The Alice Network

Author: Kate Quinn
Genre: Historical Fiction (WWII)
Type: Trade Paperback
Pages: 494
Source: Personal Copy
Publisher: William Morrow (Harper Collins)
First Published: June 6, 2017
First Line: "May 1947 - Southampton: The first person I met in England was a hallucination."

Book Description from GoodReads: In an enthralling new historical novel from national bestselling author Kate Quinn, two women—a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947—are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.

1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She's also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie's parents banish her to Europe to have her "little problem" taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.

1915. A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she's recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she's trained by the mesmerizing Lili, the "Queen of Spies", who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy's nose.

Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn't heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth...no matter where it leads.

My Rating: 3.5 stars

My Review: The Alice Network falls into the 'I liked it but didn't love it' category. I can see why heaps of people wax poetic about this book, but I found it to be longer than it needed to be with one perspective overshadowing the other.

The story is told in two different eras using two perspectives -- Eve, a WWI spy in France and Charlie, a young American socialite in the aftermath of WWII. Eve's story line from her time as a spy was interesting and at times hard to read. But it was Charlie's part of the story that failed to hold my interest. Her story took time away from Eve's and that would normally be okay, but her part of the book had a whole different feel. Gone were the energy and danger of Eve's life as a spy, leaving readers with Charlie's POV with its trite dialogue, Charlie's immaturity and a cliched romance. The saving grace in Charlie's story was elderly Eve's caustic comments.

The era and the subject matter (female spies in World War I) will remind readers of Kristin Hannah's book, The Nightingale, which also focused on the bravery and sacrifices women made during the World Wars, even though they are often left out of historical texts.

I enjoyed this book which highlights one of the roles women played in the war effort, their bravery as well as their lack of rights and recognition. I applaud Quinn for including some real-life French war heroes and events in her story, but overall, The Alice Network was a lighter read and lacked the grit and emotion I come to expect from a book centred around a war.