Books: Identity Crisis / Exit Strategy (S, R)

These two novels by Kate Donovan involve a fictional organization named SPIN that creates undercover profiles for field operatives in the FBI and CIA. The agency's employees are called "spinners."

Identity Crisis Kristie Hennessy is a mild-mannered spinner with a wild, supertalented alter ego named Melissa. While Kristie tries to do her job professionally, Melissa keeps getting her into trouble. Kristie also can't help falling for an FBI agent she has only met over the phone.

This was a fast-paced, adventurous read. The author doesn't just tell us Kristie is smart and creative and talented, she lets us see Kristie at work. The plot is complex and includes some real moral dilemmas, which leads to a nice payoff at the end. I thoroughly enjoyed it! Grade: A

Exit Strategy CIA agent Miranda Cutler, on a mission where she must pretend to date Ray Ortega, falls hard for him until he betrays her. One year later, she must pose again as Ortega's sweetheart to infiltrate a terrorist organizaton, salvage her career, and save the world. (Ortega is a top spinner and Kristie's boss in the first novel. He is a nice, focused, hard-working guy, but the author relies too heavily on the reader's previous knowledge of Ortega's character to make this love story work. The fact is, Miranda doesn't know him at all!)

I really enjoyed the first half of the novel, but the romance angle began to fall apart halfway through. The spy stuff was great, but I just didn't buy the heroine's motivations where the hero is concerned. Supposedly, by pretending to be in love with him the second time around, she gets caught up in the role and falls in love with him for real. However, this setup requires 1) that she review her memories of his treachery and see them in a positive way, even though he destroyed her career and broke her heart; 2) that there be something real between them in the present to compensate for his past failures; and 3) that she be able to consciously distinguish between the fantasy Ray and the real Ray, whom she barely knows.

I didn't think any of these requirements are met. Miranda has no reliable information to believe he didn't mean to hurt her a year ago AND hasn't given him a chance to explain what happened, so I just couldn't suspend my belief as far as the romance goes.

For me, the dealbreaker was the seduction scene. Out of the blue, she strips off her clothes and jumps him. They haven't talked or resolved their past issues, they've only spent five minutes together in the present, she believes he's been having regular dates with prostitutes in the year they've been apart, yet she suddenly wants him in bed? So much of the falling-in-love takes place in her head, and possibly only in her imagination, yet we don't hear what she's thinking when she seduces him? For this love story to work, I needed to know why she did that; as is, I just didn't buy it. Finally, the requisite I love you's at the end just didn't hold true for me because these characters don't have a relationship based on, well, anything at all. I rate this book very highly for the suspense and not so high for the romance. Overall grade: B