Review: One Woman’s War

I love World War II spy stories. This is not a secret. I love a lot of spy stories, to be honest. So, naturally, I was interested when I heard about One Woman’s War by Christine Wells. It had WWII, it had spies, it had Ian Fleming, and it had Operation Mincemeat. I was sold. And, happily, it was a great read!

Here’s the book’s description:

World War II London: When Victoire "Paddy" Bennett first walks into the Admiralty's Room 39, home to the Intelligence Division, all the bright and lively young woman expects is a secretarial position to the charismatic Commander Ian Fleming. But soon her job is so much more, and when Fleming proposes a daring plot to deceive the Germans about Allied invasion plans he requests the newlywed Paddy's help. She jumps at the chance to work as an agent in the field, even after the operation begins to affect her marriage. But could doing her duty for King and country come at too great a cost?
Socialite Friedl Stöttinger is a beautiful Austrian double agent determined to survive in wartime England, which means working for MI-5, investigating fifth column activity among the British elite at parties and nightclubs. But Friedl has a secret--some years before, she agreed to work for German Intelligence and spy on the British. When her intelligence work becomes fraught with danger, she must choose whether to remain loyal to the British and risk torture and execution by the Nazis, or betray thousands of men to their deaths.
Soon, the lives of these two extraordinarily brave women will collide, as each travels down a road of deception and danger leading to one of the greatest battles of World War II.

Paddy is considered to be one of the women who inspired Ian Fleming’s character Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond series. When I heard that, I was so intrigued. I knew Fleming had pulled a lot from his own war experience to inspire Bond and it made me curious to get to know one of the women who kept Bond in line (or tried to, at least). As with most historical fiction, Wells did take a few liberties with Paddy’s character but she explains that in the detailed notes at the end of the book. I know I’m reading fiction but I admit I get totally swept up in the story and sometimes forget that what I’m reading may not have actually happened in that manner.

Reading more about Operation Mincemeat and seeing how Wells interpreted it was really interesting. If you don’t know anything about this plan, I highly recommend reading up on it and watching the movie of the same name on Netflix (which is, in turn, based on a non-fiction book with the same name). The lengths the Allies went through to trick the Nazis is bonkers and the fact that this operation actually worked is totally mind-boggling. I love it so much.

Wells lost me a bit with Friedl. I didn’t really care about her part of the story and I didn’t really see how it connected with what was happening to Paddy and those in her storyline. I’m finding that more and more historical fiction novels are trying to connect more than one character together when they really don’t need to be and most of them are not done all that well. I’m not sure why that is but it’s something I’ve noticed - and you all know I read a lot of historical fiction!

One Woman’s War was fascinating and Christine Wells’ novel kept me entertained throughout. My favourite WWII historical fiction tale? No, but it was still a great read and one that helped me understand what it would have been like during the war just a little bit more.

*An ARC of this novel was provided by the publisher, HarperCollins Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*