Beautifully described horrific experience. I loved the honesty and the struggle as well as the constant determination to survive during WW2. Very moving.

This was fascinating. As a mom of a recently diagnosed autistic daughter, this book offered so much context, history, and showed how needed autistic people are in society. So many advances in technology, science, etc, exist because of the differences in their abilities and focus, think, and view the world and things within it. While yes, there are difficulties depending on what impairments each person has, there are also so many benefits.

I felt like this gave me a great sense of historical pieces and footing for all those benefits and positives, as well as helping me make sense of many of the things I’ve heard with all the Autism Speaks agendas I grew up with. That autism isn’t a recent thing nor is it an epidemic. It’s just not been labeled correctly in the past or diagnosed well until recently, and it’s just one of the ways each human being is different.

I’ve read previously about when Eugenics started to take off in the US in the 1920’s but didn’t realize it was still happening in the 60s. Absolutely horrific and insane. The story of Ivy and Mary Ella was heartbreaking but had so many redemptive points with Jane loving and caring for them despite how easy it could have been to keep her head down and do her job. Loved the perspective this gave and the history, as well as the lessons about how sometimes the truth isn’t always on the surface, and how treating people like human beings can give so much dignity and hope.

I enjoyed Ona’s story, as heartbreaking as a story about slavery is. But I wasn’t a huge fan of Tessa’s timeline.

I thought Ona’s was a story of bravery and liked learning the history that is often overlooked with the founding fathers owning slaves. Tessa’s however felt like a giant denial of red flags in her relationship and allowances of control that were frustrating, and then an abrupt revelation and shift with a rather simple resolution. If it was just Ona’s story I would have rated it higher but I just got annoyed with Tessa’s side too much.

The book was just ok to me. I thought the final purpose and intention of the story was certainly good and important, that the way the author laid it out ended up being often not predictable, which I enjoyed. Can’t say it was wholly realistic in a lot of parts tho and there were a number of times it got rather repetitive and rambling which is my biggest reason for the lower rating.

Thanks to Netgallery for the ARC in exchange for my review.

It’s amazing what the real Lewis and Roos did to fight an uphill battle to stop Naziism in the US during WW2, and loved the story of women spying to help. Also crazy the extremes the US took - practically ignoring domestic Nazis and their threats pre-Pearl Harbor and then post, interning anyone who was remotely German or especially Japanese, stripping them of their rights and homes.

The book itself had some great information and I learned a lot about what Southern California looked like during that time. How much the Government became pigeon holed looking at Communism, that really, they’d continue to do for decades, rather than an obvious threat right in front of them. And how, as usual, women were underestimated and therefore perfect options for spying and working undercover.

Some of the dialogue seemed a little forced and unnatural at times, while other times it seems like there is wonderful detail in a scene, and then it jumps to a later scene without a lot of connection or character development. Because of that I never really identified with Veronica or Vi beyond a surface level. It also felt like Veronica lacked some of the stability and backbone someone in a successful spying role would need.

Overall I liked it but it wasn’t quite as gripping as I wanted it to be. Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine alone.