From Boardwalk with Love is a good kick off for the series, from the talented Nina, giving you the first of this tongue-firmly-through-check spy romps. Camryn O'Brien is agent 36DD, on her first assignment. If is not enough to shake a gal's confidence, super-spy, double agent Jace Sentori is on her trail. He may or may not be the enemy, but he is determined to kill Camryn. As with Lynsay's book, Camyrn get some help (?) from retired B.L.I.S.S. agents, armed a secret weapon that needs to be kept secret for it more dangerous to her than the enemy - thus ready, Camryn sallies forth on her pink Cadillac to save the world and buckleswashes with L.O.V.E.R. - League of Violent Economic Revolutionaries - eh, tree-huggers gone radical?? She ends up on teeny weeny isle off South America, that has been set up to be a reflection of the game Monopoly, where Camryn must battle evil doers to keep the richest man in the world alive. Trying to prevent her - other than Jace out to kill her - is Zed (no, not an escapee from MIB!). This Zed is L.O.V.E.R.S most deadly agent and he is out to take the board or go home with the toys. Camryn would like to trust Jace also known as the Game Master, but let's face it, when a man wants to kill you, it puts a damper on the romance. But Camryn will just have to learn no man is perfect!!
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The review of this Book prepared by DeborahAnne MacGillivray
Love Spell, Jan 2003, 6.99, 369 pp.
ISBN: 0505525062
B.L.I.S.S. learns that L.O.V.E.R. plans to kill the world's richest person Owen Sitall, owner of much of the free world and a good chunk of the semi-free crowd too. The earth's deadliest assassin Zed of the League of Violent Economic Revolutionaries will take action before Owen attends the World Economic Summit in Paris in thirteen days. Knowing the repercussions on the global economy, B.L.I.S.S. assigns new recruit Camryn O'Brien better known as Agent 36-DD to protect Owen. Agent 36-DD was chosen because she knows Monopoly is as American as apple pie; that particular game Owen, a perpetual loser with board games outside of the boardroom, has installed island-wide at his home base.
Almost as soon as Camryn and her B.L.I.S.S. teammates reach Owen's island to play Monopoly, she sees Jace Sentori. He is mysterious and SEXY, which stands for hunk. Camryn is not sure whether she should ignore her over-beating heart because he may be Zed in disguise as Jace obviously has a secret and an agenda for visiting Owen's Boardwalk.
Take Get Smart and place the show in the twenty-first century, but have Agent 99 as the star and the reader has the basic concept of FROM BOARDWALK WITH LOVE, the first B.L.I.S.S. tale. Camryn is a delightfully smart “Jane Bond” while the audience will have to read the novel to learn if Jace goes to jail or passes go and obtains a Monopoly on Camryn's heart. This Bond in Oz tale never takes itself seriously as Nina Bangs skewers the macho espionage hunk leaving no prisoners (except for a renegade agent or two).
Harriet Klausner
The review of this Book prepared by Harriet Klausner
