Review: In the Days Before by Renée Shantel

Audrey Herringbone’s main focus has always been her content dedicated to helping find missing persons, but when her best friend is the one to go missing things start getting a little too real. 

Audrey’s friends don't agree with the subject matter of her video series, In the Days Before. They think talking about missing persons is too morbid a topic, and insist she would find more fame as a beauty blogger. They don't agree that her work is important. Who wants to talk about the missing when you could talk about fashion? For them, it's a no-brainer.

Then Audrey's best friend goes missing, several hours after they publicly argue about her channel, and Audrey becomes the public's number one suspect.

Thrust head first into one of her channel's narratives, Audrey's about to learn that sometimes the obvious answer isn't the right one—and you can never be too careful who you trust.

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This is an eARC I received in return for a honest review. I'd like to start by thanking Renée Shantel for giving me the opportunity to read this book. I hope I do it justice. 

This book was well written. I loved the way she kept the attention to detail to keep the readers guessing what was actually happening. We follow Audrey Herringbone as she has to deal with the loss of her friend. Audrey runs a YouTube channel where she reviews missing persons cold cases in order to help spread awareness of them to the public. Then everything goes to hell when her own friend goes missing and people think she had something to do with it in order to promote her channel. 

I thought that was kind of weird. Why would she abduct someone if she only covers cold cases? It made no sense. These people who thought it were really just looking to get their own fifteen minutes of fame. 

I loved the slow reveal of everything. I like to try to guess what's going to happen and this one kept me from guessing the whole way. It was developed nicely and I rather enjoyed when we found out what really happened. 

I do think that her mom should have taken more time off to spend with Audrey and help her through this situation instead of prioritizing work. She really put her job before her family. My own would never behave like that. 

Definitely a 4/5 star read and I'm looking forward to more works by Ms. Shantel!

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This book will be available from Amazon on October 23, 2024.