Madame Fourcade's Secret War

Madame Fourcade's Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler- Lynne Olson
Random House 
Release Date: March 5, 2019

Rating:
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Synopsis: In 1941 a thirty-one-year-old Frenchwoman, a young mother born to privilege and known for her beauty and glamour, became the leader of a vast intelligence organization—the only woman to serve as a chef de résistance during the war. Strong-willed, independent, and a lifelong rebel against her country’s conservative, patriarchal society, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was temperamentally made for the job. Her group’s name was Alliance, but the Gestapo dubbed it Noah’s Ark because its agents used the names of animals as their aliases. The name Marie-Madeleine chose for herself was Hedgehog: a tough little animal, unthreatening in appearance, that, as a colleague of hers put it, “even a lion would hesitate to bite.”

No other French spy network lasted as long or supplied as much crucial intelligence—including providing American and British military commanders with a 55-foot-long map of the beaches and roads on which the Allies would land on D-Day—as Alliance. The Gestapo pursued them relentlessly, capturing, torturing, and executing hundreds of its three thousand agents, including Fourcade’s own lover and many of her key spies. Although Fourcade, the mother of two young children, moved her headquarters every few weeks, constantly changing her hair color, clothing, and identity, she was captured twice by the Nazis. Both times she managed to escape—once by slipping naked through the bars of her jail cell—and continued to hold her network together even as it repeatedly threatened to crumble around her.

Now, in this dramatic account of the war that split France in two and forced its people to live side by side with their hated German occupiers, Lynne Olson tells the fascinating story of a woman who stood up for her nation, her fellow citizens, and herself

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Author Lynne Olson (Last Hope Island) specializes in bringing to life little known aspects of some of history's most powerful moments and Madame Fourcade's Secret War is a stellar addition.  Marie-Madeleine Fourcade is a young woman who rebelled against not only the Nazis but also the generally accepted role of women as second class citizens to become a major part of French resistance movement during World War II.  Fourcade's resistance network, Alliance, was the largest and most successful operation during German occupation of France and worked closely with MI6 during the entire war, attempting to stay out of politics and focus on freeing France at a time when so many other groups (both British and French) fought as hard against each other as they did against the Germans.

Fourcade recruited men and women from all parts of France and all walks of life into Alliance, which the Gestapo called Noah's Ark because all the members used the codenames of animals.  Olson is able to recreate the very human elements of this time- from the early days of occupied Paris to the heartbreaking final months of the war.  The reader feels Fourcade's triumphs, stresses, joys and sorrows as the spymaster known as "Hedgehog" tried to keep her people safely out of German hands.  We learn the little known stories of agents who risked their lives to deliver detailed maps and crucial information to MI6- including much of the information that made the Allies D-Day landing on Normandy possible.

Marie-Madeleine Fourcade might have been tailor made for the starring role in a new Hollywood spy movie or best-selling novel.  But Lynne Olson has once again proven that history can be just as fascinating as fiction.  Her clean, vibrant writing style adds no frills to a story that needs no embellishment.  Her research and attention to detail mean that events speak for themselves and the reader can't help but be swept along on Fourcade;s fight for freedom.

A must-read for history lovers!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Beast's Heart

The Beast's Heart-Leife Shallcross
Ace
Release Date: February 12, 2019

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: I am neither monster nor man—yet I am both.

I am the Beast.

He is a broken, wild thing, his heart’s nature exposed by his beastly form. Long ago cursed with a wretched existence, the Beast prowls the dusty hallways of his ruined château with only magical, unseen servants to keep him company—until a weary traveler disturbs his isolation.

Bewitched by the man’s dreams of his beautiful daughter, the Beast devises a plan to lure her to the château. There, Isabeau courageously exchanges her father’s life for her own and agrees to remain with the Beast for a year. But even as their time together weaves its own spell, the Beast finds winning Isabeau’s love is only the first impossible step in breaking free from the curse . . .

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Beauty and the Beast is one of my all time favorite fairy tales.  I love reading new variations on the tale as old as time- whether it is in 14th century France, Regency England, or a science fiction adventure far in the future- and watching the heart of the story remain.  Because the heart of the story is one we seem to need to be constantly reminded of: no matter what you look like on the outside, no matter the cold or selfish person you once were, it is always possible to discover the good person inside yourself and change.  It is always possible that someone can see who you are and love you for it, no matter what.

The Beast's Heart, the first published novel by Leife Shallcross, returns to the original fairy tale and gives us the Beast's version of it.  He wanders the forests for over a century as more animal than man before being drawn back to his (once grand) chateau.  As he begins to try and become a man again, magic returns the chateau to its former spender and invisible servants assist the Beast.  But he is lonely and when a lost traveler stumbles onto the chateau, the Beast sees an opportunity.  We all know (or do we?) what happens next: the man's youngest daughter trades a year of her life for her father's freedom, the Beast falls in love with her, and if Isabeau will fall in love and agree to marry him the curse will be broken.  

I enjoyed seeing through the eyes of the Beast and watching him come to understand not only why he was cursed in the first place, but what true love is.  Weaving in the stories of Isabeau's two sisters as they find their places in small village life and discover love of their own kept the pace strong and was an excellent way to bring in new characters, conflicts, and plot twists. 

 But one of the things that I loved the most, and stood out so strongly to me, was the writing.  The writing and language in The Beast's Heart was wonderfully well done and made me feel like I was entering a truly magical fairy tale each time I picked the book up. Shades of Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters mix with original, classic fairy tales to create something both highly original and completely classic at the same time.

This is a must-read for fairy tale lovers, those who love new versions of fairy tales, romance readers, and will become a classic go-to read for adults and children alike.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Black Leopard Red Wolf

Black Leopard, Red Wolf- Marlon James
Riverhead Books/Penguin Group
Release Date: February 5, 2019

Rating:
📚📚

Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

Synopsis: Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: "He has a nose," people say. Engaged to track down a mysterious boy who disappeared three years earlier, Tracker breaks his own rule of always working alone when he finds himself part of a group that comes together to search for the boy. The band is a hodgepodge, full of unusual characters with secrets of their own, including a shape-shifting man-animal known as Leopard.

As Tracker follows the boy's scent--from one ancient city to another; into dense forests and across deep rivers--he and the band are set upon by creatures intent on destroying them. As he struggles to survive, Tracker starts to wonder: Who, really, is this boy? Why has he been missing for so long? Why do so many people want to keep Tracker from finding him? And perhaps the most important questions of all: Who is telling the truth, and who is lying?

Drawing from African history and mythology and his own rich imagination, Marlon James has written a novel unlike anything that's come before it: a saga of breathtaking adventure that's also an ambitious, involving read. Defying categorization and full of unforgettable characters, Black Leopard, Red Wolf is both surprising and profound as it explores the fundamentals of truth, the limits of power, and our need to understand them both.

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I love fantasy and was excited to try this book- it had all the makings of a classic fantasy epic.  A group of misfits, each with their own special skill, trying to work together to find a kidnapped child who seems to be important to warring groups of royals.  African history and mythology coming to life as our group crosses the land and fights demons, vampires, magic, and each other. 

It took me about one hundred pages to start getting into Black Leopard, Red Wolf.  The writing style took a lot of getting used to, not just because it is told as if the narrator is telling stories, but because he jumps around.  There's no chronological order, we don't really meet characters as much as they just appear, and things are rarely explained or described.  When Tracker finally gets to telling us the story of him getting paid to join up with a group searching for a child who was kidnapped three years ago, the pace picks up and the story gets (mostly) easier to follow.  We still don't really know who any of the characters are, or why they are doing anything.  We get a lot of stories to explain why things happen and who people are but it's also understood pretty much up front that at least half of what anyone says will be a lie.  The end result being I didn't have much of an emotional connection to any of the characters and liked them even less- including Tracker, who despite being our narrator isn't likable but instead is mostly an arrogant, misogynistic jerk even to the few characters who try to get along with him.

Pages of descriptions still left me with no image in my head of what I was supposed to be seeing during the traveling, many of the magical beings met along the way got no description because Tracker assumes we know what he's talking about.  But let it come to killing something/one, rape, torture, or any other horrible thing and don't worry- those episodes get described in such minute detail you can smell the blood and guts.  

There were times when I enjoyed the story-telling narrative, when it reminded me of The Odyssey as Homer describes travels and magics and wonders.  But more often the technical aspects of the book were distracting and what I ended up focusing on more than the story.  If it had been a more 'conventional' narrative, would I have liked the book better?  No, I don't think so. Basically it comes down the fact that this was a raw, gritty, dark fantasy and I am not a fan of dark fantasy.  I can handle violence is small doses but Red Wolf gives us huge overdoses.  Friends become enemies, enemies fight as allies, and it is jarring each time because we only get the story of 'why' afterwards.  Far before we get to the end we find ourselves asking what the point of all of it was.  Maybe that is the point, maybe the book is meant to be a philosophical questioning of who we are and what is truth and why do people do anything.  But when I end a book asking myself "This is how it ended? What was the point of this?" it's pretty certain I'm not going to read the rest of the series to find out out.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf is 600 pages of raw violence, betrayal, rape, gang rape, torture, and killing surrounding a quest you're never sure the point of.  The technicalities of the writing probably mean some people will love it and others will hate it.  Those who enjoy dark fantasy may like the story, but readers hoping for something lighter, uplifting, or positive should probably steer clear of this one.   I rather wish I had. 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review