Three young women from very different backgrounds are recruited to work at Bletchley Park during the second world war. Years later, having gone their separate ways, they must reunited to discover a traitor in their midst.
Clearly I'm missing something, other readers have rated this book highly but I struggled with it. I found it very slow moving and far too long, although the narrative was light and easy to read. The storyline involving Prince Philip felt forced and gimmicky. The character portrayal were rather clichéd and I never felt any attachment to them enough to care what happened to them. Overall I thought the book was too light weight and contrived.

Whether or not you like historical fiction, The Rose Code has something for everyone. Three great characters caught up in diverse roles trying to extract secret intelligence from intercepted enemy communication at Bletchley Park. Whilst thankfully away from the bombing, Bletchley Park brought it's own toll on the men and women who toiled there, working against the odds to crack a seemingly impossible encryption code. The real story is about the people, their interactions and how they went about their work. Not to mention the affairs both in and beyond Bletchley Park. You know when a book is well written, you can't put it down and yet you don't want it to end. You know the characters so well, you could strike up a conversation with any of them if you had the good fortune to meet them. Five stars hardly does it justice. It's a long novel and never once dull. Just one little historical niggle, I don't think Mabs would have had a very worn nylon slip, it's just a little too early in the roll out of that synthetic fibre.

I chose The Rose Code because I was very impressed by The Huntress. I don't feel that this one is quite as polished though. There is a very good book in here but, to my mind, it is struggling to get out. I found the book somewhat slow and far too long. I did not care for the Prince Philip aspect and think this book would be far better without it. Even the background of the royal wedding is unnecessary.

The Bletchley story is fascinating and there is more than enough in that to hold a reader. The descriptions of the machines and how they are used and the background of BP and how the codebreakers lived and managed is very well done. Mab and Beth have their own stories, again, possibly a little drawn out but relevant and interesting. Osla's story, I felt, would have been much better if it had concentrated on the Cafe de Paris incident and the letters she wrote to her rescuer. I wanted more of this and a lot less of Philip (none at all in fact).

The characters are generally beautifully drawn, the descriptions are great and the background is well-conceived. If the book had been about a quarter shorter, it would have been brilliant. I found myself skipping bits from about threequarters of the way through, as things were taking far to long to be resolved. At one point, I considered giving up as I was losing interest and the only reason I continued reading was to find out if the royal stuff had anything whatsoever to do with the main story (spoiler alert - it doesn't!). Things did pick up towards the end with the breaking of the code and the exciting denouement, so I am glad I stuck with it.

There were a few other niggles - Americanisms creeping in - eg in Britain we write TO other people, we don't 'write them' - and suchlike.

My only other concern was that when Mab and Osla met after falling out, their bitchy banter did not ring true. Fun to read and to write no doubt, but the reasons for their falling out should have resulted in sadness and hurt on both sides not bitchiness.

So, a great story held back by being swamped in unnecessary royal goings on. It may draw in people who enjoy The Crown but it does not make for a great book. Sorry, I wanted to love it but just couldn't. However, I can see from the other reviews that I am in the minority here.

Three ‘gals’, one war, once best friends until D-Day when events splintered their tight knit secret world of Bletchley Park after which one ends up in Clockwell Sanatorium in Yorkshire. Fast forward to 1947 and the wedding of the century of Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip of Greece ( regarded as a ‘dish’) but the prospect of the wedding is putting former deb Osla Kendall in a funk. What unfolds in the dual timeline will get your unmentionables into a bit of a swither in this bally marvellous novel.

Glued. Transfixed. Enthralled. I could go on but suffice it to say this is an exceptional story. It’s a novel of how three women from very different backgrounds helped in the Enigma codebreaking which in itself is an absorbing story. The characters are terrific, there’s wealthy Canadian debutante and later Tatler journalist Osla Kendall who is utterly spiffing, there’s (Queen) Mab Church from the East End who is a literary filly with plenty of gumption and a dark secret and Beth Finch, dubbed hopeless by her odious mother but who is in fact a whizz at seeing patterns in codebreaking. We rub shoulders with the ‘great and good’ - enter Philip, his uncle Dickie Mountbatten and our leader Winnie makes an appearance, there’s Alan Turing and Dilly Knox, there’s a traitorous cad and a wonderful but very damaged WW1 war poet. Fabulous. The book captures the times in the use of language, sadly there’s awful racism with some words that make your toes curl and there’s ever present sexism because why on earth could women possibly have brains, what? It’s also a mystery as it’s about betrayal of your country, it’s about how the codebreakers help turn the tide of war and keep that knowledge to their cost. The war imposes hugely on the characters lives and brings tragedy to some with some vivid, terrifying panic stricken descriptions in places such as Coventry and London. The cryptography element is absolutely fascinating and you marvel at the tenacity with accompanying hours and hours of eye straining effort especially on Beth as she eats, sleeps and breathes it. At times it’s so tense and gripping you hardly dare to breathe. The parts that take place at Clockwell shock you to the core and it’s the ‘Rose Code’ that leads to this place of horrors. The ending builds extremely well as it becomes a tense and exciting race against time to unmask the traitor and this nail baiter takes place against the backdrop of the royal wedding.

Overall, I think it’s apparent I love this book! You can’t read it in a jiffy or a tick, it’s one to savour and reread in the future and it will stay with me for a long time. It’s spiffing, top notch, tip top etc etc!!! This one is a must read and is highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Harper Collins for the much appreciated arc and to Kate Quinn for writing it.

It seems very strange to me that I know so much about Bletchley Park and the Enigma machine etc. True, we have had a movie and a tv series about it, but about ten years ago, I don’t think I knew very much. Now thanks to various media, and obviously quite a few books it all feels very familiar and hard to imagine a time when it really was a secret. Even harder to imagine the hardships encountered by those many, many people working there; not to mention the abuse young, able bodied men encountered because ‘they weren’t in uniform’.

So I embraced The Rose Code because it was familiar, or so I thought. We were introduced to three women, Osla,Mab and Beth – all from different backgrounds and experiences. The familiar strategy of a moving timeline, 1940 – 1947, backwards and forwards was employed to hook us in to the various lives and developments, on the home front, their love lives and their working lives. All set against the anxieties in relation to the war, DDay and the budding romance between Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. I must admit I really did enjoy those parts that featured him – shame he could never be with the woman from Bletchley Park (Sorry, your majesty, it is only a story).

Of course, there has to be a traitor in the mix – and this was also managed very well, to such an extent that one of our women finds herself in an institution - so much for doing your duty!

No more to be said (there is so much to say) because it will spoil it. All I can say, is read it, it is brilliant and beautifully written.

Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

This is the most absorbing book I've read for ages. It is set in a period I love, the period during and just after the Second World War. I must admit that I thought it might be very similar to The Bletchley Circle television series, which started well but 'lost the plot' after the first run, but The Rose Code is far more gripping, as it spends much of the novel building up a picture of the secret work done at Bletchley during the war through the lives and relationships of three women. Before the tension of the last third of the book, we really care about the characters, interspersed with tantalising but ominous glimpses of life after the war.

The thorough research about the period and the inner workings of code-breaking shone through - particularly the captivating insights into the processes invoved - and references to real characters add context and truth to the background. The final third of the book is well plotted and fast-paced, building up suspense to the very end. I will miss my rewarding visits with those three indomitable women. A riveting and fascinating read!

A most interesting and enthralling story set in secret historical events centred on three girls over a period of 7 years. It starts in 1970 when two women receive a coded message begging for help from a former colleague locked in a mental sanitorium. How and why is a mystery that is unfolded in the story starting in 1939 when two young girls meet travelling to a mysterious place to take up a nebulous job. They arrive at Betchley Park and are sworn to secrecy, then assigned to The Government Code and Cypher School. While there they befriend a girl from their billet and get her to join too. They are three fascinating characters of different education and social backgrounds that makes an enticing story of their lives through the war years until a time when due to a personal dispute they parted with the one in the sanatorium. What happened thereafter provides an engrossing and exciting finale. A most satisfying read. Being intrigued as to how the book could have been written with such detail; research unearthed many personal accounts of the era that the author has made good use of; even to making an amalgamation of true people into the creation of the fictional three girls in the book. The author has done a brilliant job in creating a fascinating story.

This fabulous story is set during WW2 in the secretive surroundings of Bletchley Park. Three very different intelligent young women are selected for German military decoding training. Osla, Mab and Beth become firm friends sharing lodgings at Beth’s family home and working in various decoding roles in BP. They form a social life and friendships with several others who are also working on decoding tasks. Following a tragic incident and a betrayal by a traitor in their midst the three friends become enemies and one of them is incarcerated in the Clock House asylum. The story switches from the war years to 1947. Days before the wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip two of the women receive coded letters from the inpatient of the Clock House declaring innocence and asking for help to determine who the traitor is. The three must crack one more code. The Rose code.
The characters are developed into likeable people all with very different backgrounds. Plots and surprises, twists and turns to the very last page. I was sorry when it ended but so enjoyed learning about the history of Bletchley Park. Highly recommend! My thanks to Rachel Quin, HarperCollins and netgalley for the opportunity to read this superb book and for introducing me to another author. ‘The Huntress’ next!

I loved ‘The Huntress’ so I was delighted to be offered the chance to read The Rose Code. I’ve always found the women code breakers of Bletchley Park fascinating and I love what Quinn has done here – taking their story and interweaving it with strands of friendship and betrayal, and a mole in the ranks. And then after the war, the women are brought back together to solve the very issue that tore their friendship apart. This was incredibly compulsive. I gobbled it down.

I was really excited to read this one, so much so that it jumped the queue a little bit, but I absolutely loved it so no regrets there!

We are taken into the midst of the top secret WWII codebreaking activities of Bletchley Park with three women, Osla, Mab and Beth. They are all very different but all of them find themselves recruited to the mysterious war efforts hidden away in the countryside of Buckinghamshire, which they are prevented from talking about thanks to the official secrets act. Osla is an upper class society girl who is dating Prince Philip, hired for her translating skills; Mab is a tall and ferocious typist with ambitious dreams but humble beginnings; Beth a mouse of a girl underneath her mother’s thumb with no real experience of the world, but the cleverest of them all, she becomes one of the cryptanalysts breaking the codes. Together they forge friendships and book clubs, and get through the trials of the war, including keeping the secrecy of their work from everyone outside.

Simultaneously to reading the parts of the book set during the war, we periodically jump forwards in time to just before the royal wedding in 1947. It seems something has happened to forever break the friendship forged between the three girls, who are again leading remarkably different and separate lives; that is until coded letters from Beth cause the girls to have to revisit their war, with the security of the country at stake. Very well put together, though a bit on the long side I enjoyed it very much. I found the language of the era frankly annoying (topping, fizzing, etc) but it did give a real feel of the different time period the girls were living through, so it did work, annoying as it was!

My thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher Harper Collins for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

A fictional novel based around the code-breakers at Bletchley. Three young women who are recruited to work there become close friends but the intensity of the work and the restraints of the Official Secrets Act combine to drive wedges between them. Also, to varying degrees, they suffer from their being a spy in their midst. The storyline is very engaging and moves along at a well nuanced pace which draws the reader in as clues are revealed and answers emerge. My only criticism, if this is indeed a fictional work, is why some of the characters are so clearly known to all of us as true life individuals. But I shall say no more as I don't wish to divulge too much. Personally I view Quinn has overstepped the boundary between fact and fiction by doing this and I found it confusing.
However this is an extremely enjoyable read and I strongly recommend it, albeit I limit it to a three star rating as the unnecessary name useage just got in the way.

I loved this book and I'm sure it would make a great film. Three young women from different backgrounds are thrown together at Bletchley Park. during WW2 . All are doing different jobs, all which involve code breaking.
The three women are best of friends until an incident happens which tears the friendship apart forever..
A few years after the war one of the women has been done a great injustice and sends out a cry for help to the other two. Will they help even if they have not spoken with each other since their big fallout?
I liked how although this is a fiction story real life events were included .
One thing that did annoy me was the reference only to England in the war and the during the Royal wedding the Queen being of England and not the United Kingdom.

Thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest opinion.
Have read a few of this author was delighted to read this early.
A fabulous story that intertwine war love loss Bletchley park what more could you want for a very intriguing read can highly recommend.

The Rose Code.
Set in the 1940’s and modern times, this is about three young women who go to work at Bletchley Park as code breakers, to help decipher messages sent from the German Enigma machines.
Isla Kendall is a debutante, wealthy, and has a boyfriend, a certain Greek Prince, named Philip.
Mab is a determined woman, who worked at Debenhams department store, put herself through a secretarial course, and is on the hunt for a husband.
Bethan Finch, is shy and under the thumb of her religious overbearing mother. She has a ferocious knowledge of crosswords and the ability to see patterns in both words and shapes. All three girls are billeted together and form a strong loyal bond.
Chapters in this novel are in the form of a countdown to the Royal Wedding in 1947,and the 1940’s.
There is a traitor in Bletchley Park and information is being smuggled out. These events happen in the section that Bethan works in, and she is falsely accused of treason and sent to Clockwell Sanitorium mental hospital. She manages to get a message to her two friends and begs for their help in finding the traitor and gaining her release.
Osla sparkles upon the pages of this book. Bethan is loyal, tenacious and can be oblivious to the hurts and despair of her friends. Mab can be cruel and spiteful, but together, they are like the three Musketeers, they are determined to support and defend each other.
The ending is perfect and surprising. When you visit Bletchley Park, and push open the doors to the huts where so many secrets were discovered and kept safe, you can almost hear the whispers of the women and the clank of the machinery.
I won’t give away any more, you will have to read it!
A five star read. Thank you to Harper Collins for my copy, this is my honest review. I will leave a review to Goodreads and Amazon later.

This was a mesmerising book. I loved the characters and the historical details and the topic was just fascinating. A well written book that I loved reading every spare moment I had.

A very good book although a tad long, which I expect contains fact and fiction. It centres on 3 young women, who are employed at Bletchley Park and who bond whilst living together in accomodation near to their work. I can imagine all heads bent at their puzzle solving. They work hard, are tired and wrung out but remain friends until a chain reaction has deadly consequences and they fall out. that is the start of their troubles. This book was a pleasure to read. It examines the lives of the 3 of them and the people who are in their lives. It was also a riveting read. My Kindle had to be charged twice to read it all, but it kept me entertained for a weekend.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book, unfortunately I now have a book hangover......... This was an amazing read, absolutely fantastic, I had read one of the authors previous historical fiction books so I knew this one should be good but it exceeded all expectations.
Interesting history period and setting, great characters in a friendship, love, hate and mistrust. Two timelines, a royal wedding, WW2, spies and code breaking there was nothing not to like - well only that it ended, Highly recommend.

There aren't enough words to capture how much I loved this book. I savoured reading it over days because I did not want this story to end. From the very beginning, I fell in love with the characters, Mab, Osla and Beth. I was hanging on to every word, every sentence and every chapter ending because I wanted to know what was going to happen. Quinn developed them in an admirable way, the flashbacks served as a welcome reminder of how much they had changed since the start of the story. The side characters were equally as exciting to read about, particularly Harry. I wanted nothing more than to drop in on a Mad Hatters meeting and talk to all of them, they practically jumped off the page with their raw, human flaws.

The plot itself was brilliant. There wasn't a dull moment, despite this novel being quite long for a historical fiction. Everything came alive from the mysteries of Bletchley Park to the horrors of the war. Everything felt so rich, this novel pulls you in from the start. Not at any point did I manage to predict what was going to happen next, not because anything was outlandish or unreasonable, but because Quinn managed to weave a story that detailed and well planned out that when it all fell into place I was shocked. The last 200 pages or so had me on the edge of my seat, desperate to read more but also not wanting this magnificent book to end.

I wish I could give this more than 5 stars, it's easily one of my top reads of the year. There's a part of me that wants to immediately reread it because of how stunning everything was. I know Quinn will be on my automatically buy list from now on, her writing and ability to create stories like this is breathtaking.

Very enjoyable, light read. Well-paced, good plotting. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

Absolutely loved this book, set against the backdrop of Bletchley Park, it is part war time story, part love story, part detective story. Cleverly weaving real people with fictional characters, it draws the reader in and leaves you rushing headlong through it. All in all, a throughly enjoyable read whilst learning more of the fascinating story of the code breakers of Bletchley