Set in England during WW2 - Sarah finds herself working for MI5 in an effort to catch her IRA terrorist father. The novel covers the story of her mission. This was an engaging story written in a very readable style, but in many ways it was full of predictable and cliched characters and situations. The antagonism between Sarah and her partner Anderson, a pregnant women having an affair with a married man and spies who were double agents. All a bit girls own adventure but an engaging read nevertheless.

This book fell flat for me as I felt Sarah had too much inner dialogue which slowed the story down. The storyline is different than the usual WWII era espionage books of late, so that held my interest.

Great storyline and characters. I really enjoyed reading this one. It was easy to get involved in how the characters were living during the times and the difficulties they faced

An enjoyable story that you can immerse yourself in. The time is 1942, wartime London and Sarah is keen to seek revenge on the enemy within. It is a historical fact that the IRA sought to collude with Nazi Germany during WW2 and this story uses the true life collusion to great effect. Sarah is hired by MI5 to flush out her own father who us working for the IRA. With a handsome American agent to help her, she sets off for the Welsh hills. Whilst being a little over dramatic and not completely realistic at times this is nevertheless and enjoyable and engaging story with much to recommend it. It has a great plot and a dramatic storyline!

A thoroughly enjoyable read with a good mixture of intrigue, action and good historical background. The relationship between the two main characters moves from hatred, through suspicion to respect and dare I suggest a bit more. The description of the action is really plausible and adds to the enjoyment. This has been one of the more enjoyable books I have read over recent months.

This is the story of a MI5 spy working for Britain during WWII. She is going against her family but feels strongly she is in the right side.

This was told in first person and on a linear timeline. The spy team goes on several missions to uncover secrets. She has to take in several aliases and change her appearance from mission to mission. I loved her resolve that what she was closing was right. Despite her father being on the other side, she is determined to keep going. The book starts off a little slow but picks up in action. I enjoyed the book.

Historical fiction winner

Her Last Betrayal is a delightful new WWII spy novel based in England with an Irish flavor. It is the 2nd in a series, after Her Secret War, which I have also read, and also found good. As with most historical novels, I have learned a bit of history, sandwiched between slices of good plot and likable characters. I definitely recommend this book!

Thank you to the publisher who lent me a time-constrained e-arc via Netgalley. This review is optional and my own opinion.

This diary format novel relates the hunt for and IRA leader who is working in Britain to aid Nazi Germany. His adult, estranged daughter in recruited by England's secret service to help find him. She is paired with an American who continually suspects her as being a traitor to England and the Allied cause. She also undertakes rogue actions which jeopardize the entire operation and the covers of fellow "agents". Although I typically like WWII novels, the pace and tangents that the story took caused my loss of interest fairly early on.

Mainly set in 1941 London during WWII, Her Last Betrayal is a gorgeously written Historical Fiction loaded with secrets, sorrow, espionage, spying, danger and relationships. The less common Irish perspective on the war is particularly interesting.

Sparks fly between Irish spitfire Sarah Gillespie and cocky American Lieutenant Tony Anderson as they are partnered up to join the British Secret Service for a special assignment in Wales. At first Sarah is defensive in her thoughts and actions but the reader sees her mature throughout. A double agent, Sarah's friends and fascinating characters Jim and Jenny come into play which adds fascinating layers. Watching cultural interactions with fun differences always fascinates me. I really like the espionage aspect and historical bits interwoven throughout.

Though a sequel in the series, this book can be read as a standalone without any problem. A few "old" comfy characters have returned and new ones introduced. If you are a Historical Fiction fan, you will most likely enjoy this series very much.

My sincere thank you to Avon Books UK and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this fabulous book.

Sarah is a reluctant MI5 agent in London during World War II. Her father, Jim Gillespie, is active in the IRA and is working with the Germans, so she is given a mission to find him and bring him in for justice to be served. She works with an United States Navy officer, Tony Anderson, who is assigned to MI5 for this case, as it also involves stopping the IRA from attacking a war factory in Wales. The two travel together to Wales and eventually Sarah gets kidnapped by her father’s IRA cronies. Without giving away too many details, I’ll say that more than halfway through the book, the Wales mission is complete, and Sarah suddenly has another mission to finish in London to keep the relationship strong between Britain and Free France.

I found this book to be lackluster in both its story and writing. I will admit that I have high standards for historical fiction, but this one had me rolling my eyes every few chapters. It contained several WWII historical fiction tropes, which I found rather frustrating. One of the biggest? The man and woman agents dislike each other at first, but of course, from the first time they meet, you KNOW they’ll end up together. Ugh. So predictable.

As for the writing, that wasn’t any better. The conversations were so stilted. Much of the conversation seemed forced and not at all natural.

Additionally, in the first ten pages of the book, I learned Sarah’s father was in the IRA; Sarah worked for MI5; she was almost killed by a Nazi in Winchester; her RAF pilot boyfriend was sent to America in December 1941, his ship was torpedoed, and he was presumed dead; and much more. It was a bit of an information overload. The author has an entire book to share some of this information; no need to throw it all in the first ten pages and overwhelm the reader with details.

Finally, I was completely uninterested in Sarah’s relationship with Gladys—who turns out to be a very minor character in the story—and her cousin Judith’s illicit relationship with her boss. That one turned out to be a little more important to the plot, but I just didn’t feel that it was realistic the way it was portrayed. While Sarah’s time as an MI5 agent was an interesting concept, Lecky did not develop the character well enough for this to be a 4- or 5-star story. This book received three stars from me (and not fewer stars) because using the IRA/German relationship was interesting and made me do some of my own research as to the IRA’s activities during WWII. Beyond that, the story was disappointing.

Sarah Gillespie’s father left her and her younger sister for dead following a Nazi bomb attack on their home in Dublin. She is persuaded to join MI5 and moves to London where she is partnered with the arrogant Lieutenant Tony Anderson a US naval intelligence officer. Their dangerous mission is to track down her missing father a prolific ruthless IRA member colluding with Nazi sympathisers so that he can be brought to justice for his atrocities. The mission takes Sarah and Tony to the Welsh mountains having received intelligence that her father is there. A mole is soon uncovered betraying Sarah and leaving her struggling to trust anyone. She sometimes wonders if she can even trust Tony who clearly doesn’t believe women should be working for the intelligence services until she proves otherwise to him. A totally absorbing read and fast paced storyline. It has everything. Suspense, spying, intrigue, mystery and a smattering of romance. A nail biting, gripping book that had me absolutely hooked from the first page. I didn’t realise until I’d finished it that it’s a sequel to Her secret war which I am now about to read. Clearly works well as a stand alone read. I do hope there’s a third one in the pipeline. My thanks to Avon HarperCollins and netgalley for the opportunity to read this outstanding book

4.5* out of 5

Well, I knew there was going to be a second novel after reading Lecky’s previous book, “Her Secret War” and I was right. Now I’m thinking this could end up being a trilogy, but that’s neither here nor there at this point. I already liked Sarah from the first book and having the chance to learn more about her was a pleasure. This time, Sarah’s been moved to London only to end up taking on a mission that brings her to Wales. Since this book continues almost immediately after the last one, there’s not much we need to catch up on, and while this is a sequel, I can see that if you haven’t read the first one, you might not feel like you’ve missed out on much – but I think it would be better to read the previous book first, since it is very good.

Now, one of the things that I liked about Sarah is that she wasn’t ever intending to be a hero, and only wanted to get away from Ireland and the death and destruction she left behind. The added bonus for her was that she was never a sympathizer with Ireland’s neutrality in the war, and that helped motivate her to join up with the war efforts of the British. Part of that was due to the fact that she lost her sister and father in that Nazi bombing, so well described in the first novel. We also understand that Sarah is still new to the espionage business, and Lecky makes sure that she doesn’t make Sarah too good at her new job, but she also makes sure we see that Sarah has more of a talent than she realizes.

To fully explain the set-up in this novel, I’d have to reveal a spoiler from the first one, so let’s just say that some information comes to Sarah that makes her even more angry, and even more anxious to prove that she has no Irish Republican sentiments, and is loyal to the British in their fight against the Axis. With America now in the war, we get a new character with Lieutenant Anderson, who is suspicious of Sarah and not happy with having either a woman or an Irish person as his new partner. This mutual distaste between the two should signal tall readers of the start of a well-used trope we’ve seen many times in romance novels. However, this thankfully isn’t the centerpiece of this book, which would have made it far too romantic for my taste.

Instead, we get several nail-biting scenes that though we are sure our main protagonist will survive (you don’t kill off your hero until you’re ready to end the book – or series, as the case may be), we do wonder how she’ll get out of these tight spots. Lecky also throws us some red herrings and casts suspicions in several different ways, so that we’re never really sure if the people working with Sarah might actually be working against her at the same time. Now, I figured out who the mole was through a very tiny slip of the tongue by that character, which Sarah didn’t catch when it happened. I was sure Lecky put that in there as a clue for both the readers and Sarah, so I was a bit surprised that this never gets mentioned again. But other than that, I thought the plot was very nicely thought out, and worked well for the story as a whole. I also felt that Lecky did a very nice job of setting the ending of this book up for a third book in the series, but with a touch less of a cliff-hanger than her first book.

Again, as I said, I still really like the character of Sarah, and I also liked Anderson long before Sarah did. However, I think Lecky had Sarah second guessing herself a bit too much in this book than she needed, along with one other thing that felt out of character for a good Catholic girl like Sarah. There’s also the open question of Paul, Sarah’s love interest from the first book, which I think Lecky will need to address in the next installment (sorry, can’t say more…). Overall, this was a very enjoyable and surprisingly fast read (even for this dyslexic). For all this, I think it deserves a very warm recommendation with four and a half stars out of five. I’m sure this will appeal to lovers of WWII historical, women’s fiction, who don’t mind a touch of romance mixed with suspense on Britain’s home front.

Quite an enjoyable and intriguing book as you tried to work out who you could trust and who you couldn't! Good characters too that you enjoyed from the off.

A gripping WW2 story of bravery, love and treachery. When Irish-born British Secret Service agent Sarah Gillespie and American undercover agent Lieutenant Tony Anderson first meet as partners they don't think much of each other. As they work together in London and rural Wales, things change. I couldn't stop reading it! Just had to find out whether they both survived, especially when Sarah met her traitorous IRA father.

Sarah is in London employed by MI5 to track down her father who is working with the IRA and colluding with the Nazi sympathisers. She is seeking justice after the death of her younger sister in a bomb blast when their father left them for dead and absconded for his own ends. Sarah is partnered with an American Lieutenant Tony Anderson, and together they head to Wales and the last know intelligence about her father's whereabouts. One of the agents they meet there turns out to be a mole and betrays Sarah to the her father's cronies. She is taken hostage but Anderson's quite thinking leads to her rescue and the death of her father.
On returning to London Sarah is able to put information gleaned to from her father to good use and save a man's life.
I wanted to like this books - generally I'm happy to read war stories and a bit of espionage is usually exciting, but sad to say I found the characters rather wooden, two dimensional and somewhat cliched. The plot itself was well thought through but I don't believe the characters carried it off well, and there was far too much introspection from Sarah which slowed and jarred the pace of the novel.
Sadly this was not for me.
With thanks to Netgalley and Avon Books for an arc in return for a fair and honest review.

I rely on Historical Fiction books to shock me, to surprise me, to teach me. Most important of all, I want the story to make me think and learn. Her Last Betrayal had me googling for more information. Her Last Betrayal had me sitting in silence, tears falling. I don't know how the members of MI5 and SOE were able to do what the did. I didn't realize how challenging it was for them. Total respect to the unsung heroes of WW2.

Her Last Betrayal was an action packed spy novel. The story had me on the edge of my seat, not only because of the action but because of the betrayals. I doubted the honesty of so many characters. If I could doubt the integrity of characters, how in the world could those on a real mission during WW2 trust those that were supposed to have their backs? My mind was blown more than once by the direction the story took. I can't tell you how many times I was left thinking, "I didn't see it coming."

Sarah Gillespie hadn't planned on joining MI5. She kind of fell into it. She was kind of pushed into in the book Her Secret War a story of espionage at Supermarine. She has impressed members of MI5. Now they need her help to find her father, a leader in the IRA working with the Nazis.

She will be risking everything to take down the man that abandoned her and her sister during the bombing of Dublin. Adding to the dangers is the conflict with her partner in the mission, an American called Anderson. She had to prove herself to him over and over again making for a lot of drama.

The mission will be dangerous. The struggles will be many. The suspense is a nail biter. Sarah's doubts plague her. Who can she trust? Who can she get to listen to her? All of this made for a book that had me hooked. I couldn't put it down. When I reached the end; I could only hope that Sarah and Anderson will be paired together again for another wild ride.

Sarah Gillispie is back! after her sister is killed in a bombing, Sarah moves in with her uncle and aunt in England where she captures the attention of the British Secret Service who recruit her for a mission involving none other than the father she thought was dead!
Much more action and intrigue, secrets, and betrayal in this second installment that keeps the pace moving and makes a very interesting story. Also we learn about the Irish perspective on WWII, something I have not seen very much. Don't worry, this works well as a stand-alne so if you missed the first you can still follow Sarah's adventures!
Thank you to the publishers at Avon books and to Net Galley for the free ARC, I am leaving my honest review in return.

Story of a young English woman who is partnered with an arrogant American guy to infiltrate and get information on a possible IRA and German connection.

Her Secret War book # 2

The story in a few words:

London 1941

After an air attack that killed her family, Sarah Gillespie leaves Ireland to join the British Secret Service to bring them justice. Partnered with Lieutenant Tony Anderson, Sarah embarks on a dangerous mission that brings them to the black mountains of Wales. The mission is to try and find her father, an avid member of the IRA and his sidekick Jenny McGrath before more havoc is unleashed. But there is a mole lurking among the MI5 agents working for the Nazi....Who is he and who can be trusted?

My thoughts:

Even if this is a sequel to “Her Secret War”, it stands well by itself and continues with another mission for our heroine.

Although a fiction it has a bit of everything and is a captivating read full with suspense, betrayal, secrets, danger, espionage and a tad of romance all neatly wrap up in intrigue. We also learn about the IRA workings with the Nazi from a deferent angle: the Irish vantage point.

Vividly said we follow these two characters through panoply of close calls, dodging bullets, even being taking hostage. For most part, the author has left behind the mundane day to day life we had in her first book and replaced this with intrigue and suspense. Sarah has grown nicely and is well define. I love the cocky personality given to the Lieutenant and how Sarah handled him...oh... maybe the Lieutenant has won Sarah’s heart?...

What an exciting read that kept my attention throughout, a page-turner no doubt. Well-said, well-done.

So much excitement as we rejoin Sarah Gillespie and her daring exploits whilst she seeks revenge for her father’s betrayal.
Colonel Everleigh has managed to persuade Sarah to stay on for another mission with MI5 . With Sarah’s Irish connections she is invaluable to the outcome, the only drawback is that she has to have a partner Lft Anderson who has very set ideas about Sarah which she hopes to set straight. They set off for Wales on a mission only to discover double agents, traitors and not forgetting danger.
I think this is the quickest I have ever read a book, I just couldn’t put it down.
Read i, you won’t be disappointed.