Book blurb…
An exhilarating tale of one remarkable woman’s journey to find her purpose, and herself, in post-war America. Hailed as ‘whip smart’ by Australian Women’s Weekly.

New York, 1954. A Fifth Avenue address, parties at the Plaza, two healthy sons and the ideal husband: what looks like a perfect life for Katharina Edgeworth is anything but.

As a single girl in 1940s Manhattan, Katharina was a translator at the newly formed United Nations, devoting her days to her work and the promise of world peace – and her nights to cocktails and the promise of a good time.

Now the wife of a beloved pediatric surgeon and heir to a shipping fortune, Katharina is trapped in a gilded cage, desperate to escape the constraints of domesticity. So when she is approached by the FBI and asked to join their ranks as an informant, Katharina seizes the opportunity. A man from her past has become a high-level Soviet spy, but no one has been able to infiltrate his circle.

Enter Katharina, the perfect woman for the job.

Navigating the demands of the FBI and the secrets of the KGB, she becomes enthralled by her secret mission. But as those closest to her lose their covers, and their lives, Katharina’s secret soon threatens to ruin her.

My thoughts…
Stories with strong women are my go-to but I have high expectations that the characters are real and not cliches. This novel hit the right notes. A good blend of soft and hard, good and bad. Great read.

Rina Edgeworth is married to a top doctor, son of an extremely wealthy family, and has two small sons. She lives in an expensive apartment across from Central Park in New York. Sounds like she should have nothing to complain about, right? But it’s the 50s and before marriage she had a great job as an interpreter at the United Nations and she lived an exciting life. Now motherhood with two toddlers and a husband who expects her to be the perfect mother is leaving her overwhelmed. Then she’s approached by a man from the FBI….
I enjoyed reading this book, the early parts have some funny moments and once it gets into the FBI bits I really wanted to know what happened. So why only 3 stars? Well it’s readable but way too long. All the background of Rina’s life didn’t really make me like her all that much and once we do get into the espionage stuff it’s all highly improbable and feels like an add-on. The purpose seems much more about the difficulties of early motherhood not a spy novel. In fact the lack of depth in the spying parts (it’s an interesting time historically, the Cold War, the McCarthy trials, the civil rights movement etc) makes it unsatisfying. So it’s like two books mashed together but it’s highly entertaining so if read as a light read it’s enjoyable.

A Woman of Intelligence ended up being quite different to what I expected from the marketing blurb I had read. While perhaps a little disappointed that it didn't end up being the historical thriller that I had hoped for, the book certainly carried a strong theme about what burdens a women in the post WWII era was expected to endure. While so many education and employment opportunities had started to arise for more women, the expectation of service to motherhood still over-rode all other opportunities. After reading the author's note on the background of the book, I think she certainly achieved her goal with the storyline, but perhaps for future readers an updated "blurb" could be warranted to that a clearer picture of the storyline is given upfront with less emphasis on the thriller side of the plot.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster (Australia) for the opportunity to read and provide my unbiased review of this book.

A Woman Of Intelligence sucked me in immediately and held me to the last page. There are so many layers to this story that there is always something to keep you wondering. Rina, the star of this show, is immensely talented at a time in history when women’s skills were regarded as unimportant when compared to their perceived raison d’être: being a good wife and mother. I loved reading about Rina’s work hard, play hard life as an interpreter at the United Nations and was quietly horrified at what her life was reduced to as the wife of the exceptional Dr Tom Edgeworth and mother to their two young sons. My fascination grew as intrigue was added to her story when she was recruited by the FBI, and my curiosity was piqued as to how her story would end with her marriage disintegrating while all this was going on. With strong feminist themes, a complex storyline that kept me guessing and well-drawn characters that highlighted the differences between rich and poor, black and white, progressive and traditional, this book is one I feel privileged to have read. Highly recommended!

A 1950s historical fiction novel opens with a mother with two small children having a very bad day. Rina had a degree in languages and worked at the UN. But now her life was looking after her sons.
A large part of this story was looking at the mothering role at this point in time. But also some of the historical features including communism, spies and betrayal.
This was not what I expected. But it was an enjoyable excursion into the communism at the time.

This is the story of a woman with a perfectly good life but one she doesn't seem to like. And so begins the story of Katharina and her secret life. Out of nowhere she is asked to join the FBI (really?) and live a secret life of spies and danger. So you would think this book would be somewhat thrilling and exciting.

I'm sorry to say that for me it wasn't. It was full of fashion, family and didn't really get into the real story. The characters lacked depth and personality, the story is somewhat boring and seemed to be more about the clothes Katharina wears and how she has such a dysfunctional life. I wanted more about the situation, the Cold War, the spies!

So for me this was a very thin example of historical fiction that spent too much time on the little details rather than the big picture.

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this book for an honest review.

This was almost a did-not-finish for me but I decided to persevere. It improved but left a lot of questions unanswered.

Katharina Edgeworth was once a translator at the United Nations. She loved her life and then she fell in love with Tom Edgeworth, a pediatric doctor from a well-to-do family. They eventually married and when she had her first child she stopped working and became what would today be called a stay-at-home mother. Her life appeared to be just about perfect but the reality was anything but that. Her husband was almost never, home, more married to his work than to her. Meanwhile, she has lost herself to motherhood. As much as she loves her children, it's not complete. And spending all her time with her children is causing her to lose the plot so much that she has a parenting blip that to others is unforgivable. After a short trip away from her normal life, which ends disastrously, she's back to the same old thing. Until she is contacted by the FBI and recruited as an informant.

While I have never had such an exciting life as she has experienced, I can certainly identify with those feelings of losing oneself to motherhood. And that is without the career restraints that existed during that time. I found this to be an extremely atmospheric novel and there was just the right amount of tension as Katharina started taking more risks and taking back a former part of her life. During the war, women finally were able to take on roles previously denied to them and to some degree were keeping the economy afloat. But post-war, much of this power was rescinded and women were expected to return to their "proper" domains. Just within this context, I think it's easy to see how the women's liberation movement slowly gained momentum over the next couple of decades. Katherina surely would have been a forerunner of the women in that movement.

Husband Tom is a much-admired doctor who puts everything into his work, but his role as husband and father is almost an after-thought. He has no understanding of the pressures of being a parent because his wife has essentially become a single parent. And the idea of having support is almost out of the question to Tom due to his own upbringing where his parents were largely absent. He wants the kids raised without nannies and maids because that is the best way.

The subject of communism, which was highlighted thanks to the McCarthy hearings of the era, runs heavily throughout the story and is the basis on which Katherina is recruited. You can feel there's a lot of distaste for those hearings amongst the public. But Katherina comes to see how those people in the party are often just ordinary people and not the demons they are portrayed to be. There's a certain amount of intrigue in this part of the story with someone from Katherina's past and someone in the present both involved with her due to her work.

I found the book was resolved pretty satisfactorily, addressing Katherina's situations but with some regard to the times when she lived. This was a pretty enjoyable read and I recommend it by giving 4 stars. I would like to thank Netgalley and SImon and Schuster for providing an advanced reader copy for free. I write this review honestly and voluntarily.

Katharina Edgeworth was married to the ideal husband, a doctor of pediatrics, and had two young children, Gerrit, two years old, and Peter, the baby. She should be happy – but she wasn’t. Tom was rarely home, the hospital was his home, and Katharina struggled with the boys with no help from anyone. She had lost her identity and the career she’d loved, working with the United Nations. Once she became pregnant with Gerrit, her job was to be home as a mother, a housewife, a wife. Trapped in the gilded cage that was her life, Katharina didn’t know how to get free. 1954 in New York should have been a time of joy...

When she was approached by a man who told her he was FBI and they had a job for her, she wasn’t sure what to do. But the job as informant, to infiltrate the circle of a man from her past who was involved with the KGB, to carry documents for the FBI – she would do it. But the secrets, lies and dangers would do more to Katharina than she’d expected. What would she do if her cover was blown? Would she see her family again?

A Woman of Intelligence is my first read by Karin Tanabe, and the best thing (for me) about the book was its cover. I love the cover – the contents not so much. Katharina was a hard person to like – she had no discipline over her children and when the eldest child spat in her face because he couldn’t do something he wanted to do, and she did nothing I was gobsmacked! There was no depth to the story, I was unable to get involved, and I didn’t feel anything for any of the characters. I wanted to enjoy it but unfortunately it was not for me.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

What a setting! 1950s NYC has always been fascinating to me. Katharina seems to be living the dream; married to a prominent doctor, two kids, and living on the Upper East Side. But she is an intelligent woman who speaks 4 languages and used to work as a translator at the UN. Somehow, sitting at home all day with two very young children and an absentee husband doesn't quite compete with her past. Tanabe writes of Rina's despair and frustration so well. So many women were trapped in the lifestyle and there was no way out, without ruining one's reputation or worse, losing one's children. When Katharina is approached by the FBI and asked to help with an investigation, she is more then eager to do something of value outside her house. I enjoyed this book so much. I felt the desperation in the beginning and then my pulse quickened during the "espionage" scenes. A well-written book about a time when women of intelligence were meant to be happy just being mothers.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

Katharina (Rina) is a bright young woman, she can speak 4 languages and was an interpreter at the newly formed United Nations in New York. She falls in love and marries Tom Edgeworth, a wealthy paediatric surgeon. Rina is now a stay at home mother to two children and she is bored. The gala events, the glamorous parties and the life as the wife of a prominent ambitious surgeon isn’t what she imagined her life would become. Unbelievably, one day, she is approached by the FBI to become an informer to spy on a former boyfriend who is now a communist and Russian spy. Life certainly becomes interesting when she agrees.

A Woman of Intelligence is an enjoyable read, it has many twists and turns. It is also very descriptive of life in New York in the 1950s which I found interesting.

Katharina looks to have the perfect life, she’s married to Tom Edgeworth a successful pediatric surgeon, and she lives in a beautiful apartment in Manhattan and has two healthy little boys. The woman who can speak four languages, worked as a translator for the United Nation’s, had a busy social life and is now struggling under the pressure of motherhood. Katharina's the daughter of immigrants, her family moved back to Switzerland, she’s on her own and has no support.

When Tom wanted to have children, Rina assumed he would be home sometimes to see her and the children, he’s too busy working and raising money for the hospital. In 1954, Tom’s role was to provide for his family, its Rina’s to look after the children and not complain about it. She loves her boys, being a mother isn’t easy and her eldest son Gerrit is a real handful.

After an extremely bad day Katharina loses the plot, Tom isn’t happy with her behavior, sends her off for a short holiday and it’s a disaster. When she’s approached by the FBI and asked to join them as informant and she grabs the opportunity. Of course she can’t tell anyone what she’s doing, how will Rina juggle full time motherhood, snoopy neighbors and hide what she’s doing from Tom?

Katharina is the perfect for the role, as a past boyfriend Jacob Gornev is now a communist and a Soviet spy. Rina becomes Hanna Graf, she attends communist meetings, carries stolen government documents and film from Washington D.C. to Manhattan. Soon Rina’s life is extremely complicated, things begin to unravel, and Tom thinks she’s either hitting the bottle or having an affair?

Most mothers would understand how Rina felt, she lost herself and her husband Tom is a complete tosser. The story at times was a bit over the top, thanks to NetGalley for my copy of A Woman of Intelligence and three and a half stars from me.