The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict

HerKentucky Whiskey Glass Rating: 🥃🥃🥃🥃

Editor’s note: This book review and its source material may contain triggering content for some readers. The real-life events that are described in this book center around the European political climate of the 1930s — many of the people in this book were swept up in fascist and communist political actions. Please note that, in reading and reviewing this book, I am in no way advocating the vicious and atrocious political viewpoints held by members of the Mitford family. This book contains content warnings for Nazism, anti-Semitism, Fascism and suicide.

Publisher’s Synopsis: From New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict comes an explosive novel of history's most notorious sisters, one of whom will have to choose: her country or her family?

Between the World Wars, the six Mitford sisters — each more beautiful, brilliant, and eccentric than the next — dominate the English political, literary, and social scenes. Though they've weathered scandals before, the family falls into disarray when Diana divorces her wealthy husband to marry a fascist leader and Unity follows her sister's lead all the way to Munich, inciting rumors that she's become Hitler's mistress.

As the Nazis rise in power, novelist Nancy Mitford grows suspicious of her sisters' constant visits to Germany and the high-ranking fascist company they keep. When she overhears alarming conversations and uncovers disquieting documents, Nancy must make excruciating choices as Great Britain goes to war with Germany.

Probing the torrid political climate in the lead-up to World War II and the ways that seemingly sensible people can be sucked into radical action, The Mitford Affair follows Nancy's valiant efforts to stop the Nazis from taking over Great Britain, and the complicated choices she must make between the personal and the political.

HerKentucky Review: Oh, wow. There is so much to unpack with The Mitford Affair. These women (and their ill-fated brother, Tom) were celebrity socialites of 1930s England. They were beautiful, and brilliant, and witty, and they garnered plenty of media attention. Their novels and memoirs were full of nicknames and bon mots and secret languages and in-jokes. Their father held a peerage title and they were cousins-by-marriage to Winston Churchill. It’s quite easy to get caught up in their mystique and mythology; one feels a little more clever simply by reading of their adventures. And yet…

And yet you can’t deny the fact that three of the six sisters were political fanatics. Diana and Unity were caught up in Europe’s burgeoning fascist movement. Diana actively fought to bring fascist rule to England, and Unity literally stalked Hitler. Jessica chose communism over her family. As the narrative of The Mitford Affair unfolds, we learn that Nancy chooses to turn Diana’s political documents over to the British authorities. As I read Ms. Benedict’s account of the Mitford sisters’ political conflicts, I couldn’t help thinking of the political climate of modern America, and the ways that so many people are getting caught up in often-dangerous political rhetoric. If I learned anything in four years of undergraduate political science studies, it’s that there will always be dangerous ideologies to adopt, and there will always be people who find these ideologies thrilling and fascinating.

The Mitford Affair is a fantastic introduction to the famed Mitford sisters, presenting the reader with a concise understanding of the socioeconomic and political dynamics of the day. Ms. Benedict does tend to present Diana somewhat as a victim of infatuation more than a political entity in her own right; I honestly don’t know if this is a true depiction. The same could be said of the author’s treatment of Unity — was she an impressionable young woman who fell blindly into Hitler-worship or was she truly a believer in the Nazi cause? Ms. Benedict does a nice job of writing about these women in a way that both captures their charms and looks unflinchingly at their reprehensible actions. I definitely recommend this book — with strong consideration to content warnings — to anyone who’s interested in learning more about the storied Mitford family.

Purchase The Mitford Affair on Amazon or Bookshop.org.

Please note that I received an Advanced Review Copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review of this work. This review contains affiliate links; I will receive a small commission for purchases made through the links in this post. This commission does not impact the purchase price of the item.

Wise Gals: the Spies who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage by Nathalia Holt

HerKentucky Whiskey Glass Rating: 🥃🥃🥃🥃

Publisher’s synopsis: In the wake of World War II, four agents were critical in helping build a new organization that we now know as the CIA. Adelaide Hawkins, Mary Hutchison, Eloise Page, and Elizabeth Sudmeier, called the “wise gals” by their male colleagues because of their sharp sense of humor and even quicker intelligence, were not the stereotypical femme fatale of spy novels. They were smart, courageous, and groundbreaking agents at the top of their class, instrumental in both developing innovative tools for intelligence gathering—and insisting (in their own unique ways) that they receive the credit and pay their expertise deserved.

Throughout the Cold War era, each woman had a vital role to play on the international stage. Adelaide rose through the ranks, developing new cryptosystems that advanced how spies communicate with each other. Mary worked overseas in Europe and Asia, building partnerships and allegiances that would last decades. Elizabeth would risk her life in the Middle East in order to gain intelligence on deadly Soviet weaponry. Eloise would wield influence on scientific and technical operations worldwide, ultimately exposing global terrorism threats. Through their friendship and shared sense of purpose, they rose to positions of power and were able to make real change in a traditionally “male, pale, and Yale” organization—but not without some tragic losses and real heartache along the way.

Meticulously researched and beautifully told, Holt uses firsthand interviews with past and present officials and declassified government documents to uncover the stories of these four inspirational women. Wise Gals sheds a light on the untold history of the women whose daring foreign intrigues, domestic persistence, and fighting spirit have been and continue to be instrumental to our country’s security.

HerKentucky Review: Wise Gals is a fascinating and painstakingly researched history of the women of the OSS and, later, the CIA. Ms. Holt details the stories of these agents’ lives of espionage and service while detailing their struggle for equality within the agency. It’s a fascinating look at how a core group of female agents impacted the future of the CIA and, ultimately, the history of our nation.

Wise Gals is impressive in its scope, spanning from the 1930s to the 1980s, and telling the stories of four groundbreaking women. Due to the nature of these women’s work, it is necessary to quickly recap major world events. At times, the narrative becomes lost in details of complex situations like the Cuban Missile Crisis or the Iraqi Revolution. At times, the author tends to refer to players who are never again referenced or to end a paragraph with a thread of foreshadowing that seems a little too neatly tied. In all, this was a very enjoyable and informative work that I’d recommend to anyone who enjoys 20th century history, stories of boot-on-the-ground second wave feminists, or stories of espionage.

Purchase Wise Gals on Amazon or Bookshop.org.

Please note that I received an Advanced Review Copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review of this work. This review contains affiliate links; I will receive a small commission for purchases made through the links in this post. This commission does not impact the purchase price of the item.

28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand

HerKentucky Whiskey Glass Rating: 🥃🥃🥃🥃

Publisher’s synopsis: When Mallory Blessing's son, Link, receives deathbed instructions from his mother to call a number on a slip of paper in her desk drawer, he's not sure what to expect. But he certainly does not expect Jake McCloud to answer. It's the late spring of 2020 and Jake's wife, Ursula DeGournsey, is the frontrunner in the upcoming Presidential election.

There must be a mistake, Link thinks. How do Mallory and Jake know each other?

Flash back to the sweet summer of 1993: Mallory has just inherited a beachfront cottage on Nantucket from her aunt, and she agrees to host her brother's bachelor party. Cooper's friend from college, Jake McCloud, attends, and Jake and Mallory form a bond that will persevere--through marriage, children, and Ursula's stratospheric political rise--until Mallory learns she's dying.

Based on the classic film Same Time Next Year (which Mallory and Jake watch every summer), 28 Summers explores the agony and romance of a one-weekend-per-year affair and the dramatic ways this relationship complicates and enriches their lives, and the lives of the people they love.

HerKentucky Review: 28 Summers is a novel based loosely around the 1978 Ellen Burstyn - Alan Alda film Same Time, Next Year. Like the characters in that film, Ms. Hilderbrand’s protagonists, Mallory and Jake, meet every year for a weekend affair, watching that film on Sunday nights while eating Chinese takeout. Ms. Hilderbrand, long regarded as the queen of the beach read, sets most of her fiction on Nantucket. In her latest work, free-spirited high school English teacher Mallory lives in the Nantucket beach cottage she inherited from her late aunt. Every Labor Day weekend from 1993 to 2019, she welcomes Jake, whom she first meets as her brother’s fraternity buddy and whom the world later knows as the husband of hotshot presidential candidate Ursula de Gournsey. Their affair spans the eponymous 28 summers, with each character leading a completely separate life — marriage, moves, children, cancer treatment, losing parents — for the rest of the year.

Each chapter of Ms. Hilderbrand’s work describes a summer of Jake and Mallory’s romance. She begins each chapter by asking “What are we talking about in [the year at hand]?”, a device that lists political and pop culture moments in a quick-fire manner, transporting the reader to that exact moment in time. This device also served to remind me that I probably would have found the idea of impossible romance much more dreamy and palatable when I was in my twenties than I do now. The Nineties, after all, were a very different time.

28 Summers is a beautiful beach read with quirky, likable characters. I found myself cheering for not only the star-crossed couple, but even for the male protagonist’s driven, icy politician wife. At the same time, I found myself impossibly heartbroken for the female lead, both due to the terms of their relationship and to her health situation. Pour yourself a glass of cold white wine, stream a 1990s radio station, and be prepared to shed a few tears at the end. This book is a must-read if you love Elin HIlderbrand’s Nantucket novels or if you can remember seeing episodes of Friends on their original network airing.

Purchase 28 Summers on Amazon or Bookshop.org.

This review contains affiliate links; I will receive a small commission for purchases made through the links in this post. This commission does not impact the purchase price of the item.