Spies, Lies, and Allies: A Love Story by Lisa Brown Roberts:
Summers are supposed to be fun, right? Not mine. I’ve got a job at my dad’s company, which is sponsoring a college scholarship competition. I just found out that, in addition to my job assisting the competing interns, I’m supposed to vote for the winner. Totally not what I signed up for.
My boss is running the competition like it’s an episode of Survivor. Then there’s Carlos, who is, well, very distracting––in a good way. But I can’t even think about him like that because fraternizing on the job means instant disqualification for the intern involved.
As if that’s not enough, an anonymous informant with insider intel is trying to sabotage my dad’s company on social media...and I’m afraid it's working.
Much as I’d love to quit, I can’t. Kristoffs Never Quit is our family motto. I just hope there’s more than one survivor by the end of this summer.
About Lisa
Brown Roberts:
Award-winning
romance author Lisa Brown Roberts still hasn’t recovered from the teenage
catastrophes of tweezing off both eyebrows, or that time she crashed her car
into a tree while trying to impress a guy. It’s no wonder she loves to write
romantic comedies.
Lisa’s books have
earned praise from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and the School Library
Journal. She lives in Colorado with her family, in which pets outnumber people.
Connect with Lisa at www.lisabrownroberts.com.
Author Links:
Newsletter: http://lisabrownroberts.us15.list-manage2.com/subscribe?u=1f2f19aa89bc2b30b56c3d1f2&id=4accff162c
Excerpt
from Spies, Lies, and Allies:
“Let’s see where helping me on my
project falls on this list.” Carlos picks up a pen and clicks it, eyeing me
from underneath ridiculously long lashes.
Cautiously, I take a tiny step toward
his desk so I can read the list.
“Number three.” I point to the napkin.
“Teamwork.”
He nods and underlines the word. I
notice he’s added numbers six through ten. Nothing is written next to those
numbers, except for ten, next to which he’s drawn a smiley face.
“What’s that for?” I point to the
smiley face. He leans back in his desk chair and grins up at me.
“Not sure yet.”
My heart throbs in my chest and my
imagination is off and running, fantasizing about number ten.
Carlos points to number five:
nicknames. “I think this is where we left off at lunch.” He clicks his pen
repeatedly and I resist the urge to snatch it out of his hand. “I’d prefer not
to be nicknamed for a pasta, but I gave you a cereal nickname, so…” He shrugs
but keeps his eyes on mine.
“I…pasta…what?” He’s not making sense.
He bites his bottom lip, and I have no
trouble picturing what will make me “smiley face” if we ever make it to number
ten. Also, I’m pretty sure he’s a mind reader because his gaze drifts down to
my lips, then back up to my eyes.
“The Manicotti. Who is it?” He glances
across the room. “Elijah? He can be sort of cheesy.”
My mind analyzes his words, sliding
them around like one of those puzzles where you have to move a string through
twisted metal. And then it clicks.
“You read my notebook! You’re the one who—” Panic zings through me as I remember what I wrote about him, Carlos is trouble, and his editorial comment, True. Is Carlos adorable?Apparently I’m not the only spy around here.
“Why’d you pick this desk?” I’m desperate to change the subject.
“I like the view.”
“But it’s better by the windows.”
“Depends on which view we’re talking about.” He gives me a cryptic smile, one that makes my stomach dip. “Anyway, I saved your notebook. You’re lucky no one else read your notes.”
Mortified and defiant, I cross my arms over my chest. “You didn’t have to read it. You could’ve just returned it.”
“I was just checking to make sure you’d listed all of Mr. Mantoni’s rules.”
“Uh huh.”
Across the room, Elijah stands up and stretches. He glances at us, an amused smirk twisting his lips like he knows something I don’t.
Carlos writes on the napkin again. Number six: healthy disagreement.
“You’re kidding, right?”
His responding grin packs more heat than it should.
“I think we’ve gone off track.” I’m proud of how calm I sound, even though my nerve endings are exploding like firecrackers.
Review
I enjoyed ready this book. I am a big fan of contemporary YA and this one didn't disappoint. I liked Laurel. I thought she was a bit judgmental in the beginning but she grew as the book moved on. I'm not a big Star Wars person so some of those references were lost on me. I still don't get why she called her dad Vader except that he dressed like him once. His personality to me didn't vibe with that name. I liked all of the interns too, even Trish. I liked the romance between Laurel and Carlos. Carlos was a really good guy. I loved the resolution to the spy and who won the scholarship. Overall I think this was a cute read. Great for teens but adults will like it too.
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