Reviews

A Covert Affair by Kennedy L. Mitchell

theeditorreads's review

5.0

Covert Affair is Navy SEAL Senior Officer Gabe Wilcox and CIA Agent Lucia Rizzo coming together to uncover a mole among the former’s ranks.

Synopsis:
Lucia Rizzo is CIA and on a mission to identify rogue agent(s). But she’s suddenly called back to base where a bigger assignment is waiting for her.

Gabriel Wilcox is smitten with his new coworker, even though it rankles him that one of his team members might be a traitor. He can’t help but be fixated on her since she set foot on their home turf.

While work is important, they both feel that their mutual attraction might just be the beginning of something new in their lives…

Review:
At thirty-four, Lucia is tired of the ops she’s being given and wants a break or a change in her routine. But just when she thinks of going on one, after her current assignment is over, she’s reassigned. And holy smokes, ain’t there a different level of scorching hot somebody whom she totally doesn’t want to be interested in on the other end.

I loved reading Covert Affairs and somehow knew that reading a [a:Kennedy L. Mitchell|15505700|Kennedy L. Mitchell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1542508144p2/15505700.jpg] can never be less than combustible. Especially when the author brings in a Miss Congeniality twist.

Also, it was the first time that I read about such a scenario where a clingy ex of the female protagonist and the male protagonist are best friends, and the former is all for sabotaging their budding attraction, which was kind of a balm to my feminist soul, about how men can sometimes be jealous pieces of shit too.

Anyway, the way the author builds up anticipation, yet takes it slow and sweet, is just too good. I love the way Mitchell writes her female protagonists, with those sassy mouths and badass brains. The perfect combo of vulnerable and resilient…

Gabe is thirty-six and the way they click instantly, it’s amazing; it’s pure chemistry right there. Especially their insta-messaging, which is as funny as it is flirty.

Gabe and Luce are the “it” couple for me. Narrated in the first person from both points of view, it’s pretty much fun and games and knowing and being with each other till it’s showtime. And that is when danger creeps in from all fronts. The best thing is that it still doesn’t end. Both the danger and the story!

There’s more to it than meets the eye, but I was able to guess the mole from the beginning, so…yeah. anyways, it was a damn thrilling read and I enjoyed every minute of it. And to top it off, it had a sweet and crazy epilogue perfectly suited to them both. Gabe and Luce together, forever.

Originally posted on:
Shaina's Musings

lyndsaydurbs's review

3.0

I felt like this story was super chaotic and not sure I loved the “she’s like a drug” kind of comparison of Lucia. I ultimately enjoyed most of the plot, and kinda called out the twist pretty early but definitely enjoyed seeing the characters and their relationships evolve over the story

jennyreads_2022's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This was an extremely intense book. From the prologue to the very last word, I could not put the book down. Gabe and Lucia made such a great team both as a couple and at work. I loved their banter and the fact that Gabe recognized Lucia for more than her looks. He may have wanted to protect her, but he also realized she was capable on her own. 

I loved the trust between Gabe and Lucia. In a world where very few can be trusted, they both trusted each other from the beginning. Lucia was on base undercover to suss out the mole wrecking havoc on Gabe and Tony’s SEAL teams. While I’m not usually a fan of the best friend’s ex troupe, I’m not sure a one night stand counts as an ex, so it didn’t bother me as much in this book. However, I wasn’t really a fan of Tony, he definitely rubbed me the wrong way but did seem to redeem himself a little towards the end. 

I loved the balance in this story between the romance, the investigation, and the suspense. I figured out who the mole was the first time they interacted with Lucia, but Kennedy did a great job of dropping hints and implicating other members of Tony’s team, and Tony himself. Gabe and Lucia fell hard for each other and I loved their commitment to each other. Their relationship was different for both of them because they didn’t have to explain their jobs or need to keep secrets or leave at a moment’s notice. There was just enough push and pull and it wasn’t drawn out or overdone. 

Gabe was the perfect book boyfriend but Lucia was written so well. It’s hard to write a female lead who is strong, independent, and yet still vulnerable, but that is exactly what Lucia was. I loved her added empath ability. 

This book kept me reading late into the night but was well worth the loss of sleep. 

nikkisbooknook's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

becsa's review against another edition

4.0

This was a great mystery/romance that had me gripped from the moment the book began to the last page.

I loved Lucia’s character as she was tough and ready to do whatever she could to succeed in her mission and discover who the mole is. I love that she narrowed it down and then dug deeper to see what certain SEALS were hiding. I loved the varying degrees of what the men were hiding and there were quite a few big surprises.

Gabe was awesome and I loved how bossy he could be in certain instances! He was so torn between how he felt about Lucia and then letting other people, like Tony, mess with his mind that almost caused him to lose what he had several times.

The twists and turns were great and I managed to figure out things before they were revealed but I was not disappointed in the least as I loved how it all went down. I was so mad at Jeremy for some of the things he said, especially near the end of the book.

Such a great read and I look forward to more from this author!!

orianareads's review against another edition

5.0

That was an awesome book. A SEAL and a CIA Agent both highly trained and sure of themselves and their jobs. Loved that Gabe fell like a brick for Lucia. If you like hot romantic books with a great story and some twists.... that is your book.

thesassybookworm's review against another edition

5.0

 
 
~WRITING - PLOT - PACE~
So color me impressed because this book was all kinds of fantastic. It probably would have been a 5-Star book if it hadn't been SO long. My interest started to wane at about 60% in. That said, I kept plugging on and it started to pick up again around 80%. The writing was fantastic though. The pace was a bit up and down. I am chalking that up to it being a bit too long. I think the author could have tightened up the story a bit. The plot was super engaging and probably one of the best examples of romantic suspense done right. The story is told from both Lucia's and Gabe's POV (my preference always). Last, it was all wrapped up in a very satisfactory ending.


~HERO~
GABE...What can I say about Gabe? I ADORED him. He was pretty much a perfect book boyfriend. A smokin' hot Navy Seal. A player (but it's not thrown in your face). He was alpha. He was sweet. He was funny. He was a great friend. He was an excellent leader. He was all about Lucia from the moment he meets her. I have nothing bad to say about his character.


~HEROINE~
LUCIA...I'll be honest, I usually struggle with heroines like Lucia. She attended West Point. She was in the army. She is now a CIA agent. She was tough. She was strong. She was feisty. She was bada$$. But somehow this author managed to also make her very likable. Very relatable. Even vulnerable. I simply adored her character as well. 


 


~SECONDARY CHARACTERS~
This book had some great secondary characters in it. My favorite by FAR was Tony (Flakes). He was such a douche especially in the beginning, but man the banter between him and Lucia and him and Gabe made me laugh my a$$ off at times. I wasn't sure I wanted to read a book featuring him (he pretty much cheats on his wife all the time) but the author redeemed him by the end and now I am looking forward to seeing him fall in love (hopefully he is getting a book). I also really liked Luce's friend Brook and there were a few of the guys on the Seal team I wouldn't mind reading more about.


~HEAT LEVEL~
Medium. The sex scenes were suitably hot and fairly plentiful. This couple also had excellent on-page chemistry.


~ANGST LEVEL~
Highish... I found this angsty mainly because Lucia is keeping a secret from Gabe and I spent the entire book waiting for the truth to come out and the other shoe to drop. When it did finally drop I was impressed by how the author handled the situation. I was expecting the usual cliché reaction by the hero and that isn't what we get. There is a smidge of OW drama. Toni tries to cause issues between Gabe and Luce and invites some women to join them at a bar. One of them hangs off Gabe all night. He isn't really interested but stays and ends up dropping the two women and Toni off later in the night (the three being drunk). The heroine sees this because Toni sets it up. She isn't overly bothered by it and it happens before they officially begin a relationship. I wasn't bothered by it in the least because we get Gabe's thoughts. There is also a bit of OM drama in the form of Tony. Lucia and he slept together once ten years prior, and she ghosted him. He is a bit bitter about this for a while.


~IN THE END~
I pretty much LOVED this book. Like I mentioned had it been a little shorter I would have given it 5-Stars. That said, the writing was fantastic. The plot was well developed. The characters were intriguing and very likable. There were twist and turns that kept me guessing right up until the end, and I appreciated the author didn't go down the usual overdone route with the secret revelation. Therefore yours truly is going to give this one two HUGE thumbs up and I will undoubtedly be keeping my eyes peeled for the next book in the series.

inkiereads's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

There’s so much tension in this book, it’s enough to keep you reading. There are some good twists and turns, that will make you wonder how you didn’t see it coming while reading. Unfortunately, the writing style kept me from fully loving the book. At times I had to read sentences multiple times and mentally place commas for me to make sense of them and it kept pulling me out of the story.

Steam: 🔥🔥🔥

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Car accident, Death, Infidelity, Kidnapping, and Vomit

danielagolivares's review against another edition

1.0

I can’t believe that people are giving this book 5 stars. From the beginning, it was a little unrealistic that their relationship happens too fast but I decided to give the story the benefit of the doubt. Then I came to a chapter where

Spoiler

they were in a pool, training, and the guys in the navy started to be so disrespectful to the heroin. Like wtf? It looked that they were 14 years old, talking and insulting a woman in that way. It’s not like they haven’t been around women ever, so I’m surprised they act in a childish way. And what’s even worst, I’m pretty sure most of these men are on their 30-40´s to have this kind of behavior. Then the heroine gets scolded by one of the guys (that happens to be one of her night-stand 10 years ago) and insults her in the worst way and also pushing her to the wall. LIKE WTF!

First I thought: "ok, maybe this book is from the 2000s where there are still many cases where the men can disrespect women to their pleased and not be admonished for that" So, I went directly to Goodreads and wow my surprise… IT WAS PUBLISHED IN 2020, which means this book was written pretty sure between 2018-19. I can’t believe that this kind of behavior is real between men in the navy or the army.

OH, BUT THAT’S NOT ALL, PEOPLE!

I kept reading to see wtf with these characters and got to the next chapter where

Spoiler

the heroin is drunk and the hero arrives at the beach where she is at, then kissed. When the hero realizes she is drunk (obviously with most of the bottle of vodka empty), he asked her if she indeed is and right after that, the hero had the worst thought ever in the history of books (for me at least, maybe there are worst) that was:

"Okay, two options. Be the good man Mom taught me to be or be the guy I want to be right now and not give a shit she’s been drinking. Any other girl this willing and a little tipsy, whatever. But this isn’t some other girl, it’s Luce. And somehow in this split second I know I’ll regret it more if I don’t stop than if I do."


WHAT THE ACTUAL F*CK! Ok, so we can THANK that is the heroine and you "respect her" cause if she were another woman, you would be a rapist. Copy that.

And for last… I CAN´T WITH THE CRINGE, WITH WHAT THE HEROINE SAID IN THE NEXT CHAPTER:

"But seriously. What guy stops when a girl is a little drunk and overly willing, anyway? What kind of willpower does that man have."

UUMM, MAYBE A GUY THAT IS NOT A RAPIST?

So at this point, I lost my respect for the heroine too. Who thinks like that in a situation like this? Argh.

Of course, I didn’t finish the book and what a shame cause the plot sounded interesting but this kind of behavior it’s something I can’t stand.

I’d never done a review this harsh, but there are things and situations I need to stand for (even if it's just a fictional book). For all the women out there that think it's ok this kind of treatment. It will NEVER be ok.

kaity_b's review against another edition

2.0

2.5 stars...

Didn't love it, read it so I could see who done it. But compared to the other Kennedy L Mitchell book I read this one fell flat for me.