Thanks to NetGalley and RB Media for an ARC of this audiobook.

Books about “women of the Resistance” have had such a publication surge recently that the subject must surely come near the very top of the historical fiction category. This is a very positive development, because women did, in fact, play important roles, in greater numbers than most people know. Many of these, probably the majority, were women with no name, like Audrey Blake’s heroine Yvonne/Jacqueline.

Most of the Resistance members in this book, starting with Yvonne Rudellat, are real historical figures, and many of their exploits are based on actual events. The French-born Yvonne marries young to escape a domineering mother, only to find herself, soon after the birth of their daughter Jackie, regretting her selection of Alex, her rigid British husband. An attempt to return to France with their child and seek a divorce, much to her mother’s disapproval, ends in a near-tragedy that sends her, cowed and guilt-ridden, back to her London home. But her emotional estrangement with her husband and daughter continue on.

The story then moves nearly twenty years into the future. In 1942, the world is at war, her daughter is a married woman doing her bit for the auxiliary services, and the lonely Yvonne is sent away from every attempt to enlist because, a diminutive woman of 44, she is judged too old. Her home is blown up by a Nazi bombardment, although her family survives. Just as she is feeling despondent enough with her own seeming uselessness to think about jumping into the Thames, she is scouted by a Special Operations officer. She has skills the British need to turn the war around. She is non-descript, innocuous, “invisible,” fluently bilingual.

For Yvonne, there is no price too high for the opportunity to go to France to fight with the Resistance. She successfully completes training, with men, at a shabby Scottish estate, where their efforts to ‘test’ her only make her more determined. Quick-witted and attentive to minute detail, she becomes especially skilled with explosives. Upon graduation as one of the first female SOE operatives in the country, Yvonne carries a fake French passport that makes her 33 year old Jacqueline Gautier, borrowing her daughter’s name. Her first posting in France, under the supercilious and vacillating Raymond Flowers, is frustrating because she feels that she and her team are accomplishing little because of their incompetent leaders. She takes the reigns herself, guiding her small network through training and then strategic acts of sabotage, delay, and waste. Flowers feels threatened by her attempts to lead her own group, and their clashes grow to dangerous levels. But Jacqueline never backs down, even when the local Nazi officials and the collaborationist local police try to flush out the cell they know to be working in their midst.

The story is, as might be expected, suspenseful and intense, and it is told with attention to historical detail about the methods used on both sides. Many of these, as one of the British trainers informs them, are simply about killing them before they kill you. There is no space for moral nuances.

I found Jacqueline’s commitment to the notion that even small acts, carefully planned and carried out, can have major impact, especially interesting. Most Resistance stories involve major sabotage, such as taking out bridges and railway lines, and brutal torture and execution. These, of course, were real, but they are not the stuff of this book, which makes it stand out among the great library of others. The dual timeline is interesting, but with the switching between Jacqueline’s first-person perspective and the third-person viewpoint of Max the Nazi, as well as a fair number of transient characters, it’s frequently hard to keep things straight. The back and forth between her training in Scotland and her time in France, with flashbacks to the bombing of her family home that started it all for her, are interspersed, with only the dates to suggest when and where she is. Sometimes both the training and the “small acts” are prolonged and over-described, though the ending comes at great speed. That said, there are enough pluses about this woman’s story. And the author’s telling of it, to make it well worth reading.

Wow I can't imagine what this would be like. I don't think I could ever become a spy or to completely act the way she did to protect everyone at the end of everything. Such a great book.

This was a great book! I listened to the audiobook and I really enjoyed it. This is a great historical fiction book and I would recommend it to anyone who likes to read about WW II. I love how this is based on a true story. this was quite an adventure! This is a great book to empower women.

Yvonne Rudellat was the first female SOE-trained agent to go to France and according to the official historian of the SOE (Special Operations Executive), M.R.D. Foot Rudellat was "cheerful" and "fluffy" and with "steady nerves and good sense" Rudellat was an incredible woman to memorialise in this phenomenal novel and Audrey Blake has done her justice by writing an outstanding account

Narrated by Amy Scanlon, the audiobook was absolutely gripping and I listened throughout one day, rapt, intrigued and inspired. Scanlon is a fantastic narrator and this is the second narration I have heard from this outstanding talent. Versatile, emotive, perfect pace. A great sound

Audrey Blakes writing style is powerful, concise and immersive. Blake is an exceptional storyteller and paints a highly illustrative, vivid narrative, especially at moments of high drama throughout this tumultuous era (specifically the first flight and the bomb had me utterly on tenterhooks). Blake writes strong character development and by eckers Yvonne's husband and handler had me saying a few choice words!

I would absolutely recommend this book to all lovers of historical fiction, especially as this book is based on a true heroine of WWII

Thank you to Netgalley, RB Media, Recorded Books, the incredible author Audrey Blake and stunning narrator Amy Scanlon for this inspiring and heart-rending ALC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own