The Rose Code - Kate Quinn

The Rose Code was chosen for Cover to Cocktails. I read The Alice Network in 2020 and loved it, so when I saw another book by Kate Quinn, I couldn't resist.

The Rose Code is a historical fiction that takes place in WWII. The three main characters are Osla, a beautiful debutante desperate to be taken seriously, Mab, an East-End Londoner coming from a poor background, but determined to make a better life for herself, and Beth, a painfully shy woman still living with her parents, who has always thought she was too dumb to have a life of her own.

The three women are recruited to Bletchley Park, the secret location of the code breakers. It is here that messages from the enemy are decoded and passed on to military officers to help to win the war. Most of the sections at Bletchley Park are separated so no one really knows what the other is doing. And everyone there signs the Official Secrets Act so they can't even speak to each other about what they are doing.

Osla and Mab meet on the train on the way to Bletchley Park and end up billeted together with Beth's family. Eventually Beth gets recruited as well and she ends up being an excellent code breaker. However, Beth can become too caught up in what she is doing and misses things in real life. She also takes her oath so seriously that when she has a chance to save her friends from heartbreak and possible disaster, she doesn't do it.

The three women started out as friends and end up as enemies as the book goes on. Eventually they reunite after the war when Beth, confined in a mental institution, asks her Osla and Mab for help finding the traitor who put her there. The three women reunite and with the help of others from Bletchley Park, take down the traitor.

This was such a wonderful book. The characters were amazing, the story moved quickly, and you couldn't help but root for the three women. The book is based on real women who worked at Bletchley Park during the war. I highly recommend this one!

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