Loose Lips

I didn't expect to like this as much as I did. It has a great first person chick lit tone, edgy and hip, but it's much more than that. This is a very well written, intelligent, and carefully crafted book. It is also a fascinating peek into a world that most of us know very little about, and it reads like truth...like the writer has very accurate and intimate knowledge of her subject...or if not, then she's an even better writer than we realize! I liked that she grew to like a less than typically handsome hero, that her attraction to his intelligence made him more attractive. We also saw enough layers of the main players to know that there was more going on under the surface and things were not exactly as they appeared. Very well done. I look forward to reading what this author comes up with next.

Claire Berlinski's novel Loose Lips will keep you glued to your chair until the bitter end. The CIA training information is so true to life, you wonder how high her security clearances go. However, it's the interwoven love story that will make you shake your head, remembering all your exes who seemed so right AT THE TIME, until you discovered otherwise. I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended!

I'm not a veteran of the CIA's clandestine service, but I've read about them and have been around Intelligence Community for over a decade. My feeling is that Berlinski really did capture what it is like to be a case officer for the CIA, i.e. one of the people who makes a living by persuading others to become traitors.The bottom line is that what the author writes seems to me to be real enough that I'm left wondering who she might have talked to in order to get the insight that she displays in the book. I find myself thinking that this book might be a thinly disguised autobiographical account since the dust jacket is a little bit skimpy on details about where she's worked. In any case, if anyone wants to know what the classic type of intelligence officer (not "spies") does for a living and what it takes, "Loose Lips" is the book to read. I wouldn't be surprised if I see it show up at the CIA giftshop. I've seen other novels there.My only gripe is that the book was so good I wanted the story to last longer than it did and show the heroine in the field. If Berlinski wrote like Tom Clancy or Stephen King, a five or six hundred page long book would be way too long. But given her outstanding writing at under 300 pages, "Loose Lips" is too short. But then again, perhaps that's an application of the principal of always leaving your audience wanting more.

I loved this book and once I started it, I was so fascinated with the subject matter and the author's witty and charming writing style that I was glued to the book until the end! The author writes about being a trainee for the CIA in a way that makes one think she has inside knowledge. The book claims to be a novel but it actually seems so knowledgeable and realistic that the scenarios of the CIA training and CIA insider politics feel authentic. I can't help wondering if there is "insider knowledge" involved. I truly enjoyed this book and I thought the book was the most entertaining one I've read in a long time.

Loose Lips" was a great read, but then again, I'm a lover of secret agent novels.I immediately fell in love with Claire Berlinski's main character. Selena Keller is in my mind, the perfect CIA woman. She was witty, grounded, practical, and very resourceful. I was also glad that Selena didn't fall into the category of "slutty CIA" that most spy girls tend to fall under. You know the kind- wears a skimpy dress, becomes the mastermind bad guy's mistress, gets the inside information via said sex-crazed mastermind. In fact, Selena was portrayed as a rather brainy person. Hmm. Get the book.