Covert Assignment is a New Adult, Coming of Age Novel with a strong romantic element. Elle is ready for graduation and full-fledged adulthood: no more living like the leftover of her parent’s divorce. She’s about to graduate with her degree in Information Science (the 21st century term for Library Science) and has a ten-year plan as well-designed as any model for analyzing metadata: earn her JD/MBA, enjoy a couple of years as a single professional, then marry her college sweetheart, Adam, and start her own family.Yet Elle feels like she returned to an alternate universe her final semester. There are pictures of Adam with a classmate who must be surgically enhanced, but he insists he wants Elle. CIA recruiters show up on campus, and they aren’t just interested in recruiting Elle for future employment: turns out she’s already working for them since they’re funding her thesis. Hot operative Preston Raddick is tasked to work with her. Preston isn’t just hot: he’s hot for Elle, but is he offering happy ever after or happy for right now? A fling with Preston could be the beginning of a new life plan, which is exciting and scary, especially with espionage thrown in. Elle needs a predictive model to tell her which decisions have the greater likelihood for happiness…Covert Assignment is about the unexpected turns life can take when making “adult” decisions.
It's been awhile since I've read a New Adult novel that focused on more than just romance - I mean, yes, this story has a "strong romantic element," but the main character, Elle, actually has more on her mind than just boys. I liked that she struggles with trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life, and that she deals with family issues and whether or not she should follow "the plan" or try the unexpected. A lot of those issues are issues that I struggle with, as well. To me, this made Elle seem more like a real person than many other YA/NA female characters I've read about.
The storyline itself was decent enough to keep me reading, and kind of reminded me a little of the Covert Affiars television show - if Annie Walker was an awkward (and slightly robotic) 22-year-old nerdy college girl. And yes, I do say robotic because the emotionless way that Elle tries to use informatics jargon in her everyday speech makes her sound like a textbook and slightly inhuman. I actually found that rather funny.
Overall, Covert Assignment was a quick read, and while it did seem to lack a bit in certain areas (the climax of the story was a bit underwhelming, and sometimes Elle annoyed me), it was entertaining. I never got bored while reading it, and I even went to Amazon afterwards to purchase the sequel, Covert Interview, since I was curious to continue Elle's story (and see more Preston!) I'm still at the beginning of the second book, but it already has my interest, and it looks like it'll be a quick read just like the first was. I say give it a try - you might enjoy it. 3.5 stars!
About The Author
Missy Marciassa loved getting lost in novels from the time she could read, so it’s no surprise she wanted to write. Her very first “novels” were re-writing the books she read to get the endings she wanted in second grade. Missy continued to read and write through grade school and high school.After becoming rather disillusioned with fiction after writing literary criticism as an English major in college, however, Missy focused on her enjoyment of learning about people and studied psychology. Reading fiction fell to the wayside with all the reading and writing required for college and graduate school, but once Missy became a doctoral candidate, she rediscovered her love of fiction. Then she started getting the urge to write, an urge that wouldn’t go away (she refuses to diagnose it as a compulsion). Covert Assignment is the end result of that urge.
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