Spies never Quit (Banana Girls, 1); M. Taylor Christensen

If you’re looking for a cozy thriller that has a team of young women with Charlie’s Angels vibes, tech that even James Bond would be jealous of, and with just a sprinkling of sweet romance, then “Spies Never Quit” may just be for you. In the first book of the series (each book following a different woman in the group) follows Mari, a brand-new college freshman, as she attempts to rescue her mother. Mari’s mother is a brilliant scientist working on nano-bot technology who has been kidnapped in order to force her to give up her specialized codes for evil gains. Mari would do anything to save her mother, and, lucky for her, retrieving her mother’s work just so happens to be the Banana Girls mission, too. Normally, I am all for a spy thriller with a predominately female cast of characters, but something always felt just a tad off to me throughout the story.

---

The plot and writing are easy to follow, which suits the cozy, low intensity atmosphere of this younger feeling story. All the characters—including the bad guy—are in their early twenties. The youngness of the characters was often at odds with either their wealth, their hand-to-hand skills, or even their brilliance. You have characters who are masters with computers and drones with dozens of fancy cars that can change color on a whim, and yet they still need to attend college classes. With how sweet the romance is as well, I’d say that the audience for this book is much younger than what the new cover suggests. Which isn’t a bad thing, just don’t go into this expecting anything serious. This is especially true of characters like Susan who are overly dramatic in speaking with their hands. Which brings me to what felt off about these characters: they all read a bit too much like caricatures of women, just cardboard cutouts of each other with no real depth to them, a stereotypical obsession with looks and boys, and treating the whole spy thing like a game. This is especially true with how much they all lean into the “Banana” thing for their secret organization. To be honest, that got a bit tiresome at times but, again, a younger audience may get a kick out of it.

“Spies Never Quit” is a quick read, and if suspenseful thrillers aren’t your thing, but you still like a fun spy novel, you may enjoy this more than I did. I think for me it just really came down to the fact that I didn’t love how all these women tended to fall into clichés. The writing just didn’t mesh well with me in that regard, which is partially why I’m giving this 3 stars, the rest has to do with the Banana aspect of the book. It’s not a bad read by any means, and, like I mentioned, can be a lot of fun for younger audiences—think MG readers. Plus, it’s a nice well contained story which is always a good thing! And thanks to the author for providing a copy for review!