4.5 Stars

Thank you Netgalley for an early audiobook version of Kate Quinn's The Rose Code.

Kate Quinn returns with a new spectacular historical novel centered around the women who worked at Bletchley Park as German code breakers during WWII. Osla is a beautiful socialite who has started dating handsome navel officer Prince Philip, yes THAT Prince Philip. Even though everyone sees her as a "dumb deb" she has been recruited to work along side some of Cambridge's smartest using her language skills to interpret German secret codes. On her way to Bletchley Park she meets an beautiful Amazonian woman, Mab , who is also working as a code breaker. They have recruited the recluse daughter of their boarding family to help in the secret mission. Traitorous secrets, death and scandal will test the women's values and friendships to the brinks including sending one to the insane asylum.

Based on real women, Quinn's novel is excellent, with deep characters and a dramatic storyline that unravels a new layer to a heavily written about war. She is a master and weaving intricate stories and fascinating characters together, even the smaller players have real depth to them. I received an audio book version narrated by Saskia Maarleveld, who does a marvelous job. Her inflections and interpretation is engaging and spellbinding.

A wonderful novel that I highly recommend.

Y’all, Kate Quinn did it again! I could not put this book down, as in I totally ignored my family all day Saturday to read! If you liked The Alice Network or The Huntress, you will love this novel.

The Rose Code follows three women sent to Bletchley Park in England to help break German military code during WWII. Osla Kendall, reluctant debutant, serves as a German translator all the while long-distance dating Prince Philip of Greece. Oz does all that she can to prove she is more than just a silly deb. Mab, from the east end of London, is a no-nonsense self-made woman, who is determined to rise above her current station. While working the code-breaking machines, she starts the Madhatter’s bookclub at BP (Bletchley Park) in search of her future husband. Finally, we have Beth a quiet young woman who is the daughter of Oz and Mab’s landlady where they are billeted while working in BP. The two take Beth under their wings, helping to give her a makeover and a job at a cryptanalyst, when they realize she has a knack for puzzles.

The war changed these women and we find them at odds with each other at the end of the war, and one seeking desperately for help from the other two to clear her name. Amid royal wedding fervor, as Prince Philip (yes Oz’s beau) is set to wed Princess Elizabeth, the three women set out to break one more final code to discover who was the traitor in their midst during the war. The answer is much closer to home than any of the three dares to guess.

The Rose Code was fast paced and compulsively readable. Kate Quinn is a pro at writing robust characters that you feel like you know. I highly recommend this book! Thank you to Netgalley and Mrs. Quinn for the advanced copy! The Rose Code comes out March 9th!

This story starts out in the 1940 as England is preparing to fight the Nazi’s. This story is about three women who agree to train at Bletchley Park, where they will train to break German military codes. The story follows the lives of these women before, during, and after their journey to Bletchley. Even though these women have next to nothing in common, they share a common bond that will never be broken. I throughly enjoyed listening to the audio version of this book. It was quite lengthy but I enjoyed every second of it. Saskia Maarleveld was an excellent narrator. She did such a great Bristish accent, even though she is American, and was able to switch between characters with great ease. I will definitely be listening to more audio books by this narrator and will be reading more of Katie Quinn’s novels. I highly recommend the audio version of this book. Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to preview this.

I loved every minute of this audio book! I have read so many books on the 2nd world war but this definitely had a more personal vibe. Loved the code breaking aspect and I did not know anything about this process. The timeline was accurate and the book was clearly well researched making it useful for educational purposes. (High school and older) However this was such a pleasurable read that I would recommend it for everyone! Bravo!!

Kate Quinn didn’t disappoint in The Rose Code! This book was expertly written while engaging me on every single page!

The Rose Code follows the perspectives of three fascinatingly different women- Osla, Mab, and Beth- breaking Nazi code in World War II. We are taken on a journey learning about their career success, chances at love, betrayals, and heartbreaks.

With a unique and exciting approach to WWII, Quinn had me heartbroken, laughing, and terrified while reading. I highly recommend this amazing read!

I loved every single thing about this book!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Harper Audio for my advanced copy of The Rose Code.

Here Are a Few Things I Loved-

The Characters-

*Osla- Not your average debutante with a royal connection that I loved reading about. ( I'm currently in the middle of watching The Crown and I am obsessed.)

*Mabel- AKA Mab AKA Queen Mab. Possibly my favorite character. She goes through a lot in this book and I was so invested in her story.

*Beth- I loved Beth and her big brain lol. She proves that you are so much more than what others would like to label you as.

I loved how Kate Quinn wrote each character so unique and vivid. I was rooting for all of them and was never bored with any of their narratives/ storylines.

The Romance- Each character has a love story within this book. Some more conventional than others. I enjoyed them all.

The Mad Hatters- The Rose Code is a book full of book lovers. The Mad Hatters is a war time book club at Bletchley Park. I am very tempted to pick up some of the reads mentioned in The Rose Code but I'm bad with classics. Ex- I've been listening to Little Women for about 2 years. I'm the worst.

The Plot- I enjoyed reading about Bletchley Park and the things that went on there. I did some research after finishing The Rose Code and am glad to have learned something new.

The Audio- I read this book via the audio and I loved the narrator. Highly recommend the audio and may revisit some of Kate Quinn's backlist via audio .

Overall- One of the best books I have read in a very long time. As someone who reads a ton of WWII historical fiction - The Rose Code is definitely a stand out. I have a feeling it will be among my best books of the year.

While this book was long, I never lost interest. I was thoroughly intrigued by the world of code breakers and the great mental pressure they were under. This story of three friends as well as their individual stories intertwined into an engaging ride. I will be thinking about this one for a while!

First I'd like to thank Net Galley and HarperAudio for an advanced version of the audiobook.

Kate Quinn's The Rose Code was a fantastic listen! Even after over 15 hours with these character, I did not not want to leave them behind. The novel has two timelines--The first from during World War II approximately during the period between 1940-1944 and the second in November 1947, during the days leading up to Queen (then princess) Elizabeth's wedding to Phillip Mountbatten. If you love historical fiction and a good spy mystery than this is definitely the book for you

The plot is told from the point of view of three very different young women. Osla, a Mayfair socialite, Mab, an ambitious girl from London's East End and Beth, a brilliant but painfully shy country girl. What can these girls have in common? They work at Bletchley Park--the UK's center dedicated to breaking Nazi war codes. Motivated by patriotism and a desire to show the world that they are more capable than 1940s British society gives them credit for, Osla, Mab, and Beth throw themselves mind, body, and soul in their work. Despite the top secret nature of their work, these young women come together to form a sisterhood. As the war ends, the young women go their separate ways but are ultimately brought back together when they suspect that there was a spy at Bletchley Park. The theme of family is at the heart of the novel and is certainly one of the most poignant. The novel underscores the fact that sometimes family is not the people who you are genetically related but those who are willing to rush to your side at the bleakest moment. It would be a mistake, however, to think that this is a sappy or trite read. Quinn deals with the realities of war, especially for those left on home front. The novel contains a frank description of the grief, depression, and loneliness that gripped Great Britain during the lowest points of World War II.

Overall this was such a compelling book to listen to. I could not stop listening. Part of that is of course attributed to Quinn's great writing but I would be remiss if I didn't comment Saskia Maarleveld's skillful narration. She kept the novel flowing at a good pace and was able to really drive home each of the character's personalities, personal nuances and foibles.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read The Rose Code! I had the pleasure of listening to this as an audiobook, which was excellent.

Things I loved about this book:
- Strong female lead characters (I kind of wish my name was Mab now)..
- Takes place during WWII. We joke in my book club that if the topic has anything to do with WWII we will read it! It's kind of my jam, and this did not disappoint.
- An appropriate balance between mystery, romance, political intrigue, and heartache. Whoa, the heartache.
- The narrator was great. Sign me up for a narrator with an accent anytime! Saskia Maarleveld did a great job utilizing different voices and inflection depending on what was happening in the story. She held my attention throughout.
- The code breaking was super cool. I love this topic and could read a million books about it!

Things I was sad about:
- It's a book about WWII and how horrible Nazis are, of course there's going to be sad points. There is some death and some terrible things occur to characters you love.

Overall, this book was intriguing, moved at a perfect pace, had great twists and turns and I would read it again. I am also definitely going to read Quinn's The Alice Network due to how amazing this book was!

The Rose Code is the story of three women who work at Bletchley Park as code breakers during WWII. This book has two timelines, one that follows the women through WWII and another seven years in the future in which the three best friends are no longer friends and a dark mystery is revealed.

This book shows the challenges that women faced breaking out of their gender roles during this period but also the great impact women had on the war efforts. I love the different characters and their internal motivations for choosing their paths. They felt so real and raw and I loved their flaws. The romance throughout was perfect for me, not too over the top but I also found myself swooning over it.

Tears were shed throughout the latter half of this book, the writing was beautiful, and the ending was satisfying. It was everything that I want from a WWII novel and I highly recommend it.

What an incredible story! This was an audiobook that I could not stop listening to!

The Rose Code is a historical fiction novel that takes place during WWII, but differs in such a magnificent way. Three different women became code breakers in 1940 at an English estate Bletchley Park. Osla, a debutante, trying to prove herself and her intelligence. Mab, a poor girl, trying to make a better life for herself. And Beth, a local village girl living at home with her parents. The three bond and form a close friendship, until they are torn apart when war, loss and secrets are discovered. After the war, the three friends are reunited to help uncover the traitor of Bletchley park, in order to save Beth, and their country.

The strength and detail of these three girls during a time when women were not considered as capable is mind boggling. Loss, pain, war and heartbreak can’t stop these girls from continuing their code breaking, during and after the war. Kate Quinn writes a magnificent story about WWII from the perspective of three struggling women - and their quiet power. A perspective of the time that we do not frequently get to read about, including how long after the war the life of women (and men) were affected. The details and research that went into this story are incredible and add to the beautiful novel.

You will want to read this book when it comes out!

Pub Date: March 9, 2021

Thank you to Netgalley, Kate Quinn and Harper Audio for my Advanced Copy.

Well written with good character development but very predictable to me. A historical fiction set up so beautifully about a group of women working on a historically coding mission. It honestly was a struggle to get through this. Too many twists and turns I was getting whiplash and confused. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a very interesting book. I guess I never realized what an important part of the war, the code breakers were. These men and women took their jobs very seriously. It was great seeing the different view points of how the workers felt about their job.. For example, the one man in the story, did not feel that he was an important part of the war, because of how he had to keep everything so secretive. It was amazing the families didn't know.
I also like how Kate Quinn described the fashion of the time, such as the way the women wore their hair. Also the personal issues they had because they are women. Many people leave out those details that women face and take it for granted.
The end of the story mentioned real code breakers and how some of the secrets will still not be given out even though the ladies are in their 90's. It is also great that the place was restored and Kate Middleton had part of that and how she had a family member that was a code breaker.
This was an audio book. I really hope to read the book soon. I feel there were some things that I may have missed (dates), so I really would like to read this book.

LOVE LOVE LOVE I thought this was just as wonderful if not more interesting than her previous WWII books. It had all the must haves of a good historical fiction tale: love, intrigue, spies, princes and actual historical events. If you liked any of Kates other books I highly recommend this!

The Rose Code: A Novel by Kate Quinn (Author), Saskia Maarleveld (Narrator)

This is my second audio historical novel in a row and both of them were riveting. I can't help wondering if I'd feel differently about an audiobook if I had read it instead. Sometimes the narrators are so good, it's hard to imagine not hearing all those character voices, if I had read the book. 

The Rose Code deals with two time periods, the first starting in 1940 and the second taking place in November 1947. In 1940 three women come together and become the closest of friends because of their work and because they board in the same house/room. These three women are recruited to work as female codebreakers at Bletchley Park and the women are tied together by the secrecy of their work, knowing the Official Secrets Act of 1939 prevents them from speaking to anyone of what they do. A 1942 security warning emphasized the importance of discretion even within Bletchley itself: "Do not talk at meals. Do not talk in the transport. Do not talk travelling. Do not talk in the billet. Do not talk by your own fireside. Be careful even in your hut." The very need for such secrecy throws these three women into friendship as nothing else could do. 

Wealthy debutante Osla is seriously flirting with Prince Philip of Greece, hard, bold Mab has pulled herself up by her bootstraps to give herself an education and the ability to support herself, her mother, and her little sister, and then there is brilliant but shy, cowed Beth, whose mother has demeaned her so much that she thinks she is dumb and worthless. These women are each doing jobs that are part of the entire network that decodes enemy messages, messages that can change the tide of the war, mean saving the lives of thousands, heading off more disastrous losses, and determining if our side has managed to mislead the enemy from the inside. 

Personal disaster tears these women apart several years after they meet and they would never speak to each other again except that one of the women gets a message to the other two women that there was and still is a spy in their former codebreaking group. Against almost impossible odds, the women need to get back together to break one last code. The tension was high during their codebreaking days, in an exhausting, tedious, mind numbing way and now they will have to condense their years of work into days or their chance to stop a spy will be gone. 

I'd known about this work from seeing The Imitation Game and from research I'd done on Bletchley Park and I'm glad I had that background because I know it helped me to enjoy this book better than I might if I'd come in with no understanding of the work. I was wrapped up in this long audiobook, interested in not only Osla, Mab, and Beth but the secondary characters, too. This story has me wanting to learn even more about this work and this time and I'm going to have a hard time letting go of the characters. 

Thank you to Harper Audio and NetGalley for this ARC.

Audiobook provided by NetGalley and Harper Audio in exchange for an honest review.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this book! While I've enjoyed previous novels by Kate Quinn, I was hesitant to jump back in to WWII because I feel like the market is flooded with WWII novels lately and did we really need another one? Guess what, we did. Just like THE ALICE NETWORK and THE HUNTRESS, Quinn expertly tells readers the story about historical badass women in such a way that you can't help but be hooked by the story and dying to know what happens next.

Bletchley Park and what happened there during the war is a truly fascinating piece of history and even more so when told through the eyes of some of the women who worked there. Women are often overlooked during war time, but their contributions are just as important (sometimes more so) than the boys who go off to war with weapons in hand.

Though I'm not quite sure I can ever forgive Quinn for the Coventry chapters. I'm still not over those events, they broke my heart.

Overall this was a book I couldn't put down and often times caught myself forgetting to breathe because I was so engrossed in the events unfolding.

Saskia Maarleveld does an absolutely brilliant job with the audiobook and I was excited to see that Maarleveld recorded THE ROSE CODE because her vocal talents pair so well with Quinn's writing.

I wanted to like this book but the character were so annoying at times. I did like the basis of the story and had no knowledge of some of the events.

Kate Quinn has done it again! The Rose Code is a delightful historical (non) fiction book which enthralled me from the very start. Like her other novels, this one takes place over two different time periods (during World War Two and post World War Two) and revolves around 3 strong women who break codes and ciphers for England during the war.

Beth, Mab, and Osla are three very interesting characters and I was so invested in their stories. I wanted to know what was going to happen to them. The Rose Code has me “turning pages” so quickly. I received this book as an advanced audio copy from Netgalley- this was my first audio book and I loved the experience. I was able to listen while driving and loved that about having an audiobook. The narrator Saskia Maarleveld had a great voice and kept me listening through all the pages of this beautiful story. Something I loved from the book was all the old English
slang. Some of the words I learned through this book were Slush, Deb, Blinking, Tarte and the expression Flick a wicket. It took some time to figure the meaning sometimes but that was my own little code breaking in the book.

Short Synopsis:
1940. As England prepares to fight the Germans, three very interesting women answer the mysterious call to work at Bletchley Park, where the best minds in England train to break War Codes and secret messages. Osla, Beth and Mab all take on different roles at Bletchley Park and work to prove themselves. War, loss and secrecy end up tearing these three best friends apart.

1947- A mysterious encrypted letter brings the three enemies back together as they fight to determine who the traitor from Bletchley Park was. They work to break the Rose Code and try to bring the traitor to justice before it is too late!

Upon completing the book (and listening to the epilogue) I learned that this whole book was based on true events. Which elevates my love for this novel even more! Bletchley Park was a real code breaking establishment and many of the characters mentioned in the story actually worked there in real life! I highly highly recommend The Rose Code by Kate Quinn. My rating for this one is an easy * * * * * She has very quickly become one of my go to authors and I am grateful to have received this ARC from Netgalley. If historical fiction, mystery and female protagonists are your thing then this book should be a definite for you! If you read it, let me know what you think! This one hits the shelves in Canada on March 9th 2021. Put it on your list!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced audio copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. I have never heard of the author but I have read many things surrounding Bletchley Park during WWII and the description sounded interesting. The story follows three young women who would never have met and become friends if not for being hired to work at Bletchley Park. All three were smart and had no desire to stay home when they could do something to help the war effort. We follow these women from 1939 to the end of 1947 just after Queen Elizabeth's marriage. Quinn develops all three characters into richly drawn, deeply interesting people who are surrounded by friends and acquaintances. From Osla who was born into the Upper Classes of English society to Mable from the east side of London and Beth, whose mother virtually kept her prisoner by "needing'' her as a caretaker while berating her for every little thing she did.

The Narration slips seamlessly between the present, 1947, to the past, 1939, and forwards. We know some of what will happen to the young women even as the book begins. But we don't know why. At 656 pages, the novel takes its time painting an atmosphere of togetherness and fun while doing extremely serious work that they cannot breathe a word of outside BP. I wish I could tell you more but they might find me and put me in jail. Just kidding. But it was many years later, into the 60s I believe when the truth could be told about the code breaking work that these brave women did.

I loved every moment of this book. I loved the narration and I will look for another book by Ms Quinn

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ALC!

This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2021 and it did not disappoint! Immediately I was swept into this incredible story of Bletchley Park and three women working as code breakers during WWII (think The Imitation Game movie or the story of Alan Turing breaking Enigma). The writing was brilliant and the characters were so complex and amazing. I absolutely recommend this book especially if you’re a historical fiction lover like myself.