Review: The Spy and I (My Spy #1) by Tiana Smith

Title: The Spy and I

Series: My Spy #1

Author: Tiana Smith

Genre: Adult, contemporary romance, adventure

Publication date: February 13th 2024

Published by: Berkley

Source: Borrowed from library

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Synopsis: Right place. Wrong person. After a case of mistaken identity, one woman must work with her sister’s sexy spy partner to save the world in this heart-pounding romantic comedy.

The first thing to know about Dove Barkley is that, even though she works as a cyber security analyst, she is one hundred percent not an undercover CIA operative. But when a group of bad guys mistake her for her super-spy sister (news to her!), Dove gets roped into a dangerous government mission that she’d very much rather be left out of, thank you.

Too bad Mendez, the man who claims to be her sister’s partner, says she's in too deep to back out now. He’s smart, capable, and has a body almost distracting enough to make Dove forget about the team of trained assassins after her.

Dove has information that can help prevent a national tragedy, but there’s mounting evidence that Mendez might not be who he claims. More importantly, she's running out of time to save her sister. Because the last thing Dove wants is for either of them to go out with a bang.

My rating: ★★★★☆

Computers? Sure, I could handle those. Murder, guns, and running for my life? Not so much.

I’ve been really getting into contemporary romances in recent years and I’m starting to recognize the things I like and don’t like in those types of books, but this book did things right! I liked it!

One thing I was very happy to see was that this book actually had a plot! This book balanced the romance and the adventure aspects pretty well, which I really appreciated. And I liked that the adventure aspect involved spies! That was so fun! And it was such a good story as well! We have Dove who suddenly finds herself thrown into the world of spies when her sister (a freaking spy!) goes off the grid. Luckily, her sister's very attractive partner is there to guide her and protect her from the bad guys.

The plot, like I said was very interesting. I liked the whole spy situation and everything surrounding Dove’s sister Madison was intriguing. I particularly liked how much faith Dove had in her sister, despite everything that was thrown at her. And the sweet moments between them, the way Dove wanted to help her, and Madison just wanting to keep her little sister safe... it was SO good! 😭

I was also surprised to see that there was even some action! I love a good action sequence! The action scene in the climax was pretty tense, and there was even a car chase which was pretty fun! Now, the action wasn’t anything too crazy, because that’s not what this book is. But the little action that it did have was good!

As for the romance, I really enjoyed it as well. There was physical attraction there, but the relationship was not built on just that, which I really appreciated. The characters really took the time to talk and get to know one another. There was one scene in particular where Dove was just having a hard time and Mendez took the time to look up a recipe and make her freaking Oreos 😭 That was so sweet and thoughtful of him! And because this is a romance book, I kept waiting for the spicy scenes to show up... and they didn’t 😂 I mean, they had some hot make-out sessions (which were pretty good, let’s be honest lol), but no actual spicy scenes. Now, for me, this is not a deterrent. Sex scenes I can take or leave—I really don’t care if a book has them or not as long as the story is good. And the story in this book was good, so I didn’t really care. Lol.

But overall, this was a really enjoyable read. I mean, the plot twists were unsurprising to me, but that’s fine. This was an adventure romance and it delivered on both fronts, so I definitely recommend this one!

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊