Jenni Walsh has written a fabulous historical fiction novel about Alice Marble, a star tennis player in the 1930s and 1940s. She presents Alice's story in a nonlinear timeline from adolescence through adulthood, including a few love interests.

If you love tennis, then you will enjoy the narrative about her training and matches.

Walsh did a good job incorporating Alice's work with the US government, though I cannot lie, I wish there was more focus on the spy portion of her life.

Gail Shalan performed well as the narrator. I could tell from the first few minutes that I would want to finish her story quickly.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC of this book. I am happy to announce that as of 1/14/2025 this is now available!

#AceMarvelSpy #NetGalley

This audiobook is narrated beautifully, with excellent pacing and a skillful handling of an English accent. The narrator avoids sounding corny, except when deliberately exaggerating for a mocking tone, which adds humor. However, when attempting non-American or non-British accents, the execution felt rough and could pull you out of the moment.

The story is heavy on themes of loss and resilience, with the protagonist enduring a staggering number of hardships. Despite everything, she approaches each challenge with an "it is what it is" attitude that makes her story both heartbreaking and inspiring.

The author does a fantastic job weaving real-world history into fiction, incorporating actual people and events seamlessly. The shifts between past and present are smooth, adding depth to the narrative.

One surprise was the level of romance in the book. From the title and cover art, I expected a spy-centric plot, but romance seems to play a much larger role than anticipated. While I understand this reflects the real-life timeline of the person the story is based on, I went in expecting espionage to dominate the narrative.

Overall, this is a story of strength and survival, with a unique blend of history, romance, and personal triumph. Just go in knowing it leans heavier on romance than espionage.

"COME ON!!!!!"-If you know anything about Tennis you know "Come On" is the universal cry that gushes from any tennis players mouth when they have just executed a huge shot and won a decisive point. Well Jenni Walsh can shout Come On with gusto because she nailed it!
Alice Marble is one facinating woman that I had very limited knowledge of prior to last year when I had the opportunity to read "Queen of the Court". Queen of the Court was a more historical/biography take on Marbles extrodinary life. Walsh did a wonderful job of narrarowing in on just a few story lines and wove them together beautifully.
Jenni Walsh came to my local bookstore and spoke to a crowd about her writing process for this book which added to my interest. She revealed she had very limited knowledge of tennis, and she wrote about it like a seasoned player (as a former tennis player myself I get frustrated sometimes when authors misrepresent tennis--I know, yes we are prima donnas)
You will develop a great sense of respect for Alice and all the difficulties she faced in her life, she suffered incredible loss and endured hardship. But inspite it all her determination show what a true competitor she was.
This book was facinating as well because Walsh informs the reader about so many interesting facts, I did not even know about tennis (Like woman were not allowed to jump??)
Also if you don't finish this book totally100% in love with Teach, then I dont know who you are!
As I learned with Queen of the Court, Alice was not the best historian and did seem to fabricate a few things, either way, she lived a remarkable life and I couldn't have been more excited than if it was 6-6 in a third set tiebreak!
Rush out to read this one!

Thank you NetGalley and Jenni Walsh for allowing me to review this advanced copy read of Ace Marvel Spy. I was not influenced or paid in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fascinating read. Historical fiction based on a real person, Alice Marble. She was such a fascinating woman. The story is told in two timelines. The first is when she is plucked from obscurity by her coach, Teach, who coaches her and takes her in. The second is when World War 2 breaks out, and Alice is sent on a clandestine mission to spy, using an international tennis match as a reason why.

I listened to the audiobook at the narrator was so talented. She was so good at doing multiple accents and making the story extremely engaging. I highly recommend it.

4.5 stars rounded up.

Ace, Marvel, Spy provided an interesting look into the life of tennis great Alice Marble. I found the book enjoyable, but as I am not very interested in tennis, I wish there had been more about the spying and other aspects of her life. I understand from the author’s note that she chose to focus mostly on tennis because there wasn’t as much information available about the other aspects which is understandable. I have had Unsinkable, also by Walsh, on my TBR for a while and look forward to going back to read that because I really liked her writing style. Thank you to Harper Muse Audiobooks and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this book.

My rating is 5 stars
This book is about tennis legend Alice Marble from the early 1930s to the 1940s when she set he world on fire as a tennis star. and the WW2 changed her life. Before her whole focus was on tennis and as the war begins, she falls in love and loses it. She is trying to deal with her own tragedy and also wanting to strike the Germans the pain she feels. The book follows several different timelines in Alice's life from the start of her tennis career and also pivotal points which could have changed the entire stories.
I really enjoyed the relationship between Alice and her coach, Teach who was intimidating, loving and complex character.

Three words to describe this word: Tennis, Champion & War.

I am not normally a historical fiction reader and definitely won't usually rate them over 4 stars, but this book really blew me away. I am a lover of tennis, I play all the time, and I had no idea who Alice Marble was before reading/listening to this book. Knowing the book is historical fiction I definitely spent a lot of time looking up what I could about Alice Marble while reading this book. She was a powerful tennis player, who had multiple times in her life where it felt like she'd never play again. From fainting on the the court to suffering through the loss of many people she loves, Alice works had to get back on the court throughout her life.



That is, until she is asked to help spy for the Americans during WW2, to help them find out who is helping move things across the border and that person is connected to someone she knew in the past. The story has a lot of ups and downs, with the moments where tennis is being played written so well and the others showing the emotion of how big the moments are for Alice. There are some time jumps, but they are well labeled and easy to understand where in her life we are during those chapters.



We get to watch Alice go from a stubborn teen/twenty-something to deciding to get married behind her coach's back and eventually falling pregnant. As these events pile up, we also get to experience her loss of child and husband, how this impacts her game and her mental health in general. Then, as she tries to climb up the ladder of great tennis players again, getting asked to spy. Throughout the book it is brought up how much she wanted to help during the war, to make a difference in the lives of those impacted. When tennis allows her to spy, she wants to jump all in, even when her coach seems to think her traveling is a bad idea. The descriptions about Alice, and her coach, Teach, are also really great. Teach being a great mentor while also holding Alice to a lot of high expectations. I really enjoyed seeing their relationship play out throughout the book.



Overall, I'm not sure if this is a book I would have picked up on my own, but I'm so happy I had a chance to listen to the audiobook (and pick up the finished copy). I loved learning about someone new, especially in the world of women's tennis, and having that background of WW2 and how it impacted her. Alice Marble was a big part of the history of tennis, helping desegregate it and even training Billie Jean King!



I'm always really happy when a book teaches me something, while also surprising me with good writing and a story I never would have known before.

Ace, Marvel, Spy by Jenni L. Walsh

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.75

Ace, Marvel, Spy is a fictional recounting of real-life tennis player turned spy Alice Marble. Told through a dual-timeline, we get to experience Alice’s life from humble beginnings to breakout tennis star to World War II spy.

When I started this book I had no idea it was based on a true story. The author reveals in her author’s note at the end of the book that her inspiration for this novel came directly from Alice Marble’s memoir but discloses that there are several historical inaccuracies in it, due to Alice’s misremembering of certain events — despite claiming to have an eidetic memory, but that she did the best she could to tell Alice’s story as accurately as possible.

That being said, going in, I was under the impression that this would be a novel about a female spy using tennis as a cover, however most of the novel is spent recounting Alice’s life and career before she turned spy for the Allied powers. The actual spying portion doesn’t begin until around the 80% mark. Because of that, I was somewhat bored and unimpressed throughout most of the story waiting for the spying to actually begin. It seemed like an unnecessary amount of setup.

However, in the author’s note, Walsh says that the actual spying portion of Alice’s memoir also only consists of a very small section, which makes sense in how she translated it to fiction. Once I knew that, I was able to appreciate the rest of the story leading up to the spying more than I did while reading it. I do wish that the book had been presented slightly differently in terms of the synopsis and even the title to account for this discrepancy and to give the reader a better idea of what this story truly consists of, but regardless, I was still entertained.

With that being said, I did enjoy this story. It reminded me a bit of something Taylor Jenkins Reid would write. Admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of historical fiction, but I do try to read one every now and then to spice up my roster.

Alice’s story was interesting and dynamic, as was her character. The dual timeline was slightly confusing at times but overall not too difficult to keep track of. The tense does shift between past and present depending on what timeline you’re in, which also made it occasionally hard to read, but this was a creative choice made intentionally by Walsh to differentiate between the two times.

There were sections when I felt like the story was rushed along a little too quickly, particularly when it came to her relationships with Joe and Hans. I thought those parts could have been fleshed out a little more to give a better idea of the nature of those relationships. It was a lot of telling rather than showing, so I was never feel an emotional connection come through with either.

One quote that really stuck with me was, “How many times can a person begin again and still be taken seriously?” Alice deals with many health complications throughout her life including tuberculosis, torn muscles, a miscarriage, multiple car wrecks, gunshot wounds, and more that lead to this recurring scene of Alice waking up in a hospital bed over and over and over again. I was personally able to relate to that and really enjoyed the theme of resilience and stubbornness it showcased in her character. She always got right back up again and found a reason to keep fighting and achieve her dreams. Truly inspiring.

I would recommend this book to fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid, Kristin Hannah, or anyone who loves historical fiction set in the World War eras.

Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins and Harper Muse, and Jenni L. Walsh for the ALC!

The audiobook was very well done. The narrator made it easy to differentiate between which character was speaking, and I was able to fly through it.

Alice Marble was a tennis star during the 1930s and 40s. She faced adversity as a young woman trying to be seen as an elite athlete. This story was so interesting because it is heavily based on a real woman, and the author used Alice’s memoir as the base of her research. I rooted for Alice while reading all about her life as a tennis pro, and thought she was a very cool person. I enjoyed how the book flipped between a then and now timeline, so the reader could learn about Alice as she grew up in the tennis world, and then later on in her adult life as a “spy”. However, there was not a lot about that portion of her life, and it seemed like it was only this one event where she was a spy. The author does make more of this in the authors note, but I still wished there was more. I also felt the writing was disjointed, which made it hard to follow the back and forth of the story at times.

Firstly, I love this book—the first five stars of the year of me. I would say that historical fiction set in WWII + a little-known female character in history; is very often equal to 4 or 5-star read for me.

In this one, we follow Alice Marble, a tennis woman in the 20th century within two different time frames: 1) "now" during WWII and 2) when she was younger and became a tennis champion. Despite the term "spy" in the title, we have very little spying in the book (which did not bother me at all but can if you choose this book for that in particular), but the author explains the reason very well in the afterword (to listen to because it was really interesting and allows you to better understand certain parts of the book and the influence of the author).

The only very little thing with which I had a bit of trouble was the passage when the death of someone was announced. It happens often at the beginning of a chapter and comes a bit from nowhere. Each time, I had to go back a little because I was convinced I missed a passage (but no).

Thank you to the author for introducing me to Alice Marble and thank you to NetGalley for an audio ARC of this book in exchange for a review.

I had high hopes for this book. First off, Alice Marble is the coolest female athlete I had never heard of! Second, Gail Shalan is such a strong narrator for the time period.

Jenni L. Walsh did craft an intriguing story based on legitimate aspects of Alice's life. However, the use of horoscopes and psychics threw me off. I tried to look up if this was true to Alice's life but couldn't find anything. I prefer to avoid these aspects in fiction. Additionally, the story was slow to ramp up. I would have been happy to press more into tennis or jump into spying, but neither one kept my attention enough to continue past halfway. Special thanks to Harper Muse and Net Galley for a complimentary copy of this audiobook. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.