Wow! This book was an emotional roller coaster. It blew me away in the best possible way.

Jess the MC, is fiercely protective of her younger sister Tegan. Ten years ago, when Jess was 8, her mother fled with her lover, leaving the girls behind. It turned out, that her lover was the infamous conman Lynton Baltimore. Jess and her sister haven’t seen their mother since then,

Tegan in a burst of teenage rebellion contacts Salem Durant who is a famous podcaster who had a popular series 10 years ago about Lynton, his crimes and disappearance. Tegan has found new information that she believes may lead her to her mother. She wants Salem and her colleague Adam to help. Her sister Jess gets reluctant drawn into an investigative road trip in an attempt to protect her sister.

The characters were great, with complex interpersonal relationships. The plot was suspenseful. I loved the enemies to lovers aspect as well.

This book was one of my favourite reads of 2024 so far.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kensington books for providing me with an ARC of this book to read and review.

Thank you to the author, Kensington Books and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My apologies for the delay in posting this review, I had a bit too much going on.

The author does it again, with a heartwarming and tender story of two sisters who were abandoned by their mother 10 years ago when the younger was only 8 years old, and the older became her guardian. Lots - so many and so much - emotions and learning to become a bit more open, let alone *gasp* vulnerable. Yes, the pace is a bit slow at times, and it's not a classic rom-com - but the relationship between the sisters, the pain and joy they share rings true as they embark on a road trip with a twist, trying to follow cryptic clues to find their mother. The romantic element tiptoes in, with much hesitation on both sides, and blossoms slowly, but in a very sweet way.

Sentimientos encontrados con este libro. Por un lado, me ha conmovido la historia y cómo la narra Kate Clayborn, huyendo de lo fácil y con ese modo de narrar que tanto me gustó en su libro anterior, como llenando las frases de sensibilidad, de delicadeza incluso cuando cuenta cosas desagradables. No tiene sentido lo que digo XD, pero es que no sé expresarlo bien (se admiten sugerencias sobre cursos de escritura XD). El caso es que me gusta mucho el estilo de la narración. Pero lo que cuenta ya es otra cosa. Lo primero es que NO ES ROMÁNTICA, y lo digo porque no les veamos hacer guarreridas (que sí les vemos) sino porque la historia de amor es tremendamente secundaria por mucho que la escritora quiera darle más papel. La trama gira entorno a unas hermanas que buscan a su madre desaparecida y para ello una de ellas contacta con unos periodistas. Pues esa búsqueda es el hilo conductor del libro y la verdadera historia de amor, para mí, la de las hermanas.
No es que sea un mal libro y, además, ya sabía que no era romántica, pero está todo teñido de una especie de melancolía que ahora mismo a mí no me hace tirarme al suelo y croquetear.

Thank you Netgalley and Kensington books for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.

This is a typical romance story which didn't feel very different from the romances I have read. It's very touchy feely which kind of annoyed me. I hate characters who overreact and Jess was just that.

I really tried to like the characters but they were just about emotions and nothing else so it was too hard to see them as real people and connect with them. Maybe it was my problem but this book wasn't for me.

Thank you Kate Clayborn & Kensington Books for my #gifted copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

When I really love a book, I either speed read it or drag it out to not miss a detail. This book was the latter. It’s the first book in a long time I took my time with because I was dreading it ending & having to say goodbye to these characters.

I knew going in that this was the perfect book for me - family dynamics are always an interest of mine. This story surrounding Jess and Tegan, half-sisters whose mom abandoned them to run away with a con man leaving Jess to raise Tegan, was the perfect storm of trauma, healing, & love. Jess was fiercely protective of Tegan, almost to a detriment to both of them. Getting to see her slowly open up to not only her sister, but also Adam, & start healing from the trauma her mom left her with was moving. My only wish is that we saw more of her relationship with her dad.

Tegan was such a stereotypical younger sibling - the kind who thinks they know everything & are tougher than nails. I loved seeing her façade falter and her realize it’s okay to lean on Jess and to confront her own trauma she had buried deep.

Adam, oh Adam. Clayborn couldn’t have written a more perfect MMC if she tried. He was stoic and supportive and just oh so caring. He was ready to throw his own life to the curb if it meant protecting Jess and Teagan from the emotions that came with searching for their mother.

Clayborn did an exemplary job of showing therapy in an honest way - how sometimes you hate going & wish to be anywhere else, but how much growth can come from it. Each character was written with such extreme detail to their character arc that it made the reader root for them. The topics covered in this, specifically abandonment by a parent, were handled with such care and intense emotion that I was brought to tears more than once.

This book was part mystery/true crime, part romance, part family trauma/healing, and all parts perfect. Last year, Georgie, All Along practically changed my life and after this book, I have to say Kate Clayborn is a must-read author.

I have been looking forward to this one since it was announced. There is something about Kate Clayborn’s writing that resonates with me. There’s always talk about world-building in fantasy writing, but I’d argue that Clayborn does her fair share of world-building in her contemporary fiction. She creates a previously unexplored space within our known world that is both believable and accessible—no matter how far afield it is from one’s lived experiences. In this text her characters are complex, multi-dimensional people who come alive within the context of the space she has created for them. There are scenes that make this one too spicy for the classroom, but I know some of my students would inhale this book; I know I did!

*Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I will forever read any and all Kate Clayborn books. I adore the way she tells a story and this book was no different. She touched on topics not seen in her other books.

The Other Side of Disappearing is a sweet love story about romantic and family relationships. It looked at the risk and reward of vulnerability and the power it can have with others.

Thank you to the author, publisher and @NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I loved ‘Georgie, Allison Along’ so when I saw Kate Clayborn’s next pop up on @netgalley I did not hesitate to request it.

The true crime aspect was probably the best part/my favorite, which was surprising to me because I love a good romance. This just felt lacking in that department for my tastes. It felt like it was A LOT of emotions and less actual plot or romance.

I enjoyed the road tripping and the family/sibling drama but not enough to love it love it. For the right person, I bet this will be a slam dunk. For me it was a middle of the road read.

Jess has been raising and supporting her sister for years and is blindsided when Tegan actively goes looking for their absentee mother in the company of a podcast duo. There’s nothing for it but to join as the fourth as they uncover long held and painful secrets.
To say I adored Georgie, All Along is somewhat of an injustice. I feel like our words for affection just don’t account for how well that book suited my mood and interest last year. It made The Other Side of Disappearing a highly anticipated read as soon as it was announced. As with Georgie, Kate writes such powerful chemistry between these main characters and the romantic moments between Jess and Adam are just as dynamic. Their fall is hard and fast.
Thank you to Kensington Books for the advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

This book was such a dream and I loved it! It wasn’t at all what I was expecting which definitely elevated my reading experience. Kate writes such easy characters to root for and this book is the perfect example of that.

Heat Factor: In a pickup truck parked in a field of flowers

Character Chemistry: Jess trusts nobody…except now, she trusts Adam

Plot: Roadtrip to find a mom who left ten years ago

Overall: Reading this book was like being wrapped in a blanket made of angst

I’m going to start by saying that I think that this book has strong crossover appeal for non-romance readers. Yes, the romance is present and important, and we’re written in romance-mode of alternating points of view. But the plot is primarily driven, not by the romance, but by the story of Jess and her sister Tegan setting off to find their mother, who abandoned them ten years ago. So while this is definitely a love story—Adam is a journalist who joins them on their journey, so we’ve got road trip plus a bit of deception for romance tropes here—this is also a story about sisters facing their family trauma.

As you might imagine, there is a lot of hard stuff in this book. Jess became Tegan’s de facto parent when she was 21 and Tegan was 8. And their mom didn’t just leave; she left with a con artist who became famous due to a true crime podcast about him. (In the world of the book, this podcast was the equivalent of Serial, so he’s Adnan Syed famous.) Because of this dynamic, Jess has spent the last ten years being extremely protective of Tegan while simultaneously closing herself off from others. She’s done what she’s felt she had to—and what that means is she’s essentially put her life on hold. Just like their mom, Jess disappeared too. She just disappeared inside herself as a survival mechanism. It was a lot, and if you read smut solely for light escapism, this ain’t it.

Our story begins with Adam, along with one Salem Durant, podcaster extraordinaire, showing up at Jess and Tegan’s house. They want to make a follow-up about that con artist, and the angle is going to be Jess and Tegan’s search for their mother. Tegan, pretending to be Jess, had arranged this, so Jess is blindsided. Despite her complete and utter lack of desire to find her mom, Jess agrees to go to support Tegan. So the first bit of the book is just chock full of tense energy, with angry, closed-off Jess in a van with a bunch of people she doesn’t want to be with searching for someone she doesn’t want to see again.

Of course, because it’s a romance novel, Adam and Jess also see each other (or want to) and things get tense in a different way. But also, Adam is not being completely honest with Jess. See, Adam’s best friend died a few years ago, and Adam wants to make a podcast about this friend, and, more broadly, about football and mental health. And Salem has told him that if he gets Jess to be interviewed for the con artist show they’re doing, then Salem will produce Adam’s podcast. This does, of course, lead to a black moment, but one at the midway point.

I will say that while the first half of this book was challenging for me (because of all the angst and brooding), the second half is really wonderful. Maybe it’s because the romance really got going and the drama of the mom chase ramped up and Jess stopped being so miserable and closed off. And the real black moment sure packs a punch (though I did not cry, unlike the last time I read a book by Kate Clayborn).

In the end, here’s the deal with this book: Clayborn is a beautiful writer who excels at slowly revealing her characters’ baggage as they work through their emotions. You just have to be mentally prepared to face that kind of baggage in your reading life. (And I’m not sure that I was, which is why I didn’t spend a lot of time gushing.)

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

Another heart-felt book from Kate Clayborn.
I think this book really shows Calyborn's understanding of people and what is underneath, conversations and their subtext, and human emotions. I loved the conversations in this book and everything that was left unsaid aloud, how Clayborn showed characters' emotions and sometimes how she showed more without showing anything. Loved how she handled the climax and the aftermath.
And massive kudos for her approach toward the podcast angle: there were easter eggs for true crime fans and she got the tone of serial podcast spot on.

Did not fully buy into the love story and thus did not buy into the book 100%, but everything else was a masterclass in writing.

I felt like the podcast aspect of this was not done the greatest. I felt like the insta love was so instant that it made it hard to like the love. Overall, was an ok story. Bummer because I really liked Georgie all along but this one wasn’t the best for me.

I LOVE all of Clayborns books. Love at First changed my life, but I could not get into this one for some reason. Ugh. I desperately wanted to….. if you are a Clayborn fan, don’t let this review scare you off, she’s still magical and a great writer but I DNF so I’m giving it 3 stars. I look forward to her next novel though. Like Emily Henry, I’ll always read Kate’s books.

I had a hard time getting into this book but I'm glad I persisted. It was a complex story of a woman, Jess, who had a deep secret from the past about her mother"s boyfriend that she tried to protect from her younger half-sister Teagan. Unfortunately, Teagan in her teenage angst and rebellion, discovered the truth about the boyfriend being a con man and turned to a podcast and crew to help her learn more and possibly discover the whereabouts of her mother, much to the dismay of her Jess. Jess decides to go along with Teagan and the podcast crew on a cross country journey to control the damage and becomes romantically entangled with Adam the producer. But Jess is very conflicted and emotionally traumatized as she has a hard time letting people in. As Adam tries to get closer to Jess, he hope to help her not disappear. This is not a happy feel good romance, but rather a thoughtful one where you empathize with the struggles that Jess has had to deal with all her life. You hope for her to have a happy ending with Adam, but readers you will have to see for yourselves. I think Jess discovers that to move forward, she must go backward and deal with her past. Many thanks to #net galley #kensingtonbooks #theothersideofdisappearing #kateclayborn for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I've loved the author's previous books so this was an automatic request for me. Unfortunately this one didn't work for me like her others. Giving a neutral rating of 3 stars because I DNF

Emotional, thoughtul and deliciously angsty. Plus ✨good communication ✨. I loved this one, which isn’t a surprise since Clayborn has never let me down.

Kate Clayborn does an excellent job with this emotional, heartfelt and angsty story. Jess was left to pick up the pieces after her mother ran off with her con-artist boyfriend when Jess was only 21 and her younger half-sister only 8. To cope with the abandonment and pressure of raising her sister on her own, Jess shut herself off from the world and valued their privacy above all else. When Jess learns that her sister has invited a true crime podcast team to help her track down her mother and the con-artist boyfriend--whose exploits were the subject of a popular podcast series--and in the process air all the secrets that Jess has tried desperately to keep private, she has no choice but to go along to protect her little sister. Adam Hawkins, a journalist assisting with the podcast, immediately feels drawn to and protective of Jess, but is put in an impossible situation when his boss conditions his promotion on getting Jess to talk on the record about her mother--which she will avoid at all costs.

As with so many of Clayborn's books, the unique characters here seem to leap off the page. Each of the four "main" characters is struggling with deep regrets and painful past memories, but as they come together in the search for Jess and Tegan's mother, they ultimately help each other to heal enough that they can start looking forward with hope. The relationship between Adam and Jess was very well done -- Adam recognized Jess's struggles and respected her boundaries, even when he realized that it could mean his feelings might be unreciprocated. Jess was not used to having anyone care for or look out for her interests, so it takes a while for her to learn to open up again. The evolving relationship between Jess and her sister Tegan is also very moving as they finally start talking honestly with each other and move past the roles they've been playing for the past ten years.

Thank you to Kensington and Netgalley for providing an ARC for review!

Such a joy! Clayborn has never disappointed me and this title is one of her best. I love the premise and, as always, appreciated that her characters have deep challenges to overcome AND are able to speak to each other like adults! Steamy, suspenseful, and worth rereading :).