The Librarian Spy

"9/10 I usually don't pick up spy fiction but this one was really interesting. I recognized alot of factual things in this book from ww2, it'd nice to see the author put in some research. Was totally invested"

"it was a bit of a slow read for me, but i absolutely loved it. the stories were both so moving and made me cry multiple times near the end"

"Two women during the harrowing days of WWII, happenstance would connect them in an unthinkable way. <br/>—<br/>Ava is a gorgeous young educated woman who lives and breathes books working at the Library of Congress. <br/>Given her strengths she is recruiting by US military to Lisbon working as a librarian while gaining intelligence. <br/><br/>In France, Helene finds her husband missing when a woman shows up to her house asking her for papers. Helene decides to give hers to the girl and risk her own life. When her husbands friend tells her he has been taken in by the Nazis as he was apart of the resistance. She immediately wants to help and she has new papers and a new name, Elaine. She finds herself and other members of the resistance working in a printing press passing on coded messages to get out. <br/>Desperate to save the life of a mother and child, she risks her life and her friends life, as she sends a code to London. <br/>—<br/>Going back and forth from each woman, I thought this was a cleverly delivered wwii fiction demonstrating the strength of women through such a deadly time. <br/><br/>Having the audiobook and the physical copy was the winning combo for me, as it contains other languages throughout the book. Saskia Maarleveld narrated it and IMO always elevates historical fiction books. <br/>—<br/>Thank you Hanover Square press, htpbooks, harlequin/Harper audio, NetGalley for my copy to review."

"Historical WWII novel detailing the war efforts of the French Resistance with the character, Elaine, and the spy efforts in neutral Portugal, with the character, Ava. Elaine’s lives in Lyon, France, but when her husband never returns she seeks help from their friends only to learn that he was an important member of the Resistance movement and had been arrested by the Germans. She insists on working for the Resistance and works on printing their newspaper, Combat, which publishes the truth of the German atrocities. Throughout her story, you learn of the poverty of the French citizens at the hands of the Germans and the fear of their life, especially with so many friends being arrested, tortured, and killed. Ava works at the Library of Congress, and is sent to Portugal to use her skills to collect newspapers to learn the truth of the war, to be recorded, and shipped back to the US. Portugal is a place of both Allied and Axis spies and a lot of refugees. Elaine is living in secret and with little food, when she meets a Jewish mother and child, Sarah and Noah, who desperately want to get to America to be reunited with her husband. Elaine sends a coded message in Combat. Ava with the help of a friend, James, realizes there is a code and deciphers it, determined to get the mother and child to America. James risks his life to go to France to retrieve the mother and child, while Ava pesters the American embassy for a visa. Without knowing each other, Elaine and Ava are able to get the mother and child to America. While working in Portugal, Ava fell in love with James, a British citizen, but returned home to America after the war ended. Elaine continues to work for the newspaper, but now tries to reconnect families after the war. When Ava decides to go to London to be with James, she makes a stop in France to meet Elaine. Their stories are rooted in historical truth, so it was interesting to learn about the role of Portugal in the war and the tactics of the Resistance. "

"While it wasn't about what I initially thought it would be, it captured my attention, and the characters stole my heart. Fantastic writing. It kept me on the edge of my seat, turning pages as fast as I could read them. Both sad and happy tears left my eyes while reading this."

"Pros:<br/><br/>Reading these fictional stories about the horrors of World War 2 reminds me how easily hatred can turn into horror and destroy the things we claim to care about most. I wish we had discussed these things more in school and that we had read more than Night and Anne Frank (which will always be important). The stories about the everyday people who did exceptional things to help others need to be revisit and talked about much more often so that people today stop thinking that a single person cannot make a difference.<br/><br/>Cons:<br/><br/>I don’t know if there are any cons other than humans gave us the true history to build the horrors told in this book (and worse)."