’t know how to adequately put into words how much I loved this book. It was deeply romantic and so unique from any other romance novel I’ve ever read. The love story intertwined with the mystery and the family drama was utterly delicious. The end of each chapter kept me wanting to read more. Jess’s relationship with her younger half-sister, Tegan, was so moving. Despite their differences, Jess was fiercely protective of Tegan, and vice versa. I am OBSESSED with Adam. The way he loved Jess in such a quiet, adoring way SENT ME. The scene in the flower field?! So freaking perfect! Not to mention, Adam was just an all-round GOOD human. And Jess’s growth throughout the story - her vulnerability and willingness to trust again despite all the times she’s been let down - was truly admirable. I truly didn’t think the book could be any more flawless, but then I read the epilogue. Incredible! Another 5-star romance from Kate Clayborn!

“Jess’s laugh. I’ve never heard it before, her full, loud laugh. I’ve never heard it, and yet I’d know it anywhere.”

The Other Side of Disappearing by Kate Clayborn
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Jess has been raising her little sister on her own for the past ten years, since their mother took off. One day Jess comes home to find a famous podcaster on her doorstep ready to hunt down her mom.
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What I liked:
-So many things!!! 💜💜 First off I loved Jess and how dependable yet fragile she is. We really got a great insight into how Jess thinks and feels about things, and I just wanted to give her a huge hug.
-Although the relationship between Jess and Tegan is a touch strained at the beginning of the story, they are such sweet sisters. I wept in the last section of the book to see how they coped with all they were going through.
-Jess and Adam. 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 Their love story was so special.
-Adam’s entire family. 💜💜 I wish a had an awesome family farm to go home to. 🥺
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5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I initially gave this 4.5 stars but I loved it so much I bumped it up 5, although Georgie is still my favorite Kate Clayborn book. Sweet and emotional, this story about family really hit me in the feels.

Kate Clayborn has such a talent at writing books with such emotional complexities in a very quiet and gentle way. This book is different than anything I’ve read from her before in its plot, but those signature feelings are present from start to finish. There is family drama woven into a mystery that needs unraveled while also handling the feelings that come along with the journey.

Jess has been raising her younger sister, Tegan, for the past decade since their mom took off with a man. She’s kept the fact that he was a notorious con man who’d been the subject of a successful podcast around that time a secret. When Tegan finds out on her own, she takes matters into her own hand and lands podcaster, Salem, and her partner Adam on their doorstep with the goal of tracking down their mother. For Jess who has closed herself off from connection for years, Adam adds an unexpected layer to the challenge of keeping her walls up and her heart guarded.

There were so many different relationship dynamics at play throughout this book. Before I add my thoughts on the romantic relationship, I have to highlight the one between Jess and Tegan. The love between the two of them is so genuine and honestly moved me to tears toward the end. They had the complexity of being sisters while also navigating Jess’s assumed parental role and finding a balance. Jess has basically made it her life’s mission for the past decade to protect and shield Tegan as best she can from any kind of hurt tied to their mother, and the podcast makes that impossible. It ends up being so important to their relationship evolution. The journey between them is beautiful.

As far as the romance element, I would protect Adam with my life. I adored the man he was and had such a soft spot in my heart for him almost immediately. I don’t always love the idea of an instant connection between characters, but it jumps off the page here. I could feel the energy between Adam and Jess regardless of whose POV the chapter was in. Everything between them was so tender and at times very raw. It was palpable and authentic. Jess showed so much bravery as she took steps to let her guard down. Adam was so gentle and really saw to the heart of her.

Salem was probably the character who surprised me most. She went from being someone who seemed like she was going to be fairly one dimensional to having a broad range of traits and responses to events. I was please with how integral her role ended up being as so much more than a podcast host.

‘Georgie, All Along’ is one of my all-time favorite romance novels, so I was highly anticipating what Kate Clayborn came up with next. On the surface, this book was entirely different, but at its heart it had everything I love about her work. Thank you to NetGalley, Kate Clayborn and Kensington Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This complex contemporary romance featuring a journalist and a woman enmeshed in a podcast he's producing feels original and current. It's also darker than I was expecting based on other Kate Clayborn novels, but I didn't mind too much as it made the story feel truer.

Jess has been white-knuckling it for the past decade. After her mother abandons her when she's 21--for the second time--she decides to step up and care for her eight-year-old half-sister, Teagan, who has no other family. Teagan is about to head off for college but has a surprise up her sleeve before she goes. Posing as Jess, she has contacted a journalist who hosted a famous true crime podcast years ago to let her know that Teagan believes her mother ran off with the con-man who was the subject of that podcast. Without telling Jess, she plans to take a road trip with the podcaster, Salem, and her producer, Adam, to find their mom. Once Jess hears of this, she decides she has to accompany them to protect her sister from the infamy the podcast will surely bring and the heartbreak Teagan will surely experience. Along the way, Jess begins to the fall in love with the sensitive Adam.

Kate Clayborn did an amazing job in building out Jess and Adam. Chapters alternate between their POVs, which goes a long way to helping readers understand their perspectives. That said, you can't help but have sympathy for either of them--two flawed but caring people doing their best to love and support the other. At one point in the story, Jess is reflecting on the that groove you hit in the early moments of a physical relationship that happens once partners sync up after some early fumbling. In many ways, the whole romance felt that way, with Jess and Adam trying to strike a balance that will allow them to move forward together. When it does, the payoff feels rewarding.

This was angstier than I'd been expecting. Maybe I thought "road trip" and assumed it would be more of a caper. But there are a lot of dark moments here, everything from processing a friend's suicide to parental abandonment, and I think I needed to be more in the mood for weightiness than I was while I was reading this.

That said, if you are in the mood for a little emotional turmoil--if you want to feel all the things, from love to grief--then this is a perfect romance for you. It's well-written with complex characters you will come to love.

4.5 stars

Transformative. Haunting. Achingly beautiful. These are some adjectives or adjectival phrases I used to see bandied around on back cover copy of books I worked on in my publishing days. It was very rare that I read a contemporary lit book that really lived up to these descriptors. This book is one of them.

I have a long story to share that I hope does a little justice to describing this novel. Bear with me.

When I was a junior in high school, I was taking an AP 2D art course that required us to submit a portfolio at the end of the semester. Our whole grade was based on that body of work we produced. The portfolio itself, the carrier that held my art projects, was made of thick brown paper and it had flimsy black handles. When I accidentally left it at the picnic tables after class, I guess it seemed like something discarded to our janitor. Something that needed to be disposed of. So he threw it out in the school dumpsters, which were serendipitously emptied by the county that night.

My art teacher, who had already seen my work and thought it was metaphorical trash, didn’t take pity on me and wouldn’t judge my work on sight-previously-seen. She made me redo every art project I had done up to that point, and I had two weeks to do it.

So that’s how I found myself, late one night, sitting on the floor in the living room of the second saddest place my father ever lived, frantically working against the clock to recreate a study in light and shadow in the near pitch dark. There were no chairs, no sofa, not even a lamp in the room. The only thing in the room was a tv, so I was using that as my light source. I had some news program on, but I’d put the show on mute. It was the early days of the first Gulf War, and when the program started playing footage of the American bombing campaign, the silent flickering light of bombs going off distracted me from my drawing and I looked up at the tv. I can’t go into all the emotions I was feeling at that moment, but one of them I distinctly remember and still find unsettling. How could something be so powerful, so bright, so shocking, even when it was so, so quiet.

And that memory came flooding back when I was reading this book. How can something be so powerful, so bright, so shocking, even when it is so, so quiet.? The Other Side of Disappearing somehow is.

I am a huge fan of Kaye Clayborn's books, so I went into this with high expectations. I enjoyed this book, but I didn't love it as much as her earlier novels.

Jess and her sister, Tegan go on a road trip looking for their mother. They are accompanied by Adam and Salem, two journalists doing a podcast on the grifter she ran off with.

Jess and Adam are the protagonists, and they are both great characters. The actual romance storyline is just as solid as any of Clayborn's other novels.

The B story was what lost me. I did not find it believable that this grifter was compelling enough to be the focal point of a popular podcast. The plot surrounding that storyline was sparse and not that interesting.

This book is still well worth reading! Clayborn is such a good writer, she can make you get lost in the feelings and inner monologs of her characters. I loved Jess and Adam and loved rooting for them.

Right from the beginning Jess is chaotic and overly anxious because her sister isn’t home. She gets a call that her client is at her salon and Jess tells the receptionist to cancel her appointment. Yet when she decides to embark on a spur of the moment 3 week trip she says she won’t have a hard time with the salon because she’s never taken a sick day and I’m like ummm yeah you literally canceled on your client yesterday while she was at the salon. So it immediately made me distrust Jess as a narrator because she contradicted herself and view her in a negative light because of how unprofessional she is. I also could not figure out ages at one moment it seemed like Jess was 28 but then in one part she said something about being 32 and it was just like either tell me her age or don’t, same with Adam it’s like I’m supposed be calculating 5 year since his friend died but he was in college and she’s thrown in that he did a masters program after he died and then was an intern and it just seemed like she was intentionally making us wonder what age they are but then also being vague and it just seemed like a lot of afterthought ideas.

Confusing start there are lots of characters and names all at once and not just first names, because of the transcriptions we are also expected to remember last names right off the bat! There are issues with pacing and nothing exciting happens until 30%. All the characters are flat. The Dual POV is unnecessary and doesn’t work because both characters inner monologue sounds the same so I catch myself getting confused as to who I’m reading from. Also the dialogue is poorly written where a character will say something and the POV will be narrating for an entire page before replying and at the point I’ve already forgotten what was going on in the conversation.
I really loved Georgie All Along but didn’t love the authors other books so I’m thinking Georgie All Along was just an anomaly.

Jess and Adam forever! Seriously, the standoffish woman and the big, loving teddy bear of a man? What’s not to love?

Kate Clayborn books are a must read for me—smart women and men with real flaws and problems. This book didn’t disappoint.

In the acknowledgements, the author says that this book was scary because it’s so different, and she’s right about that; this book is different. But it’s different in the best possible ways in the end.

Jess and Teegan’’s relationship as sisters felt so perfectly real on the page. Especially the awkward sister/mom aspect, which is always a little weird, and Clayborn didn’t shy away from the stilted and strange aspects of that interplay.

This is Kate Clayborn’s best book, and I’ll recommend it to anyone willing to listen!

Wow, Kate Clayborn does it again! This heartfelt yet genuine story takes us down a pathway of what happens after people disappear from our lives. The perspective of how it both changes us and frames our actions into who we are is remarkable. This really hit home for me in so many ways.

10 years earlier two sisters, Teeg and Jess, were abandoned by their mother for a man and he turns out to be a criminal con man. Their mother, Charlotte, sent 5 postcards from various places after leaving them, which Jess hid from Teeg. Teeg pretends to be Jess and secretly reaches out to the famous podcaster, Salem, who did an original podcast on this conman. Salem and her colleague, Adam, propose a 3-week trip exploring leads from the 5 locations hoping to track them down.

Jess doesn’t want to talk about her mother or go on the trip, but she won’t let Teeg go alone. Teeg wants to find her mother and won’t take no for an answer now that she is 18. Salem is obsessed with finishing her podcast story because the conman stood her up for her final interview. Adam is grief stricken from losing his best friend due to mental health/football and Salem told him if he gets Jess to talk, then she will produce the story about his friend. However, Adam is enamored with Jess the moment he meets and he cannot bare hurting her anything further than she has already endured. Jess is very closed off, but slowly starts to open up to Adam.

They embark on a trip that will ultimately change each of them in different ways, but due to similar acts of disappearing in their lives.

Hands down, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for this story! Mark your calendars, as the release date is March 26, 2024. A huge thank you to NetGalley & Kensington Books for allowing me access to advanced digital copy of this book.

If you haven’t read Georgia All Along, then check that book at too. I’ll be checking into Kate’s older work to see what else I’ve missed!

✔️ Forced Proximity
✔️ Road Trip
✔️ Hurt/Comfort

Kate Clayborn is one of my autobuy authors for a reason - she delivers reads that where the emotional stakes feel stratospherically high. The Other Side of Disappearing is one I have not been able to stop thinking about since I finished it.

I loved the romance between Adam and Jess and how they felt like the missing pieces in each other's lives. The connection they felt at the beginning was instantaneous but set to a low boil and I was on pins and needles waiting for them to come together.

My favorite relationship in the book, however, is between Jess and her sister. The character journey they go through together was perfection and there is a scene between them at the end that brought me to tears.

There is also a reveal here that
made me GASP out loud. I am really good at predicting what happens but there is something that caught me off guard in the best way.

5⭐️ - and I recommend you go into this one as blind as possible.

Steam 🔥🔥
Banter 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️
Swoon 💕💕💕💕💕

This is a beautiful and heartbreaking love story. Only Kate Clayborn, possibly the best contemporary romance author of her generation could somehow blend true crime podcasting, glasses fogging sex scenes, heartrending family tragedy, and the ups and downs of parenting teenagers into a book that I simply could not put down.

One of the curses of contemporary romance, or any romance really is the notion that love can fix everything. No matter the hurdle love will find a way to get you over it. From dead former lovers to infertility to outright murder love is the answer. And that's often where things shut down for me when I'm reading. Love is a wonderful thing, possibly the one thing that really separates the human race from every other form of life. But its not a fix all for every problem you've ever had. It doesn't stop making you a hot mess or mean you'll never be unhappy again. Too many authors don't seem to get that.

Kate Clayborn does. Her characters are messy and sometimes horrible and they do stupid things while also falling in love. They also frequently keep doing messy stupid things afterwards. And the bad shit doesn't vanish just because the hero and heroine finally kiss. But it is a little more bearable when there's someone else there. Also sometimes? Love isn't the answer at all, its the problem. Sometimes it wrecks havoc, destroys lives and leaves nothing behind but pain.

That's the crux of "The Other Side of Disappearing." Jessamine Green has spent her twenties raising her teenage half sister Tegan after their mother abandoned them both for her latest boyfriend. Now the sisters are approached by a documentarian podcaster and her research assistant who have some startling revelations about who that man was. Salem Durant never got to finish the story she began with her hit podcast "The Last Con of Lynton Baltimore" when he vanished before their final interview. Now, despite Jess's best efforts Salem has learned that its her mother who helped him disappear. With Tegan determined to find answers about why their mother left Jess has no choice but to join Salem, and her distractingly attractive researcher Adam on a road trip across the country as they try to, finally, find endings for their stories.

For his part Adam is determined to help Salem get the story she needs because it will mean he'll finally be able to tell his own story, a tragic one about the loss of his best friend who lost his struggle with mental illness. He's also desperate to come out from behind the mask of a college football hero and have people see him as a serious journalist.

Clayborn has so much to say about love. How it can offer strength and hope even in the darkest of times but also how it can suffocate and turn people into monsters when its abused. She explores trauma in a way I've never really seen in contemporary fiction. Her characters are so much striving to overcome their pain as they are learning to live in it, which is a remarkable and powerful thing to see. As Jess and Adam grow closer and finally begin to open up to each other about years of loss and anger and pain that they've too close for too long its not about "letting it go." Its about letting someone else help shoulder the burden.

She also writes so eloquently about the love between families, of all kinds. Jess and Tegan's journey to find a way through their mutual grief and anger and love each other in a way that frees them rather than confines is just as important as the romance between Jess and Adam.

The truth about Jess and Tegan's mother and why she left is the tragic current that runs through this story of broken and beautiful love. There will be no firm resolutions to that part of the story because no answer to the why would ever be a good enough one. Sometimes, love just isn't enough.

And that's okay too.

Ultimately this is a wonderful romantic story about healing and transforming pain into strength, making it part of your story, not the entire story.

Also, the sex is amazing.

"I think I've probably figured out some truths about myself. A good story. . . a good story can do that for you."

This is a diversion from what I'm used to from Kate Clayborn, but not at all a disappointment. She still brings all the characteristics I love from a Clayborn novel: big feelings, complex and interesting characters, exploration, lyrical prose.

I'm not really a true crime girl, so at first I was hesitant. But keeping this an estranged relationship and con rather than violence kept me in it. I'm not sure if that was an intentional choice from Clayborn or not because I've read plenty of romances with violence that I've loved. In a contemporary context, however, I probably would have passed on this if the crimes had been different.

This book feels heavier than Clayborn's other work. Her gentle exploration of grief, family dynamics, and the fear of vulnerability, had all the classic charm and thoughtfulness we've come to expect from Clayborn.

I already can't wait to own a physical copy and read it again!

Wow! I didn’t think I would like a mystery because I usually read light romance to escape life but I couldn’t put this down once I started reading it. Adam “Hawk” is such a gentle giant and works so hard to draw Jess out of her closed off self protection. Jess and Teegan took me a while to like but I love how much they grow throughout the book.

Kate Clayborn will forever be a favorite author of mine. Her writing is so lovely, and clear, and poignant. I always love the worlds she builds and this one in particular was no different.

I loved Jess—such a unique, well developed character. I really felt for her and much she had to keep hidden, how much she had to protect her heart from life. The slow build of trust between Jess and Adam was truly breathtaking.

I highly recommend this read. So beautiful.