Covert Assignment
Missy Marciassa
Published: December 1, 2013
Genre: NA Contemporary, Romance
Covert Assignment is a New Adult, Coming of Age Novel with a strong romantic element. Elle is ready for graduation and full-fledged adulthood: no more living like the leftover of her parent’s divorce. She’s about to graduate with her degree in Information Science (the 21st century term for Library Science) and has a ten-year plan as well-designed as any model for analyzing metadata: earn her JD/MBA, enjoy a couple of years as a single professional, then marry her college sweetheart, Adam, and start her own family.
Yet Elle feels like she returned to an alternate universe her final semester. There are pictures of Adam with a classmate who must be surgically enhanced, but he insists he wants Elle. CIA recruiters show up on campus, and they aren’t just interested in recruiting Elle for future employment: turns out she’s already working for them since they’re funding her thesis. Hot operative Preston Raddick is tasked to work with her. Preston isn’t just hot: he’s hot for Elle, but is he offering happy ever after or happy for right now? A fling with Preston could be the beginning of a new life plan, which is exciting and scary, especially with espionage thrown in. Elle needs a predictive model to tell her which decisions have the greater likelihood for happiness…
Covert Assignment is about the unexpected turns life can take when making “adult” decisions.
I was reminded of the movie "Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros (The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros)". No connection whatsoever to the book, nor is it even similar to the book. Perhaps it was the word "blossoming" that could be ascribed to the book. After all, this is about the "coming-of-age", "self-discovery", and "blooming" of Elle.
How many of us have life plans? Carefully organized, projected, ironed and sealed. All of our decisions and all of our choices are adherent to "The Plan". Everything was right on track but what if life gave us a curve ball? Some of these curve balls are just a snap of a moment while others hit you right between the eyes.
What will you do then?
Covert Assignment follows Elle on her journey to find out who she really is, and what she really wants in life. Follow the plan or take life's unexpected opportunities and turn them into steppingstones. I love that Elle was not a perfect heroine. Someone the ordinary, IRL reader could relate to and perhaps let Elle's story inspire someone to do the same albeit in accordance to one's life situation of course.
Covert Assignment was a fun, light read to be devoured on a Thursday night after a humdrum day at the office or a tedious day at school.
Missy Marciassa loved getting lost in novels from the time she could read, so it’s no surprise she wanted to write. Her very first “novels” were re-writing the books she read to get the endings she wanted in second grade. Missy continued to read and write through grade school and high school.
After becoming rather disillusioned with fiction after writing literary criticism as an English major in college, however, Missy focused on her enjoyment of learning about people and studied psychology. Reading fiction fell to the wayside with all the reading and writing required for college and graduate school, but once Missy became a doctoral candidate, she rediscovered her love of fiction. Then she started getting the urge to write, an urge that wouldn’t go away (she refuses to diagnose it as a compulsion). Covert Assignment is the end result of that urge.
Glad you liked it! :) Thanks for being on the tour!!
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