The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn was book number 3 of my Reese's book club challenge. Slowly but surely making my way through the picks.

We follow Charlie St. Claire in 1947, she is pregnant, unmarried and a huge disappointment for her parents. They want her to take care of "the problem" and sends her off to Europe. Charlie sees this as an opportunity to look for her cousin Rose, who disappeared during the war in Nazi-occupied France. Charlie finds an opening to break away from her mother and heads to London, with a name written on a piece of paper...

                                                     

1915, we follow Eve Gardiner during the Great War, she wants to help in any way possible and is recruited as a spy in The Alice Network. She is sent to France and trained by Lili, the queen of spies...Now thirty years later, Eve lives alone and drinks her life away. 

These two women's lives collide and they set off on a mission to find the truth. Charlie about Rose and Eve, about a name she hasn't heard in decades...

Historical fiction...a genre I usually enjoy a lot. I always find myself learning something new. With this novel I learned that this book is based on the real-life spy ring, Alice Network, which operated during WW1 in German-occupied France and Belgium. And that three historical figures are used as characters in the novel. I found it truly interesting to learn about these courageous women and the challenges they had to face. 

Now back to my thoughts on the novel...The 1947 timeline about Charlie wasn't that intriguing, I found Charlie's character very whiny and full of self-pity, which became very repetitive through out the book. I also found her immature and at times very selfish. I just couldn't find myself to care about her story. The chapters felt like a drag to get through, and at times I felt like skimming through them might be the better option...I didn't though. 

Luckily this book alternates between the timelines, so every other chapter was the fascinating story of Eve Gardiner in 1915. She was such a strong character, I loved reading about the female spies. These ladies had to endure many things and lived in danger every day of their lives, the bonds they had and the loyalty towards one another was great to read. The author made me want to read more about Eve's story, and every time the timelines changed, I couldn't wait to get back to her story. When the 1915 and 1947 timeline merged, I loved it, because I was able to read more about Eve's story. 

I rated this book 3 out of 5 stars! If this book was solely about Eve Gardiner, I probably would have rated this 5 stars, Charlie's story completely took away from the novel.