When I Was You

By: Amber Garza

Narrated by: Vivienne Leheny

“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 author of My Lovely WifeYou 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.

Hang in there

I didn’t really enjoy the first half of this book, kind of dragged but made me super curious as to what was really going on. Read every review I could to see if I could get a spoiler to find out what happened without having to listen to the whole thing. I was unsuccessful, so sucked it up and continued to listen. Glad I did! Wowzers! Threw a twist I didn’t see coming, then another one! Had to listen to the last 3 1/2 hours without any pause! Definitely glad I stuck it out!

A story to sink your teeth into!

From the get go, you get sucked into the characters. You start to empathize with the main female character, Kelly and all the trauma she's been through.
First her childhood, and then her difficult marriage.
Life is difficult for her with very cold parents growing up, only to then marry a guy, Rafael that's just as cold and non-feeling.
Kelly tries to ride the waves in the best way she can to keep her family together. Her main pride and joy being her son, she often feels like she has to play referee between her husband and son.

A little slow until the end

I had questions and was confused re reading throughout the book. Everything makes more since the last few chapters of the book. Keep me interested but wished it wasn’t so slow.

intriguing

It was somewhat hard to tell where the story was going, but not in s bad way. It stayed intetesting throughout & was narrated well. Even my kids enjoyed it on a long car ride.

Decent enough thrill ride

I don’t understand those super negative 1 star reviews. There’s nothing awful or that poorly done in this story. I also don’t understand the gushing 5 star reviews. This isn’t a masterpiece. Overall it’s a solid story with a fine narrator. The 1 star reviews, I notice, often don’t actually finish the book. They speak of the boring, overly detailed super predictable story. But they would likely be mildly surprised if they stuck with it. I will say that, if you listen to the entirely book, you are unlikely to know exactly what’s real and what’s not up until the end. The *very* last part was absurdly predictable and felt like a cop out honestly. It felt like the author couldn’t quite think up a “big ending” so did that instead. But prior to that, it’s pretty good. The monotony of Kelly One’s descriptions of her daily life seem obnoxious and unnecessary at the start of the story. But I do feel like they are vital to where you begin to notice the unraveling as the tale goes on. Overall, a fine book that won’t leave you totally unsatisfied if you make it through the whole thing.