I loved this book! It was a page turner, and I nearly completed it in one reading. Josie and Arlette were resistance workers in France, but one small mistake caused them to be sent to Ravensbruck. Arlette went with her baby, and Josie found her mother there. After the war Arlette works in Paris and mourns the loss of her child to the prison. Josie works for the US Army intelligence service and is devoted to finding the doctor who tortured her mother at Ravensbruck. They join again when Josie gets a lead about Dr. Snow, and Arlette gets a lead about her lost child. Together they stumble upon a nefarious new plot by Nazis to again cleanse the world. One caveat--I suspect the French resistance might have vetted their new members a little more carefully than what was described in the book. That aside, it was a compelling story. I received an arc and was in no may influenced to write a positive review..

Ramona Thompson

The Golden Doves by Martha Hall Kelly is a riveting story about WWII and two young women who dared to serve their country and how it changed their lives. Told between war time and the nineteen fifties, and between both women's point of view, the story will leave you hoping for more. Josie is now a US Army special officer, spending her day finding Nazis before the Russians do. Arlette works at a Paris bakery and is searching for her son who was taken during the war. The two women were known as the Golden Doves and delivered decoded messages to the allies to help defeat Hitler. I really enjoyed the book and can't wait to see what happens next!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

This is quite a different take on a WWII novel. In fact it mostly takes place seven years after the war’s end.

The premise revolves around two very close friends who survived the Ravensbrück concentration camp. One is a Lieutenant in the US Army now. She is actually a Nazi Hunter and has now been assigned to find the man who ran Ravensbrück and bring him to the US to be a carefully monitored scientist for the government. But it infuriates Josie that these former Nazis are living a cushy, if closely supervised, life.

The other friend, Arlette, whose son was taken from her when he was only two, is living in Paris, working in a café and helping other female survivors. She lives to find her son, whom she is convinced is alive. She is visited by a lawyer who claims her son might be in a children’s camp (kind of an orphanage) in French Guiana.

Josie and Arlette were actually spies for the Resistance in Paris, and it was because they were caught that they were interred in the concentration camp. You should probably know that this book is very sad in places. In places, there are very accurate descriptions of life in a concentration camp. It is hard to image humans treating other humans in such a way. But it was real. You will learn more about the awfulness of WWII than you probably want to know.

If an historical novel had a baby with a thriller, this would be that book. It was incredibly tense in places, and yet so fascinating. I would pickup the book, read for a while, then do something else, and then find I really needed to go back and read some more. People who read Lilac Girls will know more of what to expect from Kelly. But you not have to read one to appreciate the other. And I expect there are more novels to come, perhaps even withJosie and Arlette. Kudos to Martha Hall Kelly for helping us remember.

* Received a copy for review.*
I have loved all the books in this series. This is the first book that is not connected Ted directly through the Farraday family.
Josie is in a complicated position. She’s in the army and has been tracking down Nazi scientists, not to put them on trial but to bring them to the US under operation paperclip. She has now been tasked with finding the dr who murdered her mother.
Arlette is determined to find the son they took from her in Ravensbruk. She finds herself in a dangerous situation with Nazis who have escaped detection and are still being terrible.
Although I didn’t love it as much as the other books, it is still an interesting and important story.

Told in alternating voices with chapters either in the "now" or "then" The Golden Doves portrays the story of two young women and how they were affected by the Nazi occupation of their towns on the French/German border. 17-year-old Arlette is strongly influenced by the Hitler Youth and as her young boyfriend marches off to war, she finds herself pregnant and alone. Josie an American with a Jewish mother is the daughter of an American diplomat who moves his family to France just as the Germans take over Paris. Finding themselves thrown together, the two must gather information for the French Resistance and do it without getting caught. As their information is extremely accurate, the Nazis have placed a high price on their heads, dubbing them the "Golden Doves." In the "after" chapters, Arlette is on a quest to find her son who was taken from her at one of the Kinder camps. Given new information which lures her to a Caribbean island, Arlette discovers that much more is going on at this "camp" for orphaned boys than the brochures would lead one to believe. When Josie figures out that Arlette is in danger, she flies to the island and the "Golden Doves" are reunited in their quest to disrupt Nazi activities. The alternating chapters work well. Readers will need to take note of the date changes at the header of each chapter to keep the story line in order. Based upon real women spies and the ordeals suffered by the Nazi "doctors" who experimented on their prisoners, this is a read that is hard to put down.

A well written book as always from this author, but I do wish she would write another book about World War I, which I don’t think gets enough coverage in the genre. I’m pretty maxed out on WWII and the Nazis in general; I’d like to learn more about other wars and give the horror they inflicted on the world a rest. That being said, her books are always well researched and well written, and I will always give them a shot!

American Josie Anderson and Parisian Arlette LaRue have a history together. During WWII in Paris these two women live and worked together in the French Resistance in an effort to help stop and impede the Nazis in France .. they were known as The Golden Doves. The Golden Doves were soon caught by the Gestapo. Josie, Arlette and her baby son ended up at Ravensbruck. What happens to Josie, Arlette and Willie at this concentration camp has serious and significant consequences as to how this story pans out.

In 1952 Arlette is back in Paris working in a café and Josie in back in America and now works for the U.S. Army Intelligence. Bound by their history, the Golden Doves will risk it all as they each head into two dual operations; Arlette in search of her son Willie and Josie assigned to hunt down and bring the notorious Nazi Dr. Snow back to America before the Russians find Dr. Snow. The Doves journey will take them across Europe to French Guiana where they will uncover secrets and more atrocities being performed on local children.

The Golden Doves is an intense, compelling and at times suspenseful read. I was so caught up in this storyline I just had to read one more chapter. Trying to figure out who should the Doves trust and who should not be trusted changed with each chapter. The twist at the end .. I did not see coming.

What I really loved about this novel is what I learnt that I knew nothing about. I knew very little about Ravensbruck nor about the secret intelligence program in the United States that brought Nazi scientists to America after the war. Martha Hall Kelly’s author notes left me in tears and shaking my head.

Thank you, Martha Hall Kelly, Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine Ballantine Book and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. This novel is due to be released on April 18, 2023.

Reviews are posted on Goodreads, Bookbub and Facebook. Reviews will be posted on release day on Amazon and B&N.

The Golden Doves by Martha Hall Kelly is a return for the author to the aftermath of World War 2. Even 7 years after the liberation of the concentration camps, Josie continues to revisit her time at the women’s camp and is devoting all her resources to hunting down any nazis who escaped prosecution. Her main target is Dr. Snow, an evil and elusive scientist who experimented on prisoners at the camp. I found the information included about Operation Paperclip and its ramifications disturbing - the fact they are historically accurate is even more shocking. Thank you to the author for bringing this piece of history back to our conscience. The story concurrently traces the path of Josie’s friend, Arletta, a Lebensborn mother and fellow camp survivor who searches desperately for news of her sons fate when he was removed from camp. I did not always find the adventures of the two heroines quite believable - but did truly enjoy the story. I would highly recommend this book. I received an ARC, all opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGallery and publisher for allowing me to read the arc of The Golden Doves. It was quite long but I enjoyed every single page. I usually steer away from war novels, historical fiction, and nonfiction due to the subject matter. (Relatives had many members of their German-born families exterminated during The Holocaust).. .I was hesitant to read this book but happy that I did. It brought to light many facts that I was unaware of and made me look further into the subject. I don’t particularly enjoy different timelines in each chapter, but this book handled it to my satisfaction. I personally don’t explain what a book is about because you can read it from many others. The Book was well-written, factual in parts ,and the storyline had you wanting to keep reading to find out what would happen in many instances rather that only one or two. It felt like a real mystery,a drama of sorrow,intrigue, and I sci-fi all rolled into one.

In The Golden Doves, our 2 narrators are Josie and Arlette, young women who met during WWII in Paris and worked together for the French Resistance. Josie is an American, daughter of a diplomat, and Arlette is half French, half German from Alsace a region of France near the German border.

This book is told in alternating timelines, between 1944/45 and 1952. The story opens with the timeline in 1952, after the war is over, with Arlette living in Paris again, and Josie working for secret Army operations in TX. Both women suffered greatly in the women's camp Ravensbruck during the war, and carry the mental, emotional, and physical scars of the war with them in 1952.

This book is fairly long, but at the same time, it felt like the author was packing too much into the plot. These young woman are spies, they are internment camp prisoners, one even brushes with the Lebensborn home program, there's murder and danger, but all of it is briefly examined. The main plotline of the story, in French Guiana, takes until nearly 75% into the book to really develop and come to a climax. Up until that point, the book is filling in their backstory, and honestly I think it took until about 40% for the story to truly get interesting for me.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, it was well written and clearly well researched, but at the same time, it felt like there was too much going on. And at certain points, the narrators relationship and unique voices felt unrealistic, I can't really put my finger on why, but especially during their time as spies in Paris, it just didn't feel authentic.

Thank you to Random House Ballantine and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

Thank you to @netgalley and Random House for this ARC. Josie and Arlette are both recruited in Paris by the resistance. Josie would listed to radio chatter and Arlette would deliver the messages to the next in the chain. With the secrets they uncovered and the amazing work they were doing, they were soon know as The Golden Doves. After a chain of events, they were arrested and held in Ravensbruck, a camp that specialized in unimagainable medical experiments. Flash forward, Josie, who was always an American is now working for the FBI working to find the war criminals that escaped justice. Arlette is looking for the son that was taking from her at the camp. Will justice finally be done? Yet another amazing read from Martha Hall Kelly! #TheGoldenDoves #MarthaHallKelly #RandomHouseBallatine #March2023

I really enjoyed this book! There was suspense, twists and the moving timelines kept me engaged and eager to learn what happened next.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Lilac Girls so having call backs to the characters was amazing!

100% recommended!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The author did an amazing job of weaving some fictional characters into history. It was the perfect mix of the two!

Excellent story reaching a quality tempo in suspense, romance, and intrigue. I’d recommend this book for all readers fiction and non fiction as the research shows you it is a very plausible story based on the heartbreaking story in the Ravensbruck Camps.

Give it your time and attention this history is an important part of understanding the human sacrifices of war.

4 stars for a historical fiction thriller. The book opens in 1952, at Ft. Bliss, Texas, USA. The 2 main characters are Arlette and Josie, who were spies in WWII Paris, France. The book alternates between Josie and Arlette as narrators and goes back and forth between 1952 and WWII.
The title comes from their nickname, given to them by British Intelligence. But the Germans are looking for them, because the intelligence that they have provided has been damaging to the German war effort.
There some truly evil people in this book, some of whom are real, and others based on real people.
It is a very long book, 578 pages and took me 6 days to read. I recommend it to historical fiction fans.
Thanks to Ballantine Books for sending me this eARC through NetGalley.

Going back to the world of her previous book "Lilac Girls", author Kelly tells the story of two girls who act as spies for the resistance during WWII, their harrowing experiences during the war, and their time after the war. One searches for her lost son, while the other one tries to track down a Nazi war criminal. I found the story to be suspenseful and intriguing.

WOW! What a great read. Very well written. This book has it all, Suspense, trials, love, romance, righting of wrongs, friendship. Love this historical fiction book. I learned a great deal by reading this book. Must read! I was given an advanced reader copy of this book by NetGalley and I am freely leaving my review.

Wow! The Golden Doves is so well written. I was on the edge of my seat while reading the book. It is a well researched historical novel based on real people and event.

Thank you #NetGalley, #RandomHouse, #BallantineBooks, #MarthaHallKelly and #TheGoldenDoves for the advance readers copy for my honest review.

The Golden Doves, by Martha Hall Kelly, is a well-researched historical fiction novel set in the WWII era. It is easy to connect with the characters and an interesting plot will keep you turning the pages. Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for providing me with an ARC ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Martha Hall Kelly does another marvelous job of bring the atrocities of WWII back to life in The Golden Doves. Many people don't know all that the American government did to support Cold War efforts against Russia included sponsoring German Nazi's in the United States. German's who should have stood trial for their crimes were given jobs and housing for working for the American government less than 10 years after WWII.

Kelly brings to life the story of two French Resistance fighters. One a young single mother, the other the American half-Jewish daughter of an Ambassador. Working as a radio team, often one of the most deadly covert jobs during the war, these two fictional women provided German intelligence to the British that supported the D-Day effort and eventually were captured and sent to Ravenbruck concentration camp.

After the war Arlette is living in Paris, scraping by working is a cafe with other Ravenbruck survivors, never loses hope to be reunited with her missing son. Josie is now working for the U.S. Army Intelligence Service tracking down Nazi's under Operation Paperclip. When Josie gets sent on a mission to track down the elusive Dr. Snow, she and Arlette get pulled back into their Golden Dove days.

Told in alternating perspectives with flashbacks back to during WWII, Josie and Arlette's missions take them around the globe searching for answers.

Kelly did a wonderful job using her research to bring so many ugly things to life. These are the stories we need to remember so history doesn't repeat itself.

Thank you to NetGalley, Ballentine & Martha Hall Kelly for and advanced copy in exchange for a review.