Look-Alike

You can only knock romance stories for so long without finally reading one out of curiosity. Confronted by one that promised to have more action than pirates peering down blouses and heroines who display as much force of character as they do midriff, I bit. And, although I'm unlikely to read another one, Meredith Fletcher's Look-Alike was much better than I expected. There wasn't any more panting, swooning, and outright sex than, well, a toned down bit of softcore porn. And while the story is hardly a dramatic tour de force, there actually is a readable plot. My one complaint is that beautiful, tough, female agents are never named Shirley. This time the female leads are Samantha St. John and Elle Petrenko. They are smart, knockdown gorgeous, and possessed of all the secret Mossad fighting styles that gung-ho ex-marine folk heroes also seem to know. They are also sisters, separated upon the murder of their parents, and have only recently met each other again. This happened in the previous volume, Double Cross. Now Sam has an assignment from her old school, the Athena Academy, and the ladies meet in Amsterdam ready to party and pick up a bad guy as well. Of course, these stories wouldn't be stories if everything was that simple. Needless to say, the innocent get-together is a disaster. The canals leak villains (including an inevitably cute thief named Joachim), and soon the girls are chasing their parent's killers and several vials of a deadly nerve toxin dating back to the cold war. The story has its intricacies, but it is mostly people fighting or running. This is as it should be, whether it is a Seal team story or a lady secret agent drama. This is a change of pace from pirates, English lords, and the occasional vampire, and worth checking out.

Wow! From Amsterdam to Leipzig to Arizona to Moscow to the Greek Isles, the action never lets up as twin sisters Samantha St John and Elle Petrenko hunt their parents' killers. The twisty trail also leads them to the man who murdered Athena Academy's founder and a deadly biological agent that could destroy the world. Throw in a hunky bad guy trying to go good for Elle, a sexy CIA agent with the hots for Sam and things boil over fast!

Meredith Fletcher follows up DOUBLE CROSS with twin Elle Petrenko's story. Elle and her twin sister, Samantha St. John, were separated as babies when their parents were killed. Sam grew up as a US citizen while Elle remained in Russia; both became spies. Sam is trying to unravel the mystery behind the death of Athena Academy founder, Marion Gracelyn, and recruits Elle's help. However, the chase leads them on separate paths and Elle is forced to re-examine their parents' deaths. With the aid of soon-to-be former mobster, Joachim Reiter, Elle will discover the reason behind her parents' murder and meet the man who did it. Meredith Fletcher does an excellent job at intertwining the stories of Elle and Sam across multiple countries. This was an enjoyable read but could be confusing to readers new to the Athena Force series.

Following the homicides of their parents, the identical twins were separated as infants. One grows up in the United States while the other in Russia. Ironically as adults the siblings took up the same line of work just for different teams. The CIA employs Samantha St. John while the Russians utilize Elle Petrenko. Besides their differing employees, the sisters also contain diverse codes of honor. The Athena Academy asks graduate Sam to investigate a blackmailer, which she agrees to do because of her appreciation of her alma mater. Her efforts lead her to uncovering who killed her parents years ago. However, to complete her Athena mission as well as her personal quest, Sam needs Elle, but gets German agent Joachim Reiter in the bargain. This triangle must find a way to trust one another or die alone against a dangerous foe. This is an exciting espionage romance though the audience will have to accept the premise that having been separated as infants, the sisters become spies on two different continents. If you are okay with the first domino being improbable, the second domino and onward make for quite an exhilarating entertaining tale starring three wonderful agents. Meredith Fletcher provides a fine thriller that sub-genre fans will enjoy.