Decent book but I saw the twist at the end coming. Also very similar to The Americans tv series.

Need to Know by Karen Cleveland is a page turner for sure. I think the author did a wonderful job crafting a tense thriller. The characters were well rounded with understandable and sympathetic motivations. I loved that the author flipped between the past and the present. A lot of the past interactions between Matt and Vivian had an insidious quality to them. What seemed to be the actions of a supportive husband came off sinister once you stared questioning his motivations.

I think the author did a great job in keeping the reader guessing as to whether Matt could be trusted. There always seemed to be little kernels of doubt sprinkled throughout. I think it was believable that Vivian continually gave him the benefit of the doubt. It was annoying to be sure, and Vivian made some truly frustrating decisions. Of course, if she had done the right thing from the beginning, there would be no book. I was able to get past it because the author explored how 10 years of marriage and family weighed on her decisions.

As for the ending, all I can say is: whew!  I was expecting it, but I was still caught off guard. Loved this book.

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An well-written and enjoyable story about the relationship and developing friendship between an old man and a young girl - how each learns and gains from the other, and how they welcome an old woman into their lives as well.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book based on the description. However, from the outset, I was intrigued by the first person voice of our heroine. In pursuit of her next career move, she breaks into a Russian computer and stumbles across a picture she never wanted to see.
From that moment on, she makes one bad decision after another, all leading up to a pretty unbelievable crescendo. The ending strains credulity some although it might work well for a movie.
The husband is a shit, and God knows why his wife puts up with him or has iota of trust in him. The finale is a little heartbreaking but it is a little tough to have lots of sympathy for most of the characters,
I did read it quickly and she does have moments of insight, just no where near enough of them.

Turns out there's no such thing as a perfect man. But CIA analyst Viv, the intrepid protagonist of this novel, is gonna have to really learn that lesson and not the easy way either when her adoring spouse turned out to have a doozy of a dark past sort of secret. That's the basic premise in this popcorn thriller and for what it is, it works quite nicely. Personally, I'm not a huge spy genre fan, but I do enjoy thrillers and this is for the most part pretty thrilling, it's fast paced, has some twists and turns, some genuinely well written anxiety. Plus the author actually is a CIA analyst, so that's a reliable primary source for details, certainly. It's just that the thing is...this seems more of a novel about family and having kids and less about spies. In fact, if one is to look for a moral within these pages it would certainly be something along the lines of operatives with families make for unreliable operatives. Apparently love makes all the morals, rules and ethics go right out of the window. And Vivian isn't just in love, she's also determined to reproduce at a rate normally found on TLC's reality programming, which makes her all the more of a target. But then, of course, her momzilla instincts come into play and she'll do whatever it takes...and that's how the narrative unfolds. Viv making choices, Viv questioning her dearly beloved's loyalties, Viv being a supermom. And then, just when you thought it was all resolved and tied up neatly with a bow, there's one last stab. Because it's a thriller, after all. Oh Viv, you tried to do what's right. So anyway, that's about all you need to know about this book...it's a movie waiting to roll. Depending on the cast it might even be an A movie. I can just see Reese Witherspoon or someone similar all over this with a tagline like She's CIA analyst second and mother first. How far will she go to protect her family? Who do you trust when your entire life is based on deceit? Something like that. So yeah, total popcorn fare, but plenty entertaining and a quick read. Thanks Netgalley.

"Need to Know" is a gripping spy story, told from an interesting perspective. Vivian is an analyst at the CIA when she opens a file that reveals a secret that would shake her world to its very core. Shown through a mixture of current narrative and flashbacks that draw the reader in from the first chapter, Ms. Cleveland does an excellent job of making the shadowy world of counterintelligence understandable, engaging, and very plausible. Four stars.

Need to Know: A Novel by [Cleveland, Karen]

I thought this was great fun.

Review copy provided by publisher.

I'm hooked! You have yourself a new fan!! I'll patiently wait on anything else you write, books, poems, short stories, you name it! Well done Karen! It was honor to read your masterpiece.

Wow. An amazingly tight page-turner. I'll be shocked if this isn't a motion picture within a year.

Need To Know is the first book by Karen Cleveland so I wasn't sure what to expect. What I found was a well written suspense/thriller. It is a standalone. There is violence.

The book blurb adequately describes the storyline so I'm not going to repeat all of that info here. The storyline is a different take on sleeper cells and the people investigating them. This was well written for a debut novel and the author impressed me with her ability to create the moral dilemma the main characters faced. The characters are multidimensional and I couldn't help but relate to them. As usual, everything and everyone is not as it seems. This book has plenty of twists, turns, and surprises...right up to the very end. It is rare that a book surprises me all the way up to the last line. She left me wanting to know more.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and Random House/Ballentine. I chose to write a review for other readers. I look forward to reading more from this author.

What a book! This is one book, I just couldn't put down. As one of the other reviewers wrote, "You read chapter one, you have to read chapter two. You read chapter two, you can't stop (paraphrased)". This is such an intense story and I can't wait to see the movie! This is my first experience reading Karen Cleveland's work, and was immediately a fan! Nothing like discovering a new author and just getting engrossed in the book from chapter 1. I know there is more to come from this book and the ending leaves it open for a sequel (and it has to happen right?). Great piece of writing and the story is so fast paced that you can't wait to get to the next page to see what is going to happens next.

This is an interesting novel. I can see where Charlize will make a credible star of the story. Thanks, NetGalley for the ARC.

I received an advance ebook copy from Netgalley.

Other reviewers have provided detailed synopses (as well as a few spoilers) so I won't repeat their efforts here. Suffice it to say that the protagonist, a CIA analyst, is confronted with an impossible dilemma. Does she compromise everything she believes in to save what she loves most, or does she throw away her integrity with no guarantee that by doing so, her troubles will be over?

I do not recommend starting to read this book late at night....

Lee Child was right and thanks to a rainy Sunday afternoon, I read the whole thing in one sitting this afternoon as I kept "needing to know" what was going to happen next.

This is quite a unique spy story in that there is *almost* no blood and guts or violence in the book and all the suspense is in the characters interactions as they struggle with loyalty to family and to country.

The style of writing consists of a lot of short sentences and a lot of descriptive language going into quite a lot of detail about the scenes which was initially distracting as I started the book but I was able to get past this and just settle down into the storyline.

The ending was a little bit of a surprise but I suspected something similar might be the case and so I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

Need to Know is a gripping novel about the dangers of world espionage. It is also about ethics and the consequences of decisions. The main character, Vivian, works for the government hunting terrorist/spy cells. She is married and lives a normal life raising four children. One day she learns of her husband’s ties to a Russian cell and her whole life is threatened. Should she follow government mandates or save her family? The story has may twists and shows how illusive truth can be.
It is a great read and one that had me unable to put it down toward the midpoint of the book. I highly recommend it for its look into the dangers of the world of counter-intelligence.

Finally a book that kept me wanting to know what comes next. The guilty/not guilty, did he/didn't he by the wife. Can she trust him? Of course... or maybe not. Loved it!

Wife: CIA, Husband: is he a Russian spy? What should she do? Turn him in and ruin their family? Break her oath to her country? Most of the book is spent trying to explore the different options and some of the options are of the type that "it seemed like a good idea at the time" but maybe not so later on.

There were a few things that didn't quite meet reality, but the rest was so good that I could overlook the little things. Definitely a great read and I read it long into the night.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. I will be looking for more from this author. Well done.

A real page turner, exciting and full of suspense. I like the way the author put me right inside of Vivian's heart and mind as she struggles with her personal choices of career or family, and her grasping at the truth about her marriage. I hope the story doesn't end here, would love to continue on with Vivian, her family and career choices.

I really enjoyed reading Need to Know, by Karen Cleveland. It pulled me in and kept me glued to the pages from the very beginning right to the end. Excellent Russian spy/sleeper/novel with unexpected family twists. Just goes to show that a "sleeper" could be almost anyone you know, and maybe someone you love. Highly recommend!

Generally I read several books a week, but I had been dogging it for awhile. Then I realized why. I was trying to push my way through this book and finding all kinds of excuses not to read it. I realize books have to show character development , often with the main character evolving and displaying growth. In cases such as that, the protagonist has flaws that she eventually overcomes, to the reader's satisfaction. Unfortunately in Need to Know, CIA operative, loving wife and harried mother Vivian Miller is just too annoying to win my vote. The basic plot has a fabulous hook. Vivian has been working for years to uncover Russian sleeper cells in the US. She has made a breakthrough, but her discovery comes at a terrible price. What choices will she make? The tension in this story is palpable, but I like the stress to be plot-driven with strong heroes who I feel confident can handle the decision-making. Vivien, on the other hand, has a history of making wrong decisions and there is a general sense of uneasiness as this story unfolds. The kicker at the end of the story sends us off in another direction and does nothing to create the feeling of completion that i look for in a book of this type. This title might appeal to The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl types, but it was not for me.

Ms. Cleveland has done a pretty admirable job with her debut novel, Need to Know. She has crafted a spellbinding psychological-political espionage plot that gains momentum as the protagonist Vivian Miller gets ever deeper in do-do.
Vivian (Viv) seems to have it all. She has a good husband to her four beautiful kids, the last two twin boys, one of which has cardiac problems. She has a nice house that wasn't cheap and an incredibly sensitive position with the CIA in counterintelligence where she is currently assigned to searching for Russian sleeper cells in the US.
And she is very, very good at what she does. In fact, she created an algorithm that is meant to ferret out the so-called Russian "sleeper cells." As she proceeds to dig around within a secret dossier, however, she stumbles upon pictures of deep-cover agents, one of which is her husband Matt.
Ms. Cleveland describes the couple as they settle into a successful home routine. Matt is also well employed, but with the home mortgage and the unexpected medical bills, the budget is a tight one.
With her discovery in the dossier, she wonders if it was all based on a lie. The tension mounts as she confronts her husband. He doesn't deny his involvement. But does she know him or not? Ms. Cleveland gives us glimpses into Viv's psyche from time to time, as she relives pivotal moments in her life. Of course, her allegiance is to America, but she loves her husband and her family. Unfortunately, Matt's "handler" will not give her a lot of time to consider her options and forces the issue.
I had a little problem with the simplistic first person approach to dialogue and descriptions. "...I look away, out to the street. I hear an engine, a vehicle approaching. I watch the street..." While I normally enjoy first person stories, this was almost cryptic. The plot moves with mind-numbing conundrums. My problem was that it felt obviously intuitive who the hidden mole (antagonist) might be. And really, it may very well be a case of successful analyzation and knowing their target very, very well.
Okay, the ending in one word. Chilling. Flat worth-the-read ending and while I just knew it might be the case, still took my breath away. Whoa! This ebook download was offered by Ballatine Books through NetGalley and I am most grateful for the opportunity to read and review. This novel is recommended to all who enjoy a good mystery, suspense, spy or espionage, political thriller.