Kate Quinn

Book Review: The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

Posted on by Libby Price

I am not normally one for historic novels – I’m the same with historic TV series (apart from Downton!) however I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Kate Quinn‘s previous books, and so had requested a copy of The Diamond Eye from Net Galley. However, it had slipped down my TBR pile for months (over a year in fact) – but I recently remembered it was there and devoured it! Here’s the blurb:

“In the snowbound city of Kiev, aspiring historian Mila Pavlichenko’s life revolves around her young son – until Hitler’s invasion of Russia changes everything. Suddenly, she and her friends must take up arms to save their country from the Fuhrer’s destruction.
Handed a rifle, Mila discovers a gift – and months of blood, sweat and tears turn the young woman into a deadly sniper: the most lethal hunter of Nazis.
Yet success is bittersweet. Mila is torn from the battlefields of the eastern front and sent to America while the war still rages. There, she finds an unexpected ally in First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and an unexpected promise of a different future.
But when an old enemy from Mila’s past joins forces with a terrifying new foe, she finds herself in the deadliest duel of her life.
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.”

As with Kate Quinn’s previous (and subsequent!) books this is exquisitely written and incredibly informative as well as being a thoroughly enjoyable novel. Whilst it is ‘fiction’ it is based on a real person – and I think knowing that makes the storyline even more interesting (although obviously I’ve been Googling subsequently to see just how much artistic licence has been taken!)

You are rooting for Mila from the start – initially a young mother, estranged from her son’s father – but then throughout the war and her role as a sniper. Whilst she is fighting for Russia – she is technically Ukrainian – which obviously given current world events puts a different angle on it too.

Some of the storyline is bleak – but then it is during a war, and so that’s not a huge surprise. But there are elements of love and laughter too. And Mila’s love for her son shines through the storyline throughout.

Overall it was a wonderful book which I thoroughly enjoyed – I think Kate Quinn is always going to be an author I read everything she writes going forward.

Book Review: The Briar Club by Kate Quinn

Posted on by Libby Price

Having loved Kate Quinn’s previous book, The Rose Code, I was delighted to be offered an advance review copy of her latest book, The Briar Club. (Whilst it was advance to me, my reading has been a little slow, so it’s already out – but that means I won’t be tempting you too far in advance if you like the sound of it!)

“Washington, DC, 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic room, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendship: poised English beauty Fliss, whose facade of perfect wife and mother covers gaping inner wounds; policeman’s daughter Nora, who finds herself entangled with a shadowy gangster; frustrated baseball star Beatrice, whose career has come to an end along with the women’s baseball league of WWII; and poisonous, gung-ho Arlene, who has thrown herself into McCarthy’s Red Scare. Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. When a shocking act of violence tears the house apart, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: who is the true enemy in their midst?
Capturing the paranoia of the McCarthy era and evoking the changing roles for women in postwar America, The Briar Club is an intimate and thrilling novel of secrets and loyalty put to the test.”

The book is set in Washington DC – and that in itself was great, as it meant I could reminisce about a trip with my husband a few years ago (which was back when my blogs weren’t all just book reviews!) It’s Thanksgiving 1954 and someone has been murdered in the top floor room – and the house itself is telling the story. Each chapter than covers what’s happened in the last 4 years, from the point of view of the family who own the house and then each of the residents in turn. The chapters stand alone as a story of an individual – and all included a recipe for that person and a song to listen to when enjoying the food – it was really clever and special.

The house then gives a few more clues as to what atrocity has just happened all cleverly linked to the back story you’ve just read. Each of the stories intertwines amazingly – and despite being a huge pedantic geek I didn’t spot a single inconsistency (well done Kate Quinn and your editor!)

Some of the characters are more likeable than others – but they make for a rich tapestry of a book. It also taught me quite a lot about that era that I didn’t already know.

I don’t want to give any spoilers – but it is brilliant! The best book I’ve read in a while that’s for sure. The writing is exquisite, eloquent and evocative – just like Kate Quinn’s previous book. It feels like an awful lot of time, care and research has gone into each of them.

I also adored that the final section, once the story itself is finished, goes through each of the characters and explains who or what they were based on – and how much was fact, fiction – or a mix of the two. I remember at the end of The Rose Code spending lots of time Googling – so this was super helpful. I was also delighted that I’d spotted the ‘Easter Egg’ that one of Fliss’s English relatives was a character in The Rose Code – gold star to me!!

A huge thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for my ARC.

Book Review: The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

Posted on by Libby Price

I came about this book for a strange reason. The author Jill Mansell was asking on Twitter how she could request it on Net Galley as she was desperate to read it – so I hopped on to check it was a normal request and did that – a few weeks later it popped into my Net Galley account! Thankfully it would appear Jill also managed to get a copy – as her comments about it are mentioned on Amazon
‘Immersive, thrilling and packed with wonderful characters…I absolutely loved every page of this incredible book’ Jill Mansell, bestselling author of Maybe This Time

Here’s the blurb (which actually probably wouldn’t have prompted me to request it, as I’m not a historical novel fan. In fact I’m not a historical TV programme watcher either (although I did make an exception for Bridgerton, obvs!)):

“1940, Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire. 
Three very different women are recruited to the mysterious Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. 
Vivacious debutante Osla has the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses – but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, working to translate decoded enemy secrets. Self-made Mab masters the legendary codebreaking machines as she conceals old wounds and the poverty of her East-End London upbringing. And shy local girl Beth is the outsider who trains as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. 
1947, London. 
Seven years after they first meet, on the eve of the royal wedding between Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, disaster threatens. Osla, Mab and Beth are estranged, their friendship torn apart by secrets and betrayal. Yet now they must race against the clock to crack one final code together, before it’s too late, for them and for their country.”

The two timelines run concurrently through the book – initially with Osla and Mab being recruited by Bletchley Park – and then the run up to the Royal Wedding 7 years later. You know that the friends have become estranged – but you don’t know why – and this was really intriguing.

The intertwining of fact and fiction was incredibly clever – from the Royal family itself, to the codebreakers at Bletchley (including the current Duchess of Cambridge’s Grandmother and her twin sister!) and more famous codebreakers like Alan Turing and Dilly Knox. Bletchley Park itself has a starring role which was more exciting for me than it would have been a few months ago, as our construction company is currently doing some work there (not the museum bit – but the other ‘huts’ that have been sold off over the years). I also need to admit to being a bit of a maths geek – so the code breaking itself was also really interesting.

Osla is desperate to prove she’s not ‘just a deb’, whilst Mab wants to better herself and marry well having escaped her East End home. Their friendship and various relationships inside and outside Bletchley Park (BP) are brilliantly explored. The girls take Beth – the daughter of their horrible landlady – under their wing, and despite not being traditionally academic, she’s brilliant at crosswords, and soon she’s working at BP too. Beth has lead a totally sheltered life up until that point – so it’s a real eye opener to her – but she’s a natural.

There is intrigue and mystery in both timelines – and I couldn’t put it down – I really am pleased I got to read this, even if it was for a strange reason. The main characters are all likeable in their own ways, and I was rooting for all 3 girls and lots of the supporting cast.

It twists and turns loads – and the run up to the end is brilliant – some real ‘gasp’ moments that I won’t give away, and didn’t see coming. (I hate book reviews that contain huge spoilers).

I’m now even more keen to go and see the museum at Bletchley Park – and have spent far too much time on the BP website in the last few hours trying to work out which characters in the book were real and which were fiction. And I’ll never quite look at Prince Philip in the same light again either!

A huge thank you to the author and Harper Collins for my advance review copy of this fantastic book.