Rich with historical detail and simmering with suspense, in THE LUNAR HOUSEWIFE Caroline Woods paints a portrait of a time and place which will haunt the reader. An ambitious, smart female journalist tries to make her way in the dog-eat-dog world of early 1950s journalism...until she comes to suspect the government is pulling the information strings of the magazine for which she writes. The cameos of real historical characters--Hemingway, Baldwin, et al--are worth the price of admission. An intriguing, wonderfully researched and provocative historical novel--highly recommended.

My thanks to Doubleday and to Netgalley for the pleasure of the early read.

First off…I’m not a huge lover of historical fiction, but I’m trying to branch out of my comfort zone!

This was really good - really intriguing, semi-mysterious, totally kept me thinking and in a way guessing.

At times, it felt a bit over drawn out and tedious, but overall this was really well written!

This is a smart, creative story of a writer who discovers and explores the government influence in the publication world during the Cold War. The author's note reveals this is based on truth with some characters loosely based on real people. Hemingway's role was enlightening. The twist regarding Louise's book, "The Lunar Housewife," was clever. Overall, this is a provocative read; could have dug deeper, but the pace and alternating format of Louise's POV and "The Lunar Housewife" excerpts works.

Thank you Doubleday Books and #NetGalley for the ARC.

Louise Lefthauser is a journalist on the rise, even if she has to use a man’s name to do it. It’s hard for a woman in the 1950s to be taken seriously as a writer, but while she’s secretly penning a novel, she’s getting by as a freelance journalist for the literary magazine edited by her boyfriend Joe (who is possibly pushing propaganda for the CIA).

I loved everything about this novel. The Lunar Housewife is the book Louise is writing about an American woman who defects to Russia during the Cold War to live on the moon with a Russian cosmonaut. It reflects so much of Louise’s own experience. I loved seeing her come into her own through this novel. It includes cameos from famous authors (Mr. Hemingway, obviously) and the intrigue of CIA agents influencing the writing in American magazine (this really happened). Please, please add this to your summer reading. I know so many of you who will love this one.
•
•
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Lunar Housewife
by Caroline Woods
Pub Date: June 7, 2022
Doubleday
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. Peppered with cameos from real-life luminaries such as Truman Capote and James Baldwin, and full of period detail and nail-biting tension, Caroline Woods channels 1950s New York glamour as Louise's investigation brings her face to face with shocking secrets, brutal sexism, and life or death consequences. Deeply researched and propulsive, The Lunar Housewife is a historical thriller rich with meaning for modern readers.
Great book!
4 stars

THE LUNAR HOUSEWIFE is entertaining and suspenseful and filled with accurate historical details. I particularly enjoyed how the author drops us right into the scene, making us feel as though we are experiencing what happens right along with the characters. There's an almost frenetic energy to the narrative that takes some getting used to, but keeps the plot moving. Although I wasn't quite sure what I thought of the parallel story at first, I got used to it and grew to appreciate how it added to the novel as a while. I could definitely see this one as a movie.

NYC, 1953. Louise is a former waitress, now writing some pieces for a magazine and hoping to publish fiction. That’s her façade for now, but what she really writes for a magazine is not necessarily something she’d be boasting about. Her boyfriend, Joe, and his partner found the Downtown magazine and Hemingway’s request to be interviewed by a girl could be her big break. She gets the first scoop on his upcoming book and there might be more to it as he has just come back from Cuba. Then, she finds out that Joe might be part of something secretive and might have been a snitch on a colleague in his previous job. And that’s when suspense starts building with many twists and turns.

There are a few moments where scenes were described for longer that I’d like, for ex. when she was interviewing Hemingway. It was originally presented, but a bit too stretched out.

The period details are shown (not told), which is commendable. The characters are well-developed, but I found some parts such as Louise not wanting to get married, because she didn’t want Joe to meet her parents as she was ashamed of something or another cheating on a spouse as cliché. I would prefer to see something more original since these are fictional characters for most of the part.

There is also a parallel story, the one Louise is writing. I know it serves a purpose, but I personally don’t like this kind of format.

If you like plot-driven stories with well-developed characters that weave a true fact of the past, in this case, Americans creating propaganda during the Cold War, then this might be a perfect book for you.

Writer Louise Leithauser is on the rise as she earns freelance writing jobs for a hot new literary journal edited by her new boyfriend, while in her free time she works on her first novel... Until she starts to suspect her boyfriend and his magazine might be pushing propaganda for the CIA. There's so much to love about this book: the intrigue of secret CIA agents influencing American magazines (true story!), cameos by famous writers who Louise works with along the way (hello, Hemingway!), and watching Louise come into her own as both a writer and an independent woman in 1950s America. I admit, before I started reading I wasn't entirely sold on the novel-within-a-novel where we get to read Louise's work in progress, but let me tell you--it works and on so many levels.

To be frank, this is the book I wish I'd written, but kudos to Caroline Woods for doing it a thousand times better than I ever could.