Helpful Score: 4
Excellent read. Action, romance and mystery all rolled into one wonderfully written novel. I finished the book in two days because I simply could not put it down.
Helpful Score: 2
I can't say this was a great book. To me, it read a little like an evening cable show. I was able to guess the mole early on and I was unable to really believe the main character.
Helpful Score: 1
Really enjoyed this book....love, mystery, suspence...a great read!
Helpful Score: 1
What a wonderful read! Pam Jenoff again captures our interest with the life of a Holocaust survivor and the bold and courageous steps she takes to not only better her live but the lives of others. With the thread woven into the story through several characters that true love never dies, The Diplomat's Wife is a real page-turner! It's a great book to add to your reading list or for your book club to read.
Helpful Score: 1
I absolutely loved this book! It was hard to put it down! Just when you think you've got it all figured out something happens that you didn't expect! Read this book, you will not be disappointed!
Helpful Score: 1
Marta Nederman, a Nazi resistance fighter from Krakow, Poland, has survived being captured and tortured by the Nazis, been rescued by some American soldiers and is recovering at a refugee camp in Austria. Her family and friends, as far as she knows are all casualties of the war and she needs to restart her life again.
She develops a friendship with Rose, another concentration camp survivor, and Dava, her nurse, at the refugee camp. She spends most of her days with Rose, who is struggling to recover so that she can move to London to live with her Aunt Delia.
One day, Paul Mattison, one of the American soldiers who rescued her from the Nazi concentration camp, showed up at the refugee camp. She convinces Dava to let her break curfew to spend a late evening with Paul and a storm forces them to spend the evening together.
When she gets back, she learns that her friend Rose has died and Dava convinces her that she needs to travel as Rose and use her visa to go to London. She can tell Rose's Aunt about Rose's death and then decide what to do with the rest of her life. The fact that she has no family left in Europe or relatives in the United States convinces her to do this. The problem is that Rose's visa expires in the next days and she must leave immediately for London, via Paris.
Her train is late to Paris and she is unable to use the visa before it expires. While in Paris she runs into Paul Mattison again. He entertains her and helps her to get an extension on the visa so that she can go to London. Before she leaves, Paul proposes marriage and agrees to meet her in London in a few weeks.
On the crossing to London, she meets Simon Gold, a diplomat with the British Embassy. When he learns that she speaks fluent Polish, he offers her a job at the British consulate and gives her his card.
She gets to Rose's Aunt Delia's home and gives her the bad news. Delia offers to let Marta stay with her until she can be reunited with Paul. But Paul's plane crashes on the way to London from Paris and now Marta is alone and pregnant.
She goes to work for Simon at the embassy and soon Simon courts her and she decides to accept his marriage proposal. She continues to work after their daughter is born. One day, the name of a former colleague of hers in the resistance is named as a contact that they need to find to get information to stop the communist threat in Eastern Europe.
Against Simon's wishes, she agrees to take on this assignment. This decision turns her world upside down and she has to play a role in finding the mole in the embassy as well as getting in contact with her former Resistance colleague.
I really enjoyed this book and felt the story was very well told. There are a number twists to the story and what happens, although I was a bit disappointed that I knew who the mole was almost immediately when it was brought up. The revelation in the story of who the mole is and why was not exactly what I'd expected. But the main theme of this story seems to be one of trust â who can you trust and how do you know who that person is?
She develops a friendship with Rose, another concentration camp survivor, and Dava, her nurse, at the refugee camp. She spends most of her days with Rose, who is struggling to recover so that she can move to London to live with her Aunt Delia.
One day, Paul Mattison, one of the American soldiers who rescued her from the Nazi concentration camp, showed up at the refugee camp. She convinces Dava to let her break curfew to spend a late evening with Paul and a storm forces them to spend the evening together.
When she gets back, she learns that her friend Rose has died and Dava convinces her that she needs to travel as Rose and use her visa to go to London. She can tell Rose's Aunt about Rose's death and then decide what to do with the rest of her life. The fact that she has no family left in Europe or relatives in the United States convinces her to do this. The problem is that Rose's visa expires in the next days and she must leave immediately for London, via Paris.
Her train is late to Paris and she is unable to use the visa before it expires. While in Paris she runs into Paul Mattison again. He entertains her and helps her to get an extension on the visa so that she can go to London. Before she leaves, Paul proposes marriage and agrees to meet her in London in a few weeks.
On the crossing to London, she meets Simon Gold, a diplomat with the British Embassy. When he learns that she speaks fluent Polish, he offers her a job at the British consulate and gives her his card.
She gets to Rose's Aunt Delia's home and gives her the bad news. Delia offers to let Marta stay with her until she can be reunited with Paul. But Paul's plane crashes on the way to London from Paris and now Marta is alone and pregnant.
She goes to work for Simon at the embassy and soon Simon courts her and she decides to accept his marriage proposal. She continues to work after their daughter is born. One day, the name of a former colleague of hers in the resistance is named as a contact that they need to find to get information to stop the communist threat in Eastern Europe.
Against Simon's wishes, she agrees to take on this assignment. This decision turns her world upside down and she has to play a role in finding the mole in the embassy as well as getting in contact with her former Resistance colleague.
I really enjoyed this book and felt the story was very well told. There are a number twists to the story and what happens, although I was a bit disappointed that I knew who the mole was almost immediately when it was brought up. The revelation in the story of who the mole is and why was not exactly what I'd expected. But the main theme of this story seems to be one of trust â who can you trust and how do you know who that person is?
Not bad- a little predictable-but enjoyable enough.
This book held me engaged right up until the last couple chapters, where suddenly it became a conspiracy theory. I expected the romance to resolve implausibly (romances tend to do that), but the author made the romance dependent upon the mystery -- which is clearly not the point of the book and clearly NOT Jenoff's forte.
The odd part is that there were no red flags through the majority of the book that the writing would deteriorate so rapidly towards the end. As a result, the climactic moments are a complete let-down. First the female narrative becomes shallow and ludicrous with no emotional nuance (he's dead! how sad! he's not dead! how shocking!) and then the romantic obstacles are unravelled through inexplicable revelations that come completely out of left field.
The conclusion of this book reminded me of the (deliberately ridiculous) conclusion to the movie "Down With Love" except without the irony. Unfortunately humour doesn't seem to be Jenoff's forte, either.
The odd part is that there were no red flags through the majority of the book that the writing would deteriorate so rapidly towards the end. As a result, the climactic moments are a complete let-down. First the female narrative becomes shallow and ludicrous with no emotional nuance (he's dead! how sad! he's not dead! how shocking!) and then the romantic obstacles are unravelled through inexplicable revelations that come completely out of left field.
The conclusion of this book reminded me of the (deliberately ridiculous) conclusion to the movie "Down With Love" except without the irony. Unfortunately humour doesn't seem to be Jenoff's forte, either.
This is one of the best books I have read for a long time.Dont know if this was ever popular or not I found it at the Goodwill. It reads easy no bogging down or boring stuff. A little romance,secret service, and war.
I won't summarize the plot since other reviewers have done so admirably. I am 3/4 through the book right now and must say I am disappointed at the implausible story once Marta is sent back to Prague to locate her old comrade in the resistance, Marek. The feeling of fear and desperation during the Communist takeover in E. Europe is authentic- that sense of paranoia that so many had in the espionage world of agents and double agents seems authentic. However, much of the story is implausible and unbelievable. Who would allow an untrained secretary back into Prague,or Czechoslovakia and E.Berlin for a ridiculous spy mission? And then our heroine meets up with her long lost true love from the past? The plot is turning into a far-fetched, implausible, made for cable movie. I can predict who the mole in the British diplomatic corps is going to be, and I'm sure our feisty heroine will end up with her first love at the end. This book started off so promising, but quickly degenerated into soap opera.
Pam Jenoff's second book, The Diplomat's Wife" drew me "into" the book quickly. Jenoff's writing details each character with a quality that keeps the reader spell-bound. The plot is filled with mystery, historical fiction and the talent of a great author. I will be waiting to read a third book by this author.
a great story of courage and heroinism, one of the best historical romance books ive read!
This is a well written book about an era that must not be forgotten. The author has a very good understanding and was able to convey the desperation of the characters. I was very young at the time of this story, but remember hearing the stories and looking at the pictures in Life Magazine after the war.
Great book, great author.
The book was excellent. I enjoyed every page and was sorry to finish it. I just received the first book in the series, The Kommandant's Girl and will begin reading it shortly.
