If I Were You

Starred review from June 1, 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

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