The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
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Web ID: 1262193455 reviews
Not to be missed
Follow the lives, losses, loves and triumphs of three very different women serving as code breakers at Bletchley Park in England 1940. It is a race to find the traitor among the workers.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Best book I’ve read in a long time
This is now one of my top 10 favorite books. I loved everything about this book. It is a must read.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Solid Historical Fiction
Kate Quinn has a knack for historical fiction novels with a taste of thriller. I barreled through the last 100 pages and found great satisfaction in the mix of fiction and actual events. A good read.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Satisfying page-turner on WWII women codebreakers
Women were the backbone of the UK’s code-breaking strategy in World War II. Sufficient time has passed for the secret codebreakers to be made public, giving this story a chance to be told. Women—from all levels of society—poured into opportunities to do their patriotic part during this horrific war. THE ROSE CODE brings these events to life through three fictional female characters who are based on real people: Osla (an heiress), Mab (from the back streets of London) and Beth (a brilliant mind, trapped in a terrible home life). The book’s intertwining of their stories has two timelines–one during the tense codebreaking years, the other in 1947 when we learn the friends are now estranged. Between the interlocking timelines the reader has the fun of figuring out what events occurred and why and who to believe. I loved how author Quinn captured the worldview of the 1940s through setting, dialogue and perspectives. Deeply-researched, beautifully written, this is a terrific book for book club discussions and a long-delayed acknowledgement of women’s accomplishments and contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany. Repost of review on goodreads.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Worth the restart
I really like historical fiction, but I had a difficult time getting into this book. I started it and put it down while I read another book. I was waiting on an order of the next book to arrive so I picked up The Rose Code again. I am soooooo very glad I did. Such a good story and kept me interested wanting to know what was happening next. Highly recommend.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Good story!
If you are interested in German code cracking, Bletchley and Turing et al, this is not your book. Nonetheless, it is a good story, even if a bit of a romance novel. Mostly about the lives of three women working on crypto during WWII, and based on actual folks. Several reviews have praised the ending, but i thought it was so so. Still a good book.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Interesting Story with Flawed Pacing
Four stars is a bit of a gift. 3.5 would be more on target. Despite all the attention this book is receiving, I found it too long at 656 pages. THE ROSE CODE has a lot going for it. It’s World War II era historical fiction about skilled British citizens recruited to a remote mansion to try to break enemy codes. Their top secret efforts (with people like Alan Turing and Ian Fleming) and ultimate success breaking the enigma machine played a big role in the eventual Allied victory. Sounds good, right? Like many contemporary historical novels, this one takes place in two time periods. It begins in 1947, days before the wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Prince Phillip of Greece, with an entire country joyfully celebrating, especially following seven dark years of war, bombings, death, and rationing. Beth Finch, confined to a mental hospital, sends out a desperate plea for help to two former friends. • One is upper-class Canadian Osla Kendall, who also happens to be Prince Phillip’s former girlfriend. • The second is Mab Churt, a working class woman with secrets who has recently married and produced twins. Though these three women are now estranged, they are still strangely bound by the secret war-time work they did together at Bletchley Park. Through flashbacks we spend most of the first half of the book earlier in the 1940s learning about their home lives, war work (with its rampant sexism), quirky co-workers, romances, and suspicions about who can be trusted and who can’t. But while this part of the book focused on critical intelligence work, I found the pace of the story beginning to slow (maybe too much detail about the ways codes were actually analyzed and broken), even becoming tedious. So much so that I nearly gave the book up. Then about 60% of the way through the book, the pace dramatically picks up. Is there a traitor at Bletchley Park? After swearing a government oath of secrecy, can these three women still share bits of information with each other? What might happen if they do? What happens when they don’t? Once the war ends, the book then returns to 1947 and picks up again with Beth’s plea for help, with events leading to an increasingly suspenseful finish. I do recommend the book for those, like me, fascinated with World War II and interested in gaining a glimpse into those sometimes strange individuals whose unique intelligence helped win a war.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Couldn't put it down.
The book started off a bit slowly, but very soon it became engaging. It was one of those books I wished would never end.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com