Susan Elia MacNeal has written a best selling historical fiction than brings to light what was happening in our own backyard during WWII. . A page turning story based on real women and their role in exposing plots and propaganda against the US. Truly a captivating story from the very beginning. Highly recommend this book.

The name of this book caught my attention. I then read the description and I knew I needed to read this book. Thanks to NetGalley, I was able to. I loved this book. What was more interesting is that it actually happened to real people. It's hard for me to imagine what life was like during that time.
Thank you, Susan Elia ManNeal for a great book.
Thank you, NetGalley for the chance to read it.

Susan Elia MacNeal is the author of 11 novels. Mother Daughter Traitor Spy was published in 2022. It is the 63rd book I’ve completed in 2022. I had the opportunity to interview Ms. MacNeal in 2021.

Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! Due to minor violence, mature language, and a few mature situations, I categorize this novel as PG.

It is 1940. While WWII has begun in Europe, life is still normal in the US. Veronica Grace has just graduated from college and is set for the perfect job. She loses that opportunity in New York because of an affair with a married man. She and he mother, Violet, move to the West Coast to start over.

Instead of the journalism career she had planned, Veronica is forced to take a part-time job as a typist. She soon realizes she is working for Nazi sympathizers. Part of the American Bund who are actively recruiting Americans to the Nazi cause. The women try to report the Bund’s activities to the FBI, but they are not interested.

An acquaintance connects the women with Ari Lewis. Lewis is a Jew living in Los Angeles who has organized his own spy network. The Grace women are soon recruited. With their German heritage, blond hair, and blue eyes both women easily fit in with the Bund.

Once the US enters the war, the Grace women’s undercover work becomes even more dangerous.

I enjoyed the 8+ hours I spent reading this 321-page historical fiction novel set in WWII. While the characters are fictitious, they are based on real people. I have had the opportunity to read three of Ms. MacNeil’s earlier novels. They are The Prisoner in the Castle, The King’s Justice, and The Hollywood Spy. While her novels are not packed with action, they have all been enjoyable reads. I like the cover art. I give this novel a rating of 4 out of 5.

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A Mother and Daughter become undercover spies in this thriller/historical fiction story. Plot and story are well done, and the story flows well. I would recommend this title to historical fiction fans.

This novel features mom Vi and daughter Veronica. Veronica makes a big personal mistake, which sends the pair across the country. On the West Coast, they stumble across German Americans who support the Nazis. The women end up undercover. you will have trouble putting the book down. The characters are well written and there is a lot of action. At the end you find out the book was based on real people. The author provides brief sketches of many people, both good and bad. I didn't know these events happened. I read an electronic copy courtesy of Net Galley.

I love WW II fiction and this one didn't disappoint. Mother & Daughter are a great team and help with brining down the Nazi party during the war.

Susan painted a perfect picture of the time and keep the pages turning on a fast-paced thriller. The characters all played their part to tell a wonderful story of Mother & Daughter. I will add Susan to my reading list, reading the novel was good time spent away from the real world.

The Grace women, mother, Violet and daughter, Veronica are brave, charismatic and a little bit crazy. Spying on and fighting American homegrown Nazis in the United States in 1940 was a very dangerous occupation.

MacNeal has done her research and exposes a Los Angeles, California spy operation that infiltrated and sought to destroy the nefarious organizations with little or no help from any government agency. Much is made of J. Edgar Hoover looking under the bed for communists while ignoring, the Nazis, the Bund, and the KKK. The efforts of the men who formed and ran the Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles is given careful and admiring attention. It was though their efforts, along with other Jewish organizations, that many Nazis within the United States were arrested, prosecuted and deported. They are also credited with the prevention of sabotage, murder and the assassination of American political figures and celebrities.

MacNeal excelled at taking a small idea and making it completely comprehensible - humans who went terribly wrong, humans who wanted “purpose, companionship, a sense of identity and community” but who also see themselves as superior as well as victims. It was so easy for this group to “extrapolate from one person and situation into the hate of the many.” MacNeal shows us how “it’s all too easy … to fall into hate.”

Although the characters are fictional they are inspired by real people which adds import to the entire notion of what can and did happen in our “living book of democracy”. Thank you Bantam Books and NetGalley for a copy.

This novel is about a mother and daughter in pre WWII California. Veronica Grace and her mother Violet "Vi" Grace leave New York and start fresh in Los Angeles. Veronica gets a typing job for a couple. Only to discover that they are spreading Nazi propaganda.
She and her mother decide to contact the authorities, but it isn't until Vi calls an old Navy friend of her late husband that anyone takes their concerns seriously.
Being of German descent and blonde haired and blue eyed they are talked into working undercover. They're accepted into the very dangerous world of Nazi conspirators.
I love the premise of this book and Susan Elia MacNeal did a wonderful job researching her characters, but I did have a hard time getting into the story. It was very slow paced and it didn't seem like much of anything happened until the final quarter of the book.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I received this book as an ARC and this is my review. This story is set in LA during WWII. Victoria (mother) and Veronica (daughter) are helping with the war effort by going undercover to spy on an American Nazi group. This story is fresh and filled with drama and excitement as these ladies are pushed deeper into the group’s activities. I love flawed characters and this book is filled with them. I totally recommend this story to readers who enjoy a book about the War with spies who are literally learning it as they go!

Violet is an aspiring NYC journalist when her career is sidelined by a personal complication. She moves to California with her mother when her uncle generously offers her a place to stay and a chance to re-start her life. She finds employment as a typist, but soon she finds the job has a dark side.

It’s 1940 and a German propaganda group is actively working in CA. Violet is listening to their nefarious plans as she types up reports. When she tries to act responsibly and report the activities to authorities, she is ultimately recruited as a spy. Her mother is also asked to spy when she is hired as a seamstress by female members of the pro-Germany group.

MacNeal based her book upon a real mother-daughter pair who infiltrated a group of Nazi sympathizers during WWII. She might have taken a bit of literary license in her fictional account of their spy activities, however that does not take away from the story of a Nazi stronghold in America and two American women who spied on them.

Though the spy story is too simplistic, the reality that two ordinary women in California bravely shared what they heard about secret plans to thwart the government is worthwhile. The novel provides another angle in the wealth of WWII stories of espionage by exposing the extent of the pro-Hitler movement in our country; a scary revelation.

Susan Elia MacNeal's Mother Daughter Traitor Spy was inspired by real life women who infiltrated the German American Bund of the 1940s. Many people don't realize how many Americans were anti-war and wanted the United States to remain neutral. Some German Americans admired Hitler and supported their homeland, and even went as far as to plan to overthrow the government.

Veronica Grace has just graduated from Hunter College in New York City. She plans to be a hard-hitting journalist, even if she has to start with a more female-oriented position at Mademoiselle magazine. But Veronica also has been having an affair with a married man, who blackballs her from all NYC publications and causes her to lose her guest editor position.

Veronica's uncle Walter has a proposition for her and her mother, Vi - to come live in his summer home in Santa Monica and start a new life. Vi needs a new direction as well. Her husband, Veronica's father, passed away six years ago, and she is finding Veronica doesn't need her as much anymore. But she has no idea what the next stage in her life will bring.

Soon after moving to California, Veronica meets a woman in a German restaurant. She gives Veronica the name of her brother-in-law, who is looking for a typist. When Veronica can't find other work, she calls and sets up an appointment with him. Donald McDonnell and his wife Harriet run an alternative press that prints Nazi propaganda. Veronica is horrified, but types up the list of names and addresses he gives her, and leaves, planning to never go back. She tries to get the local police and FBI interested in investigating him, as he verbalized threats to Jews and the government, but no one is interested. Then Vi contacts someone in Naval Intelligence who worked with her late husband, and he recruits Veronica to spy on them, and the German American Bund.

Meanwhile, Vi meets some women at the market who want her to sew clothing for them, after they admire her embroidery work on her blouse. She is invited to the Santa Monica Bay Women's Club, and realizes they, too, are at best isolationists, and at worst, Nazi sympathizers with ties to the Bund. She volunteers to spy as well, and both women begin to walk a very stressful tightrope every day, hiding their true feelings with their employers and "friends."

While it seems far-fetched that both women would be find themselves in a position to spy, this story is based on real life. Because the women were beautiful blue-eyed blondes, and the mother was the daughter of German immigrants, the women naturally gravitated toward German restaurants and areas of Los Angeles. Their appearance made people assume they would share the same values as the people who befriended them, and the women were willing to play the part.

This is also a love story, as Veronica falls in love with one of her handlers, a Jewish/Catholic atheist, as he describes himself. But ultimately, it is a story about the strength of women, and how these two women were willing to risk their lives to stop American Nazis from attacking their own country.

Historical fiction fans will enjoy this book. I knew there were Nazi sympathizers in the United States before (and during) the war, but not the details, nor how close they came to attacking the government. It was a fascinating read. Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book!

Mother Daughter Traitor Spy is a historical fiction story about trying to have a Nazi party influence within the United States during the years before the US entered WWII. I knew nothing about this and was totally fascinated by this story. You have a mother-daughter duo that infiltrates a group of Nazis in L.A. There was a real mother -daughter team that did this and the book is based on their “possible” experiences. I think the story becomes very engrossing and hard to put down. This is an important read so as not to let this happen again in our lifetimes.

This book fits in perfectly after watching the US and the Holocaust. Based on real life events, Veronica and her mother Violet moved to Los Angeles. Unbeknownst to them, there is a large network of America First and members of the German American bund, supporting the Nazis and campaigning against Roosevelt and entrance to WWII. Veronica and Violet are recruited by two men working to uncover the dangerous details of plans the group has for anti-Semitic attacks on prominent Jews, temples and Navy sites. The book is certainly eye opening and well written. I had a hard time putting it down. I highly recommend this piece of historical fiction, which is so relevant to what is happening today, with the rise of hate groups and anti-Semitism. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Veronica Grace has recently graduated from college and is looking forward to a bright career in journalism when she finds out that an affair with a married man has cost her her future. She and her widowed mother, Violet, move to Los Angeles to live near her uncle. She finds a job as a typist, but soon realizes that she has inadvertently stumbled upon a Nazi cell. Meanwhile Violet’s skill with a needle has drawn admirers to her tailored, hand-embroidered blouses. A group of German sympathizers begin to draw her in, invite her to events, and hire her to create for them blouses covered in edelweiss or swatsikas. The two women approach the FBI with their concerns, but they’re blown off. So Violet calls on an old friend of her husband’s, and soon the two are invited to join a small group of anti-Nazi spies under the leadership of spymaster Ari Lewis.

Both women are of German descent, blonde and blue-eyed, so they are able to infiltrate the cell without initially arousing suspicions. Veronica in particular attracts the attention of a dangerous young up-and-coming German sympathizer. Meanwhile, as her typing skills draw her deeper into the Nazi cell, it becomes doubtful as to whether or not Lewis’ small organization can keep her safe.

Mother, Daughter, Traitor, Spy is based on a real-life mother-daughter duo and several of the other characters are based on real-life counterparts. The book is extremely well researched and rings true to life, with well developed sympathetic characters.It is also a very timely book in many ways, proving that the study of history is important to facing today’s challenges. A gripping read about events that still echo today. Highly recommended.

This book is a glimpse into the world when Hitler and Germany was trying to rule the world. This book focuses on two women who was determined to not allow people to forget what horrible things was happening to the Jews. They decided to help by getting information needed to protect America. They risked their own safety for something they thought was very important!

Susan Elia MacNeal's first novel, Mother Daughter Traitor Spy is an unnerving story of life in the United States in 1940. This is not a mystery or horror novel, but a story that portrays real life as Hitler was taking over Europe and German Americans who supported Hitler and his ideas were trying to influence American citizens to follow the German example of how a country should be run and join the Bund.

This plot is based on real life occurrences built into a story of Veronica and her mother Violet, who leave New York and move across the country to Santa Monica, California. As they try to start their new lives in this very unfamiliar environment, they are befriended by German Americans, a group they fit into except for their political beliefs.

But they also find a small contingent of like minded friends, that engage them to help the effort to suppress the efforts of the Nazi sympathizers. The Nazi group believes that all minorities are dangerous to American ideals and should be sent away or killed. They are feeding the public propaganda and want to put America first. Against helping other countries and democracy.

It happened so long ago, but many of the topics in the book are so similar to what is happening now in this very country. Jonah says to Veronica as they finish a mission to turn in some Nazi sympathizers, "I'm absolutely sick at all the ignorant things people are saying - in private and public. We cannot dismiss it because under that rage is fear - and below that, pain. Letting go of the rage means facing the pain and fear. .."

So perfect an explanation of how people are caught up in these movements and willing to listen to and agree with propaganda that makes them feel justified.

So many times history seems to imitate itself. An interesting and compelling book.

I read a lot of historical fiction particularly about WWII. This story is based on true characters and events which makes it even more interesting. These kinds of books always make me wonder if I would be as brave under similar circumstances. Definitely recommend.

3 or maybe 3.5 stars. This is historical fiction dealing with Nazi actions, but, surprisingly to me, set in Los Angeles, California. I had no idea of the extent of the spread of such ideologies in the US in those days. The story of two women who become spies embedded in the Nazi movement is interesting and scary and I surely admire their bravery. However, I didn't feel like the author made their words and especially actions entirely plausible.

Well-researched and interesting from the historical side.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free e-ARC of this book.

Absolutely yes! I really enjoyed reading this novel. The characters were fun, it held my interest, and provided an escape from reality. I would definitely recommend!

Quick and Dirty⁣
-WWII fiction⁣
-third person narration style writing⁣
-loaded with Los Angeles references ⁣
-based on a true story⁣
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Synopsis⁣
Promising young journalist Veronica Grace has been disgraced. Now, she and her mother have an opportunity to start over in Los Angeles. When Veronica struggles to find work as a journalist she eagerly accepts a typist job for a local German family with a printing business. Little does she know, she would soon be sucked into an underground world of American Nazism. While neither Veronica or her mother believe in any of the Nazi rhetoric, it’s hard to keep everyone convinced they are on the right side of the burgeoning war between the US and Germany. And as Veronica falls deeper into the abyss, she has to depend on her handler’s embrace to keep her above ground. ⁣
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Musings⁣
Yassss! This one was written for anyone who loves WWII history, specifically home front stories. And this book tells a story that EVERYONE should read. Fascism is real and scary, and if you agree then you will need to read this book, as well as watch the new Ken Burns documentary, The U.S. and the Holocaust. Both shed light on the state of the nation prior to Pearl Harbor, which forced the hands of those in power to enter the war they had been reluctant to join. The book does a wonderful job of recreating a Southern California full of underground Nazi cells posing as patriotic Americans (again, based on true a true story), but with the added suspense of a mother/daughter team of undercover spies helping to infiltrate the tight-knit community. Their actions helped gather vital information which would help keep Americans safe from terrorist attacks on their own soil.