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Code Name Hélène by Ariel Lawhon

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By BSS
"I don’t see why we women should just wave our men a proud goodbye and then knit them balaclavas."

Nancy Wake


I've been anxiously awaiting Ariel Lawhon's latest book since last year. After reading and enjoying her three previous historical fiction novels, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this one.  Let me tell you, I was not disapointed!

In this book, Lawhon tells the story of Nancy Wake, a nurse and journalist from New Zealand who came to live in France before World War II. Through her work as a journalist, she had witnessed horrifying acts of violence committed by Nazis.  She eventually met and married a Frenchman named Henri Fiocca.  When the war broke out, she began working with the French Resistance and eventually had to flee over the Pyrenees mountains into Spain, then to Great Britain where she trained with the Special Operations Executive (SOE).  She was then parachuted back into France where she continued working against the Nazis until the end of the war. The story is so compelling that it is hard to believe that it is based on a real woman.  Nancy was absolutely a fantastic and fearless woman who came to be known by the Nazis as the "white mouse."  At one point during her work, she killed a Nazi guard with her bare hands.  Yes, girl!

I loved that the story went back and forth between different time periods and Nancy's different aliases.  It added quite a lot to the suspense of the story.  Some reviewers mentioned being put off by the romantic aspect of the story, but I think it added to Nancy's humanity.   
 
I loved this book so much and had to do my own research on Nancy after finishing it.  She's the kind of woman I want to be when I grow up, ha!  


Read-a-likes:

The Alice Network and The Huntress by Kate Quinn
The Code Name Verity books and A Thousand Sisters by Elizabeth Wein
Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini
Dragonfly by Leila Meacham
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
From Sand and Ash by Amy Harmon
Along the Broken Bay by Flora Solomon
Once Night Falls by Roland Merullo
Lilac Girls and Lost Roses by Martha Hall Kelly
White Rose, Black Forest by Eoin Dempsey

A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell
Code Girls by Liza Mundy
 


My Life, from {Army} Brat to Wife

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