The Spy Who Wants Me
Lucy Monroe
Kensington Brava Jan 2009, $14,00
ISBN 9780758229151

The Goddard Project 'Old Man' decides his best field operative Elle Gray should handle the California situation, but not because she is his top gun; instead he is worried about her as her entire life is TGP having no vacations from the job except field training. The Old Man believes California mellow will be good for Elle and with her chemical engineering degree might fit in with scientists on the right side of the law and perhaps he prays go out out on a date or two.

Research chemist Beau Ruston's top secret laboratory was compromised. Elle is sent in under the cover of being a security consultant insuring it does not happen again. In fact she is there to keep Beau safe and catch those who breached security. It is attraction at first sight as Beau and Elle want one another. However, she hides her true vocation from him while he conceals he knows her true vocation. However, Elle's hidden identity is in trouble when she learns her brother Matej works at the lab. When her sibling's girlfriend becomes the pawn of espionage thieves trying to steal Beau's antigravity prototype, a fired up Elle goes after them.

'The Spy Who Wants Me' is a solid yet inane TGP espionage romance that in many ways lampoons Lucy Monroe's romantic suspense thrillers (see 'Ready, Willing, Able' and 'Safisfaction Guaranteed'). The key players are cartoon caricatures in nature especially the superheroine and the villains. However, the storyline is lighthearted fun to follow as the spy who came in from the cold finds heat with her scientist.

Harriet Klausner