This was a well written novel about modern day espionage that could be a true life story of a CIA agent with the tangled story line with the intricacies of marriage, family, life and secrets. It leaves you questioning are people really the people you thought they are and to what lengths will they go to protect what is near and dear to them? The story line was believable and well spun, and the author left me wanting more. The story ends with yet more questions and betrayment and hopefully leads to a followup novel.

An exciting book that pits a loyal CIA agent against what her discoveries force her confront. Vivian is happily married to a great husband, and they have 4 children. But in the course of her work to locate secret Russian spies in the US, up pops a photo of her husband. Did she ever truly know him? Is he truly a spy? What is his story, and how are the two of them going to deal with this huge bombshell. The rest of the book describes the twists and turns in the lives of these two main characters, and their handlers, as Vivian tries to balance her loyalty to her country with her loyalty to, and love for, her family. Painful decisions need to be made by everyone involved. The plot is unfortunately all too believable; I haven't seen any films or TV shows that other reviewers have commented on, so the concept was brand new to me. Very interesting, well written. I hope she continues to write more such books.

Great read. I was glad to be reading something from a new author. Story seemed very realistic. Characters were very well developed. I could not put it down! Now I am looking for more from this author.

Karen Cleveland’s debut book, Need to Know, is a cinematic, heart-pounding, relevant story of betrayal, Russian spies, and incredibly hard choices. Vivian Miller, mother of four, CIA analyst on the Russia bureau, faces several difficult decisions: should she trust her husband, should she break her vows of loyalty to the CIA and United States, and should she trust herself. Throughout the story, the reader is constantly thinking: What would I do to save my children? How could I keep my promises? This page-turner of a book leaves you guessing until the very end. As a potential movie, it can be as powerful as Gone Girl.

I LOVED this book. I am always interested in books about the CIA and such. When I saw that the author was an analyst in the CIA, I knew I would like the book. And boy did I! Once you start reading, you can't quit. I read a lot at lunch and I know my jaw dropped on more than one occasion. The reader can tell that the author knew of what she wrote. I kept changing my mind about the relationship between the husband and wife. It twists and turns til the very last word!!!

The spy genre is new to me, so I had to look up “counterintelligence” and “sleeper cell” definitions before I began. Fascinating. What makes this book so enjoyable is the way that the author is able to engage the reader by making the reader *feel* like they are experiencing the situation rather than reading about it. I was able to strongly identify with Vivian Miller, a married working mother of 4 children. I felt her pressures of being a working mom trying to balance family with the pressures of her job. I felt her surprise, denial, and hurt in discovering her husband's true identity, and the quandary that she found herself in at every turn. I felt the fear, guilt, and maternal instinct that motivated her to protect her family. This is what made this story so different from other books. The story is like a roller coaster ride, constructed with sharp curves and steep inclines and then after the peak, a fast drop with maximum speed until the very end of the book. The ending is AMAZING! I can see why this book has a lot of buzz, and I can’t wait for the movie. I hope that the movie stays close to the book.

I received an ARC of this book in return for a fair and honest review. Thanks, NetGalley!

It is very difficult to write a review of this book with many details - there are numerous twists and turns, and a detailed review would be a spoiler. I don't want to spoil anyone's fun - the unexpected twists are part of the pleasure of reading this book.

What I can say is that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I thought it was well written and I liked the characters, and was interested in what would happen to them. I had a hard time putting the book down, and it never lost my interest. I will definitely look for further books by Ms. Cleveland.

Cleveland entices readers with her latest thriller, a no-holds barred novel of suspense and espionage. Viv Miller has a busy life as a wife to husband Matt and working mother of four young children. Her busy yet staid existence changes completely when her work as a CIA analyst leads her to find JPEGs of Russian operatives working in sleeper cells in the U.S., and one of those operatives pictured is her husband. But Viv is totally unprepared for her husband’s answer when she asks him how long he has been working for the Russians, and he doesn’t laugh and tell her that there must be some mistake.

Viv, an intelligent woman and loving mother, must walk a fine line when deciding how much she is willing to risk for the safety of her family and marriage to Matt while considering her duty to her job and the U.S. government.

As Viv must decide who she can trust, she discovers a side of herself she never knew-the fierce protective nature she has for her children. And she soon realizes that she is capable of almost anything to keep them from harm.

Page-turning and intense, Cleveland’s latest is a magnetic read that does not disappoint. The lines between good and evil are carefully blurred, and readers will be mesmerized by the engaging plot-line and highly dimensional characters. https://sherimelnick.wordpress.com/

I am so glad that I was given the opportunity to read an advance copy of Need to Know. I blasted through the book in 24 hours; I couldn’t put it down. It was the most compelling book I’ve read recently. What differentiates this spy novel from others is that there were fascinating and scary ethical issues, and it was hard to imagine a good solution for the scenario. I enjoyed the way the story unfolded and all the twists and turns. I look forward to reading future books by Karen Cleveland and highly recommend this one.
(I will post on Librarything, Goodreads, Bookreporter, etc.)

Enjoyed the story, characters, pacing, surprises and decision making insights. Was engaged throughout. For the most part, this was a believable and realistic story. There were however a couple of instances that I considered totally unrealistic and caused me to rate this 4 stars instead of what should have been 5.

This is the first book in a very long time that I have stayed up reading into the wee hours of morning to find out what happens next. My friends in publishing have been raving about this book for months, and now I can definitely see why. The characters were well-crafted, the plot was believable, and the storyline progressed at a fast pace. And that ending!? WHAT!? Amazing.

While this book had a bit of a slow buildup, when it finally got going, it was a slalom down to the finish! You read and decide who is telling the truth and who is lying, then you read a bit further and all of that changes. Good cat-and-mouse-type plot.

Thanks to Netgalley.com, the author and publisher, Random House, for the opportunity to read and honestly review this book.

Seriously loved this book. I love when you read a book and you can't tell who's good and who's bad and who can be trusted through the whole book. Even the very last page !! Great twist at the end. ! I read this book in a day. Could not put it down ! Hooks you right in and keeps you riveted til the very end. Buy the book, you will love it !

Intricately plotted, Need to Know keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout!

Very suspenseful! The world of espionage has many faces as this book reveals. I could not put this book down and read it in one day. Many twists to the story. I will not spoil the ending but I did not see it coming. Definitely recommend this book.

NEED TO KNOW BY KAREN CLEVELAND

"When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one's self, and one always ends by deceiving
other's. That is what the world calls a romance." Oscar Wilde

This fast paced thriller starts off with a resounding bang full of tension and suspense. I highly recommend this novel by Karen Cleveland to anybody that loves being pulled into a story that totally absorbs you and doesn't let you go until you turn the final page. It will definitely be a reading experience that makes you want more. Vivian is a counterintelligence analyst who starts her career with high hopes of working for the CIA. She is young and falls in love at first sight with Mathew who they both seem to have mirror images of childhood history.

Vivian and Mathew have four young children and seem to be living the perfect life in a suburb. Vivian is a strong protagonist who develops an algorithm that is part of a computer program that with a couple clicks of her mouse discovers five Russian sleeper cells. She is good at her job but worries that her children are spending their precious first steps and words in daycare. Vivian is sitting in her cubicle at work surrounded by her children's artwork when two clicks of her mouse in her program Athena reveals a surprize that will change her life dramatically.

Although her job is to discover Russian sleeper cells what she discovers will challenge her belief and ethics in every aspect concerning her entire career. She has a decision to make that nobody would want to be faced with. As I read this totally accessible book of espionage I found myself asking myself if I would make the same decisions that Vivien makes. "Need to Know," wrestles with questions of how far are you willing to go to protect your family and your country. Both her family and her country are depending on her for safety and security.

Thank you to Net Galley, Karen Cleveland and Ballantine-Random Publishing for providing me with my digital copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

An intriguing counter intelligence mystery involving a CIA analysis working in the Russian section. She discovers something that affects her personally and makes some errors in judgement and then tries to correct them. Overall this is an excellent story which was well presented. I especially enjoyed the zinger at the end which was a really good twist.

I have rated this book 4.5 stars.

I obtained an ARC from Netgalley for my unbiased review.

As promised, this book is a page turner that may find you, like me, reading at 2 a.m. with an alarm set for 6 a.m. and a workday ahead. A CIA analyst finds out her husband is not the man she thought he was, and there are implications for her work, her family, and national security. The suspense starts early in the book, and keeps on coming, until the very last page..

----------
"I'm overcome with a strange sensation, a feeling that we dodged a bullet but that somehow, inexplicably, I'm bleeding."
----------

I LOVED this book... I seem to be on a Russia kick lately, and have always loved spy books, so this was just the right book at the right time. I am captivated by stories in which regular life is revealed to be precarious, balanced on a knife-edge of outright lies, secrets and not-quite-the-truths - in which good people find themselves in horrid situations that snowball... I'm fascinated by the psychology of it all, but also by the mystery - the idea that there is a seamy underbelly to even the most banal-seeming life. And even more than that, I'm fascinated to see if and how people dig themselves out of the holes they find themselves in when their lives turn out to be not at all what they thought they were...

Karen Cleveland offers all of that in spades in this excellently paced and plotted novel. And if that wasn't enough, the characters are fantastic too... Everyone is a little battered and windblown, clinging with desperate fingers to the things they need to hold on to in order to keep their world intact. As Viv's story unfolds and we get tidbits of her and Matt's history, it is difficult not to want to grab her and shake her and scream in her face that there were a thousand clues that things were not what they seemed and that she - a CIA counterintelligence analyst - should have seen them from a mile away. But then the story would dip back into the present, the day-to-day routine of children and work and real life, and I'd wind up chastising myself, asking how many little things we all encounter throughout a decade of marriage and life that would look like gigantic red flags from the pole position of hindsight (and of the omniscient narrator and/or reader to whom much has already been revealed)... That delicacy in storytelling style - the ability to make me feel like I'm there with Viv, living her life, feeling her pain, even when I am still aware that I'm a separate entity who knows that this is a story and therefore more trouble MUST be coming - is part of what made this book so great for me. It really helped keep the suspense taut and the pages turning...

Karen Cleveland is definitely on my list of Authors to Watch!

This book is fantastic!! It reads like a movie and I was so excited to see that it IS going to be made into a movie. I can not wait to read more by Karen. Can not say enough good things about this book except YOU NEED TO READ IT