Eleven-year-old Rosie grew up living in an Indian palace, but for the last three months, she has been living miserably in the English countryside, which is supposedly safer for her than in India. Rosie finds this hard to understand when Hitler is regularly dropping bombs all over England. Rosie’s father is a captain in the British Indian army and was stationed in India. Much to the dismay of both families, years earlier, he had married the princess of a small kingdom in India. Sadly his wife, Rosie’s mother, died six months before the story begins in 1941.
Rosie’s father has been recalled to England to help with the war effort, because of his skills and fluent French, he is assigned to help the French Resistance movement as a spy. Rosie still grieving the loss of her mother and frustrated by the boredom of living in England, stows away when her father travels to France for a secret mission.
In France, Rosie makes friends with twelve-year-old Jean. Rosie and Jean are keen to help with the mission and only slowly become aware of how dangerous it will be.
The story is complicated by the inclusion of India’s desire for independence from Britain, which is included to explain Rosie’s presence in England, but it unnecessarily complicates the story for young children. However, I enjoyed the story which is an exciting and dangerous adventure for Jean and Rosie.
Thanks to the Book Curator for providing a free copy for review.
More reviews of this book can be found on Goodreads and for more of my book reviews click here.
