Dell, $6.99, ISBN 0-440-23578-2
Romantic Suspense, 2002

My Spy is a series romance reader’s wet dream. It has an amnesiac Navy SEAL superhero and a heroine who has had a fling with our hero and still holds a torch for him. So toss away your Silhouette Intimate Moments and give your $6.99 to Christina Skye, people!

Actually, this one is not bad really. It is pretty entertaining if unremarkable and unoriginal.

Annie O’Toole runs a vacation resort for the rich and famous, without the prostitution thing, of course. The resort is populated by nice rich people – maybe the author finds these people from another planet – so it’s a perfect place for some bedside loving with Sam McKade (see, even the names aren’t original).

Sam and Annie – gosh, is there a more derivative couple, apart from Peter and Jane? – once had a thing two months back, until he left one day. How shocking when Annie turns on the TV and realizes that Sam is actually a Navy SEAL dude who almost lost his life saving kiddies in a school bus.

You know, as far as derivative and tired go, this story is already pushing the limits. Maybe this author can start a side career as a “romantic suspense” scriptwriter for mainstream Hollywood.

Annie contacts the government, and they let her take Sam to her Holiday Inn and treat him nice and sweet. Alas, Sam has amnesia. Selective amnesia, meaning he can’t remember important stuff until it’s convenient. Oh, the agony. But Annie will pucker up real sweet to give him some TLC.

The stock secondary characters (the “wild” sister, the “handsome geek”, et cetera) provide little respite from the whole ordinariness of this tired, overdone story.

Still, Annie and Sam have some pretty nice thing going on. The chemistry is decent. It’s the only thing that saves this book from being shipped to Insomniacs Anonymous who always need donations in the form of sleeping aids.

Think of My Spy as some kind of Typical Contemporary Full-length Romances for Dummies Series Readers Who Are Too Afraid to Try New Things.