Review: Seven-Sided Spy

Ｔｉｔｌｅ：Seven-Sided Spy

Ａｕｔｈｏｒ：Hannah Carmack

Ｓｅｒｉｅｓ：Standalone (?)

Ｒａｔｉｎｇ：★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

＊Ｎｏｔｅ：I received an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review.

In the midst of the cold war, the CIA’s finest and most fatal female agent, Diana Riley, vanishes. Kidnapped by the KGB and taken to the backcountry of North Carolina, she and her team of unsavory partners are forced to undergo illegal experimentation.

But, when the experiments leave them horribly deformed and unable to reenter society without someone crying monster, the previously glamorous and high-maintenance spies must escape KGB captivity and avoid recapture at the hands of Nikola, a ruthless KGB agent with an intense and well-justified grudge against her former flame.

✩ Hera was a flirt and strategist. She knew how to use her body to her advantage and was the leader of the group. She was a bit cold and practical.

✩ Niccolo seemed really kind as well. He was more understanding and human than the others. He was the peacemaker.

✩ Ruby was my favorite character because of how kind and quirky she was. I found her love for the unknown and alien to be endearing.

❝ Hera, nicknamed the Goddess because of her codename and notoriety, was supposed to be an honor. She was the best field operative the CIA had to offer. She had an irrefutably high success rate, but she brought an endless string of theater with her.❞

Many thanks to the author for providing me with a copy of this book!

I want to start off saying that I was really looking forward to reading this book. I haven’t read too many thrillers but I was really excited for the spy and historial aspects of the story. The book started off with some interesting intergroup tension, where two of the team members (Hera and Dresden) were constantly butting heads and the third (Niccolo was stuck being the mediator. It all pretty much stemmed from a mistake Hera had made that led to Dresden losing some respect for her.

The story picks up quickly at first with the team being kidnapped and experimented on by the KGB. The changes that each character undergoes is shocking and takes some adjustment, but with the enemy looking for them after they escape, survival becomes their main objective. The team ends up hiding out in a forest/mountain area until they can get help… and that’s pretty much where the story gets stuck in for the rest of the book.

Honestly, when I read “spy thriller” I really expect some action, sneaking around, missions, badassery–but I didn’t get that from Seven-Sided Spy. Throughout the book the characters share stories about old jobs and failed romances. Even these kind of failed to fill the “thriller” aspect I was expecting. The only real fighting/spy action that the book came in towards the very end of the book when two characters face off.

❝ “Diana gave orders, and when they weren’t followed, someone always paid. Under her cold surface, a rage was boiling, and Da Vinci knew it. ❞

As for the characters themselves, I think they had potential to be interesting. Both team leaders were female and strong in their own way. Nikola had almost been Hera’s protege and now they were enemies. I was definitely curious about their relationship as there seemed to be so much history and animosity there. I think out of all the relationships theirs was the most complex, but it still wasn’t enough to keep me really invested in the story.

And while we’re talking about Hera, I wasn’t entirely happy with how her character devolved. I felt like Hera was the tactical strategist, the leader, the decisionmaker, but her character turned irrational at the end of the book. She was impulsive and slightly crazy. It felt like it just hit out of nowhere and it’s not what I had really expected of her personality. Yes, plot twists can be interesting but I still feel like there should be hints throughout the book and I didn’t really see any hints that pointed to Hera being so… petty?

While I did enjoy that we were able to read about Nikola and her team, it wasn’t as often as Hera’s. Still, I think reading about Nikola and Hera’s history made me more sympathetic to Nikola, despite her allegiance.

Overall, I think this was a book that had an interesting premise and set of characters but that just didn’t take that material and really develop it. The ending felt rushed and was really the only action we saw that I would classify as spy/thriller besides Hera and her team being kidnapped at the beginning of the book.

Seven-Sided Spy was released on January 15th so go check it out if you’re interested!