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A review by mg_in_md_
A Spy in the Struggle by Aya de León
4.0
When the Manhattan firm where Yolanda Vance is a first-year associate is raided by the FBI, she makes a split second decision to become a whistleblower, handing over a stack of documents instead of shredding them as she'd been instructed to do. This decision leads her to apply for a job with the FBI. The application was intended to be a back-up plan, but no other corporate law firm was willing to hire her following the raid and her decision to turn over those documents.
Yolanda is initially assigned to work as an attorney in a New Jersey field office. But, one day, she is called in with a special assignment that will take her to the San Francisco Bay area to work as an undercover agent. The assignment is to infiltrate an African-American "extremist" organization based in the town where she attended college. Her youth and connection to the town make her a seemingly ideal choice for this assignment, even though she is not an agent.
The story moves along at a brisk pace -- the raid, Yolanda's hiring by the FBI, and her assignment all happen within the first ten pages -- from start to finish. At times, I would've liked to have seen the story slow a bit, as the faster pace seemed to gloss over certain spots. This made it somewhat difficult to follow all of the in's and out's of the case, but perhaps that helped the reader to understand Yolanda's conflicted feelings about her assignment and the organization she was investigating. There is a romance element to this story and some scenes were steamier than I was expecting to read in a spy novel. While the romance was part of the reason that Yolanda was so conflicted, I ended up skimming those parts of the story to get back to the case and political intrigue.
While the pacing and story were quite different, I was reminded of [b:American Spy|40274582|American Spy|Lauren Wilkinson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534064514l/40274582._SY75_.jpg|58241066] by [a:Lauren Wilkinson|17287509|Lauren Wilkinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1530050377p2/17287509.jpg], which I really enjoyed. The struggles of each woman working undercover made for intriguing reads in both cases and I would recommend both books to anyone interested in reading a fresh take on the traditional spy novel.
Many thanks to the Goodreads Giveaways program for the chance to read this advanced digital copy courtesy of Dafina! I look forward to reading more books by this author soon based on my read of this captivating novel.
Yolanda is initially assigned to work as an attorney in a New Jersey field office. But, one day, she is called in with a special assignment that will take her to the San Francisco Bay area to work as an undercover agent. The assignment is to infiltrate an African-American "extremist" organization based in the town where she attended college. Her youth and connection to the town make her a seemingly ideal choice for this assignment, even though she is not an agent.
The story moves along at a brisk pace -- the raid, Yolanda's hiring by the FBI, and her assignment all happen within the first ten pages -- from start to finish. At times, I would've liked to have seen the story slow a bit, as the faster pace seemed to gloss over certain spots. This made it somewhat difficult to follow all of the in's and out's of the case, but perhaps that helped the reader to understand Yolanda's conflicted feelings about her assignment and the organization she was investigating. There is a romance element to this story and some scenes were steamier than I was expecting to read in a spy novel. While the romance was part of the reason that Yolanda was so conflicted, I ended up skimming those parts of the story to get back to the case and political intrigue.
While the pacing and story were quite different, I was reminded of [b:American Spy|40274582|American Spy|Lauren Wilkinson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534064514l/40274582._SY75_.jpg|58241066] by [a:Lauren Wilkinson|17287509|Lauren Wilkinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1530050377p2/17287509.jpg], which I really enjoyed. The struggles of each woman working undercover made for intriguing reads in both cases and I would recommend both books to anyone interested in reading a fresh take on the traditional spy novel.
Many thanks to the Goodreads Giveaways program for the chance to read this advanced digital copy courtesy of Dafina! I look forward to reading more books by this author soon based on my read of this captivating novel.