I was very excited for this book, because I am a big fan of Julia Child but didn’t know much about her prior to her work as a chef. Unfortunately, I felt like the novel wasn’t sure if it wanted to be a romance, a spy thriller, or a character study, and in the quest to do all three ended up with some odd pacing. Things that seemed unimportant would take up entire chapters while big developments would happen in the course of a paragraph. 
Perhaps readers who enjoy a more reserved style would connect to this book more than I did, but for me I felt that the characters almost universally lacked a feeling of heart and Julia in particular just didn’t feel dynamic enough for me. The setting was clearly well researched, and especially given that this is all speculation, perhaps it would have worked better as a story about a less well known figure. 
Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the advance digital copy in exchange for my honest review.