Have you heard the story of Tabasco and the Unicorn? Sounds like the start of a bad joke but it’s actually the start of a fun Mrs and Mrs Spy romantic suspense story. Hear me out, two absolute badass women break up only to discover they are both CIA operatives and are now working together on possibly the biggest, highest stakes op of all time. There’s tension, passion, stolen moments; super fun side characters that steal the scene when they show up (Nan may be my favorite but who doesn’t love an old woman sipping tea on the porch and giving epic advice?!)
That being said, although I liked this book, I didn’t love it. The story is good, the characters are good, I wanted to know what happened next, but then I would set it down and not be drawn to get back into it; I felt excited at the end of a chapter only to find the next one started somewhere else with no resolve for what had grabbed my attention. I normally finish a book within a week of picking it up and this one took maybe a month? I almost DNF many times. Happy I finished it, The last few chapters were actually really
Good. All in all 3.5 ⭐️
Thank you NetGalley and St Martin’s for the ARC

The story follows two strong-willed women spies who are deeply involved in a high-stakes mission while grappling with the fallout of their fractured relationship.

I enjoyed the mix of action-packed moments and quiet, emotional scenes, along with their complex, messy relationship, which was filled with both passion and regret.

I especially loved how the title became an integral part of their truth. It was beautifully executed by the authors.

Overall, this is a gripping and emotionally engaging story that skillfully blends espionage with personal drama.

Honestly, I was sold at Ms. and Ms. Smith!

A mission goes array that leads to KC and Yardley finding out they both work for the agency. They are trying to move on from a failed relationship while being forced to work together in order to save their mission.

I love a strong female character, and Mae Marvel gave us two!! The characters were so well written and developed. KC and Yardley have very different histories, and you can see how it has led them to this point. They battle real human feelings and problems yet are able to put things aside for the greater good. I also loved the supporting characters (shoutout to Gramercy.) The romance plot was wonderful. The action/spy plot also kept me entertained and waiting to see how that played out.

Overall, I LOVED it!

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

If I Told You, I'd Have to Kiss You is 1 part spy craft and 1 part romance. It was everything it was advertised as and I finished it so quickly! The discussions about love, queerness, and feminism coupled with action-packed scenes made this a fun and heartwarming read.

This is so hilarious and entertaining, a perfect book to kick back with on an evening where you wish there was a queer redo of Mr and Mrs Smith. I can’t say anything about the movies, but a book like this definitely exists now.

Thanks to publisher and NG for an ARC, really enjoyable, a hearty rec!

I really enjoyed this book! The characters were great and very entertaining. The story was very well written and I loved the plot!

I’ truly loved this book and couldn’t put it down! It has both a love story between the two main characters and also some action/spy adventures. I was pulled in by the Mrs and Mrs Smith and I was highly satisfied that it rang true! I would like to thank the publishers, author and netgalley for allowing me to read this, it was wonderful and I’m looking forward to reading the next book from this author :)

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and heartily endorse it! The plot was fascinating and quite complex. Along with a hint of romance and angst, there was mystery and suspense. A nice read all around!

This book has great characters with very interesting backstories. I loved seeing the characters and their story developed. Also, queer female spies? Amazing!! The banter between the two mains was awesome. A book I can very easily see as a brilliant movie.

If I Told You, I’d Have to Kiss You was such a delight to read! It has everything you’re looking for if you love the sapphic exes “will they won’t they” trope! And I can’t forget to mention the pining and the slow burn! Additionally, I thoroughly enjoyed the detail Mae Marvel placed on each sentence, each character description, each word choice. It was all so carefully and passionately planned out; I was lost in this book! Most importantly, I enjoyed how each character was so relatable. It spoke to the mistakes we make as humans, and how there’s always a way to right those mistakes; and if we right those mistakes, we may even get our happily ever after. I would give If I Told You, I’d Have to Kiss You more than five stars if I could!

This spin on a "Mrs. and Mrs. Smith" type of story is so fun, has fresh elements, and I was entertained the whole way through. Both KC and Yardley are relatable and entertaining main characters, and I appreciate the ways in which they both developed through a combination of plot-driven circumstances and internal motivation to grow and change. This is a fast-paced, sexy read about highly skilled spies and it is a great blend of thriller and romance.

I absolutely loved this novel! One thing that I always love is when a novel has more than just one element to it, and this was a perfect example. This was/had a solid romance plotline for sure, but it was also an action/spy thriller with a full plotline that would make for a satisfying novel on its own if the romance element was removed. This was a complete and satisfying novel, multiple times over (and some novels fail to achieve that even the one time, hah!). The writing was excellent, the characters felt real and genuine, and the plotlines managed to be believable and realistic despite being a high-action-spy-thriller. The two parallel plotlines were woven together extremely well and worked off each other as opposed to feeling shoehorned in. I have no criticisms and would recommend to everyone. (In fact, this novel would make a nice bridge between romance and action thriller for readers of either genre who want to branch out!).

The romance. This was very well done. These characters had some significant (yet realistic and relatable) issues to work through and the novel didn’t cut any corners or make anything too conveniently easy. We saw some great communication and insight as to how relationships can be difficult even when everyone wants them to work out and is willing to put in the work. There were a lot of high emotions at play. I particularly appreciated how neither character was “the bad guy” and they both shared somewhat equivalent responsibility for their problems.

The non-romance plot was great too. The action and spy stuff were fun without being over the top. The stakes were high enough to keep me invested and yet not so fantastical that it wasn’t believable or got too stressful. There were lots of other types of relationships explored besides the central romance, which I greatly appreciated.

As a last aside, I personally enjoy it when characters in situations like this can have their big interpersonal conflicts but also put a pin in it to be professional and get their job done. They are affected by the relationship drama, but they are also the badass spy that they are being presented as.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free ARC. This honest review was left voluntarily.

This book was so fun! When I first read the summary, I immediately was interested and could not wait to read it. I found the romance to be pretty decently written, and the story interesting. The romance was balanced nicely with the action scenes. Neither seeemed to overshadow the other, and take away from the story being told. KC and Yardley were a little similar character wise so it did make it sometimes difficult to differentiate between them. I do wish more time at been spent on them interacting in their roles at work before finding out who each other was. It would have added to the story beyond just being told about their past.

Overall, I did enjoy reading this book!

It was so fun! I loved every page of it. I loved how visual the writing was - I could see the action movie scenes (and this really would be an amazing movie— someone get them a deal!!) but I really loved the relationship building as well. So sweet, steamy, and lovely! Highly recommend!

If I Told You, I'd have to kiss you was such a heartfelt and thrilling romantic thriller a twist just like Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I never thought that I would have an interest with a CIA type of storyline. Let me say that I loved every bit of it. I enjoyed the details and research that was portrayed for these undercover agents. I enjoyed the brewing romance between Yardley and KC. They are great characters with well-developed backstories. I am so happy and glad that I got to read this novel by Mae Marvel.

Thank you Netgalley and to the publishers for reading If I Told You, I'd Have to Kiss You.

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc!

Queer female spies? Yes, please. The book felt heavy on the "spy stuff" as I read it, but I could definitely imagine the various action scenes and enjoyed that experience. The pacing of the book was reasonable to me; there wasn't much time spent on the relationship between Yardley and KC before their secret (and overlapping!) lives were revealed to each other spectacularly.

The book definitely packed a lot of action with the relationship arc between the main characters, and I appreciated the banter between them. Both Yardley and KC are written as versatile, highly intelligent, and quirky characters. This is the type of book that I wish could be made into a movie.

Unfortunately, this veers closer to 2.5 stars.

I was excited about this one, as I’ve really loved romance titles with action/adventure plots recently, but this had issues for me with both the romance and the spy plots.

First, this is advertised and marketed more as a romance in a spy setting BUT it came across to me as very much a in-detail spy book that had sprinkles of a romance in it, so it wasn’t what I expected or what I really wanted. On top of the lack of romance at the center, the romance itself had very little chemistry to me and was super surface level. Because of the whole “we just broke up and then found out we’re both CIA” there’s a lot of reasons in the first half of the story around why they broke up/shouldn’t be together instead of building a romance, so it very much made me think they should not be together.

Outside of that, I felt there was a lot of overly detailed spy terms and a lot of jumping around that made things confusing to follow.

A great premise that fell super flat for me.

I was craving a spy romance, a sapphic one at that and I saw the Mr and Mrs Smith comparison and I opened this one ready to fall into this one and love it, wouldn't be able to put it down and yet I'm... frustrated. Because from the early parts of this book I grew bored and couldn't get into it. I couldn't understand why. This is not a bad book or romance. Usually, I'm turned off by bad writing but that's not even the case here the writing is romance-solid. It's not the setting I wanted to read a spy romance and I love having characters reconnecting during a split up. Yes I was a bit disappointed that there's no Mr and Mrs Smith rivalry which would have added some spice to a story that's lacking some. But it took me a while to realize that my issue is the characters. KC and Yardley never got to a point where they were distinct enough in my head besides one's the tech and one's the field spy. They never crystallized as fully-fledged characters in my head. There were times when Yardley seemed to have been given more development than KC which didn't help to make KC a more compelling character.

Hence the frustration. This book has some really good and solid romantic moments and writing, it's good and I think people are going to love the novelty it brings to sapphic romance (unfortunately for me a lesbian reader, it is a very dry corner of publishing when it comes to originality). Yet I can't love it like I wanted it to. I wanted to love this so much more. Even the spy plot wasn't that intriguing to me, I'm mourning my expectations.

I really want other people to love it, I think there's a lot to love and fall in love with.

A fun twist on a queer Mr & Mrs Smith featuring two women in the middle of a painful break-up realizing they're both spies for the same agency and that so much of their relationship was based on necessary lies to protect their secret identity.

This was a fun read! I particularly enjoyed the way it balanced action/the case plot with the main romance. Often, I feel like romance novels with an action side plot neglect one or the other, but this managed to evolve both in a way that felt satisfactory without dropping the other. I do think there could have been a little more tension/less predictability when it came to the actual case they were working on, but since romance novels are often formulaic, it didn't bother me too much. The focus on both KC and Yardley learning to get to know each other truthfully for the first time and re-contextualizing their relationship (and break-up!) was compelling enough to forgive the book not being super plot twisty in my opinion. It just felt a little long at times because it was obvious where we were going. But overall, an enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've been in a ginormous reading slump lately so I really just couldn't get into this one. Nothing against the book, it just didn't have that spark that made me want to continue reading.