I searched Amazon for Christian Historical Fiction books and selected Lynn Austin’s If I Were You. Austin’s book was the first I’ve read by this author, and I was vested in the characters and suspenseful story from the beginning. At first, I struggled with keeping Audrey and Eve separated in my mind because the narrative seamlessly moved between one and another. My compassion meter for Eve didn’t rise to the top until the middle of the book, when I felt the character’s jealousy, grief, poverty, and struggles that justified her decision to act when her best friend decided not to.
I love British accents, so the audiobook narrator lured me into reading “one more chapter” and then another as I listened like a captive until the end. Through the eyes of Audrey and her son, I experienced what it must have felt like to be raised by aristocratic parents and transform, slowly throughout the storyline, into a courageous can-do survivor of the War.
If you enjoy learning more about World War II and experiencing history through narrative fictional characters with action and suspense—this might be the book for you. If you enjoy Kristen Hannah’s The Women, The Nightingale, I think you will enjoy Austin’s If I Were You.
