Book Feature: A Spy Like Me by Kim Sherwood

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @williammorrowbooks for the review copy of A Spy Like Me by Kim Sherwood.  I read the first book in this spy thriller series based in the James Bond world last year and loved it.  I have started this novel and I am enjoying it as well.

What is your favorite James Bond movie?

#bookfeature

SYNOPSIS: 

An elite team of MI6 agents must go undercover to unravel a smuggling network funding violent terror in the second thrilling adventure in the acclaimed Double O series by Kim Sherwood.

James Bond is alive.

Or at least, he was when he left a clue at the black site where the insidious private military company Rattenfänger held him captive. MI6 cannot spare any more lives attempting to track down one missing agent—no exceptions, even for Bond. But Johanna Harwood, 003, has her own agenda. Sidelined by her superiors while she grieves the loss of a loved one, Harwood goes on an unsanctioned mission: to find 007. Meanwhile, MI6 has another problem…

A bomb has detonated in London.

Double O agents on the trail of the terrorists responsible acted quickly to prevent mass destruction and save lives. But MI6 failed to neutralize the nation’s enemies before they could strike, and one of their own was seriously injured in the blast.

They won’t fail again.

Assigned to root out the source of the terrorists’ funding, Joseph Dryden, 004, and Conrad Harthrop-Vane, 000, enter the field. Tracing clues from Sotheby’s auction house to Crete to Venice, they uncover a money laundering scheme involving diamonds, black market antiquities, and human trafficking. Once a major sale is made, a six-day countdown to the next terror attack begins. As the Double O’s follow the twisting trail, they find themselves unexpectedly inching closer to Bond…

What do you think?

A Beautiful Disguise by Roseanna M. White (Austenprose PR Book Tour)

 

Do you like to wear costumes or dress up?  What is your favorite costume?  I like to dress up for Halloween, but I don’t have one favorite costume.

Lady Marigold Fairfax and her brother Yates had an unconventional upbringing.  Their father had a circus living at their estate and loved to throw parties for the entire neighborhood.  After his death, Marigold and Yates discover that he has spent the family fortune.  Determined to keep their estate and support the people who depend on them for their livelihood, the two started a private investigation firm called Imposters, Inc.  Things get personal when they are hired to investigate the father of her best friend, Lavinia.  Their paths soon cross with Sir Merritt Livingstone.  He is a military man who has been sidelined by pneumonia.  He hires Imposters Inc. to help him uncover a suspected German spy amongst the aristocracy.

This novel was so fun.  I enjoyed the unique premise.  I loved the Edwardian England setting.  I enjoyed how Lady Marigold disappeared into society with her extravagant hats and gowns and was able to spy from within.  I also loved their country estate full of exotic animals, including a pet lion and a monkey named Penelope.  I enjoyed the chemistry between Marigold and Merritt and their slow burn romance.  The characters were all interesting and enjoyable, especially as you learned more about their motivations.  I loved the mystery plot and how it fit in perfectly with the times leading up to World War I.  I loved that this book was full of spies, intrigues, and house parties.  It was an enjoyable read.

This novel was a clean read.  It also has an interesting author’s note at the end about the inspirations for the story and great questions for a book club.  This is the first in a planned new series of books and I can’t wait to read on into the future.  The first chapter of the next book is included for a preview.

Book Source: Review Copy from Bethany Press.   Thank-you! I received a complimentary copy of this book as part of the Austenprose PR Book Tour.  Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

QUICK FACTS

·       Title: A Beautiful Disguise

·       Series: The Imposters (Book 1)  

·       Author: Roseanna M. White

·       Genre: Historical Romance, Detective Mystery, Inspirational Fiction

·       Publisher: Bethany House Publishers (August 22, 2023)

·       Length: (368) pages

·       Format: Hardcover, Trade Paperback, eBook, & Audiobook 

·       ISBN: ‎ 978-0764240928

·       Tour Dates: August 21 – September 4, 2023

 

BOOK DESCRIPTION

In Edwardian London, not all that glitters is gold as a lady and an intelligence officer's secret mission take them from the city's dazzling ballrooms to its covert intelligence offices.

Sir Merritt Livingstone has spent a decade serving the monarch in the field, but when pneumonia lands him behind a desk in the War Office Intelligence Division just as they're creating a new secret intelligence branch, he's intent on showing his worth. He suspects an aristocrat of leaking information to Germany as tensions mount between the two countries, but he needs someone to help him prove it, so he turns to The Imposters, Ltd. No one knows who they are, but their results are beyond compare.

Left with an estate on the brink of bankruptcy after their father's death, Lady Marigold Fairfax and her brother open a private investigation firm for the elite to spy on the elite. Dubbed The Imposters, Ltd., their anonymous group soon becomes the go-to for the crème of society who want answers delivered surreptitiously. But the many secrets Marigold learns about her peers pale in comparison to her shock when she and her brother are hired to investigate her best friend's father as a potential traitor.

Lady Marigold is determined to discover the truth for her friend's sake, and she's more determined still to keep her heart from getting involved with this enigmatic new client . . . who can't possibly be as noble as he seems.

 

PRAISE FOR A BEAUTIFUL DISGUISE

• “White's well-woven plot is engaging from start to finish with delightful threads of mystery, romance, and inspiration."— Carrie Turansky, award-winning author
• “A Beautiful Disguise has all of the hallmarks of this beloved author’s resplendent fiction: pitch-perfect historical research, a thrilling setting and perfectly paced plot and a love story that sparks as wonderfully as Lady Marigold’s effervescent intelligence and charm. A sheer and unputdownable delight by a true master.” —Rachel McMillan, author of The Mozart Code

·       “5 STARS - Espionage, intrigue, and secrets abound in this beautifully crafted historical fiction set in pre-WWI Edwardian England (1909). Roseanna M White’s gift of weaving intricate, engaging plots and creating charming, lovable characters shines so clearly in this book that kicks off her new series Imposters.”— Mindy Houng, Interviews & Reviews.com

 

PURCHASE LINKS

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | PUBLISHER | BOOKSHOP | BOOKBUB |    GOODREADS

 

AUTHOR BIO

Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award-winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. She pens her novels beneath her Betsy Ross flag, with her Jane Austen action figure watching over her. When not writing fiction, she's homeschooling her two children, editing and designing, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of numerous novels, ranging from biblical fiction to American-set romances to Edwardian British series. Roseanna lives with her family in West Virginia. 

WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | X (formerly known as Twitter) | BOOKBUB | GOODREADS

A Shadow in Moscow by Katherine Reay (Austenprose PR Book Tour)

 

What is your favorite book, movie, or TV show about a spy?

A Shadow in Moscow is an intriguing and unique cold war historical fiction novel.  It is a dual story told in both the 1940s/50s and 1980s.  In Vienna, Ingrid loses her family and everything she loves during WWII.  After the war, she marries a Soviet Embassy worker and follows him to Moscow.  She finds herself reaching out to her mother’s home country of England with information about the communist regime. 

Anya is a young Russian girl going to college in 1980.  She grows to respect the United States as she finishes her degree at Georgetown and also finds that she has fallen in love with an American, Scott.  She has to return to the USSR for her safety and her family’s safety.  After the KGB murders a good friend, Anya becomes a spy sending top secret information from a military research center to the CIA in hopes of ending the arms race.  Will either Ingrid or Anya be caught?

I have not read too many historical fiction novels set during the cold war and I really enjoyed this novel.  I enjoyed both stories equally, which is important in a dual narrative novel.  Both Ingrid and Anya are strong female leads with intriguing back stories.  I have enjoyed Katherine Reay’s novels in the past and this one did not disappoint with great characters and an riveting plot.  The plot and romance were both slow burn as the novel set up the story, but I was intrigued and couldn’t stop reading once the story got revved up.  I love a good spy story with all of the feels!

This novel has a great author’s note and discussion questions at the end.  I feel like I learned a lot about the Cold War in this novel.

Book Source: Review Copy from HarperMuse.   Thank-you! I received a complimentary copy of this book as part of the Austenprose PR Book Tour. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

QUICK FACTS

·       Title: A Shadow in Moscow: A Cold War Novel

·       Author: Katherine Reay

·       Genre: Historical Fiction, Espionage Thrillers, Inspirational Fiction

·       Publisher: ‎Harper Muse (June 13, 2023)

·       Length: (384) pages

·       Format: Trade paperback, eBook, & audiobook 

·       ISBN: 978-1400243037

·       Tour Dates: June 5-19, 2023

 

BOOK DESCRIPTION

In the thick of the Cold War, a betrayal at the highest level risks the lives of two courageous female spies: MI6’s best Soviet agent and the CIA’s newest Moscow recruit.

Vienna, 1954

After losing everyone she loves in the final days of World War II, Ingrid Bauer agrees to a hasty marriage with a gentle Soviet embassy worker and follows him home to Moscow. But nothing within the Soviet Union’s totalitarian regime is what it seems, including her new husband, whom Ingrid suspects works for the KGB. Inspired by her daughter’s birth, Ingrid risks everything and reaches out in hope to the one country she understands and trusts—Britain, the country of her mother’s birth. She begins passing intelligence to MI6, navigating a world of secrets and lies, light and shadow.

Moscow, 1980

A student in the Foreign Studies Initiative, Anya Kadinova finishes her degree at Georgetown University and boards a flight home to Moscow, leaving behind the man she loves and a country she’s grown to respect. Though raised by dedicated and loyal Soviet parents, Anya soon questions an increasingly oppressive and paranoid regime at the height of the Cold War. Then the KGB murders her best friend and Anya chooses her side. Working in a military research lab, she relays Soviet plans and schematics to the CIA in an effort to end the 1980s arms race.

The past catches up to the present when an unprecedented act of treachery threatens all agents operating within Eastern Europe, and both Ingrid and Anya find themselves in a race for their lives against time and the KGB.

 

PRAISE FOR A SHADOW IN MOSCOW

• “In her nail-biting latest . . . Reay builds an immersive world behind the Iron Curtain, full of competing loyalties and a constant, chilling sense of paranoia. Readers will be enthralled.”— Publishers Weekly
• ”Rich with fascinating historical detail and unforgettable characters!”— Kristy Woodson Harvey, New York Times Bestselling author of The Wedding Veil

·       “…intrigue, twists and turns, acts of bravery and sacrificial love, and an unforgettable cold war setting with clever daring women at the helm.”— Susan Meissner, USA Today Bestselling author of The Nature of Fragile Things

 

PURCHASE LINKS

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | BOOKSHOP | GOODREADS | BOOKBUB

 

AUTHOR BIO

Katherine Reay is a national bestselling and award-winning author who has enjoyed a lifelong affair with books. She publishes both fiction and nonfiction, holds a BA and MS from Northwestern University, and currently lives outside Chicago, Illinois, with her husband and three children.

WEBSITE | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | GOODREADS

 

Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie

 

Would you travel to a destination unknown if given the opportunity?

Destination Unknown was the August selection for the #ReachChristie2022 Challenge.  I read it back in August and was intrigued.  This is more of a spy thriller than a standard Christie mystery.

Tom Betterton is a top US nuclear scientist in the 1950s who has relocated to England and remarried.  He goes a trip to Paris and disappears.  What has become of him?  Hillary Craven has decided to end her own life when she is interrupted by a British government agent who asks a woman who does not fear death to help out her government. Where will Hillary’s new duties as a spy take her and will she find Tom Betterton?  Why other scientists disappearing from Western countries during the midst of the cold war?

I really want to see this as a Hitchcock film.  I thought it was a very interesting story.  I liked how the top scientists were recruited and were living together in a secret community. It was also interesting that Christie chose to have Betterton work on atomic science with enough truth to the matter to make it sound plausible, but it was really a McGuffin like in a Hitchcock movie.  I liked Hillary Craven’s character and seeing the journey unfold through her eyes.  I did think the action slowed down as the book progressed.  It had a satisfying ending.

Book Source:  Purchased from Amazon.com

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre

Title: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Author: John le Carre
Read by: Michael Jayston
Publisher: Penguin Audiobooks
Length: Approximately 13 hours (10 CDs)
Source: Review Copy from Penguin Audiobooks. Thank-you!

George Smiley is the opposite of James Bond. A “fat old man” as he describes himself, he has been let go from “the Circus,” the highest echelon of the British Secret Intelligence Service. His wife Ann has left him for the latest in her string of lovers. Smiley is not feeling so great about himself until one day; he is brought back to investigate a possible mole at the Circus.

Smiley’s boss “Control” has died after being forced out as head of the Circus after a mission to find a mole in the Circus went horribly awry. Ricki Tarr has returned from a mission to Hong Kong with news that a mole does exist. Tarr and others recruit Smiley as he is a brilliant mind now outside the Circus to solve the case that involves betrayal on all levels.

The novel actually starts with the story of the mysterious Jim Prideaux a crippled teacher at an all boys’ boarding school. His students wonder at his secret past, and for once their musings are true, Prideaux was a spy that was double-crossed. His fate sealed that of Control’s and Smiley’s as well. He was helping to bring down Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy . . . the code names that Control gave to officials within the Circus that he suspected of being double-agents.

I thought this book was masterfully written. It was a bit slow at times, but it all worked with Smiley’s methodical personality. He showed that spying is not always the latest gadgets and hottest women as in the world of James Bond, but sometimes it is the work of painstaking records research and hard hitting interviews. One of my favorite scenes was when a member of the team, Peter Guillam, manages to sneak a secret file out of the circus to take back for Smiley to review. It made me nervous as Guillam was stopped by people going to and fro the file room and you just knew he was going to be captured. My second favorite scene was when Smiley waited barefoot with a gun for the spy to make himself known at a meeting with the Russian informant. He has moments of self-doubt, but he does his duty.

I really liked that through it all, there was a love story between Smiley and Ann. Ann was never “seen” in the novel, but Smiley often thought of her and his friends always asked of her. It was generally known that she carried on affairs, but Smiley seems to have always forgiven her. I really want to know if they end back up together. Will Smiley go to her as he envisioned or will he move on with life? How will he get the Circus back into shape? I can’t wait to listen to the next book to find out.

I thought that Michael Jayston was an excellent narrator and really was the voice of Smiley for me. I always love to listen to a British accent!

I haven’t watched the movie that came out around Christmas or the old 1970’s mini-series, but I feel inspired to watch it now.

Overall, Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy is an excellent spy novel set in the 1970’s – at the height of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. I loved the plot and the characters, and can’t wait to read more about them in the next books!