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Kindle Customer

OK story but too many factual errors

Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2018

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The problem with this book is the problem I have with a lot of books set in the past. Too much factual inaccuracy. The author thanks many people at the end of the book, but I have to ask if any of them actually read the manuscript. Here's a few things I caught: the Duke of Windsor was governor of the Bahamas, not Bermuda. Princess Elizabeth was born April 21, 1926 and Princess Margaret was born August 21, 1930, so the author has wrong their age difference. They were Royal Highnesses, and it would have been improper to refer to them as "Your Highness" (without the "Royal"), and the distinction was considered important. Queen Elizabeth (George VI's consort) would not have called a titled man "your lordship." That's what servants call people with titles. A bathroom is where people go to take a bath. A toilet is where people go to relieve themselves. Princess Elizabeth would not have said she was going to the "bathroom" unless she wanted to bathe. I lived in a university city in England in the late 1980s, and everything, except the off licence, was closed on Sunday. I find it hard to believe so many shops would be open in Windsor on a Sunday afternoon when Maggie goes to meet her contact, especially during the war.

I know it's really hard to write a book, and I congratulate the author on her accomplishment. But PLEASE, in the future have a proofreader capable of finding the mistakes in the little things that drive crazy an Anglophile history buff like me.

Charlie Smith

Maggie Hope returns. May she keep coming back for more and more and more!!!

Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2017

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What a pleasure it is to get reacquainted with old friends. I read of WW2 heroine Maggie Hope’s inadvertent adventuring into spydom in December of 2016 in Mr. Churchill’s Secretary and fell quite in love with both character and author. I’d discovered Susan Elia MacNeal on Twitter where her delightful posts and irresistible smile kept popping up in my feed because many of the bookworld types I follow followed her, and so, eager to sit at the table with the cool kids, I followed too. Good decision, as was the decision to start following her Maggie stories. I was captivated by the first installment and quickly availed myself of this second exploit of Maggie’s. It was just as enchanting and exciting as the first, with which it shares well-drawn and memorable characters, surprising and rapid-heartbeat plotting, and the author’s deft and witty facility for language, as well as a seemingly effortless ability to evoke the time period and supply historical context in a hugely entertaining manner. In addition to all that, there are many friendships, love interests, and family dynamics played out in ways that feel entirely human and contemporary; in short, you’ll be enlightened and moved by the stories and who can resist a re-imagining of pre-coronation Elizabeth and her mischievous sibling, Margaret, as children at Windsor Castle where Maggie is sent — much to her disappointment having wanted to head to the front for dangerous undercovering —to pose as a tutor and protect the princesses from a Nazi plant embedded somewhere in the castle. Ripping good page turner here. I’ve already gotten number three lined up, saved, I don’t want to lose Maggie as a pal and there are but seven novels — the last of which is not yet published.

nygal

I enjoy the Maggie Hope series for their setting - WWII

Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2017

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I enjoy the Maggie Hope series for their setting - WWII, mostly London, also Germany, the US, Scotland - and for the characters, who are sympathetic and interesting. The detail in Ms Macneal's stories is historically accurate & quite interesting. The stories themselves are compelling, with surprises and suspense adding to the fun. For an easy-to-read romp that doesn't make you feel like you're totally wasting your time - give these books a try!

Annie

How she became a spy is mind boggling

Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2019

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I REALLY wanted to like this series because it intrigues me. I just did not like this book! Here are some of my problems with this book. SPOILER ALERTS

-The romance again was an issue with me! Maggie seems to have no chemistry with the men she dates. She losses her almost fiance who is "missing and presumed dead" in one chapter and it seems 2 chapters later (not really sure how many but it wasn't much) SHE initiates a kiss with her coworker. There is no chemistry, no build up with the romance. All of a sudden they are in a dark room and she kisses him. REALLY?!?!?! Where is the wait, the tension, chemistry before the characters get together.
- For someone who is supposed to be a spy with smarts Maggie misses SOOOOOO many obvious clues it was actually annyoning. At the end they comment again and again that she should have seen the clues, how could she miss them. Frankly any spy worth their salt wouldn't have because the clue was mentioned to her about 4 times.
- Winston Churchill was all over the map. He was praised as a great leader by Maggie, constantly quoting him. Then at the end of the book he's depicted as a tantrum throwing baby. The scene literally had him naked in the tub pouting that his water was too cold while he talked the the leader of MI 5.
There are other issues I had with the ending but don't want to spoil everything about the book. Honestly by the end of it I was just glad it was over. I don't even think I read the last chapter and the 2 or 3 before that I was skipping as much as I could just so I could finish the thing. Sad that such a long series with the type of historical fiction mystery I'm looking for was such a let down.

Top reviews from other countries

Petra 🤗📚📓🖋📮

how the Americans seen the Second World War..

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 27, 2017

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Princess Elizabeth's Spy written by Susan Elia MacNeal for me was a good read which I enjoyed as it was well written and one which showed some parts of the history of the Second World War.
For this book, Maggie Hope is sent to Windsor Castle to protect the young Princess Elizabeth and her younger sister Princess Margaret. I enjoyed it as a work of fiction and it clearly is not a book you would use as a history lesson, but I found it to be well written and very entertaining. Maggie Hope uses her massive knowledge to source out the truth and with this being the Second World War, even the Royal family was finding it hard to know who to trust. I liked how I could see how the Germans who lived in Great Britain, even the innocent was treated with pure malice, but with this book, it was not where you were from but what way your sympathies lay.
Princess Elizabeth's Spy written by Susan Elia MacNeal is clearly an American outlook to the war, but it still was well written and one I thoroughly enjoyed.
Happy to recommend.

Mrs Curzon Tussaud

Good yarn with annoying errors.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 21, 2012

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I share Chrissie's concerns about careless editing or proofreading. Lord Wigram, Governor of the Castle, was referred to in several different guises such as Lord Clive or Sir Clive. The correct form of address is Lord Wigram. I don't think duvets were in common useage in England in the war years. Early on in the book a remark is made about the Royal Family having one egg each per week, yet later on a maid puts down "another" platter of scrambled eggs on the breakfast table. There really wasn't a great deal of food around during the war years, yet these characters seem to eat very well.

It was a good story, well told, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

gerryr

Arrant rubbish

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 7, 2013

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Thhis book should have a disclaimer, on the title page preferably:"This book is in no way based on any facts whatsoever except for the names of historical figures either living or dead."
Even the most cursory of research would have shown glaring errors, e.g the correct age of Princess Margaret. Only an American author relying on gossip column material could possibly have produced such a travesty - albeit as fiction. I had hoped for a good read, as with the author's previous book, and will now cancel my order for the next one due to be published

Joyce Holmes

Disappointing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 25, 2012

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I was hoping to find a new author setting books in the WW2 period but, while the idea of a story set in the rarified air of the War Rooms and Windsor was interesting I could not suspend belief enough to enjoy it. It is well written but unfortunately not for me.

Catherine

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 9, 2017

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Great price and speedy delivery.

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