I am a huge fan of historical fiction and this was full of historical references. Set in post-war Manhattan it followed a mother of two boys through a journey of losing herself in her marriage and motherhood but finding herself again through an unexpected turn of events. Seeing this woman struggling through motherhood and marriage being tapped to help the FBI in following Communists and give information was quite interesting. This novel was a little slow for me at times, but I did enjoy the story. I was itching for more interactions between Rina and Turner and to have their relationship move further along, but for the 1950s that was the right amount of lust and feelings for them.
At moments I found myself getting angry and frustrated at Tom and the others in their elite circle judging her for excessive drinking and struggling to be a mother. I am sure a woman who has multiple degrees, can speak four or five languages and used to work for the United Nations has a hard time running after two rambunctious boys. She lost her identity in her marriage and tried to cope in any way she could which led to people thinking she is an alcoholic and having a psychotic break.
I loved the parts where she was working with Turner and Lee and following Jacob and Ava. The story started off pretty slow and I wanted more of the story in the end. The ending to me felt unfinished, but I liked the fact that it was open ended and you hoped she found herself again and was able to work in City Hall and keep doing great things for the country.
I truly enjoyed reading this book and I recommend it to anyone who like historical fiction!
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A Woman of Intelligence is a historical fiction novel set in New York City in the early 1950’s. The main character, Katharina (Rina) Edgeworth is in her early forties, the wife of a wealthy pediatric surgeon and mother of two young boys. Prior to the domestic life she currently leads, she used her Ivy-league credentials and talent in speaking several languages to work as a translator for the United Nations- a career that was exciting, stimulating, and fulfilling. When Rina is approached by the FBI to help by being an informant about someone from her past who is involved in the Communist Party, she seizes the opportunity to not only assist in her patriotic duties in fighting communism, but sees it as an opportunity to reignite an exciting life like what she used to have, instead living in her current trappings of domesticity.

This book was written in a way that I could immediately be drawn into the story. The time period of post-war America, with the threat of communism and the Cold War was fascinating. It was easy to sympathize with Rina. On the outside, she appeared to have everything, yet her husband and society expectations held her back, and no one seemed to understand her frustrations, or her actions. She was a strong woman but didn’t seem to have a voice in her own home, with her husband, or with his elitist family.

At times the book did feel long, but the writing was excellent and I would definitely want to read more from this author!

Publication date is July 21, 2020.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for an ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.

Such a good book! I am so glad that more authors are writing about the post-WWII period these days and the Red Scare time period. Here we have Rina, who is doing quite well for a woman of the time. She is married to a typically chauvinistic yet successful husband and has two young children. Being just a wife and mother is not fulfilling though, so when she gets the chance to do secret government work, she takes it. Not sure I would have been that brave regardless of how smart or unhappy I was, but Rina is a complex woman. At times the pace of the book was a little slow, but I enjoyed it. Great historical fiction selection.

A little slow moving but lovely insight on a women between lives and eras--and how she makes it work. I loved reading about an independent very intelligent and capable complicated woman, in the 1950s!
Could've relied on stereotypes but didn't.

I tried for some time to read this because I was excited by the premise, but it dragged on and by the time the interesting parts came, I wasn’t very interested anymore. I skimmed most of it because I was so bored.

I was provided with an ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Being a mother is so difficult, especially when you have two precocious boys! I can so relate to Rina! Maintaining your dignity as a stay-at-home mom is as challenging as balancing a career and family. I thought it was ironic when her husband and mother-in- law were so concerned about Rina’s drinking but yet they still drank alcohol in her presence. I enjoyed reading this book. Unlike Rina, books are my escape from my responsibilities.

I received an advanced readers copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Mid-century spy fiction is one of my favorite niches in historical fiction, and although 'A Woman of Intelligence' doesn't hit every single mark, it kept my interest and kept me curious throughout. A huge part of that is down to the heroine at the center of it all: Katharina, a UN translator feeling stifled by her gilded, circumscribed life as the wife of a fast-rising New York surgeon. At one of her lowest moments, she's approached with a lifeline that's also an enormous risk: the FBI wants her help in learning more about a former acquaintance who's involved with the KGB. Soon, she becomes a courier, handling sensitive documents and getting deeper into the world of Cold War era espionage.

Most of the characters who surround Rina are familiar tropes, though not un-entertaining: the cryptic senior agent handler, the forbidden love interest, the unpleasant husband. It's Rina's story that keeps things interesting, even when the plot follows a fairly expected series of events. Ambitious and messy and imperfect, Rina's the kind of heroine who can hold your interest no matter what, elevating this book.

Okay, so I liked this book but didn't love it. I felt for her and her feelings being stifled in a marriage when she had so much potential and I could understand her looking elsewhere for...well, mental stimulation and a break from the tedium of everyday life.. I guess I just wanted a little more character depth and a bit faster pace during certain timeframes. I can't really put my finger on what left me dissatisfied as I did enjoy it for the most part.

Excellent premise and well researched. I enjoyed this one but felt it was a little slow to get into and felt the plot could be better fleshed out.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book

I've previously read and enjoyed Karen Tanabe's novels The Gilded Years and A Hundred Suns, so I was very excited to read her upcoming novel, A Woman Of Intelligence.

In A Woman Of Intelligence, Rina used to be a UN translator, using her fluency in four languages, but now she's married a doctor and given up her work to be a full-time mother. Caring for toddlers is frustrating, and she misses her old life and her old friends.

A few times, as Rina catalogued her frustrations, I felt like asking, but why? You have plenty of money to hire a nanny, you have the skills and contacts for a fulfilling job, so... why? Why are you dragging your sons around the city and hating every day of your life? It only worked because her closest girlfriend from her UN days also wondered why Rina would pack it all in for housewife life.

She gets a break in the monotony when she's approached by a government agent with a request. Her college boyfriend may be working for the Russians, and Rina is quickly caught up in Cold War spy drama, attending underground communist meetings, delivering photo negatives and arranging "accidental" meetings, pretending to be a Red while delivering all her information back to her government contact. There's a lot of intrigue and drama here, and tension comes from a nagging worry that some of the double agents were not actually on Rina's side. The world of pay phones and camera film added to the intrigue.

Again with the romance, I found myself asking, but why? Rina's love interest was nice enough but I felt more like Rina was lonely than that this was a tragic love story. I did love the character growth this provoked, and it highlighted Rina's struggle to be a supportive doctor's wife and fulfilled SAHM, while quietly running espionage missions.

Overall, A Woman Of Intelligence is an enjoyable historical spy story with a feminist slant.

A Woman of Intelligence is by Karin Tanabe, and will be published by St. Martin's Press on July 20, 2021.

A woman of intelligence tells the story of a woman in NYC split between her duties as a housewife and her more exciting life between children. It involves a good bit of intrigue including spying, the Communist party, and romance. The book feels relevant today while still being a historical fiction novel.

Excellent premise, and great potential. I wanted to love it! Unfortunately, this one just left me wanting a little more. This is the story of an interesting and vibrant woman who lost herself in her marriage and children. . . . then has the opportunity to step out of that vacuum when the FBI asks for her help. Some of the scenes are so relatable, but just as many are so far-fetched - ie I just can't see a married woman with children leaving town for the day once a week without her husband or anyone noticing. I think younger people will love this story though. This would actually make a good series - book or tv! Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the e-arc. Solid 3.5 stars.

Full Disclosure: I was given early access to this book in exchange for writing an impartial review. Scheduled publication, July 2021.
A fast, engaging read about a smart, well-educated woman in 1950s New York City and her transition from career girl to marriage and motherhood. With a bit of Cold War thrown in.

World War II has recently ended and Rina (who speaks 4 languages) is lucky enough to land a job as a translator at the newly formed United Nations. There, she makes close friends, meets interesting people (like Ambassador Eleanor Roosevelt) makes a contribution toward a more peaceful world, and has plenty of time to date and socialize.

That is until she falls for Tom — a prominent, handsome, ambitious and fabulously wealthy pediatric surgeon who admires her intelligence, humor, and unique take on the world. Rina, aged 30 (old by 1950s standards) agrees to marry him. (Honestly, who wouldn’t?) And the two begin married life in a large apartment where Rina wears designer clothes, attends galas, and hob-knobs with the city’s elite.

As Rina slides increasingly into her husband’s world, she slowly realizes how much she has given up. So, when a federal agent says the government needs her language abilities to help fight communism (aka The Red Scare), how can she possibly say NO?

That’s all I’ll say about the plot, not wanting to spoil your read. In many ways, Rina is ahead of her time. In 1950s America, any woman questioning the “fulfillment” associated with the traditional roles of wife and mother would be suspect. Particularly to a husband. And especially when he’s prominent and rich, and maybe a bit spoiled. But, don’t worry, Rina finds some understanding, in surprising places.

In one sense, this feels like a coming of age story, even though Rina is in her 30s. It’s about a woman trying to figure out what truly makes her happy and what exactly she’s willing to risk to be happy.

The characters are multi-dimensional, the relationships realistic. And the plot is NOT predictable. A few things in this novel didn’t quite ring true to me. For example, professional women having lots of casual sex in an era before birth control pills when virginity was still prized. But perhaps that’s simply my own naive take about what was really happening in the 1940s and 1950s.

Katharina has it all, a nice apartment in Manhattan, a handsome, wealthy, successful doctor husband, and 2 sons so why does she feel lost? Before her marriage she was a translator at the United Nations but now she is just a mom and she doesn't feel like she's good at being a mom. When a stranger approaches her with a proposal to help the FBI find out information about a former lover that is a Soviet spy Katharina says yes. But finding a way to work for the FBI and be a wife and mother means she needs to deceive those closest to her. Can she find a way to be 'useful' and still be a wife and mother? A story of the choices women make and what happens when those closest change their mind about what they want.in a woman.

I could not put this book down! Book was not predictable and was very engaging.
I believe the author tapped into the isolation many first time mothers experience.

A Woman of Intelligence sounded so good that it topped my TBR pile over the weekend, and I immersed myself in a Mad Men like atmosphere while I read about Katharina Edgeworth, a wealthy mother of 2 little boys, wife of a prominent doctor from a prominent family and...CIA spy? Katharina is bright and capable, but no match for an active baby and toddler, a husband who insists on a certain way of parenting while he spends most of his days and nights following his passion at the hospital, an overbearing mother-in-law, and no mommy friends. It sounds like a lonely, frustrating and unfulfilling existence, until Katharina meets her potential handler. She keeps his number in her pocket like a last ditch out, transferring it from skirt to skirt and almost wearing away the numbers. It takes a horrifyingly embarrassing drunken party to push Katharina to call, and somehow she manages to become an operative, moving information and charming an old college lover who now appears to work for the KGB.
It might sound like a preposterous plot, but Tanabe makes Katharina's story incredibly believable, and keeps you turning pages, pulling for her, and wondering how this all can conclude. Will things be wrapped up tidily? Will readers need a sequel? Will we be surprised? Read and see--it is totally worth it!

Thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange for the honest review. I enjoyed this book set during the 1950's Rina enjoys life as a single working girl after world war 2 and especially when working at the United Nations. Later she meets and marries a rich man who also enjoys his work but once she is pregnant everyone is waiting for her to stop working as is the norm. Rina is unhappy at home caring for her two sons her every move is judged by her husband a very gifted child surgeon. Rina misses working and using her intelligence. She is approached by the FBI to go undercover to see an old lover again and to seem open to communism. I was hooked to finish the book shortly after starting. Pick it up for a great read.

thriller, espionage, intrigue, historical-novel, historical-research, women's-fiction

The writing is exceptional for women's fiction. Set in the early 1950s in NYC, a former UN translator adopts a
double life as an FBI informant during the McCarthy era when she became bored with the life she had with her children and wealthy husband. Very well done, but not my thing.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley.

Thank you Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for an ARC!

Katherina Edgewood is the stressed mother of two children under the age of two, married to the perfect man in who’s job (that he does extraordinarily well) is to save children’s lives, living in a wonderful penthouse apartment in New York City, and she’s falling apart. Unable to deal with her son’s terrible twos and a baby, missing the life she had before marriage, Prior to her marriage to the perfect man, Katherina (Rina for short) had been a translator for the UN, traveling the world, meeting people in the highest levels of government; in short an intellectually stimulating, glamorous and fulfilling life. Motherhood is not the same. One day in the park after having a meltdown, she is approached by the FBI; apparently a lover from her life before marriage is thought to be a Russian spy, and they want Rina to find a way to run into him again, gain his confidence and give them the intelligence they need to capture his entire ring. And so begins Katherina’s double life. If she thought her life was stressful before, living a secret life makes it mind bogglingly complex. But it also makes her feel like a person with a brain again who is doing something that has a real impact.

The title says it all; Rina is a woman of intelligence, and Intelligence. Her story is interesting and suspenseful, and it could be riveting if it were a little more believable. How she manages to balance her two lives without her husband figuring things out is a bit far fetched. Even with this, A Woman of Intelligence is worth the read, especially if you are able to put aside your doubts and focus on the story.

My thanks for the arc but this fell a bit flat for me. Rina West is a very educated woman in NY in the 40s that works as a translator for the UN. Enjoys life with her best friend Marianne. Rina meets Dr. Tom Edgeworth, a pediatric surgeon from a rich family . They marry. All Tom seemed to be looking for was a wife to have his children, which she did, two sons. Tom wanted her to give her job up, which she did. He did not want to compromise. Rina started to lose her identity as she became the socialite wife. Did not seem to really want to be a mother. The she was approached by the FBI with an offer to become an informant/courier and couldn't refuse. Interesting spy and intrigue . Yes Rina was a product of the times but I didn't find her likeable in regards to her children. I didn't find Tom.very likeable because he was never around and didn't seem to compromise. Not a bad book . .Just ok.