2022: a strong historical fiction to round out the year

After telling my mother that I had just finished reading [b:The Rose Code|53914938|The Rose Code|Kate Quinn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1596553679l/53914938._SX50_.jpg|75123985], she said oh that's so funny, I just started reading another book by that author, The Alice Network. Luckily, this novel came in on Libby, and so I scrambled to add this to my plate so that we could do a bit of a buddy read together. Otherwise, I might not have jumped back into a Quinn novel as soon as I did with this one.

This book was good, and I probably would have loved it more if there was a little more separation in between me reading this one and having just finished The Rose Code. I was not as interested in this storyline; the excitement of Bletchley Park was nowhere to be found. Eve and Charlie were great heroines and I definitely could identify with both of them.

However, the Charlie storyline was so BORING in comparison to what was going on in Eve's life! I definitely would have enjoyed an entire book of just what Eve was up to. It was almost jarring to switch back to the later years, which of course were still dramatic, but I just did not care about. The WWI story was so engaging. It also had a much better villain than Rose Code did (I mean, I know that the Nazis were the bad guys and they were pretty compelling villains) but this guy was pure evil. I was utterly disturbed and felt sick during the climatic scene with him and Eve.