I thought this book was the perfect marriage of spy thriller, romance, and social commentary. Before this book, I had never read anything by Aya de Leon. After reading this book, I want to see more from her! Yolanda Vance is one of the most well fleshed-out characters I have read in recent memory. I felt like I was really inside her head and I understand her motives and her feelings.
Yolanda Vance is a young African-American woman with big goals and dreams that she has worked hard her whole life to achieve. She is an attorney at a prestigious New York law firm when it is raided and, instead of helping shred documents, she saves some under her shirt and turns them in to the FBI. Now a whistleblower, she ends up working for them. She wants so badly to be a field agent, but being an African-American woman, that is incredibly difficult. That is, until the FBI needs someone to infiltrate an African American extremist youth group in the California town where she went to college.
Working for the FBI, Yolanda begins going to Red, Black, and Green (RBG) meetings and spying on the teens and adults that are trying to fight against a biotech corporation that they think is aiming to exploit their neighborhood. However, in between starting a flirtation with a man involved in the group and really listening to what the group has to say, Yolanda starts to question everything the FBI has told her and the core tenet of her operation.
Now, Yolanda is torn between completing the job the FBI has sent her to California for and following her heart. She is in love with a group member, and she has begun to realize that the RBG group is her people. When an unexpected death wracks the community, and forces begin to conspire to prevent Yolanda from speaking out, she realizes what the right thing to do is.
Can Yolanda do what she think is right? Will big government and corporations win out over the little guy fighting for their home? I think it is well worth reading this to find out! I loved reading this book, even though it had more romance than my usual reads do. Some elements were a bit out there, which is why it’s not five stars, but it was still an incredible novel.
Yolanda Vance is a young African-American woman with big goals and dreams that she has worked hard her whole life to achieve. She is an attorney at a prestigious New York law firm when it is raided and, instead of helping shred documents, she saves some under her shirt and turns them in to the FBI. Now a whistleblower, she ends up working for them. She wants so badly to be a field agent, but being an African-American woman, that is incredibly difficult. That is, until the FBI needs someone to infiltrate an African American extremist youth group in the California town where she went to college.
Working for the FBI, Yolanda begins going to Red, Black, and Green (RBG) meetings and spying on the teens and adults that are trying to fight against a biotech corporation that they think is aiming to exploit their neighborhood. However, in between starting a flirtation with a man involved in the group and really listening to what the group has to say, Yolanda starts to question everything the FBI has told her and the core tenet of her operation.
Now, Yolanda is torn between completing the job the FBI has sent her to California for and following her heart. She is in love with a group member, and she has begun to realize that the RBG group is her people. When an unexpected death wracks the community, and forces begin to conspire to prevent Yolanda from speaking out, she realizes what the right thing to do is.
Can Yolanda do what she think is right? Will big government and corporations win out over the little guy fighting for their home? I think it is well worth reading this to find out! I loved reading this book, even though it had more romance than my usual reads do. Some elements were a bit out there, which is why it’s not five stars, but it was still an incredible novel.