The Spy Who Loves Me, by Julie Kenner

I felt like reading some nice, light fun, and The Spy Who Loves Me (excerpt), by Julie Kenner sounded like it might hit the spot.

HE'D BE A TERRIBLE SPY. BUT HE MIGHT MAKE A GOOD HUSBAND.

Call him Teague. Finn Teague. A jack-of-all-trades, he's been everything from ski instructor to cook, but he's always craved a job that wouldn't bore the living daylights out of him. He longs to be a shaken-not-stirred kind of guy but knows it'll never happen. Currently a lawyer, Double-Oh-No spends most of his time in his L.A. apartment, ogling his two gorgeous neighbors-a view to a thrill-and fantasizing that he's a secret agent.

Amber Robinson, an elite operative for a top-secret government agency, is tracking a suspected terrorist's mistress. Her hunky neighbor Finn seems to be doing the same and Amber suspect he's a spy-just a very, very bad one. Setting out to seduce him and crack his secret identity (yes, she has the best job ever) Amber unwittingly takes Finn on a passion-filled, high-stakes adventure that'll teach him to never say never again.

You know the mindzone you have to be in to enjoy a James Bond movie? Well, that's how you have to read this book. It is VERY James Bond... fast-paced, cheesy, shallow fun. A B.

It's villains who execute their enemies (our hero and heroine, of course) by slowly filling up a room with water, it's dastardly plots to cause World War III (with this surreal scene with the eeeevilest men in the planet bidding for a dangerous secret weapon), it's miraculous gadgets created by an eccentric genius in the agency's basement, it's reality-defying stunts (one of which, the free fall from a plane, I think I actually saw in a James Bond movie!). Good fun, but the type that works better if you don't think about it too deeply.

It's also a very nice romance between a super spy and a civilian who fantasizes about becoming a spy, with the twist of having the heroine be the super spy and the hero the spy-wannabe. I must say, I liked the romance here much better than I do in the James Bond movies, even if the characterization was pretty sketchy.

The only disappointment here was that I spent most of the first half of the book eagerly anticipating the moment when Finn would find out Amber was, in fact, a spy, but when it came, it was surprisingly anticlimactic. Other than that, this is just what it advertises: nothing too deep, but fun to read.