A stolen identity leads a woman down a dark and desperate path in a gripping novel of psychological suspense by Wall Street Journal bestselling author Minka Kent.
After barely surviving a brutal attack, Brienne Dougray rarely leaves her house. Suffering from debilitating headaches and memory loss, she can rely only on her compassionate new tenant, Dr. Niall Emberlin, a welcome distraction from … welcome distraction from the discomfiting bubble that has become her existence.
But Brienne’s growing confidence in her new routine is shaken when she stumbles across unsettling evidence that someone else is living as…her. Same name. Same car. Same hair. Same clothes. She’s even friended her family on social media. To find out why, Brienne must leave the safety of her home to hunt a familiar stranger.
What she discovers is more disturbing than she could have ever imagined. With her fragile mind close to shattering, Brienne is prepared to do anything to reclaim her life. If it’s even hers to reclaim.
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Identity theft happens all the time. There is always some knucklehead trying to have a shopping spree on someone else’s dime.
What happens when they are living as you? Wearing the same clothes, driving the same car and even having the same haircut. Do you confront them?
I loved where this plot was going, then I got pulled in when the plot thickened! Told in a multiple point of views, I loved the way this all blended together. What an entertaining ride!
I enjoyed the way Minka Kent, the author of WHEN I WAS YOU, allows readers to get inside the head of the antagonist so we know why he thinks he’s entitled to do what he’s doing. On the flip side, we also get to be inside the head of the protagonist and feel what it’s like to be psychologically manipulated to the point of questioning your own sanity. Well played. Very well played!
Intense suspense!
My mind is a mess. About halfway through until the end my palms were sweating and I didn’t realize that my muscles were clenched tight. I’ve never had a book physically effect me like that. I just couldn’t stop turning pages!
Poor Brienne doesn’t know if she’s going crazy or if someone is trying to make her crazy. It’s a crazy ride to get it all straight! You think you know but you have no idea.
Great great great read!!
A twisty, topsy, turvy thriller! When I Was You is a frenetically paced, absolutely compulsive page-turner.
raised to 4.
Brienne is brutally beaten, something that leaves her scared and scarred. She is convinced she was targeted and her identity, her life stolen. Enter Niall Emberlin, a doctor who rents a room from Brienne and watches out for her. He seems to understand her, until he drops a bombshell.
Told in two voices, you hear Brienne’s side and the Niall’s side, then a combination. Suspenseful in the beginning as Brienne deals with identity theft and the trauma of being assaulted. Then you hear all about Niall, and things fall into place. The last part is their coming together and figuring out how the story will end.
The author adds to the suspense by keeping the last chapters very short, going back and forth between the main characters. The characters are definitely flawed, leaving you feeling sorry one minute and frustrated the next, and angry at best. Fast paced, perfect for a cozy night in or a vacation read.
I received this book as an Amazon First Read, and it must have sounded so good, I requested it again from NetGalley! Opinion is mine alone!
When I Was You by Minka Kent is another outstanding and unputdownable read by this author. Just like The Stillwater Girls is When I Was You a gripping thriller of it’s finest with a storyline that kept me in suspense from start til the last page. A truly unputdownable read, excellent written, beautifully thought out and beautifully told.
Brienne is living a reclusing life after being viciously attacked. She seldom leaves her home and her only contact is her tenant. Niall, a doctor at the local hospital is a quiet man. But what Brienne not – yet – knows, he spun a web around her , an evil and masterminded web.
I read the book, cover to cover, in one sitting, I literally couldn’t put it down.
I highly recommend the book, 5+ stars.
I had all but the final outcome figured out quickly but this was still a good book. I need to check out other books by this author.
Great book. I loved the characters and the story line. It’s a different approach to becoming someone else and not becoming them at the same time. The suspense of what’s their next move and who’s going to come out on top that kept me reading until the last page. Definitely would recommend this book to others.
Total five thumbs up
This was a fascinating read! Everything that should be implausible fit and pulled me further into the plot. Original with great writing and characters.
Once again, Minka Kent gives you a story that’s twisty and turny and keeps you guessing to try to figure it out. We’ve got Brienne, who’s recovering from being attacked and having a hard time adjusting to life again. She has a tenant, Niall, who helps her feel safe in her big house. But things start getting weird when she discovers someone else is living as her..identity, look, pretty much everything. Which starts her down a road that leads to so many twists and lies, you can’t stop reading to find out what happens next!
Who AM I?
Appropriate for teen – adult
No sex
No strong language
No violence
Psychological tension
Page turner
Well developed plot. Believable. Like many recent books, we get the story in alternating chapters/sections from Brienne’s point of view and then from Niall’s.
Plot no spoilers:
As Brienne gradually regains her memory after her traumatic brain injury due to a mugging, she begins to question what parts of her experiences are real, and which parts are confusion. Why are there so many inconsistencies? Why aren’t her friends there for her?
Without friends or family, she is dependent on her caregiver, Niall, who gently helps her separate fact from fiction. Extremely troubling, is that someone with her name and who looks very much like her has rented an apartment in her town and is clearly living a parallel, uncomplicated life. Who is she?
Can she really believe the incredible things Niall is patiently revealing to her?
Recommended!
Brienne was in an attack and has some PTSD due to it. This has her being mostly homebound and her friends not being very understanding losing interest in her. She then learns that someone that looks like her has been going about town being her in public even starting social media accounts in her name. The only person she has physical contact with is Naill and she doesn’t even know much about this person either. Will she find out who attacked her? Who stole her identity and why?
This is a great story that will have you on the edge of your seat for most of the book. This is a well written and very entertaining story. I would recommend this book to any book lover.
I voluntarily read and reviewed this book.
I finished this story last night and woke up still thinking about it! All the pieces still fitting in place, it’s like playing rewind, thinking to myself ohhh that’s why, and yes why didn’t I see that?! Girl, Minka Kent how did your other books creep past me. So the first thing I did last night was download each one to my kindle, your books are not getting past me again!
The description of, When I was you, was pretty intriguing, the cover with two women seems like its a case of stolen identity, hmmm seems temping, always in the mood for some suspense! Another thing I love about psychological thrillers is nothing is ever as it seems! Oh how right I was!
We first meet Brienne who has been through a traumatic event causing her to stay home basically her whole life changing in one beat of a second. Sitting home and becoming very aware of her surroundings to the point she knows everything down to her neighbor’s schedules, basically shackled to her house. It’s not until one day she receives a letter that will unleash everything!
The we meet Niall, an oncology doctor who rents a room in her house. He has basically became a best friend to Brienne. He seems sweet, helping her, making her feel she is not as alone as she feels.
Brienne number 2, This is someone we get glimpse of but wait until you meet her, your mind will be blown!!!!!!
My 2nd book of 2020, this year is going to be awesome!!! I highly recommend this if your into twists, deranged characters and Holy sh*t moments! I got to one chapter and screamed “oHHHH noOOO this is so not happening!!”at that point I could not put this down! This is a perfect read for any book club or just friends who wanna hold hands to get through this twisted web!
Very intriguing thriller-ish mystery. There are some twists and surprising revelations.You’ll have your suspensions about certain things, and just when you think you’ve figured out what is happening, you are slapped in the face with the truth. There is only a bare minimum of violence (only one scene, and that is mild.) No sexual content. It definitely keeps you enthralled with the story and wanting to find out how it ends. How far will the criminal get away with before the victim succeeds (if they succeed) in stopping it. There are a lot of little things that had to happen to keep the criminal’s game going and this author really thought of every little detail. It is written in a way that you don’t really know who the victim is and who the ‘bad guy’ is until you get further into the story. This isn’t really a dark read, but it does have that cloud hanging over it. This is a well plotted, well executed story. Once you get into the nitty gritty of it, it was hard to put down.
*I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley.
Solid Psychological suspense, and everyone’s nightmare.
Minka Kent writes books that I cannot put down, and I’ve enjoyed every one that I’ve read.
No blurb or plot spoilers from me, and as always with these types of books, it starts off innocuously enough, and I was trying to pick which bits of the story were pertinent information to remember. The thing with thrillers is that there is always a twist and a connection between party’s that are seemingly unrelated.
Good solid read at 4 stars.
In the end, it’ll all be okay. And if it’s not okay, it’s not the end.
When it comes to psychological thrillers, I’ve found that Minka Kent has well-written, evenly-paced work, and this story follows suit. The author does a great job of showing how someone with trauma behaves. I loved the uncertainty and fragility of Brienne, and the strength she shows when she owns her life. The best part is not knowing the reliability of the narrator, questioning everyone & everything. Be prepared for lots of mysterious twists, and the inability to put this book down.
I received a copy of this book. This is my honest opinion, voluntarily provided.
This was such an excellent book. Your mind will try to figure out along each step what’s going to happen next and it will not be boring! I appreciate the ride I took as a reader and was very satisfied with the way the story wrapped up. Too many times thrillers can either be predictable or have terrible endings. This book did not disappoint.
This is a voluntary review of an advance reader copy.
A mindboggling imposter story that blew my mind! What a crazy ride this mesmerizing suspense thriller was in tackling an extreme case of identity theft, and the thrill ride left me breathless with excitement. I kept asking myself what the heck is going on here? The “imposter” twist gets taken to a new level, with chilling ironies. The story was clever, unsettling, and proved once again that the author (a pseudonym of Winter Renshaw) continues to have more thriller tricks up her sleeve. On edge for most of it, I was delightfully sucked into every fresh angle and crazy dip that took the story in wild and unexpected directions. The twists and turns never stopped, as I frantically whipped through the pages for answers. POVs and revelations kept shifting and left me constantly off-kilter. The slow wind-up followed by the unwind of an inventive plot was deliciously devious and complex, and everything spiraled in faster and faster freefall to conclusion.
This book takes your mind on a journey that you will question what happens next. There are so many twist and turns I could not read the book fast enough. The characters were very well written and the poor of the story is amazing.
This book was not for me. I found the storyline slow & boring until the last quarter of the book. I also had the antagonist figured out early on which is likely why I got bored. The last quarter was good. I have read other Minka Kent thrillers and loved them. This just happens to be a one off for me.