Review: The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict

The Only Woman in the Room

by Marie Benedict

Publisher: Sourcebooks

Pages: 272

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Hedy Kiesler is lucky. Her beauty leads to a starring role in a controversial film and marriage to a powerful Austrian arms dealer, allowing her to evade Nazi persecution despite her Jewish heritage. But Hedy is also intelligent. At lavish Vienna dinner parties, she overhears the Third Reich's plans. One night in 1937, desperate to escape her controlling husband and the rise of the Nazis, she disguises herself and flees her husband's castle.

She lands in Hollywood, where she becomes Hedy Lamarr, screen star. But Hedy is keeping a secret even more shocking than her Jewish heritage: she is a scientist. She has an idea that might help the country and that might ease her guilt for escaping alone -- if anyone will listen to her. A powerful novel based on the incredible true story of the glamour icon and scientist whose groundbreaking invention revolutionized modern communication, The Only Woman in the Room is a masterpiece. 


Kritters Thoughts:  If you love historical fiction that is based completely in the truth then this book is for you!  Hedy Kiesler was a real woman that had a unique viewpoint as Hitler was tearing across Europe.  She was married to an owner of an ammunitions plant and she was at many a party where things were said and alliances were made and broken.  

I LOVE a historical fiction that has me guessing where the truth ends and fiction begins.  I pulled up Wikipedia a few times to get a few thoughts on where the truth is/was.  Every time I read a book, and I read a lot, about World War II I think I have read it all and there isn't anything else that I could learn about the people, time and place, but this one was such a different viewpoint of the business behind war and how different leaders and countries reacted to Hitler and his ideas.  

I haven't read Marie Benedict's other two books and after reading this book they have moved up on my TBR list.  I loved her hyper focus on a female who maybe didn't make the history books, but maybe should!  Her other two books seem like the same, should I read The Other Einstein or Carnegie's Maid first?


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Ebook 2018 Challenge:  92 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from the Netgalley.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.