I’m reading Sapphire Line, also about women spies, also historical fiction. It’s hard to read in parts, about cruelties of war.
I found it at the library when I was there to renew Alice Network book and thought the two books a natural pairing.
I loved the book. It is such a shame that women’s roles in history have been so overlooked.
I think that Eve was correct in her wanting Rene dead. The system would never have brought him to justice. Charlie was a bit naive in that regard. (I loved breaking his knuckles.)
I thought that the ending was perfect. Charlie had grown so much in that time. She had the courage to tell her parents exactly what she wanted – because she had a plan. I had understood her parents worry, but she had become her own person, not some extension of her parents.
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I just finished reading Alice Network this morning, twenty minutes before Mary13 posted.
I’m still processing.
Was shocked that so many characters and events were real.
This is an important book, for me, new to the world of female spies during ww1 and 2.
I will remember this book, as a homage to female empowerment, tackling the big issues, sexuality, double standard, abortion, women’s roles in society.
So many scenes were written as Mary13 stated “ like a poorly written romance novel at times”, and this is my conflict.
I rated it a five, readable, strong characters, well drawn, important themes, and history never to be forgotten.
Satisfactory ending, but the epilogue shocked me. So much was true.
Sad, sad, sad journey.
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I really enjoyed it, could’ve done without the love stories, I’m really not a fan and cringed a bit when I saw where it was going.
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On the face of things, it would appear that standards have changed a lot – look at the stats just since 1980:
And there’s little to no stigma in the movies, where unwed mothers are often the protagonists, and “sexpionage” is part of quite a few thrillers.
That said, a lot hasn’t changed. I was reading through some of the Amazon reviews for The Alice Network, and here we are in 2023 – more than 100 years after Eve’s story and 70 years after Charlie’s – and these are some real quotes from today’s reading public:
too much feminist preaching
Abortion, sex, language. Very immoral lead characters who were supposed to be the heroines.
Women characters flawed to the point of disbelief.
I ask, how in good conscience can you, the author, rationalize the endless scenes of young women smoking?
The main character is a total tramp who sleeps with multiple men and doesn’t know the father of her baby. She then makes excuses for her behavior and acts angry when people treat her like a tramp??!! I mean what did she expect?
So yeah, the double standard is alive and well.
I really liked this book. I also cringed at some of the love scenes, but the spy stories, and female spy characters, won me over. I hadn’t read much about the book ahead of time, so I found the information in the epilogue fascinating. I listened to the audible version and agree with @stradmom that the narrator was excellent.
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I liked the book. I’ve read some books with female heroics in WWII. It was interesting to read one with WWI story.
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Thoughts:
I’ve tired of books that alternate chapters, either back-and-forth time periods or characters. At one time it might have been considered innovative but now it seems that every book I pick up does this. That said, Quinn handled it well enough that I forgive her; the story definitely kept my interest, perhaps because Quinn alternated both character (Charlie/Eve) and time period (WWI/WWII) at the same time and tied them together by the end.
@stradmom: “I thought the ending with Charlie and Finn was too facile …” Totally agree.
I also thought Charlie’s fixation on finding her cousin Rose to the point of imagining life together a bit over the top.
Rene makes a great villain.
Eve should never have returned to her job once the Germans captured Lili. No way would word not have spread about the incident.
I had read Quinn’s The Rose Code and like it more than this one.
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Absolutely. In a way, he was Quinn’s best-written character, in that he made my skin crawl with every appearance. (And now I’ll never be able to read any Baudelaire – can cross that one off my bucket list.)
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I will be joining late. DH has some outpatient surgery this morning, and I have to prepare for a presentation in a couple of weeks. And – oh yeah – I have to read the indictment. But I read the book and I have opinions.
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We’ll be here! I hope your DH’s outpatient surgery goes well.
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Although Charlie and Finn’s romance was a bit gooey, it was at least predictable. I mean that in a good way – it followed naturally from the two of them being thrown together for an extended period of time.
However, I didn’t buy the romance between Cameron and Eve for a second. It would have been a more interesting and complex relationship without the physical aspect, which felt forced to me.
Then I read the Author’s Note and found that it was forced. Captain Cameron was a real-life historical figure with the career (and sad ending) as described by Quinn…“though any speculation on my part about…the state of his marriage, or the character of his wife are purely fictionalized for the sake of the story.” Why throw shade on the guy by writing him as a reluctant adulterer? It seemed like an unnecessary add-on.
His story would have made for an interesting book, especially the drama of the (not) stolen pearl necklace: Major Cecil Aylmer Cameron CBE, DSO
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I enjoyed the book overall as well. Also agree with the others that Charlie/Finn was too predictable and felt like a cop out to me for Charlie and the pregnancy story line. I would have also liked to have read a bit more depth about Charlie and her family. There was a disconnect for me with Rose’s importance in Charlie’s life.
I really was fascinated by Eve’s role in the war and ended up reading another book that touched on female spies during the war, although not in as much detail (Whalebone Theater).
I agree with the poster up tread about the how the Eve/Charlie parallels began to converge as the book progressed. By the end I felt that they were very much kindred spirits, a generation apart.
Overall an enjoyable book but not one of my favorites.
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You have touched on one of my pet peeves, as I’ve noted in other discussions. Quinn should have left him as a man Eve admires, even has a crush on. I didn’t quite buy into the seduction scene that takes place between the two, in part due to where it takes place with others in the house definitely aware, i.e., Eve and Cameron’s superior officer.
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Loved The Whalebone Theatre!
The Whalebone Theatre gives the reader both. Note that it takes place in the aftermath of WWI through the aftermath of WWII.
And, yes, I know I just digressed but honestly couldn’t help it.
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I agree with a lot of the comments here. I was fascinated by Eve’s story, and the historical information presented at the end. I loved Lili and Violette. So much to admire about all those complex characters. And Rene made my skin crawl , too, @Mary13, but in a very impressive way! I also have crossed Baudelaire off my bucket list. Overall, the story kept me engaged and I enjoyed it.
Charlie, though, I could have done without altogether, and unfortunately that was half the book! I thought if I read one more “Oh, Rose!” or reference to the “Little Problem” I was going to scream. She hadn’t seen Rose since she was 11, so the endless Rose reveries just emphasized Charlie’s immaturity. She didn’t get along with her parents–but knew they would take care of her “problem.” (I didn’t buy their reconciliation scene at the end for a minute.) She didn’t know what to make of Eve at the beginning–but seemed convinced she’d help. Ending up with Finn was predictable, but not very believable to me. Entitled New York society girl turned mom-running-cafe in rural France with a car mechanic? At least she’s spent time in France and speaks the language, but why Grasse, after the horror of the ending there with Rene? There must be fields of flowers somewhere else. 
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Stopping by to say I read this book back in January, 2020, so my memory of it is a little vague! I “liked” the book, but didn’t “love” it. I really didn’t know anything about The Alice Network, so that part was interesting. IMO the story line was both engaging and a bit too contrived in places, but that’s true for quite a few books.
Oh my gosh - yes!
Coming in late we’re at our cabin in Vermont which has no internet, so I have to go into town to participate and I’ll probably try to pack a lot of thoughts into this post. First @stradmom thanks for the map. The one included in the book was terrible. Why bother to have a map if you are going to leave half the locations out? Inexplicable! (I do remember being confused by the detour to Rouen.)
I found the book a page turner (especially Eve’s chapters), but I regularly got brought up short, by weird stuff that I thought a better editor might have taken care of. Wrong tenses, using “majority” to describe being promoted to major, some way too obvious foreshadowing. The really stupid math scenes/metaphors. (I confess, I didn’t really mind the love scenes!)
While unlike the Goodreaders, I thought it was reasonably believable that Charlie would fall apart after her brother’s suicide. I had a cousin who committed suicide and that whole family ended up in therapy for years and it upended (in perhaps a good way), the life of his little sister who ended up becoming a social worker working with troubled girls. What I found harder to believe is that she was so obsessed with finding a cousin she hadn’t seen since she was eleven or that she wouldn’t just have the abortion first and then pursue Rose (but maybe she felt she wouldn’t escape Paris and her Mom at that point.)
@Mary keep in mind that statistics can be misleading. I remember reading somewhere that it wasn’t so much that there was less teenage sex, or teenage pregancies it was just that people got married at a much younger age. Remember Laura in the Little House books? I think she was barely 16! The difference is that girls (finally) feel a little less pressure to get married if they find themselves pregnant whether they keep the baby or not. I had a roommate who gave up a baby for adoption and then went on to become a minister.
The Eve era characters were great - Rene was a fabulous villain, Lilli and Violette and their relationship was nicely done. I thought the Finn/Cameron parallels felt really forced.
In the end happy to have read this book. If you want to read a really heart-breaking book that touches on women’s experiences during World War One Vera Britain’s autobiography Testament of Youth is wonderful.
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I had the exact same thought, but decided to chalk it up to two things: 1) Finn had already been offered a job in Grasse as a mechanic, and as an ex-con, maybe that was an opportunity he wouldn’t find elsewhere; and 2) They already loved Grasse before the final confrontation with Rene, and there is some validity in “reclaiming” what’s yours after trauma (although I know that’s 21st century thinking in a 20th century context).
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