Need to Know

Read half before turning out light last night. Woke at 2pm and read a few more chapters. Carried it around with me all day to read in between appointments. Fabulous story in a debut novel by Karen Cleveland. “Need to Know” is a page turner in which I experienced several “I didn't see that coming” moments. Vivian is a CIA analyst and one day reads a “stolen” Russian dossier with information on it that shakes her world. Even though the book was a quick read, it did get tedious in spots as we get into Vivian's head as she debates what she should do/must do/have to do with regard to her discovery without shattering her personal world. But I loved this book.

The main character is a woman so mind-numbingly STUPID and easily manipulated that she is an incompetent CIA agent who lets her emotions get the better of her. Of course duty and oaths mean nothing, because apparently you just throw all that by the wayside for the sake of a handsome face and to avoid potential hardship. Russia doesn't need all those sleeper cells if the USA is full of emotional, incompetent agents like this.

Before the main character does something stupid yet again, she reminisces about being there for her kids' little moments, like losing their first tooth or soothing them from nightmares. And then she thinks, “this will mean the Bureau won't catch sleepers it otherwise might have. But in the scheme of things, how much does it matter?” ... Really? This is someone who works in counter intelligence, a CIA agent? So willing to throw national security out the window because she wants to hear her kid say “love you mommy.”

That's the sound of my vomit hitting the floor.

Apparently when push comes to shove, women just turn into traitors.

I am so sick of women being shown this way. This is the kind of book that certain jackasses would use as proof that women aren't as good as men, that we can't be trusted to do a good job. That when push comes to shove, we'll just throw country and loyalty and oaths overboard for the husband or kids. WHY WHY WHY do we have to be shown in such a light all the time?!

Can I please for once read a book with a competent, strong woman who doesn't just do idiotic things?