My Review:

I loved it!

Once I started reading and became invested in these wonderful characters and the suspenseful plot, I simply had to keep on reading…

This took over my day and I set aside chores, appointments and anything else that was causing me to have to put this book down.  It did take a few chapters to get settled into it, then it was easy sailing all the way to the end.  A week later, I’m still thinking of these “girls”.

The author does a wonderful job of characterization and I felt that I almost knew some of these women. It is well researched fictional story, although some events were based on fact.  She includes some fascinating notes at the end of the novel.

Two timelines alternate between New York in 1946 and France in 1944 to tell the story of some women who were recruited and trained to help the resistance in WWII.  There were moments that I was on the edge of my seat and holding my breath with worry. There are some surprises and some nail biting moments.  The SS Nazi police literally made my heart race. Just the mention of them lurking around gave me chills.

Full of heart, surprise, love, friendship and betrayal. I adored this book.  Fans of historical fiction with some depth, won’t want to miss this gem!

Book Description:

From the author of the runaway bestseller The Orphan’s Talecomes a remarkable story of friendship and courage centered around three women and a ring of female spies during World War II.

1946, Manhattan

Grace Healey is rebuilding her life after losing her husband during the war. One morning while passing through Grand Central Terminal on her way to work, she finds an abandoned suitcase tucked beneath a bench. Unable to resist her own curiosity, Grace opens the suitcase, where she discovers a dozen photographs—each of a different woman. In a moment of impulse, Grace takes the photographs and quickly leaves the station.

Grace soon learns that the suitcase belonged to a woman named Eleanor Trigg, leader of a ring of female secret agents who were deployed out of London during the war. Twelve of these women were sent to Occupied Europe as couriers and radio operators to aid the resistance, but they never returned home, their fates a mystery. Setting out to learn the truth behind the women in the photographs, Grace finds herself drawn to a young mother turned agent named Marie, whose daring mission overseas reveals a remarkable story of friendship, valor and betrayal.

Vividly rendered and inspired by true events, New York Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff shines a light on the incredible heroics of the brave women of the war, and weaves a mesmerizing tale of courage, sisterhood and the great strength of women to survive in the hardest of circumstances