I thoroughly enjoyed this book! 

On paper Katharina, Rina, Edgeworth has a wonderful life: doting, mega-rich surgeon husband, a massive apartment overlooking Central Park, and two gorgeous little children with whom she gets to spend all her time. But she misses her old days of working at the UN and running around the city, feeling needed, wanted, and desired. It’s the 1950’s and the Red Scare is in full swing, McCarthy is rounding up his troops, and the FBI appear to have their work cut out for them trying to root out Communists who are apparently hiding all over the place. One day Rina is approached by an FBI agent, asking her to meet up with an old lover and find out some information for them… And Rina jumps at the chance of some excitement in her life again.

I related to Rina a lot. Having multiple children close together is hard, especially when you are with them 24/7. Your life changes overnight and sometimes it’s hard to find yourself again, pull all of those pieces of yourself back together into one full person who feels like you. I got her. I once ran around the streets of NYC working and playing hard, and then one day “settled down” and had several children a little more than a year apart. And that was in the early 2010’s, I can’t even imagine how it would have been for me in the 1950’s! 

This is fiction and sort of romance so don’t expect a real deep dive into the politics of the 1950’s, especially not into the really awful things that happened to a lot of people. While the author tries to appear like she’s neutral there is still a bit of “Commies bad, America great!” within the narrative which I think she could have dived a bit deeper into. I think the author did a great job with the character developments though, I thoroughly appreciated Turner and Ava, even Tom, who for all his shortcomings and demands was not a bad husband. Just too focused on what he thought they needed, which is really what he wanted. I would have been quite happy to read 100 more pages with a little more meat on the history area (which could have also helped develop the backstories of those who were thought to be Communist traitors). But as long as you don’t expect a perfect rendition of what the 1950’s we’re really like politically and mentally for many people, you will enjoy this. I did, even though I felt like there were some holes here and there. It’s a great summer read!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.