“Veronica Rossi’s historical fiction of Agent 355 is depicted as determined, brave, and unflinching, bringing to the surface a voice and story that adds definition to the contours of our human narrative.”
Cecelia Beckman, Sheaf & Ink
The Story
Rebel Spy, by Veronica Rossi’s is a re-imagining of the Culper spy network, Agent 355. She was a spy for George Washington and an elite society girl in New York, has her story retold in this fresh look on how women played a crucial role in the Revolutionary War.
Frannie Tasker is anything but high society and knows very little about the war between King George and his thirteen colonies. But her world changes after a shipwreck happens off the shores of her island home. With a chance to escape her abusive step-father, Frannie reinvents herself and takes on the identify of a drowned young woman from the shipwreck, Emmeline Coates.
Review: Rebel Spy
Veronica Rossi’s Rebel Spy gives a unique perspective of a historical figure. Agent 355 helped the American cause for freedom from the tyranny of King George’s rule. As someone who feasts on historical fiction whenever possible, this bread crump Rossi discovered turned into a banquet with tasty and fragrant morsels that will entice readers to take a second helping.
The Prologue of Rebel Spy had me hooked. It sank its metal claws deep. Wanting answers to two very important questions that had me swiping every page.
After the jolt of a Prologue, the story started off relatively slow. Our main character, Frannie Tasker was dealing with the loss of her mother and she seemed stuck by her social status with no way to elevate herself in a conventional way. Although her day-to-day activities of wrecking was intriguing and would later serve her well. But the lull didn’t last long. Things began to pick up when Frannie takes on a new identity that would provide the opportunities of a lifetime.
A Few More Thoughts
With a love triangle, a slice of history during the American Revolution, a female spy in 1776 America, Veronica Rossi’s Rebel Spy was a riveting tale. It grabbed my attention and held me under as we plummeted into the darkest depths of our past. At each fathom, the layers of our nation’s story unravel like a fraying thread pulled from an intricate garment. Quickly coming undone into a pool of colors in shades of garnet and ash. Finding within the heap of cloth that women were major players in that birth.
History seems to paint these heroines of our Nation into the margins. Forcing them to become footnotes of our past rather than as leading contributors in the forefront, who are as vital as the Founding Fathers or the Sons of Liberty.
More and more authors are carving a place for those characters that were subjected to and limited by the scope of privileged white men. Rossi’s own interpretation of Agent 355, is depicted as determined, brave, and unflinching, bringing to the surface a voice and story that adds definition to the contours of our human narrative.
Happy Reading ̴ Cece
RATING: 
– Satisfyingly Inked
Author: Veronica Rossi
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: June, 2020
Pages: 368
ISBN-10: 1524771228
ISBN-13: 978-1524771225
Audience: 12 and up
Jacket Illustration and Design: Unkown at this time
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