Churchill's Secret Agent: A Novel Based on a True Story reads like you're listening to your grandfather or favorite old uncle tell stories about his time in World War II. Sure, you know the stories are embellished and exaggerated, but they're still fun.

Thanks to GoodReads FirstReads program for a chance to review this very fun book. ( )

I like books that take a true story and novelize the story, but this book's difference is a novelized memoir. A book that captivated me from the first sentence when I picked it up from the public library.
There were a lot of things that I didn't know about Winston Churchill.
Each chapter is a unique mission and not necessarily built upon from the previous tasks, but the author's memory and detail grab hold of you and compel you to find out what transpires on these missions.
While reading this story, you learn a lot about WWII and the partisans and spies that gave the lives for a better free world for the next generations.
As I am the third generation of Holocaust survivors, it was an impressive read for me.
If you are a buff for WWII and like stories base on true stories, this book is undoubtedly for you. ( )

This book really needed a major editing as it is poorly written in structure and in content. It should have been 50 pages shorter leaving out the frequent daily routines of the main character. It is also beyond belief that the spy was involved with so many landmark events during the war. If the author was going to make up the stories, at least he should have included the spy actually doing something rather than being a lookout while the raid on German heavy water production in Norway was taking place or watching from a bell tower during the raid on Saint-Nazaire.
Interesting that there is no mention of Max Ciampoli in any of Churchill's papers. ( )

This book is hard to put down. There is no way that I would tell anyone the ending, as this is a must read for anyone that is curious about World War II. The book opens at the start of the Nazi invasion of France and the young seventeen year old that wants to help free his beloved homeland once and for all. It shows how he matures in each mission to France and how the French Resistance works beside him to that end. ( )