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… you love books about bad-ass women, a revenge plot, and/or love stories; enjoy Kate Quinn, Kristin Harmel, Kelly Rimmer, or Georgia Hunter; enjoy dual timeline; are interested in WWII fiction; like stories that flip the traditional gender norms on their head; and/or are intrigued by the fictionalized account of real people.

The most remarkable part of this novel—aside from the incredibly deep research it must have taken to recreate this story—is that the main character, Nancy Wake (a.k.a. Lucienne Carlier, The White Mouse, Madam André, and Hélène), was a real person, and this is based on her real life. She’s strong, she’s feisty, she’s brilliant…and through it all, she remains deeply, empathetically human. She’s gritty and no bullshit, but her witty asides genuinely had me laughing out loud. Many men in that time would have been threatened by her fierce independence, but her husband celebrated it. She was tough-as-nails, but also incredibly loyal, and full of love and empathy that several times broke my heart.

The story itself is miraculous. Nancy is an Australian expat living in Paris (after having bluffed her way into a freelance journalism job) who falls fiercely in love with the wealthy Henri Fiocca at the nearly the same time she falls fiercely in hate with the Nazis, the French collaborators, and everything they all stand for.

Henri goes off to fight, but Nancy can’t sit at home—her ethics and her disposition won’t allow it. She smuggles people and documents, she bribes friends out of prison, she flees France because of a five million franc bounty on her head and trains with the Special Operations Executives in Britain, and she leads the French Resistance on the ground as one of its most powerful leaders (fighting misogyny the whole way, I might add). Through it all, she relied on her signature red lipstick to keep her grounded and connected to herself.

Throughout this story we get to experience Nancy’s romance with Henri as herself, but we also get to live through all of these exploits through her various identities. The story is wonderful—it’s a testament to love and marriage, to friendship (if you’ve read it, her friendship with Hubert, Denden, and Anselm…so beautiful), even to the love of her life—her dog, Picon, while also being a reminder of the truly horrific things human beings can do to each other, and the ways that ordinary people can step in and stand up for what’s right.

The writing is remarkably good, and I appreciate that Lawhon always includes an author’s note with more information about her heroine and her writing and research process. This is a story about love, about sacrifice, about determination, and about staying steady in the face of impossible odds.

A few favorite quotes:

“The thing about lipstick, the reason it’s so powerful, is that it is distracting. Men don’t see the flashes of anger in your eyes or your clenched fists when you wear it. They see a woman, not a warrior, and that gives me the advantage.”

“I absolutely hate having to wear flats just because a man didn’t have the good sense to grow a few inches taller.”

“Love is a choice. It is the active choosing of good for another person. But like? It is a gift and it cannot be forced.”

“I am a devoted fan of the male species. They are brave, brilliant, offer endless entertainment, are good for moving heavy objects, and make the act of procreation a great deal more enjoyable. I’d hate to see a world in which they did not exist. But sometimes they can be spectacular idiots.”

“I am the same but different, and I greet this new reflection with a nod of acceptance. There is metal in my spine and there are fractures in my soul. I resemble Garrow now. I have been changed by war.”

I do want to include one content warning, so please stop here if you prefer no spoilers. Although I found this scene upsetting, given the accurate historical context I didn’t find it at all gratuitous. But reading it did make me deeply sad, and it’s even sadder is that that these things did, in fact, happen.

Content warning: There is a graphic depiction of the death of a pregnant woman and her fetus, though the death itself does not happen on page.

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💵 Although my content is 100% free and I have no plans to change that, if monetary support is your jam, you’ll receive my undying gratitude for supporting my creative work by making a one-time contribution here.

🧠 This essay was written without the use of generative AI, though I do use AI for administrative and marketing tasks like identifying hashtags so I can try and have a few more of you reading my words!

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… you like a deep, soul-level read, magical realism, sweeping (but slow-burn) love stories, enjoyed The Time Travelers Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) or This Time Tomorrow (Emma Straub), love immersive and poetic writing, and/or enjoy a character-driven story with a weighty emotional journey.

Addie LaRue makes a deal with the devil (or the darkness, or the spirit of the night…he’s agnostic about how people think of him) while escaping a marriage she does not want: immortality in exchange for her soul. The problem? As part of the deal she makes with this spirit of dark, he curses her to be forgotten by everyone she meets, and everyone she’s ever known and loved. We get to live through her being completely unknown to lovers in the morning, friends she’s known for years, even her own mother, all while experiencing the culture of the years she’s living through. But centuries later she meets a man in a bookstore and when she sees him again, he remembers her…

This story is incredibly original and beautifully conceived. It’s aching and tragic, yet life affirming; heart-wrenching and beautiful; exceptionally well written without being difficult or slow to read. But the writing also isn’t trying too hard—it doesn’t read as the author tying to sound smart. It reads like a master storyteller with beautiful command of the English language. I am rarely a reader of fantasy and don’t often love magical realism, but I was pulled into Addie’s world addictively from the beginning and believed every word. Addie’s story built organically, accumulating weight as she accumulates years.

Addie is a multi-dimensional character, with very clear flaws but also qualities that make you really want to root for her. She visibly evolves over the course of the book, from naive young girl to wizened and jaded, ultimately happier and more comfortable once she meets the man at the bookstore. She spends centuries searching for meaning and identity, yearning to be known and seen.

On the surface it’s presented as a love story about Addie and the person who finally sees her, but really it’s a love story about Addie and herself. At one point she asks a lover, “Do you think a life has any value if one doesn’t leave some mark upon the world?” And this is what the heart of this novel boils down to—not the love story that holds it, but rather the question of what impressions we make on the world, and how. For Addie, it’s literal since she’s effectively a ghost, invisible to someone as soon as she’s leaves their presence. But it also applies to us mortals, too, and pushed me to think quite a bit about how we leave our mark on others, and what I want my mark to be.

The above quote, extended:

“Do you think a life has any value if one doesn’t leave some mark upon the world?’

Remy’s expression sobers, and he must read the sadness in her voice, because he says, ‘I think there are many ways to matter.’ He plucks the book from his pocket. ‘These are the words of a man—Voltaire. But they are also the hands that set the type. The ink that made it readable, the tree that made the paper. All of them matter, though credit goes only to the name on the cover.’

He has misread her, of course, assumed the question stemmed from a different, more common fear. Still, his words hold weight—though it will be years before Addie discovers just how much.”

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📫 email or text it to a friend, and/or share on social media (please tag me!). Even sending to one person can help me grow my reach.

💵 Although my content is 100% free and I have no plans to change that, if monetary support is your jam, you’ll receive my undying gratitude for supporting my creative work by making a one-time contribution here.