Five historical fiction books featuring older women

Rachel Brittain is a writer, Day Dreamer, and Amateur Aerialist. Her short fiction has appeared in Luna Station Quarterly, Andromeda Spaceways, and others. She is a contributing editor for Book Riot, where she screams into the void about her love of books. Brittain lives in Northwest Arkansas with a rambunctious rescue pup, a snake, and a houseful of plants (most of which aren’t carnivorous).

At Book Riot she tagged five historical fiction books in which "older women prove that it’s never too late to begin a new adventure." One entry on the list:

The Woman With No Name by Audrey Blake

Based on the life of a remarkable real woman, The Woman With No Name tells the story of Yvonne Rudellat, the first woman recruited by Britain to become a saboteur during WWII. Estranged from her husband and with her adult daughter working in a factory for the war effort, Yvonne is already feeling adrift when her apartment is bombed in the Blitz. She wants to do her part, but no one wants anything from an unassuming, middle-aged woman. That is, until she’s recruited by SOE (Special Operations Executive) to become a sabotage agent. Defying the expectations of all the men who underestimated her, Yvonne takes to spy school with enthusiasm and is soon off to France, where her work will set her against Nazis who will go to any length to uncover the spies in their midst.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue