If I Were You: A Novel

by Lynn Austin Narrated by Sarah Zimmerman

Overview

From bestselling and eight-time Christy Award-winning author Lynn Austin comes a remarkable novel of sisterhood and self-discovery set against the backdrop of WWII.

1950.*In the wake of the war, Audrey Clarkson leaves her manor house in England for a fresh start in America with her young son. As a widowed war bride, Audrey needs the support of her American in-laws, whom she has never met. But she arrives to find that her longtime friend Eve Dawson has been impersonating her for the past four years. Unraveling this deception will force Audrey and Eve's secrets-and the complicated history of their friendship-to the surface.

1940.*Eve and Audrey have been as different as two friends can be since the day they met at Wellingford Hall, where Eve's mother served as a lady's maid for Audrey's mother. As young women, those differences become a polarizing force . . . until a greater threat-Nazi invasion-reunites them. With London facing relentless bombardment, Audrey and Eve join the fight as ambulance drivers, battling constant danger together. An American stationed in England brings dreams of a brighter future for Audrey, and the collapse of the class system gives Eve hope for a future with Audrey's brother. But in the wake of devastating loss, both women must make life-altering decisions that will set in motion a web of lies and push them both to the breaking point long after the last bomb has fallen.

This sweeping story transports readers to one of the most challenging eras of history to explore the deep, abiding power of faith and friendship to overcome more than we ever thought possible.

Editorial Reviews

Foreword Reviews

In Lynn Austin’s tantalizing domestic drama, If I Were You, desperation and forgiveness are part of a classic upstairs/downstairs plot. In 1930s England, Eve was Audrey’s scullery maid and coveted her privilege. Audrey admired Eve for her courage; her own rich parents seemed cold by comparison. By 1950, Eve is an ocean away in a new bungalow, posing as widowed Audrey to benefit from Audrey’s generous American in-laws. When the real Audrey turns up, the former friends confront their rift. The ease that each imagines the other possesses, and the insecurities they suffer, drive home the idea that appearances aren’t everything. The book’s ravaged backdrop includes blitzes in Coventry and London that blur the social divide. Even when envy bubbles forth, necessity brings the women together. Their work as ambulance drivers is an equalizing force, though Audrey’s manor upbringing intrudes to remind Eve that her future is far from secure. Its message familiar and its world nostalgic and fragile, If I Were You looks for answers in changing identities and finds that it’s priceless to remain true to oneself.

Library Journal

★ 06/01/2020

Audrey Barrett is living the good life in the United States, trying to put the horrors of the London Blitz behind her and raise her young son. Everything is just as she dreamed it could be, until the real Audrey Barrett shows up and demands to know why her former best friend stole her identity. Moving backward in time from 1950, Austin (Where We Belong; "Refiner's Fire" series) delivers another stunning historical saga of hardship and desire in wartime. The friendship between Audrey and her scullery maid, Eve Dawson, was always overshadowed by the strict class structure of early 20th-century England, but when both girls sign up to be ambulance drivers in the war, the lines of tradition began to blur. Through it all, each girl struggles to hold on to her faith and find her place in a brave new world. VERDICT Austin transports readers into the lives of her characters, plunking them in the middle of a brutal war and giving them a unique take on the traditional World War II tale. Readers won't be able to turn the pages fast enough to find out how Eve and Audrey met and what could have gone so terribly wrong.—Christine Barth, Scott Cty. Lib. Syst., IA

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177394855
Publisher:	Tyndale House Publishers
Publication date:	06/02/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,157,196

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