YA Buddy Readers' Corner ♥ discussion

In present-day Russia, ruled by blue-eyed, unblinking President Vladimir Putin, Russian intelligence officer Dominika Egorova struggles to survive in the post-Soviet intelligence jungle. Ordered against her will to become a “Sparrow,” a trained seductress, Dominika is assigned to operate against Nathaniel Nash, a young CIA officer who handles the Agency’s most important Russian mole.

Spies have long relied on the “honey trap,” whereby vulnerable men and women are intimately compromised. Dominika learns these techniques of “sexpionage” in Russia’s secret “Sparrow School,” hidden outside of Moscow. As the action careens between Russia, Finland, Greece, Italy, and the United States, Dominika and Nate soon collide in a duel of wills, tradecraft, and—inevitably—forbidden passion that threatens not just their lives but those of others as well. As secret allegiances are made and broken, Dominika and Nate’s game reaches a deadly crossroads. Soon one of them begins a dangerous double existence in a life-and-death operation that consumes intelligence agencies from Moscow to Washington, DC.

Ch 1-2 - I bet this book is banned in Russia! Such open criticism of its president and politics! I confess, I know very little about politics, so I can't exactly take sides from that point of view. But it's interesting how obviously anti-Russia the book is (at least so far).

Ch 6 - (view spoiler)[This is going to be interesting - I don't know how Dominika's talent (?) to see colours around people will translate into the movie (which I plan on seeing Sunday). I will have to check if this is a documented thing - never heard of anything like it before!
Not crazy about the author's need to portray all the secret services bad guys as ugly and gross...seems a bit unnecessary.
I do like all the mini-recipes at the end of each chapter! Although they are making me hungry! Russian food seems rather fatty, haha. (hide spoiler)]

Ch 21 - Not particularly enjoying this - it's a bit boring, really.
(view spoiler)[I just don't feel anything - the main character is investigated on suspected treason and tortured, and I couldn't care less, really. Or maybe it's just me?
I do like how Egorov is unknowingly talking to the mole about how they plan to find the mole... (hide spoiler)]

Andreea wrote: "Ch 6 - This is going to be interesting - I don't know how Dominika's talent (?) to see colours around people will translate into the movie (which I plan on seeing Sunday). I will have to check if t..."

I still haven't started it yet, but I'm almost done with the book i've been reading and ill prob start it tomorrow or something. I'm planning to watch the movie after. Is it good?? I hate when the movie completely destroys the characters, i really hope that doesn't happen with this one lol.

Finished (thank goodness!)
Karen - I have to say either this book just wasn't for me, or it was extremely boring. I didn't enjoy it at all - so much unnecessary information!

I did like the movie, though. It wasn't great, but it was a good movie. Some parts don't make 100% sense if you haven't read the book and know more, and I thought there was zero chemistry between Dominika and Nate, but there's an interesting difference between the book & the movie towards the end!

The characters weren't great to begin with (in the book), so the movie doesn't do much either way - it does make Dominika cleverer, though.
Jason Matthews just didn't make me care at all about his characters or about what would happen to them.

For me, it was a disappointing read and a disappointing ending (especially by comparison to the movie) - well, it's not really an ending, as it's a trilogy (I think?). So I definitely won't read any of the others.

If you do read it I will be curious to see if it was just me or if you'll think the same thing.

I agree that there was so much unnecessary information. The first quarter of the book was really hard for me to keep reading because I simply couldn't connect with all the things being described. But after Dominika met Nate I felt that the story picked up a bit so I was able to finish reading it until the end.

I found it really interesting Dominka's ability to see colors in people. Is that a real thing? Because I feel like it would help a lot to read people. I think it really helped to make the book more interesting because Dominka already knew who she could trust. It's also a new idea that i've never seen in any other book.

Andreea wrote: "Ch 1-2 - I bet this book is banned in Russia! Such open criticism of its president and politics! I confess, I know very little about politics, so I can't exactly take sides from that point of view...."

Yeah, I don't know much about politics either, but I agree. If things in Russia are actually as the author portrays them to be I understand where they are coming from, but I feel that at least the book doesn't portray all Russians as bad, there are good ones, like Dominika and MARBLE.

Andreea wrote: "Finished (thank goodness!)
Karen - I have to say either this book just wasn't for me, or it was extremely boring. I didn't enjoy it at all - so much unnecessary information!

I did like the movie, ..."

I agree the ending was a disappointing, but since there are 2 more books I guess I'll give the second one a try and see if they fix it. I feel like I was able to connect to the characters a bit, (Nate the least though), but I really found it weird that I also didn't seem to care when she was being tortured. I expected that part to be hard for me to read through, but it was actually pretty easy.