Well this was a pure delight that took me by surprise! Full of all the emotion, HOW TO HIDE IN PLAIN SIGHT centers around Eliot Beck, who suffers from OCD after trauma of losing her brother in an accident when they were younger.

With themes of family dysfunction, addiction, and mental health, it was a much heavier read than I expected, but I loved how the characters felt so real, and the author used her own experience with OCD to bring awareness to how challenging it can be.

*many thanks to Berkley, PRH audio and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

Thank you to the publisher for my eARC!

Unfortunately this book was just not for me. While the writing was compelling and well constructed, the pacing and the story itself were boring beyond words. I did not connect with any of the characters or their stories, none of them stood out to me. At 75%, I felt nothing had really happened and none of the characters had developed much. I sped through the ending just to finish it because I had invested so much time at that point.

While I think the story may have had some promise, the execution fell flat. Do not think I will give this author another shot.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers Copy of How to Hide in Plain Sight by Emma Noyes!

Be prepared for a rather heavy read as we learn of Eliot's struggles with OCD and how her family can't relate to her. The way the OCD is covered in this story is very well done and I learned a lot about it. The complexity of her romantic relationship, her job, and how to tell her family of her struggles was well written. Be sure and read the author's end notes. 3.5 stars

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Format: Audio/E-book

4.5🌟 - I really liked it!

Thank you @berkleypub for the #gifted copy and @prhaudio for the complimentary audiobook!

I loved this! This felt like such an authentic and intrinsic look at someone with OCD! The authors note added a personal touch and made the story even more impactful! ❤️‍🩹

I loved the premise and setting of this book! This is a contemporary fiction but also had a strong love story component, dynamic and complex family relationships, as well as a deeply intimate and personal portrayal of OCD.

This was great on audio, and thought this was done truly beautifully!

Unfortunately I just couldn’t connect to the writing. It sounded really good and I wished it could’ve worked out but had to stop. Thank you to the publisher for my copy!

I thought because I don't have OCD, I wouldn't be able to connect with this book, but it was so far from the truth. Seeing Eliot's struggles from within in her head and how people reacted to her outwardly really helped with a general understanding of what she was going through. It made me sad to see her family brush off her illness and also not realize what was going on with her in general. I so appreciated her friendship with Manuel, even when she shut him out for years, he waited for her. It was truly a beautiful story and I loved that Eliot finally told her family and Manuel what she was going through.

Thank you to Emma also for being honest and giving us an OCD overview prior to starting the book!

Thank you netgalley for the arc.

Synopsis:
On the day she arrives in Canada for her older brother's wedding, Eliot Beck hasn't seen her family in three years. Eliot adores her big, wacky, dysfunctional collection of siblings and in-laws, but there's a reason she fled to Manhattan and buried herself in her work—and she’s not ready to share it with anyone. Not when speaking it aloud could send her back into the never-ending cycle of the obsessive-compulsive disorder that consumed her for years.

Eliot thinks she's prepared to survive the four-day-long wedding extravaganza—until she sees her best friend, Manuel, waiting for her at the marina and looking as handsome as ever. He was the person who, when they met as children, felt like finding the missing half of her soul. The person she tried so hard not to fall in love with… but did anyway.

Manuel's presence at the wedding threatens to undo the walls Eliot has built around herself. The fortress that keeps her okay. If she isn't careful, by the end of this wedding, the whole castle might come crumbling down.

My thoughts on this book is I really enjoyed it. I really like the OCD representation and how it was from the authors own struggles as well. I feel like people don't understand this mental illness as much as others. When it is talked about in a book I really enjoyed it.

I can almost guarantee that you haven’t read a book quite like this one.

How to Hide in Plain Sight is the second book I have read from Emma Noyes, and as I was so glad I picked up Guy’s Girl last year, I am happy to report that I also loved this one!

Emma is somehow able to weave together narratives that focus very heavily on living with and navigating mental health issues, in this case OCD, with touching romance subplots, and explorations of familial love and bonds.

It is really difficult to summarize my thoughts on this book because it is so unique. Eliot is a character who deeply loves her family, but in order to make their lives easier and “protect” them, she buries herself in her work and has very little communication with them for several years. She only comes back to the family home for the wedding of one of her siblings, which thrusts her back into the complicated dynamics of her family, and back into the orbit of her childhood best friend. The story is told in dual timelines, from Elliot’s childhood and present day. Elliot’s journey through grief at a young age, and how it plays into the present day narrative is heart wrenching and touching. The things left unsaid between Eliot and her best friend lays the foundation for the sweetest second chance romance among the chaos. And all the while, we see into Elliot’s struggles with OCD, and how it has impacted the course of her life.

As an oldest child I also found the insights into being the youngest child in a big family to be so interesting, and made me reflect on how my struggles as the oldest differ from those of my own youngest siblings. They aren’t worse or better, but they are different, and it made me see my own siblings’ experiences in a different light, and appreciate a different perspective.

I highly recommend this book! But it is NOT a fluffy romance, it deals with real issues. And it’s never perfect, but it is hopeful, and I found myself rooting so hard for Eliot and her family to find some peace and understanding.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group for access to this eARC. This title is out now, and I hope you add it to your TBR!

I was thrilled to get this book from Berkley, picked based on the wonderful cover! I loved seeing the raw and real description of someone living with OCD, something that is often NOT included in books. There were also amazingly wonderfuly complex family dynamics that lived throughout this book.

This is my first read by this author, but i'm curious for more. Thanks so much for the digital copy!

I always enjoy an Emma Noyes read, and How to Hide in Plain Sight was no difference. Really enjoyed the disability rep in this one; felt powerful and accurate, as someone with the same diagnosis.

I can't believe I forgot to review this! I thought this was fantastic! The author did a great job at telling pieces of the story while still leaving some questions unanswered to keep me turning the pages. I love a second chance romance, and I really enjoyed the individual character growth. I thought it was very informative at what life might be like with OCD and to break down some misconceptions.

I found this story to capture this particular type of OCD really well. You could tell the author drew from personal experience when crafting this story. I felt as if I was inside of Eliot’s brain. I also loved how patient Manny was during the story when dealing with the FMC moments of having intense OCD. Highly recommend.


Thank you NetGalley for a complementary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

it was really nice to see this portrayal of mental health and relationships. the book felt maybe 50 pages too long? but overall i enjoyed the read

4.5 - SO GOOD!! Such a heartbreaking story of mental illness and the struggles the FMC faces & trying her best to deny who she is. Felt so many feelings & tears came a few times!! Such a sweet ending too - add to TBR!!

I loved the author’s previous book, Guy’s Girl and gave it a five star rating. I started out really loving this one, too but lost interest. It may have been the ebook format or just bad timing on my part 🤷🏼‍♀️

Thank you to @berkleypublishing and @letstalkbookspromo for the opportunity with #Berkleybuddyreads

Pub day post on Instagram @on_a_sandbar

I loved this book so much!

I have OCD and have felt so alone with my thoughts and feelings for years. Emma Noyes I commend and thank you for writing this book.

I feel that OCD is very misunderstood in our society and what is represented. I don’t think people understand the degree of how severe of a mental illness OCD is. I felt like I was living in this book because I experienced every single think myself. I wish I had this book when I was struggling so deeply with my OCD.

I felt so seen and cried my eyes out reading this book. We don’t have enough education and awareness in our society with mental illness. This book is a start and if it changes someone’s perspective we start there.

Loved it loved it!

5/5 stars

The way that Emma writes is so beautiful. The metaphors throughout and description really helps you gain empathy for the character and relate. I think this book is a really important commentary on the it’s like to live with a mental illness and how family can handle or mishandle that, and how it can make us feel so isolated, even if we are getting the help we need.

I really enjoyed this novel! It was more emotional than I was expecting by the color but it was such a powerful read! It tugged on the heart strings

I really appreciated this depiction of OCD and how it’s so varied from what we usually think about as being associated with OCD. But while this was one of the strengths of the novel, it was also just exhausting to read the thought spirals over and over again. Which I guess means the author did an excellent job writing them, but it made it difficult for me to want to pick up the book and keep reading especially when I was reading in the evenings.

Similarly, by the end of the book, I didn’t feel like I knew Eliot as a character beyond her OCD and the anxiety it caused. She never came alive beyond that, and it made it very difficult to connect with her and did detract some from the read since much of the book was her internal dialogue. There are also many, many secondary characters (big family), but they were also lacking the depth/development they needed to feel like real people. As for the romance, Eliot spends most of the book hiding from Manuel so we only get to know him through the past timeline and through what she’s thinking about him, which kept him from feeling like a well developed or interesting character as well.

This was a much heavier read than I was expecting, and the ending didn’t do much to alleviate that weight. If you’re interested in fiction that focuses on OCD and family drama with a little romance, then you’ll probably enjoy this one. My thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.