“A heart-pounding thriller. When I Was You pitches two women with the same name against one another, and the rug is pulled out from under you the moment you decide to trust one of them.” —Sandie Jones, USA Today bestselling author of The Other Woman“Amber Garza has upped the game on the classic stalker novel! . . . A fast-paced, beautifully plotted book.” —Samantha Downing, USA Today bestselling … classic stalker novel! . . . A fast-paced, beautifully plotted book.” —Samantha Downing, USA Today bestselling author of My Lovely Wife
You meets Fatal Attraction in this up-all-night story of suspicion, obsession and motherhood.
It all begins on an ordinary fall morning, when Kelly Medina gets a call from her son’s pediatrician to confirm her upcoming “well-baby” appointment. It’s a cruel mistake; her son left for college a year ago, and Kelly’s never felt so alone. The receptionist quickly apologizes: there’s another mother in town named Kelly Medina, and she must have gotten their numbers switched.
For days, Kelly can’t stop thinking about the woman who shares her name. Lives in her same town. Has a son she can still hold, and her whole life ahead of her. She can’t help looking for her: at the grocery store, at the gym, on social media. When Kelly just happens to bump into the single mother outside that pediatrician’s office, it’s simple curiosity getting the better of her.
Their unlikely friendship brings Kelly a renewed sense of purpose—taking care of this young woman and her adorable baby boy. But that friendship quickly turns to obsession, and when one Kelly disappears, well, the other one may know why.
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A simple mistake turns into a simple relationship with deeply buried threads and threats. The twists that come at you in this fast paced thriller don’t let go and they don’t let you down!
I’m telling you – from the first page to the last, this story is something you won’t see coming!
A heart-pounding thriller. When I Was You pitches two women with the same name against one another, and the rug is pulled out from under you the moment you decide to trust one of them.
I was given an ARC of When I Was You by Amber Garza in return for a honest review. This was the first book of hers that I have read but I intend to read others. This novel keeps you guessing until the very end. You take two women, both Kelly Medina, add in an absent, philandering husband and two son’s and you have a story that has more turns than Lombard street in San Franscisco. The first Kelly has a history of a break with reality and taking another women’s child. The second, has an infant of her own. They cross paths, become “friends” and as the plot unfolds, ulterior motives abound. The accumulation of events concludes after a twisted tale that takes you all over the map. A griping story that is easy to recommend,
Exhilarating, page-turning, shocking, this is one of those rare psychological thrillers that really is the whole package. When I Was You is a dark and twisty delight about what makes a good mother, and what makes a bad one. An impressive debut that will have you questioning your loyalties even as you turn to the next page.
This was an excellent book! I received the recommendation and it not only didn’t disappoint, it exceeded my expectations. You are never sure which character to root for. As soon as you think you have it figured out, surprise! You don’t. This will be a book that sticks with me and one I will recommend often. Amber Garza came on my radar in a BIG way and I will be looking for more of her books!
I spent the day listening to this. For the most part, I liked the narrator. I’m usually not happy with female narrators doing male voices and that was the case here. I think it’s because I imagine the characters and they never get close to the voice I imagine. It happens with male narrators who do female voices, too. Therefore I recommend you listen to the sample and decide if you like the narrator.
Now the story. What a tangled tale indeed! It was broken up into three parts. The first part was long and I kept questioning whether or not main character, Kelly #1, was imagining things and if she was trying to steal a strangers baby. Then came part two and things really rocketed. I thought I had it figured out but boom! Part three exploded. I’m not really one of those readers who tries to see where the story is heading. I like to be surprised by plot twist and turns. I didn’t see things coming because I wasn’t looking for them. If you are a reader who enjoys figuring it out on your own, you may see the way it unfolds ahead of time. I hope you still enjoy it. I wouldn’t say the characters are all likable. It’s kind of complicated but by the end I did like Kelly #1. I would say only trust the baby. Haha.
I enjoyed listening to it. I was on bed rest because of pain and this was a good diversion. The day flew by.
Kelly Medina, is going through the emotions of empty nesting. Her son Aaron is in college and her husband teaches at an university a few hours away, he usually comes home on the weekend but has stopped. Her days are spent grocery shopping and the gym with her friend, Christine. Out of the blue she receives a call about an appointment from a pediatrician office that was meant for another Kelly Medina. She can’t stop fantasizing about this other Kelly, thus it becomes her obsession! Kelly shows up at the appointment and meets the other Kelly by chance. Soon she’s planted herself into Kelly’s & her baby, Sullivan’s lives bringing food over, buying baby clothes & everything a baby would need. I was quite intrigued after reading the blurb, but sadly it fell flat for me.
When I Was You intrigued me from the start. What if someone called me by mistake and I found out there was someone with the same name in the same town at my baby doctor but my son is grown?!? I admit I would think about it all day. I couldn’t wait to see this play out. I listened to the audio and found myself doing extra stuff just so I could listen. Don’t miss this thriller.
This book kept me guessing to the end and turning the pages well into the night!
When I was You by Amber Garza is an intriguing thriller. It has a twisty plot that keeps you guessing. There are two Kelly Medina’s but there is about a twenty-year age difference. The older Kelly has a son who is enjoying college while the younger Kelly’s son is just a baby. The older Kelly is having a hard time adjusting to an empty nest especially with her husband in the Bay Area during the week. There are odd connections, secrets, and danger. I did have trouble getting into the story. The narrator’s voice was inconsistent, and I was never able to relate to the characters. I believe When I was You is one of those books that some will love and others not so much. I enjoyed the suspense as the plot strengthened and it has a remarkable ending. Those readers who enjoy a tangled psychological thriller will enjoy reading When I Was You.
Favorite Quotes:
Lola was my best friend growing up. She had strawberry blond hair, and a smattering of freckles across her nose and pale cheeks. Her scent was a mixture of roses and popcorn, sweet and salty to match her personality. She was fun, adventurous and followed me around for years like my shadow. She was the best friend I’d ever had, which is sad because she was imaginary.
I shook my head. What was wrong with me? I was seriously trying to justify this? This wasn’t me. I’d never done anything like this in my life. Well, I mean, except that one time… But that was different. Completely different. Besides, I hadn’t been in my right mind then. I couldn’t use that same excuse tonight.
My insides were jelly. A part of me felt like I might unravel, becoming nothing more than a scattered mess on the floor.
My Review:
I don’t normally enjoy books with unreliable narrators and/or serious mental health issues, but this one was truly extraordinary and expertly done with cunning and clever craft. What a wily minx Amber Garza has proven herself to be! Hours later, my shoulders are still in my ears from the ever-ratcheting tension as I clutched my Kindle in a death grip lest someone dare snatch it from me and disturb my perusal.
I was enthralled, engrossed, ensnared, appalled, riveted, and transfixed by this devilishly clever and twisted tale. The little pea in my brain was on fire and popping like a jumping bean with continuously evolving theories. And while I had succeeded in narrowing much of it down – as I am such as suspicious cynic – my paltry gray matter could never have generated or shaped such a complex web or even approach her agile and compelling prose. Sigh. It was brilliant!
Getting a phone call about a well-baby appointment when your son is 19 was definitely unexpected.
When Kelly Medina realized the office had made a mistake because someone had the same name as she did, she had to find out who this other Kelly was.
Kelly did find out who the other Kelly was…she was a single mother living in a small apartment with no one to help her with the baby.
Well…now that Kelly found Kelly, she was going to help her especially since she was lonely herself.
Tension abounds. and you will question what’s going on and who the “new” Kelly really is.
One day the “old” Kelly finds out who she is or does she find out? We are kept in the dark.
This information definitely ramped up my curiosity and apprehension.
WHEN I WAS YOU kept me turning the pages as I knew the ominous plot was heading for more, and I was correct.
This book is a twisty, creepy, psychological thriller with a very intriguing, clever story line and characters that have unhealthy obsessions.
This book will definitely keep suspense fans on the edge of your seat, have you shaking your head, and keep you guessing because it is just brilliant.
READ IT…I bet you won’t figure it out, BUT I know you will love it. 5/5
This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
A compulsive read with a twist you won’t want to miss.
Kelly Medina is a mid-life empty nester looking for something to fill her days. An odd call from a paediatrician’s office clues her in that there is another Kelly Medina in town, this one with a young baby. And the older Kelly can’t quite resist finding out who this young woman is who shares her name.
It’s easy to feel sympathy with Kelly #1 (as I’ll call her). From the beginning it’s obvious she’s lonely, her son grown up and gone away to college, her husband only home on weekends. As more and more of her life is slowly revealed, her story becomes genuinely heartbreaking. Her obsession with Kelly #2 and her baby son Sullivan does get just a little bit creepy… until the big twist comes and we realise that it’s someone else who has been manipulating events all along.
There’s not a lot more I can say without spoilers, but this is a genuinely clever story. I didn’t particularly like Kelly #1, our protagonist, though I did feel immense sympathy for her; she was frustratingly passive and needed to have kicked her husband to the curb a long time ago. The villain was actually unhinged, and we got several excellent chapters in the villain’s point of view late in the story which I think was an excellent narrative choice; it held up a mirror and showed what Kelly #1 thought was happening was actually something completely different all along. We went from an unreliable (hiding things through grief) narrator to an unreliable (unhinged) narrator and it was absolutely fascinating. I couldn’t put this down. Five stars for an excellent psychological thriller.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this title via NetGalley.
Kelly Medina receives a phone call from the doctor’s office reminding her of her upcoming well-baby appointment. Kelly tells the woman that she has the wrong person and the phone numbers must have gotten switched. Her “baby”, Aaron, is 19 and currently in college.
Kelly’s husband, Rafael, is a professor and stays closer to his office and college during the week, traveling home on the weekend. Living by herself, she gets lonely. That’s when she starts to wonder about this other Kelly Medina and her baby. She waits at the doctor’s office on the appointment time and seeing a woman with a little baby boy, she introduces herself. She then starts getting in touch with the other Kelly who is a single mother. Working to get as much information on her, this woman and her baby start to become an obsession with her. Evidently she has had problems in the past with stalking people and sees a psychiatrist. But she insists that she just wants to help this mother.
This book keeps getting more and more compelling until you wonder who is crazy and who isn’t. I loved how the author sets the reader up to think one way and then – bam – something else happens. Well done. Don’t miss it.
Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
I liked some of this book an extraordinary amount, but a lot of it felt like I’d either read it before or like it was so over-the-top going for shock value that it went from shock to schlock… I’m starting to think what it boils down to for me is that I’m over the unreliable narrator. I’m over the shocking plot twists and the nobody-is-what-they-seem-in-suburbia stories. Each one seems to try to outdo all the others, and as a result the plots feel overly layered and overly full of red herrings and misdirection.
That being said, watching the original Kelly Medina devolve was fascinating and at least for the first half to two-thirds of the book, was also extremely entertaining. That’s when things started getting a little crazy and running off the rails, and that’s where this one lost me. I saw one of the big twists from that section coming early on, but that didn’t lessen the enjoyment for me, as I was curious to see how the author would roll out the information, so it wasn’t an “I know what’s coming” issue I had, so much as an “oh my goodness stop layering things on here and wrap it all up already” one. It went from a fascinating psychological study of how a woman falls apart to a story that felt like it was trying to draw out the tension – and overdoing it in the process.
The ending brought it back – I do love when an author literally ends the book with a shock – but it still netted out at only three stars for me…
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation – free review copy.
I loved this story that scared me as I read it. I can’t say that I liked any of the main characters. They each had problems and you do feel sorry for them at times but they aren’t all that likable. Each of these characters have major problems and you learn them as the story unfolds. Each person learns things about the other that they don’t like. I could not put this down. I received a copy of this book from HarperCollinsPublisher for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.
See my full review on BookTrib.com –coming soon! f
Wow! Just wow! Though it’s difficult to review this book without giving away any spoilers (which I truly don’t want to do because you need to experience this thrilling book yourself!), you can be assured that this will be a wild ride of a read, and one which will leave you a bit breathless at the end.
Kelly Medina has been acutely suffering from empty nest syndrome since her son went to college. She misses her son Aaron terribly, and with her husband Rafael away so much for his job, she is struggling to find a new purpose for her life and to fill her long, empty days. One day, a pediatrician’s office calls to confirm her appointment for her son’s well-baby check. It turns out there is a young mother, new to town, with the same name of Kelly Medina.
Intrigued by this, Kelly #1 starts following Kelly #2 to satisfy her curiosity about her.At first, she just wants to see what she’s like, but after arranging to meet Kelly and her baby boy Sullivan, Kelly #1 soon becomes obsessed with having the two in her life. As the reader learns more and more of the backstories of each of these women, the psychological suspense rachets up until it is screaming! Garza provides some glorious, unexpected twists to make this one helluva good read! Don’t miss this well-done, well-characterized thriller!
My thanks to Net-Galley and Mira Books for allowing me to read a copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions stated here are my own.
(4.5/5) Whoa! This was a dark and twisty book that I devoured in two days. When Kelly Medina finds out there’s another Kelly Medina in her town, she wonders if it’s a mistake and decides she must find her. She eventually does and they become friends. I thought Kelly #1 was a bit disturbed and a stalker as she was always showing up at Kelly 2’s home and wanted to know where she and her baby son were and what they were up to. I found her a bit annoying at times but then would actually feel a little sorry for her as well as I figured she was lonely with her husband working out of town and her son away at college. It’s hard to say too much about the book without giving things away. The twist towards the end surprised me, though, and the ending….it just blew me away. When I Was You was quite the page-turner and a very enjoyable read.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy.