I absolutely love historical fiction books but unfortunately I really did not enjoy this book. I found the plot weak and couldn’t engage with any of the characters.

An interesting spy story in the immediate aftermath of WW2, trying to track down the von Stavenows who Edith knew before the war, as they proved to be Nazis and involved in the horrific medical testing done to many in the name of “science”. The characters and plot were good, but I did get a little lost with the many characters and who exactly wanted what, between Drummond, McHale, Adams, etc. I definitely cared about the core characters though, as evidenced by my reaction to a certain death…

I received a free ARC copy of this via NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review. Apologies for the delay in providing this.

A slow burn of a novel set in the aftermath of WW2. I found the story difficult and the narrative failed to engage me.

I had such high hopes but sadly this fell flat, for me. I’m so sorry.. I felt it has potential but it just didn’t engage me.

This was a slow burner for me, I found it difficult to like any of the characters. I really struggled with it.

I don't know why it took me so long to get to this book but I wish I'd read it sooner. It was absolutely brilliant. I found the time period and the characters to be fascinating.

Miss Graham’s War by Celia Rees
Edith Graham has had a quiet war and is teaching at a school in London and helping to care for her elderly mother when she decides she wants to do her bit for the war effort. She is a fluent German speaker and so is enlisted to work with the Control Commission, Education Branch to ensure that schools are established and German children receive an education.
Prior to the war she had an affair in the early 1930’s with the dashing Kurt von Stavenhow. She was unaware of his Nazi beliefs but it transpires that he is a person of interest to the allied forces. She is asked by her friend Dori Stansfield to report back to her of events in Lubeck and in order to do so they establish a clever code using The Radiation Cookery book as the source of their coded messages. This ingenious idea she covers by sending recipes for her sister to also try out. Edith has long written a cookery column using the pseudonym Stella Snelling so it is just a development of this.
This is a perceptive book and I found the description of life in post war Germany very unsettling. Edith is a character with whom you can empathise as she tries to work her way through the mire of conspiracy. There is also horror in the race by the British, the Americans and the Russians to scoop up as many Nazi scientists for their scientific programmes despite the terrible crimes for which they should be tried.
The women are incredibly brave and immensely capable and they want simply to bring people like von Stavenhow to justice. To make them pay for the crimes they have committed. The book vividly depicts the impact on innocent children struggling to survive a harsh winter in freezing cellars and bombed out buildings. They have witnessed terrible deeds which they cannot erase from their minds. There are also those ardent Nazi who still believe in the cause who hide themselves behind masks of compliance in order survive and use the black market to prosper at the expense of others.

This is a well written and compelling historical novel which shed a powerful light on aspects of the post war period which do not always receive sufficient scrutiny. It’s absorbing, heartbreakingly sad and disturbing in equal measure.
I will be recommending this wholeheartedly to my book groups and as this is Celia Rees first foray into the adult market I look forward to her future novels. I would like to offer my thanks to Celia Rees, the publishers and to Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

This is a story of a post war Europe that I hadn’t thought about.
Edith is sent to Lubeck to support the education of German children in a divided Germany.
But she is also asked to search for an old friend, a Prussian nobleman whose cruelty as a doctor in the Nazi regime has been noticed, she is to send r ports back through the recipes that she shares.
There are so many people in Germany looking for revenge,, or rescue operations or to gain something and this story is about them.
It could have become complicated but it never did and I felt part of a confusing and not triumphant world.

I enjoyed the start of this book - it was an interested concept and I warmed to the characters. However, I found that the story petered out and I was no longer gripped. Perhaps if I had picked this up on holiday and had hours at a time I would have been more successful, but with just a couple of hours a day I just found that the story didn’t engage me fully.

I would like to return to the book, but at the moment it is on my shelf unfinished.

Thank you to Harper Collins Publishers and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I picked up this book, because I have very little experience reading Historical Fiction, but would love to change that. I'm particularly interested in the essential, yet mostly underlying roles women played within historical events.

Therefore, this book should have been perfect for me, right? Well, unfortunately, I struggled a lot with this book. Initially, it took me a while to adjust to the writing style and I found it difficult to care for (or trust) any of these characters. I know this wasn't the key focus, but it meant- especially at the start- I felt the weight of every page as if I was dragging myself through it.

However, in contrast to this, the new facts and information I learned were really interesting. I always wanted to know what happened to these people after making (or breaking) certain allegiances and then having to live with those choices and consequences. I found the concept of the ciphers in the cookbook absolutely fascinating as well.

In conclusion, this felt like an important read, but I just wish the fiction elements, such as character developments and the writing had carried the same strength as the historical aspects.

I enjoyed this book, the characters were believable as were the war references. It didn't flinch from the darker sides of war. An interesting take on the war years and I know there were many women who did similar things for their country against so many difficulties.
I would recommend.

I’ve been a fan of Celia Rees since I was a tween, and this novel, her first adult book, has not disappointed. This novel follows Edith and Dori, a pair of very cool spies, as they bring to justice Nazis who are on the brink of getting away with their atrocities.

I love historical fiction, but I’ve never read something like this before. The attention to detail makes this novel somewhat historically accurate. It goes into Nazi Germany, touches on Israel/Palestine, explores some fantastic war heroes, and more. It’s hard not to get immersed in this novel.

Edith and Dori make wonderful protagonists, although this novel is littered with complex characters and it’s difficult to know who to trust. The twists and turns make this novel every bit gripping as a post-WWII spy novel should be.

My only critique of this novel had to be the ending. It was wildly unsatisfying, felt rushed, and I’m still not over the injustice. It almost lost a star because of the ending, but I guess the point is perhaps that you really can’t have it all.

Miss Graham's War is set just after my favourite historical period, WW2. It is a bit of a different read for me, in that it is set after, rather than during the war, but it is a brilliant written and very well researched novel.

You can't help like Miss Graham. She clearly has absolutely no idea what she is getting herself in to by volunteering herself to help in the 'after war' effort, but she knows she must do something, as she feels like she didn't make much of a contribution to the actual war effort.

It is a hard novel to review without giving too much away. But I really did enjoy it, and look forward to reading more from this author.

Miss Graham's War by Celia Rees is a spy thriller with a difference- the unlikely spy is an English woman who goes to Germany at the end of the war in 1945, ostensibly to help to reform the education system in the aftermath of the Nazi regime. However Edith is much more than she seems, and has been recruited to help root out Nazis who are hiding and trying to evade prosecution for various war crimes. Using a cookbook to create a code she corresponds with her handlers back home in the guise of recipes and copies of menus . This domestic code is designed to escape the scrutiny of anyone reading the messages, be they American, Russian or German. When Edith comes face to face with her past however she is forced to see that loyalty can be a very dangerous thing, especially when it is misplaced.
I quite enjoyed this book, the glimpse into life in a post war Germany in the earliest days of the Cold War was a fascinating one, and the idea of using a cookbook as code meant there were some very interesting recipes scattered throughout the book. The characters were vibrant and interesting and the plot was both clever and well delivered in a very engaging way.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher ,all opinions are my own.

A really enjoyable and interesting book. A story of espionage, double agents with no one really sure who is on whose side and of revenge, 40 years on.
Definitely recommend this, especially if you're interested in post WW2 history.

This is an excellent book, really interesting about a period of time that I didn’t know much about , post war Germany, but done in such a clever none judging way. It has spies, double crossing, nazis, teaching. and a love story. I was disappointed when it ended as I was enjoying it so much.
Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

I keep saying that I’m not one for war books, this isn’t my genre in the slightest, then I pick one up and I love it.

This is no exception, it’s absolutely brilliant. It does talk about the horrific events, let’s face it, it has to, but it does serve as a good reminder, one we should never forget, and it is the basis of this book.

I felt the characters were well written, I feel that I really got to know them, I was very invested in the story, and it is very thrilling, with a tiny bit of romance there.

My thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for the copy!

I enjoyed the setting in post-war Germany as well as the fast pace of the novel. I grew to like most of the main characters. However, the end of the novel was, in my opinion, unsatisfactory.

I really wanted to enjoy this book as it’s about my favourite period of history and the idea of coded messages appealed. However, I found it drawn out and I got confused who was who.

A very interesting read about a female British teacher being sent to Germany by the British Commission to help rebuild school's after the war ends. It does in fact turn out that they want her to spy for them.
An intriguing book which also has the protagonist fighting her own personal battle an risking her life. Espionage and historical fiction in one novel.