Genre: Romance, Superheroes
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Sherry, Paranormal Romance Guild
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About The Book
Spy vs Spy
Jim Calhoun and his sister Lori are just two Americans in North Abarra exploring their roots. They are definitely not off-duty CIA agents.
Enzo da Silva is the head groundskeeper on Princess Odile’s country estate. He is definitely what he seems to be – the guy who trims the hedge maze and measures oxygen levels in the national forest.
The Princess’s birthday bash is a major celebration every year. As the big day approaches, a series of accidents plague the preparations. It’s almost like someone wants things to go wrong. But it’s not as though two commoners like Jim and Enzo – with absolutely no super powers – can stop a rogue supervillian. And if Jim and Enzo keep showing up at the same crime scenes, it’s not because they can’t keep their eyes off each other.
Definitely not.
The Frogman and the Spy definitely does not feature: Two undercover supos. A cameo by King Bastien of North Abarra. An unstoppable force. An immovable object. Secrets. Exploding cakes. Frogs.
This book is part of the multi-author series Royal Powers II and can be read as part of the series or as a standalone.
Book 1, King’s Ex, is by E.J. Russell.
The Review
“The elephants weren’t cooperating.”—The Frogman and The Spy
I smiled quite a bit and laughed out loud often while reading Preston & Rancourt’s “The Frogman and the Spy.” The foreward was great and the cover art was laughable. Although the plot was somewhat standard spy novel fodder, the hook was unexpectedly clever, and I never saw the villain’s identity coming. “The Frogman and the Spy” is part of a series of stories in the Royal Powers universe but effectively reads as a standalone.
The story starts, as all spy novels do, with covert agents on mission. The agents are a brother and sister CIA scuba team from the States, assigned to not only surreptitiously protect the Royalty of Aberra—a small European municipality near Spain—but figure out what they’re up to because they’re not just Royalty, they’re special. As in having superpowers special, which is exactly what the Aberra Royalty do have. This makes them of inestimable interest and value to the CIA, more so when you consider no one other than the Aberra Royalty seem to possess superpowers.
Jim and his sister, Lori, are cybersecurity experts, masquerading as a groundskeeper and housekeeper to the Royals on the splendid royal family estate by the sea. The duo finds themselves quickly enmeshed in the lives of the royalty and staff. Jim is perhaps more enmeshed. He is oddly attracted to Enzo, the family’s head of security. But Enzo’s up to something beside providing security, something that links him to one or more nefarious characters bent on destroying the Aberra monarchy and their ancestral way of life.
Aptly named the Fly and the Wasp, the villains in “The Frogman and the Spy” will stop at nothing to effect their cause, even if that means exploiting Jim or family bonds to do it. Then there are the requisite sexual machinations. Whether the relationship between Jim and Enzo is real or merely part of the conspiracy and intrigue, you’ll have to discover. But I never got the attraction between them to start with, except in spy novels you expect to discover the truth through questionable dalliance.
A four-and-a-half-star novel about and brother and sister CIA operative team intent on investigating superpower-wielding royalty and assassins, a head of security with a questionable past, with more than one laugh along the way and the occasional (and pivotal) frog.
The Reviewer
Sherry Perkins has worked as a licensed practical nurse for more than thirty-five years and has experience in psychiatric/addictions nursing, nursing-care coordination, and risk management. She earned a BS in health sciences from Campbell University and has spoken at public health functions on topics such as addiction prevention and treatment, prevention of teenage opioid deaths, and connecting patients who are resistant to treatment with appropriate services.
A mother of four, Perkins lives with extended family on the Delmarva Peninsula, where she enjoys collecting shells and sea glass; reading and writing mysteries, science fiction, and fantasy; doing organic gardening; and following the Dave Matthews Band around the East Coast
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