Women of War by Suzanne Cope does an excellent job of pulling readers into an engaging narrative. The chapters are broken down into different individual povs with the occasional chapter focused on general history at the time. Cope manages to bring all the women to life in such a way it felt as if I were watching a spy thriller as I explore dark corners of place such as Rome or Florence with them. While the book is successful in building empathy and excitement for each woman, there were a few major flaws.

One of them was the geographical focus of the book. A lot of space was given to Carla in Rome along with the women traveling in and out of Rome. Following Rome's liberation, it felt as if the book should end there but it continues on for awhile. Since the core focus felt like it was in this area, I wanted the book to be over by then. Yet following Rome's liberation is when different women such as Anita and Bianca get to shine. They're events take place as the Nazi's retreat. It would've helped to have the book structured in a different way allowing for the focus on a geographical region letting us live there for a bit to build a deeper understanding of what is going on. While we focus on Carla, it feels confusing at times because of how much we jump around.

In addition, there was never clear information about the rest of Italy. At times, different areas would be mentioned and I wish the title better defined the focus on the novel being more on parts of Northern Italy. It needed to be clearer in that area because I kept waiting for information to be introduced to better cover parts of Italy. At one point, near the middle of the book, it mentions the majority of Nazi forces were stationed in this area, but does that then mean other areas are not occupied?

Overall, I'm glad to have read this book. I used to work at the United States Holocaust Memorial Musum where I helped create lesson plans for schools. This struck me as a great book to recommend for adults and high schoolers. The writing is simple enough that you can pick it up at any age or location to read.

You hear often of the men who won the war, but this book is a well-researched, well-written account of how women were so very important to the outcome of a war. It is engaging.