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A review by reader_fictions
City of Spies by Nina Berry
3.0
City of Spies picks up a while after The Notorious Pagan Jones. Pagan’s had time to film another movie that’s getting excellent critical reviews, and that, plus the movie filmed in book one, has her almost back to respectable in Hollywood. Cue the return of Devin Black, who she hasn’t seen since Berlin. Devin wants her to spy for the CIA (he’s on loan apparently) in Argentina under the cover of filming a terrible movie that could damage her fledgling comeback.
Her mission involves verifying the identity of the Nazi who her mother helped escape the country, a plot element that goes back to book one. The man’s believed to be in Buenos Aires under an assumed name and only Pagan can recognize him. The plot’s a bit more reasonable than in the first book, but it was a bit tough to take in 2017. There are a number of scenes with triggering treatment of Jewish people; all the terrible shit is done by the villains, but it’s still just awful to read, so be aware of that.
The romance continues to be completely bland and uninteresting to me, which is probably a good thing given how this book ends and the fact there isn’t another book coming so far as I know. It was nice that Pagan’s Latina best friend got to come along on the trip, and even better when it’s revealed that she’s asexual and a total boss.
There are a lot of typos in the finished hardcover I got from the library, so Harlequin definitely slacked on the copy-editing. “Nein” was even written as “nien” twice, which yikes. If it were an ARC, I wouldn’t care, but this is the version that people and libraries bought. This also plays into me thinking there will not be a third book. Assuming there isn’t, the resolution here isn’t completely satisfying, though it’s not totally without an ending. It’s just a weird one, and it would be frustrating if I were more attached to the cast.
I enjoyed the Pagan Jones books, but they could have benefited from more editing all around and a more compelling romance.
Her mission involves verifying the identity of the Nazi who her mother helped escape the country, a plot element that goes back to book one. The man’s believed to be in Buenos Aires under an assumed name and only Pagan can recognize him. The plot’s a bit more reasonable than in the first book, but it was a bit tough to take in 2017. There are a number of scenes with triggering treatment of Jewish people; all the terrible shit is done by the villains, but it’s still just awful to read, so be aware of that.
The romance continues to be completely bland and uninteresting to me, which is probably a good thing given how this book ends and the fact there isn’t another book coming so far as I know. It was nice that Pagan’s Latina best friend got to come along on the trip, and even better when it’s revealed that she’s asexual and a total boss.
There are a lot of typos in the finished hardcover I got from the library, so Harlequin definitely slacked on the copy-editing. “Nein” was even written as “nien” twice, which yikes. If it were an ARC, I wouldn’t care, but this is the version that people and libraries bought. This also plays into me thinking there will not be a third book. Assuming there isn’t, the resolution here isn’t completely satisfying, though it’s not totally without an ending. It’s just a weird one, and it would be frustrating if I were more attached to the cast.
I enjoyed the Pagan Jones books, but they could have benefited from more editing all around and a more compelling romance.