The Stand-In Wife is an emotional romance with an injured soldier, a broken marriage, and twins switching places.

Vivienne Jansen has spent her life wanting to be different from her twin. She has made a life for herself in New York, far from her homeland of New Zealand. But, when her sister’s marriage falls apart Viv rushes to be by her side and help with her nephew and niece. She never imagines that what is initially a quick trip to help would end up with her pretending to be her sister and falling in love.

Ross Coltrane is a survivor and suffers from guilt. During an ambush two of his fellow soldiers were killed and he was seriously injured. He has become consumed by vengeance. He wants to return to service and go after those that killed two of his close friends who were fellow soldiers. The last thing he wants is to be wrapped up in Viv’s crazy plan, but he can’t help but feel pulled toward her.

I liked the premise of this book. Twin switching is an old story, but what happens when circumstances out of your control make the innocent switch spiral out of control? Viv finds out that the life she has just might not be the life she was meant to lead and that her sister’s picture perfect life isn’t so perfect. Viv and Ross have an interesting romance. She is pretending to be somebody else and he is trying to keep her secret and not fall into the attraction between them. One of my favorite parts of the story happens when Ross finally figures out that Viv isn’t her sister Meredith.

The Stand-In Wife is full of emotion and heart as the characters learn what they really want from life. Vivienne learns that she doesn’t need to make herself so different from her sister and that she doesn’t have to continue to live up to her “hurricane” nickname. Ross learns that life and love are more important than vengeance.

The Stand-In Wife is the perfect story for anyone who loves romance with a little bit of laughter and a lot of emotion.

~ Carrie