Brandi Reeds's The Day I Disappeared was a pleasant surprise--I really liked it!

Holly Gebhardt was kidnapped when she was four. For three agonizing months her family thought she might never come home. And then, as mysteriously as she was taken, she is returned to the same spot, unharmed except for an arrow-shaped scar on her arm.

Now, twenty years later, another little girl is missing under the same circumstances as Holly, and the last in a string of kidnappings that Detective Jason Guidry thinks Holly can help solve, if she can just remember more of her own ordeal.

But as she begins to unravel clues, Holly discovers secrets that could destroy her family.

Reeds moved this story along quite well and I was left guessing who the bad guy was until the very end. I loved that she cast suspicion on everyone in a believable way, so the reader felt just as unmoored as Holly did. And the secrets she weaves through Cecily makes this a departure from a lot of the predictable kidnapping books out there.

The only thing I disliked was the egotistical Kitten, right down to her pretentious nickname. I kept wishing for Holly to slap her silly.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this review copy. I would gladly read more books by this author and I definitely recommend this one.

An eerie phycological thriller with lost of twist n turns. Kidnapping, family ties, loss of memory, the mother a suspect?
Once you think you've figured it out; you realize you were way off.
Great story!! Will recommend to others.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this thriller.

Holly, now in her twenties, was kidnapped when she was four and returned to a park near her home three months later, apparently unharmed. Either because of the trauma or her young age or both, she didn’t remember what happened while she was gone. But 20 years later, when more little girls have been abducted, she wants to help the detective on the case find any of them who are still alive. Currently a handyman is imprisoned for taking her, but she’s not sure he’s guilty. Hollie wants to talk to her mother about it, but she was in a severe car accident and is currently in a coma.

At the beginning, when almost every chapter had the same heading “Holly, June 6,” I had a rough time following along. I wish the author had added a time to those chapter titles. Other than that Reeds writes very well, keeps the story moving smoothly and casts suspicion on every male in the story. That made it very hard to guess who the real villain was.

I would gladly read more titles by Reeds. I recommend this book to all thriller readers who like a fast-paced whodunit.

Wow! This book was amazing. A little girl is kidnapped when she's 4 years old for 3 months. Finally three months later, she is returned to the place she got kidnapped at which is the park. She's unharmed and doesn't even remember the ordeal nor does she know who kidnaps her. Two families are intertwined in this tragedy and no one knows who really did this although someone has been in jail for 20 years for the crime. I really like this book because it was so deep between the two families who grew up best of friends 4 / 20 years. Also the fact that there were other little girls kidnapped and murdered in this story made it really touching and hard to read at times. I just really enjoyed this book it was a little different storyline and it was really deep and I absolutely love this book and I definitely would recommend it

I thought this book was brilliant. So many twist and turns in it, and you think you figured out what was going to happen, only to realize you were way off. If was definetly keeping me up in the guessing game! Holly was 4 years old when she was kidnapped in the park and 94 days later, she was returned to the park unscathed. Her abductor (so they thought was in prison for the deed - but come to find out they don't think he did it) She didn't remember much of anything, if really anything at all during her time in captivity. But years later, another young girl has gone missing and she is trying to do what she can to help her.. She becomes convinced her mom may know something, but she was involved in a car accident that led her to a coma. I love the suspense of this book and plan to read this again in the future! Thank you so much #netgalley, #amazonpublishing, & #LakeUnionPublishing for the advanced copy!

Its a beautiful mother-daughter unity story with suspense and thrilling moments. Classic kidnappings and detective story. I really loved how the author portrayed a mother’s feelings for her missing daughter.. it was deep.. Plot was but bumpy at times.. but “The day I disappeared” is a good story overall..
Thank you NetGalley, author and publisher for reader’s copy of this book. This review is my own and is not influenced in any way!

Wow what a great thriller, absolutely FULL of twists. I kept thinking I had got it, and I knew what was going on and then there was another big shift and I was left guessing again!

I did find for a little while in the middle that the book became a little bit choppy, but the overall plot kept going and I needed to know how it finished! So many of the little parts of the lives of the characters were realistic which added to the intensity and feelings that came with reading.

Any fans of thrillers will enjoy this one - it has everything that you want and need in this genre so comes highly recommended by me.

This was an excellent novel that kept me literally entranced. The character depiction was on point and the story was fascinating and well developed.

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy. Parts of this were confusing and choppy for me but the plot kept me interested. Some really good secrets come to light at the end.

The Day I Disappeared kept me intrigued from start to finish. I refused to stop reading until I finished the book, so I ended up reading it in one night. That said, the prologue/first chapter does kind of give the ending away. Reeds does do a great job with the red herrings and the ending wraps up nicely. It was a little obvious for me, but I was still at the edge of my seat waiting to see how it would conclude. I found some of the dialogue to not completely click, and I do wish some of the side characters had been fleshed out a little more.

Interesting story and the plot moved along nicely. I did figure out who was taking the girls pretty early on in the book, but there were other twists that I didn't anticipate. It kept me entertained and wanting to read more.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

It was the title that appealed me to read this book and I’m so glad it did. The book was so good; twisting and turning all the way through. One minute I think I knew what was going to happen and then, nope it twists again.

I genuinely cared for the characters especially Holly who I rooted for throughout!

The only thing that annoyed me slightly was the jumping back and forward but it did not detract from the book. 4 🌟🌟🌟🌟

A quick semi-psychological thriller that can be described as a page turner. While the ending wrapped up just a bit too neatly, I still thoroughly enjoyed this book. A bit repetitive at times, and I wish we had delved in to some of the characters more (Sterling, Kitty), but overall I would recommend this book to those looking for a quick, entertaining read.

This book really had the ability to be something good but it was very confusing, choppy, and just not my favorite. I liked the style of writing but not the way it all came together.

I am surprised I liked this as much as I did because let us face it, there are many kidnapping books where one of the characters looks away and a child is taken in an instant and the rest of the book is going to be predictable. I honestly thought this book was going to follow that pattern especially in the few chapters. Glad I was wrong! This book has so many other twists and turns throughout and ends with a huge bang! You think you know but you don't, that I was keep reading thrillers; and this is definitely a thriller. This is not a learn from your tragic mistakes type of thriller. It is so much more.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and Brandi Reeds for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

thank you to @netgalley and @amazonpublishing and #LakeUnionPublishing for this electronic advance copy of The Day I Disappeared by Brandi Reeds. I enjoyed this mystery and it just may have been the jumpstart I needed to dive into all the thrillers on my TBR lists.
The story started out a bit slow, but I knew right away I was done with my DNF streak 😬 a fast-paced read that genuinely surprised me with more than one twist! 🌴🌴🌴 3.5/5
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Holly was kidnapped when she was four years old and although she was returned untouched, she has no recollection of the 84 days she spent missing. Twenty years later, she's revisiting her trauma. Other little girls are missing and the man sitting in jail may be innocent. And what does Holly's mother have to do with all this?

Holly was kidnapped when she was four. She was returned after 4 months. Now as a 25 year old, she still has holes in her memory from when she went missing.
The story is told by Holly and her mom, Cecily, who lies in a coma caused by an accident. Fragments of Holly's memories from 20 years ago start coming back. Add to that there is a similar case to her kidnapping and several others girls went missing, all while her kidnapper is still in prison.
She thinks maybe the wrong man is imprisoned for her kidnapping.
Cecily harbours her own secrets and wishes she could have handled her life better.
The twist in the end was a bit if a surprise for me. Immensely enjoyed this book. Again another first from the Author for me.

The Day I Disappeared, whilst twined with the traditional ‘whodunnit’ theme, is laced with a gripping and haunting storyline. Unlike so many other thrillers, TDID could be real - so real and so chilling that as a parent, I felt the pain of Cecily and Holly’s all consuming need to find the truth. However, it is Brandi Rees’s exceptional writing that really breathes the life into her characters and then helps to draw these emotions out of the reader. I loved this. Thank you.

The day i disappeared is a thriller I could not put down. I needed to know how this book ended, who was the culprit, who could Holly trust and who she couldn't. Whenever i though i had the right person ...BAM... it wasn't them. The story is about a young woman named Holly who was kidnapped for 3 months when she was 4 years old. The clincher is she does not remember ANYTHING about her abduction or the 3 months she was kept. Now her memories are emerging when a cop comes by asking questions about her time gone and how there have been more girls kidnapped and killed....she being the only one who was not. I will recommend to other thriller fans.

When she was 4, Holly was kidnapped from the park she was playing in with her best friend and their mothers. 94 days later, she was inexplicably returned to the same spot, miraculously unharmed save for a missing tooth, an arrow shaped scar, and a memory wiped clean of the previous 3 months. Soon after, a local man is imprisoned for the crime, but questions still linger over Holly's mother, and whether her role in the crime was negligence or something more... 20 years later, and Holly is in turmoil. Her mother is in a coma after a mysterious accident, and another young girl has gone missing, the latest in a string of disappearances that all have eerie similarities to Holly's own case. After 2 decades of trying to move on, Holly is forced to finally question her own past - could it be that the wrong man is in prison after all? What really happened all those years ago? And how much does Holly's mother know...?

This is one of those books where you think you know exactly what's going to happen, but instead there are just so many twists and turns! Firstly, Holly is a bit of an unreliable narrator at times, suffering from blackouts and flashes of memories when drinking. I personally loved this element to the book as it made everything extra creepy and tense - is Holly really remembering things, or is it the demon drink making everything a little bit blurry?

I also thought a real strength was in Cecily's chapters. The book itself alternates between chapters from the POV of Holly and Cecily, with Holly's mainly in the present and Cecily's mainly in the past. This meant you got a slow reveal of information to do with Holly's kidnapping, and also got the really unique experience of getting the information from both Holly and her mum. This added again to the sense of an unreliable narrator, but this time in the form of Cecily. I personally veered wildly between thinking she was the mastermind behind it all, and thinking she was an innocent victim, and so her chapters definitely made for a thrilling ride!

Now I won't comment too much on the plot, as I hate to reveal spoilers. But I can honestly say this is one of the first thrillers in a long time where I was genuinely surprised by who the perpetrator ended up being! There's a few red herrings along the way, and the eventual resolution is a true jaw dropper. The ending itself is nice and neatly wrapped up, which I prefer in a thriller - I hate to be left with lingering questions!

All in all, I loved it! I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone and everyone, and I genuinely think it's one of the best thrillers I've read in a long time. I can't wait to Brandi Reeds comes up with next, and I will admit that I'm already looking to order her backlist!

Disclaimer - I was fortunate enough to receive an advance reading copy from NetGalley. This has not affected my review in any way, and all opinions are my own.