The Starlet Spy

This novel reads like a locomotive.  The characters load onto the train, the whistle blows, and the locomotive begins its travels down the track.  As the train gains speed and moves through the hills and valleys, and curves and straightaways, the reader is taken on a trip that is not always comfortable, and  never sleepy.  There are stops along the way to search for a hidden treasure and to refuel the engine for the next portion of the trip.  When it finally chugs into the destination depot, readers feel like they have been wrung out and tossed on the ground, hardly able to find their footings beneath them.  

Amelie Black is a Hollywood movie star most often cast into the role of a ditzy blonde with no brains behind her gorgeous blue eyes.  She is recruited by the   Office of Strategic Services to find a manuscript that was written by Niels Bohr before he fled Denmark to Sweden.  The manuscript holds secrets that could lead to the development of an atomic bomb, and should those secrets fall into the wrong hands, it could prove devastating to the rest of the world, at large.  Never knowing who  she can and cannot trust, she is largely on her own in finding this manuscript until Finn Ristofferson inserts himself into the search.  Even though she is beginning to find herself growing warm toward Finn, she is still not sure she can trust him, but he proves himself time and time again, both worthy of her trust, and worthy of her love. 

Rachel Scott McDaniel is the latest author recruited by Barbour Books to add to their Heroines of World War II series, and she doesn't disappoint.  Her characters are fully fleshed out, her settings are movie-worthy, her plot lines are unpredictable and quite readable, making this a wonderful book to cozy up to and learn something in the process.  

This is a five star book, with two thumbs up, and a missing manuscript hunt for good measure.  

Barbour Books provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own.