First published 2019
Alexandra Wickham curtseys before King George V and Queen Mary at eighteen, resplendent in white lace and satin from Paris. Her delicate blonde beauty suggests a life of privilege awaits. War changes everything. By 1939, Europe burns and England fights for survival. Alex leaves her Hampshire home for London, joining the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry as a volunteer. Her fluency in French and German catches the attention of British intelligence. Soon she shocks her family by appearing in trousers and bright red lipstick, though they cannot know why. Alex masters the deadly craft of espionage, undertaking perilous missions behind enemy lines. She falls in love with a pilot but must guard her secrets even from him. Her covert career spans decades and continents, from wartime Europe through the Cold War era. Alex operates in India, Pakistan, Morocco, Hong Kong, Moscow, and Washington D.C. when her husband Richard joins the foreign service. She witnesses history unfold while living perpetually on the edge, carrying secrets that can never be revealed.
Genres: romance, historical-fiction, 20th-century, espionage
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: England, Europe, Hampshire, Hong Kong, India, London, Morocco, Moscow, Pakistan, United States, Washington D.C.
Period: 1939, Cold War
288 pages · Hardcover · Delacorte Press