The truth lies in what she can’t remember. There is another who harbors her unspeakable secrets. Meeting her is where the danger lies.On a dark January night in 2019, Gloria finds herself behind the wheel of a car, beaten and covered in blood. She has no idea where she’s coming from, or where she might be headed. After pulling to the side of the road, she begins to fade out of consciousness.The … consciousness.
The next thing she experiences is waking in bed next to a man who should be her beloved fiancé, Rick. However, she soon discovers it is her dangerous ex-husband, Charles, whom she thought she had escaped two years earlier, in 2017. She eventually finds that the year she was woken to is 2003, and she is living her life with this abusive man all over again.
Due to the abuse she endured, Gloria suffers from dissociative disorder, which has stolen the memories of her two young daughters growing up. There is another who holds these memories; the Other Gloria. She thinks maybe God has given her a do-over, and she might be able to do better, stay present, and recover the lost memories of their childhood. She knows, to do this, she must escape Charles once again.
Gloria’s plan for escaping this time around includes finding Rick, who doesn’t know she exists in 2003, but she soon comes to the realization that meeting Rick will not be enough. She knows she must do the one thing she never wanted to do – meet the Other Gloria and finally discover the unspeakable secrets she holds.
Villafane has managed to write that type of story that keeps the readers on their toes the whole time and, just when they think they have figured out what’s going on, bam! An amazing twist shocks them out of their comfort zone. Just brilliant!
Brunella Costagliola, Best Selling Ghost Writer
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The truth lies in what she can’t remember.
On a dark January night in 2019, Gloria finds herself behind the wheel of a car, beaten and covered in blood. She has no idea where she’s coming from, or where she might be headed.
And than finds herself in bed with her ex-husband, Charles .. a man she ran away from 2 years earlier. Charles was disgustingly abusive … mentally, physically, sexually. She has woken to the year 2003 and living her life all over again with this monster.
In order to cope with her husband her mind takes her away during the abuse and the “other Gloria” takes her place. The ‘other’ Gloria has continued on with her life. She knows she must do the one thing she never wanted to do – meet the Other Gloria and finally discover the unspeakable secrets she holds.
This is a very complex story .. jumping between two time lines .. the one happening now and the one that has already happened. Jumping back and forth in time keeps your attention riveted to the page.
This is a well written psychological thriller that has twists and turns at every corner. Just when I thought I had it figured out … Boom … another of those twists that sent me to an entirely different thought process. My imagination kept trying to see what would happen if a person from the past met the same person in the future. Mind boggling! The ending came as a surprise.
Many thanks to the author / Empire Publishing / Netgalley for the digital copy of THE OTHER GLORIA. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
The Other Gloria is a FANTASTIC , well written psychological thriller.
The story is written with enough twists to make your head spin! I was hooked from page one!
I really enjoyed the author’s writing style and story telling. There are two distinct storylines , one in the present and one in the past and the back and forth is so exciting.
The characters are complex and well fleshed out.
This is an intense, complex psychological thriller. I enjoyed it so much!
My head is still spinning.
Did you ever have things happen that were so bad you wanted to disconnect from the world and forget about it completely, like it never occurred?
This is exactly what happens to Gloria when her abusive husband is in a rage. At some point, when things are at a peak, ‘the other Gloria’ takes over – someone she doesn’t know and has never met, but holds all the keys to her real life.
January 2019, Gloria finds herself covered in blood and badly beaten, driving a car she is unfamiliar with and not sure where she is or where she is going, until she blacks out. Next scene is Gloria waking up in bed next to a man, wondering how she got there. Expecting it to be her fiancee Rick, she finds it is her abusive ex-husband Charles. WHAT IS HAPPENING??
It appears that Gloria has woken up in the year 2003 and is back living with her husband, the man who abused her and who she thought she escaped a few years back. HOW?
Because of the severe abuse, Gloria has developed what’s called dissociative disorder, which causes her to find all her memories of her very young daughters are completely gone. But there is someone else who holds all these memories and its the ‘Other Gloria’, the woman who takes over when the abuse is so severe and at its peak, allowing Gloria to somehow get through and survive the wrath. Through this odd relapse back to 2003, Gloria thinks she has been given another chance, an attempt to stay in the present and find ‘Other Gloria’, regain all her memories and get back to Rick and 2019. All while enduring Charles’ abuse all over again. And what about all that blood?
This book was a page turner, I was totally absorbed and blew through it in one sitting. The only thing going through my head was a jumbled mess of thoughts like “how does this all come together, which timeline is the right one, and if Gloria doesn’t even know what is going on, how the heck am I?” The story is told in dual timeline, going back and forth from the 2 lives Gloria has lived, one in 2003 and one in 2019 and each story line is captivating. All you keep wondering is “how is this all going to play out?”
I’m not sure what to say, I loved this book, it was unputdownable, but in the end I realized that I don’t know any more than Gloria does, and I’m just as confused. ND IT WAS BRILLIANT. My mind is still throwing questions left and right, and now I need to read more about dissociative disorder. Its amazing what the body will do under stress to survive. Lori Villafane has debuted with an original thriller of a story that deserves to be read.
I just would like to thank Lori Villafane, Suzanne Leopold of Suzy Approved Book Tours, and Empire Publishing (#partner) for the gifted copy of this book for my unbiased and honest opinion for review.
L.A. Villafane’s debut novel is a great mix of psychological thriller and family drama. With a storyline alternating between before and after, I was never quite sure what to expect next or what was real. There were some very intense, emotional parts that had my heart racing as Gloria tried to piece together her life and all of the painful memories the other Gloria was hiding from her.
I recommend this one when you’re looking for a quick read with lots of twists and turns. This was a great debut and I look forward to Villafane’s future books.
Thank you to Suzy Approved Book Tours and the author for my copy.
This book started out with a bang- Gloria looking down at her bloodied hands in the driver seat of a car, wondering whose car this was. How did she get there? What has she done? That was just the start of my many questions and Gloria’s.
This book kept my mind constantly trying to piece together what was reality and what might be Gloria’s reality. Dealing with severe abuse at the hands of her ex husband Charles, she tended to “blank out” certain parts of her life, in an effort to cope with what she has been through. It was fascinating how she subconsciously was able to do so. So you can imagine my surprise and terror when Gloria wakes up in bed next to Charles.
Alternating between chapters titled “before” and “after” I constantly was trying to figure out- before what and after what??? As we learned more and more about Gloria’s rocky past I began to wonder how this was going to play out. Was she really back with Charles? Was she dreaming this? Gloria was living in a constant state of terror trying to figure out how she got back to this time in her life. What happened to the new life she had made for herself?
A book that kept me guessing to the very end. An interesting book that portrays how the struggles of an abused person dealing with dissociative disorder can struggle to know what is really reality. I found myself wondering if Gloria would make it out alive.
This is a wonderful psychological thriller that I did not want to put down. What would you do if you could relive some of your life over? Would you redo the same bad decisions or would you be brave enough to fix some of your life. This book answers some of these questions and does it in a masterful way. I loved the characters, especially Gloria. Gloria learns a lot as she seems to relive her life. I received a copy of this book from Smith Publicity for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.
L.A.Villafane, author of “The Other Gloria” has written an intense, captivating, page-turning, intriguing and suspenseful novel. The Genres for this novel are Psychological Thriller, Suspense and Mystery and Fiction. The characters and events can be seen in several timelines. The author describes her characters as complicated and complex. Each character has their own set of problems to deal with. I appreciate that the author discusses emotional and physical abuse and the effects on the characters.
Gloria has dissociative psychological disorder from the horrific and abusive life she has had, at the hands of her dangerous ex-husband Charles. As a result, she has created a second “Gloria” that holds all the terrible memories and good memories. Gloria finds herself in different timelines and gets some flashbacks to some things that have happened.
In 2019, Gloria is driving a car, covered in blood, and is trying to getaway. She doesn’t know what has happened. She finds herself in another time with younger children sleeping next to her abusive husband. Gloria does realize that she has to get away from him to save her life and that of her children.
I found the changing timelines very confusing! I would go back and re-read to make sure what I read. There are twists and turns, and this book had me on edge. Gloria does realize somehow that she has to somehow “meet” the other Gloria who has all the memories to fully understand what is going on. I would recommend this suspenseful thriller to those readers who enjoy this genre.
Wow! What a unique and gripping page turner. I just finished this book and I’m still grappling with the two Glorias. I absolutely adored the characters in this book (with the exception of Charles) and found them all completely relatable. I also loved the mix of romance that was intertwined with this compelling story. I love a story with a strong female character and this definitely delivered. I think I actually want to read it again. I would certainly recommend this one!
Wow!! This was one suspense/thriller that kept you guessing until the end! Loved this book and highly recommend