Minka Kent | WHEN I WAS YOU

Plot (via Goodreads):

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 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.

Review:

Minka Kent is one of those authors who is all over Bookstagram and I had always been eager and exceptionally curious to scoop up one of her books. Unfortunately, the longer I blog and the more I work, the bigger my TBR becomes each month and I just never found the right time to dive into one of her stories. Well, luckily for me, Minka Kent posted a picture of some ARCs for When I Was You and I immediately DMed her and crossed my fingers - then, the literary Gods blessed me with a Minka Kent story and the results were bittersweet. The good? Her writing and her stories are from what I can tell, exceptionally thrilling and I was immediately immersed in this story within the first chapter and I am so excited to go through her catalog. The bad? I wish I could go back in time and kick myself right in the ass for not grabbing one of her copies earlier.

When I Was You is a poignant and devilishly addictive psychological thriller with an exceptional spin on the unreliable narrator. I think this one will be great for fans of Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney and yet the stories are so different. I honestly enjoyed the plot and Brianne's story so much that I had become so immersed with her character that I forgot a huge chunk of what this story was about, so when the novel kind of takes a turn with the character that is or isn't stealing her identity happened I was so shocked and let's just say, I missed a lot of sleep on New Years evening. I started this one on New Years day with a hot bubble bath to distract myself from how exhausted and hungover I was and the next thing I knew, it was January 2nd and I had about 50 pages left and I definitely didn't go to bed at a decent time - it was so worth it. I was feverishly grasping at the pages and found myself with my jaw dropping so much at all of the twists and turns. Right when you think you know what is going on, Minka Kent gives you one hell of a reveal, drops the mic, and then pulls you by your hair even deeper into this story. It was awesome. The finale was insane and had me rooting for a couple of key characters and my heart was definitely racing as if I were right there with them. I am dying for this to be a Netflix series or movie and keeping my fingers crossed and making all of the promises of being a good boy if this happens, so Netflix Gods, do your thing.

I am so glad this was my first read of 2020 and if it is any representation of what the rest of the year is going to bring book-wise, then bring it on! I am always excited and happy to bring another author as a go-to recommendation and I am so grateful to Minka Kent for providing me with this copy - I cannot wait to see what else she has to offer!

Special thanks to Minka Kent for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 5/5