Thanks to Netgalley for providing me for a copy of this. I have not read many world war 2 books this year and I just needed some spy action in my life. This is the author's debut novel and it being a 2021 release, I did have a major problem with this book because it contains a word that I have not seen in a modern day book, and that word is THE "R" WORD!! I absolutely hate this word with a passion because I have a younger cousin who was called this all throughout middle school because he is special needs.
We follow a woman named Cordelia who lives is Italy and she is trying to survive and escape the Fascist regime of Mussolini. Mussolini has recently made a deal with the Germans on figuring out who has been giving away secrets to the RAF because their supply line have been getting bombed. It also includes the Afrika Korps in Egypt.
Cordelia is trying to escape through Vatican City and is getting help from a Father who is in the spy ring with the British. There is also a spy code named Lucifer who is working with the Father and he has infiltrated the Blackshirts, who are the equivalent of the Gestapo.
There was a decent amount of spy work but there was a heavy amount of romance between Cordelia who is Jewish and the German officer who has taken control of her hotel for location reasons and to also keep an eye on the Vatican.
I was not prepared for the amount of sex scenes in this book. It was also very graphic. It's not a lot to categorize this as an erotic novel but it didn't make a whole lot of sense because Cordelia should have been terrified of this man because he was a Nazi even though it was never said straight out that he was one, but he was over Nazi soldiers and he had his own operation.
Also the ending didn't make any sense because there was no punishment for him. He went back to being a lawyer and she went back to him. Like WHY??????????? He assisted in murdering your people and you still want to fuck him.
