“A novel of science, love, espionage, beautiful writing, and a heroine who carves a strong path in the world of men. As far as I’m concerned there is nothing left to want.”–Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House“A highly-charged love story that reveals the dangerous energy at the heart of every real connection…Riveting.”–Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads SingLove. Desire. Betrayal. … Sing
Love. Desire. Betrayal. Her choice could save a nation.
Chicago, 1950. Rosalind Porter has always defied expectations–in her work as a physicist on the Manhattan Project and in her passionate love affair with colleague Thomas Weaver. Five years after the end of both, her guilt over the bomb and her heartbreak over Weaver are intertwined. She desperately misses her work in the lab, yet has almost resigned herself to a more conventional life.
Then Weaver gets back in touch–and so does the FBI. Special Agent Charlie Szydlo wants Roz to spy on Weaver, whom the FBI suspects of passing nuclear secrets to Russia. Roz helped to develop these secrets and knows better than anyone the devastating power such knowledge holds. But can she spy on a man she still loves, despite her better instincts? At the same time, something about Charlie draws her in. He’s a former prisoner of war haunted by his past, just as her past haunts her.
As Rosalind’s feelings for each man deepen, so too does the danger she finds herself in. She will have to choose: the man who taught her how to love . . . or the man her love might save?
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Atomic Love by Jennie Fields is an excellent historic fiction that has it all: passion, secrets, suspense, espionage, loyalties, distrust, regrets, difficult choices, and acceptance all wrapped into an excellent novel.
Post-WWII, Cold War, McCarthyism is at its finest here in this book in 1950 Chicago. Rosalind is a smart (hello she is a scientist), fiery, independent (yet dependent…read the book and you will know what I mean), and a fabulous and complicated female protagonist that is featured in this story. She is flawed, but that is what makes her interesting and real.
Roz ends up smack in the middle of a difficult situation professionally and personally, pulled between the past and potential future. Just when she was trying to move on and create a new life for herself post-war, she is placed back into the depths of the murky mist. Pulled between past loves and loyalties and new revelations and new interests and passions. As with most things in life, black and white are not as common as the middling grey areas. Nothing is clear cut, and Rosalind has to make difficult decisions and subsequent actions that have cascading consequences and changes.
I do not want to divulge too much of the plot as I do not want to take away any of the intrigue and surprise for the reader, but the premise and the ending is excellent. I truly enjoy Rosalind even more after reading the ending of the book and her final decisions. Bravo.
5/5 stars
Thank you EW and G.P. Putman’s Sons/Penguin Publishing for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.
First, the title is awful but the description sounded promising so I decided to give it a try. The story started of well enough, but the longer it went the less I liked Rosalind. It bothered me how quickly she went from Weaver to Charlie (who I liked and I think he deserved better than her). Also, the ending was unsatisfying.
2.5 stars The best thing, for me, was that I borrowed this from the library rather than purchase it as I had been debating.
This was such an interesting read about the lives of those who were involved with the war, and how they are now coping with what they handled during the war, as well as what might still be happening. This novel touches a bit on the Manhattan project, and the red scare that was starting to come about after WWII.
It is the beginning of a new decade and people are trying to get their lives back on track after the war. Men are taking their jobs, back and women are sent back to be housewives once again. Rosalind still carries the guilt with her every single day that she was part of creating that bomb as having been a physicist. She is also still mourning the loss of her love Weaver, he meant everything to her, and just left her high and dry with no explanation.
Weaver unexpectedly tries to get back into Rosalind’s good graces. He wants to explain, and prove that he is changed but how can she forgive him? When she is thinking about her options and what her heart wants, she is approached by an FBI agent, he wants her to get back with Weaver and gain any knowledge he has. They want her to spy on her lover, as they believe he has been involved with selling information to the Russians.
Rosalind can’t believe what she is hearing, and hardly feels that she can betray Weaver. He was her one and only love after all, but with everything Agent Szydlo has explained, it seems that some of the pieces are falling into place about Weaver, and when they did work together. As she is contemplating this new assignment she fears she is now being followed herself. What has she or Weaver gotten her back into?
Can she really betray the man she loved, and still loves to save others, is this her saving grace for having worked on the bomb? Will Weaver spill his secrets, and why he wants to be back in Rosalind’s life for once again? Is he truly a changed man, or is there an underlying motive?
This was a very interesting read, as i had no idea about information being given and sold to Russia even before the bomb was fully developed and dropped. It was also interesting to read about how the women were just expected to go back to being the housewife after having stepped into men’s roles for so many years, to then not be looked at as capable of dong those jobs anymore, since the men were back from war.
I loved the romance story in this book. The world building for the time period was engaging but mostly I loved the characters – Charlie was my favorite. I kept reading just hoping he would get his happily ever after.
As a scientist myself, I found the portrayal of a woman betrayed by a lover and cast from the world of science compelling. I appreciate that she was romantically involved with two men at the same time. My one wish is that she’d been even more involved in solving the final mystery.
Historical fiction at its best. While narrative form is not my favorite the story will draw you in quickly and keep you reading.
4.5 stars
What a delight. Jennie Fields has mixed historical romance with elements of a cold war thriller to create a heartfelt page-turner. Set in the often over-simplified era of 1950, when the scars of WWII were being paved over by societal pressures, this is women’s fiction at its core highlighting the struggles by women of the time.
The story centers around nuclear physicist, Rosalind Porter, years after working on the Manhattan Project, and now peddles antique jewelry at a department store. Her biggest failure in life was falling in love with a man unworthy of her gifts, a fellow scientist who banished her without warning while giving secrets to the Russians.
When FBI agent, Charlie Szydlo, asks her to rekindle that relationship in order to convince the man to turn himself in, Rosalind struggles with feelings of revenge, desire, and shame while developing a complicated connection with Agent Szydlo.
What I loved, aside from having a single, intelligent heroine in Chicago, were the relationships that branched outside of the love triangle. Charlie and Rosalind both have strong bonds with their sisters and their families that added a unique depth to each character. These other women touch on issues of discontentment and boredom in domestic life and search for a woman’s place in this world. I found the early cold war fascinating too because US technology was so underdeveloped and seemed far more dangerous than the glamor spy stories of the past.
Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves spies or cold war stories or strong female leads or simmering love stories… basically this book is for everyone so pick it up and enjoy!
I had the most amazing Live chat with the author on Instagram. Check it out! Jennie is so much fun!
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CEiFLePAg6N/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Like all my favorite books, I also did mood boards for this book that convey my inspiration if this were to become a film or limited series
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEb5NOsATqV/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Roz is a physicist, or rather, she used to be. Now she sells antique jewelry at a department store. She greatly misses her lab work. But, she was let go after the Manhattan project because of a terrible report about her. This had damaged her from other lab jobs. Enter Special Agent Charlie Szydlo. He wants her to spy on her old lover. And boy…does that open old wounds.
I fluctuated between 4 and 5 stars on this one. I settled on 4 just because there are some places in the writing where I felt the conversations could have been better. Just a little overdramatic in spots. Now, this is not enough to even worry about..just my opinion and my thought process. Other than that little hitch…this book is wonderful. I love Roz. She is strong and smart. Two of my favorite aspects in a character. She did turn dumb….as some women do…when it comes to an old flame. You will have to read this to find out.
Then there is Charlie. This is a person who has been through so much. He is damaged from the war and he just doesn’t know how to channel the damage. His war experience is a favorite part of this read. His tale had me captivated, cringing and crying. When he meets Roz, he struggles to overcome this experience and let her in.
This book has just about everything…love, romance, espionage, suspense, murder. It is all in one package! Oh…and I love the science spattered throughout this read! Grab your copy today!
I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.
Based loosely on the life of Leona Woods, a physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project in its nascent years in Chicago, “Atomic Love” tells the story of Rosalind Porter. Porter is a physicist recruited by Fermi to join his Manhattan Project. There she falls in love with Weaver a fellow physicist, and as it turns out, a Russian spy passing top secret information to them. Porter is dismissed from the Project based on a report created by Weaver that said Porter was unstable and unsuitable for the Project after the first atom bomb was dropped on Japan and she fell into a deep depression because she’d thought they were building a bomb that would save the world not destroy it. Unable to get another job as a physicist, Porter ends up as a saleswoman in the Fields department store, bitter and depressed. When she is recruited by the FBI to get incriminating information on Weaver, she doesn’t exactly jump at the chance, but her country needs her. What follows a story of redemption and love.
Jennie Fields has written a very interesting novel set in post-WWII Chicago. It is well written and her characters are well developed and likable. Porter was born to be a scientist but ends up in a mind-numbing job because she was a no longer a scientist. How she deals with that plus a shattered heart is at the heart of this book. This is not your typical romance novel, rather it a novel of a resilient woman who makes a bad choice who is shattered by his betrayal and the loss of everything that was right about her life.
If you like your historical novels set in an era not often portrayed with a unique woman main character, this book is for you. If you enjoy books that have flashbacks to previous life-changing historical books, you’ll love this book. Regardless of why you pick this book up, it deserves to be at the top of your to-be-read list.
My thanks to G.P. Putnam’s Sons and Edelweiss for an eARC.