Spy thrillers aren't my normal type of reading matter but I found this book to be a gripping read. I enjoyed it

This certainly looked like spy thriller to me , i am not usually into these types but it actually really enjoyed it. It was full of pace and suspense. It really had you sitting on the edge of your seat. I was actually suprised at how much i liked it.

I loved the fact that the main character in this book was an older woman. Normally thrillers wither have young agents or older men. This was breathtaking and left you guessing from the beginning to the very last page. The plot is interesting, the story well written and the characters flawed and compelling. The tension never ends.

If I am being completely honest I wasn’t really sure what I was going to make of this book after reading the blurb but I was very very pleasantly surprised. It is a very tense and thrilling read that will keep you hooked right to the final sentence !!

Vivian is a CIA analyst who is workin hard to try and uncover Russian sleeper cells operating with Minnesota America. She has developed an algorithm that has enabled her access to a suspects computer. After a few clicks she discovers a file with 5 photos of what she suspects are Russian agents. Flicking through the photos she suddenly sees a familiar face looking back at her ........ can this really be happening ? Is this true ? Suddenly Vivian’s life is turned upside down and she is suddenly fighting to save her job as well as her family.

This is a great thriller with plenty of twists and turns. You are on the journey with Vivian and, just like her, I had no idea who to trust. As well as being based around the CIA and Russian sleeper cells this is also a story of family, betrayals and one mother’s journey to do everything she can to protect her family. All in all this really is a great book that needs to be added to your tbr pile !!

Thank you to Random House UK and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book.

Wow what a ride of a book this was. Hands down one of the best reads of the year so far. Fantastic! Looking forward to reading more from this author in the future.

#NeedToKnow #NetGalley When I started this book, I wasn't sure I was going to like it as very early on I wanted to shake Vivian and say "Noooo, what do you think you are doing - just do the right thing!" but soon I was engrossed and couldn't put it down as I stayed up late in the night to find out what the repercussions would be for her and her family. Very well written with lots of action and tension. I was expecting some sort of twist at the end and I wasn't disappointed. All in all an excellent debut and I wont hesitate to read more by this author in the future.

A gripping and intense read. I was very excited to start this one since the blurb had fascinated me.

It was an easy book to read, the characters were interesting and I wanted to know more about them, the more the story went on.
I would recommend this book to my friends!

I devoured this book, i loved the whole Russia and CIA take on it. There was plenty of twists and turns and full of suspense and without giving anything away the ending was absolutely brilliant and did not see it coming at all. I will be looking up this author for more reading and recommend it to everyone.

Vivian been married for 10 years and has four children. It’s hard work, especially as she has to work full time. Life is good though sometimes it’s a struggle to make ends meet. She knows she can rely on her husband who she adores.
She works for the CIA as an analyst, one day when looking for an under cover cell a face pops up thar sends her reeling and sets her on a course of action that endangers her and her family’s future.
This is a clever and immensely engaging thriller. It had all the right ingredients for me - plenty to keep me guessing until the end.

Do you remember that game you play with your hands and someone else, where you basically have to keep slapping yours on top of the other persons faster and faster? Well, that's what this book felt like to me, only substitute the top hand for a Russian spy and the ones below for the 'good guys'.
So, Vivian, who works for the C.I.A., is married to Tom, a Russian operative, except he's a good guy, no he's a bad guy, no he's a good guy etc.... (If this were a tv show I imagine at some point Tom would do an aside to camera, raise his eyebrow and twirl his moustache). Vivian was really quite infuriating; she was presented on the one hand as being a woman who would do anything for her family and her children and who has an incredibly important job at the C.I.A., but she still rushes to her husband to fix everything. Plus, despite all the she learns about Tom she still doesn't get it. Towards the end of the book when he encourages her, once again, to stay on with the CIA because she loves her job, how she didn't slap him and walk away is anyone's guess.

And yet I still rated the book 3 stars, because it ticked along at a fast pace, and was just the sort of entertaining read I needed whilst trying to write an assignment for a psychology module.

My thanks go to the publishers and Net Galley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

I'm usually into Golden Age mysteries but something in the blurb attracted my attention and I was happy when I got this book.
It's amazing: an engaging, thrilling and entertaining read that keeps you hooked till the last page.
I loved the well devised plot that never bores and I liked its originality as the heroine was not the usual kick-ass wonder woman but one with a human side and normal concern.
The cast of characters is well written and they are fleshed out and interesting.
I will surely look for other books by this author.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Random House UK and Netgalley for this ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book, opinions are mine

I am going to say this, I have to say this, I am forced to say this screaming out loud
The book was nothing but adrenaline filled pages of action!!


I read the book from midnight to 3 am with fear and panic coursing through my veins, my heart in my mouth. Absolutely petrified for the main character. Imagining the words brought out a new wave of rush and excitement. Everything was felt so deeply in the darkness of the night.

Vivian was a senior level CIA analyst coding new algorithms to find out the Russian sleeper cells. While using a software to peruse the computer of one such handler, Yury, she came across a folder with pictures of 5 agents, and looking at them destroyed everything she knew as her truth - ONE OF THEM WAS HER HUSBAND!!

The entire book was a roller coaster which took deep turns in its plot. Every time the twist occurred, I thought I was in the abyss, one from which I would never surface. Viv wanted to protect her children and family, deleted the file, but it was still on the CIA server. The Russians via her husband Matt, gave her a pen drive to switch the server back, deleting the file permanently, and doing that caused her to become a pawn playing for the Russians and committing treason. Would she ever get out of this vicious cycle?

I loved the way the author Karen Cleveland portrayed Viv, a mother and a wife, wanting the best for her family, being pushed to such despair that she didn't know whom to believe. Could she really trust her Russian spy husband? I couldn't and I didn't!!

After the doozies I had read in the beginning of the month, I needed a WOWZA, and this book gave me, my love for books, back. There might have been many niggles, such a story always has. But I just wanted to coast the pages at a jetting speed, shutting the analysis part of my brain, leaving the rest to enjoy the bliss that came from pure terror and action!!

Whew!! A fab midnight read!!

What an amazing story! I have been wanting to read a good spy story lately, and Need To Know didn’t disappoint! It’s a fast paced page-turner, I couldn’t stop thinking about the characters!
The story is told in first person, by Vivian, who works for the CIA as a counterintelligence analyst on the Russian account. It’s mainly in the present, but she jumps back randomly to the past - little strange as there are no dates etc, but still easy to follow.
Vivian has been working on getting into a Russian sleeper handlers computer for a while, and she succeeds finally. But what she finds, shocks her. Because one of the five sleeper agents is her husband of ten years, and the father of her four children... she confronts him that very same night, and he comes clean and admits he is a Russian spy. He urges her to turn him in. And she knows she has to. After all, it’s the only right thing to do. But she can’t bting herself to do it.
It’s impossible to say more without spoiling the story - and I wouldn’t want to do that!
The writing is fantastic, I really could relate to Vivian’s feelings and thoughts and everyday struggles as a working mother. Also how she wanted to believe and trust her husband but found it hard at times. All the characters are portrayed well and the storyline was easily believable and really gripping. I think this book will stay with me for a long time!
I’m intrigued to read more from Karen Cleveland!

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and Karen Cleveland for my free copy to read and review!

Karen Cleveland writes a twisted and tense espionage thriller through the prism of a family and a marriage, where the life of a CIA counterintelligence analyst, Vivian Miller, begins to unravel after coming up with an algorithm that will allow her to access the computer of a suspected Russian spy and handler of sleeper agents in the US, Yury Yakov. Living in a small home in the suburbs, close to Langley, Vivian has been happily married to her adored husband, Matt, for a decade, and have 4 young children, Luke, Ella, and twins, Chase and Caleb. Caleb has a congenital heart defect, piling on the worry and stress in the everyday family domestic chaos that results with small children. Matt is the backbone of the family, it is he that is responsible for the juggling of the everyday care of boisterous children, with all the consequent issues and the unexpected that arises. It is Vivian's job that provides the health insurance that takes care of Caleb's health bills and her income that provides the mainstay of the family, where managing their finances is a constant struggle.

Despite her inner yearnings to be a stay at home mom for her kids through the years, circumstances have conspired to ensure that Vivian's family is dependent on her job. As she begins to look at the contents of Yury's laptop, she finds pictures of five sleeper agents, and her world falls apart when to her horror, one of them is her beloved Matt. Vivian loves her country, she would never countenance betrayal and treason, but these are not normal times as she finds her life spiraling out of control. She is sucked into a moral quagmire, like most women, her first priority is her family and she will do anything, absolutely anything to protect and ensure the safety of her children. Vivian begins to reflect on the nature of her relationship with Matt and the dynamics of their marriage in a narrative that goes back and forth in time. She mulls over the strange and odd anomalies through the years, balancing that with all the self evident proof of his unquestionable love for her and the children. Has Matt been manipulating her? Her doubts and mistrust are at war with her inherent emotional closeness to Matt as she is torn apart, and as the danger comes to encompass the children, she looks to find a way to save her family and her country when all the odds are stacked against her.

Karen Cleveland writes a intense and twisted domestic drama, a family in danger, in a story of espionage and intrigue. She piles on the suspense and tension in this well plotted spy thriller, and her knowledge of the workings of the CIA is informed by personal knowledge, she herself used to be a CIA analyst. This was an entertaining and compulsive read which will appeal to a wide range of readers interested in domestic drama and espionage thrillers. Many thanks to Random House Transworld for an ARC.

Some books you need just a bit more of a ‘ok, this is probably a tad unrealistic but I am going to get over it and see’.....and when you do its worth it, thats how I felt about this book!
Viv is married to Matt, she works for CIA intelligence in the Russia ‘office’ one day she is remotely accessing a Russian Spy’s p.c. and she clicks on a file called friends....who does she see...yep her hubby Matt!
The story then is mix of high action where truths are unearthed, secrets realised, lies are told and people do things to protect themselves and others they would never normally do and its all very fast paced and full on....
The other bit of the mix is Viv constantly nattering on in her mind about the safety of her 4 kids and what might happen to them...this doesn’t ruin the book but it does get repetitive as its the same worries!
Parts of the book had me shouting ( in my head ) NOOOOO dont save Matt or trust him as time and again she is caught between a rock and a hard place
The book ends up all rather ‘ends tied up’ and everyone happy and then.....well then it happens in the epilogue, you know its going to happen, you sense it but still when it does its a very ARRRGHHHH moment.....thoroughly enjoyable even so
The characters are a range of likeable to unlikeable but surprisingly not that much of a gap between both and the writing engaging
I honestly really enjoyed it, as I say once put out my mind the ‘as if’s’ it was a really good, mostly exciting tale which am really glad read

Thank you to Netgalley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers
Corgi and author Karen Cleveland for granting my wish and sending me the digital ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

Here comes the blurb as they say it better than I ever could!

Married for ten years. Four children. She thought she knew her husband better than anyone.

She was wrong.

You get to work. Make a coffee. Turn on your computer.

Your task: break into a Russian criminal's laptop and find proof that he's concealing five deep-cover agents - seemingly normal people living in plain sight.

You’re in. Five faces stare back at you.

One of them is your husband.

Vivian has been happily married to Matt for 10 years, they have 4 young children and she has her dream job working for the CIA when one day she discovers something that turns her entire life underside down and makes her question everything and everyone she believes in.
Really enjoyed this, a real page turner! Constant guess of is he is he not! Was a bit disappointed with 'the twist' at the end a little unbelievable but still a really good read

I'd heard the hype about this book so I was overjoyed to have my wish granted on NetGalley, and be offered the chance to read Need to Know in exchange for an honest review.
Wow.
I devoured this book in one sitting. It is tense, fast-paced, full of conflict....if I'd known it had a theme of Russian Spies I may not have picked it up...a fine example of why you should never limit yourself. I adored every moment of reading this, a fantastic thriller that you can't put down.
It was so tense that my heart was pounding as I read many of the scenes. That's a sign of great writing.
I urge anyone who loves any type of thriller, spy, crime or suspense novel to give Need To Know a try...ASAP!

Firstly thank you for granting my wish for this book!
Need To Know was scary, imagine finding out your husband is a Russian Spy?! What a wonderful start to the story. The storyline stays pretty strong but once I reached the end I realised how little action happened. I personally found the character of Vivian unrealistic...trained by the CIA yet doesn't do one logical thing.
Overall a solid 3.5/5.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this amazing book

where to start...a CIA operative and her family living the dream, but when does it all start going wrong...the new algorithm used in her work may help to uncover russian sleepers but once she uncovers 5 photos and one is of her husband thats when things start to get interesting...so many twists and turns as you are led to the conclusion...

some you know some you think you know and then theres the whammy and this book takes you on a roller coaster of a ride where you want to shake her by the shoulders and shout wake up and smell the roses...this book is that good and well written and i for one couldnt put it down...

cant wait to read more books from this author

This has to be one of the must read books of 2018 and it is a debut book by author Karen Cleveland. It is an espionage book that at times feels so realistic, it’s as if you are reading the story as it really happens.
The ending is just a perfect end to a book about spies and espionage and who do you believe.
Highly recommended.