Review: The Diplomat's Wife by Pam Jenoff

How have I been lucky enough to come here, to be alive, when so many others are not? I should have died.… But I am here.

1945. Surviving the brutality of a Nazi prison camp, Marta Nederman is lucky to have escaped with her life. Recovering from the horror, she meets Paul, an American soldier who gives her hope of a happier future. But their plans to meet in London are dashed when Paul's plane crashes.

Devastated and pregnant, Marta marries Simon, a caring British diplomat, and glimpses the joy that home and family can bring. But her happiness is threatened when she learns of a Communist spy in British intelligence, and that the one person who can expose the traitor is connected to her past.

Audiobook
Series: The Kommandant's Girl #2
Genre: Historical Fiction


Kristine's Thoughts:

The Diplomat's Wife is the second book in the Kommandant's Girl series but it can be read as a stand alone. It told the story of what happened Marta, who played a significant role in the ending of the first book, after that book ended. I listened to the audiobook of The Diplomat's Wife.

I did not enjoy this book near as much as the first book. I found it to be extremely unrealistic and completely predictable at the same time. Also, I was not a fan of the narrator for this audiobook and I feel like it really impacted how much I enjoyed the story. This has been an issue with many audibooks for me but I felt it more strongly in this one. My problem is the way the narrator (female) voices male characters. The tone, cadence and everything else makes it sound like the male voices are never serious even when they are suppose to be really serious. I'm not sure if it is just me that notices this or if I just imagine them speaking differently in my head. It was very distracting .

What really bothered me with this book was the way Marta was so willing to jump in and help even though she had a baby to think about. Not only did she leave without hesitation but turned down the opportunity to go home when she had the chance and put herself in even more danger in the process. There wasn't much thought of the child which made it hard for me to like her character. When I am not a fan of a character it makes it hard for me to like the story or care what happens to her.

I really enjoyed The Orphan's Tale (not part of this series) and I liked The Kommandant's Girl  and listened to all three of them on audiobook. I think I may have enjoyed this book a little more if I had read it. Pam Jenoff's next book comes out in February 2019 and I have an ARC of it. It will be interesting to see if I enjoy reading her books more than listening to them. I am a fan of her work, just not this particular book.

 



About the Author

Pam is the author of several novels, including her most recent The Orphan's Tale, an instant New York Times bestseller. Pam was born in Maryland and raised outside Philadelphia. She attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Cambridge University in England. Upon receiving her master’s in history from Cambridge, she accepted an appointment as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Army. The position provided a unique opportunity to witness and participate in operations at the most senior levels of government, including helping the families of the Pan Am Flight 103 victims secure their memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, observing recovery efforts at the site of the Oklahoma City bombing and attending ceremonies to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of World War II at sites such as Bastogne and Corregidor.

Following her work at the Pentagon, Jenoff moved to the State Department. In 1996 she was assigned to the U.S. Consulate in Krakow, Poland. It was during this period that Pam developed her expertise in Polish-Jewish relations and the Holocaust. Working on matters such as preservation of Auschwitz and the restitution of Jewish property in Poland, Jenoff developed close relations with the surviving Jewish community.

Having left the Foreign Service in 1998 to attend law school at the University of Pennsylvania, Jenoff is now employed as an attorney in Philadelphia.

Pam is the author of The Kommandant's Girl, which was an international bestseller and nominated for a Quill award, as well as The Diplomat's Wife and Almost Home.

Connect with Pam

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