Book Club July 2021- The Rose Code

By: Kate Quinn
Published Year: 2021
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Pages: 624

This month’s selection was made by me. I had originally checked this book out of the library in March (right after it was published) and then realized it was over 600 pages, so I decided to save it for a book club pick. A few years ago I had picked The Alice Network by Quinn as a book club choice and we all loved it. I then read The Huntress on my own, so I knew this was going to be a solid choice.

Summary (Provided by 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 codebreaking 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--and their true enemy--closer...

What I thought

Quinn just has a special way of writing to bring you right back into time and into the story that she’s telling.

The Rose Code follows three women during the 1940s in England. Each woman is working for the country in the form of code breaking, however, they all work in different departments. Having come from different walks of life, their friendship is a bit of an odd one, until one of them is betrayed by the others towards the end of the war. The story also takes place in 1947, about two weeks before Queen Elizabeth’s wedding to Prince Phillip. During that time, the women are forced to work together again to help fix the betrayal that occurred 3 years prior.

This book was so good. It is a slower book but worth every minute. It is best read slowly, with the same pace and care of the codebreakers within the novel. That doesn’t mean it is a boring novel, just one that you need to take your time with.

It took a little bit to get used to the back and forth between the earlier 1940s and getting to know Osla, Mab, and Beth, and the jumping forward to 1947 where we are only with Osla. Part of me wishes I could say this book could’ve been made shorter by cutting out unnecessary storylines because, let’s be honest, 600+ pages is a lot. But I don’t feel like I can! Every story had to be told to make the rest of the story make sense.

It was fascinating to read and learn about Bletchley Park which was where all of the work on the Enigma machines during World War 2 happened. I knew a little bit about it from watching The Imitation Game about Alan Turing, but had no idea about the massive scale of the facility as well as how many women worked there. Reading about Osla, Mab, and Beth overcoming the helpless female stereotypes of the 1940s was inspiring. I also loved the mystery storyline of the “present day” in 1947.

Oh! And did I mention there’s romance? Not the central storyline, but still done so well. It was lovely and heartbreaking and gave, what I feel, a true look into wartime romance. I also had no idea that Prince Phillip had a wartime girlfriend so, while I know a lot of it was fictionalized, it was still fun to read and learn about that.

Overall, I think because of the pace of the book, it’s not my favorite of Quinn’s but it was still a wonderful book. I think a lot of people won’t see this one through because of that which is unfortunate because every minute of this book was very well done.

What Book Club Thought

Everyone loved the book! We all agreed that the pacing was a bit slow. That didn’t stop us from loving it. We had a long discussion about everything which I think makes it a successful book club book. It also piqued all of our interests about Bletchley Park which I think makes it a successful historical fiction novel. We talked about how we each enjoyed the female characters, which Quinn writes so well. We also discussed how this book made us think about different aspects of the war we hadn’t considered, such as men who are physically able to enlist but are needed for their brains and how, since no one knew they were doing war work, they were harassed. Or even the little storyline about Prince Phillip. Such a good book and I highly recommend checking it out, not just as a book on your own, but if you have a book club as a book club choice.