The story itself was pretty good, but I feel like the author got a bit lost in the details. I also had a hard time connecting with the main character.

Speakeasy is the first book in a new series by Alisa Smith. Released 10th April 2018 by Macmillan on their Thomas Dunne imprint, it's 240 pages and available in hardcover and ebook formats.

I really love noir. The premise ticked all the boxes for me. I love the location and time period, and I liked the idea of a strong intelligent female lead who's a codebreaker during WWII. The story itself I found engaging and interesting.

The problems for me were technical in nature. Much of the dialogue was awkward and stilted. The alternating pov and timelines were jarring for me and I found myself having to go back and re-read passages to be sure who was talking. Bill Bagley (the male 'lead' and Lena's former lover) was an abrasive jerk. The author did a lot more 'telling' than 'showing' (a fair bit of the plot elements were provided by characters talking to one another and saying things for the benefit of the reader). Some of the dialogue also seemed anachronistic. If I had 'blind read' the book, I wouldn't have thought that it was a period novel. That might be a plus for readers who don't like period-authentic dialogue and writing, but to me it sometimes felt as though the setting and time period were tacked on stage scenery.

Some of my favorite series have taken a few books to develop and for the authors to really find their voices. I'll give this series another book or two before I make a final assessment.

Three stars, an interesting debut.

I’m embarrassed to say I first received this one as an ARC close to a year ago! Despite being extremely interested, somehow I just never got around to it and, ultimately, my NetGalley copy expired. Determined to (finally!) get through a backlog of NG reviews, I hit up my library once more and tore through this slight novel over a weekend.

Thirty-year-old Lena is making a living as a code-breaker intercepting Japanese messages when a newspaper headline brings her back to her past as part of a gang of bank robbers. Speakeasy is told in two voices (which I initially didn’t realize and for a moment was highly confused): Lena’s during WWII and the diary of Byron in the 30s. By, much like Lena, found himself caught up in the charm of the gang’s charismatic leader, Bill Bagley. I wish I would have enjoyed this one a bit more; both storylines had the potential to be engaging and exciting, but I found myself bored, only turning the pages because I wanted to get to the end, not because I was invested in the characters. The sequel, Doublespeak, comes out later this year and I’m not entirely sure I’ll be picking it up.

It took me longer than usual to read this book. I felt the story was good but it had some parts where it lagged for me. Lena is a person who made decisions when she was younger that can come back to haunt her. The decisions she makes as she is older is confusing. I think to me it was the way the book kept going back and forth and in the en it was just ok for me.



** I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

This was a very hard for me. The alternating chapters made it difficult to understand the plot. The characters were okay. They were not complex enough. Instead, it became a very long novel to get through. I had hoped that this would be like The Alice Network but it was not! I still recommend this to fans who love WWII fiction.

I liked the weaving of the history with the thriller aspects of this novel, and the conflicts that the characters have to resolve.

I really enjoyed this book!! Had no idea what it was really about but it was totally in my wheelhouse. Historical fiction and drama. I was a little confused at first about the alternating narrators since it wasn't labeled but once I got the hang of it, the book flew by. I liked learning about the history of code breakers, especially women in WWII. The story had a premise and plot unlike others I have read before. I am looking forward to the sequel!

Thanks to netgalley.com for the ARC.

SPEAKEASY, with its clever title, tells the story of Lena and how past choices and secrets can come back to haunt you.

Told from two perspectives in two time periods, I found it really hard to get into. The alternating narrators can be jarring, the entries coming sometimes in short bursts, and this greatly affects the continuity of the story and continually took me out of the narrative. There are essentially two novels in one here, a Depression-era gangster romp and a World War II tale. Either alone would have made a great novel, but together they are disjointed and suffer for each other’s shortcomings.

I was particularly drawn to the WWII part of the story. The somewhat unusual setting of Canada right before the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the female protagonist were appealing. Lena first appears as a confident and competent code breaker for the Navy, but as the story moves along, she crumbles somewhat and loses everything that is alluring. I can understand, to a degree, her twenty-year-old self wanting some adventure by running away with Bill’s bank robbing gang, but I just do not see Bill’s draw. He is supposed to be magnetic enough for others to follow him blindly, but I just see a big old jerk (Perhaps this is my middle-agedness showing). Lena’s thirty-year-old self is frustrating because she never seems to learn from her mistakes and experiences.

SPEAKEASY is not everything I expected or hoped for it to be. Perhaps it is much more, an ambitious telling of the past, but I do not get it. I liked SPEAKEASY, but I did not love it.

"In this literate and action-packed historical thriller, set during World War II, a plucky code-breaker fights to keep a deadly secret as her Bonnie-and-Clyde past threatens to catch up with her.

Thirty-year-old Lena Stillman is living a perfectly respectable life when a shocking newspaper headline calls up her past: it concerns her former lover, charismatic bank robber Bill Bagley. A

romantic and charming figure, Lena had tried to forget him by resuming her linguistic studies, which led to her recruitment as a Navy code-breaker intercepting Japanese messages during World War II. But can Lena keep her own secrets? Threatening notes and the appearance of an old diary that recalls her gangster days are poised to upset her new life.

Whom can she really trust? Is there a spy among the code-breakers? And who is it that wants her dead?"

Code-breakers and dark pasts? Oh...

Easily one the most page turning, edge of your seat books I have read in a long time! I so LOVED it. The time period, writing style, it was really well done.

I picked up this book based on the WWII blurb and how intriguing it sounded to read something about a criminal turned good soldier, particularly a woman.

It took me a few chapters to get into the book. The chapters switch between Lena's point of view in the present and Byron's point of view in the past. Lena was once a member of the Clockwork Gang, bank robbers who escaped being caught throughout the early to mid-30s. Lena's past comes back to haunt her when Bill Bagley - the leader of the Clockwork Gang - reaches out for her to use her connections to get him an appeal. Bill was finally caught, and he wants Lena's help to free him.

I enjoyed reading about Byron's experiences in Bill's gang and how Lena ended up in the Navy. Her tales of present time give insight into her job as a linguist, and it's through this narrative that the events of WWII are relayed. Lena also gets pulled into trying to find a leak in her department, a responsibility that can have positive results for her career but might cause her some personal anguish.

I was torn between 3 stars or 4 on this one because I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it. It took me a while to get into it, and I was often overwhelmed by just the sheer sadness of Lena's life. While nothing is openly tragic, the overall arc of her life made me feel sorry for her. There is no happy ending to this one, only a not sad ending. I think it's worth reading if WWII interests you, but it's not one of my favorite historical novels.

Thanks St. Martin's Press and netgalley for this ARC.

Past/present life jumps back and forth which can be a little confusing but overall I liked the setting of the of west coast/Canada and learning about code breaking in United States.

Speakeasy is far removed from the standard WWII era thriller.  It is a novel that alternates between past and present and between voices.  Lena, the central lead, is a code breaker with a shady past and an unfortunate history of choosing the wrong man.  Byron, known as “By God” is a mild accountant seduced into the adventurous high speed life of being a gangster. Both Lena and Byron were drawn into the charismatic web of Bill Bagley, a brilliant but tragically flawed bank robber.  Lena thought she escaped, but the threads of the past are long, and as she struggles with the impact of her tasks as codebreaker and the human cost of both success and failure, it begins to look like she has not run far enough or fast enough.


On the whole, Speakeasy is well done.  The development of the characters and the changes that take place in them over time is utterly believable, as are the flaws which continue to impact their actions.  Also, this is the first novel where I have really felt the human impact of what the codebreakers did - on both sides. While Lena may appear tough, she is brittle, torn between her desire for excitement and recognition and her desire for security.  

As the novel switches narratives and timelines, it takes time to tease out the story - which means the reader has to be patient through the slow parts, and there are quite a few of those.  It is definitely worth the wait. Alisa Smith’s novel is complex, and eminently human, providing an entirely unique view of an era.


5 / 5


I received a copy of Speakeasy from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.


-- Crittermom

I wanted to like this book, but unfortunately it fell short for me. I normally enjoy changing time frames and narrators, but with this novel, I felt it was very choppy and difficult to make the jump each time. I did not find any of the characters engaging and struggled to finish the book. I hope my opinion is in the minority.

I received this from netgalley.com in exchange for a review.

Lena tells the story in alternating timelines from her years as a codebreaker during WW2. Then crazily flipping back and forth about 10 yrs to her bank robbing days with bad boy Bill Bagley.

The story was okay. The time flips were erratic and jarring which made the story hard to follow.

2☆

I was excited to pick this one up, but that excitement quickly faded as I started reading. The story felt flat and didn't really hold my attention.

I read about 3 chapters and decided this book wasn't for me....and that it was confusing at best. Sorry, but I couldn't recommend this book. However, I still wish to thank NetGalley for the opportunity of trying to read this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I was given a copy of this book for my honest review. While the story had some very interesting aspects to it, I too, like other reviewers, found it difficult to ascertain who was speaking at the beginning of this book. I had to flip back pages to figure out who was now the narrator. There were some historical facts that were new to me, which I always appreciate finding in a book. I'm not sure whether I would seek to read the next book in this series, but there were loose ends and I will most likely find myself looking for that next book!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Alisa Smith for the ARC to review. I was intrigued by the description but I was very disappointed. The story was good, however, I was just felt the ending was flat.

Available this month: Speakeasy by Alisa Smith
**** 4 stars, Loved it: This pre- and during WWII-set novel is great for anyone.

 

 




Recommended readers:

If you like novels with WWII history and drama
If you want an action-packed, historical read
If you like strong female characters
Here's my Rankings:

4/5 for characters
4/5 for plot
4/5 overall
REVIEW FROM BOOKS FOR HER:
In her dual story-line novel set in the 1930s and 1940s, Alisa Smith digs deep into the past and present of the intelligent, ambitious Lena Stillman. As a top code breaker for Britian during World War II, Lena is already a target from her peers - but as her questionable past starts to resurface, she tries to overcome her law-breaking past.

A fascinating tale of Lena's bank-robbing history weaved together with her mysterious war-time life, Alisa Smith connects this real-life inspired character into an intense historical time. Through the eyes of Lena, you experience a fascinating story of start-up crime, with WWII spy and espionage. Grab a copy for you, your husband and friends to enjoy: Speakeasy is great for anyone.

Available this month: Speakeasy by Alisa Smith