The Jazz Club Spy is working in a somewhat disreputable club in NYC. While Giddy Brodsky is selling cigars and cigarettes to the gentlemen (who may not be that at all), she is also gathering information for Hattie, her best friend and the club’s popular “fortune teller.” But Giddy has dreams of a life beyond this gig. She had fled pogroms and poverty in Ukraine with her family. Their dire living situation and historical tragedy makes her want to be a successful entrepreneur and cosmetologist a la Estee Lauder!
At the club, Giddy is drawn to an exceedingly handsome and mysterious man. Soon she realizes that they may have a mutual goal in tracking down a bad person from her past. But at what cost to her?
The author does a good job of capturing 1930s NYC as well as the past in Ukraine. Typically, her female lead has more moxie than is good for her. Exploits take unexpected turns as Giddy ups her risk factors. Good historical fiction read. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing this title.

A fun read and you can't help but root for the main character, but I found a lot of it, as historical fiction, to be implausible. I also felt like the storyline wasn't fully developed in some parts and I was interested to know more about the characters. Still, though, it was engaging and I read straight through it despite some flaws. If you like your historical fiction on the lighter side as opposed to the meatier side, you will most likely enjoy this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. A cute story!

3.5 ⭐️

It’s been a while since I’ve picked up a historical fiction book, but the premise of The Jazz Club Spy intrigued me. Set during WWII, this story is primarily located in the United States and brings to alive tenement life in NYC. There are elements of suspense that held my attention, and Giddy is a very likeable FMC. Even a reluctant WWII/HF reader would likely find this to be a solid read.

While I appreciate the concept of this book, and the fact that there is a mixture of both historical fiction and suspense, this book took me a long time to read. It wasn’t until I was about 60% of the way through the book that I actually picked up interest in the plot. Giddy is a likable character, as is her beloved brother Arnold. I think that readers who enjoy character development and backstories will appreciate the first half of the book much more than readers who like to be captivated and catapulted into a plot. Overall, I’m glad that I finished the book, but I will not be putting it on my list of “best books I’ve read in 2023”

Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you, NetGalley and publishers.

The Jazz Club Spy will have you cheering for Giddy, a scrappy, resourceful heroine. Not even the Great Depression or her family’s suffering in the pogrom that killed most of their village in Russia can keep her spirits down. Working as a cigarette girl in a speakeasy, she’s helping her mom to support the family and also saving money to open her dream cosmetics business. One day on her way home she sees one of the Cossacks who ruined their lives and she sets out to find him for reasons of revenge. She discovers that he’s part of a plot that threatens the safety of both her old home and her new country. Along the way she discovers the potential for a dazzling new life and perhaps even love, but who can she truly trust?

An implausible in spots but compulsively readable and different tale centered around the run up to WWII. Giddy's family was destroyed in so many ways by a pogrom inflicted by Cossacks on their village in Ukraine. They immigrated to the US but nothing was the same- and with secrets and lies that Giddy will eventually uncover. She's working as cigarette girl in a jazz club when she spots one of the Cossacks on the Lower East Side- and she engages with Carter, an official at Ellis Island in her quest to find him and make him pay. Turns out that Carter wants to find him too and also that there's more to his story than Giddy could have expected. Carter pays her enough that she is able to open a storefront to sell her skin treatments and cosmetics but then there's a fair amount of melodrama and intrigue. There are some holes in the plot and some illogical things but I read the whole thing, racing to find out what would happen. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Interesting read.

Although the premise and plot lines seemed improbable, the story was still intriguing. I did want to know how it would end, Would she find satisfaction and perhaps forgiveness. A lot to imagine.

While I enjoyed this novel. there was simply too much "suspension of disbelief" for it to be plausible. A young immigrant gets recruited to spy for the Immigration service? She finds a gun at her coat-check job? figures out that it's all (SPOILER) a double cross? escapes gun fights (multiple)? It just was too much to set aside.

Sure, there are several improbabilities in this story of a refugee from the Cossacks, now a cigarette girl and aspiring entrepreneur in a Manhattan nightclub in 1939, who becomes an unofficial spy to help prevent an assassination that could have serious global ramifications. And yes, there are a few expository info dumps that could have been handled more artfully. But I enjoyed this story nonetheless. Giddy, our narrator and protagonist, is an entertaining companion, and the descriptions of the Lower East Side felt real. While I did predict one or two plot twists, there were others that surprised me. All in all, this was an engaging, fast-paced read, perfect for those who prefer their thrillers lite and their protagonists sassy.

Thank you, NetGalley and Gallery Books, for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was so excited to hear Roberta RIch was coming out with a new book! Her ability to create a sense of time and place is unparalleled among historical fiction authors, and I am always assured that when I open one of her books, I will be in for a treat! This was no different. A fascinating and well-researched spy novel with just the right amount of suspence, intrigue, and perfect characterization had me turning the pages all through the night. Highly recommended, and if you haven't read her other books, they are also brilliant!

Great descriptions of New York and the jazz club scene in the late 1930s, with the shadow of WW2 hanging over the characters. Giddy Brodsky is working in a jazz club as a cigarette girl when she stumbles into a plot that could drag the United States into the war. She must also come to terms with her family's past, including their violent expulsion from Russia 20 years earlier after a band of Cossacks attached and destroyed their shtetl. The author ties together a number of disparate strands in the end. Giddy is an engaging heroine and hopefully this is the first of many books featuring her. Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC.