Chilly Winthrop, an operative of the Free Federation Army, was sent in undercover posing as a prostitute. Her mission was either to rescue Mitch Right, one of their own, or terminate him before he spilled secrets about Operation Reel. Her contact was Foster Mallory another operative, already undercover in the Coplon's camp. He was surprised to see that the undercover agent posing as a prostitute was Chilly, since she had been married to Chet, and marriage was sacred. Only he didn't know that marriage had been dissolved due to Chilly's "imperfection."

All Foster knew was that he had been crazy for Chilly for a long time. She was the reason he'd volunteered to that assignment. It just ate him up that a man he hated "had access to the very thing he would sell his soul to possess": Chilly. Nobody at headquarters had told her that the Coplons had sex during their celebrations. But how did she feel, knowing she would have to have sex with Foster Mallory? She wanted him as well.

In SPIES AND LOVERS there is plenty of tension, sexual and otherwise. This is a short, fast-paced Quicksilver. The focus is largely on the romance, and the circumstance-that of being a pair of masking outsiders in an enemy camp-do contribute to the rising tension. This is an unrequited-love-turned-around story, a second-time-around story with a public sex scene that doesn't get terribly explicit. Leigh's first book, TRUE SEEING came out in 2003. We can expect to see more compelling stories from the pen of this up and coming writer.

Reviewed By: Allie B
© August 2004