Sometimes, I get a book pitch that sounds like it’s absolutely perfect for me. Sports, comics, and World War II historical fiction based on a real woman? Sign me up immediately.

Ace Marvel Spy by Jenni L. Walsh [Buy Bookshop Amazon LibroFM] is a novel about Alice Marble, who I hadn’t heard of before. Most of this book is told in a dual timeline, with one walking us through Alice’s early days learning how to play tennis and growing into herself in the sport, while the other follows her life in the early days of World War II. Both hint at someone very important from her past, which ultimately comes to a head later in the book. To say much else would give too much away about the story.

The author did a great job breaking down the tennis plays without beating the reader over the head with the details, which I appreciated. While I don’t know much about tennis, I was able to follow along with the tension of the matches, which was nice.

The dual timeline aspect definitely created more suspense in the story, yet there was still some tension left unpulled. I definitely wanted more from the spy and comics sides of things, but after chatting with Jenni, I understand why there isn’t as much there as I’d like. The trouble with historical fiction based on real people is that you don’t always know every detail.

Overall, this is a book worth reading. It wades through so many dark topics and how she faced them throughout her life. I wish it was a little faster paced and had more action, but that’s probably just my impatience more than anything else.