A novel take on the female war effort during WWII.
I always do my reviews in a sort of pros and cons kind of way - detailing the things I liked and the things I disliked. Based on those lists, I give an overall judgement. This novel was hard for me to do that with, because even though the cons list is actually the longest, I didn't dislike this book at all. I actually rather enjoyed it. And I can't really put my finger on why. But maybe I don't have to. Maybe I should just find pleasure in the simple fact, that I read a nice book 🤷♀️
👍 What I Liked 👍
SOE and decoys: The central theme of this book is that of the female decoys employed by the SOE (Special Operations Executive) in Britain. Here, young women were trained to test male spies' loyalty and discretion, to ascertain whether they were fit for the trials ahead. Of course, these women were themselves working under cover, and where therefore also spies. I found it very interesting to get an insight (however, not a totally accurate one) into this female war effort, that I had had no knowledge of beforehand.
👎 What I Disliked 👎
Drive: While reading this book I found the drive of the plot to be kind of lacking, mainly because the purpose of the book was shrouded - was it a self-discovery book? A there-and-back again book? A war book? A romance? I couldn't really figure it out and it bothered me.
Esme: Our main character Esme was not a character I could really like, sadly. She didn't do anything very offensive or anything, she was just a bit shallow in many ways. Also, I disliked many of her decisions and couldn't follow her reasoning for them. She seemed a bit vapid at times.
Ending: I will not spoil the ending for you here. All I will say is that it felt like a letdown. It didn't do the rest of the book justice. I was very disappointed.
Read it if you like: female spies, women during WWII, second chances
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review