The third book in Stephanie Graves' Olive Bright Series, A Courage Undimmed, is a fun story that follows our Olive as she works to assist the war effort with her pigeons and solves local murders that the police can't seem to figure out. This time, a charlatan who was pronouncing death on a navel ship drops dead during a séance, and Olive is right there when it happens. As she tries to figure out who would cause the lady's death, of which she had several who would wish it, Olive also has to fight her growing feelings for Jamie, her captain and "pretend" boyfriend.
I have enjoyed all of the stories in the series and I find Olive to be an engaging young lady with a brilliant future. I can't wait to see what else happens!
thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review. All opinions are my own.

It is totally my fault that I requested this book from NetGalley without noticing that it was the third in a series. As such, I'm reviewing it based on the story and writing - and ignoring the parts of the book that make it not really work as a stand-alone. It wasn't written as a stand alone book, it was meant to be read third.

The story was engaging and fun (seances, murder, citizen detective, wartime intrigue, pigeons, sexism/feminism, romance, etc), and the writing style fit the story perfectly. I would be interested in backtracking and reading the first two based on reading this one. I'd recommend reading them in order.

Thanks to NetGalley for early access!

I love a good series and have quite enjoyed the first two Olive Bright mysteries. I was delighted to have a DRC of the upcoming third book in the series, A Courage Undimmed. Thank you Netgalley and Kensington Books for my review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

I must confess this one is my favorite of the series. I believe it’s because we are able to really see Olive grow and figure out what she wants. I also liked the direction her and captain Jameson Aldridge takes. And really who doesn’t appreciate when lieutenant commander Ian Fleming makes an appearance, with what seems to be the promise of another cameo in a future book.

What also struck me were the historical details within the story. The authors note at the end is a must read is it sheds further light on some of these events. As you might be able to tell I will be picking up more books in this series as they are written.

This is the third novel in the Olive Bright series by Stephanie Graves. Set in the village of Pipley, Olive Bright is still reeling from the enlistment of her older brother Lewis and best friend George when she is recruited by the mysterious Captain Jamie Aldridge to serve the war effort. Nearby Brickendonbury Manor has been commandeered by the Special Operations Executive, as Station XVII for industrial sabotage training. Olive is spunky, headstrong and impetuous, she is determined to do her bit. In the past Olive was a British pigeoneer and proud of the role her racing birds have played in the war effort. However, now there is a murder to solve. I have enjoyed reading these Olive Bright stories and if there are more will read those as well.

November 1941. Outside the small English village of Pipley, the Special Operations Executive has set up “Station XVII”, a top secret site for the training of agents who will eventually operate behind enemy lines. Olive Bright is on the staff as a member of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY). She has also been recruited to train and supply racing pigeons for missions in occupied Europe. But now there’s a new station commander. And he doesn’t believe that women should have any role in fighting the war, and that includes the training of pigeons for undercover operations. So he’s given Olive an assignment he thinks worthy of her training. Escort Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming of Royal Navy Intelligence on a tour of Station XVII. But Fleming has ulterior motives, and immediately drags Olive along with him into the village to find it’s newest resident.

Mrs. Velda Dunbar claims to have the ability to “speak to those souls who have passed beyond this world.” In a very strange episode in the village she makes contact with a seaman from the HMS Bartholomew, a ship on which are stationed several residents of the village.

“Eight hundred sixty-two souls perished on the twenty-fifth of November, among them Captain David Rodery. I was beside him when he went.”

Is there a possibility that Mrs Dunbar’s abilities were legitimate? Olive is pretty certain that it’s all a hoax, but when several of the villagers arrange a seance with Mrs Dunbar, she decides to attend…just in case. Unfortunately, this particular medium wasn’t able to see her own death coming.

This is the third book in the Olive Bright series, but it is the first one that I’ve read. While I’m sure it would have helped me to understand some plot points better if I had read the previous books, it was not absolutely necessary and didn’t dim my enjoyment at all. The author does very well at weaving together life on the home-front with actual historic events, people, and little-known facts from WWII.


The character of Olive is particularly engaging. While she is an intelligent and strong individual, she is also quite sensitive, vulnerable, and questioning of her own abilities. I will definitely be going back to read the earlier books so that I can understand more regarding her relationship with Captain Jameson Aldridge. Jamie Aldridge was a bit of an enigma in this book so I’d like to have a better grasp on the character’s backstory.

My one complaint is that the mystery often took a backseat to other aspects of the story. This resulted in an pretty uneven narrative as it jumped from the murder, to Olive’s aspiration to be an agent, to the business of Station XVII and it’s agents, to Olive’s relationship with Jamie Aldridge, and back to the murder.

That being said, this was overall an interesting story and it made for an entertaining and engaging read. I’ll definitely be going back to read the others in the series.

Source: NetGalley and Kensington

Yay to Netgalley for allowing me to read the ARC of the newest Olive Bright mystery! Olive Bright, daughter of the local vet and, like her father, a pigeoneer (one who breeds and trains racing pigeons), continues to help the British war effort by volunteering the Bright birds for messenger service. As a FANY (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry) volunteer, she also works at Bricktonbury Manor, headquarters of Baker Street, a top-secret World War II spy organization, under the aegis of Jameson Aldridge (her feigned love interest), but hopes to become an SOE agent who would be dropped into Nazi-occupied France.

Alas, Baker Street has a new commander, who thinks women have no place on the front lines; he not only tells Olive her pigeons may not be needed any longer, but assigns her to escort an annoying Royal Navy officer, who's eager to interrogate a new resident of the village of Pipley, a Mrs. Dunbar who claims to be a spirit medium. In her first appearance in the village, Mrs. Dunbar said she was in contact with the dead souls of a British battleship on which several residents of the village served. Now everyone's uneasy, including the Naval representative, one Ian Fleming, who tells Olive that the ship is fine, but Mrs. Dunbar knows too many unique details for a civilian. But when Olive takes Fleming to a seance where Mrs. Dunbar dies, the question is whodunnit and why.

I love these books and the characters, but this latest one fell slightly short of the mark for me at the beginning. I think it's because I've read one too many mystery books centered around spirit mediums who are murdered. Plus Jamie is missing for the first half of the book, so a lot of the sparring between Olive and Jamie that brightened the previous two books is missing here. The solution to the mystery is rather pedestrian, too. Positives: we get a look behind the scenes at a wartime Christmas, and when Jamie does return he has a great surprise for Olive, and the training that Olive is observing is based on a real-life spy mission during the war.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from Kensington Books and #NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Intrigue and thrills abound, you won't want to put this one down.

Olive Bright has her hands full with her work as a FANNY, her work with her pigeons, and her family, but she manages to find some time to devote to finding the murderer of a new resident to Pipley, one who claims to communicate with the dead. She’d already ruffled enough feathers to create plenty of suspects.

The mystery is intriguing, the historical details are fascinating, but where Graves really excels is in pulling the reader right into the story. Pipley feels like a real British village during wartime. The characters give me all the feels of Call the Midwife or All Creatures Great and Small, but with an intrepid sleuth. This is a series you can really lose yourself in—and I think you should!

Delightful third entry in the Olive Bright series by Stephanie Graves. Set in the village of Pipley, Olive Bright is still reeling from the enlistment of her older brother Lewis and best friend George when she is recruited by the mysterious Captain Jamie Aldridge to serve the war effort. Nearby Brickendonbury Manor has been commandeered by the Special Operations Executive, as Station XVII for industrial sabotage training. Headstrong and impetuous, Olive is determined to do her bit.

A newcomer to the Pipley, a psychic, makes several startling predictions affecting several of the villagers. What she didn't predict was her own death at a seance arranged to connect several villagers with their lost loved ones. Olive races around the countryside on a motorcycle juggling her duties to her family, her family's loft of pigeons, Station XVII, all the while trying to find out what happened to the victim, Mrs. Velda Dunbar.

A Courage Undimmed weaves together real events and people -- such as Operation Anthropoid and Ian Fleming (Navy Commander and future author of James Bond -- into an atmospheric story of life in a small English village on the homefront, with a fresh twist. Olive's work training carrier pigeons and the work of Station XVII are less familiar even for avid readers of WWII fiction. The book brings big changes for Olive and reading the series in order is recommended, but the book easily works as a stand-alone, as well. Highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington for the opportunity to read this eARC! I can't wait for Olive's next adventure!

#ACourageUndimmed #NetGalley