I received an advance copy of this book from Harper Collins by way of the The Book Club Girls & NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

It's a tense time in the United States, World War II rages on overseas with family members separated by the conflict. Charlie Fish, recently from Harvard University, finds himself working on increasingly vague & secret math problems in Chicago where he meets musician Brenda Dubie. Their courtship rides the waves of the war & Charlie's work until he is suddenly sent to New Mexico with very little warning to work on the ultimate top secret project. Brenda follows & the pair must navigate not only the war but it's (literal) fallout in their lives, a legacy that will last for generations.

Modern readers will know immediately what Charlie Fish is working on & why he is sent to New Mexico, The Manhattan Project. During this dark & tense time in American history scientists, electricians, & engineers designed, built, & detonated a weapon that would forever change the course of world history. Charlie & Brenda are caught in the wheels of this project & will find their futures irreversibly changed because of the choices of those in power. Choices that are still debated to this day.

At the center of this global conflict there is & always will be the great personal conflict of everyone affected by the creation & detonation of this new super weapon. This book really dives deep into Charlie's moral dilemma & does a wonderful job of exploring the difficult choices that have to be made & their emotional aftermath. As a project member Charlie sees co-workers dissent & be dismissed & questions his own place in history & his responsibility for the lives taken when his creation is finally deployed. This great mental anguish affects his relationship & we see his decline & his start on the road of redemption through the eyes of his girlfriend & eventual wife Brenda. As she sees change in him she realizes change in herself & becomes the woman he needs to help him reclaim his life & his story.

The author has based this book on the true story of Charles Brenton Fisk, who served on the detonator team for the Manhattan Project. True elements and events are woven throughout the story giving it a documentary feel. Liberties were taken to fit historical events into the narrative but each liberty was carefully thought out & the story is powerful & respectful.

I would have given this book 3.5 stars if I could, it was just short of a 4 for me. I love historical fiction & this is a period of time in the United States that I have a great interest in. I thought that Charlie was very well constructed & a sympathetic protagonist, quite frankly I adored him & felt for him as he navigated through one of the most difficult situations imaginable. I did not connect with Brenda however. She began the story as a selfish petulant child & ended as a mature woman who had helped her husband through something enormously difficult but I never saw how she got there. I disliked her immensely at the beginning & never really warmed to her at all. As per usual I felt the sudden inclusion of their sexual relationship late in the book was unnecessary. I'm just not a fan of sticking sex into a narrative when it serves no developmental purpose & I really failed to see any here. If it was meant to show Brenda's softening & growing empathy it failed for me.

This book started out slow, but built up to a wonderful story. The arc of the story was well developed and there was a certain level of suspense that keep my interest. I loved the two main characters, Charlie and Brenda. They both showed growth over the course of the book. And we’re both very likable people. Finally, the love story was well done and a little sweet, but not treacly.

I honestly have no idea why I can’t get into this book.
I hate to stop a book before I finish it.
There’s not a thing wrong with this book.
I’m just over halfway through and I can’t get into it.
I think it’s the talk of Charlie’s job that doesn’t work for me.
I can tell everyone else who read this book loves it, but I’m around 200 pages in and I can’t stick with it.
I especially hate to do that with an early release. I always appreciate getting to read a book early and I don’t want an early review to reflect negatively.
Books are always personal preference and this book and I don’t fit together.
I was set an early copy of this book from The Book Club Girl and received it through NetGalley.
Thanks!

This was a joy to read and at times also sad. The author did a wonderful job fictionalizing Charles Fish’s work on the making of the atomic bomb. The importance and destruction of it which ultimately caused Charles to be guilt ridden and remorseful. With love and support from his wife, Brenda, he heads into academia and eventually Charles finds solace. Thank you to the Book Club Girl Early Read Program and Harper Collins Publisher for this beautiful ARC. This is my honest review.

While I'm typically an avid reader of historical fiction, some titles appeal to me. This one sounded really good, and it was very well written, just not for me.
Charlie and Brenda were well written characters, and all the events were written with prose. This is a good novel of it's genre.

I'm fairly new to the genre of historical fiction. With that being said, there were times I felt the book dragged at times in the beginning and I was a little slow at getting into the book. Overall I enjoyed the book and felt like I got a better understanding of what happened with the Manhattan Project. I would have enjoyed more emphasis on the relationship between Charlie and Brenda and a little less of the details of how Charlie worked day to day. I would give this book 3 1/2 stars.

“Who is an ally? Who is an enemy? Do we have to kill millions of people every few decades to figure that out?”
Every once in a while a reader hits magic, and reads what is, in her eyes, a perfect book. This was that book for me. I don’t know how to give voice to what I loved so much. The story, the characters, the settings, the urgency of the development of the atomic bomb- it all worked for me.
Brenda Dubie is an impetuous young woman living in Chicago during World War Two, when Charlie Fish stumbles upon her family’s organ shop. This begins their romance of a lifetime. Their budding romance is slowed when Charlie is relocated to Los Alamos to work on a top secret project.
The book is about the development of both of them as people, the development of their love, and the crushing development of the atomic bomb and Charlie’s lifetime of guilt over his part in it.
“We do not get to keep anything. Best moments, worst moments, they rush by and away.”
It is this kind of quiet writing that I love. Sometimes I read a book and right away I am struck by the author’s unique voice and perspectives. In this book, it came over me quietly. I loved what the author said about life, love, and relationships. If you are lucky you will be in a relationship where you feel your spouse is a better person than you. Brenda felt that way about Charlie. She loved his kindness, quiet strength, and his intellect among other qualities. I loved this line too: “whatever you love, no matter how fiercely, you will lose it one day. That is the only certainty. Therefore, be as kind as you can.”
Brenda learns over the course of the story to become a kinder person. I loved her journey, Charlie’s journey, and their journey together.
Truly, a fantastic book with many thought provoking points about love, war, and our responsibilities to humanity.
#netgalley #arc

I absolutely loved this book. I found myself hoping that Charlie Fish would overcome the guilt he felt from his part of the Manhattan Project and that he and Brenda would find happiness. Amid the plethora of World War II historical fiction out there, Universe of Two stands out as one of my favorites so far. Stephen Kiernan has a way of weaving together facts and fiction in such a way that made me care about each and every one of the characters, right down to Midnight the cat.

Parts of this book made me sad and parts were just plain wonderful. I really enjoyed reading this book.

This, I think, may be the first time I’ve read a book where one POV, Brenda, is written in the first person and the other POV, Charlie, is written in the third person. That change between first and third person worked very well in this story because Brenda is telling us about the past and Charlie is her past.

The author did such an incredible job in defining these two characters that I almost felt as those I understood them and their thinking and reacting to what was happening around and to them. Brenda is living in a whirl of young soldiers about to go to war and she does her part by dancing with them, going to the movies and occasionally allowing a quick kiss goodbye. Charlie is a mathematician and, because of his uncle, is swept up into a government project that will eventually end in a crisis of conscience for him. Somehow, these two find each other and slowly are drawn together against the background of WWII.

The author has obviously done a lot of research which is evident throughout the book. This story takes place during WWII but it is very different then most WWII stories that I have read. It takes place in the USA at a time that the US was fighting on two fronts, one in Europe and the other in the Pacific. It is about the incredible amount of work and effort that went into the development of what some hoped would put an end to all wars. Sadly, as we now know, there is no such thing ,and the development of the research at Los Alamos was just the beginning of a new and now somewhat frightening era in the world.

Thank you to The Book Club Girls, Harper Collins Publishers Inc., Net Galley and the author Stephen P. Kiernan.

I am not a huge fan of historical fiction but I fell in love with this love story! Universe of Two tells the story of Charles Fish and his part in developing the atomic bomb. As the story begins you meet Brenda Dubie, a girl who becomes the love of Fish's life. Brenda helps run the family music store while her father and brother are away at war. Charles frequents the store and their love story begins. Charles is taken away to New Mexico to help in the war efforts at home. Their love story reminds us of a simpler, more innocent time. Fish's story of helping in the development of the atomic bomb was actually quite fascinating and sad. At first, Charles had no idea how important the work he did was nor how it would eventually affect the entire human race. He had a huge amount of guilt after seeing the outcome and devastation the bomb caused.
I liked Stephen P. Kiernan's writing style. I found it very easy to read and follow. I will be recommending this story to others and will be looking forward to his other works. Special Thanks to The Book Club Girls Early Read, NetGalley, William Morrow - HarperCollins Publishing, and Stephen P. Kiernan for the advance digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

#UniverseofTwo #NetGalley

Universe of Two by Stephen P. Kiernan is an amazing historical fiction that is placed mainly during the latter years of WWII in the US and beings to light a lot of the backstory in regards to the Manhattan Project: the creation, testing, and eventual use of the atomic bomb. This book, to me, is really two stories interweaving into one gorgeous novel.

We are introduced to Brenda and Charlie and get to dive into their respective lives and viewpoints in alternating chapters. Through Charlie, we are able to learn so much more about the inter-workings of the US government, military, and some of the science/engineering that was involved in creating the monumental, life-changing, world-altering, and controversial atomic bomb. Being able to see, albeit simplified, how the structure was created and implemented was beyond fascinating. My chemistry major definitely helped give me that baseline knowledge that really drew me in when those concepts were discussed. I was enthralled with the process from beginning to end.

The second story is the relationship itself between Charlie and Brenda (18 and 19 respectively at the beginning of the book). Getting to learn each character’s strengths and weaknesses (Brenda a talented and passionate organist that also was slightly self-absorbed) and Charlie (mathematician, and and genius but also a tortured soul in regards to the role that he plays) made me that much more invested into the book and how it progressed. Their meeting, their trials, their triumphs, struggles, and finally finding their places in life was excellent reading.

There were also several underlying themes to this book:

1. Music. The inclusion of a shared and beloved pastime: music. Seeing how much those notes on a page and the ability to bring them to life was a unifier with Brenda, Charlie, Reverend and Mrs Morris, and I found it fascinating. How those notes evoked feelings, memories, and ideas with out saying a word spoke volumes.

2. Relationships. The relationship between Charlie and Brenda, Brenda and her mother, Brenda’s parents, each characters’ relationship with themselves and their transitions and changes as they grow and evolve.

3. Morals. The moral dilemmas the characters faced in times of war. The inner turmoil Charlie felt as he wrestled with the gravity of the part he played in helping create the atomic bomb. Who are we to say looking back on what is right and what is wrong? Nothing in this novel is black and white. Not one person is innately innocent or evil. The decisions made creating rippling effects eternally. That is pretty deep and tough subject matter for anyone to deal with, let alone two young adults still trying to figure out who they are and what their life purpose may be.

This book was fascinating, gripping, emotional, and finally positive and satisfying in the end. I learned quite a bit, and isn’t that what a perfect historical fiction is really all about?

Excellent and enthusiastically recommend.

5/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow/ HarperCollins Publishers for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon and B&N accounts upon publication.

Universe of Two is a compelling read that starts off slowly, introduction Brenda and Charlie while they are still young and dating. Charlie Fisk is working with a top secret mathematics group performing tedious calculations every day under deadlines. Meeting Brenda is an amazing experience as they connect and begin to get to know each other. They are young and sweet and find each other irresistible, which eventually leads to their wedding and marriage.

Fast forward until after Charlie is a Harvard grad and assigned to work on The ultimate secret Manhattan Project. Brenda does not realize the importance and significance of the work that Charlie is doing until it is much too late The guilt stands between them and the world and they hope that moving to Stanford to start his PhD program will ease things. Only it doesn't.

I don't want to add too much more because I hate spoilers, but this book is well researched with great character development. I recommend for anyone who is interested in fiction about WWII and the bomb, The novel is based on true story of Charlie Fisk.

Thank you to NetGalley, Stephen R. Kiernan, and Harper Collins Publishers for this temporary, digital advance reader copy for me to read and enjoy. As always, my opinion is my own.
#NetGalley #StephenPKiernan #UniverseOfTwo

I was so captivated by this book. The research into the history of the Manhattan Project and the men who designed the atom bomb is superb. The fictional characters in the story are well-developed and truly reflect the 1940s wartime culture. I could hear their voices and feel their hearts. Charlie, who is working on developing the bomb, must choose between following his conscience and doing what others perceive as his duty to his country. Charlie struggles with this moral dilemma and must face the consequences of his ultimate choice. The author weaves music into the story as a background theme, one that supports the characters in a beautiful way and provides hope, sustenance, and grounding in times of terrible uncertainty. This book is one I will think about for a long time to come. It is one of the best books I've ever read.

The author does a great job fictionalizing the making of the atomic bomb. Charlie, a student with great physics knowledge, is sent to Los Alamos to do his part without fully realizing what he is helping accomplish. His girlfriend, Brenda, also plays a part in encouraging him to be a man and due his part in the war effort. After all the devastation caused as well as the thousands who died, the couple has to try to reconcile the past and try to live a meaningful life. The characters are fully flushed out and we see the good and bad in each of them. The story will stay with me a long time. Well written! #UniverseOfTwo #StephenPKiernan #NetGalley