AN UNCOMMON HONEYMOON

A marriage between spies leads to an uncommon honeymoon.

Their journey to happily-ever-after was interrupted by more than one rescue mission. So it’s no surprise to CIA agents Quinn Ellington and James “Bond” Anderson when, halfway through their Turks and Caicos honeymoon, they’re asked to help gather intel on a human trafficking ring. After Quinn discovers on the assignment that the ring is trafficking children, both readily agree to prepare for a trip to St. Petersburg to rescue them. It’ll take more than just good spycraft, though—the “bloodhound librarian” in Quinn, and her talent at research, may prove to be the key to bringing down the smugglers for good. In the third volume in the Librarian and the Spy series (A Covert Affair, 2017, etc.), Mann takes her spy couple to new locales, but their white-hot passion never cools. Unlike in most romance novels, Quinn and James marry in the fourth chapter rather than the last one, but that doesn’t mean their romance plateaus. Though the operatives occasionally use their newlywed status as cover in the field, their lust for each other is never an act (much to the chagrin of fellow agents listening in on their communications); in fact, this is the spiciest book from Mann yet. Realism isn’t the goal here: Mann’s workaday prose and ready humor mean this story is better suited for fans of John Steed and Emma Peel than those of George Smiley. Nevertheless, as in any good spy tale, the story runs high with adrenaline from its first chapter, and readers who enjoyed the opening two books in the series will race through this one as well.

Contemporary romantic suspense that’s shaken, not stirred, with a bookish twist.