Cover Image: The Rose Code

The Rose Code

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Member Reviews

Absolutely fantastic book. It is beautifully written. I can’t wait for more by author. Thank you to publisher and NetGalley for access to ARC.

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1940. Three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes.
Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything—beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses—but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets. Imperious self-made Mab, product of east-end London poverty, works the legendary codebreaking machines as she conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband. Awkward local girl Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles beneath her shy exterior.
1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter–the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum. A mysterious traitor has emerged from the shadows of their Bletchley Park past, and now Osla, Mab, and Beth must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together…
As the nation prepares for the royal wedding they must race against the clock to save one of their own. This was just the most beautiful book ,from it's gorgeous cover to the immersive storyline. I haven't read anything quite as engaging as this in recent years!

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t's been a while since I enjoyed a book as much I've enjoyed The Rose Code! It is a heartbreaking but wonderful story that kept my interest from the first page to the last. I learned so much from this novel with the historical details and the vivid, good writing style of the author. It makes a really good job of transporting you to London in the WW2.

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The book is set in timeline just after WWII and tells the story of a group of code breakers and the betrayals, moles, hardwork etc. I love how this book is female centric. The novel is beautiful and poignant and I was very much absorbed in to the narrative.

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The Rose Code

1940, Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire.
 
Three very different women are recruited to the mysterious Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes.
 
Vivacious debutante Osla has the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses – but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, working to translate decoded enemy secrets. Self-made Mab masters the legendary codebreaking machines as she conceals old wounds and the poverty of her East-End London upbringing. And shy local girl Beth is the outsider who trains as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts.
 
1947, London. 
 
Seven years after they first meet, on the eve of the royal wedding between Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, disaster threatens. Osla, Mab and Beth are estranged, their friendship torn apart by secrets and betrayal. Yet now they must race against the clock to crack one final code together, before it’s too late, for them and for their country.

I came back to this novel, because for some reason been tucked away on the back shelf until I read her latest book The Diamond Eye. I’d been so impressed by her research and how immersed i felt in the world she’d created. This is such an intelligent and detailed novel and is also based on WW2, and the work done at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire. I used to live not far from Bletchley so have been to look round and it really is an incredible undertaking. In this mansion house with incredible grounds, the government set up an incredible team to crack German communication codes. Britain felt like the last country between the Nazis and total domination, and their submarines were destroying our ships, both millitary and merchant ships delivering tons of materials needed for the war effort. The government had been to places of higher learning, mainly Oxford and Cambridge universities,to recruit mathematicians, scientists and people who could develop and use a new system for code-breaking.

We follow three young women, Osla, Mabel and and Bethan, who are from very different backgrounds. Osla is Canadian, but was a debutante with aristocratic connections. She was a girlfriend of Prince Phillip of Greece during the war, presumably introduced by the Earl of Mountbatten who was her godfather. Mabel was from a more working class background, in the East End of London. Although from a humble background she is full of ambition and ability. Bethan is very interesting and I was engaged with her character straight away. She had a difficult upbringing in a religious community and her mother had assumed she was stupid. The truth was she thought in a different way to other people and was possibly neuro divergent. She solved crosswords instinctively and at Bletchley was immediately moved to the code-breaking hut. Her abilities are not restricted to code and she can read people just as well. When there is a traitor in their midst, she works out who it is, but her knowledge gets her into an enormous amount of trouble.

As usual Kate Quinn takes us to a different world, part fact and half-fiction, but wholly readable. I loved exploring the characters of these three women and their incredible commitment to the cause. Maths is an alien world to me, but I was fascinated with the skills used for code breaking, crypto-analysis but the translators and typists are just as committed to their secret work. I loved how the three came together as a team, despite their backgrounds and differences. Their abilities complemented each other and it was interesting to see that they worked hard but also had fun together. Events do test their friendship, but their shared work ethic is never in question. My only misgivings were an occasional Americanism in the character’s speech. Otherwise, this was an intelligent and interesting thriller, especially where it concerned characters who’d lived within my lifetime.

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This is one brilliant book
Loved the storyline and the strong female characters, the fact that some characters were loosely based on real Bletchley park workers made it so real!
I loved it, now I need to read more Kate Quinn books!
Thank you netgalley

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The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
I give this book 4.25 stars

Three very different women are recruited to the mysterious Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes.
Vivacious debutante Osla, self-made Mab and shy local girl Beth.
Seven years after they first met, they must race against the clock to crack one final code together, before it’s too late, for them and for their country.

The author has written a thought provoking and emotional historical novel,that has the perfect mix of fact and fiction intertwined .Told between a 1940 and 1947 timeline a we meet 3 powerful but different women who the reader can’t fail to become attached to (especially Beth who was my favourite) A fascinating wartime story filled with love, heartbreak,tragedy,forgiveness and mystery.
I now want to visit Bletchley Park .
With thanks to Netgalley,Kate Quinn and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for my chance to read this book

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This was a really well written book that had obviously been well researched. It had a riveting storyline with well developed charcaters that I really took too. I haven't read much about the women codebreakers during thr war so this was a really interesting read. I really enjoyed it.

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The story of the women who worked at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.
Based on three female code breakers and their relationship.
I enjoyed reading about the characters in this historical fiction.
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

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Kate Quinn is an exceptional storyteller, and the Rose Code doesn't disappoint. A brilliant and heroic tale told compellingly.

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The Rose Code by Kate Quinn ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Oh wow, this book has it all and gave me such a book hangover!

Beth, Osla and Mab spend WW2 working at the now famous Bletchley Park, although they come from very different backgrounds they soon form a close bond.

I learnt so much by reading this book and the duel timeline added an extra element of intrigue. The character development was brilliant and although it’s a pretty long book I just couldn’t put it down.

Loved the added element of the late Duke of Edinburgh, and was so interesting to read in the notes that he did actually date a girl named Osla who worked at Bletchley before marrying the Queen, and that the Duchchess of Cambridge’s great grandmother was also there!
Was also really amazing to discover that right up until the 1970’s those who worked at the park were prohibited from talking about their time there, and even after that, for many the secrecy was so engrained that they never spoke of their experience.

A real must for any historical fiction lover!

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The Rose Code swept me up and before I knew it, three hours had passed and I was sobbing my heart out, cup of tea completely forgotten and cold. I don't think it'll ever get out of my head.

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This was a brilliant read and is being featured on my blog for my quick star reviews feature, which I have created on my blog so I can catch up with all the books I have read and therefore review.
See www.chellsandbooks.wordpress.com.

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‘The Rose Code’ by Kate Quinn is the first book I’ve read by this author. I was drawn in by the WW2 setting and promise of mystery, but it’s much more than that. There are two timelines; 1947 as the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth approaches, and 1939 at the outbreak of war. At its centre are young women who don’t quite fit into their worlds. War introduces something new to their lives. Opportunity. Advancement. Recognition. Friendship. Home.
Mabs has grown up in Shoreditch but longs to escape. She follows her own plan of improvement - reading the classics, copying the accents of assistants in upper class shops - with the long-term aim of rescuing her younger sister Lucy from poverty. Osla is a Canadian society girl, rich, pretty, labelled as a dim deb who trains as a riveter to make Hurricanes. Both have mysterious interviews and are sent on a train journey to ‘Station X’. This turns out to be a large country mansion – Bletchley Park – where secret war work is undertaken. Both must sign the Official Secrets Act before they are admitted. At their lodgings, they meet Beth, downtrodden daughter of their strict religious landlady Mrs Finch.
Beth’s skill at crosswords is recognised and soon all three girls are working at ‘BP’. In their jobs - typing, translating, decoding - the three girls get to know each other and, despite the rules of secrecy, they learn how gossip inside ‘BP’ works. Soon they are promoted, learning top secret information before it is transmitted to government, before even Churchill. And with knowledge comes power, and danger.
We follow the three through romances - Osla with young naval officer, Prince Philip of Greece - and bombings. There is something to like and dislike about each woman making them realistic, rounded characters. Mab was my favourite, Osla slightly irritating, while Beth changes the most throughout the course of the book. The 1947 strand becomes a hunt for a traitor as the Cold War gets colder and a former WW2 ally becomes the enemy. The girls must revisit their wartime secrets to question the nature of truth and loyalty, to each other and to their country.
The Second World War is often thought of as a time of liberation for women doing the jobs of men and in some ways it was; but Quinn shows this was a transitory advantage - temporary, class driven, certain jobs only - and women were still ultimately dependant on a man in so many ways. As the women look back at their former lives we see how much, and how little, has changed for them.
Some of the coding puzzles went straight over my head but that didn’t really matter. The Bletchley setting is great, the gossip of the weekly scandal rag, the familiar names dropped - Alan Turing, Joan Clarke - the book club and 3am kidneys on toast. I’m not sure the 1947 royal wedding deadline adds much to the narrative, there’s enough threat without it. As I was getting towards the end of the book and was interrupted, I snatched up the book again at the next possible opportunity.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

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A stunning historical fiction that is very much based on some real life characters and history. A fascinating insight into the code breakers at Bletchley Park. The story follows three women from very different walks of life. I loved the book and learning more about this work that the general public knew nothing about during the war and the hardship of the talented people having to hide the valuable work they were doing.

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With so many 5 star reviews, I was really looking forward to reading this book, but I’m sorry to say that I just found it very long and drawn out and rather boring. I’m still confused as to why the code at the end was called the Rose code and how the code proved who the baddie was, but that may just be because I fell asleep at the parts where those bits were explained. After such a long story, the ending felt quite rushed and a little contrived. I hate giving bad reviews, but this just wasn’t my cup of tea sorry.

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Wow I absolutely adored this book. Having previously devoured The Alice Network and The Huntress, I was delighted to be approved for this one.
Once again set in World War 2, this book was predominantly set in Bletchley Park and is filled with the most captivating characters. The plot is so cleverly told, weaving back and forth between the years during and after the war, but never in a confusing way, and is such a gripping page turner. I simply could not put it down once I got started. Quinn is a master storyteller. Brilliant.
With grateful thanks to Netgalley, Harper Collins and Kate Quinn for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

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This story was based in Bletchley Park where three young women become friends whilst trying to break the German codes to aid the war effort.. A good story but far too much American language structure for an English based book.

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The Rose Code tells the story of female code breakers at Bletchley Park and their top secret jobs that they had. The story revolves around three characters - Osla, Mab, and Beth. The Rose Code is an interesting book. I liked how this book is a mix of a historical fiction novel and mystery. World War II is my favourite time period to read about and the aspect of trying to figure out who is responsible for one of them entering an asylum. I was intrigued by the dual time line between past and present.

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The story of three friends during the war and shortly afterwards. Unfortunately I didn’t get on very well with this at all (probably one of the few). For a start it was far too long and often contrived. The way they spoke didn’t ring true either making the characters caricatures. The next time I want to read about Bletchley Park I shall choose a biography by someone who was actually there and give fictional accounts a wide berth. So sorry but I just wasn’t captivated by any of it or invested and you need to be, to be able to enjoy such a long drawn out book.

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