Blog Tour: Spy for a Spy


We're celebrating the launch of Spy for a Spy, sequel to I, Spy! Read on to get a cool spy tip for your daily life, free & discounted reads, and enter to win some great prizes! You can also find Spy for a Spy at the special $3.99 launch discount on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and JordanMcCollum.com!


Hone Your Spy Skills

Spy skills can come in handy in the most unusual situations. What are my top 10 spy skills that are useful in your every day life? 

10. Lockpicking! (When we moved into our new house, there was no key to the shed. Yep, comes in handy!) 

9. The right kind of questions to get answers.

8. Understanding when people are trying to convince you rather than answer your question truthfully. 

7. Quick thinking. Always handy.

6. Written communications. A lot of real spywork is filing the paperwork. (If you've ever had to deal with someone without this skill . . . yeah. You know what I'm saying.)

5. Elicitation, the art of getting answers without asking questions.

4. People reading skills: are they being deceptive? Do they like you?

3. The importance of understanding someone's values and motivations.

2. Social engineering: getting people to do what you want.

1. Straight up people skills. Because genuinely being a likeable, friendly person trumps manipulation every time.




About the Book



Canada is probably the last place you’d expect to find an American spy. And it was the last place CIA operative Talia Reynolds expected to run into fellow operative Brand Copley. AKA her new boss. AKA her ex-boyfriend.

Just the guy every woman wants to face in the middle of planning her wedding. Once again, Talia’s lying to the man she loves, but this time, to protect his heart. After Brand takes over Talia’s latest case and steals her newest agent, he assigns her to spy on her old boss—who’s suddenly giving her every reason not to trust him. With only weeks until the big day, planning falls by the wayside as she goes into damage control mode. But when Talia discovers Brand’s real motives, fighting him is the only option, no matter what the personal and professional cost.

More about Spy for a Spy | Add Spy for a Spy to your Goodreads to-read list! | Amazon | Kobo | Barnes and Noble




My Review

I enjoyed the first book in this series, I, Spy, and so was happy to be able to receive a review copy of the second book in the series, Spy for a Spy. The series has this great combination of sarcasm and wit in the MC, great chemistry and dialogue between her and her love interest, and then a whole slue of spying, deception, intrigue, and danger. Especially of that last one.

Talia is still pretty hung up about her sort-of ex-boyfriend, Brand, who ends up being her new boss. This is definitely not a good situation for her, made even worse by the way Brand treats her and by what is going on. In the mist of all of this Talia is also trying to plan a wedding and be up-front and available for her fiance. This is all pretty hard to do when you work for the CIA and when things have become extremely difficult at work. Then also throw in a little visit from the soon-to-be mother-in-law who doesn't' want her son to marry you, someone trying to trap you, and a national emergency that hasn't been reported and you have Talia's life. It's crazy and stressful to say the least. Oh, and did I mention she has some super paranoid tendencies? Or, maybe they're more like actual issues. I think in this case, though, that those tendencies came in handy.

I enjoyed Talia's character, even more than in the first book. Although, I have to say that I loved Danny the most. He is seriously such a great guy, loves Talia, is extremely patient, and knows when to be a hero. He is willing to lay it all out on the line for Talia, but he also doesn't really get away with anything either. Must be why they're such a great match. He really is perfect for her. Here's a quote from Danny:
"I don't have to know everything. I know I can't. I'm not asking you to share secrets, I just want to feel like . . . I know you. Not the sanitized, censored, redacted version of you--the real you, all of you." His gaze falls to our hands. "That's all I've ever wanted."
How could I not love him from that conversation alone?

I did have an issue with how upset and out of control Talia seemed about Brand and I wanted her to be much more transparent and honest with Danny. But then when I thought about it more - how Brand had treated her in the past and made her feel so insecure with all the harassment and then how she really wants to keep Danny safe - it made sense to me. It is how someone would react who had been verbally and physically abused, which Talia basically was. It also shows how she knows the dangers of her job and wants to protect Danny from them. Thank goodness she doesn't stay in that frightened and isolated ball. She fights it, and Brand, and reaches for Danny. Through it all she retains her humor and sarcasm, which I really loved about her character. Here's an example of that:
...I move to the garbage can and ease the lid open. Of course the bag is way at the bottom. Grateful it's well after dark, I lower the can to the ground and crawl inside. 
Yes, the real life of a spy puts James Bond movies to shame. Nonstop glamour. I drag the bag out and replace the trash can, hunkering down beside it to hide from the street. Normally  I'd take this and run (yes, I do this enough to have a "normally"), but I can't rake the risk that Will would notice. I hardly need my flashlight to see that this is an unremarkable, sadly lonely load of kitchen trash: microwave dinners, desserts for one, budget meals.
I also love how the author adds these little tidbits, sarcastically or in a very cool note, about what it's like to be a real spy. The cool stuff comes from some of the training Talia has had and from the neat gadgets she gets to use sometimes.

The first half of this story was enjoyable, but the second was great and basically "hold-onto-your-seat crazy! I couldn't put it down. Just like in the first book I didn't know what was going to happen and when. I just knew it was going to be dangerous and crazy and hoped that everyone, at least the good guys, would make it out alive.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this! I would definitely read it again and I am highly anticipating the next book that Jordan McCollum writes! If you enjoy action-adventure, suspense, or books about characters who are spies and some romance, then I would definitely recommend this.

This has got to be my favorite quote from this one:
I kiss him goodbye, and I'm halfway out of the car before it hits me. "I didn't ask. Does your story have a happy ending?" 
"Not exactly." He squints pensively. "More of a happy beginning. I hope." 
Me too.
If I was going to really analyse the book, it probably would be a 4-star book. However, I just simply loved the end or maybe the whole last half of the book. Loved it! So thus the rating. :)
Content: Clean
Source: Author for this tour, which did not affect my review in any way.




About the Author


An award-winning author, Jordan McCollum can’t resist a story where good defeats evil and true love conquers all. In her day job, she coerces people to do things they don’t want to, elicits information and generally manipulates the people she loves most—she’s a mom. Jordan holds a degree in American Studies and Linguistics from Brigham Young University. When she catches a spare minute, her hobbies include reading, knitting and music. She lives with her husband and four children in Utah.




Join the party & enter to win!


As part of the debut of Spy for a Spy, Jordan is co-hosting a launch party with Julie Coulter Bellon, author of Pocket Full of Posies. Join us November 12 on Facebook (Jordan's and Julie's pages) and Twitter (follow Julie and Jordan) for drawings throughout the day, and enter to win more fabulous prizes here!!
  a Rafflecopter giveaway


Special Deals


Spy for a Spy is a sequel to the novel I, Spy, available for 99¢ at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Jordan's site this week only! To save her country and her secrets, CIA operative Talia Reynolds will have to sacrifice the man she loves. More about I, Spy. Also, as a free gift this week, Jordan is giving out free e-copies of a prequel novella, Mr. Nice Spy, on Amazon and her site!

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