The Blonde Identity is a whale of a good time, if a bit on the juvenile side. Snappy, action-packed, funny and well-plotted, it’s wonderfully entertaining summer fare that’s worth its weight in enjoyment.
A woman awakens in the middle of a Parisian street and realizes several things at once. She has no idea who she is and why she’s there; she seems to be bleeding pretty heavily from a gunshot wound, and a handsome man calling her Alex keeps yelling at her to get up and run before she’s taken hostage by Kozlov’s men.
“Alex” soon realizes that she is not, in fact, Alex – Alex is the name of her super-spy twin sister. This is explained to her by the hot guy, Jake Sawyer, and he explains that he has no idea what Alex’s sister’s name was, but it looks like his partner in the field definitely has a twin sister. Unfortunately they have no time to analyze this, since everything around them is exploding and they’re officially on the run together. “Alex” and Jake are now set to fool the evil folks after them, save the country, rescue the REAL Alex, find out “Alex”’s name…and maybe fall in love?
The Blonde Identity is not an artful piece of spycrafting work. People do physically impossible things, they fight comically impossible odds, and they go through some amazingly over the top strictures to get what they want.
But it’s fun watching “Alex” succeed and regain her identity, and the quest to take down Kozlov and his evil minions is genuinely gripping. It’s fun watching her fall in love with Jake, even though he does have an annoying tendency to talk down to and infantilize her at inappropriate times. And yeah, “Alex” isn’t the most mature of characters – you will be forced to listen to her muse upon her boobs a few times. But it’s a romp filled with stakes and characters worth caring about, and sometimes that’s enough.
Beware – the book does not come up with a definitive ending for “Alex” and Jake’s romance, and it does leave some portions of the Koslov storyline and info about the real Alex’s whereabouts to facilitate a sequel. It can’t even really be called a HFN ending, since the romance doesn’t fully percolate into something fulsome during the course of the book. Apparently there is a second instalment on the way, so if you’re looking to have every bow tied up neatly, this won’t be the novel for you.
But if you want something suspenseful and high-stakes, but still light-hearted and funny, then The Blonde Identity will have you waiting for that sequel.
Grade: A-
Book Type: Women's Fiction
Sensuality: Kisses
Publication Date: 08/2023
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