Book 25 - Dashing, Daring, Darling Heroes

Title: The Alice Network

Author: Kate Quinn

Genre: Historical spy adventure

THIS. BOOK.

Sometimes you stumble upon a story that makes you believe that life is more than just millions of instances of random chance; the planets align, the cosmos are listening, and THIS BOOK falls into your lap.

Am I overreacting? Maybe. Did I enjoy this book? HECK. YES.

ONE MILLION TIMES HECK YAAAAS.

We follow the perspectives of two very different but STRONG AF women as they both feel the effects of war. Badass Woman #1, Charlie St. Clair is trying to find her favourite cousin in 1947 with the help of BW #2, Eve Gardiner, a cantankerous former spy whose story is told intermittently in the third person. Usually I'm not much for historical fiction because, well, I'm not a history buff by a long shot, and the name dropping/contextual cues fly completely over my head - but this tale is absolutely character-driven and so totally engrossing that I missed my bus stop and was ten minutes late to work. The baddie is luxuriously terrible in his stillness and laser purpose, and the women are brave and flawed and wunderbar.

The writing is perhaps not period appropriate (some of the reviews I read scoffed at how Charlie's ideals and manner of speaking are way out of place for the 1940s), but I think the selective modernization just makes the book more readable and the characters more relatable. I was also pleased with how everything wraps up: we don't get the perfect happy ending, but we do see enough of one to be sated.

Rating: 🚗🚗🚗🚗🚗/5

PS...

I found this book through the @subwaybookreview. You should follow them!