WOW, just wow. This is a spy thriller. Not much guts and gore but oh so many thrills. You get stopped in your tracks when the author drops a surprise, a shock right on your head and then you read along and all of a sudden, you get another dumped on your head and then another and when you think it is all over yet ANOTHER.

While this is a spy thriller, it is also a book about family. About doing whatever it takes to keep your kids safe. Definitely a book worth reading. You will not be able to put it down.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC of this book.

Highly recommend! Any fan of fast moving spy/political thrillers will lose at least one night of sleep on this one! I have already told my friends to just buy this one now. Looking forward to her next one. Don’t hesitate on this one, 5 Stars.

Need to Know is a suspenseful riveting novel. There are definite times when you know decisions made are going to get you in worse trouble, but the fixes are fantastic.

What can you trust?

That is truly the central question of this very strong debut novel from author Karen Cleveland.

Need to Know is a book about a woman whose life is completely torn apart by a revelation about someone she is close to. And the twists keep coming as more and more layers are pulled back. It is difficult to write more and not give away parts of the story.

I recommend the read. It is very quick, has details without being too technical or bogged down with descriptions, and you may find yourself staying up way past bedtime to finish.

A remarkably entertaining entry in the political suspense genre: Amazingly plotted, with central characters that prove to be realistic and engaging. The author's own career experience with the CIA makes this book sing, and the complicated plot unwinds into a satisfying conclusion. Move this to the top of your TBR list.

I've read a lot of spy novels over the years. This is definitely one of the good ones. Tension is maintained throughout the story. The ending is realistic if not fairytale. The idea of an average government employee being forced into betraying her country is very well managed. Definitely worth the read.

a hit movie waiting to be made. Vivian, a CIA counter-terrorism analyst has discovered her husband Matt is a Russian spy. her decision to protect her family by not revealing this has consequences that fall like dominoes, each one putting her and her children into greater danger. while i found much of the plot far fetched the real tension came from always wondering which side Matt truly was on...Vivian's or Russia's. the author kept the suspense up throughout and the ending was awesome.
i want to thank NetGalley for allowing me to rad this book before it was offered to the public.

The story throws you a hook in the prologue, then baits it a couple of chapters later, and then you’re reeled in for a fast moving, twisty spy thriller. Like other reviewers, I found I couldn’t put it down and read it in three short sessions over two days.

Thinking about it after, to write this review, I can say it was certainly an entertaining book, but I had some problems with the main character, Vivian. I would expect a seasoned CIA analyst to be analytical and skeptical – and Vivian was really neither. She had a history of making poor decisions, and seemed impulsive and naïve – arguably because she kept focus on what was best for her kids instead of what was the right thing for her job and country. I remember thinking that I hope REAL CIA employees serve us better than she did.

I would recommend the book nonetheless – you always have to suspend disbelief when reading fiction – and the issues I had with Vivian did not detract from my overall enjoyment of the book. I would read this author again.

I want to thank NetGallery, Random House and the author for allowing me to have a copy of this book in exchange for my review.

I really need to thank my Goodreads friends for writing such stellar reviews for this novel because I would of never requested this one otherwise. Political thrillers just aren't my thing. I saw this on NetGalley and kept passing it by but then all the reviews started pouring in and I became intrigued. I am glad I did or I was going to miss out on an amazing thriller.

What happens when the man you've been married to for over a decade turns out to be someone you don't even know? Vivian's life is about to change forever and that's all I'll say about the plot.

This is a fast paced wild ride right to the very end. And that ending,WOW, best epilogue EVER!

READ THIS BOOK!!!!

Thank you to NetGalley for proving me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Karen Cleveland's debut novel is a stunningly compelling story about a CIA analyst caught up in a moral conundrum. It is fast-paced, tautly-constructed, and utterly un-put-downable! I devoured it in a single day and then was left wanting more. Despite the unusual setting, readers will find themselves relating to and empathizing with Vivan Miller as she navigates the ethical implications of her circumstances and actions as she desperately seeks to protect her young children, as well as the life she and her husband have constructed. Who can she trust? Where can she turn for help? Can she make choices that ensure the safety and well-being of her children? Every chapter reveals another complication, more questions and demands that Vivian make more calculated choices. Cleveland smartly keeps her readers on edge along with Vivian, equally unable to discern whether Vivian should trust any of the cleverly-constructed supporting characters, most notably, Vivian's beloved husband, Tom. Cleveland has penned an instant classic thriller that deserves to be a wildly successful bestseller. I can't wait to read more from her!
(Thanks to NetGalley for the Advance Reader's Copy of the book.)

A very good book. It has strong characters and a gripping story. A definite must read!

Within the first few pages, I knew this would be a book I couldn’t put down. CIA analysis Vivian searches for spies, cells, etc. connected to Russia. She’s making great progress until she opens a folder with five pictures, one of which is a person very close to her. This information is so unbelievable to her that she’s not sure how to proceed with the information. Protect this person, which will mean that she has committed treason or turn them in as her job dictates? You’ll have to read the book to find out!
And just when you think you have figured everything out, the ending will completely blow you away.

Should she tell. Should she not. What would I do?

Vivian, a CIA analyst, is ten years into her marriage, with heavy debt, four kids — one of the twin babies with a heart condition — and no relatives nearby, when she discovers that her husband is a Russian operative.

Should she tell?

She is coerced into cooperating with Yury, the Russian agent. The steps she takes to fix her dilemma snowball and make her situation go from bad to worse. She is quickly in over her head.

Should she tell?

The characters and story, especially, are extremely well developed. As I read this book, I summarized along the way to my husband who was a linguist and ASA analyst years ago while in the Army. He said the author is spot on with her knowledge of the CIA and it’s workings. She knows her stuff.

Intrigue and espionage fill the pages of this book. Three quarters of the way through I wondered how the author was ever going to bring this to a believable ending. She very successfully does. Well done, Ms. Cleveland. I highly recommend this book to my reading friends. I would give it more than five stars if I could.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book. I look forward to the author’s next endeavor.

Wow. I was completely blown away by Need to Know by Karen Cleveland! While I wanted to dislike the main character of the book, Viv, for seeming to have the perfect life, her discovery as a CIA analyst had me shaken (especially because, as a mother, I imagined myself in her position). This book was interesting, especially as Karen Cleveland really knows her stuff. I was not only hooked, but it was also cool to learn about things from an expert's perspective. Overall, a great read. I look forward to reading more by Karen Cleveland!

This book grabbed my attention immediately and pulled me in. Vivian, married, mother of four, works for the CIA in the Russia division. When she makes a startling discovery that her husband is a Russian agent, her life as she knows it, begins to crumble. She truly does not know who to believe and who she can trust, at work or at home. Ultimately, she recognizes the need to protect her children. How she manages that becomes complicated.
I kept waiting for the 'twist' to take place. It still comes but not in the way I expected.

While doing your job as a CIA Analyst, you find something that will rip your family apart. Do you reveal it to your superiors?

Vivian is a counterintelligence agent with the CIA. While employed, she developed a new program to find Russian sleeper cells inside the United States. She is married with a perfect husband and four kids including a set of infant twin boys. Without providing spoilers, Vivian discovers something that may rip her family apart. Even with confirmation, she decides to approach the problem from a unique angle leading to a twist-filled tale of conflicting loyalties.

The author was formally a CIA Analyst so she knows of what she writes. To be honest, that is actually scary since the security at the CIA seems remarkably lax.
Need to Know is an enjoyable fast-moving read. The best part is the fantastically unexpected ending. It has been optioned to be a movie with Charlize Theron. I can’t wait! 4 stars!

Thanks to the publisher, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for the review copy.

Are you sitting down?  Ok, now scoot to the edge of your seat, because this is where you will remain from start to finish of Need to Know by Karen Cleveland.

Vivian, government employee working to bring down the Russians.  This is what she has dedicate her career to, giving up family time to work long hours.  Lucky for her she has an amazing husband, Matt, who picks up the slack at home and is a total Mr. Mom when he isn’t working.  From page one we know that trouble is on it’s way.

“Get me out of this.  Tell me what to do to make this all disappear.”

Need to Know brings lies and deceit, protecting your family & tope secret information.  Pay close attention because a LOT is going to happen and you will need to be on your A-game to keep up.

Vivian questions everything that she knows about her life.  We hear majority of the story from her POV, we get snippets of her past as she rethinks the last 10 years of her life.  She revisits interactions and picks them apart, was it really what she thought, did it really happen that way, could things have gone differently?

“How in a handful of years, had I become so intertwined with someone else that I couldn’t imagine being alone?”

Vivian struggles to figure out what she needs to do, we follow her confidence and her struggles.  We see her battle with herself between right and wrong, loyalty to her husband or loyalty to her country.

“Sometimes,” she begins haltingly, “we think act shielding the truth will protect those we love the most.”

So sit back, or forward if you will, and learn what Need to Know is all about!

Need to Know

When Vivian Miller woke up that morning, the sun dawned a day just like the ones before it. As always, she woke up from her slumber immediately wracked by the perpetual mom-guilt that clung to her like humidity in a Southern bayou. Per usual, the car had trouble starting; its ringing normalcy held a sadness that comes with the act of accepting bad luck, and only aided the path her thoughts were already sauntering into – the lands of financial hardships. With a family of six, things were always hard if you didn’t have independent wealth, and that was something Vivian couldn’t ever see them having. Even with both she and Matt working decent jobs, living in the nice part of the city came with it’s own set of problems. There was a certain cost that came with being in one of the best school districts around, and that combined with the bills stacking up for the health of one of her twin boys, Vivian leaned heavily on only one thing – taking one day at at time.

Trudging into the office after watching her children jet off to school with Matt, she sat down at her desk at the Central Intelligence Agency Headquarters in Virginia. As an agent working for one of the most well-known government agencies in the world, one would assume Vivian would be full of the bravado and arrogance befitting a job of such importance. Instead, the truth was that there were certain internal walls in place that wouldn’t allow her to fully embrace her position as a counterintelligence analyst at the CIA – the biggest being that she wished she could be at home with her children. She was missing them grow. Missing first steps, first words. Missing class parties and Career Days. But every time she’d tried to put her family first, to bring up selling the house in the pricey part of town and taking a step back from work, Matt pushed her back into being a career-driven woman. It was never the right time for her to leave her work, he insisted. And now with her new technology in place, she was on the way towards a much-needed promotion.

There was something different about this morning, regardless of how mundane it had felt when she’d first woken up and gotten the day started. Vivian was getting closer to something, she could feel it in her bones. She and her team at the CIA – a group focused on tracking down Russian sleeper cells located in the United States – were inching closer towards a possible handler, a man named Yury. Today Vivian knew she would finally have access to his laptop and be able to begin the painstaking process of thoroughly combing through it in an attempt to find evidence against him or something that will lead her team to the spies he’s in charge of.
But she’s distracted after the phone call from Matt. Their little girl is sick – again – and he can’t go pick her up, not today. Matt has to get one of their twins to a therapy session, and he needs Vivian to leave work to gather their daughter from school in less than an hour or else they’ll be in violation of the school’s rules – again. They can’t afford another strike against them, no matter the reason. Vivian thinks she can spend a few moments sifting through files on Yury’s computer before she has to take off, but her mind remains elsewhere. If she didn’t have to work, if she could be at home with her children like she wanted, they wouldn’t have problems like this. Her little girl would be at home and not school with a rising fever. Maybe her infant son would be meeting those milestones, if only she could be at home to give him the proper one-on-one attention he deserves.
Vivian’s mind lingers on her family as her mouse hovers over a folder named “Friends” on Yury’s computer. Curious, she clicks on the folder to view its contents. With her heart suddenly beating for a reason other than anger at Matt or disappointment in herself, she begins to study what is in front of her.

After months and months of leads that drew nothing but dead-ends, Vivian wonders if she may finally be onto something. The CIA knows that the Russian sleeper cells work in groups of five. Five ringleaders that have five handlers each, and those handlers have five agents each. This “Friends” folder holds five photos, and as she begins to click through them, Vivian wonders if she is looking into the faces of a bonafide Russian sleeper cell.
With another click, her heart drops. What she’s seeing couldn’t possibly be real, could it?

Because Vivian is staring at a photo of Matt. Her own husband.

In the upcoming days and weeks, Vivian will find herself in impossible situations and doing things she never dreamed she’d be considering. Desperate to hang onto her family, she will go down unspeakable paths and lie to faces that she trusts. In the back of her mind she will carry a new kind of worry; has everything between she and Matt – over a decade of memories, marriage, children, and intimacy – been a complete lie?

She must make the ultimate choice – loyalty to family, or loyalty to country?

Need to Know, the debut novel by former CIA analyst Karen Cleveland, is creating a serious buzz in the bookish world. With film rights pre-empted by Universal Studios (and Charlize Theron tied to the project) before the book was even available to the general public, Cleveland is set to take the thriller genre by storm. Armed with a fast-paced story and characters that are not only relatable but heartbreakingly honest, the author spins a story of betrayal that is not only bone-chilling in its delivery, but also completely realistic in nature.
I was a bit hesitant to begin this book because I tend to be turned off by novels involving politics, governmental agencies, and/or computer technology. It’s just not my thing and I get easily confused by those themes in literature; I’d rather pick up a fantasy book instead. I downloaded an ARC of this book because the marketing was so heavy and I was curious. I’m very passionate about helping authors as they work to get their words out there for the masses to read and enjoy, and I’m always curious about a debut novel. I am so glad I gave this book a chance – seriously, I could barely put it down. This book dominated my life for a solid 24 hours. Karen Cleveland produces a story that is easy to navigate for anyone, including someone like me who has no idea how computer programs work or the inner-dealings of spy networks and the agency set upon uncovering them.

I was especially drawn to Vivian’s character and I knew her voice so well. She felt lost and defeated in her present life, her yearning for acceptance and love from her children was palpable. Vivian’s strong and unwavering sense of motherhood was at times something that caused me to overwhelmed by emotion. The manipulations Vivian endured were not only cruel, but they were honest and raw. She had a visceral reaction to going back to work after her children were born, only to be pressured back into her career at the CIA by her husband – the undercover spy. Those scenes in particular were not only heart-wrenching in their degree but also so cleverly woven into the overall story that it left me in awe of the author. The picture Cleveland drew of the relationship between Matt and Vivian throughout the flashbacks of their life together was genius; it all looped back together in a masterful series of clues and innuendos. Cleveland hooked me from the first chapter and kept me enthralled through to the final page.

THERE MUST BE A SEQUEL. I won’t spoil you more, but I will seriously raise hell if there is not a sequel. Too many questions!

Need to Know gets 5 out of 5 stars from me. Buy it. Read it. Love it.

Thank you Net Galley for the copy of "Need to Know". 3 1/2 stars....As a fan of the tv show "The Americans", I looked forward to delving into the world of embedded Russian spies from a different angle. Ms. Cleveland's insider perspective was a refreshing way to view Russian/American operatives. Vivian, a CIA counterintelligence analyst, gets tangled up in a web of deceit and uncertainty which promotes many questions...a premise I found both interesting and frustrating. I feel the pace of the first half of the book was bogged down with minutiae, but the second half had me reading on to discover just how she was going to elude her "rock and a hard place" situation. This is a difficult review to write, as there are so many opportunities to inadvertently uncover spoilers.

One of the best thrillers I’ve read!! This one is a page turning, read through the night, story.

I completely related to our main character as she struggled between working long hours and being a good mom to her four young children. Her husband of ten years is just as devoted to their family.

The heart of the story is so much more than politics or ethics or patriotism.... It’s about trust and how far will you go to ensure the protection of your family.

And just when you think the conclusion is tied into a neat little package, you read the biggest shock of all!

Thanks to Net Galley and publishers for an ARC in exchange for this honest review.