FRIDAY 56: The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

 

Anne@Head Full of Books invited me to participate in Friday56 with other book bloggers, so I'm giving it a go. I hope I do this right!

I'm also including it in Book Beginnings hosted by Rose City Reader.

Title: The Rose Code by Kate Quinn 

Book Beginnings Quote: The enigma arrived in the afternoon post, sealed, smudged, and devastating.

Friday56 quote (quote taken from page 56): Any other woman, Osla reflected, would have run to her husband-to-be if she got menacing letters from a madhouse inmate. It was the sort of thing fiances liked to know, if the woman they loved was being threatened by a lunatic. But Osla knew she was not going to tell a soul.

Summary: (Taken from goodreads):

1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, 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 code-breaking machines as she conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband. Both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. But war, loss, and the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart.

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. But each petal they remove from the rose code brings danger - mdash - and their true enemy...

Review: Stay tuned!  This is my book group's next pick. I've just started it -- I'm not even up to page 56 yet, but I'm pulled in so far!