A Fifth Avenue wife, happily married with two children is recruited by the FBI to become an informant. While from the outside, her life may look picture perfect — it certainly is not. Full of espionage, excitement, and the terror of having so far to fall when you're at the very top.

Thank you to Karin Tanabe and Netgalley for the ARC. If you can get over the poor girl attracting the rich handsome doctor and the mother-in-law that dislikes her, her bratty kid that she can't handle, and some far-fetched NYCity escapades, you'll enjoy this book. Katharina was sooo much more intelligent when she was translating at the UN. I would have appreciated Tanabe following that storyline tighter versus the other make-believe.

Thank you to @netgalley and @macmillian.audio for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The beginning of this book hooked me in as Rina was struggling with her children, just as it begins to hail. This is something that most mothers can relate to. Another thing that was easy to relate to is trying to find your identity again after having children, especially when you want so much more than to just be a mother.

I began to struggle with this book when she started sneaking around to fulfill her needs as a person. I’m much more in favor of communication rather than hiding. I did find the spy aspect to be intriguing, I just couldn’t get on board with how the main character went about being involved. It all seemed very selfish. I respect that being a housewife is not for everyone, and that was the expectation during this era. This book seemed to any positive messages.

2.5 stars – Rounding to 3 stars for Goodreads

This book was a little bit different than what I was expecting but I don't consider that a bad thing. The Cold War spying aspect is what got me to read the book in the first place but I actually found myself most interested in the main character's dilemma of balancing motherhood and wanting to have a career outside of the home. The style of writing is very descriptive with dialogue which doesn’t move the story forward.

Enjoyed us as my first audiobook. from Netgalley
Great reminder of what women give up to fulfill traditional roles despite their extensive and impressive educations. Historically, the protagonist is placed in an interesting time when bucking the system was far from welcome.

The premise of A Woman of Intelligence is intriguing and why I wanted to read this book by Karin Tanabe. However, it fell a little flat for me and I found the dialogue to be difficult to get through. It was not as spy/action packed as I had hoped it would be.

I was really drawn in by the beginning of this book. I could really identify with Rina and her trying to cope with the pressures put on women in regards to motherhood. I could also see myself in her dealing with her loss of identity as she transitioned from career driven woman to 1950's stay at home wife and mother. Man what a hard change that was in the 2000's. I couldn't imagine how much harder it would have been in the 1950's.

All of this to say, that after the initial meeting and setup of Rina's character this novel lost me. I was very intrigued by the concept of a wife/mother being approach to help the FBI with some cold war spy missions. This however just felt like a game. There was no real intrigue or suspense to the setup. If anything I REALLY grew to not like Rina at all by the end of the book. She was very selfish and I really didn't appreciate the message the novel sent to women about motherhood and becoming a housewife. I know that lifestyle is definitely not for all women, but I felt there was no positive message about Rina's life as a mother, she ONLY looked at it as a downer and that was just not ok with me.

Over all I felt this book lacked in pacing and drawing readers into the story. It very much read as a mother complaining about her life in her "gilded cage" who was willing to risk it all for a little adventure. Just not my cup of tea.

A Woman of Intelligence by Karin Tanabe covers an era not often examined in historical fiction, and I am here for it. It examines the period post-WWII, which is a fascinating time in both American history and in terms of the starting of the feminist movement.

Katharina Edgeworth has the life many would aspire to with wealth, an ideal husband, and healthy sons, but she wants to do more with her language skills and intellect. When given the chance to use those skills to infiltrate the life of an old beau to see if he's working for the KGB, she knows it is her chance to escape her gilded cage.

While some may deem this book a bit slow, I enjoyed the society and spy elements of the book.

The narration is lovely as well.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

In post WWII New York, Katharina Edgeworth seems to have it all. She is married to Tom Edgeworth who is a pediatric surgeon and the heir to a shipping fortune. She lives in a large apartment right off Central Park. She has two healthy boys that she is raising. But she is bored, bored, bored.
Rina, as she is known, was a United Nations translator before her marriage. She is fluent in multiple languages and her life was full of busy work in the days and tons of parties and affairs with men from all over the world at night. Now her biggest intellectual challenge is deciding if today will be a zoo day or a museum day. Her boys are holy terrors but she rarely if ever disciplines them. Tom is gone most days until the family is asleep. Rina is rarely if ever away from the boys since Tom doesn't believe in babysitters or nannies.

Rina feels her mind atrophying and her sense of self disappearing. So when she is approached by an agent of the FBI, she is willing to listen. The government is interested in the Communist party and its members in New York. The head of the group is a former classmate and lover of Rina's and the FBI would like her to reestablish the friendship and get inside the group. Desperate for stimulation, Rina agrees.

Not only does she now have to find ways to hide her mission from her family, Rina faces other challenges. The main one is falling in love with her handler, one of the few African American men in the FBI. Soon her routine work of transporting documents is transformed when a woman she gets close to in the party is found dead. Can Rina continue to balance her two lives?

While the time period is interesting, I never connected to this novel. Rina seems whiny, constantly bemoaning her fate yet doing nothing to try to improve it. She doesn't discipline her children yet seems aghast that they are out of control. She reminisces about her pre-marriage affairs and seems all too willing to break her marriage vows the minute another man enters her orbit but her husband seems devoted to her. She is supposed to be an independent woman yet lets life and circumstances define her rather than her defining her own life. The spy story seems secondary with not much sense of how it fits into the bigger issue of the government against the Communist party. Yet the novel does outline the issues of women and their careers, the need for intellectual stimulation after marriage and the emerging issue of race relations post WW II. This book is recommended for readers of women's fiction.

A Woman of Intelligence was a story that held nothing back in regards to the very real struggle many woman might face when entering motherhood. The perceived loss of identity and freedom were described very aptly.
This story centers around a woman who is looking for something, and finds it in the offer to become a spy.
This story flowed so well, and I really understood the pushes and pulls that the lead feels throughout the story.

Katharina Edgeworth has a life that many would envy, but in A Woman of Intelligence, we find a wife and mother who feels trapped, overwhelmed and invisible. Although she has a lush life in her upscale New York apartment with her successful doctor husband, she misses her days as an interpreter at the UN. This “past life” catches up to her when she is secretly recruited by the FBI, wherein espionage ensues, all while she struggles to maintain her life as dutiful wife and mother.

Karin Tanabe’s novel of the science of spy craft and the art of homemaking was an interesting mix of intrigue and mundane domesticity under the thumb of aristocracy. There were times when Katharina (“Rina” to her friends) juggled some of the very joys and struggles that I have as a mother, although I lack her door man and housekeeper. She loved her children deeply, almost painfully. Yet there are days when she felt overpowered by the life she chose. Her chance to break out of her upper-class confinement to secretly work for the government provided her an opportunity to use her talents outside of the scope of motherhood and marriage. Fortunately I’ve been able to do this myself, although not surreptitiously, but with my husband’s blessing as I attend graduate school and also play the French Horn in local ensembles. True, Rina’s exploits might be more exciting, but this reader understands the pull to retain a sense of identity after motherhood.

A Woman of Intelligence certainly is about the intelligence community, but there is more of a focus on Rina as a woman, and her dealings within her family than I had anticipated there would be. Karin Tanable’s writing is exquisite, and while I wouldn’t remove anything she included regarding Rina’s life at home, I would have enjoyed more content on the espionage side of things. That said, this novel is superbly written and my minor quibble only comes from a place of “wanting more”.

As previously mentioned, I am in graduate school these days, so reading novels occurs less during the semester months. However, I was fortunate enough to obtain an audiobook copy of this title for review. I ended up splurging and I also bought a hard copy of the book from a local independent bookstore, but 95% of the novel was taken in via audio. Narrator Jennifer Jill Araya had quite a task before her in presenting this story. Not only were many of the characters staunchly American, but Araya also had to enunciate in accents from various countries as well, such as Russia and England. While I found her portrayal of some of the men a bit distracting (which is usually the case with most narrators when voicing the opposite sex), her ability to audibly depict the voices of these individuals from multiple cultures was very skilled. Her Russian accent in particular seemed quite authentic.

A Woman of Intelligence was a smart, heartfelt foray into the world of upper crust Manhattan, a love letter to the city of New York, and a captivating peek into the world of the FBI in the 1950s. Tanabe leaves the door open at the conclusion of the tale for the possibility of a sequel, and I for one hope that this comes to fruition. Katharina Edgeworth is truly at the beginning of her journey, and Karin Tanabe is just the woman to lead her onward into new ventures and escapades.

For many of us, when we think of the 1950s, we think about those old black-and-white TV shows that we used to watch when we stayed home from school—shows like Leave It to Beaver, with the lovably wholesome Cleaver family. But in the audio edition of A Woman of Intelligence by Karin Tanabe, a 1950s mother sets out to escape her wholesome family life...

Full review published on NightsAndWeekends.com and aired on Shelf Discovery

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! While initially it seemed the book would be about espionage and the awesomeness that comes along with it, it’s actually a story about finding yourself again. The author did a great job of highlighting the loss of self that often accompanies motherhood-your identity becomes your children, your parenting, and the ability to hold it all together when it feels like everything is falling apart. Katherina’s situation is high on my list of why I chose to remain child-free in life-I see this happen time and time again. I really enjoyed watching Katherina’s taking back of her sense of self, and admired her courage in doing so. I was able to enjoy the audio edition, and the narrator did a wonderful job bringing life and depth to the characters. In particular, she gave Katherina’s sense of frustration a powerful voice. If you are looking for a book to give you inspiration to do something empowering, then this is the book for you! Thank you to netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillian Audio for the advanced egalley and audio galley editions of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A Woman of Intelligence by Karin Tanabe is a sweeping story of life, love and language set in New York City after the end of World War II and the Red Scare! The audiobook was beautiful and captivating. How well can we really know anyone? Is a mother just a mother or does she speak five languages and is also the FBI's newest informant. Read on to find out more!

This appears to be the year of women and espionage. A Woman of Intelligence by Karin Tanabe is the story of Katarina Edgeworth, a 1950’s married woman. After leaving a job at the UN, which she loved, Katarina marries Dr. Tom Edgeworth a successful pediatric surgeon from a wealthy family. She has done what was expected from the women of that era; she got an education, got married, had children and stayed in the background. However, after the birth of two children, Katarina finds that she is lonely and that her life is both suffocating and boring, due in part to the demands of her husband and children. She does not have the happy life she envisioned. When approached by FBI agent Lee Coldwell to help her country, she makes a difficult choice. Accepting his offer opens up for Katarina a life of intrigue, danger and the opportunity to interact with people who respect her worth and her contribution to her country. This novel is a great look into the political, moral and social constraints of the 1950 while at the same time a story about love and espionage.

I gave this book 3 stars on Goodreads. It was not a bad book, it just wasn't "my thing". If you enjoy historical fiction thrillers, you might enjoy it more than I did. I wanted to like it because the overall quality of the writing was good, I just didn't connect with it as much as I hoped I would. The plot and characters fell short, in my opinion. This book dragged for me. The story was incredibly slow moving and was stagnant, at times. This book is filled with a lot of dialogue and many new plot points are introduced but I didn't find it to be very engaging.
I did listen to this in audiobook form, I enjoyed the narrator but I am not sure if I can pinpoint whether or not the audiobook made this better or worse than it would have if I read a physical copy of this book.
There is some discussion of societal issues which are done really well. Motherhood struggles are portrayed in an impactful and well-delivered way. Oppositely, topics like women's rights (overall) and racism were not as well-delivered. These issues were superficially addressed, at best.
Admittedly, historical fiction is not my most frequented genre. Sometimes, I really connect with historical fiction and sometimes I don't. Unfortunately, this was a time when I did not connect with it. I really wished that I did connect a bit more because the synopsis was great. It was the execution, for me, that fell short. Some parts of this book are great, but others were not as well-done.
As I said earlier, there are plenty of readers who appreciate historical fiction, descriptive writing, and will enjoy this story. If this book sounds intriguing to you, give it a shot! You never know, it might be a new favorite for you! While I wanted to love it, this author has other books that I enjoyed more. I would reccomend for readers 18+.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to listen to A Woman of Intelligence.
This is my honest feedback.

I found it difficult to get into the book and had to progress quite a ways before the story grabbed me and became compelling. Part of it, I believe, is the narrator. The voice and tones the narrator adopts make a huge difference as to how the reader views a character. This narrator made our heroine whiney, often breathless, and, too often, not very intelligent. That said, I have found myself frozen when confronted with something that I didn't understand or felt hurtful. Hours later, I will come up with a retort but always much too late. So, it is difficult to judge this kind of thing--only to say I was put off by the narrator's interpretation of Katerina's voice.

The arc of this book starts in WWII and a single woman with HIgher Ed degrees working in both City Hall and the United Nations. Once she marries into a wealthy family, she is made to give up all the things that interest her, stir her brain, and "become a mother." My own mother found herself in a similar position, having worked during the war, then getting married. I always suspected she didn't really want children but the times said it was what women did. My mother continued to work but took a very hard path--trying to write at home where her children were. She wasn't really available and the children couldn't get their needs met. This book probably more than any other I've read, caused me to feel so much empathy for her and women like her and the predicament they were in: no one was to talk about how hard it is to raise young children and how precious it is to have interesting work and adults to talk to.

So, when Katerina is offered a way to be useful in the world of the early 1950s, she grabs it, She, and we, meet a cast of characters that are fascinating and committed to a cause. In the end, I admired Katerina. I liked that the book did not try to have an easy or happy ending but left it up to us to see into her future.

I recommend this book more as insight into a woman's mind of that era than the historical relevance. But they do go hand in hand. As one will read.

Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy of the audiobook in return for an honest review.

Full disclosure, I closed this book after listening to 55 % of it. It was a chore to listen intently to the audiobook. 50% of the novel is about how Katharina, a U.N. Translator lives in a gilded cage and longs for her carefree single days. She is wed to a successful paediatric surgeon, is part of a wealthy family, lives on the upper east side of Manhattan and hates her life. Ugh… really??? Enter, an intelligence officer who recruits her to infiltrate a Communist organization, that just so happens to have an ex-lover of hers as one of its members.

The suspension of disbelief was entirely lacking. I felt no empathy for her character, not even when she got crapped on by a bird lol. Seriously, when over half of the novel is really about a privileged woman who pines for her single life, the plot becomes uninteresting and tedious to pay attention to. Although the genre is one of my favourites, this novel was not.

Katharina once lead a life as a career woman working for the UN. She leaves all of that behind to become a housewife and stay at home mom. When the FBI reaches out for her help in busting the KGB, how will this disturb the life Katharina has made for herself? I loved the accents and the diction of the narrator. What a fantastic book which explores feminist topics and makes comments on what it is to be a woman in society through an exciting plotline. Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for a copy of this book for an honest review.

A Woman of Intelligence is a wonderfully written novel about Katharina Edgeworth, a woman who has married into the rich Edgeworth family, leaving her life as a UN translator behind, for one of motherhood. Katharina is a very accomplished young woman; she is the daughter of immigrants, educated at Columbia University, and speaks four languages. After college, she began working as a translator for the newly formed UN and loved her job. She was not your typical woman of the 1940s. She married in her late twenties/early thirties and has struggled with her new title/job as a mother, but not just any mother, as she bears the Edgeworth last name, a very rich and powerful family in New York City. She knew that marrying her now husband meant leaving her job at the UN and staying at home taking care of their children that she bore. Katharina struggles with her purpose and her new role immensely and misses her old life, but also loves her children. An opportunity presents itself for Katharina to become more than a mother when an FBI agent approaches her and wants her to go undercover for them to help take down a KGB ring. Why Katharina? An old flame of hers from Columbia is the ring leader and the FBI believes that connection can help them get close to him. But what will this cost Katharina? Her marriage, her family, her life?

I absolutely loved A Woman of Intelligence. Historical Fiction is my favorite genre and it was nice to see a woman struggling with her new identity as a mother, and her old identity as a working woman. This theme transcends time and is relatable even now. A lot of complaints come from the fact that there was too much back story on Katharina and not enough FBI part but I really enjoyed the backstory. I think it allows the reader to really understand Katharina's struggle. The narrator was amazing and pronounced the Russian and French words and phrases beautifully. Overall, it was a wonderful book to listen to!