Ace, Marvel, Spy by Jenni L. Walsh

It’s not often I accept review requests (not in several years actually) but the synopsis of Ace, Marvel, Spy caught my eye and I received an ebook copy in exchange for my honest review.

Let me begin by saying that I never got into tennis nor understood the fascination of watching others play tennis, but I have read bios of the contemporary players and find them inspiring. Alice Marble lived and played tennis before I was born so I’d never heard of her before. I’ve had moderate success with sports centered books and I love Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Carrie Sotto Is Back but then again I love most of Reid’s books.

Alice Marble is an intriguing character and whenever I have the time, I’d like to look more into her life. However, this book didn’t do it for me. The writing’s choppy, the timeline jumps back and forth, but above all it didn’t pull me in. It’s historical fiction (one of my favorite genres) plus World War II focused (time period I’ve read a lot about) but the style is so simple, almost as if I were reading a young adult book (nothing against young adult books but I don’t read them much anymore). Moreover, the spying part was not as big part of this as I’d hoped and Alice fell into it by accidentally. Her eidetic memory was given a lot more focus on a party film stars than otherwise. Her drive to help the war effort in whatever way she can was admirable.

If you are a fan of tennis, historical fiction and intrigued by Alice Marble, this may be for you. It wasn’t quite what I thought it was, but I’m glad I gave it a shot as it introduced to someone with a very interesting life and I’d love to know more about.

I’d be interested in reading another one of Walsh book to conclude if her style is not for me, or, Ace, Marvel, Spy specifically was not quite for me. If you’ve read any of her other books, let me know which one you’d recommend.