Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Teen Canada, November 3 2020
Format: Ebook ARC
Pages: 320
Rating: 5/5 stars
Summary (Goodreads):
A German soldier risks his life to drop off the sought-after Enigma Machine to British Intelligence, hiding it in a pub in a small town in northeast Scotland, and unwittingly bringing together four very different people who decide to keep it to themselves. Louisa Adair, a young teen girl hired to look after the pub owner’s elderly, German-born aunt, Jane Warner, finds it but doesn’t report it. Flight-Lieutenant Jamie Beaufort-Stuart intercepts a signal but can’t figure it out. Ellen McEwen, volunteer at the local airfield, acts as the go-between and messenger, after Louisa involves Jane in translating. The planes under Jamie’s command seem charmed, as Jamie knows where exactly to go, while other squadrons suffer, and the four are loathe to give up the machine, even after Elisabeth Lind from British Intelligence arrives, even after the Germans start bombing the tiny town . . .
My review:
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There is so much going on in this book and I loved every bit of it, so I am going to try to deliver a well thought out review, but in all seriousness, I am probably just going to spend the time gushing about this book.
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To start, the book takes place in The United Kingdom during the Second World War. The plot was faced paced, and the three main characters were great. Louisa is a young Black girl who is orphaned at 15. She gets a job looking after an elderly lady who was born in Germany, which makes her considered an enemy alien by the British government. Louisa’s dad was from Jamaica and her mother from England, so Louisa experiences quite a bit of racism throughout the novel. Then there is Ellen, who is a Traveler and honestly, I did not know too much about Travelers so it was nice to read about them! And then finally we have Jamie, our pilot in the air force and I loved the concern he showed towards his men and how much he wants a way to get an advantage over the Germans for the sake of his men!
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The writing was very well done and I enjoyed the mystery element to the book. Breaking codes and fighting the enemy was an aspect of the book that kept me fully engaged. I also loved the connection between characters and the camaraderie aspect of the relationship. The book is part of the Code Name Verity series and I have not read the other books and still found this one quite enjoyable! So if you are worried if you need to read the others in the series first, I will say not necessarily, but I think I might have loved the book even more if I had more context for some of the characters!
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