434 pages
English language
Published Aug. 8, 2013 by Scribner.
Drafted against her will to serve the regime of Vladimir Putin as an intelligence seductress, Dominika Egorova engages in a charged effort of deception and tradecraft with first-tour CIA officer Nathaniel Nash before a forbidden attraction threatens their careers.
A solid spy novel, realistic, believable. On the other hand there were very few parts which would make you keep reading even when it's time to go to bed.
I keep thinking, this is definitely written by a man.
I liked the first parts of the book. But when her uncle brings her in to do a "favor" that ends up pimping her out, that was gross. And then later, she's put on whore school? Not credible and gross to me. Narrator says she finds various things distasteful yet she keeps doing them.
And Nate is supposedly blame worthy for being outed as a spy by process of elimination and good basic tracking of comings and goings at the embassy? Not buying it.
This was a good book and I plan on reading the trilogy. Understand this is an "adult book" in that the author uses words not normally used in fiction. I read this on an ebook reader and used the "definition" feature of the app quite often. It will expand the normal reader's vocabulary in my opinion.
The author also uses a lot of acronyms that challenged my memory a little too often. Matthews could spell out these acronyms more often.
I really enjoyed this. Lots of operational details, but rounded out with some good human drama. Bring on the sequel.
Just found it uninteresting and uncomfortable.
I don't read many spy thrillers, but I liked this a lot. The author is, apparently, a spy or former spy and the story details do seem realistic. The sex and fights only resemble reality in some vague way, but I suppose most real spys don't spend a lot of time banging each other. It has recipes in it [!], and I think they added an extra dimension.
