I had some major problems with this book. Which is a SHAME, because I really wanted to like it.
The central premise is definitely compelling: two lady spies both working for the Allies in WWII meet on a mission and fall in love (or at least lust) while thwarting evil! What's not to love? Well, a lot, as it turns out.
This book tries to be both too small and too big at the same time. It's definitely a novella, which is fine in the sense that the central relationship arc can be easily summed up in one sentence. But the backdrop of the early days of WWII feels far too big as a result--the length of the story doesn't fit the enormity of the historical setting, especially since the information each of the spies is attempting to obtain is hugely significant. The book also suffers from a flaw in its overall POV; the reader obviously knows how WWII ended, but no one in the story could possibly know that. It throws off the whole tension of the story (and my ability to engage with it) when characters in the book are behaving as if they know that the Allies would eventually defeat the Axis powers, which was not at all the case.
This becomes even less excusable when the information the spies obtain is so significant that it would change the entire course of the war, but the book makes no effort to actually demonstrate that it would result in quicker victory for the Allies. If anything, it's entirely likely that the new information could have prolonged or even permanently swung the course of the war in the favor of the Axis powers. The suggested change in history is too serious to be treated so lightly. Alternate histories can be fascinating, but they only work if the author actually works through the potential impact of a change, and this was done so casually in a novella that's clearly not built to tell that kind of alternate history that it made the entire story fall apart for me. It also made it much harder for me to handwave other historical details and moments in the novel which felt suspect to me; suddenly the entire book was clearly just a house of cards, and I didn't want to play anymore.
So in the end, this was a novella with lots of elements I love, and none of the necessary execution to make the actual story work. Bah.
Grade: D
The central premise is definitely compelling: two lady spies both working for the Allies in WWII meet on a mission and fall in love (or at least lust) while thwarting evil! What's not to love? Well, a lot, as it turns out.
This book tries to be both too small and too big at the same time. It's definitely a novella, which is fine in the sense that the central relationship arc can be easily summed up in one sentence. But the backdrop of the early days of WWII feels far too big as a result--the length of the story doesn't fit the enormity of the historical setting, especially since the information each of the spies is attempting to obtain is hugely significant. The book also suffers from a flaw in its overall POV; the reader obviously knows how WWII ended, but no one in the story could possibly know that. It throws off the whole tension of the story (and my ability to engage with it) when characters in the book are behaving as if they know that the Allies would eventually defeat the Axis powers, which was not at all the case.
This becomes even less excusable when the information the spies obtain is so significant that it would change the entire course of the war, but the book makes no effort to actually demonstrate that it would result in quicker victory for the Allies. If anything, it's entirely likely that the new information could have prolonged or even permanently swung the course of the war in the favor of the Axis powers. The suggested change in history is too serious to be treated so lightly. Alternate histories can be fascinating, but they only work if the author actually works through the potential impact of a change, and this was done so casually in a novella that's clearly not built to tell that kind of alternate history that it made the entire story fall apart for me. It also made it much harder for me to handwave other historical details and moments in the novel which felt suspect to me; suddenly the entire book was clearly just a house of cards, and I didn't want to play anymore.
So in the end, this was a novella with lots of elements I love, and none of the necessary execution to make the actual story work. Bah.
Grade: D
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