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Feb 6
Review of The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
This middle-grade writing collaboration inserts a clever young protagonist into the behind-the-scenes World War II British codebreaking...
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Jan 8
Review of Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
I loved the premise of Creation Lake , and I was captivated by the mocking, ruthless, fickle freelance spy "Sadie." But the story and...
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Oct 10, 2024
Review of The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
ICYMI: My favorite Kate Quinn books center around strong young women proving their mettle during wartime crises, and The Alice Network ...
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Sep 19, 2024
Review of The Trap (Alias Emma #3) by Ava Glass
In the third Emma Makepeace novel, British spy Emma goes rogue in order to save world leaders and prevent an assassination at the hands...
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Feb 21, 2024
Review of The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn
The Whalebone Theatre begins with offbeat children's performances on a lazy, decadent English estate in the 1920s and builds to the...
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Feb 6, 2024
Review of Unsinkable by Jenni L. Walsh
I loved each of the story's two timelines--following a stewardess on board The Titanic as well as a British spy working with the WWII...
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Nov 9, 2022
Review of The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin
I was interested in both of Martin's World War II storylines. The author's historical fiction romance-writing is evident here, in...
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Jul 15, 2022
Six Great Books about Brave Female Spies
Tough women, secrets and smarts, and sneaky spying! I love a peek at a secret world, and each of these books offers that very thing. Only...
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Apr 22, 2022
Six More Books about Brave Female Spies
Tough women, secrets and smarts, and sneaky spying! I love a peek at a secret world and books about spies specifically. My first Greedy...
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Mar 9, 2022
Review of Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams
Williams's historical fiction mystery--based on real-life double agents in the Cambridge Spy Ring--is vividly set in Europe and Russia...
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Dec 13, 2021
Review of Beneath a Starless Sky by Tessa Harris
Harris's action-packed World War II story moves between the terrors of 1930s Germany and the glamour of Hollywood, and it details the...
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Nov 10, 2021
Review of Forty Autumns by Nina Willner
ICYMI: Forty Autumns offers fascinating, wonderfully detailed perspectives in a rich, layered family memoir that reads like fiction. The...
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May 6, 2021
Review of The Invisible Woman by Erika Robuck
Robuck shaped the real-life figure of Virginia Hall into a courageous, idealistic, determined, and imperfect heroine I was intrigued by....
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May 4, 2021
Review of Agent Sonya by Ben Macintyre
Ursula Burton, an unassuming mother and wife, was a legendary real-life spy who evaded capture by China, the Nazis, MI6, and the FBI. She...
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May 3, 2021
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 5/3/21 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to The Princess Diarist, Carrie Fisher's memoir focused on the early Star Wars years (and,...
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Mar 12, 2021
Six Books about Brave Female Spies
Tough women, secrets and smarts, and sneaky spying! I love a peek at a secret world, and each of these books offers that very thing. Only...
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Mar 1, 2021
Review of Machinehood by S.B. Divya
Space! Robots! Artificial intelligence! Divya has crafted strong female main protagonists who navigate the sometimes dark, always...
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Feb 19, 2021
Six Great Stories about Brave Women During World War II
01 The Skylark's Secret by Fiona Valpy The Skylark's Secret has a dual timeline; the story is set in rural Scotland during World War II...
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Dec 18, 2020
Six Historical Fiction Books I Loved in the Past Year
01 The Huntress by Kate Quinn I'm in for World War II-set books with tough, brave female protagonists, and I loved this book. Nina...
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Dec 8, 2020
Review of The Course of All Treasons: An Elizabethan Spy Mystery by Suzanne M. Wolfe
Nick is an appealing character, I adored the detailed setting, and the mystery's resolution makes sense without seeming too easy. I'm...