Trigger warnings: war, violence, gaslighting, attempted rape, involuntary mental hospitalization

(3.5 stars, rounded up)

Three women are recruited at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park as codebreakers during WWII. Osla and Mab meet on the train to Bletchley, and Osla recruits Beth after noticing her talent for solving crossword puzzles.

The story is told in alternating timelines, starting both before and after World War II. Readers are taken through the early days of WWII until America joins the Allies. The post-WWII storyline takes place in November 1947, right before the royal wedding. The women's time at Bletchley comes back to them as they investigate a traitor.

Socialite Osla Kendall meets the handsome young Prince Philip before the war. She enjoys writing to and flirting with him during the war when he is away with the Navy. Osla's fluency in German makes her an asset to the British codebreakers at Bletchley; she takes messages that have been decrypted and translates them into English. Her later story takes place when she is preparing to attend Philip's royal wedding.

Mabel "Mab" Church leaves Shoreditch (London) in the hopes of eventually bringing her mother and little sister with her. Their safety cannot be guaranteed in London, but her mother refuses to leave her home. Mab is working for herself and her family but longs to marry so she can feel financially secure. Her work at Bletchley involves using and fixing coding machines. In 1947, Mab is a married woman with children who is reluctant to dredge up the past, potentially endangering her family.

Beth Finch has suffered emotional abuse from her mother, leading her to believe that she is stupid and has nothing to contribute to the world. Upon joining the team at Bletchley, she struggles with feeling incompetent and useless. Beth's 1947 timeline revolves around her time at a mental institution and initiating contact with Mab and Osla about the spy within Bletchley.

Saskia Maarleveld is one of my favorite audiobook narrators, and she does a great job on this one. My only complaint is that when books have multiple points of view, I like the audio production better when there are different narrators for each character.

Recommended for readers of World War II fiction and fans of Kate Quinn.

I love historical fiction and historical fiction written by Kate Quinn even more. I loved “The Alice Network” and “The Huntress”. Both of those books were exceptionally well written and gripping. Even going in with those high expectations “The Rose Code” did not disappoint.
It was a riveting and compelling novel that was brilliantly written in a dual time line (1940... and 1947 right before the Royal Wedding). The Rose Code was a masterful piece of historical fiction that explored Bletchley Park and three women who became code breakers.
The plot was suspenseful and vivid. The characters were well developed and vibrant. Kate Quinn’s research for this book was impeccable in my view. I listened to the audiobook that was expertly read by Saskia Maarleveld, the different voices accents and intonations made listening a joy. It ran for over sixteen hours but I was so absorbed in the storyline that I hardly noticed. I did not want to stop listening. The Rose Code was so captivating.

The biggest part of the novel is set in Bletchley Park in 1940, Bletchley Park or BP had been established to fight the war of intelligence and counterintelligence, decrypting and decoding. Very intelligent men and women were being sought out to work as code breakers, machine operators and translators at Bletchley Park. These talented men and women would learn how to break German and Italian codes, translate them and get them into the hands of the British military.

Three very different women meet at the mysterious Bletchley Park sworn to absolute secrecy, bound by the dangers of war to their loved ones and working and living together.

Osla Kendall, a debutante and socialite’s daughter, that wanted to do something worthwhile for the war effort.
Mabel(Mab) Churt from London’s poorer parts wanted more out of life and is quite good at operating the code breaking machines.
And Bethan Fynch, Beth is painfully shy but brilliant when it comes to solving puzzles, a natural cryptoanalyst.

After a couple of years apart after the war the trio needs to get over painful memories and work together again to figure out if there is a traitor in their midst.

The Rose Code is a book about friendship, secrets, love, loss, betrayal and forgiveness. It touched all emotions. I am still thinking about the story and the characters and I enjoyed my time with them so much, I already miss them...
I loved every part of The Rose Code and highly recommend it.

Thank you to Harper Audio for allowing me to listen to this advanced copy of this audiobook through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I actually finished listening to The Rose Code several days ago and I couldn't write my review immediately. Writing the review and rating the book meant that it was really over and I had finished the book. There are a lot of books that take place in WWII and quite a few that focus on the strong females of that era, but this book is not like the others.
The three women who find themselves together at BP have a sisterhood like none other. They struggle and are forced to question those around them, but have a level of trust with one another that does not waiver even when their friendships do. Additionally, they are such dynamic personalities and several times I actually laughed out loud. My favorite of the girls was Osla, I felt so excited for the story to focus on her and the handsome Prince Phillip (yes, the Prince Phillip we all know!).
The story jumps between during the war and a few years after. The suspense of what was happening in the post-war storyline was enticing and kept leaving you wanting more.
I am so jealous of everyone who gets to read this book for the first time. This was my top read of the month and certainly a contender for top read of 2021!

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley and the publishers for my honest review.

Kate Quinn has a beautiful way of bringing history to life. Her prior reads are always incredible and bring history to life. In The Rose Code, Quinn shows us the lives of three women who take on the role of living secret lives while breaking communication codes in Nazi, Germany. Showing their unique skills that are also their biggest danger. In the end they are reunited to crack one last code years after separating.

If you enjoy historical fiction that is captivating and information packed then I would recommend all of Kate Quinn's novels.

To be honest at first when I realized the sheer volume of this book, I was intimated beyond belief and thought it would at least take me a year to go through this book. Oh, how I was wrong. Here I am, only a few weeks after I started listening, and have finished the book. Kate Quinn's characters, Mab, Osla, and Beth all had a special place in my heart after the first few sections. They were all so distinct, so vividly described, yet bound together by their allegiance to their country. I laughed with Oslaw, cried with Mab and was horrified with Beth. This story is complex, almost impossible to guess the ending. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for the magic of fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishing house and the author for the opportunity to listen to an advance reader copy of this audiobook in return for a review based upon my honest opinion.

I was so excited to receive the ARC copy of this audiobook. As excited as I was for this book, I could not imagine how amazing it was; I absolutely loved this book, I could not listen to it fast enough. This author has a way with fictional wartime stories, they hold your attention right from the beginning and the characters are so rich and interesting, they jump right off the page they are so vivid, it’s almost hard to believe they are fictional.

This book is told in two time periods, early part of the war starting in 1940 and the “current” part of the story in 1947. Three women join forces in Bletchley park, three women who couldn’t be more different if they tried, Osla, a debutante who is garnering the interest of prince Philip, Mab a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who wants to prove herself and find herself husband, and Beth, a shy, meek girl who doesn’t realize her worth. The three are brought together as different cogs in the code breaker scheme at Bletchley park along with a huge cast of characters who are all colourful and bring so much to the story. We follow these three women through war time as they try to live their lives as well as break codes to try to help stop the enemy from winning the war. The current day story is not long before the wedding of queen Elizabeth and her husband prince Philip, at this point the three women whose friendship seems shattered and unrepairable are brought back together to break one last code and to find a traitor amongst them.

The narrator of the story did a fantastic job, the pace was good and the story was made so much more vibrant from her reading of it. I love the way the story went; it kept me on the edge of my seat, the ending was so satisfying and brought everything full circle. I look forward to reading more of this author’s books. This could very easily be one of my favourite books of 2021.

My favorite era of historical fiction is WW2 and I love it when authors tell a story I haven’t heard before. Kate Quinn does that (yet again) with “The Rose Code”. Quinn’s characters in her novels is exquisite. She captures how I would imagine the women really felt at that time. In “The Rose Code”, she tells the story of the women of Bletchley Park, the code breaking center for England during the Second World War. Not only does she manage to teach the reader so much about what happened there, but she also teaches about what it was like to be a woman in that time and place. I was so invested in the story about Beth, Osla, and Mab. I thought the character development was great. I listened to the audiobook and thought the narrator was great. Her voice was pleasant to listen to and helped me get lost in the story. Overall, this was a great read and Kate Quinn will forever be a must read author for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

The Rose Code is the first book I have "read" that is in Audio format!
I love Historical novels and this one does not disappoint. Kate Quinn keeps you on the edge of your seat wanting to know what happens next.

If you are at all interested in the underside of a war effort, then this book will keep you entertained throughout. I was fully engaged with the story from the first words.

There is so much more going on when countries are at war than the fighting on the front lines. There are spies and counterspies., messages going back and forth. Codes about airstrikes, bombing raids, and so much more. Who are these people who decipher these messages and make sure the proper parties are informed?

The Rose Code takes you into those back rooms where hundreds of people are working on codes that need to be de-coded. Secrecy is the Number one rule of anyone working in these backroom decoding centers. Working under pressure with secrecy being primary, some of the girls form life long friendships that no one can break. That is until one of them is broken.

Will the secret agent get away with his deceptions and force an innocent girl into an insane assylum for the rest of her life? Or will the sisterhood of the Rose Code break her out and point the finger at the undercover spy in their midst?

This is a great book and one that I think I would have preferred in hard copy. I like to go back and re-read certain parts to get a clearer understanding and with Audiobooks that is not as easy to do.

That is my only negative about this reading experience. The book, the story and everything else is great!

This book will be available March 6, 2021 and I listened to it with #netgalley!

I received an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this audiobook courtesy of HarperAudio via NetGalley.

Release Date: March 9th, 2021

The Good:

This might be the book that gets me hooked on Historical Fiction again. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I went into it unsure based on its length (600+ pages) and genre, but the content and plot sounded too good to pass up. And boy am I glad I didn’t skip this one! I’m extremely intrigued by stories focusing on women in WWII, especially the woman secretly on the front lines of these code breaking operations. The Rose Code falls brilliantly into this category. However, it isn’t only a book about women working at Bletchley Park. It’s a story of friendship, forged through war and torn apart through conflict. It’s about going against societal norms and creating your own path as a ‘working woman’ in this era. It’s about complex topics interwoven through the viewpoints of three woman who come to Bletchley Park as strangers and grow into friends.

There is an alternating timeline aspect to this book that I found brilliant. It starts in what would be ‘current time’ for the story, and alternates back to the past by counting down ‘6 years ago, 5 years ago etc.’ as the story progresses. This leaves the reader wondering how this story could have ended up where it did. There is always the undertone of this mystery woven throughout the plot. Especially as the timeline gets closer to the ‘present’ we start to see the events clearer. The plot builds us a picture of how the ‘current day’ events came to be. Along the way there are plenty of little side plots and avenues the author wonderfully explores without derailing the overarching plot.

The Bad:

I’m not sure I have anything truly to pick apart in this story. If anything, there potentially could have been some bits that were described quicker or left out to make the story shorter, but there was nothing in the moment I felt could have been cut. Nothing felt dragged out or unnecessary, which is quite a feat a book this length. As long as you understand going into the story that it is a long read, the length doesn’t take away anything from the book. Since its a book that alternates some timelines, there wasn’t that typical ‘middle of the book drag’ that can occur in books of any length, but especially can be common in longer books. If long books aren’t your jam, then maybe skip this one, but that’s maybe all the negative I can think to say about this story.

The Bottom Line:

An incredible tale of bravery, independence, intelligence and complex friendships between three woman working at Bletchley Park helping break codes in WWII-era England.

Kate Quinn’s latest work of historical fiction is intense, powerful and intriguing, detailing the female code breakers used to decipher enemy plans during WWII. Quinn has proven herself to be an excellent writer and her characters come alive on the page so that you feel like you know them personally. This was both interesting and dramatic, the perfect combination. The audio edition was superb with a fluid narration that held my attention throughout. This will be a favorite of book clubs.

“The Rose Code” is a historical fiction tale involving three women: Debutant Osla Kendall, East End Londoner Mab Churt, and the shy spinster, Beth Finch. The three come together in the early 1940s to work at Bletchley Park -- the top-secret home of the WWII codebreakers. But someone betrays them and the three are torn apart. Then in 1947, after the war, the women-turned-enemies reunite to break one last code regarding a mysterious traitor.

Narrator Saskia Maarleveld did a lovely job portraying the three characters, and their love interests as well as the third-person narrator. For me, it was the content that just didn’t hold my interest. This is a very long, drawn out mystery that went back and forth between the war and post-war storyline. It absolutely did not keep me “on the edge of my seat”— despite the promises from early reviews and the publisher.

Special thanks to Harper Audio for an advanced copy of the 15-hour audiobook, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

In 2019 I read The Alice Network and it still stands out to me as one of the best historical books I've ever read and once again Kate Quinn does not disappoint. Set in 1940 England, Osla, Mab, and Beth are German code breakers; doing what they can for their country during the war. 

This book is over 600 pages/ nearly 16 hours but I flew through it. Quinn is such an amazing storyteller- this is historical fiction, with a little bit of mystery added in. 

Quinn also has a knack for creating characters you can't help but love. The beautiful character development of these three women brings upon a kinship with them. My heart ached for them. The storyline was split evenly between the three women so we get to know each character so well. All these women are so different but their loyalty to their country is never broken. 

The audio for the book was perfect. With one narrator voicing three women, things can sometimes become hard to follow but the narrator did an amazing job of distinguishing the three women. 

I have a soft spot for historical fiction, it is my preferred genre so I read a lot of books set during war time but Quinn is one of the best!

Kate Quinn is a genius.
What sets The Rose Code apart from other books is that there are no lulls throughout, Quinn masterfully builds each character while also moving the book's storyline along, and I learned a lot about the 1940s and what all was happening around England. I also very much appreciate how each of the main characters had their own important stories. Quinn masterfully intertwined their stories into this beautiful mystery book.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I was so excited to read this book as I loved The Alice Network, and it did not disappoint. Kate Quinn has a way of drawing the reader into the story and making you feel like you are a part of it. If you like historical WWII fiction and mystery then this is a book for you!

The story revolves around 3 very different women working undercover breaking codes at Bletchley Park during WWII. You will instantly fall in love with each of them and get caught up in the drama. It is a long book, but definitely worth the read!

I said it last week here, I've said it many times in this blog and Ill say it again, I love female historical fiction war stories. I also loved the movie the Imitation Game so this book seemed right up my alley. I was right. It is such a good story! I "read" this one in audiobook and although i usually keep my audiobooks for driving and walking and do regular book readings at home, I was so hooked to how this ended that i ended up sitting at home in the weekend hearing the end of this book, that says a lot. I enjoyed the double chronology of the story, mixing the current 1947 story with a chronological story line starting at the end of the 30s. There were plenty of well placed nuggets of info in the future that made you think you had things figured out and then reality wasn't what you thought it was going to be. The three main women are totally different but all very real and well developed characters. Relatable and engaging without loosing their human quirks and flaws. I love a good written female character and here are three of them. As for the mystery, i really had no idea until the end. Usually I'm pretty good at knowing how things will work out but this one was played nicely close to the chest. I also appreciated the historical characters sprinkled throughout the story. You don't miss anything if you don't, but if you do, its a nice little Easter Egg. I went down a rabbit hole of google after reading, like i usually do with historical fiction that i like, and i found that my favorite character, Osla, is actually very similar (I'm sure she is based on it, can we get a book club discussion guide over here) to a real like character, Osla Benning who also dated Prince Philip! This made me like the book even more. Kickass female stories for the win.

4 1/2 stars

The Rose Code takes a look at WWII from an angle that we don't often hear about - female code breakers. The story starts a bit slowly, but quickly gains momentum and sucks you into the world that Quinn creates. The story jumps around a bit in terms of time, but it still works. The focus is on three main characters - Osla, Mab, and Beth. They are as different as different can be, but wind up becoming the best of friends. That said, you also know from the very beginning that Beth winds up in an asylum and none of the women are on speaking terms with each other. Osla and Mab have been recruited to work at Bletchley Park, where, they are soon to find out, the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. They meet Beth, who believes herself to be a worthless spinster, but they soon discover that she might be the most intelligent of all of them. The story weaves in some events of WWII while fleshing out their lives and making them real. Each woman deals with love, loss, the question of home, and secrecy. An excellent read.

This is my second book by Kate Quinn and this book will not disappoint! I listened to the audio version of this book provided by #NetGalley.. The narrator, Saskia Maarleveld, for this book was a good voice for this book. This is another World War Two book which has been overplayed in the past few years. This book has strong ladies as the lead characters. The female code breakers go to a country estate called Bletchley Park. At the end of the book, the author tells us a little about the real life history of Bletchley Park and a connection with Kate Middleton. You may want to read a little more about Bletchley Park as you are reading the book.

The story of Osla, Mab and Beth is pulled together nicely in this book. The three ladies have very different backgrounds but end up meeting and becoming friend during their time working as cryptanalysts, translators, and working codebreaking machines. The secrecy surrounding the work causes life-long difficulties for the ladies. It also causes stress on the friendships during and after the war.

I don't want to give away any of the story in this review. If you are up for another WWII book, this will be a hit in 2021. It does not focus on Hitler or the camps so the book is not depressing. It is a story of working for the war efforts, a mystery, and the bond that grew between the people working at Bletchley Park.

I would like to thank #NetGalley, #HarperAudio, #KateQuinn for an advanced audio book. This book is a pleasure to listen to!

Thank you Netgalley for this audiobook of The Rose Code by Kate Quinn.

Kate Quinn comes in strong again! I really liked The Alice Network, and I LOVED the Huntress. But this one might be her strongest yet. If you loved The Lilac Girls, pick this up immediately.

I adore stories about female friendships. They are their own kind of love story, full of just as many layers, complexities, and joys. Add in WWII, jobs that require the utmost secrecy, romance, heartache, betrayal, code breaking, and family drama, and baby, you got yourself an amazing read ahead of you. Don't let the length discourage you, you'll be sad when it's over, I already miss those girls.

I'm always respectfully baffled at how such an intricate and rich story can come out of a person's brain. But I also appreciated how Quinn pulled a story from a historical event such as the female code breakers in WWII. I'm also so glad that we are finally talking about the brave women that also suffered and sacrificed for their country.

The audiobook was narrated very well, I would have loved three different voices, but in hindsight, I don't know that the book was designed for that.

I have been trying to write this review for forever. Or, more specifically, the last week since I finished it. This is still not perfect, but here we go.

I absolutely loved Kate Quinn's The Alice Network, and I also happen to be really interested in code breaking and Bletchley. So to say I was excited for this book was an understatement. Of course, the issues with getting so excited for a book is that it's nearly impossible to have your expectations met. So ultimately, I couldn't quite give it 5 stars. I have a hypothesis as to why, but I'll get to that later.

The Rose Code follows three young women, two timelines, and one deadly mystery. During World War II, Osla, Mab, and Beth work at the mysterious Bletchley Park, the code-breaking center of Britain. They are working with highly classified information, and have to learn to keep the secret of what they really do. After the war, right on the eve of Princess Elizabeth's wedding, the three women must attempt to discover if there was a traitor among them at Bletchley, and crack the codes the find who.

I honestly did really enjoy this book. Quinn masterfully weaves the two different timelines together, always keeping the reader on their toes. I was convinced for most of the book that I knew exactly who the traitor was, until I realized that couldn't be it, and had to completely re-asses. Given that we all know how the war turned out, some of the really large events in the characters' lives are things we already know happen, so I really enjoyed the mystery aspect of the book. It still allowed for some suspense.

I also have to give the book immense credit for making me feel emotions so strongly. There were times where I was truly proud, angry, jubilant, and sad. Like, I had visceral emotional reactions, which is always amazing. What else do we read books for?

The Rose Code really does have a lot of amazing themes. It's about friendship, and love, and family, and found family, and heartbreak, and starting over, and self love. So much of this book was just so beautiful. Mab has a speech about love that definitely made me cry. That's what this book is ultimately about. All types of love. And as someone who enjoys my literature with optimism and love, I definitely appreciated it.

Representation was generally kind of lacking. All of the characters are white, and I definitely had the thought, "you know what would make this even better? lesbians." However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Beth was coded as autistic! Obviously they did not have the same language for things that we do now, but she didn't like people touching her and didn't enjoy crowds. She generally had a difficult time reading people. Other people often saw her as dumb, even though she was clearly very intelligent in certain ways (she is a brilliant code breaker!). And she gets intensely focused on the work she is doing, so much so that she really doesn't notice the things happening around her. It was pretty clear to me that she was autistic.

As I am not an autistic person, I cannot say how well done it is. And I can note that it really walks the difficult line between showing other characters' negative depictions of her, and how the book itself is actually depicting her. For example, even though she clearly is very smart, others often call her "stupid" or "dumb." In the 1947 portion of the book, Beth is in an asylum. Not because of her autism, and Beth herself states many times that she shouldn't be there. However, I do wonder how this will come off to readers, and how others will interpret it. I think Quinn could have been better of pushing back against other people's perceptions of Beth within the narrative. Although they come around at the end, her friends often have difficultly and get extremely upset with her for things such as her black and white thinking, or for not paying attention to things besides work. The narrative could perhaps have supported Beth more by explicitly pushing back against some of this.

Finally, we get to why I feel like I can't give it five stars. Really, it just comes down to 5 star books need the "it" factor for me. I didn't connect to this book as much as I could have, and I think the reason why was the audiobook format I was using. Quite frankly, this book is too long to be an audiobook for me. I would have done better if I had just read the text. I chose to listen to it at normal speed, and it was like, 16 hours. It took me a week to finish it, and I was listening to it constantly. It meant it took me longer to finish, and I couldn't remember things as well as if I had read them. Sometimes I don't have any issues with audiobooks, and sometimes they lead to a disconnect for me. This was a time where the audiobook format disconnected me from the text too much.

And just to tie this off with another small complaint about the audiobook, the narrator was pretty good, except for her "male" voice was exactly the same. All of the young males all sounded the same. So sometimes it took me a bit to figure out who was supposed to be talking.

No, the order of this did not have any rhyme or reason. Quite frankly, I just could not think of a good way to organize this because so many of my thoughts were so all over the place. So the end of this is that yes, I would recommend this if you're looking for a historical fiction book. It is a very character driven book that focuses a lot on human connection and different types of love. It also has a thread of mystery to keep it intriguing and suspenseful. However, if I were you, I might pick up the print version instead of the audiobook.

This book BLEW. MY. MIND!

This book was pure brilliance! Quinn has penned another gripping historical fiction to sit along side The Alice Network and The Huntress. Saskia Maarleveld brought the story to life with her outstanding narration. If you love historical fiction in audio form then Rose Code is a MUST for your 2021 reading list. Three complex women brought together by World War ll must decide who to trust and where to draw lines as they join the ranks of Bletchley Park.

Important note: Start this book on a Friday because once you get into it you will have no choice but to sit and devour every last page! Kate Quinn’s 2021 release, Rose Code, is sure to be a triumph.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 stars for this beautiful written, intricate tale of love and loyalties. PG rating for mature subjects.

Thanks to NetGalley, Harper Audio, and Kate Quinn for the ALC in exchange for an honest review.