Integrity by EJ Noyes is a romance that has a thrilling plot, a not a spy, spy, and lots of heat.
Intelligence analyst Lexie Martin is going about her workday as usual when she receives a call that will change her life. A source contacts her with horrifying intel about an attack using a chemical weapon. Within hours her life becomes more like a movie plot than reality. After a stranger breaks into her house warning her to forget everything she heard and saw, Lexie realises just how significant this intel is. Without knowing who to trust Lexie must go on the run to keep the intel safe and uncover the truth behind it, but she needs help.
Lexie convinces the woman she’s dating to join her on a ‘road trip’ in the hopes that having someone with her- a witness- will deter the people she’s trying to evade. But there’s a fine line between truth and lies and Lexie must be careful. The more time Lexie spends with the sweet and lovely Sophia Flores the deeper her feelings become. Lexie is torn between doing her duty to her country and wanting to build a relationship with Sophia, could she do both? But Lexie worries that a relationship that has foundations built on secrets will not last and she dreads the day that Sophie finds out the truth and leaves. The deeper she digs into the intel she has the more she comes to realise that none of the worries she has about Sophia may matter because the truths she uncovers have the potential to cost her freedom.
Writing
Noyes writes in first-person point of view like no other. This author made me see and feel everything through Lexie’s eyes. Noyes’ writing is beautiful and real, I loved getting lost in the main character’s head and re-read several paragraphs because they were so poignant.
Noyes always writes witty, funny heartfelt dialogue and this book has all of that in bucket loads.
Pros And My Favourite Parts
I’m pretty sure I said this about this author’s last book, but I don’t care- I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS BOOK.
The plot is brilliant, there are twists and turns, not spy spying, and a beautiful if not slightly complicated romance that will warm your heart as well as other places! Because this book is HOT.
Lexie used to be an Ops Officer within the US government, but she is currently an analyst spending her days sitting at a desk doing whatever it is that government analysts do with the information they receive. She has PTSD from an assignment that didn’t go as planned while working in the field, but she lives with it as best as she can, and her therapy and yoga are working so well that she’s even ready to start dating again. But alas the woman who Lexie is dating and has a real connection with is about to become a pawn in a game of cat and mouse. Poor Lexie is so torn between wanting to tell Sophia the truth and doing her duty to her country. I really felt for Lexie as she has genuine feelings for Sophia and at no point does she put her in danger, but she has to constantly tell half-truths or outright lie in order to work out what is going on within the government and why the information she has received is so sensitive that the very people she works with want it hidden forever.
What I loved most about this book was the pull between Lexie and Sophia. It’s not exactly love at first sight or even lust at first sight, but more a need to get to know and spend time with each other. There is a lot of mutual respect, and they accept what the other can give. Even when one of them wants more they don’t demand it or sulk because they don’t get what they want. Even though Lexie cannot always tell the truth, Noyes still managed to give these women a line of open communication that was based on consent, some lines are slightly blurred due to the secrecy Lexie is required to uphold in order to do her job, but they were never crossed and I never felt that Sophia was coerced into anything.
Heads Up
A few things- firstly Lexie has to lie to Sophia in order to do her job, but its not easy for her and the author does a great job of only blurring the lines and never crossing them.
Secondly, Lexie talks about a time when she was captured and tortured during an assignment, there are many details that may trigger some readers.
Thirdly there is a pretty bad car crash.
The Conclusion
This is a ‘quick go buy it’ from me. I’ve already re-read this book and pre-ordered the audio before writing this review as it’s just that good. It gave me a huge book hangover and I’m eagerly awaiting the second book in this series (although the first doesn’t end on a cliffhanger I just simply need more).
I adore this book. As we’ve now come to expect from Noyes it is written in the first person POV and as I’ve mentioned above no one writes in this style quite like this author. I felt everything Lexie felt, I got to know Sophia, I got lost in the growing love, and I also felt the despair from Lexie as she navigated what truths to tell and battled between doing a job that she loves and believes in and letting Sophia in. The love that blossoms between these characters is wonderful but delicate and I basked in all the delicious anguish. There is no doubt that Sophia is Lexie’s person, but you’ll have to read it to find out how they navigate this new, complicated relationship and all the things that entails. So go buy it, get lost in Lexie’s world, and let Noyes take you on a thrilling adventure filled with unravelling truths, starting a relationship under extremely unusual circumstances, and enough heat to make your toes curl.
Excerpt from Integrity by EJ Noyes
When the VoIP phone on my desk rang, I had to excavate the infrequently used handset from under a pile of paper. An early-morning call from an asset. Exciting. I set aside the taskings I was reading and brought up a blank document ready for notes. As I typed the date, time, and incoming number from the digital screen, I started the recording function, double-checked the encryption, and answered the call not with my usual crisp “Lexie Martin” but with a bland “Hello?”
“Ellen, hello,” said a man in accented English.
Ellen… Nobody had called me that in months. One of the first things I’d had drilled into me during my initial training was never give my real name to an asset. I’d had a thing for Ellen Ripley from the Alien movies. It’d been a logical choice.
I smiled at the sound of the voice. “Hadim.” I had no idea if Hadim was his real name either, but it was way down the list of things important to our working relationship. “How are you? It’s been some time.”
Almost a year, but that was generally how our contact was. Sporadic. We’d first met in the Middle Eastern region almost ten years earlier, when I was an Ops Officer instead of an Analyst, and my job was more about collection rather than analysis. Back then I spent a lot of time moving around the world instead of just from my apartment to my cubicle and back again each day. I’d been talent-spotting and recruiting female assets—men often forgot their women overheard things—and Hadim had approached me after his wife mentioned I’d been speaking with her. After the usual period of suspicion and vetting, he’d quickly proven his usefulness and loyalty to me. Or perhaps more accurately, his loyalty to my country’s money. In all the years we’d been working together, he’d never once passed me bad intel—and he would only pass it to me, even though I’d left fieldwork behind five and a half years ago.
“I’m as well as I can expect, and you?” Behind his voice was the background drone of cars and people, which meant he was in his city apartment overlooking the marketplace. I could picture the hot, noisy space with its distinctive sights, scents, and sounds, and had a sudden urge to go back there and slowly browse through the almost-overwhelming amount of offerings, to find something for dinner, something to wear, something to give as a gift.
“About the same as the last time we spoke. Are you safe?” My question had a dual meaning: safe both physically, and with his communication channels.
“Yes.”
“Good, I’m glad to hear it.” Dispensing with further unnecessary formality, I asked, “What can I help you with?”
“Five nights ago there was an incident. A squad of Red Wolves attacked a small village in the Aqtash District in Kunduz Province, up near the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border. A village comprised mostly of civilians, not insurgents. There were no survivors among the three hundred and sixty-two inhabitants. Men, women, and children.”
I swallowed hard, and tried to sound casual. “Okay, and why should Red Wolves doing what they always do concern me?” Rhetorical question of course. The Red Wolves were a well-organized militia group, with rumored ties to Russia, that’d popped up almost eighteen months ago. No agency in any country had been able to determine their true nationality or loyalty, but everything they did seemed to be magically in Russia’s best interests. If the shoe fits…
“Because they didn’t go in with assault rifles blazing, Ellen. They used something that they should not have. Something I have never seen or heard of before, and something that I believe would be prohibited under the Chemical Weapons Convention.”
That immediately got my attention, and sent a simultaneous surge of excitement and worry through me. There were only a few countries who were non-signatory on the CWC, and if someone had broken the treaty… I had to bite back my fuck. “What exactly did they use? In what form?”
“I don’t know the specifics, but I believe it was airborne.”
I couldn’t bite this one back. “Fuck,” I muttered. A new chemical weapon capable of airborne dispersion. Brilliant.
Hadim cleared his throat before I heard the long drag on his cigarette. “There is more. I am hearing a lot of chatter and everyone says the Red Wolves didn’t plan this themselves, but instead were operating under a, what is it you would say? Quid…pro quo arrangement with another country.”
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Series: Halcyon Division Series
Bits and Bobs
ISBN number: 978-1642474657
Publisher: Bella Books
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