Read the Rest of the Story

From the very first page you feel what the author is feeling, you are with her as she is delivered the shock of her life. Her husband is gone, but he didn’t die, he simply up and decides one day to leave her, their pets, and their home behind. You feel her shock, her disorientation, her paralyzing fear and disbelief and sadness from the very fist paragraph. You are there with her on the floor, as she shuts down, trying to process the news, completely immobilized by the sudden, debilitating trauma of her husband making the decision to abruptly end their longtime marriage.

I’m a news junkie, I like to read blogs. I was driven to read this particular story, at first out of sheer curiosity. It started with reading a brief synopsis of her story on her Huffington Post blog. Her story immediately caught my attention, perhaps because I’ve known people like her former husband. People that posses a unique and bewildering talent for weaving elaborate webs of deception. I think what caused me to fixate on this particular story was at first my own desire to understand why some people develop a taste for manipulation, for living in and perpetuating lives based on lies.

From the first sentence, this book is a page turner and quite difficult to put down; as you learn one piece of the story you immediately begin to thirst for the next. In this case, Lisa has truly lived what has often been said, a reality stranger than fiction. I can’t imagine what it must feel like to be manipulated and lied to so succinctly and completely by the one person you’re supposed to be able to rely on and put your trust in the most, /after/ a marriage of ten years and a relationship of sixteen years! It simply boggles the mind and for me, calls me to question my faith in humanity itself. How is it that some people come to be so self-centered, so diluted that they can perpetuate acts of complete and utter treason against not just another person, but their /spouse/?

How could a man be caring and loving and intimate one moment, and for all the many years leading up to that moment, and then decide abruptly, coldly and without any feeling at all to simply vanish from her life, from /their/ life together, with nothing more than a text message and a very cold and unsettlingly impersonal “Dear John” letter? Without ever having a conversation with her, without ever expressing any disinterest or dissatisfaction in or with their marriage? How does a man then also marry another woman while still married to his first wife? How is it that she never saw any signs or clues of his pending blitzkrieg of complete emotional and financial ruin? What could make a man so distorted and narcissistic to consciously make these choices? Well, friends, this book does not disappoint. This true story of betrayal, of infidelity, of bigamy, of a woman’s story of how she picked up the broken pieces of her life and mended her soul and confronted and laughed and cried and began anew will haunt you, will move you, will humble you. And yes, will cause you to question many, many times the sanity of the man she married. I found myself completely captivated by her story.

And, finally, if you are like me, in a happy, loving marriage, it will also give you reason to count your blessings, and be grateful with and humbled by the joy and the tremendous fortune of having a good marriage with a good person. Reading a story like this just makes me love my wife all the more and see how lucky I truly am too. For people like me, this story is a cautionary tale that decrees that at any moment a bomb can fall from the sky and sweep it all away in the blink of an eye.

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting and Hopeful August 8, 2012

By Renee Smith

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

First, let me say that I know the author and witnessed this story. So, consider me somewhat biased in terms knowing how incredible this story is and how incredible this author is to come out of it happier, better and just plain fabulous. But, keep in mind, no matter what I knew, I never knew her whole story–and now I do. Since I have laid my cards on the table I still feel I can write an honest review of her work. This book is truly an example of how truth is stranger than fiction because no novelist or Hollywood writer could make this up! Lisa’s story is one of overcoming trauma, loss and total deception of a magnitude that those of us who learned of it and those of you who will read her story can only wonder how it would be possible to overcome. She is the living embodiment of grace and as her story unfolds one begins to see that she is a survivor who decides she will not be defeated but will triumph in spite of great wrongs done to destroy her. Her story is gripping from the first paragraph. Its almost impossible to believe this is a true story–if she were not my friend I would think this was a story from Dostoevsky or DH Lawrence. I even told her the first time we spoke after her life imploded it would make an awesome book and it has indeed. Lisa’s writing is masterful in terms of literary device such as metaphors and imagery . She is a brilliant wordsmith who knows how to paint a vivid picture while avoiding bodice ripping melodrama–and believe me, this story unfolds along just those lines. Her strength is how she is so honest and insightful about herself. There is no way you can read this book and not find her vulnerable, heroic, hilarious (the gallows humor is a necessary comic relief to such a truly sad story), and a tower of strength. You cannot fail to be astonished by her story, you cannot fail to learn from her, and you will find this book to be a fast-paced page turner that you cannot put down! So, buy it, read it, share it, promote it–its one of those rare books that cuts across any line you can think of and leave you saying, “WOW!!!”