Portes, Andrea

Paige Nolan is not your typical Bryn Mawr student. The daughter of prize-winning journalists who were kidnapped in Syria and are now presumed dead, Paige hides her grief (and dissociative disorder) behind a tough-as-nails, snarky-as-hell exterior. She's also a martial arts expert who, in a scene-setting vignette at the start of the book, disables two machine gun-toting good ol' boys at an Applebee's. After the footage appears on social media, Paige is approached by a campus recruiter who turns out to be part of a secret government spy agency. She reluctantly joins up, in exchange for information about her parents' whereabouts, and is sent to Russia to befriend and/or seduce Sean Raynes, an Edward Snowden-type character. Paige relates the story to an offstage "you," and her voice is wry, acerbic, and occasionally vulnerable as she describes the places and people around her, from her three college non-boyfriends to a Russian crime lord and his fashion-forward wife to the two highly amusing frenemies she makes in Russia. Suspend your disbelief (like, majorly) and go along for the twisty ride in this smart, humor-laced, girl-spy adventure romance, first in a projected series. elissa gershowitz