A miss for me for the implausibility of so much of the novel. Thanks to Netgalley for the arc. Over to others to decide.

CW: murder, torture, cheating, rape (on-page).

This book was all over the place in the worst way. The writing was incredibly basic and boring. There is no description, no nuance, no feeling. The story itself was kind of interesting but the ending ruined it for me. I'm sure it's a realistic look into what female secret operatives experienced but I think it could have, and should have, been handled so much better.

This could be considered a spoiler, but it's related to a content warning so I feel the need to say it: the way Katie's rape was handled, even by her own internal monologue, was incredibly dismissive and downright harmful. There were maybe two sentences of her reflecting on her experiences and acknowledging that it was traumatic for her. It felt like gratuitous violence added only for shock value.

I do not recommend this book.

This was a quick read set in the Cold War. Katie, a rookie agent with the CIA is ordered to keep an eye on an old flame, Max, from Russia. I would have like maybe a little less romance and more spy stuff but the story is still decent.

Thanks to NetGalley and Skyhorse Publishing for an egalley in exchange for an honest review.
An American woman, Kate Landau, an expert on Russia is working for the CIA and is asked to gather intel on a Soviet KGB officer living in the United States. Things do get complicated as they have a past that includes a passionate night in Moscow. Can emotions be put aside for Kate to do her job?

I think I will start by saying that I am not a prolific reader of espionage thrillers, but I get the feeling that this might have been a little heavy on the romance portion. in fact, when Kate flashes back to her visit with two classmates to Moscow in the 1950s, I found that part of the novel had a juvenile feel to it- complete with mean girls and crushes. Also, the last 15% of the book when something happens to Kate was really unsettling.

Publication Date 18/05/21
Goodreads review 09/06/21

I was intrigued while reading about author Jeri Laber’s career as a founder of Human Rights Watch, and so I was happy to receive an advance review copy of her new spy novel, The Russian Key. And The Russian Key turned out to be an enjoyable look back to a time when international relations were pretty much all about the Cold War rivalry between the US and the USSR.

In the midst of this rivalry, young Kate Landau manages to finagle a visit to the Soviet Union for herself and two of her college friends. Even more impressively, she manages to briefly break free of the oversight of their tour “guides” long enough to have a couple of brief encounters with Max Rzhevsky – the last of which ends badly for Kate. But it doesn’t end badly enough for her to give up on her fascination with all things Russian, and a decade later, she works for the CIA, Max works for the KGB, and spying on him is her chance to get out of her boring desk job and into the field.

As with many spy novels, there’s a lot of ambiguity and readers will enjoy trying to figure out who is really spying on whom. Kate has been directed to figure out if Max might be a potential defector. Max tries to figure out if Kate is CIA, and spying on him. The Cold War background felt pretty realistic - probably due to Laber’s experience with Human Rights Watch. And there’s a good bit of action, including a memorable (and spooky) ocean scene.

Overall, I liked The Russian Key, and I especially liked the fact that the story is told from a female point of view – sort of rare in the world of spy thrillers. But I did have trouble feeling much empathy with the characters. Both Kate and Max seemed shallow and a little unlikeable, and I just couldn’t bring myself to care much about either one. So although The Russian Key has a nice twisty plot, and I read it in only a couple of sittings because I wanted to know what happened, I ended up giving this four stars instead of five. That’s still a solid “read” recommendation from me, but it could have been higher if I’d been able to connect a bit more with either Kate or Max.

And finally, my thanks to Skyhorse Publishing/Arcade and NetGalley for the review copy!

The writing was very quick and didn’t seem to take the time for character development. The chapters were quite short, making the book seem choppy. Despite spy romance being an overdone genre, I like the concept and enjoy reading books about it. I wasn’t a fan of this one as there was a lack of chemistry between the characters. It felt stereotypical and bland.

I was intrigued with the synopsis. I have always been fascinated by Russian history and once upon a time in the late 80s contemplated studying Russian to become a diplomat. The Russian Key is about espionage, subterfuge, and lies. Both of the main characters are consummate liars. Kate is CIA and Maksim is KGB. I didn’t particularly care for either one of,them. I thought Kate had ideas that she could just waltz into an operation and presto be an agent. She had as much subtlety as a brick. I’m quite skeptical of Kate being able to visit Hungary as easily as the story alludes in 1965. It was a good story with good ole Cold War friction.

Do you like traveling? Do you like spy novels? Are you a fan of post Cold War era books? If the answer to those questions are yes, you have to pick up The Russian Key by Jeri Laber. This book reminded me of both The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott and Atomic Love in that all of these novels main characters were women who would do anything for the country and for the men they thought they loved.

Katie was my favorite character-I related to her because of her want to belong and be loved to someone and something other than herself.

Learning more about Russia and its history was super interesting to me.

This was such a fast read - I didn't think I'd finish within a span of a few days! The Russian Key is told from the first person perspective of Kate Landau, an ordinary college student at Smith in the 1950s who gets the opportunity to visit Russia with her friends. She unexpectedly meets Max, a college student in Russia, and falls head over heels for him. As life oftentimes goes, their paths once again cross almost a decade later when Kate works at the CIA and is given the an assignment to spy on Max.

I found that I was instantly drawn into Kate, especially as the story is told from her perspective, and appreciated how well-researched the descriptions of Russia and diplomacy between countries were laid out. The ending was definitely a surprise though, and not one I could have predicted.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3928484125?book_show_action=false

Russian Key began as a somewhat solid book with an intriguing plot. I didn't care so much for the characters, but I did continue reading to find out what would happen. It then became a bit slow, but once again, I was curious as to what would become of things. However, the ending was a shocker. I expected it to be completely different, not something anti-climatic, rushed, and triggering. I believe the book really did need a spoiler alert because I found myself a bit disgusted by what I considered a "shock value" ending.

I was so excited when I randomly found out that this book was going to be published this May when I was searching on Goodreads last October. I love Cold War-era spy romance, especially the ones where the heroine is an American or British intelligence officer and the hero is a KGB officer. I find these types of books quite rare, compared to books where the heroine is KGB and the hero is American or British.

I was thrilled to find this on NetGalley because I was really looking forward to reading it. Perhaps I had high expectations but unfortunately, I struggled to finish this book and it took me 2 weeks to finish it, even though I hoped to read it in one day.

Now that I read it, I’m not sure what’s the intended target audience for this book really is. From the book description, I believed it was a Cold War spy romance, in the manner of Evelyn Anthony or Anne Armstrong Thompson in the 70s or 80s. But this book fell short as a romance for me. I also believe it would probably not satisfy romance lovers. I think people should not go in this book expecting romance because there is simply too little reward at the end.

I’m also not convinced it’s also targeted at Cold War espionage fiction lovers because the story would probably not appeal to them because the plot is not really new or intriguing enough and there are too many romantic elements for them (despite the anticlimactic ending). The espionage and international intrigue aspect were simply noJohn le Carré . The book description says this book is for “fans of The Americans and Red Sparrow,” but I remain unconvinced about that. People should not go in expecting something like Red Sparrow, written by a former CIA officer.

Please note that the review might contain a few spoilers.

The book was slow at the beginning. I particularly did not about the heroine’s past when she was a college student. The book also had young adult fiction vibes at the start that I did not like. But the story did pick up once she arrived in Moscow on a friendship tour to the USSR. In fact, the parts I liked the most was the part where the heroine traveled around the Soviet Union. It was well-researched and it was very interesting to read about Soviet Moscow and other regions.

I did not like the heroine at all, which made this a frustrating read. The story is written entirely in her first person. I found her annoying, immature, TSTL, and holier than thou. She kept going on about how the hero, the KGB officer, was a liar even though she’s a liar herself and she’s in the same profession.

There is cheating in this book as the heroine has relations with both her boyfriend and the hero, which I did not like.

Her POV was also a little off, it sounded too modern at times and she felt more like a contemporary heroine even though it’s supposed to be set in the 1960s. I’ve read books published in the 70s and 80s on similar subjects and I could tell there is a difference.

Still, I kept reading because I was promised “shocking and unexpected climax” in the description. Well, I still don’t know what that climax was supposed to be. I could see the supposed “twist” about the hero coming.

The book did not work as a romance for me. Despite the book description promised a “passionate love affair”, the love scenes were too mild. I read older books that were more passionate.

Furthermore, the book should have trigger warnings as the heroine is violently raped by thugs. I never want that in my romance books and I would not have read if I had known. I believe readers should know beforehand about this. It just came out of nowhere, seemingly for shock factor. Or was this supposed to be the “shocking and unexpected climax?”

The book is quite depressing. The ending is anticlimactic and there wasn’t really any climax. It did not work as a romance. The heroine and the hero’s professions and allegiances being obstacles to their relationship was promising at first, but ultimately, what was the point of all the angst, distrust and secret agendas if the ending is going to be like that?

Although the relationship might have been doomed at the start, I expected at least a more emotional confrontation scene between the two characters.

The book also seems too focused on how America and the CIA are good guys and how the CIA was so brilliant (at least, before the epilogue). Around the end, the book became too preachy. The epilogue was too much. Then, I looked up the author’s background as the founder of Human Rights Watch, and it made sense. Of course, human rights is an important topic, but I feel that this book was not described appropriately. The only part in the book description that remotely hinted at this was the last sentence, “ Against a background of Soviet brutality and international intrigue”, yet the international intrigue part was not satisfying.

Overall, I was let down by the book and liked it more as a travelogue to the USSR.

I feel the book description is rather misleading and it should be marketed more appropriately and make it clear that this book is more of a book about human rights, rather than romance or espionage fiction.

My thanks to NetGalley for this advance copy

This is a totally absorbing piece of work, beautifully told with background detail on the Cold War and an insight into operations of the CIA and FBI. The characters, an American and a Russian, are well portrayed, feasible and interesting. Jeri Laber’s novel is not only well told based on her own knowledge and experience, but it recreates in part what she personally witnessed from the time that, as one of the first of American graduate students to visit Russia after the death of Stalin in 1954.

Katherine (Kate) Landau, a Smith College student, travels to the USSR with two classmates. She meets a Russian student, they have a brief affair, she takes a photo of him, and she ends up in jail. Ten years later, they meet up again in New York City and pick up the affair. Only now he is a KGB officer, posing as a diplomat, and she, unknown to him, is with the CIA, assigned to find out all about him. That’s just the beginning.

A true gem of a thriller, full of lies, deceit and love between two Individuals from different continents. The script flows easily from one page to the next. An engrossing page turned. I loved it!

In 1953 Kate Landau was a young college student at Smith College. She is passionate about Russia and despite the country being closed to most travelers she is able to arrange for herself and two of her fellow students to travel to Russia. There she meets and falls for a Russian student named Max.

Fast forward 9 years and Kate uses her profuse knowledge of Russia culture and language to begin working for the CIA. Instead of getting a placement in the field, as she hoped, she is placed in a desk job and is tasked with translating documents. Despite her skill and hard work she remains on desk duty. Dismayed by this Kate approaches her supervisor about promotions and is told that within the next year she might be promoted to analysis, which was not the news Kate was looking for. As a last resort before quitting Kate sends a letter directly to the head of covert operations and is surprised when she is called in to begin working in the field to spy on Max who she met and fell for in Russia.

I was pulled in by the characters and instantly liked Kate. She made many mistakes during the book but it was great to see how these missteps led to her growth and how she was able to adapt and move on. In addition to having the action and mystery I would expect from a cold war spy novel this book also had romance and great character growth. I definitely enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read Jeri Laber books.