If I Were You Books in Order

The If I Were You books are a connected pair: a World War II novel followed by a postwar Christmas story that checks back in with the same friendship. Lynn Austin starts with the pressure-cooker years of wartime Britain and then moves into the quieter but still complicated work of building a life afterward.

If I Were You centers on two women from very different backgrounds—Audrey Barrett and Eve Dawson—whose lives intersect in the middle of the war. One has known privilege; the other has had to scrape for stability. Under rationing, blackouts, and constant uncertainty, their friendship forces both of them to rethink what loyalty, courage, and sacrifice actually mean. Their relationship shifts from suspicion to reliance as each woman gets a clearer view of the other’s losses, responsibilities, and hidden fears. They make mistakes, hurt each other, and keep showing up anyway.

The title’s question isn’t just poetic—it’s the engine of the story. Austin explores what happens when envy turns into empathy, when assumptions fall apart, and when you realize the life you’ve been longing for comes with its own hidden costs. As the war drags on, secrets and misunderstandings don’t disappear just because everyone is trying to survive. And the novel refuses to treat the home front as “safe,” showing families separated, futures postponed, and moral choices made in the dark.

The war may be over, but the grief isn’t.

The Wish Book Christmas picks up years later, in December 1951, when Audrey and Eve are living in a small Connecticut town as British war brides. They’re sharing a home, raising young sons, and trying to make something steady out of lives shaped by loss. When the boys discover the Christmas wish book and start dreaming big, the women steer them toward giving—acts of encouragement, service, and neighborly kindness that become a quiet kind of medicine for all of them. A dog tops the boys’ wish list, and their first steps toward generosity pull the whole household outward into community.

Taken together, these two books deliver a satisfying emotional arc: friendship forged under fire, followed by a gentle, hopeful coda that still takes pain seriously. It’s a good fit if you like friendship-forward historical fiction with a soft romance thread.

Read them in order: start with If I Were You, then move to The Wish Book Christmas for the follow-up.