Mr. Nice Spy

September 1, 2024

Smith's sequel to her debut The Spy and I is an adventure rom-com featuring fake dating. Andee Paxton, the daughter of an arms dealer, is kidnapped, along with agent Adam Chan. They must pretend to be together as they launch a global effort to stop Andee's dad from blowing up the world. Prepub Alert.

Copyright 2024 Library Journal

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2024
After years of believing her father was a famous movie star, overachieving pyrotechnical engineer Andee Paxton decides to take a DNA test and learn the truth. She hasn't even gotten the results when the CIA asks her to assist them in taking down her real father, a man named Holt--a dangerous international arms dealer who is searching for her. Agent Adam Chan is to pose as her fake boyfriend, and she's supposed to act as bait, but the plan dissolves quickly. Meanwhile, Andee's knowledge of ASL comes in handy when her father kidnaps both of them and threatens her mother's life. The second installment of Smith's My Spy series (after The Spy and I, 2024) is a witty rom-com told from the heroine's point of view and features a hard-of-hearing male main character. Andee and Chan have great chemistry, but can they capture Holt without everything blowing up?

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 15, 2024
The daughter of a drug kingpin is kidnapped alongside a charming CIA operative in Smith's action-packed sequel toThe Spy and I (2024). Andee Paxton is used to things blowing up...literally. She's a fireworks designer, and while there aren't many sparks in her love life, her career is literallly on fire. For 26 years, Andee has been under the impression that her father is Oscar-winning actor Keith Huxley-Beck, a fact she regrettably shared with her coworkers, who enjoy teasing her about it. Though Andee has never met Keith, her single mother swears he's the one. Andee even studied American Sign Language for him, since he'd learned it once for a movie role. But then Andee decides to take a DNA test to prove her claim, and the results are nothing if not explosive. The same day Andee learns she's not descendant of Hollywood royalty, she comes face to face with a handsome CIA operative named Adam Chan who happens to know the identity of her real father--and it turns out to be a man known as Holt, one of the most wanted and dangerous drug lords in the world. As fate would have it, he's been searching for her, too. Just as suddenly as Chan fills Andee in about her father's evil deeds, Holt arrives and kidnaps them both. Locked in Holt's secret hideout within the French catacombs, Andee and Chan devise a quick plan to parade as a couple, which offers them some privacy under the guise of romantic rendezvous. They also have a secret advantage: Chan is hard of hearing, and since Andee is fluent in ASL, they can communicate virtually undetected. Can Andee stop her father's nefarious plans and score the hot CIA agent, or will her plan crash and burn? In Smith's second My Spy novel, it's Chan's turn to play the hero, and Andee is another savvy-smart heroine. While Holt and his henchmen are caricature villains, all guns and bravado, Chan is devilishly charismatic and capable, and his hearing loss works seamlessly as a critical part of the story. Sparks fly and guns blaze in Smith's latest.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from September 16, 2024
Fake dating and international intrigue enliven Smith’s addictive sequel to The Spy and I. Fireworks designer Andee Paxton has always been told by her mother that her father is Hollywood star Keith Huxley-Beck. But after reading in the tabloids that Huxley-Beck has fathered a child who could be her half sister, Andee decides to take a DNA test—and comes home to find CIA agents on her doorstep, among them Adam Chan, the hottie she recently met at a bar. Turns out, Andee’s real father is an international arms dealer named Holt and Chan’s on a mission to take him down before he unleashes a new chemical weapon called “the kill pill.” When Andie and Chan are kidnapped by Holt and end up in the Paris catacombs, they pose as boyfriend and girlfriend to conceal Chan’s status as an agent. Smith does a masterful job of mixing high-stakes action with rom-com tropes and witty banter, leading readers on a superb thrill ride with plot twists aplenty. With heaps of derring-do and explosive chemistry between the leads, this is an incredibly satisfying treat.