“This fully animated portrait of Nancy Wake . . . will fascinate readers of World War II history and thrill fans of fierce, brash, independent women, alike.” –LISA WINGATE, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours BASED ON THE THRILLING REAL-LIFE STORY OF SOCIALITE SPY NANCY WAKE, comes the newest feat of historical fiction from the New York Times bestselling author of I Was … from the New York Times bestselling author of I Was Anastasia, featuring the astonishing woman who killed a Nazi with her bare hands and went on to become one of the most decorated women in WWII.
Told in interweaving timelines organized around the four code names Nancy used during the war, Code Name Hélène is a spellbinding and moving story of enduring love, remarkable sacrifice and unfaltering resolve that chronicles the true exploits of a woman who deserves to be a household name.
It is 1936 and Nancy Wake is an intrepid Australian expat living in Paris who has bluffed her way into a reporting job for Hearst newspaper when she meets the wealthy French industrialist Henri Fiocca. No sooner does Henri sweep Nancy off her feet and convince her to become Mrs. Fiocca than the Germans invade France and she takes yet another name: a code name.
As LUCIENNE CARLIER Nancy smuggles people and documents across the border. Her success and her remarkable ability to evade capture earns her the nickname THE WHITE MOUSE from the Gestapo. With a five million franc bounty on her head, Nancy is forced to escape France and leave Henri behind. When she enters training with the Special Operations Executives in Britain, her new comrades are instructed to call her HÉLÈNE. And finally, with mission in hand, Nancy is airdropped back into France as the deadly MADAM ANDRÉE, where she claims her place as one of the most powerful leaders in the French Resistance, armed with a ferocious wit, her signature red lipstick, and the ability to summon weapons straight from the Allied Forces.
But no one can protect Nancy if the enemy finds out these four women are one and the same, and the closer to liberation France gets, the more exposed she–and the people she loves–become.
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Exceptional story of love, courage, and bravery. in awe of Nancy Wake’s bold, strong sense of self and purpose.
My Review of Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon; published by Anchor
First of all, I’d like to thank the author, Ariel Lawhon, for creating such an enriching story of Nancy Wake and her indelible spirit. Code Name Helene was an exceptional book, especially since I read it during “Women of History” month. If you’re like me when reading historical fiction, you often Google further information on various events and/or people that have piqued your interest. Ariel has made that task even simpler in her authors’ notes. (Just make sure NOT to read the notes before reading the book.) There’s so much history in regards to WWII that I never knew. I was enlightened further by the seamless transitions presented throughout this book. Most stories revolving around war often have graphic scenes and Code Name Helene has several. This story will no doubt ruffle your feathers. However; it’ll also make you smile as Nancy Wake is strong, smart, confident, pleasurable, and has a “no holes barred” spirit. Nancy is proof that we all have a calling. I highly recommend Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon.
#ariellawhon
#anchor
Terrific. Lawhon’s protagonist is Nancy Wake, a kick-ass heroine of World War II who led Maquis fighters against the Germans in France. I couldn’t put it down.
Amazed by Nancy Wake’s in credible bravery!
Going through book withdrawals since I finished it.
What an exciting read! Nancy Wake, nurse, journalist, and French Resistance fighter– who was also a spy for the British Special Operations during World War II. Her life reads like fiction, but was all too true. I read this one straight through to the end. Great read!
This book. I LOVED it.
My favorite book since the Nightingale. While creative license was definitely used in this “fictional” story, it is based on the life of a real woman. The author shares what she added and what was true to history. It made me want to know more about this incredible female!
This book is a long one, but I was so immersed in the story that it didn’t bother me one bit. You follow the many identities of Nancy Grace Augusta Wake, and her brave exploits in the French Resistance and the British SOE. A natural born leader and a fearless warrior, her high society life gets turned upside down, and she uses her sharp wit and keen brain to make a difference and go down in history.
One of the best WWII books ever written. Lawhon has skillfully immortalized Nancy Wake, one of the most decorated heroes of that horrific war, the real-life leader of the French Resistance in the Auvergne region of France. Brilliantly plotted narrative in two time frames and five character personas, she weaves a tale filled with suspense, history, well-drawn characters and remarkable dialogue that keeps the reader engaged chapter after chapter, wanting to know what happens next. This is a story of courage, resiliency, loyalty and love that will stay with you long after that final page is turned. Bravo!
The subject of CODE NAME HELENE is Nancy Grace Augusta Wake, and wow! What a (real!) woman she was: journalist, ambulance driver, French resistance fighter, officer in the British SOE during WWII.
She drank and swore a lot.
She liked cashmere and lipstick.
She also killed a Nazi with her bare hands…
And had a dog and a husband she loved (possibly in that order)…
She was ALL THE THINGS, in other words.
And this book is too. It’s a love story and a war story and I loved it.
I did occasionally find the multiple timelines a bit confusing, but it allowed Lawhon to reveal certain bits of information in the same order Nancy might have learned it. And I attribute my confusion more to my fragmented reading and pandemic brain and also to listening to most of it rather than reading it (I’m a much better visual learner). There’s also one character who if I’m going to nitpicky, I found perhaps a bit one-note, but Nancy herself isn’t such a force to be reckoned with, that any minor criticisms I have are vastly overshadowed by my admiration of what Lawhon has done in bringing Nancy’s story to the larger attention she deserves and the marvelous portrayal she’s given us of this complicated, spirited, courageous woman.
Exceedingly well written biography of Nancy Wake. More dramatic than the other two biographies I have read of her. She lived at the Stafford Hotel in London after the War.
She appeared every day for a drink at 5pm at the American Bar, escorted by one of the hotel staff. She drank gin and tonic. I saw her there once or twice in the late 90’s and was thrilled to see this heroic woman.
Margie Furniss. Florida
I am speechless which, if you know me, is saying a lot. The fact that Nancy Wake was a real woman that really did everything this book entails is what renders me speechless. Talk about girl power!! Reading everything she had to sacrifice had my eyes misty for a good part of this novel. I can’t even begin to imagine what she went through and the grit, passion, and determination it must’ve taken to fight to the end is unfathomable.
Ariel Lawhon did an incredible job of submersing the reader in the life of Nancy and how she maneuvered through the war, giving exact dates and locations, along with Nancy’s various aliases, really helped bring her story to life. You are also able to see moments through the eyes of her love Henri, which adds wonderful dimension to Nancy’s story, as well as show how hard it was letting the person who holds your heart risk their life for the the lives of others.
This book does flip back and forth between multiple timelines, which did keep the story interesting, and the parallels fascinating, but it did get confusing from time to time, especially when you’re having to keep up with which alias Nancy is using during that time period.
Yes, there is a lot of drinking and swearing, but this is all apart of who Nancy was, thus a big part of her story, but it’s easy to look past all that and see this beautiful, powerful woman that fought harder than any man could in one of the worst battles in human history.
Though not an easy read due to the gruesome subject matter (WWII), it is an utterly fascinating tale of one woman just trying to to her part, and fighting for her country, and fellow countryman. This is a well-written, deeply researched account that has me craving to know more about the incredible woman, Nancy Wake.
*I have voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the publisher through NetGalley. All views and opinions expressed are completely honest, and my own.
I was amazed after reading this book to discover that it was based on a true story. What an amazing person Nancy Wake was! It is very tense because it is about the French resistance during World War II, and it was such an awful time for everyone there during the occupation. The writing was intense, once the action started, and I found it almost hard to read, waiting to see what happened next. Lawton did justice to Wake’s story in many ways, but she used the alternating time periods device, and I think it just didn’t work here. I would have enjoyed the story so much more if she had told it chronologically. There were a lot of characters, and they used different pseudonyms at times, and I just couldn’t keep them straight due to the time hopping. We didn’t find out until almost the end of the book about her relationship with some of the other main characters, and I would have enjoyed knowing about them when life behind the lines was playing out earlier in the book. But it was definitely a great story to tell.
Thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Armed With A Tube of Lipstick
Code Name Helene is a story about the famous spy and resistance fighter Nancy Wake. This book tells the story of the young reporter from Australia living in Paris France. She meets the wealthy Frenchman Henri Fiocca and eventually becomes Nancy Fiocca.
She was spirited and confident. Her armor was a tube of red lipstick. When her husband goes to war after the war begins, Nancy cannot just sit around. She drives an ambulance until Germany invades France. After the invasion Nancy begins to work with the French resistance. After Henri returns from war when the French soldiers are sent home after the French surrenders to Germany, Nancy continues to work with the French resistance.
She becomes the most wanted spy and the German’s dub her “The White Mouse”. Her husband is murdered by a local French police chief and his ex girlfriend Marceline. Nancy grieves, then she goes to work with the SOE special services and back to France with her old team to help the French resistance once again.
This is the story of a remarkable women that survived some hard times, some hard living and a war. She was brave, courageous and confident. She loved her husband, France, and her little dog Picon.
This book was exciting, romantic, tragic and historic all in one. It was a great book, I didn’t want to put it down and read way too long into the night. I would recommend this book.
Thanks to Ariel Lawhon, Doubleday Books, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of the book.
Hélène is a reporter at the early part of the war. She meets and marries Henri, the love of her life. He is sent to protect the Maginot line. While he is gone, she drives and ambulance and ends up, in a convoluted way, with the resistance. She helped change the history of WWII. And because of all her undercover activities, she saved a multitude of lives.
When this story began, I was in awe of Hélène. And I pretty much stayed that way through the whole book. This woman was a powerhouse and a force to be reckoned with. However, the story is a little muddled, especially in the middle. But, boy am I glad I read it. I learned so much! What an amazing lady and and an amazing story of her life.
I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.
Based on a true story Nancy Wake was a very independent woman for her time. A real amazing woman who earned the respect and loyalty of the male members in the resistance group she was working with.
464 pages, longer then the average books these day but it is a fast read. Hard to put down and I highly recommend reading it. I got so interested in Nancy Wake that I plan to check out her autobiography “Nancy Wake The White Mouse”
Told in alternating timelines, I do recommend that the reader pays close attention to the dates listed at the beginning of each chapter as the chapters bounce back and forth in time. I would have given it a five star if she had kept the timeline sequential so that it be easier to follow what happened with the various characters at the same time. Also some literally liberties were taken were I preferred she had not but that’s only my own opinion.
This book goes into the top Five Best Books for 2020! Masterfully crafted, characters with depth and the sounds of war making my heart race! Absolutely Lawhon’s best!
Code Name Hélène brings us back to the time of WWII, to a time when a determined woman named Nancy Wake did what she believed in for the sake of her country and all those living under Hitler’s rule. Told in alternating timelines, we get to experience not only Nancy’s success as a secret agent but her love story with her husband Henri.
Hélène is just one of the code names given to Nancy, and I had vaguely heard of her before reading this book, but it was long enough ago that I wanted to not refresh my memory before starting this. I’m glad I went that route because even though Hélène was a very strong woman, she was made stronger by Lawhon’s voice.
Nancy is witty, she’s a great leader as the vast amount of followers show, she takes no guff from anyone, she’s incredibly smart and resourceful. People looked up to her and depended on her. I could go on with varying adjectives, all of which would be true. The combination of having such a strong leading heroine and the fact the book is historical fiction made this book a home run for me. I think for fans of this time period, this book would be fantastic to add to your repertoire.
Thank you Doubleday Books for sending this one along!
Historical fiction is my favorite genre and I love books and movies about women spies. I have read quite a few about WWII and even WWI, though those women are not as well recognized.
This is the first book that I have read by this author. From the blurb of the book you know that :
It is 1936 and Nancy Wake is an intrepid Australian expat living in Paris who has bluffed her way into a reporting job for Hearst newspaper. She is fighting to cover the disturbing reports of violence coming out of Vienna and Berlin when she meets the wealthy French industrialist Henri Fiocca. No sooner does Henri sweep Nancy off her feet and convince her to become Mrs. Fiocca than the Germans invade France and she takes yet another name: a code name.
I had hoped for a fast paced, intriguing story about Nancy Wake and her operations during the war. However I found that this book spent an inordinate amount of time on the love and romance between Henri and Nancy. I didn’t need to know about their dinners or their sexual exploits in such detail. Certainly the relationship was important to Henri and Nancy but this book seemed to revolve a lot around this. This is quite a long book at 464 pages and I found myself bored during much of the first half of the book. I wanted more insight into the other characters and more action and suspense. I found the last quarter of the book to be the most interesting, along with the author’s notes. It’s during this part of the book that Nancy is operating as the White Mouse and is now known to the Germans and so there is a price on her head and she is leading very dangerous missions. This part was fascinating.
When I read the author’s notes I found that my feelings about the amount of time spent on their relationship wasn’t far from what the author intended. She states “This is a novel about marriage. Yes, of course, it’s also about war and friendship and bravery and tragedy and one of the most important conflicts of the 20th century . . . But to me, at its heart, this is a novel about a woman and her husband and the sacrifices made by both in the midst of extraordinary circumstances”. I felt that the author’s notes were a better description of the book than the blurb that accompanied the book.
I thought that this was a good book but not one that I could really recommend. It was very well researched and brought to life a women spy during WWII but I think there was a point when more editing would have helped this story. There are, however, many 5 star reviews for this book so read a variety of reviews, or just go in blind, and see how you feel about it. Reading is such a personal experience and I’m sure that this book will find it’s audience.
I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss. It is set to publish on March 31, 2020
I wish I could give this book more than 5 stars! This was a well-researched and written book. To say it was a page-turner would be an absolute understatement. I was hooked on this book from the very beginning. Although this story does not have a HEA, it is still a story that I highly recommend! I do recommend that the reader pay close attention to the dates listed at the beginning of each chapter as the chapters bounce back and forth in time. There is foul language and the author does a wonderful job of explaining this in the end. It’s what made Nancy Wake a successful leader among nothing but men. She is a person whom I’ve never heard of but she did so much to help turn the tide of WWII. The things she endured are absolutely unimaginable to me.
I highly recommend this story to any who loves history! Although this story is listed as fiction, most of the story is based on fact.
spies, WW2-Europe, journalist, nonfiction, historical-figures, historical-novel, historical-places-events, historical-research,
The writing and storytelling is fluid and with a clarity that shines throughout this novel of a real superwoman all dressed up in the finery of fiction. An incredibly well done portrait of a truly remarkable woman of great bravery during the course of ww2 who was one of the most decorated women of that war. She was born in NZ but loudly recognized as Australia’s greatest war heroine.
It is notably biographical but because of time telescoping and character melding it is not a biography
She called Henri the love of her life and they were faithful to to each other even though he was tortured and executed in 1943. Amazing and impressive are the words I’d use to recommend this book.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Doubleday Books via NetGalley. Thank you!