When We Were Strangers

By: Alex Richards

Narrated by: Laura Knight Keating

How far would you go to unravel the truth?

Seventeen-year-old Evie Parker is devastated in the wake of her father’s sudden death. But she knows something her mother doesn’t: The day of his heart attack, her dad was planning to move out. After finding his packed bags, she impulsively put everything away to spare her mom more heartache.

To make matters worse, Evie soon learns the reason her father was going to leave: He had been dating his 22-year-old receptionist, Bree, who is now six months pregnant with his child...Evie’s half-sibling.

Desperate to distract herself, Evie signs up for a summer photography class, where she meets a motley crew of students, including quirky and adorable Declan. Still, Evie can’t stop thinking about the other woman. Armed with a telephoto lens, she caves in to her curiosity...and what starts as a little bit of spying on Bree quickly turns into an obsession. Then, when an emergency forces Evie to help Bree, she learns there’s more to the story than she ever knew.

Alex Richards crafts a riveting and layered story about betrayal, complicated family secrets, and getting to the heart of what really matters.

©2021 Alex Richards (P)2021 Recorded Books

Captured the Experience of Young Adulthood

Alex Richards is becoming one of my favorite authors. This the second of her books that I've read. "Accidental"was the first. She clearly has a firm grasp of the genre. Her characters are authentic and well-developed, but also fun and surprising in good ways. Her use of language to roll the story along is masterful and engaging. I really loved this book and looked forward to making time to listen outside of my regular (walking the neighborhood) times. I expect to see a lot more great work out of Alex Richards. BRAVO!

VERY Immature MC

1.5 STARS

When Evie’s father dies suddenly, she discovers her was leaving her mother for his pregnant mistress, a young woman only five years older than she is.

WHEN WE WERE STRANGERS wasn’t an enjoyable read for me. Seventeen-year-old Evie had the maturity of a twelve-year-old. She makes a lot of assumptions without fact-checking and though most turned out to be true, the leaps seemed too convenient. Much of the story is predictable. Evie gets into a coveted photography program and guess what, she’s a prodigy.

The strongest part of WHEN WE WERE STRANGERS is the strength of the writing. Alex Richards is a terrific word builder. The quality of her word building sometimes made me stop and reread the sentence for its beauty.

Younger YA readers who like realistic fiction may enjoy WHEN WE WERE STRANGERS. It’s not a terrible book. Richards set the bar very high with ACCIDENTAL, hopefully her next book will bounce back.