Book 27 The Spy Who Loved My Russian Tea Cakes

 

The Spy Who Loved My Russian Tea Cakes by Marilyn Barr fulfilled the category “Book Set During a Holiday” for the PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge. The holiday in the book is Christmas, with cookie exchanges, family issues, and ugly sweaters galore. Happy Christmas in July!

Our story starts with Cassie Morgan trying to live her life free from her condescending relatives. She’s a Reiki practitioner and works at a nursing home, helping to heal the residents through spiritual sessions. As the holidays approach and she tries to avoid the trip home, the local hospital sends over a few overflow patients. One man sets the female staff into a frenzy, even though he’s in a coma.

Cassie finds herself in a pickle. The coma patient’s mother asks her to help heal her son. The woman, Theresa, knows Cassie, with her spiritual healing abilities, will be able to reach her son. Though she’s only working with consent from his mom, Cassie reaches out to the man.

What follows is a whirlwind of hot, erotic scenes as Cassie and Sergei find each other through dream walking. I’ve never read a romance where the first male point of view scene is a total scorching love fest. OMG, this book is hawt. Cassie and Sergei connect immediately. Their story gave me shivers of Bared to You by Sylvia Day (post coming soon) without the dom/sub issues. Cassie and Sergei had a spiritual connection—literally.

The story had other great themes inside it. Family and holidays are hard for some. Cassie must decide how to use her gifts, be herself, and still fit into her estranged family. They don’t understand her abilities because it’s not science, but they still love her very much.

And Sergei’s past—damn. We only get a shadow of it. He’s a spy, a Russian spy! I want three more books about his past and five about their future together. (It’s a romance. You know those two are going to find a Happily Ever After.)

I’ve read a few amazing authors lately who can tell a 500-page story in about 100. This book was one of them. The amount of story and heat Ms. Barr packed into this tale floors me. I need to grovel at her feet for writing lessons.

Check out Ms. Barr’s website https://www.marilynbarr.com/. She might give away a prequel to Sergei with a newsletter sign-up.

I give The Spy Who Loved My Russian Tea Cakes by Marilyn Barr Five Boxes of Delicious Christmas Cookies.