Going to a different country for business and deciding to stay indefinitely certainly qualifies as a change of plans, so Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, first in the Maggie Hope series, made a perfect choice for this month’s TBR Challenge. After all, not only does the heroine stay on in England instead of returning to the United States to pursue a post-graduate degree, but she also starts building ties there.

Maggie Hope lost her parents as a very small child, and she grew up in the United States with her aunt. Fast forward twenty years or so, and Maggie’s grandmother has died, leaving her a home in London. Maggie goes to England planning to sell the home, and to return to the States to pursue a graduate degree. However, plans change. Maggie ends up staying in London, and taking on roommates at the large Victorian house.

As the book opens, Maggie is offered the job noted in the title. England is in the early days of World War II, and Maggie will be working in Churchill’s War Rooms. Maggie is a mathematician by training, so working in the typing pool is not exactly how she envisioned using her skills, but she needs a job and she’ll be working with a good friend.

Much of the book covers Maggie’s time in the War Rooms. The period detail is fascinating, and as Maggie starts to see patterns in the material crossing her desk, her mathematical mind is intrigued and the story takes a turn into code-breaking and espionage. There’s a parallel plot involving domestic intrigues in England, and the reader is left wondering how and when the two plotlines will intersect.

On the one hand, the writing in this book is lively and I found myself flying through the pages. However, it’s also impossible to miss that this story has plot holes one could drive a truck through. At one point, Maggie and a friend just take a trip out to Bletchley Park. Considering the top secret work carried out there, I found it hard to believe that folks could just drive out there and wander around with what seemed to be fairly thin security.

And then there are the ways in which the various villains of the story come to light. Just as Maggie seems to lead a charmed life in certain ways, the mysteries in the book just seem to unroll themselves in a very pat fashion. Lucky coincidences save the day, and while I enjoyed the story, I couldn’t help questioning that a bit.

Even so, this is an entertaining historical mystery. While not a genre romance, it would definitely classify as a novel with strong romantic elements. Maggie’s interactions with John Sterling, a private secretary in Churchill’s office, start off in a fairly prickly fashion, but they come to respect one another’s intelligence. I enjoyed watching them become allies and the promise of romance by the end of the story made me curious to read more of the series. Not only do I want to see how Maggie’s story evolves over time, but I’m curious to follow the arc of Maggie and John’s relationship.

If you like historical mysteries and have an interest in spies, intrigue, and World War II Britain, then you may enjoy this book. One has to set aside a fair amount of disbelief, but the characters are engaging, and I was entertained enough to order the sequel.