Lynn Austin's "If I Were You"

In the wake of WWII, 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. From polarizing class divisions to a common love to shared loss, Eve and Audrey have endured  much in their friendship. Will their ties from the past be enough to reconcile their future?

It's a complicated story about friendship between two young women whose lives have been entangled since childhood, each envying the other, loving the other, pushing the other, supporting the other. War levels the playing field between them, though there is always a hint of tension from how each one covets the life the other holds. It's definitely a thought-provoking story about friendship, both its power to build up and tear down, to bind together and split asunder.

Eve really digs herself a hole . . . and because of how deep she digs herself in, the ending felt a little too easy. Not Audrey and Eve's relationship in the end--everything they've been through, the way their relationship had been over the years--that, to me, was plenty believable. But in regards to everyone else that Eve deceived, there will be consequences; we don't see them, given where the book ends, but they're there, waiting. And those consequences will affect Audrey too, no matter how unintentional.

But this book is definitely more about the journey than the destination, and the ending is just one more stop in Eve and Audrey's complicated journey of friendship. It's well worth the read!

Thank you Tyndale House and NetGalley for the complimentary e-book. I was not required to write a positive review, and all opinions are my own.