IF I TOLD YOU, I'D HAVE TO KISS YOU

A spy for the CIA discovers her ex-girlfriend also works for the agency.

Yardley Whitmer grew up determined to become a spy like her grandfather. Known by the code name Unicorn, she’s one of the CIA’s most successful agents, completing dangerous missions around the globe. She’s paid a price, though, because the weight of keeping her job secret led to a painful breakup with her live-in girlfriend, KC Nolan. What Yardley doesn’t realize is that KC is a world-class hacker, code name Tabasco, who also works at CIA headquarters near their home in Virginia. Ten weeks ago, KC’s handler, Dr. Brown, instructed her to code a dangerous project—and then disappeared. KC was passed off to a new handler, but she doesn’t know whom to trust. When KC is assigned to monitor one of Unicorn’s missions in a D.C. coffee shop, she’s shocked to discover the superspy is her ex-girlfriend. Learning they’ve been working on the same team all along doesn’t solve their personal problems, and neither of them thinks their relationship can be saved. When KC’s project is weaponized and put up for sale on the black market, she and Yardley are sent to Europe to try to recover the intel before it can be deployed. KC is on a poignant emotional journey as she comes to realize that Dr. Brown isolated and monopolized her, cutting her off from having colleagues or friends at work. Meanwhile, Yardley wonders how she missed the clues that KC was also engaged in spycraft. The fast-paced and fun spy story is in the foreground here, while the romance feels like an underdeveloped subplot. It’s good to see a powerful group of characters explicitly stating that their identities as queer people are an asset to their work protecting America from enemies, both foreign and domestic.

An entertaining espionage story and an easy second-chance romance.