Kate Quinn once again creates a Historical Fiction novel with phenomenal female heroines. This novel bounces back and forth between two time periods between 1939 and 1947, the day of the Royal Wedding. Without spoilers, the gist of the story follows three very different women who all end up working to break codes written by the enemy in WWII. Several other story lines and characters are woven into the story. One of the women,Beth, ends up in a Sanitorium for three years for being “crazy” and desperately reaches out via code to her former friends for help and the need to break The Rose Code even though the war is over.

“Duty,honor,oaths- not just for men”

I am a big fan some of Kate Quinn’s other historical novels, The Huntress and especially The Alice Network. I love how she creates such strong, female characters who play key roles in earlier wars, where only men could serve.


I was lucky enough to receive an audio ARC through NetGallery. The audio had several narrators for the roles of the British characters, which added some authenticity to the story.

It’s 1947 and all of Britain is excited for the upcoming nuptials of Princess Elizabeth and Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh. But three old friends - Osla, Mab, and Beth - must race against the clock to find out who betrayed them - and their country - when they were code breakers at Bletchley Park in WWII.

Told in alternating voices and jumping between the “present” (1947) and “past” (during the war), we get to know these three women and the things that drew them together and pulled them apart.

This is a solid addition to any WWII historical fiction lover’s collection. My only complaint is that it was way too long. It’s a 15 hour audiobook, and while it’s very well performed, I was ready to move on to something else by hour ten.

The Rose Code did not disappoint! Similar to The Alice Network and The Huntress, The Rose Code also features strong and intelligent women showing remarkable bravery and tenacity during World War II. This time, we have alternating POV's of three main characters: Osla, a charming and witty debutante in an on again-off again relationship with Prince Phillip (I had a lot of flashbacks of The Crown Season 1 during this book!), the ferocious Mab, who came from East-end London poverty but full of ambition and drive to move herself up and out of it. And finally, quirky Beth, who was resigned to spinster-hood, having been emotionally put-down her entire life into thinking she wasn't worth much. Each woman brings her own set of skills as they become integral parts of breaking German military code at Bletchley Park.
This book had it all! It was suspenseful from beginning to the end. I think Kate Quinn is a master at bringing historical fiction to life. I have no doubt that fans of her earlier books are going to love this one too. It was such a deliciously delightful read, and it would make an incredible movie. I already want to read it again!
Thank you @netgalley and @harpercollinscanada for an ARC of this audiobook.

I absolutely love this book! I love the characters and their relationships. I love the storyline and the way in which it was revealed. I love the little royal family tidbits. I just love every aspect. It is interesting, heartbreaking, and exciting. This book was obviously very well researched. The narrator was excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to her. As usual, a very high quality historical fiction gem from Kate Quinn. Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for granting access to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. I will publish this review tomorrow to my Bookstagram and companion Facebook page @thatreadingrealtor.

I wasn't able to finish this audio book. While I feel like I would enjoy this novel if I read it, I had a difficult time following the story narrated by someone else. I don't feel that it's fair to give it a review as I haven't given the material an honest chance. I will happily provide a review once I read the text.

I am fascinated by codebreaking and Bletchley Park, so this was a really interesting read for me. It was also just really good historical fiction. I often get annoyed when historical fiction goes back and forth in time, but it was done well and with purpose in The Rose Code.

I struggled to get into it at first, but I suspect that was more of my state of mind than anything wrong with the book itself.

But while I found the book to be excellent, I don't think it's one I'll be thinking about in years to come. HOWEVER, I often find that an author's note can drastically increase my opinion of a historical fiction book. Since I got an early copy, I didn't get access to the author's note. But I suspect that I may end up changing my rating to 5 stars once I'm able to read that note!

I will start off by saying that I didn't know anything about the code breaking at Bletchley park during WW2. This book was highly informative and well researched. The story takes us on a journey with three women working at Bletchley Park. These women work to break German codes uncovering secrets about the war as well as their own coworkers. It was interesting to see how this preemptive knowledge took a toll on their lives and relationships. I also really enjoyed the mystery that was woven into this historical fiction.

Thank you to netgalley and Harper audio for allowing me to listen to an early copy.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an e-ARC of this audiobook.

I enjoyed this historical fiction novel that delved more deeply into the women of Bletchley Park. The story alternates between the time Beth spent with Oslo and Mab working at "BP" and a few short years later to her present-day horror living in the Clockwell Sanitorium.

There was a lot to like about this book. The characters were engaging, as was the mystery of the traitor in BP. The only real criticism I have is the length of the book, and at that, less the length than the fact that it felt long to me. I think this could have been shaved down considerably, but I enjoyed the story nonetheless.

I really enjoyed this book a lot! It was very engaging and full of mystery, suspense, heartache and companionship. It kept me guessing right until the very end who the traitor was, and I never did figure it out.

This is a great story of three very strong women who were not afraid to stand up for themselves and push for what they deserved in a time where it was not so common to do so. They were great examples of some of the hardships faced during the war and the bonds formed over these shared experiences. I absolutely loved the relationships between these ladies!

I knew nothing about Bletchley Park prior to reading this and found learning about it very interesting. I really related with Beth and feel like I would have absolutely loved being a code breaker; it's very intriguing and I'm just itching to try and crack a code. It also made me so mad how easy it was for a group of men to have a women locked up in a sanitarium with basically nothing to back it up. I wonder how many times this has happened? Makes me so sad and angry to think about.

I read this book as an audiobook as well and the narrator sounded phenomenal; it is quite a long audiobook but I just flew through it. I often find it hard to follow along with fiction audiobooks and save my audiobooks for non fiction, but this was done extremely well. It was very easy to tell the difference between the characters and each characters voice seemed to match them perfectly and I couldn't imagine them sounding any differently. I would definitely listen to books from this narrator again.

If you are a reader of historical fiction then you are going to love this book and I definitely recommend it!

I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was so good I couldn't put it down! I am a huge fan of the author, having read The Huntress, which was great, and The Alice Network, which was even better. So when I saw this ARC on Netgalley, I immediately requested the audio and was thrilled when I had my request granted. At over 600 pages, I was planning on savoring this audio and listening to it over a few days, but when I started it this morning, I absolutely could not put it down! I was immediately captivated by the three main characters, Osla, Mab, and of course, Beth! These were three women who ended up becoming friends after being secretly hired by Bletchley Park for three different roles that were related to codebreaking. The story takes place between 1940 and 1947, and like the two other books I read, the story does not occur linearly but rather jumps back and forth throughout that time period. I don't want to give away any details because the story is best enjoyed without knowing too much, but I loved all the well-known historical figures that were included in this story, as well as a postscript that reveals some information about Bletchley Park. This book was absolutely fascinating and I kept looking up different historical facts to see how it lined up. If you love historical fiction, great writing, great characters, intrigue, thrillers, and great stories, you should absolutely check this out. If you were already a fan of Kate Quinn, then you should be preordering this book! This book was once again narrated by the amazing Saskia Maarleveld and she was perfect. I can definitely see myself rereading this in the future just to catch more details. This book is absolutely going on my list of favorites!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This story is set from 1940-1947 in England. Three young women are recruited to work as code breakers at Bletchley Park as England prepares to fight the Nazis. One woman ends up in an asylum put there by a traitor at Bletchley Park. Can she convince her two estranged friends she is innocent and will they help her to escape? This was a fantastic historical read. I was at the edge of my seat to find out what happened and if they would get revenge. Each character was well drawn and I was rooting for each one. I listened to this on audio book and thought the narrator was terrific. She did a great job making each voice distinguishable. I highly recommend this book.

I was given a advanced copy of the audio book from Netgalley and the publisher.

This was such a fascinating story. I really enjoyed learning about these female code breakers. It was lovely to read a book about women’s friendships and their experiences during the war.

Of course being a WWII story there are heartbreaking losses. But there is also such resilience.

I liked hearing the story from the three perspectives - in past and present - and how it all came together in the end.


In terms of listening - the Netgalley app seems to cause the sound to come out distorted. It had an impact on my listening experience but didn’t have an impact on my enjoyment of the story.

Kate Quinn has once again knocked it out of the park with another interictally woven piece of WWII historical fiction.. The Rose Code follows the stories Osla, a debutant goddaughter of Lord Mountbatten, Mab, an east girl trying to raise her station in life, and Beth, a shy young woman who has always been told she is slow. These three unlikely young woman become friends and bound with their work at codebreaking at Bletchley Park during WWII. Quinn does a magnificent job of brining each of these ladies to life and shares the struggles, sacrifices, and breakthroughs they each encounter. All three ladies are loosely based on real life women who served at Bletchley Park during WWII making the story even richer.

I loved this historical fiction story full of intrigue. The mysterious World War II enigma codebreakers of England had been sworn to secrecy but a spy in their midst changes everything. Friendships forged through the chaos and struggle of living through a horrific war were challenged to the breaking point. The author did an incredible job of creating three amazing woman who showed courage and bravery as they faced the horrors of war. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.

This was honestly a really enjoyable read even if I felt it was a smidge long. The characters are all supremely developed and I loved learning the backstory of our main leads along the way. I really enjoy historical fiction with this story because I loved the interweaving of historical places and figures throughout our story. The code breaking and Bletchley Park setting were right up my alley and I found it all fascinating. While I was a little tripped up with the dual timelines, once I figured out what was going on I appreciated. Definitely recommend.

There are an abundance of historical fiction books about WW2, so I am often weary of reading another one. That said, Kate Quinn remains one of my favorite authors as she routinely provides well-researched plots and strong character development!

"The Rose Code" tells the incredible story of three women, Osla, Mab, and Beth, who worked as codebreakers at Bletchley Park and were roommates using dual narratives. The first narrative takes place during the war, and the second narrative takes place after the war around the time of Prince Phillip and Queen Elizabeth's wedding. Osla, Mab, and Beth were great friends during their time at Bletchley Park, but their friendship has been strained by the secrets they learned from their work as well as family and societal pressures. Ultimately, the women must decide if they're willing to trust each other again and return to Bletchley Park to answer lingering questions about a traitor.

The audiobook was narrated well! The dual narratives were easy to follow as the narrator provided the date at the beginning of each chapter. The narrator brought this story to life, and the themes of friendship, love, and loyalty kept me up late at night listening to this story!

I was really excited to read this historical novel set in the WW2 era by Kate Quinn. Historical novels are not my typical first choice but this one had a lot of hype surrounding it so I wanted to give it a try.

There were a lot of things I liked about this and a few things I didn't. For starters, the book is based around 3 strong, courageous women from vastly different walks of life. Their friendship goes through some serious ups & downs but ultimately they are bonded together over their common cause and long-ago formed friendship. When they really needed each other, they were able to count on each other. I loved that this centered around such strong female characters. Each of the women has their own strengths and weaknesses but are thrown together as codebreakers to break messages sent from the enemy to help end the war.

The book jumps back and forth from their days as codebreakers to their lives after the war, showing how their lives were affected by their days as codebreakers. I wasn't as interested in the chapters that occurred after the war and I did find that they dragged on longer than I cared for. I was much more captivated by the codebreaking era.

After years of no contact, the woman are thrown back together to solve one last mystery of who was the real traitor all those years ago. This part of the book really picked up in excitement for me and brought me back.

Overall, I did think this was well written but I did not enjoy all of the historical details and found it boring in a lot of parts due to that. After reading this, I've realized historical fiction is not for me, but I did enjoy the relationship between the women and how strong they were portrayed. I would definitely read another novel by Kate Quinn if it was written in a different genre.

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
Another great historical fiction read - I am such a fan of The HuntressThis is set at Bletchley Park during WWII Following three different women who were recruited to learn how to break codes.

I loved the smart female character, strong female friendships, deep dive into top secret government institutions, and asylums during this time period.

The story is told in two timelines, chronologically and several years later and I was intrigued and invested in both timelines. There are brilliant details woven in connecting each of the women and I'm so glad I was able to read this story. I did find the narrator to be a bit slower and not as engaging to listen to as others but I still really enjoyed the story itself.

Kate Quinn has done it again. The Rose Code is full of everything that historical fiction readers look for in a book: thorough, detailed research, and the ability to learn about a new topic/time in history through the page-turning, emotional stories of well-developed characters that you can root for.

My expectations for this book were very high after loving The Huntress so much, and I was not disappointed. The Rose Code focuses on three young women who work at Bletchley Park, England's code-breaking centre, during WWII. But, in true Kate Quinn fashion, there's another part to the story that takes place after the war, a mystery that can only be answered through clues from their time at Bletchley Park.

Dual-timelines are not always my favourite, even though they are quite popular in historical fiction. What I love about Kate Quinn's stories is that the "current" timeline is not so far removed from the "historical" one - usually only a few years or a couple of decades at most, so I still feel immersed in history as I'm reading, and I get to remain with the same characters throughout the book.

This was already a five-star read for me, but the information about the characters in the epilogue solidly earned it a place in my top reads of 2021!

Absolutely 5 stars!

The best audiobook I've listened to this year! This book had it all -- historical fiction, some romance, and a mystery to boot!

I was pulled into the story immediately, and I enjoyed hearing every bit about the lives of Mab, Osla, and Beth as they broke codes at Bletchley Park, met intriguing people during and after the war, and tried to keep their secrets from prying noses.

A mystery develops as they try to figure out if there is a traitor among them. How did Beth end up in an asylum? Why do they have such ill feelings toward each other after the war? What has become of the women who were so excited to fight the war in their own way?

I could not put this book down. I review a LOT of books and it is high praise to say this has been my favorite so far. I rarely give 5 stars and this one deserves 6.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.