An Unlikely Spy is the story of a young Englishwoman working for MI5 who finds herself as a spy during WWII. Evelyn Varley starts out as an assistant to a secretive man in the "War Department". She's bootstrapped herself up from a quiet upbringing in the country town of Lewes to an Oxford graduate fluent in two languages. When she is tapped to infiltrate a group of British citizens who are believed to be supporting Hitler, she finds herself caught between loyalty to her country and to those close to her who would betray it. Going back and forth in time from the late 1930's to after the war, An Unlikely Spy is riveting and suspenseful.

An Unlikely Spy by Rebecca Starford is a WWII historical fiction delving into the realm of female spies. While the novel's blurb made this it seem right up my alley, I did not end up enjoying this title due to the prevalence of several stereotypical portrayals of WWII tropes such as the resistance and the Nazis. I did enjoy the depiction of an blue-stocking, university student transforming into a successful spy, but it felt too overdone and the tone was negative in many sections, which slowed the pacing of the novel for me. The failed love story did not pull at my heart strings, either.

An Unlikely Spy is a WWII-era historical fiction novel by Rebecca Starford. The story follows the lead protagonist, Evelyn Varley, during two different timelines, one right at the cusp of WWII and one set after the war. She is an unlikely spy as she seems like an ordinary girl from a working class background who doesn't seem to have the best advantages in life, aside from getting a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school.

The story switches back and forth between the two timelines, so you are wondering what happened in the past to cause the later timeline - a bit of a mystery thrown in there. Starford's writing style was fine but I felt like I should have cared more about Evelyn. She is described as being closed off, and I think because of this, it was hard to get to know her or to even root for her.

I liked the historical details and the setting of the novel, but I wasn't that enamored of the actual plot. I didn't really care about anyone in the story, except maybe Evelyn's parents, and they were barely in it. I also felt like the ending was pretty abrupt.

Overall, it wasn't awesome, it wasn't terrible. It was interesting but not something I would want to read again.

This book has dual timelines. One is set at the beginning of WWII and the other after the war has ended. I found the book interesting and like that it was about a female spy during the start of the WWII in Britain.

A reader can tell by the title that the lead protagonist is “an unlikely spy.” But is she really? As I discovered more about Evelyn, I didn’t think it was too far fetched. She hides well beneath a seemingly blah and aloof, yet clever persona. I couldn’t decide if I liked her or not, but I did find her very interesting. The time jumps were a little confusing, but still the story was engrossing. I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery and intrigue. And just when it really got going, it was over!

I loved this book. It was suspenseful and an interesting historical fiction story. One specific thing that happened in the end was very annoying though. So unrealistic.

Wow! I think that's all I can say about this book. I saw this book being promoted on facebook and took a chance in reading this. If you adore mystery books, than look no further..This reminded me of the KCET murder mysteries I watch on Sunday nights. Great book!

For the first almost two years of World War II in Europe, before Hitler made the colossal error of going to war against the USSR, there were realistic fears in Britain that Germany would invade. Some right-wing Britons even welcomed the possibility, including the influential members of the secret society called the Right Club. The Right Club was rabidly antisemitic and favored appeasement

The head of the Right Club was Archibald Ramsay, a Conservative Member of Parliament. Club members often met at the Russian Tea Room in South Kensington, hosted by Anna Wolkoff, a Russian whose family had fled the Russian Revolution. The Right Club passed government secrets to the German government, including documents from the American Embassy provided by a cipher clerk there named Tyler Kent.

Unbeknownst to the members of the Right Club, the British intelligence agency MI5 had infiltrated it with a number of agents, including a beautiful young woman named Joan Miller. The work of Joan Miller and other agents led to the arrest and imprisonment of Anna Wolkoff, Tyler Kent, Archibald Ramsay and the quashing of the Right Club’s subversive efforts.

This novel fictionalizes the story of Joan Miller and the Right Club. The book’s main character, Evelyn Varley, is from a working-class family and wins a scholarship to a posh boarding school, where she makes every effort to fit in with the snobbish girls, but is fortunate to win the true friendship of one of them, who makes her a friend of her family. Evelyn meets more influential people when she attends Oxford and studies German. Like Joan Miller, after school Evelyn works at a cosmetics firm in London, is recruited by British intelligence and becomes part of a team battling internal subversion. She works on several cases, but spends months infiltrating and earning the trust of the members of the Right Club, especially Nina Ivanova (Anna Wolkoff).

Rebecca Starford dramatizes the intrigue of the Right Club operation fleshes out her main character to make us understand the complex emotions of a young woman who, even before her intelligence career, had to become a different person to fit in. One of the things I like most about espionage fiction is the psychic toll on a spy of pretending to be a different person. It can amount to a betrayal of oneself and sometimes one’s past, family and friends. And when the agent is asked to spend long periods of time infiltrating a group, she necessarily must betray people she has come to know and perhaps care about.

While I sometimes felt Evelyn is so reticent a character that she’s hard to figure out, I still admired and enjoyed the story and Starford’s handling of Evelyn’s complex position, the terrible decisions she had to make, and the emotional aftermath.

I think it would be helpful to do a little reading on the Right Club and the MI5 operation against it before reading this book. It’s not absolutely necessary, but it may provide helpful context that will enrich the story as you read. The book is mostly set during 1939 and 1940, with a small handful of short chapters looking at Evelyn’s life in 1948. Once I’d finished the book, it was illuminating to go back and read the 1948 chapters again.

Depending on your point of view, being a spy either sounds incredibly exciting and desirable or incredibly terrifying and something to be avoided at all costs. Evelyn became a spy. We learn early on that all did not turn out as she hoped. At the beginning of the story, she runs into a woman who used to be a good friend.

Now that friend says, "Evelyn, how could you?" And for the rest of the story we wonder, what on earth did Evelyn do?

It's World War II and Evelyn, with the help of a friend's father, gets a chance to work in the War Office. At first, it's purely clerical work. Then she's transferred to a new job she believes will be much more interesting. It turns out she has a knack for spying.

But how good is she at following directions? The results of her actions could go either way.

This was a book I just had to read quickly because I wanted to know how Evelyn did as a spy as well as what she might have done to offend her friend. It was well-written and the characters were sturdy memorable folks.
I enjoyed it very much. I thought the ending was rather abrupt but maybe I just wanted to know more about Evelyn.

After the initial pages, I found myself not connecting with the story or characters, so I decided to pass on this book. Did not finish.

Rebecca Starford's An Unlikely Spy is a challenging, uneven read. Flashing forward and backward in time, Starford offers a glimpse at a woman entrusts with exposing a secret society attempting to create an alliance with Germany during World War II. The problem is largely that the protagonist, Evelyn, is unlikeable. Starford shows us her life from childhood including her decision to accept a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school, which eventually leads to her acceptance by the British aristocracy and the contacts she will later use to infiltrate the secret society. I wanted to like this book, but it is incredibly slow and the characters are off-putting. So, I consider it an interesting glimpse into the many facets of the British government's spy program during World War II, if not an entirely enjoyable read.

I don’t know what to make of this book. I had difficulty following the story line and determining which side Evelyn was really on. I’m still not sure I grasp the entire arc of the novel. I really like the cover. Evelyn is very aloof and standoffish. I couldn’t get a reading on her. She reminded me of a cold fish. This book just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Being a fan of historical fiction, I was happy to be approved for this novel. Rebecca Starford writes a story about a regular girl Evelyn Varley who was always looking to strive to be better. Evelyn wanted more then the everyday English girl's life. She received a scholarship to a top notch private school, which would take her away from her ordinary family life. Once at school Evelyn befriends Sally a girl whose family is one of the richest in England. Evelyn becomes a part of Sally's family and finds herself longing to belong in this new world. Evelyn finds herself at the War Department and then becomes a spy for the M15 a very prestigious agency that is trying to break into a secret society that is allying itself with Germany. Evelyn finds herself caught between the love of this new exciting job trying to expose these people and possibly losing everything and everyone that she holds dear. What does she do? This predicament can put Evelyn in danger especially when she is told to back away from a new assignment..
Ms. Starford brings you into the heart of this special agency and how Evelyn gets caught up in the excitement of thinking she is doing something to help bring down this secret society without knowing the people connected to this society can be associated with someone from Evelyn's past. Ms. Starford had me engaged from the beginning and wrote an ending that really surprised me. This novel should be read by anyone who likes historical fiction. Thank you Netgalley for the approval and Rebecca Starford for a very suspenseful read.

An Unlikely Spy by Rebecca Starford follows the life of Evelyn Varley, an Oxford graduate risen far beyond her station in life to the ranks of undercover MI5 agent during WWII. Evelyn is bright, resourceful, and has always striven to reinvent herself to blend in, which makes her a good undercover agent. When tasked with outing a group of Nazi Sympathizers, she finds how easy it is to forget herself and play a part. However, when her loyalties are challenged and she has to make a choice between friendship and country, she discovers that even she might not know the real Evelyn at all. The story is told in two timelines: the year of 1938 and 1948, during which Evelyn’s complicated life is pieced together.
I found this book to be quite unsettling. The description says it’s dark but, even so, I wasn’t prepared for how despairing it might actually be. Evelyn’s life as a spy isn’t easy, even without the development of her work life crossing with her personal life. She becomes involved with a group of Nazi sympathizers, gains their trust, and has to see them as the people they are, with all of their vulnerabilities exposed. Her hatred for their attitudes competes with her understanding of them as people, and breaking anyone’s trust is never easy.
Evelyn’s emotional struggle with the Nazi sympathizers resonated with me more than her conflicted attitudes with her friendships and her job. Her intentions concerning her friends were good, but her decision-making in that area didn’t make very much sense to me. Then again, Evelyn herself didn’t make a lot of sense to me.
I had a struggle myself reading this book because I found that I didn’t like Evelyn very much as the story went on. The beginning starts with her at school, and how she wanted to fit in so badly but never could because she was from a poor family. She changed her image to be like the popular girls, and abandoned her best friend in the street when they invited her to join them. Evelyn is also estranged from her parents, and turned her back on them when they didn’t suit the image that she wanted to present to people. I found this deceit and using of people distasteful, even though I don’t think it was all ill-intentioned; I just don’t think that Evelyn really knew who she was or what she wanted out of life.
I think that Evelyn felt like a girl with no identity for her childhood, and carried that feeling into adulthood and, ultimately, her job as a spy. She was a smart girl, sharper than her parents, and didn’t quite fit in at home, school, or her community. Her lack of self-identity gave her the toolkit to be who she wanted to different people, including her friends and family. It was also her greatest asset as a spy, until she had to make tough decisions and face who she really might be.
While I wouldn’t read this book again - it is dark - it certainly put a face on espionage other than James Bond and Ethan Hunt. This was real work, real effort that people put in during WWII because they wanted to keep their country and its citizens safe. It’s not all car chases, dramatic explosions, and code-breaking. It’s real people making sacrifices and betraying other real people to stop a threat. Evelyn and spies like her were little drops in the big pond of war, and few of their ripple effects were ever known to the public. It certainly put strain on Evelyn and her relationships with all of the people that she loved. I cannot imagine living a secret life, let alone one where I have to turn in someone’s son or daughter to the government for treason.
If you’re looking for an uplifting read, I wouldn’t recommend this book. However, I would recommend it if you’re looking for a different perspective on espionage during WWII. I really think that you’ll see some things differently, be uncomfortable at times, and see your discomfort as a credit to Starford for her well-researched, well-written, and thought-provoking read.

I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Last night I finished reading An Unlikely Spy by Rebecca Starford. Now, I’m real sucker for WWII historical fiction, and if you mix in a little espionage, I’ll stay up all night reading. This novel, however, had me wondering when it was going to end.

Here’s the basic plot:

Evelyn Varley has always been ambitious and clever. As a girl, she earned a scholarship to a prestigious academy well above her parents’ means, gaining her a best friend from one of England’s wealthiest families. In 1939, with an Oxford degree in hand and war looming, Evelyn finds herself recruited into an elite MI5 counterintelligence unit.

A ruthless secret society seeks an alliance with Germany and, posing as a Nazi sympathizer, Evelyn must build a case to expose their treachery. But as she is drawn deeper into layers of duplicity—perhaps of her own making—some of those closest to her become embroiled in her investigation. With Evelyn’s loyalties placed under extraordinary pressure, she’ll face an impossible choice: save her country or the people who love her. Her decision echoes for years after the war, impacting everyone who thought they knew the real Evelyn Varley.

With a write-up like that, I expected to be blown off the edge of my seat and burning through pages of this WWII thriller. What I got, however, was an overdramatized plot and sappy dialogue. It’s funny how the traitors kept spilling the beans to Evelyn (but hey, that kept the plot moving along so they could tie everything up in a big bow at the end). Her writing style and my reading style just aren’t a match. Three stars.

Intriguing read set during and after the second World War in Great Britain. After leaving her life to become a scholarship student at a prestigious public school, Evelyn learns to adapt her personality to those she is with, to fit in. After studying German at Oxford, her chameleon like abilities serve her well as she uses her contacts to attain employment and catches the eye of an MI-5 agent. Soon she is living a duplicitious life which leads back to the friends she's made in higher classes. Interspersed with her life eight years later, Evelyn tells the story of her wartime activities and how they impacted her life and those she loves and loved.

It took me a few days after reading to write this review as I wasn’t sure how I felt about it...

On one side, I really enjoyed those little known things about war-time England, such as the Officials Secret Act, or Holloway Hall. I loved the street scenes, like when Evelyn would walk down Earl Street and the descriptions of the sights and sounds would immerse you in the scene. And the dialogue added so much in characterization.

I also liked the fact that the story was character driven...however, despite being character driven, I didn’t feel very close to Evelyn (which is the reason for the rating). There was a lot of internalization, which you would think would help guide you to understand this person but, for me it didn’t.

Evelyn is often referred to as being “cold” or “superior” but I didn’t think that, to me she was distant. I’m not sure, but I think it might have been on purpose, because even through all that internalization, Evelyn didn’t seem to really know herself. She was in a constant state of flux, always trying to be someone else - first at school with her peers and then later when she was at the War office - never knowing how to act or what to say. And because of this indecision on her part, I couldn’t sympathize with her. It was only in the end, with Stephen, that I felt anything for her, because it was with him, she was vulnerable and let us see the real her.

Overall I did enjoy it, as I love historical fiction and loved that it gave us a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes war effort. ***

An unlikely spy in world war 2? You would think the premise would get old to me but nope, never. This one was great.

A short but intense novel about a young woman recruited because of her language skills to work for MI5 during WWII. A nice study of the period, its politics, and how knowing what the right thing to do is very fraught. A solid read.

Evelyn Varley might finally have found someone to love in post-World War 2 London. If only she didn’t have so many secrets about her wartime activities. When a chance meeting triggers a string of memories, Evelyn must decide if a chance at live is worth the risk of being honest about her past. Fans of intrigue and spy stories will be drawn to this tale of deception told in flashbacks as the main character faces some painful truths.