Widowland by C.J. Carey

An alternative history that will shock you and make you think. It is 1953 in a London that is no longer free but is in a shaky alliance with Germany after the Nazis won the war. German is taught in schools, culture is carefully monitored, history is rewritten and the Nazis in power expect Great Britain's citizens to live according to The Protector's Anglo-Saxon vision. Women have no rights and have been slotted into a caste system with those of pure blood and of breeding age at the top. Rose in a higher level has a privileged life and a good job editing/rewriting classic English literature erasing inflammatory material and is mistress to a high ranking German in the Culture Ministry. When she is sent to spy on one of the lowest female ranks, those who are too old to bear children or widowed , she is appalled to see how they are barely eek out an existence in Widowland. She has been sent there to find who is spreading subversive graffiti that will anger the Protector when he comes to London for the coronation of King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. The more Rose digs into the women of Widowland the deeper she is pulled into danger and unravels everything she has believed to be the truth. Fascinating dive into what could have been with perfect pacing this proves that the more you push strong women down the harder they push back. WWII buffs as well as those who love a dystopian thriller like THE HANDMAID'S TALE will dive into this and not come up for air until the last page.  4 stars