Of the many WW2 books I’ve read, this is only the 2nd that takes a look at Lisbon, Portugal during that time and how important it was to get refugees in and out of France or other countries. I loved the look at such a different location and environment as well as how a librarian in the OSS was involved there.

I’ve also never heard about the printing of the newspapers by the resistance either to get the truth and updates out, so that was a great new aspect. Such immensely brave people and their stories were intricately told in the book, explaining how brutal an unforgiving their role was.

It was odd how the title was Librarian Spy - I wouldn’t consider Ava a spy just because she was looking at intel to photograph it. It was just not the story I thought I was going to read based on the title. I enjoyed it, for sure, but it felt a little misleading by the end - it’s just not what I expected going into it so I kept waiting for it to branch into espionage that never came up. Also, at the time I’m reading it, whoever edited this missed so many typos and grammar mistakes…