-
See Our Best Book
Club Books of 2026!
by Jennie Fields
Love. Desire. Betrayal. Her choice could save a nation.
Chicago, 1950. Rosalind Porter has always defied expectations--in her work as a physicist on the Manhattan Project and in her passionate love affair with colleague Thomas Weaver. Five years after the end of both, her guilt over the bomb and her heartbreak over Weaver are intertwined. She desperately misses her work in the lab, yet has almost resigned herself to a more conventional life.
Then Weaver gets back in touch--and so does the FBI. Special Agent Charlie Szydlo wants Roz to spy on Weaver, whom the FBI suspects of passing nuclear secrets to Russia. Roz helped to develop these secrets and knows better than anyone the devastating power such knowledge holds. But can she spy on a man she still loves, despite her better instincts? At the same time, something about Charlie draws her in. He's a former prisoner of war haunted by his past, just as her past haunts her.
As Rosalind's feelings for each man deepen, so too does the danger she finds herself in. She will have to choose: the man who taught her how to love ... or the man her love might save?
"Set in Chicago during the Red Scare of the early 1950s, Fields combines a paean to feminist empowerment with old-fashioned romance, both centered on a female scientist...A professional and romantic ending for Roz that is every woman's wish fulfillment. Atmospheric, historically interesting escapism." —Kirkus Reviews
"Fields creates authentic female characters teetering on the verge of the women's movement, struggling to claim their place in the world. Inspired by history, Fields' fifth novel is a love story filled with passion, betrayal, mystery, and liberation." —Booklist
"Romance fans will delight in the smoldering affection between Roz and Charlie…As escapist fare, Fields's steamy adventure gets the job done." —Publishers Weekly
"Fields's immersive love story is thoroughly engaging. Fans of Beatriz Williams or Paula McLain will take great pleasure in the rich historical detail, suspenseful intrigue, and the emotionally charged romance." —Library Journal
"Full of intrigue and good old fashioned espionage, Fields has created a flawed and ferocious heroine in the intelligent Rosalind Porter. A captivating must-read with a cast of crafty characters so engaging I was sad to see it come to its glorious end." —Noelle Salazar, author of The Flight Girls
"The smart, warmhearted, and haunted heroine at the center of Atomic Love is just one of the complex characters that enrich this imaginative page-turner. Field's sharp eye for detail never slows the action, but sensuously immerses the reader in time and place." —Laura Moriarty, author of The Chaperone
This information about Atomic Love was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jennie Fields received an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and is the author of the novels Lily Beach, Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, The Middle Ages, and The Age of Desire. A Chicago native, Fields was inspired by her own mother's work as a University of Chicago-trained biochemist in the 1950s. Fields now lives with her husband in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Sister's Curse
by Nicola Solvinic
The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes
by Chanel Cleeton
The Vanishing Place
by Zoë Rankin
 (1).gif)
Great literature cannot grow from a neglected or impoverished soil...
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
