Reviews

A Spy in the Struggle by Aya de León

bookinitwithahtiya's review

medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

ggrillion's review

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

mrsr_reads's review

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

noachinoa's review

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

mollyjane7's review against another edition

tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

thestitchedpages's review

3.0

I almost DNF’d this because Yolanda was tripping at first. Her views were very much “I’m better than THOSE black people because I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and they didn’t.” That bothered me so much but it did get better! I promise, if you’re at that point, KEEP GOING!

I was a bit confused with chapter 19, it was like 2 different scenes happening at one time. I would have loved there to be more about Yolanda’s relationship with her dad. It was thrown in at some points but I was interested in seeing more of it.

Some content warnings: Racism, gun violence, and sex scenes.

I really loved Yolanda’s character arc. She went from “I’m not like the other blacks” to “Oh I see what they’ve been talking about.” This book started off very not so thriller-ish to me but it ended that way. Once she tried leaving the FBI, I became interested. The romance parts of the book didn’t bother me but if you don’t like your mystery/thriller novels with a romance component then you probably wouldn’t enjoy this book.

All in all, it was a decent read. After you get past Yolanda’s awful views and she actually starts developing into an empathetic human being, it gets good!

lothlorian's review

adventurous challenging informative tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

baytamax's review against another edition

hopeful lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

dedakated5's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

randomreader41's review

3.0

From the synopsis, I went in thinking something else. Based on what I just read, I’m not sure how it went from point a to point b. A lot of it was good and a lot of it was “why?” I felt the story could’ve been told better than it was. It felt rushed and a lot of the background seemed to be thrown in. I get it for character background and information, but at times I was like why are we being told this? Also, the unnecessary romantic subplot was just that unnecessary. It took away from the story.