While WWii rages in Great Britain, Lucy Barrett is sent by her father to the island of Bermuda, to keep her safe, he hopes. She is fiercely intelligent and courageous, and longs to help the war effort as more than a censorette, reading letters taken from ships that pass through Bermuda. In fact, she and her three roommates (gorgeous spy Georgie, medical student Lark and brilliant, autistic Ruth) will encounter plenty of drama in Elizabeth Bales Frank’s Censorettes (Stonehouse Publishing), a highly readable character study and war adventure novel. After exposing a ring of saboteurs, Lucy ends up as an interrogator in Alexandria, where she almost gets blown up and falls in love with a gruff doctor. The story highlights the extensive range of vital work done by women during WWII, and does not shy away from the spectres of discrimination and violence against women. It is a deft portrayal of both exotic and mundane corners of intelligence work, while also deeply evoking the atmosphere of wartime life in Bermuda. Frank has pulled off a great feat in writing a thoughtful novel which does not conform to expectations of any genre; Censorettes is much more than a romance, mystery or adventure tale, but is also a lot more fun than plenty of current literary or historical fiction. The clean, clear prose is a joy to read.

—Kristina Rothstein