First, check out Susan Elia MacNeal’s Pinterest board for Princess Elizabeth’s Spy. Then put it on your reading list for next week — it hits the shelves on October 16th.
Maggie Hope, heroine of Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, is training to be a spy. She’s smart enough and she’s good enough with math and cryptography, but she keeps coming in last on the obstacle courses. Still, she can’t quite believe it when, instead of giving her an assignment behind enemy lines in Germany, the fellows at MI5 want her to play governess to the 14 year old Princess Elizabeth.
Disappointed, Maggie heads off the Windsor Castle… where things are much livelier than she feared. We see Maggie learn about life with the Royals, about using her head (even as she works hard to improve her physical condition), and about herself. We meet ladies in waiting, spies, interesting people upstairs and downstairs, and some disturbing truths about the past — Maggie’s past as well as England’s.
This book is tightly plotted, with plenty of action and hints of romance. The author has done her homework, and historical events and personages are deftly woven into the story. There’s also lots of period detail, bringing Windsor Castle and London during World War II to life.
While the book touches on some adult themes, It could be a good choice for young adults.