Summer Secrets at Bletchley Park (The Bletchley Park Girls #1) by Molly Green
Genre: Historical fiction, Wartime fiction, Sagas
Read: 29th January 2023
Published: 28th April 2022
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Her code breaking will save lives.
But will it save the man she loves…?
September 1939. London is in blackout, war has been declared, but Dulcie Treadwell can think only of her heartbreak over American broadcaster, Glenn Reeves, who didn’t say goodbye before leaving for Berlin.
Posted to Bletchley Park, Dulcie must concentrate on helping the war effort by cracking the German Enigma codes. The hours are long and the conditions tough, with little recognition from above. Until she breaks her first code…
Dulcie finally settles into something she was born to do. But just as she’s proving her worth, a shocking betrayal leads to Dulcie’s brutal dismissal. Is it too late for Dulcie to prove her innocence and keep helping to save innocent lives?
The new sweeping WW2 historical series from Molly Green, set at top secret Bletchley Park…
MY THOUGHTS:
Having read Molly Green's previous serious of the Victory Sisters, I was excited to dive into The Bletchley Park Girls. However, I went to read the second book before realising I hadn't yet read the first one so I quickly sought out this one to enjoy. And enjoy I did. Though I have tired of many wartime reads, there are still the odd few that I enjoy, particularly those that are more sagas involving stories within with the war as a backdrop. And SUMMER SECRETS AT BLETCHLEY PARK is something of a heartwarming romance amidst wartime.
We meet Dulcie (Dale) Treadwell, a junior reporter on a local newspaper, as she meets American broadcaster Glen Reeves at Westminster Bridge the day war is declared and London is plunged into darkness as blackout begins. It's love at first sight and the couple plan to meet the following day. But Glenn is then posted overseas to Berlin without a word of goodbye and is unable to let her know and so Dale thinks he was a just a chancer and is left heartbroken.
After entering a crossword competition, her unique skills see her recruited to Bletchley Park where she signs the Offical Secrets Act and begins work on the enigma machines. She finds the work exciting and soon hopes to gain a promotion as a cryptographer. But no amount of work stops the nagging questions of why Glenn stood her up. Will they ever be reunited?
There's a lot more I could say about the story but I won't. Let's just say it's an enjoyable and entertaining read, though the market is similarly flooded with similar tales. But Molly Green's style is easy to read making it an enjoyable read. The story did move along at a steady pace and I was pleasantly surprised to find its focus was more on Dale and her romance rather than the wartime regime which many a book has been written so this made a pleasant change and an easy read. Too much factual accounts tend to bog readers down in history rather than a light read.
The ending was a little abrupt but I look forward to catching up the characters in the next book which I intend to read next.
I would like to thank #MollyGreen, #Netgalley and #AvonBooksUK for an ARC of #SummerSecretsAtBletchleyPark in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Denise has travelled the world, unpacking her suitcase in a score of countries and working at more jobs than she cares to remember. Mentionable events include selling lipstick in a Denver department store to top English model of the day, Jean Shrimpton; typing on a French keyboard for the UN Narcotics Director in Geneva; chauffeuring a lonely Swiss multi-millionaire lawyer in Zurich; being the first fashion model in Atlanta to dance to pop music; working as a PA to a film producer and delivering a film script to Richard Harris in Rome and not recognising him (he was not amused); and cooking in a vegetarian sanatorium in Bavaria, which gave rise to her first hilarious memoir.
Back home in England, Denise reluctantly trained as an estate agent - and loved it! Juggling the running of her chain of eight offices in Kent with taking an Honours Degree with Open University, Denise had difficulty finding the time to pursue her life-long passion for writing.
To give herself the freedom to write she sold her business after 17 years, but unfortunately to the wrong buyers, namely a couple of tricksters, which resulted in a second, more serious, memoir. Buying back the business and after six years selling it once again, she is now able to resume her love of fiction writing, under the pen-names of Fenella Forster and Molly Green.
Having completed two books under her own name, Denise wanted to use a pen name for her historical fiction. She chose Fenella as she felt it was a more romantic name, and Forster after her true, but unknown, maternal grandfather. When signing with Avon Books, Denise chose the pen name of Molly Green where she has now written at least half a dozen books under the pseudonym, proving to be very successful with two of them reaching #1 on the Amazon Kindle chart.
Denise now lives in Tunbridge Wells in Kent with her husband Edward.
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