#KateQuinn – Rosepoint Publishing

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn – #AudiobookReview – #ThrowbackThursday

Best Literature & Fiction

Book Blurb:

New York Times and USA Today Bestseller
An NPR’s Best Book of the Year
A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick!
The 2017 Girly Book Club Book of the Year!
A Summer Book Pick from Good Housekeeping, Parade, Library Journal, Goodreads, Liz and Lisa, and BookBub
In this enthralling novel from New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn, two women—a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947—are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.
1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She’s also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie’s parents banish her to Europe to have her “little problem” taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.
1915. A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she’s recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she’s trained by the mesmerizing Lili, the “Queen of Spies”, who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy’s nose.
Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn’t heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth…no matter where it leads.

My Review:

In gobbling up the books written by this author, it was inevitable I would chance on this audiobook. I’ve come to love the heroic women of both WWI and WWII (most read of the latter lately) and figured this would be the same. To a large degree, it was.

Written using the real-life memories of Alice Dubois from WWI, The Alice Network uses her story and expands to include a character of the second world war, Charlie—not a hero—but one looking for her long-lost cousin, Rose.

From a well-to-do family, Charlie is being whisked out of the US to take care of her “little problem” in 1947. She comes to feel she cares more about discovering what happened to Rose than eliminating the problem that appears greatly more her family’s embarrassment than would seem her own. Having frittered her college experience away being a spoiled, immature girl who slept around until it caught up with her, she is suddenly overwhelmed with the feeling she must know what happened when her cousin got caught up during the war years. Now that she is in France, it may be her own chance to find her.

When Charlie escapes the clutches of her mother, she blunders into the home of Eve using the few clues she has. Eve, now a senior and veteran of the Network named after her superior in the war during which she was groomed and proved an exceptional plant in France to spy on the Germans.
Eve’s backstory is revealed slowly when she and Charlie team with Finn, a Scotsman who has been employed by Eve to help her oversee her house and to a large extent herself. She proves a hard-drinking, extremely colorful, and outspoken profane leader as they first find Rose, then proceed to look for the profiteer who so cruelly ended Eve’s war experience.

Yeah, I didn’t like Charlie’s character at all and was at a bit of a loss as to the intensity of emotion regarding her cousin (well, okay—like a sister to her). Eve was twisted, said to experience PTSD, certainly could have been. Her experience was tension-filled and violent.

The conclusion was a bit much, predictable regarding Charlie, but at least satisfying regarding Eve. The book is a long one, but the narrator does a terrific job, and it’s really not too hard to breeze through—especially those chronicles involving Eve.

Am I the last to read or listen to this one? I see it was quite popular and as always with these stories, many disliked as well as appreciated at least the research and the story of the network. Have you already enjoyed this book? Did you love it?

A bit of a departure from my last Kate Quinn, The Diamond Eye, I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: Military Historical Fiction, War Fiction, Espionage Thrillers
Publisher: HarperAudio
ASIN: B06Y4DMCTD
Listening Length: 15 hrs 7 mins
Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld
Publication Date: June 6, 2017
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Alice Network [Amazon]

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

The Author: Kate Quinn is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction. A native of southern California, she attended Boston University where she earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Classical Voice. She has written four novels in the Empress of Rome Saga, and two books in the Italian Renaissance, before turning to the 20th century with “The Alice Network”, “The Huntress,” “The Rose Code,” and “The Diamond Eye.” All have been translated into multiple languages. Kate and her husband now live in San Diego with three rescue dogs.

The Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld is an experienced audiobook narrator and voice-over actress based in New York City. Raised in New Zealand and France, she is highly skilled with accents and dialects, and many of her books have been narrated entirely in accents other than her own. In addition to audiobooks, Saskia’s voice can be heard in animation, video games, and commercials. She attributes her love and understanding of reading books aloud to coming from a large family where audiobooks were the only way to get through car rides without fighting! Visit saskiamaarleveld.com to learn more.

#ThrowbackThursday

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn – #AudiobookReview – #WWIIHistoricalFiction

nominee

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

The New York Times bestselling author of The Rose Code returns with an unforgettable World War II tale of a quiet librarian who becomes history’s deadliest female sniper. Based on a true story.

In the snowbound city of Kiev, wry and bookish history student Mila Pavlichenko organizes her life around her library job and her young son—but Hitler’s invasion of Russia sends her on a different path. Given a rifle and sent to join the fight, Mila must forge herself from studious girl to deadly sniper—a lethal hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death. When news of her three hundredth kill makes her a national heroine, Mila finds herself torn from the bloody battlefields of the eastern front and sent to America on a goodwill tour.

Still reeling from war wounds and devastated by loss, Mila finds herself isolated and lonely in the glittering world of Washington, DC—until an unexpected friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and an even more unexpected connection with a silent fellow sniper offer the possibility of happiness. But when an old enemy from Mila’s past joins forces with a deadly new foe lurking in the shadows, Lady Death finds herself battling her own demons and enemy bullets in the deadliest duel of her life.

Based on a true story, The Diamond Eye is a haunting novel of heroism born of desperation, of a mother who became a soldier, of a woman who found her place in the world and changed the course of history forever.

My Review:

Yes, it’s true that I’ve become a die-hard fan of Kate Quinn’s solidly amazing female historical protagonists—and BONUS—based on true stories!

I always appreciate her notes regarding the extensive and fascinating research into the woman that becomes the legend. And then Kate performs her magic.

In this case, the storyline surrounds the growth of young Mila Pavlichenko from single mother to storied war sniper. Mila carefully strives to be both mother and father to her young son after she splits from a domineering, (mentally) abusive husband. Thinking that a young man should be taught about weapons as a father would do his son, she seeks to learn enough about guns that she can share the respect as well as the skill with him.

But she quickly learns she is good at it.

Very good.

And when war with Hitler finds Russia, she joins the fight—not as a nurse or admin assistant—but as a sniper and is soon known as Lady Death.

While she decries her count, the record of 300 does not go unnoticed, by either her own country or the Nazis. It is decided she might be better (safer) sent with a delegation to the US in an effort to enlist the efforts to set up another front.

The characters are amazing. From Mila to her lovers (the soon-to-be ex, the perfect foil), as well as the snippets of Eleanor Roosevelt. The descriptions of the isolation, the targets, the atmosphere draws you in.

Much of the narrative is posed as fiction and then juxtaposed against a “memoir” that sounds directly from Mila’s pen. The difference in interpretation of the event produces a few lighter moments although this storyline presents a somber telling devoid of much of the humor found in either The Rose Code or The Huntress. I learned as much about war and what women are capable of in this as the former two novels.

I listened to The Huntress in January and was totally sold on this author’s dedication to writing strong and dedicated women warriors. They are gripping and engaging entertainment and I can’t wait until the next one. The narrator is amazing.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: World War II Historical Fiction, War & Military Fiction, War Fiction
Publisher: HarperAudio
ASIN: B09F5312NL
Listening Length: 12 hrs 51 mins
Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld
Publication Date: March 29, 2022
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Diamond Eye [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Kate Quinn is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction. A native of southern California, she attended Boston University where she earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Classical Voice. She has written four novels in the Empress of Rome Saga, and two books in the Italian Renaissance, before turning to the 20th century with “The Alice Network”, “The Huntress,” “The Rose Code,” and “The Diamond Eye.” All have been translated into multiple languages. Kate and her husband now live in San Diego with three rescue dogs.

The Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld is an experienced audiobook narrator and voice-over actress based in New York City. Raised in New Zealand and France, she is highly skilled with accents and dialects, and many of her books have been narrated entirely in accents other than her own. In addition to audiobooks, Saskia’s voice can be heard in animation, video games, and commercials. She attributes her love and understanding of reading books aloud to coming from a large family where audiobooks were the only way to get through car rides without fighting! Visit saskiamaarleveld.com to learn more.

#ThrowbackThursday

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn – #AudiobookReview – #WWIIHistoricalFiction – #TBT – #HarperAudio

Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

The New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of The Huntress and The Alice Network returns with another heart-stopping World War II story of three female code breakers at Bletchley Park and the spy they must root out after the war is over.

The year 1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything – beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses – but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets. Imperious, self-made Mab, product of East End London poverty, works the legendary codebreaking machines as she conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband. Both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. But war, loss, and the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart.

The year 1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter – the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum. A mysterious traitor has emerged from the shadows of their Bletchley Park past, and now Osla, Mab, and Beth must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together. But each petal they remove from the rose code brings danger – and their true enemy – closer….

My Review:

Some books are too long; others you hate to see end. This one fell under the category of the latter.

What an amazing immersion into 1940 Britain starring down the barrel of the impending fight with the Nazis!

From two wildly different backgrounds come Osla; debutante, privileged, and beautiful. She’s had the advantage of having had an exclusive education resulting in the fluency in German that puts her square into the sights of Bletchley Park. From the other side of the tracks, East End London poverty comes Mab who is hiding secrets that left scarring on her soul but not her brain and she is called to work codebreaking machines.

The two, finding a rooming house not far from Bletchley Park, are introduced to Beth—spinster, mousy Beth, kept firmly under her mother’s thumb. But she is brilliant with puzzles and both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential for her work at BP as well. It is her chance to be independent, separate from her mother, discover her worth.

The three bond quickly, each in their own niche, and find the work both incredibly difficult and rewarding at the same time. They are part of something big, monumentally big. They do astonishing work under strict secrecy laws that save a lot of lives and they manage to survive the war, their friendship intact until tragedy strikes.

The storyline splits timelines. It is now 1947 and post-war London finds the three still estranged, each having moved on in their private lives. Only Beth remains tied to the years in Bletchley Park—and she is now three years in an asylum facing a radical surgical procedure that will forever alter her life (and her memory) unless she can find the traitor that lived and worked with them in BP (and is responsible for her admission to the asylum). Osla and Mab are the only persons she can trust, who have knowledge of the conditions, and the people they worked with. She absolutely must convince them to help her.

First, the war time conditions, the rations, the bombs, even the music, and the reader is plunked into the middle of it. The three have the kind of bond somewhat experienced by their male counterparts but the rip between them was extreme. Still, something nags at them regarding the details and they all search their memories for significant moments. What if she’s right and there was a traitor? Is he still active in that position?

Was there a traitor?

The three main characters are intensely engaging and their friendship is enviable. The support characters work well, adding depth to the storyline, cementing a complete vision of the time, the area, and the tension. The well-plotted, paced narrative provides twists, snappy 40s dialogue and sensibilities. It’s complex, swinging between the timeline, and thrilling. The writing is punctuated with expressive prose.

Hooked from the beginning, you’ll find yourself lost in this book to the end. The audiobook is deliciously narrated—each of the characters so well developed—easy to visualize. I also enjoyed the epilogue—the explanation of the characters, both fictional and historical, details about the facility. The author had employed untold hours of research to make it so authentic and the narrator is amazing.

I read The Huntress in January and was totally sold on this author’s dedication to writing strong and dedicated women warriors. They are gripping entertainment.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts. Highly recommended.

Book Details:

Genre: World War II Historical Fiction, War Fiction, War & Military Fiction
Publisher: HarperAudio
ASIN: B089WHV9Y7
Listening Length: 16 hrs 2 mins
Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld
Publication Date: March 9, 2021
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Rose Code [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld is an experienced audiobook narrator and voice-over actress based in New York City. Raised in New Zealand and France, she is highly skilled with accents and dialects, and many of her books have been narrated entirely in accents other than her own. In addition to audiobooks, Saskia’s voice can be heard in animation, video games, and commercials. She attributes her love and understanding of reading books aloud to coming from a large family where audiobooks were the only way to get though car rides without fighting! Visit saskiamaarleveld.com to learn more.

Reading Ireland Month 2023

The Huntress by Kate Quinn – #Audiobook Review – #ThrowbackThursday

Award Nominee

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

From the author of the New York Times and USA Today best-selling novel The Alice Network comes another fascinating historical novel about a battle-haunted English journalist and a Russian female bomber pilot who join forces to track the Huntress, a Nazi war criminal gone to ground in America.

In the aftermath of war, the hunter becomes the hunted….

Bold and fearless, Nina Markova always dreamed of flying. When the Nazis attack the Soviet Union, she risks everything to join the legendary Night Witches, an all-female night bomber regiment wreaking havoc on the invading Germans. When she is stranded behind enemy lines, Nina becomes the prey of a lethal Nazi murderess known as the Huntress, and only Nina’s bravery and cunning will keep her alive.

Transformed by the horrors he witnessed from Omaha Beach to the Nuremberg Trials, British war correspondent Ian Graham has become a Nazi hunter. Yet one target eludes him: a vicious predator known as the Huntress. To find her, the fierce, disciplined investigator joins forces with the only witness to escape the Huntress alive: the brazen, cocksure Nina. But a shared secret could derail their mission unless Ian and Nina force themselves to confront it.

Growing up in post-war Boston, 17-year-old Jordan McBride is determined to become a photographer. When her long-widowed father unexpectedly comes home with a new fiancée, Jordan is thrilled. But there is something disconcerting about the soft-spoken German widow. Certain that danger is lurking, Jordan begins to delve into her new stepmother’s past – only to discover that there are mysteries buried deep in her family…secrets that may threaten all Jordan holds dear.

In this immersive, heart-wrenching story, Kate Quinn illuminates the consequences of war on individual lives, and the price we pay to seek justice and truth.

This audiobook includes an episode of the Book Club Girl Podcast, featuring an interview with Kate Quinn about The Huntress.

My Review:

I was diverted to this novel by a blog buddy who wrote a glowing review of another work by this author. That one not being available at my library (unusual, I know!), I chose this one instead and from the moment I had my earbuds comfortably embedded could find it almost impossible to turn it off for anything. Finally, I didn’t bother, and just sat and listened to it.

This turned out to be one very mind-blowing audiobook, I’m sure in no small part owing to the amazing narrator who slid Russian names off her tongue as easily as German or English.

This masterful work carries a sinister, skin-crawling aura of suspense from the first chapter to the triumphal conclusion. This is a profoundly compulsive read that begins with the story of Nina Markova that gradually evolves into an extremely powerful protagonist—formidable in her staunch unwavering focus, passionate in her role as one of the first Soviet women pilots of WWII known as The Night Witches and extremely profane in expression. Oh, God, she is amazing and I loved every chapter that was hers!

Nina, however, is but one of three main POVs that take turns in chapters devoted to each character and the timeline that evolves over years from the war to 1950s Boston that sees seventeen-year-old Jordan McBride—equally passionate in her exploration of photography goals at a time most young girls were thinking marriage and babies. It is her widowed father who marries a German widow, Annaliese, who brings along a four-year-old daughter, Ruth. Jordan captures a photo of Annaliese that sets her hackles up and fires potent suspicions.

Following the end of the war, Nazi war criminal hunter and British war correspondent Ian Graham is joined by his buddy and Nina in the hunt for die Jagerin, The Huntress—a deliciously disturbing woman who escaped her palatial lakeside estate, site of decadent Nazi retreats.

The pace is frenetic. Each chapter reveals more about the protagonists and the dark Annaliese. Jordan, who knows she captured the real woman behind the façade, Nina with as much incentive to find her as Ian, gradually reveals more about her own harrowing war efforts piloting a plane made of wood and canvas.

This could be a suspense thriller that takes place seventy years ago as much as a historical thriller. It is an incredible narrative that hooks, revs, and speeds to a satisfying conclusion, producing a hugely character-driven story that will reverberate long after you’ve finished the book. Will easily be a memorable favorite that straddles years.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts. Whether or not you like historical fiction, this is intense reading and is heartily recommended.

Book Details:

Genre: World War II Historical Fiction, War & Military Fiction, Espionage Thrillers
Publisher: HarperAudio
ASIN: B07GXZNPSB
Listening Length: 19 hrs 4 mins
Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld
Publication Date: February 26, 2019
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Huntress [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble
Kobo