Member Reviews

Thank you Sourcebooks for my #gifted copy of The Secret War of Julia Child! #sourcebooks #bookmarked #sourcebookslandmark #TheSecretWarOfJuliaChild #DianaRChambers

๐“๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ž: ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐’๐ž๐œ๐ซ๐ž๐ญ ๐–๐š๐ซ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐‰๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ข๐š ๐‚๐ก๐ข๐ฅ๐
๐€๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ซ: ๐ƒ๐ข๐š๐ง๐š ๐‘. ๐‚๐ก๐š๐ฆ๐›๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ
๐๐ฎ๐› ๐ƒ๐š๐ญ๐ž: ๐Ž๐œ๐ญ๐จ๐›๐ž๐ซ ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ, ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ’

When I first saw the title for this book months ago, I was so intrigued. Iโ€™ve always loved Julia Child, but only knew her for her cooking skills. When I read the description for this book, I knew I had to read this book. I flew through this book so quickly. I loved hearing about a different side of Julia Child, and seeing her determination and drive to achieve her goals. It was also interesting to learn more about WWII in Asia. I will admit, this was a part of that time period I knew nothing about. I really loved learning about Juliaโ€™s relationship with Paul, and how it was kind of an enemies to lovers type situation. Overall, I found this book to be so well-researched and entertaining. If you love historical fiction and Julia Child, I think you will really enjoy this book!

Posted on Goodreads on October 21, 2024: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144922955?ref=nav_profile_l
**Posted on Instagram - Full Review- on or around October 22, 2024: http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
**Posted on Amazon on October 22, 2024
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I did not enjoy this. This book badly needs to be edited, as there were several continuity and plot errors throughout. I thought there were too many characters and it was too difficult to keep them straight. Ditto for dialogue. As other reviewers have noted, it was often hard to determine which character was speaking. I like the idea of a historical fiction novel based on Julia Child's wartime efforts, but this just missed the mark. I was bored and wished I had picked up a nonfiction version of her story instead.
I would not recommend this to others.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the ARC!

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The Secret War of Julia Child by Diana R Chambers is a story long before Julia McWilliams becomes Julia Child and world renowned French Chef. Ms. Chambers story is a fictional but entirely possible account of Julia McWilliams time serving her Country in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. I totally appreciated Ms. Chambers iteration of Julia McWilliams at 30. She has lost her mother and decided she needed to contribute to the โ€˜causeโ€™.

She starts out in Washington D.C. working for Bill Donovan (also known as Wild Bill). This young Julia is a talented, strong woman who is loyal, patriotic and fun. She is also extremely independent and some what fearless. She totally lacks self confidence and has a low self esteem about her body image. She feels she is too tall (6โ€2โ€), has big feet (needs to buy shoes in the menโ€™s department) and has frizzy unmanageable hair to name a few of her insecurities.

When Julia uses her natural intelligence and innate ability to organize, she finds herself being dispatched from one exciting covert mission to another. From the former Ceylon to India and China, Julia learns, grieves, and grows. The story is nicely balanced between intrigue, drama, humor and romance. (This is where she first meets her future husband, Paul Childs). The book also helps the reader gain a better understanding of this little discussed part of World War II.

While there were parts of the story that dragged for me, the overall story was a good one. Itโ€™s too bad we canโ€™t get into the OSS archives to find out the specifics of Juliaโ€™s service.

I would like to thank Ms. Chambers, Sourcebooks and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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This is another. Side of julia child people don't realize. She was in burma and china as The spy for the united states government. This wasn't interesting because she had a great adventure there.. She also met Paul child Who became her husband after the war. She had a lot of adventures and Some fun As well. This was an interesting book.Because it showed how she was a young girl and she just graduated from smith college. This was an great invention for her because they're This allowed her to travel. I couldn't believe the conditions Some places they have to live. This takes a lot of courage when you're a young woman. This makes you also stronger in life.Because you can realize you can survive anything. I like how the love story played out with P a u l child. Great book

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I enjoyed this book and the writing. I think it is a great reading journey to follow Julia along in south east Asia and it is a quite action packed book in my view. I think it would make a great movie to be honest, as there is scenes that are super fast and dramatic, but also the slightly slower paced scenes around strategic planning and also friendship and our love story. I particularly enjoyed that I never knew what would happen next and which adventure would await Julia in the new countries. The book is set in the USA, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and China, so quite a few locations. I would have wished for a bit more love story, as I know she fell in love with her future husband Paul Child while being in south east Asia. But that is my only criticism and I recommend this book to anyone loving historical fiction!

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Before Julia Child was the famous chef, she was Julia McWilliams, a 30 year old spy in the OSS during WWII. Her role took her to Ceylon and China as she met interesting characters (some who would haunt her and her husband later in life) as well as her husband Paul. The novel takes us through a fictional account of her WWII adventures.

I wanted to love this as much as I love Julia but it just did not work for me. The pacing was too slow and I kept trying to get into the story but reading it wasnโ€™t working for me so I was thrilled when I received the audio ARC. It definitely moved faster once I could listen to it (and I switched back and forth between reading and listening) but it still never fully grabbed my attention. I loved learning about Juliaโ€™s OSS life and itโ€™s a part of her story that Iโ€™ve always wanted to know more about so for that I am happy that I read this one. I also really enjoyed the scenes where she fell in love with Paul. But for an adventurery novel I would expected to have it more faster and be a little more fun.

3.5 stars

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the ARC to review

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What an interesting (and different) look at part of Julia Childโ€™s life! Even though it was fiction, I wanted to know more. Given the subject matter, I wish the book had been faster-paced as it was hard to stay engaged at times.

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I had heard of Julia Child, but I didnโ€™t know much about her. This book followed her during WWII, during which she went overseas working for the Office of Strategic Services both to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and China.

This book was really interesting, but it moved very slow. I really enjoyed learning about parts of history that I didnโ€™t know about. I just wish the book had a slightly faster pace.

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I had read that famed chef Julia Child served as an intelligence records keeper overseas during World War II, where she met her later husband Paul Child. I thought it would be interesting to read a book about that period in her life, though understanding that itโ€™s fiction draped on the bare bones of what we know about that period in her life.

Julia McWilliams, a tall young woman from Pasadena wants to help the war effort. She becomes a clerk in DC, but because sheโ€™s a college graduate from a privileged background and has some language skills, sheโ€™s soon whisked off to work directly with William โ€œWild Billโ€ Donovan, head of the spy agency OSS, nicknamed Oh So Secret. She wangles a posting to the Southeast Asia part of the war effort, where she is in charge of all documents, including the secret ones, and is told by Donovan to also watch their British allies and keep him posted.

After a brief stop in India, Juliaโ€™s team is soon transferred to Kandy, a mountain town in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The Americans are just setting up there, adjacent to where the British have an established post. The life of a civilian office worker overseas is a strange mix of exotic, glamorous, uncomfortable, mundane, but sometimes deadly dangerous. Julia, in her early 30s, is anxious to prove herself, to make something of herself aside from the conventional and conservative person her strict father expects, to honor the adventurous nature of her dead mother.

All of Juliaโ€™s OSS personnel records are available online, but they wonโ€™t tell you much other than her postings and pay, and that she was transferred to China for the last six months of her service, where she earned a commendation for her work quickly and efficiently setting up a documents registry there. Those records will tell you nothing about how she met Paul Child in Kandy, how she thought him arrogant at first, and how things changed. But this book imagines how that all played out, interspersed with frequent action and danger, and even Julia and Paul pursuing their own investigation into how Allied goods intended for the war effort are disappearing.

It was interesting to see Julia (McWilliams) Child before she became the famous French Chef, to see her outsize personality even then, and the seeds of her ambition to do everything thoroughly and wellโ€”but with great good humor. Diana Chambers has done her research and put together a story for this era of Juliaโ€™s life that is sometimes implausible, but interesting. For me, though, the writing lacked that elusive spark that brings characters and a story to vivid life. Sadly, it felt closer to a duty than a pleasure to get through the pages.

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Wow, who knew? When I thought of Julia Child, I thought of cooking. But during WW2, Julia worked for the OSS. Starting as a register and office worker in Washington and ending in southeast Asia. Not only an office worker, she was a spy. Really interesting story, and besides being a good read, I learned history I didn't know. Thank you to Net Galley ., the author and publishers for the opportunity to read this ARC

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In the early days of World War II, Julia McWilliams landed a job as a file clerk with the newly-formed OSS (Office of Strategic Services). Not happy to be doing nothing more exciting than shuffling papers, she eventually talked her way into a field assignment in the Far East. There, she becomes more involved in the business of the spy station and has a greater impact than anyone could have imagined.

While most people think of Paris, cooking and television โ€“ not necessarily in that order โ€“ when they hear the name Julia Child, many also know that before all that came into her life, she was a โ€œspyโ€ during World War II. She insisted that she was *not a spy, but her work in Ceylon, India and China would indicate otherwise. This book relates a <u>fictional account<u> of what the author thinks her life may have been like during that time period. <i>(Emphasis on โ€˜fictionalโ€™ because it seems that many reviewers were expecting a factual account, even though the author clearly states in her introduction that the book is a work of fiction.)</i>

I thought there was probably a little too much โ€œIโ€™ve got to find a husband!โ€ in the story, but aside from that, I enjoyed this what-if look at the life of a woman I admire, and could hear her voice during many of the scenes described. The scenes with mapmaker Paul, her future husband, were more entertaining to me than they would have been to her, but those moments broke up some of the seriousness of the rest of the book. Iโ€™m glad I took the time to read this one, and will recommend it to other fans of this amazing woman.

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Fictionalizing the life of a real person is always tricky, especially when theyโ€™re as famous as Julia Child. While the idea of exploring her time in the war sounds like an exciting premise, this book doesnโ€™t quite live up to its potential.

I didnโ€™t find much in the plot or characters that pulled me in, and it ended up being a bit of a slog to get through. The romance between Paul and Julia, which couldโ€™ve added warmth and intrigue, didnโ€™t really work for me. It felt flat and not all that convincing.

The book is well-researched, but trying to create a fictional story around such a well-known person seems like an uphill battle, and it shows. Itโ€™s hard to make it feel believable.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebook Landmark for the ARC.

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"The Secret War of Julia Child" by Diana R. Chambers is a fun fictional dive into the gourmet chef and television personality's life during the war years when she met her husband Paul while doing war work overseas. It's a fact that Julia did serve with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS, the precursor to the CIA) during World War II, but whether or not she was actually a spy is left to our imagination, and to the imagination of the writer of this novel.

The book is a very interesting and well-researched window into the Allied war years in India, Ceylon, and China. I did feel the story lagged a little bit at times and I found myself loosing interest and had to push myself back into the book. But overall, this is a really great read and made me want to dust off my Julia Child's cookbook once more and spend more time with this incredible woman from the 20th century.

Many thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC. My opinions re my own.

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The Secret War of Julia Child by Diana R. Chambers offers a fictionalized account of the famous chef and her husband Paul Child during World War II, focusing on their contributions during this tumultuous time. Chambers' well-researched narrative brings to life vibrant and dangerous locales, from the stunning landscapes of India and Sri Lanka to the perilous journey through Burma and China. The tension of war is palpable, especially in regions of Asia that are rarely highlighted in historical fiction.

While the novel shines in its vivid descriptions and historical depth, it does suffer from pacing issues in some sections, which may slow down the reading experience. However, for readers intrigued by Julia Child and her remarkable life, this book offers an engaging glimpse into a lesser-known chapter of her story.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for providing both the egalley and physical copy.

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When I think of Julia Child, I think of lightness. Cooking. A kind smile. I went into this book thinking that I was getting a light read that would be similar, and I was pleasantly surprised that that was not the case!

This book offers an in-depth look at the often-overlooked war in Southeast Asia, which was longer and more brutal than the conflict in Europe. The story is full of action, starting with Julia's journey to India alongside some OSS colleagues for her first overseas assignment. The vivid descriptions of the sights, sounds, and scents that overwhelm Julia are beautifully portrayed. Her journey continues to Ceylon, where espionage and betrayal simmer within the intelligence community, then on to Burma, and finally across the Himalayas into China. There, the complex politics of Chiang Kai Shek, Chairman Mao, and the local warlords challenge the Alliesโ€™ war efforts. The writing shines with its richly detailed depictions of each countryโ€™s stunning landscapes, diverse wildlife, delicious food, and the local cultures. Julia embraced every moment, never settling for anything less than a life fully lived. Though the settings are captivating, this is ultimately a character-driven story about the remarkable men and women of the OSS stationed in remote parts of the world during World War II. The authorโ€™s meticulous research and exceptional storytelling made this book a joy to read. For me, as someone who grew up as a U.S. State Department Foreign Service child in India, it felt like a return home.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

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The Secret War of Julia Child by Diane R. Chambers is based on years of researching and studying the woman who was Julia McWilliams during World War II. War changes people. Julia's desire to do her part caused her to bloom and discover her mettle. Her adventures along the way are detailed here. Chambers includes maps and WWII anacronyms and abbreviations as well.

Julia Child is known for her personality and cooking more than anything but what a privilege it was to get to know her as a fun and enterprising young woman in her thirties during the darkest time in history. As an Intelligence Officer with the Office of Strategic Services, Julia was privy to espionage and political intrigue. She endured difficult ocean travel, intense humidity in India, dengue fever, cultural differences, language challenges and insects. To a point I understand, living on two different continents myself.

Paul Child is a force to read about, too. The slow-burn love story is sweet. Sometimes I get nervous reading more about people I respect and like in case I discover something I'd rather not know. But my admiration for Julia just grew. The author makes it clear that though she researched, much of the story was her re-imagining. I simply enjoyed the story for what it was.

My sincere thank you to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this captivating novel.

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Julia Child is much more than a cooking expert. Much more.

In this historical fiction telling, Julia works for the government during the WW2. She was working in Asia where she met Paul Child. Was she really a spy? Read the book and form your own opinions. But she was there - Paul was there. A budding romance formed while working. Her adventures in the Far East are thrilling and terrifying.

I loved this telling of a well known person before they were well known. I really recommend this book even if you weren't already a Julia Child fan. It's just a good story with some historical perspective.

I was given this book by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

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Really interesting read about Julia Child! A lot of thoughtful insights into who she was before being famous. Well developed characters Really draw you in and won't let go. A must read for fans of Julia Child!

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Those who only know Julia Child for her cooking will find that she was so much more thanks to this well researched and written historical fiction that illuminates her life before Paul. Chambers plays off her real contributions in the OSS to enrich your understanding of who Child was. And she was quite a dynamic and thoughtful woman. If you do know her story this won't add a lot (and know that some of the events are imagined) but it's still pleasant to spend time with Julia. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

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I had never read anything about Julia Child before and was excited to read this book. I was not disappointed! Even though this was a historical fiction vs actual historical book, it gave me a picture of this lady who we all think of with "that voice". The book is written in such a way that the reader is able to see the personality of Julia, which I loved.

The book takes the reader on a war-time adventure where Julia McWilliams takes a job working for America's first espionage. This then takes her to South Asia's remote front lines where she eventually meets her husband, mapmaker Paul Child.

I found I had to reread certain sections from time to time as there is so much detail included I didn't want to miss any of the historical facts. This did slow me down a bit in my reading of this book. I did, however, thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the opportunity to read this inspiring book.

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