Excellent audiobook!

One of my favorite reads of 2020.

Nancy Wake was an inspiring, courageous woman who killed a Nazi with her bare hands and is one of the most decorated women from WWII. Ariel Lawhon's tale, Code Name Hélène, is a captivating and entertaining read that highlights love, sacrifice, and loyalty as the reader joins the true adventures of a female heroine.

Nancy Wake, an Australian ex-pat living in Paris meets wealthy Frenchman Henri Fiocca after securing a contract as an anonymous Hearst reporter. After a courtship and marriage, Germans invade France and she can't stop herself from getting involved with the resistance as she smuggles people and documents across the border. After a time, she is forced to leave France and is recruited into the Special Operations Executives in Britain to lead the resistance with the allocation of Allied Forces weapons and resource airdrops within occupied France.

The story weaves time periods between Nancy's identities: Nancy Wake - Mrs. Fiocca, The White Mouse, Hélène, and Madam Andrée, yielding a riveting read that I couldn't put down.

Lawhon's talent and creative license make this an enjoyable read for a historical fiction fan. I enjoyed the layout of the storytelling that built anticipation (even though it made me impatient at times). As a hopeless romantic and devoted wife in a marriage of 16 years, I appreciated Nancy and Henri's love story as well.

This is a great long weekend read for the beach, by a fire, or in the mountains - anywhere you can steal away for long intervals to immerses yourself in Nancy's tale. Don't forget your Victory Red lipstick!

A well researched and written historical fiction which is worth a read.

Nancy Wake is a fascinating character and this book was clearly very well researched. As others have said, I loved reading the author’s note at the end (that’s what bumped my review from 2 to three stars).

Women don’t have to be likeable to be powerful or to have an impact. But the way Nancy is written, she’s so unlikeable that I found myself often irritated with her. The way she’s written, it’s a wonder that France and Britain had any successes in the war at all until she came along. I found myself longing for any scrap of information or even just respect for the other characters, who were based on real people and must have been incredibly brave and impactful, but in Nancy’s voice were often reduced to bumbling sidekicks. I understand that she was in charge, which is epic for the time, but her dismissiveness of everyone that wasn’t herself or Henri was so off putting after a while.

I enjoyed parts of this book more than others. I’m definitely glad to learn more about Nancy Wake.