Our Woman in Moscow is my new favorite by Beatriz Williams, and since there are so many of her books I've loved, that's high praise.

This one has all the hallmarks of Williams I've come to expect: confident and witty women, great chemistry with a handsome man who helps the heroine but gets helped in return, and a sense that I'm escaping to another time and place. Unlike the previous books, though, this almost reads like a thriller. Taking place during the Cold War, there are life and death stakes here, as some people spy for the Soviet Union while others are trying to catch them. I've not read many books set in this era, and this makes me want to read more.

Beatriz Williams is my queen of summer. If you already love her, you should read this. And if you've never read anything by her, this is a great place to start if you love page turning historical.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for a copy of this book!

Beatriz Williams has written yet another satisfying historical novel. She never disappoints! This time, it’s a Cold War thriller. Spies, KGB, and a fascinating story makes for the perfect trifecta.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

I really enjoy Beatriz Williams' books. Our Woman in Moscow captures the reader from the start. The characters are compelling, especially sisters Iris and Ruth. Super enjoyable read!!

I really enjoyed this book. It was full of page-turning twists and turns that kept me wanting more. The characters were well developed, interesting, and relatable. It was refreshing to read historical spy fiction not set in WWII Europe.

Read if you're in the mood for:
-atmospheric historical fiction set in the '40s and '50s
-a Soviet spy story
-multiple perspectives, but predominantly a dual narrative between sisters

Spies, estranged sisters, alcohol-fueled 1940s diplomat parties, a peek inside the KGB, a rescue mission, a hint of romance... Beatriz William's new novel, Our Woman in Moscow, is a female-centric tale inspired by real-life events and people with enough intrigue to keep you turning pages.

The story is told from a couple different viewpoints, but mostly those of Ruth and Iris, once-inseparable sisters who haven't talked in years. Independent, bold Ruth runs a modeling agency in New York City while Iris and her family have defected to the Soviet Union. Ruth's chapters are set in 1952, when it seems Iris may be in desperate need of help, and Iris's chapters take us from pre-WWII Rome to 1952, slowly unraveling the tale of how a happy, fresh-faced young girl ended up defecting to the Communist USSR.

Our Woman in Moscow was definitely a slow burn at times and I felt 50 or 100 pages could have been edited out. In contrast, I found the climax and ending to be both rushed and eyebrow-raisingly unrealistic after much of the story felt pretty true to life. Still, I really enjoyed getting to know both intrepid Ruth and courageous Iris, and Williams' descriptive, vivid writing really drew a clear picture of the women and the settings for me. At times, the prose was a little off -- the sentences sounded lovely but didn't actually make grammatical sense -- but I mostly looked past that.

I didn't like this one quite as much as Her Last Flight, which was a perfect first Beatriz Williams book for me since it dealt with women in early aviation and was partly set on Kauai, but I did like Our Woman overall and even had a bit of a book hangover after finishing.

I do recommend it, especially if you want an intensive non-WWII historical fiction story to sink your teeth into -- just be warned that it's probably not a book you'll fly through.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for a free review copy.

This was my first book by Beatriz Williams, althoughIve been intrigued by the titles & subjects about which she writes. Our Woman In Moscow takes place during the early years of the Cold War and was, in part, based upon facts surrounding the British and American ideologues that betrayed the west in the misguided belief in the Communism as practiced by the Soviets. Ms. Willams does a great job of setting time and p,ace; most of the characters feel spot on. However, there were parts of the book I just skimmed. While I found this book fascinating, there were some dull bits...which took this story from top notch to merely quite good.
All in all, I highly recommend Our Women in Moscow and look forward to reading other books by this author.

This was an enjoyable yet poignant story set during the Cold War and based loosely on the Cambridge Five spy ring. The characters were believable and the plot raced right along. I couldn't wait to see how it would end. A tale of espionage and family loyalty.

This is the story of two sisters, one a career woman, the other a devoted wife and mother. They are very close until an incident just before the second world war causes a rift. Their estrangement continues into the post war/cold war era. Years after the devoted wife disappears, probably into the USSR, a postcard arrives. Can the career woman trust the US government? Will she be able to help her sister? This is a good story of sisterly love and devotion in the midst of shifting loyalties.

Beatriz Williams never fails to deliver a good story. This one about a Communist spy ring was no exception. I love how the Schuyler family always makes a prominent appearance even when they aren't the stars of the story. Female empowerment at its finest.

Ruth and Iris are twins that haven't spoken for more than a decade when agent Sumner Fox starts asking Ruth questions about Iris. Iris and her family have defected to Russia but now she is asking for Ruth's help with a difficult pregnancy. Ruth isn't sure what to think but its her sister so she eventually agrees to help. But things are not easy and definitely what they seem. How did Iris end up in Russia and why is she asking for help now? A story of espionage and loyalty and family that keeps you listening to the very end.

This book has everything you expect from Beatriz Williams - thrills, suspense, a little romance, a lot of spies, good guys vs. bad guys. Who do you trust and who will betray you?

In her latest book, Beatriz Williams tells the story of twin sisters Ruth and Iris. Ruth is a tough, successful fashion mogul who hasn’t spoken with her missing twin in twelve years. As children and young women, the sisters were there for one another, but things changed after time living in Italy just before the war. Now, Iris, her husband Sasha, and their children have seemingly vanished, but have they really? As time shifts between the 1940s and early 50s, we learn how Ruth and Iris eventually become embroiled in a Cold War Soviet spy ring in which no one is quite who they seem to be.
Williams always spins a good tale, and Our Woman in Moscow is no exception. It’s well paced and holds your interest.The story loosely based on the infamous Cambridge Spy Ring of the Cold War era, in where some British diplomats disappeared and were later convicted of passing British intelligence secrets to the Russians. Williams does a good job of putting women front and center in the male dominated world of international espionage. However, I would have preferred if Ruth and Iris had been completely independent of Williams’ other books involving the Schuyler family, because although I did recognize their names initially, I definitely recognized the names “Tiny” and “Pepper” and I got distracted trying to recall the Schuyler family tree. Still, the book does read independently, so people new to the author won’t have a problem.

Trigger warnings: murder, imprisonment

(3.5 stars, rounded up)

Ruth Macallister's twin sister Iris disappeared from her home in London along with her husband and children in 1948. They haven't had contact in a dozen years when Ruth is approached by the FBI asking about Iris.

Iris' story at the beginning of the novel takes place in the past when she's with Ruth in Rome. There, she meets USA Embassy worker Sasha Digby, her future husband. The novel goes through their relationship while leaving the reader wondering what drove the twins apart.

The Russian arc in the novel's beginning follows KGB officer Lyudmila Ivanova, who is following an American family that sounds much like the Digbys. She intercepts Ruth's application for a visa and thinks the family's activity is suspicious.

The story is told in multiple timelines, revealing the past as you're also learning about the present. The plot moves forward while instilling a sense of foreboding -- it seems like this will not end well for the people involved. There's a lot to follow with plotlines and espionage so this might not be the best before-bed reading.

Recommended for fans of historical fiction and espionage.

Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams

This book crossed so many genre lines, if I had to narrow it down to one, I don’t think I could do it. I LOVED this historical-drama-romance-espionage tale about twin sisters, Ruth and Iris, who haven’t seen or spoken to each other since 1940. When Iris and her family disappear from their London home in 1948, everyone is left wondering whether or not the Digbys defected to the Soviet Union. Out of the blue, Ruth receives a mysterious post card from Iris, and well, what’s a twin sister to do? Embark on a mission to rescue her, of course! With the help of an enigmatic FBI agent, Ruth sets out to do just that.

This novel was a RARE five-star read for me. I can’t remember the last time I read a book with characters whose inner and outer lives were so intricately drawn – each within their own complex world, and yet, inextricably bound together. The plot moved at a feverish pace, and I loved every delicious minute of it – including the big reveal – which I never saw coming.

Thank you, William Morrow, for this digital ARC. I can’t wait to recommend this one to our customers.

I could not put this down. Our Woman in Moscow tells the fictionalized true story of a soviet spy ring that ends up reaching the upper echelons of American intelligence. The narrative follows the Macallister sisters who had drifted apart at the onset of the war. Ruth had sailed back to New York while Iris married her mysterious, charming, communist sympizer diplomat of a husband. Twelve years later they are reunited under extremely tenuous circumstances.

Williams weaves together a novel that is exciting, adventurous, and completely all consuming. Sisters drift apart, marriages fall apart, and loyalties are tested. I loved that Williams took the traditional spy novel and made the housewife the hero. Thru deception, betrayal, and ultimately a little love, two sisters find their way back to each other. Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC for review. Highly recommend!

Beatriz Williams never disappoints with her historical fiction and Our Woman in Moscow is another great one. I had never heard of the Cambridge Five and the only experience I've had with Russian spies and counter spies has been through TV shows and movies. This was a fascinating story told with Williams' usual panache that will leave readers wanting even more of these characters.

In the autumn of 1948, Iris Digby vanishes from her London home with her American diplomat husband and their two children. The world is shocked by the family’s sensational disappearance. Were they eliminated by the Soviet intelligence service? Or have the Digbys defected to Moscow with a trove of the West’s most vital secrets? Four years later, Ruth Macallister receives a postcard from the twin sister she hasn’t seen since they parted in Rome in the summer of 1940, as war engulfed the continent and Iris fell desperately in love with a United States Embassy official named Sasha Digby. Within days, Ruth is on her way to Moscow, posing as the wife of counterintelligence agent Sumner Fox in a precarious plot to extract the Digbys from behind the Iron Curtain. The truth behind Iris’s marriage defies Ruth’s understanding, and as the sisters race toward safety, a dogged Soviet KGB officer forces them to make a heartbreaking choice.

I had read a previous book by this author, and really appreciate how she takes true events in history and writes them into a fictional story. She always creates wonderful, complex characters and describes their surroundings in such a way that you feel you are there.

Beatriz Williams has done it again! <u>Our Woman in Moscow</u> is another atmospheric, page-turning, historical fiction/romance/thriller.

Twins Iris and Ruth have found their lives completely torn apart by a Soviet spy. But when Iris's life is put in danger in Moscow, they must set aside their differences to work together.

While I didn't love this one quite as much as <u>Her Last Flight</u>, it still gets four stars. I loved the characters I was supposed to love and hated the ones I was meant to hate. While Iris's chapters were a little bit slower at times, I was still completely invested in her story and wished her only the best. I thought this was a well-written, compelling, and perfectly heart-wrenching novel.

cold-war, communism, Russia, FBI, historical-fiction, historical-places-events, historical-research, history-and-culture, espionage, twins, intrigue, family-dynamics, KGB****

Take a real historical espionage issue, turn it sideways and fictionalize those involved, make it character driven and packed with twists and family history, and make sure it is written by a real craftsperson, and you have this book. The story revolves around the personal relationships between sisters Ruth and Iris, Ruth and FBI agent, Iris and KGB while also delving into attitudes of the day. And double agents and their conflicts. A solid, if long, read.
I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from William Morrow and Custom House via NetGalley.

I always enjoy novels by Beatriz Williams and this one is no exception. They can sometimes start out a little slow but they pick up in the middle and by the end you can’t put them down. This is the story of two twin sisters, Iris and Ruth, and the bond between them. They have been estranged for 12 years, since Iris defected to the Soviet union with her husband and children. But when Ruth gets a letter from Iris, she drops everything and risk her life to help her sister and family get out of the Soviet Union. The historical part of Williams' novels is always interesting but I find the relationships between the characters to be the best part of her novels. In Our Woman In Moscow, it is the love and sacrifice between sisters, between mothers and their children, between lovers, that really draws you in to the story. Definitely worth the read.