Atomic Love

June 15, 2020
In a spy thriller set in Chicago during the Red Scare of the early 1950s, Fields combines a paean to feminist empowerment with old-fashioned romance, both centered on a female scientist. During World War II, Rosalind Porter, now 30, was the only woman--and Enrico Fermi's favorite--among 50 people working on what she calls "the project." But the dropping of the A-bomb and its human cost devastated her. Then her lover, Thomas Weaver, a British scientist with the project, broke her heart, not only dumping her for another woman but, Roz suspects, also writing the report that ruined her career. Four years later, she yearns to return to science but has been reduced to selling jewelry at Marshall Field's. Then Weaver re-appears, begging for a second chance, though at first he resists explaining why he left or why he's returned. Roz is struggling to resist her strong feelings for Weaver when she's approached by FBI agent Charlie Szydlo, who asks her to keep seeing Weaver and pass on what she learns. Charlie suspects Weaver is giving scientific secrets to the Soviet Union. Compelled by a mix of patriotism and desire, Roz reluctantly agrees to see Weaver. After they have passionate sex, he acknowledges that there are secrets he'll eventually need to share. Rosalyn feels torn. She loves him deeply but isn't sure she trusts him. Nevertheless, she agrees to hide his safe deposit box key without telling Charlie, for whom she is also developing feelings. After all, not only is he handsome, despite a ruined hand--the result of his stay in a brutal Japanese POW camp--but he's also reliable in ways Weaver is not. Both men adore Roz for her Hedy Lamarr beauty and brains (which the real Lamarr also had), but neither is anxious to share the secret demons tormenting him. After creating intriguing, complex characters--particularly enigmatic Weaver--Fields rushes the obvious espionage plot toward both a professional and romantic ending for Roz that is every woman's wish fulfillment. Atmospheric, historically interesting escapism.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 17, 2020

It's been five years since Rosalind Porter worked as a physicist on the Manhattan Project. She once dreamed of bringing safe nuclear energy to the world, but the horror of the bomb's devastation on Japan and a betrayal by her lover and fellow physicist Thomas Weaver still feels raw. Besides, there are few jobs for women scientists in 1950s Chicago. Now working at a jewelry counter in Marshall Field's department store, she is approached by FBI agent Charlie Szydlow, who wants her to feign interest in getting back together with and spying on Tom, whom he suspects is selling nuclear secrets to the Russians. Tom is oddly eager to have Rosalind back in his life, and she's still strongly attracted to him, despite her growing feelings for intelligent and sensitive Charlie. The story alternates between Rosalind's complicated love triangle with the two attractive men, and Charlie's intense flashbacks to his days as a Japanese prisoner of war and ongoing post-traumatic stress disorder. VERDICT Fields's (The Age of Desire) immersive love story is thoroughly engaging. Fans of Beatriz Williams or Paula McLean will take great pleasure in the rich historical detail, suspenseful intrigue, and the emotionally charged romance.--Kathryn Howe, Saint John Free P.L., NB, Canada

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 10, 2020
Fields's mostly predictable historical romance (after The Age of Desire) gets a boost from its crackerjack heroine, Rosalind "Roz" Porter, a talented young scientist and veteran of the Manhattan Project. Roz lost her job after the implosion of an affair with coworker Thomas Weaver and a report accusing her of being "emotionally unstable" in 1946, leaving her brokenhearted and underemployed as a Chicago salesclerk. When Weaver returns to the Windy City in 1950 to rekindle their relationship, she gives him the cold shoulder until FBI agent Charlie Szydlo asks her to reunite with Weaver to find out what he knows about information passed to the Soviets. Though Roz sleeps with Weaver both for pleasure and to get him to talk, she falls in love with Charlie, who reciprocates her feelings. Meanwhile, Soviet agents bug Roz's apartment and start following her, and Weaver disappears, leaving behind an ominously bloodied apartment. A secondary story about Roz's older sister underscores women's frustrations with traditionally female roles in American society, though it does little to advance the plot. Romance fans will delight in the smoldering affection between Roz and Charlie, but the Cold War espionage thread involving Weaver fizzles. Still, as escapist fare, Fields's steamy adventure gets the job done. Agent: Susanna Einstein, Einstein Literary Management