The Diplomat’s Wife
by Pam Jenoff

From Patty Engelman at Booklist:
After working in the Jewish resistance in Kraków, Poland, Marta Nedermann is rescued from a Nazi prison by American soldiers. A simple gesture of human comfort by a soldier named Paul is etched in her mind, and when she sees him again in a camp for displaced persons in Salzburg, Marta is overjoyed. They meet again in Paris and become engaged, only to have Paul die in a plane crash. Marta is now scared, pregnant, and alone in a strange city. Simon Gold, an English diplomat, needs her language skills, and he wants her as well. They marry, and two years later, the English government taps Marta for help in finding a traitor in the British intelligence corps, sending her on an undercover mission.

From Publishers’ Weekly:
Marta goes on a dangerous mission to Poland, where a Communist takeover is imminent and where the seesaw plot takes more than one surprise twist.

I didn’t quite know what to expect from The Diplomat’s Wife, having not read Jenoff before.

The mystery was more than decent: although the identity of the mole was not difficult to figure out, the ‘hows’ and ‘whats’ were not so evident–in fact, were a complete surprise.

But, at its heart,The Diplomat’s Wife is a historical romance. And that is my only complaint: the accidental meetings between Marta and Paul were just too numerous to be believable. But then, I don’t care for romances and have a very low tolerance level for such devices.

If you do like historical romance, then you’re in for a treat with this. Enjoy!

I read this courtesy of my local library.

The Diplomat’s Wife satisfies four of my reading challenges: the Historical Fiction Challenge, the New To Me Authors Challenge, the Support Your Local Library, and 100+.

Chapters/Indigo link for Canadian readers:
The Diplomat”s Wife

Or, even better, buy from an independent book seller by searching this site that has links to independent booksellers across North America.

P.S. If you click through the affiliate links in the book titles, you may notice a different cover. I like to see the cover that’s on the copy I read – and it’s usually different than Amazon.com because they display the American release, and I read the Canadian. Again, the links are affiliate links so I will receive a small percentage of any purchase you make after clicking through from this blog.

Technorati Tags: The Diplomat’s Wide, Pam Jenoff, Marta Nederman, Paul Mattison, Polish resistance, Polish underground, WWII, World War 2, communist takeover of Poland, Simon Gold, historical romance,